The northernmost tip of the British Isles is an elemental place. And now,
with a little innovative thinking, Shetland is producing exotic ingredients
that are bringing new life to local dishes. Words: Audrey GillanSHETLAND
ISLANDS
Eat
R
ipe ears of sweetcorn poke from their
green leafy casing; grapes hang from
vines. Here in Northmavine, a wild,
beautiful parish in the northern Shetland
Islands where the elements combine to
make gardening something of an extreme
sport, you wouldn’t expect to reap such
incredible bounty. But under the shelter of
thick polycrubs (a polytunnel/greenhouse
hybrid designed to withstand high winds)
people are growing produce that would, in
the past, have had to travel hundreds if not
thousands of miles to get here.
Margaret Roberts lives in a lovely quirky
old house here in Shetland, a cluster of
small, inhabited rocky islands lying roughly
halfway between Scotland and Norway. It’s
her polycrub I’ve come to see: it’s where the
magic happens. Cherries, ire-red tomatoes
and fat cucumbers are all lourishing under aroof held up by recycled feed pipes from the
salmon ishing industry, a concept pioneered
by Northmavine Community Development
Company in a bid to get people growing their
own, despite the elements.
“We get a lot of goodwill from folk because
the product is fantastic and all the proits go
back into the community,” says Margaret.
“I’m really keen on growing food. I come
from a middle-class croting environment,
so I’ve been used to really good-quality,
home-produced food all my life.”
We step outside, over a wall and onto
the rest of Margaret’s land where she digs
me up the famed Shetland blacks, heritage
potatoes that are actually tinged with blue.
I’m with Tom Morton, an old pal from our
days working at The Scotsman, and we’re
collecting things to cook in the kitchen of
the manse (parsonage) at Hillswick he shares IMAGES: P. TOMKINS/VISITSCOTLAND; ©ANDY SEWELL54 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel