Welsh Food Stories

by Carwyn Graves

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 272
Rating:

Synopsis:

Welsh Food Stories explores more than two thousand years of history to discover the rich but forgotten heritage of Welsh foods - from oysters to cider, salted butter to salt-marsh lamb. Despite centuries of industry, ancient traditions have survived in pockets across the country among farmers, bakers, fisherfolk, brewers and growers who are taking Welsh food back to its roots, and trailblazing truly sustainable foods as they do so. In this important book, author Carwyn Graves travels Wales to uncover the country's traditional foods and meet the people making them today. There are the owners of a local Carmarthenshire chip shop who never forget a customer, the couple behind Anglesey's world-renowned salt company Halen Mon, and everyone else in between - all of them have unique and compelling stories to tell about how they contribute to the past, present and future of Welsh food. This is an evocative and insightful exploration of an often overlooked national cuisine, shining a spotlight on the importance - environmentally and socially - of keeping local food production alive.

I’ve been meaning to get around to reading Carwyn Graves’ Welsh Food Stories for a while, because I don’t actually know much about the Welsh food tradition (as distinct from a more general British one). I do know about bara brith and Welshcakes and laverbread and cawl… but that’s not all there is to it, right? And indeed, Graves digs deeper into it than that, discussing the kind of flour produced in Wales historically, the saltiness of the butter, the joy of leeks, etc.

What I was pleased to find is that a lot of the things I love — salty butter, sweet ciders, and of course plentiful cheese, even though I had my gallbladder removed well over a decade ago and can’t digest it so well — are pretty in line with historic Welsh tastes! Despite the snobbery about sweet cider that I sometimes encountered in the English folk music scene, historically Welsh ciders tend to be much sweeter than English ones (though admittedly I think my love of toffee apple cider is probably a step too far).

I think at times Graves tends toward the preachy about eating locally and eating traditional food and using traditional varieties, but not without merit, and overall I found it a good read and learned things: my favourite new information was about the Breton Sioni Winwns, though of course, Brexit ended that tradition entirely.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)