Lakeland Apple

n the 18th century ,exotic spices, fruits and sugar came into Whitehaven,Cumberland ( now part of Cumbria) one of the largest ports in the world at that time, from the Indies. These ingredients give traditional Lake District food its distictive flavours.
Every local butcher has his own secret recipe for Cumberland sausage !(picture courtesy of the Daily Telegraph)
The most famous Lakeland dessert is gingerbread. There are many different recipes for this. The famous Sarah Nelson Grasmere Gingerbread is a sort of biscuit, rather than a soft cake. In Grasmere and Ambleside every year there is a traditional event called Rushbearing , where the village people have a procession to take fresh rushes to the church to lay on the floor, and at these events the children are always served with a sticky, soft gingerbread.