Cuisine of Gower

The cuisine of Gower, a peninsula in south Wales, is based on ingredients grown, raised or collected on or around the peninsula. The cuisine is based on fresh ingredients with recipes based around a fish or meat dish. Until the twentieth century, the peninsula was virtually cut off from other markets due to poor roads, and no rail connection. The result was that Gower became self-sufficient in food.

Gower people also developed their own dialect of English, known as the Gower dialect, and their own traditions, which have since died out. The population of the peninsula was employed in agriculture, fishing, labour on the farms and larger country estates, weaving and, in the north, coal mining and cockling. With the expansion of motorized transport and road improvements, Gower became a popular tourist destination. Many residents now travel from Gower to work in the nearby city of Swansea. Much of the agricultural produce is now sold at Swansea Market, local farmers' markets, and further afield.

In the 18th century, surveys indicate that crops grown in Gower included corn, hay, flax, hemp, hops and fruit. Livestock kept included sheep, cattle, pigs, geese, fowl and bees. Many Gower villages were self-sufficient in food, and residents paid a yearly rent to the lord of the manor for fishing rights. In south and west Gower a feudal or manorial system of open fields, and related areas of common land for the grazing of livestock, had developed after the Norman invasion. The land remained linked to this feudal pattern for many centuries afterwards, and tithes were paid in kind, comprising one lamb out of ten, a tenth of the wool shorn, and a tenth part of the grain crop.

Later, the inclosure acts consolidated the arable land holding but Gower's common lands were left untouched. North and east Gower retained the traditional Welsh landholding pattern, based on a family group and located around the gwely, or homestead. All rights of grazing, common pasture, and arable allocations stemmed from this system. The Norman and Welsh areas of Gower were roughly divided by the common lands of Clyne, Fairwood, Pengwern and Cefn Bryn.

The geology of the Gower Peninsula is made up of limestone, coal measures and old red sandstone. The Board of Agriculture's report for South Wales of 1814 commented:

"The soil in this limestone is excellent for both the tillage and pasture, being a brownish marly loam, of good tenacity in some places; in others, on a few degrees of declivity, light and somewhat sandy, so as to be occasionally damaged by the larvae of the cock-chaffer. It produces with good management, plenty of all kinds of grain, and swards naturally with the sweetest grasses".

The area has a mild climate due to the effects of the Gulf Stream near the coast. This results in mostly a frost-free winter in the south-west of the peninsula.

The combination of geology and climate means that Gower is well known for its root, and other, vegetables. These include potatoes, cauliflower, and swedes. In the case of cauliflower, a frost-free climate is required when the curd is developing. The area around Rhossili is an important supply area. Thousands of cases of cauliflowers are transported from here to shops nationwide during the winter months. Local farmers' markets and Swansea Market sell fresh Gower vegetables, as do farms such as Nicholaston Farm, owned by the Beynon family, which supplies asparagus, beans, and peas.