Schools in Nottinghamshire currently have an unusual dish on the school dinner menu – Venison burger in a wholemeal roll. Perhaps even more interestingly the take-up amongst usually cagey kids has been very good. But it’s no great surprise – venison is both tasty and healthy.

Traditionally a meat for royalty, venison is becoming more widely available and there are a number of vendors on Localfoodshop who will deliver to your door. The price is also comparable to any other decent, locally produced, traceable meat.

Generally leaner than beef, pork, chicken or lamb it offers an alternative option to fat dodging fitness types without sacrificing flavour. Why not try out this recipe for Venison with Mushrooms?

So, over to you, BigBarn readers – do you have any venison recipes? Or do any non-beef/lamb/pork/chicken meats end up on your dinner table?

Tomorrow I’m off to Twickenham to watch the final of the EDF Cup between Leicester Tigers and the Ospreys.

It’s going to be a long day – I catch my train south at 9am – and I suspect that food inside the ground will be expensive, so I’m taking a packed lunch.

Sandwiches are a bit boring – I want something a little more exciting. I also want it to be healthy, and to create a minimum of litter that I’ll either have to carry around with me or spend time finding a bin for.

The first item that spring to mind is the good old cornish pasty. Good examples are certainly delicious and come in their own tasty wrapper so no litter.

Just down the road from me is Melton Mowbray, home of the famous raised pork pies.

My hunt through BigBarn and Localfoodshop led me to the (in)famous Bedfordshire Clanger. A clanger traditionally was a pie containing sections of fish, pork and apple – a three course meal – although nowadays the fish has gone.

My preference however, is for a foreign dish made with British ingredients – calzone. For those who don’t know, calzone is basically an inside-out pizza. You can fill it with whatever you like, but the classic would be similar to pizza – tomato, cheese and basil. If you take the time to source some decent ingredients – for example, flour, cheese, ham – you can customise your calzone to your heart’s content.

Here is my recipe. What would you put in yours?

This is going to be a very short post but I wanted to get your feedback on the cost of food.

The news tells us that the cost of food is rising, but the prices at my local greengrocers and farmers market have remained the same. I did notice that a dummy-run shop on Tesco.com seemed pretty expensive, but since I don’t shop there I couldn’t tell you if the price has risen.

What do you think?