The Landscape Cookbook
Food from the Arnside/Silverdale AONB
Introduced and edited by David Askew, AONB Officer.
What are the connections between food, the Arnside/Silverdale AONB, farming, landscape, food-miles, conservation grazing and sustainable development? Well... it really is a complex web, that has many implications not only for the food you put on your plate, but also for the conservation of an internationally important protected landscape!
The Arnside/Silverdale AONB is a small area of special countryside on the boundary between two counties, Cumbria and Lancashire. Designated in 1972 for the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the area, the AONB is officially recognised as being among the country’s finest landscapes.
The term natural beauty refers not only to the quality of the landscape, but also to the area’s wildlife, cultural and built heritage and geology. It is not just a description of the high scenic value of the area. An important consideration when decisions about the management of the AONB are being made, is recognition of the depth and breadth of human interaction with the land - over many centuries.
The area does not look as it does nor contain the vast
array of wildlife species –
also termed bio-diversity – that
it does, merely by accident. The variety of habitats that occur within
the
boundaries do so through a complicated mixture of processes, including
geological, natural
events, weather, wildlife and the many interventions by humans
(some deliberate and some accidental).
being among the country’s finest landscapes
