Breakfast at Harbour Lights

We are committed to providing our guests with a high quality experience in every aspect of the service we provide. We also seek to operate in accordance with a number of principles, including using produce that, whenever possible, is produced locally, organically and in a way that is caring of animals. For produce from overseas, such as tea, coffee, sugar and so on, we look for that marketed according to Fairtrade rules. This approach is set in the wider context of minimising the impact of our business on the environment. To give us a benchmark for judging our success, we will soon be inspected for the Green Tourism Business Award.

In recognition of the quality of our breakfasts, Harbour Lights has been awarded the Visit England Breakfast Award.

This award recognises those accommodation providers who "offer their guests a high quality and good choice of breakfast plus service and hospitality that exceeds what would be expected for their star rating." VisitEngland say that they have "set the thresholds higher for establishments at the higher star ratings, to reflect guest's expectations." Only 7% of guest accommodation providers have received the award in the initial announcement

Local Produce

We are pleased to have been awarded the Gold Local Food Award Award, the final judging for which took place in the summer of 2009. This award recognises our strong comittment to using the outstanding food produced in Northumberland in all our catering for guests. The organisers of the award have not repeated the exercise, but we have maintained our practice of serving local food.

Much food produced locally in Northumberland is of a very high quality. This applies to food widely available, but produced locally, such as Chain Bridge honey, as well as local specialities, such as kippers from Robson’s of Craster, which enjoy a national reputation. We believe that giving guests the opportunity to enjoy local produce enhances the holiday expedrience.

Our bacon, sausage, eggs, all our fish and honey are sourced entirely locally; Vegetables and fruit are purchased in Alnwick through the local markets, Turnbulls and other local shops. Our home baked bread is milled at Heatherslaw Water Mill from locally grown wheat. Heatherslaw also supply the bisuits to be found on the refreshment tray in our rooms.

Home Made and Seasonal Food

We seek to make as much of our prepared food as we can. We bake our own bread and make our own preserves, fruit compotes, yoghurt and granola cereal. As we develop our garden, we plan to grow as much of our own tomatoes, fruit and herbs as we can.

We appreciate the seasonality of foods. For example, serving strawberries in season and not during the winter when they travel many miles and do not necessarily taste as good. Blackberries picked in Craster and locally grown Bramley apples combine to make a tasty compote during the autumn.

Compassionate Food Production

Many people are concerned to minimise what is seen as cruelty to animals in the production of our food. For example, the recent debate about the animal welfare implications of the production of eggs and chicken meat reflects a growing concern about how we treat hens. At Harbour Lights, we use locally produced free range eggs. As it is also widely perceived that these products have a better taste, there is a double advantage to their use.

Fairtrade Products

The Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1992 and has the support of many charities, religious groups and the Women's Institute. Its vision of offering producers in developing countries improved returns for their products has captured the imagination of many and it is a vision that we support. We make use of Fairtrade tea, coffee, drinking chocolate and sugar. We seek to extend our purchase of Fairtrade products, recently adding Fairtrade oranges for our home produced marmalade.

Sustainable Food

A sensitive issue is the use of sustainable fish for our range of fish options for breakfast. The Marine Conservation Society certifies sustainable fish populations. While we wish to make appropriate purchasing decisions in respect to sustainability, this is an area for further development. All our smoked fish is provided by Robson's of Craster

We seek to operate in a sustainable way and minimise the environmental impact of their activities. To see how, please have a look at our Environmental Policy

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