Greener Monday - local food in Edinburgh 2

Greener Monday recently sent me a food box to review. You can read more about it in this post here.

We've now had a chance to sample all the foods and we enjoyed everything very much!

Ola - extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil from Ola, Aberdeenshire (Ola is Gaelic for oil) is a good alternative to olive oil, made from rapeseed grown in Aberdeenshire. Rapeseed oil has many health benefits compared to olive oil including less than half the saturated fat, though it has been linked to allergies.
Cracked Black Pepper Oatcakes from the Handmade Oatcake Company in Perthshire are chunky and chewy with a hot bite from the pepper. I was impressed to see that they contain rapeseed oil (I assume locally sourced) rather than palm oil as many oatcakes do. (Palm oil is responsible for much tropical deforestation and is probably the biggest factor leading to the decline in orang utans.)

Devilish Tomato Chutney from Isabella's Preserves, Tayside is a wonderful chutney, though perhaps not as hot as its name might suggest (which is a positive point as far as we're concerned)! It is delicious with cheese and the cracked pepper oatcakes. It is also a tasty addition to a curry.

Damson Jelly with Gin also from Isabella's Preserves is delicious on a freshly baked scone.

Shortbread from the Shortbread House in Edinburgh is a lovely shortbread, just the right texture.

Porridge premix (with apple, sultana and cinnamon) from Stoats in Edinburgh smells wonderful with the cinnamon. The apples and sultanas are a wonderful addition to porridge (though some purists may argue that nothing should be added to porridge oats!).

Blueberry drink from Bouvrage in Alloa has quite an unusual taste, though it grows on you. The blueberries come from Finland, which undermines the local provenance of this product somewhat!

Greener Monday has an online shop here. Greener Monday are also to be found at the Village Store at Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Dalmeny Street, Leith, every Saturday between 10am - 2pm.