The Pigs at Edgefield drew plenty of attention this time last year when its bartering scheme became all the rage. Customers could drop in with a couple of freshly caught mackerel or a bowlful of blackcurrants and haggle with the manager over whether they were worth two or three pints.

Now the pub is giving punters without access to a vegetable patch a chance to join in too – by offering them free allotments to grow them in. Cloe Wasey, manager at The Pigs, said: “We’ve got a great big garden out there and we want to get some use out of it. We’ve looked at other pubs and a lot of people are doing the allotment thing – only we don’t have the time to look after it. We thought we would let the other people with the skills come in and use the land.”

The pub hopes that as the gardeners grow their fruit and veg, they will offer the surplus to the kitchen in exchange for a drink in their local. Growers will then get a starring role on the specials board, which will tell customers exactly who has grown the onions in their soup – and maybe introduce them.

Head chef Tim Abbott admitted, while he would not know where to start when it came to growing, he was relishing the chance to get hold of the ingredients which had been grown just yards from his kitchen. He said: “I’m not a green-fingered guy, I have no idea how to grow food – but I can cook it. It’s the freshest it can be and it’s all in season. It pushes us to come up with different specials.”

Mrs Wasey said it should also make financial sense for the growing number of people looking to bag a plot of land to grow their own and cut down on their monthly food bills. “I’ve been told by people half the stuff in some allotments goes to waste because they can’t eat it quickly enough,” she said. “This way they can actually get something back from it.”

The allotments project is just the latest in a number of schemes, brought in following a revamp three years ago, to help The Pigs stand out from the crowd. Along with the bartering scheme, the pub has recently started holding children’s cookery classes and last year brought out a recipe book full of favourite Pigs’ dishes.

And while drinking holes across the country are crumbling under the recession at an astonishing rate, Mrs Wasey said the projects were not only helping The Pigs to stand its ground but were providing a big boost for business.

To find out more about these free allotments (available on a first come, first served basis), please call Tim on 01263 587634 or speak to Cloe Wasey, Manager, on the same number. Alternatively, please pop into the pub for a chat and to take a look around. The Pigs pub is located on Norwich Road, Edgefield, Holt, NR24 2RL.

Where: The Pigs, Norwich Rd, Edgefield, Holt, Norfolk

Idea: A kids’ cookery club takes place every other Saturday morning. Aimed at children from five to ten, it runs from 10:30am to 12 noon with places priced at £7.50 per child. Classes are taken by Mrs Sally Church, a cookery teacher who has been teaching for 30 years. Each session has a theme – fish, fruit, vegetables, cakes, bread, pasta and so on – and those attending four consecutive sessions receive a certificate.

What is needed: One large table (there are up to 12 children in each class), cookery equipment, hand washing facilities, drinks, aprons, name badges, recipes, boxes for transporting the items they’ve made.

Business benefit: Parents can buy coffee and cake while the children have their cookery lessons, and families often stay on for lunch. There’s also a PR benefit as the children really enjoy the classes and so tell their family and friends. The Kids’ cookery club has been featured on North Norfolk Radio and in the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News – it’s another way of endorsing The Pigs as a family-friendly place.

Tips on making it work: Plan ahead and encourage people to block book. Invite local journalists to bring their children along to try out the sessions.

Why do it: To promote The Pigs as a family-friendly pub - with great facilities for children, the Kids’ Cookery Club is a natural extension of these.

Now a year on since The Pigs at Edgefield, near Holt, hit the headlines for its community-spirited scheme, it has also developed its own allotment in the pub’s back garden to try to ensure the menu is as fresh, seasonal and cost efficient as possible and is continuing to run its bartering scheme to encourage more people to grow their own at home.

“At the moment we have just got lots of herbs growing in it but obviously we hope to get it growing as much as possible. It will be great because we will know where it has come from and that it hasn’t been treated with anything,” said Head Chef Tim Abbott.

“Quite a lot of other pubs that we have visited have taken the grow your own in the back garden idea forward and I think it works really well, to be able to step out of the kitchen and get what you need and to tell people that on the menu. We get lots of questions from people at the pub about where the produce has come from. It definitely creates a lot of interest and a real buzz.”

Most of The Pigs’ fruit and veg comes from Linda Cletheroe who lives in the village. “She has a piece of land up the road and she sells her produce to us to use in the pub which is fantastic as it’s so local, and she has a stall here with an honesty box for the public to buy from and also one outside her house. Her stall here is the first thing people see when they come in so it sets the right image,” said Tim.

“I think there has been a massive increase in the number of people growing their own produce, certainly locally. Not everyone has the same disposable income that they once had and it is more cost-effective to grow things yourself and also it is more rewarding and you know about where it has come from and what has been put on it. There aren’t any allotments here in the village but there are some locally and also a lot of people in Edgefield have decent sized gardens so seem to be turning them over to vegetables instead.”

He said that by putting things brought in on the menu it added another dimension to the enjoyment and fulfilment of growing your own for yourself and that it created a sense of community pride.

“We still get things bought in and bartered with – last week we had some blackcurrants grown in one guy’s garden. It definitely brings the community together. We get a few guys who I think love bringing in their veg as an excuse for a natter and pint.”

The pub has been running the bartering scheme since it was taken over by Richard Hughes, who also owns The Lavender House at Brundall, and Iain Wilson, owner of Byfords at Holt, in November 2006 but it sprang to prominence last summer.

It is part of their ongoing commitment to provide locally sourced and reasonably priced food, with not only their fruit and vegetables being local, but also the meat, fish, game and eggs.

Along with the allotment, another plan for the pub is to make further use of people’s local produce by selling home-made pickles and preserves.

The six children got up close and personal with herring, mackerel and squid as they took part in the third Kids’ Cookery Club event at The Pigs pub in Edgefield. The cookery classes have been organised to help children find their way around the kitchen and learn about different food and hygiene by making various delicious dishes.

After previously making sausage rolls and cup cakes, the junior chefs spent Saturday morning making salmon fish fingers and fish pie under the guidance of teacher Sally Church.

In a bid to introduce the curious youngsters to the wonders of seafood, they were also encouraged to pick up and feel fish, such as herring and mackerel, and examine squid and scallops.

Toby Finch, five and from Norwich, relished the chance to get a bit messy as he made some fish fingers. His mother Eleanor Finch, 36, said: “I think it is quite important for him to learn some new skills and find out about different foods.”

The Kids’ Cookery Club happens every second Saturday morning at The Pigs pub and future cooking classes will involve bread, pasties, soup, meats and biscuits.

Mrs Church said: “The classes here are very hands on because that is the best way for children to learn.”

For information on the club or to book a place call 01263 587634.

Aimed at youngsters aged five to ten, the Kids’ Cookery Club was launched at The Pigs pub in Edgefield, near Holt. The classes, run by Sally Church, head of technology at Flegg High School, take place every other Saturday and each session is based around a different subject.

Two previous lessons have centred on pigs and sweet things. The next one, on June 27, will see children making fisherman’s pie and fishcakes during a maritime-themed class, with strawberry teas and Italy providing inspiration for later sessions.

Mrs Church, who has been teaching cookery for nearly 30 years, said: “Each class has a different theme so that the children learn about a range of ingredients and understand how different dishes are put together. Our aim is to get children interested in cooking and, above all, to have fun.”

Equipment and ingredients are provided and children will be given the recipes so they can recreate the dishes at home with their families. Organisers are aiming to have about 12 youngsters in each class and anyone attending four in a row will be given a certificate.

Mrs Church said, if the classes proved successful, she also hoped to offer a cookery course during the summer holidays. Lessons run from 10am to noon and cost £7.50 per child. For more information or to book a place call 01263 587634.

I'm travelling through some pig-awful weather along a partially-flooded Norwich to Holt road in search of some pigs. But I can assure you that the one I'm looking for is no ordinary pig - or even one on four legs! I'm seeking out The Pigs at Edgefield, a good old traditional local (orginally called The Three Pigs) now under the joint ownership of Iain Wilson from Byfords of Holt and Richard Hughes of Brundall's Lavender House. They're two well-appointed Norfolk restaurants serving up good local produce cooked in an unfussy and unpretentious way. Just the way I like it!

As I pull into the spacious gravel car park I look heavenwards along with my three guests to admire the magnificent full-arched rainbow lighting up a wild sky before being given a colourful and warm welcome by barmaid Rachel Callister and manager Cloe Wasey, affectionately known as "pig-in-control".

At once I'm completely relaxed by the environment I find myself in and my guests soon echo my feelings. It's another evening out with my two regular dining companions but they're so shy to have their names mentioned that I'll call them Miss X and Miss Y in the usual manner. However, the remaining member of my party, Roger Rowe, is so high profile in the county - particularly in the arts world - that I can name him without any recourse.

We had something to celebrate in his honour, too, as he had just been to the Palace to pick up his MBE from the Prince of Wales and also received a civic achievement award from Norwich City Council. The list goes on! He'll soon come up as one of the 'names' on Koko's 'little list' if he doesn't watch out!

Members of the kitchen staff deserve a medal, too. The head chef, Tim Abbott, trained for three years at City College, Norwich, while working part time at the Old Beams (now the Lavender House), Brundall, followed by a 14-month spell in New York and Palm Beach. After the States he returned to Norfolk and worked for a short time at the Oaklands in Norwich as junior sous chef before leaving for the King's Head, Bawburgh, as sous chef. The Pigs became his next move.

And the current sous chef, Richard Martin, had a similar training to Tim but attended Stamford College in Lincolnshire. He also went to the States and that's where the two met up. On returning to the UK he worked for a couple of years at the White Horse, Brancaster Staithe, before moving over to The Pigs, where he's happy as a pig in muck!

Both chefs have been inspired by Karl Goward of Smithfield's St John in the art of using all parts of the pig! On their 'piggy' pieces (which Miss Y raved about) you'll find such delights as rolled spleen, heart, liver, cheek, crispy pigs' ears and tongue - and anything else they can get from the animal.

Think deep!

Miss X, on the other hand, played safe for her starter and went for an appetising dish of piping hot Norfolk parsnip soup served with crunchy crusty bread while Roger and I had a slice of pork pie served with apple chutney and salad. After all we were dining at The Pigs!

All of the starters ranged from £4.95 to £5.95 while mains averaged out at £11 with rump steak coming in at £13.50.

Traditional fish pie topped generously with Cheddar mash and served with spring greens proved a winner for my main dish while Roger trawled for fish and come up with smoked haddock.

However, Miss Y went closer to the seabed for her choice. It turned out to be a nice hot-baked Cromer crab served with Walsingham cheese and a buttered new potato salad while Miss X dived in for locally reared free-range chicken served with bubble and squeak. Her favourite, and for me next time.

A bottle of wine at this establishment wouldn't break the bank either and the house keeps a well-stocked cellar with prices ranging from £14 to £19.95. My party went for a reasonably-priced Merlot at £15.95. Perfect!

All in all it was a fine repast in every sense of the word and when it came to pudding time it was a question of wait and see. I can't remember what the others had but I went for a dish that I just can't get right at home - and that's rice pudding. I find it just impossible to bake so when I find it on any restaurant menu it's for me and, let me tell you, it was good. And I mean really good!

Bon appetit!

NEED TO KNOW

Where is it?

Situated on the Norwich-Holt road at Edgefield, a couple of miles past Saxthorpe and Corpusty. 01263 587634 / www.thepigs.org.uk

When is it open?

Tuesday to Saturday (11am-3pm / 6pm-11pm); Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays (12 noon-4pm)

Do I need to book?

It's a pretty spacious place but at weekends and holiday time booking, I think, is advisable.

Are veggies catered for?

Absolutely, there's always a couple of dishes on the main menu plus one on the blackboard. And if none of them suits the chef will tailor one to the customer's requirements.

Is there car parking?

Bags of room, matey!

This casserole is a lovely, warming, winter dish. It’s great for serving up on Christmas Eve as it needs to cook in the oven for three hours so while it’s simmering away, you can get on with all those last minute festive things such as wrapping up your final presents.

This particular casserole is based on the recipe for Beer and Beef Stew with Dumplings which appears in The Pigs’ Book of Proper Pub Food (£12.50) which I worked on with our co-owner Richard Hughes and Sous Chef Richard Martin earlier in the year – we had great fun putting the book together and it seems to have gone down very well with our customers.

For this casserole, however, I’ve left out the dumplings and have added some sausages to make it meatier. The beef sausages that we use are "Perfick Pork" sausages – Perfick Pork is a local company, based in Great Ryburgh, and their produce is great. Like so many other places these days, we try to use local suppliers wherever possible so that we support local businesses, know exactly where our produce comes from, and keep food miles to a minimum – I think this is something that every chef worth their salt should be doing as a matter of course.

At The Pigs we’ve also had a lot of interest recently in our barter system whereby customers can bring in their own produce – fruit, vegetables, herbs and so on – and if they’re good quality and we can use them, we’ll trade them for wine or beer, meals or vouchers.

This casserole is on our current menu and is ideal for sharing with others – it’s ideal for a family meal as it makes a great focal point. If you want to leave some room for your traditional Christmas Day lunch the next day, just leave out the mash but the mash does go very well with it.

BRAISED SHIN OF BEEF AND BEEF SAUSAGE CASSEROLE

INGREDIENTS

Serves six

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 2/160C

You will need a 3.5 litre, flameproof casserole dish with a lid.
1kg shin of beef, cut into 5cm chunks
6 Perfick Pork beef sausages
225g carrots, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks
225g celery, cut into 5cm chunks
225g swede, peeled and cut into 1cm slices, then into chunks
6 shallots, peeled and left whole
4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 sprigs rosemary
50g plain flour, seasoned with salt and freshly milled black pepper
1 pint Woodforde’s Wherry beer or your favourite ale
1 large glass red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
50g grated horseradish
1 can chopped plum tomatoes
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
Water

METHOD

Place the seasoned flour in a large bowl, add the meat and toss to coat liberally.
Next, toss all the prepared vegetables in the remaining flour.
Add all the meat and vegetables to the flameproof casserole dish and sprinkle in any remaining flour.
Season with salt and pepper, pour in the beer and the wine, plus the Worcestershire Sauce, the plum tomatoes and the horseradish.
Add the herbs and the sausages then top up with water until the meat and vegetables are covered.
Put the casserole on the hob and bring it up to a gentle simmer before covering it with a tight-fitting lid.
Place the casserole on the middle shelf of the pre-heated oven and cook for three hours.
Remove the casserole from the oven and serve with the mash.

MUSTARD MASH

INGREDIENTS

Serves six

1½ kg Maris Piper potatoes
100g butter
1 tablespoon Colman’s English mustard
Salt and pepper

METHOD

Boil the potatoes until soft.
Drain the potatoes then return them to the pan for a few minutes to dry out.
Mash the potatoes and then add the butter, mustard, salt and pepper.
Serve immediately.

After a morning spent rummaging in Holt's fantastic antique shops, we had built up quite an appetite (and an overdraft). Just outside Holt, towards Norwich, is The Pigs at Edgefield - a joint venture between Iain Wilson, the owner of Byfords, and Richard Hughes, the proprietor of The Lavender House in Brundall. With a pedigree like that, it'd be incredible if The Pigs was anything other than really, really good. And it doesn't disappoint.

The pub itself is a quaint building full of country charm. There's the bar area, where you order food and drinks, a comfortable drinking area with a roaring fire and a dining room with a wood burner.

There are two more menus to choose from, in addition to a specials board, depending on whether you are 'Peckish' or 'Hungry'. The former menu includes light meals like beef dripping with toast, split pea soup, mushrooms served with goat's cheese, pine nuts and onion jam with brown toast, black pudding salad, baked chicken and ham pancakes or a plate of piggy pieces including 'everything but the squeak'. Prices start from £2.50.

For a more substantial appetite, you can choose from a seasonal menu which includes a local mussel pot, 28-day Swannington Farm rump steak, steamed Edgefield game suet pudding, rosemary roasted chicken breast, traditional fisherman's pie, vegetarian shepherd's pie or granary bread and butter pudding with herb custard, Binham Blue cheese, spinach, hazelnuts and dressed leaves. Prices range from £5.95 to £14.95.

It's an impressive menu - and I'm leaving lots of delicious choices out on the basis of space - and it's reassuringly local, too. If you plump for the Edgefield game suet pudding, your dinner may well have been harvested within eyeshot.

I chose Norfolk rabbit, the cheese-on-toast variety rather than the bunny, which was made from Norfolk Dapple cheese, Colman's grain mustard, apple chutney and Woodforde's Wherry and served on thick cut brown bread for £4.95.

My friend went for a Pigs classic, the Three Pigs - slow-cooked belly of Perfick Pork, smoky bacon beans, apple chutney, black pudding and crackling served with thick, chunky chips, £10.95 with an accompany pint of Woodforde's Wherry.

Both meals were prepared quickly by the chef we could just spot through a window in the dining room which gives you a view of the kitchen, and both were, without any exaggeration, sublime.

My friend's pork extravaganza was a beautiful thing to behold, a symphony of porcine perfection in which each bite complemented perfectly the next. My posh cheese on toast was the best I have ever eaten, a molten mass of ale and mustard infused cheese sauce on top of a piece of toasted granary loaf. God, it was good.

Despite the very generous portions, we bravely decided for the good of this review to try dessert, and a brief scuffle broke out over which we should choose. My friend fancied the bread and butter pudding with whisky, marmalade and proper custard (£10.95 to share), or the lavender and lemon posset with red fruits poached in red wine, £5.95.

I fancied the sticky brick with toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream, £10.95 to share. I won, on the basis that I was reviewing and threatened to hold my breath if I didn't get my way.

I was right, of course, the sticky toffee brick was delicious and the toffee sauce so incredibly good that I was tempted to drink it straight from the jug.

It's the attention to detail that really sets The Pigs above the vast majority of other pubs offering food. The welcome is warm, the menu is interesting and you can take it away with you, the dining and drinking spaces are cosy and inviting, the service is astonishingly good and the food - in addition to being delicious - is presented absolutely beautifully.

The pub is currently undergoing refurbishments to the toilets, but in the meantime diners and drinkers can enjoy the luxury portaloos, which put some pub toilets I've visited in the past (I would name check them, but the last time I mentioned a certain pub very close to Brundall in a village that rhymes with 'Bumplaw' I had to don a fireproof suit to make it through the small, but hardcore, number of locals with flaming torches and pitchforks waiting for me by the Evening News door) to shame.

All in all, a wonderful meal. Get in the car now and head to Edgefield - they're serving until 9pm and the fire is lit. Do you need me to tell you twice?

Food: *****
Service: *****
Atmosphere: *****
Family: ****

As this is the pub that offers drinks in exchange for ingredients, it has to be. An insulted Gordon joins a table bearing more of the week's barter - lettuce, onions, mackerel and six eggs.

I had hoped for better from a Times experiement in the cashless economy. On August 11, Gordon was a happy bird. He had hills, heather and the freedom of Mohammed Al Fayed's personal estate. Nothing in his experience could have led him to assume that the next day, the Glorious Twelfth, he would be shot, plucked, wrapped in bacon and rushed on to the London train to Harrods Food Hall, part of the first batch of grouse of the season.

As far as the residents of Kensington are concerned, Gordon is about as close as you get to organic, locally sourced produce. But in this part of North Norfolk, game birds are far from a rarity - indeed, they are the foundation of the pub's barter scheme.

"We get a lot of shoots around here," Cloe Wasey, the pub manager, says. "When we took ownership two years ago, parties would come in for a drink in the afternoon with all these pheasants in the back of their cars. So one day we said we'd take some off their hands and put a tab behind the bar for them. It has grown from that.

"Just recently it has become very popular, possibly because of the credit crunch. And it's great for us, because we know everything is fresh.

"As well as rabbits and pheasant, customers have bartered partridge, herbs and apples. One man brought in half a deer (he got a meal for four). People have begun to exchange vegetables. Our specials are now dominated by barter." She points to a blackboard advertising "Jeremy's organic bright lights rainbow chard." Beneath that is written "Got any rosemary? Bring it in, let's do a deal!"

Their most regular source, although not for rosemary, is Richard Carlston. By day he is a policeman. By night he hunts game, skins rabbits and catches crayfish. His boots are damp and sandy, and in a white plastic bucket he has a pile of foot-long gutted fish - shimmering in the way that they never do at a fishmonger's. Half an hour earlier he caught 21 mackerel off the beach with a rod and line, and these are the ones that he does not need. "This barter scheme is ideal," he says. "I'm always shooting, beating and fishing. This way I get a few free pints, I fill my freezer and no food goes to waste."

"In the town you think that these skills are lost, that people don't hunt or trap or snare. But they are still here. I tell you what, though: the modern housewife wouldn't know what to do if you told her to pluck a pheasant."

Does his wife? Picking up a pint of Guinness - his reward for the mackerel - he looks at me as if I had just suggested using a .22 rifle to shoot a hedgehog. "Of course she does!"

On the other hand it's a great excuse on which to peg all manner of woes and ills that probably have nothing to do with it. (Whatever "it" is: I'm still at a loss to tell the difference between a "crunch", a "downturn" and a "recession"; all I've been told is that some kind of obscure American mortgage is to blame.) For, like any scapegoat worth its salt, it allows us to avoid taking all blame or responsibility for our problems.

On the upside of the crunch, it was reported last week that a village pub in Norfolk has taken to bartering beer for home-grown produce. "If you grow, breed, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu then bring it in and let's do a deal," reads a sign in The Pigs pub, Edgefield, near Holt. Pints have been exchanged for fresh fruit, potatoes, mackerel, pigeons and rabbits.

It's like Digging for Victory all over again and it certainly seems to work for the people of Holt. (Mind you, I have my doubts about bartering. I once joined a scheme in south London and was given a directory of participants and the services on offer. "One-to-one Portuguese," said one. "Advanced desktop publishing," said another. "Lots of lovely hugs," said a third. Some things are hard to agree a market value on.)

There's plenty of evidence that people are growing their own and allotments are more popular than ever. Sainsbury's reports that sales of takeaway meals are down while sales of plastic food boxes are up as people do more cooking and make their own packed lunches. People seem to be buying more kitchenware and cooking utensils, along with seeds and gardening tools.

Thrift, mend and make-do are the order of the day. Boot sales and auctions are thriving and push bikes are everywhere. "For sale" signs are popping up in roadside cars as people save on advertising costs or even on driving altogether: six per cent of people are driving less, according to Lightspeed Research.

Toy store Hamleys reports an increase in sales of wooden toys, teddy bears and spinning tops as people look to invest in products that last. Board games such as Cluedo and Kerplunk are making a comeback. The disposable culture is over.

Tents and camping equipment are up while foreign holiday packages are down as people stay in bargain Britain (34 per cent of holidaymakers, according to Lightspeed) to make their own entertainment. Talking of inexpensive fun, experts predict a baby boom in the coming months, too.

This is good news for purveyors of self-tanning creams such as WAG favourites St Tropez and Fake Bake, which are up 31 per cent, according to John Lewis. Affordable luxuries such as lipstick are often seen as an indicator of economic decline: sales of L'Oréal products are significantly up year on year already.

Sometimes, though, when things get tough, exploring cheaper options isn't enough. You have to make sacrifices. In the US there are reports of society wives dropping their partners as hubby's value on paper steadily diminishes and there are chilling stories about people dumping their pets. Powys Animal Welfare Trust, for instance, has announced a 100 per cent rise since 2006 in the numbers of cats and dogs (now more than 400) it has taken into care because they've been made homeless. Brenda Mitchell, of Bournemouth and District Cats Protection, told her local paper that her branch is being inundated with unwanted cats.

She said: "I think it is the credit crunch. It's a really sad thing but I think people are finding they can't afford their cats. A lot of people are moving to smaller houses where it is not suitable to have cats. It's never been as bad as this." When times are hard and not even the cat is safe, we all need cheering up. Chocolate is a cheap pick-me-up and Cadbury's profits are up 46 per cent for the first half of 2008. "No matter how bleak economies look people always go for treats," smiles chief executive Todd Stizer.

Upbeat films such as Mamma Mia! are storming the box offices, along with feel-good West End musicals. Straight plays are tanking, however.Too much reality, no doubt.

MIND YOU, there's cheerful and then there's blasé, which may be why, according to one recent newspaper report: "Crooning banker Howard Brown has been axed from the Halifax ads because he is too cheery for the credit crunch."

On the blame side of the equation, the credit crunch has been cited as the cause of everything from falling carpet sales to a reduction in bobbies on the beat in Hounslow to an unusually high amount of yacht theft insurance claims. On one Aston Villa fan website forum it's even given as the cause of the team's poor performance.

Worst of all, perhaps, is the news that the credit crunch is literally causing our hair to fall out. "It seems that many people in the UK are losing their hair and the word on the street is that it could be due to the credit crunch," says the press release. Yikes! Where does this terrible tiding come from?

"As many other brands see sales fall as a result of the economy, Nourkrin, the nation's favourite natural hair recovery programme, sees sales continue to rise." Ah. You see, "Even in buoyant financial times one in three women are expected to suffer some sort of hair loss at some stage in their lives but this appears to be on the increase as the credit crunch hits." Small surprise then that "more and more people are turning to Nourkrin to help combat thinning hair."

It's reassuring that even in these desperate times, when sales are drooping and hairlines are receding, that the ingenuity of the PR executive at least continues its irresistible rise.

A sign placed inside the pub says: "If you grow, breed, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu, then bring it in and let's do a deal."

So far pints have been swapped in place of potatoes, mackerel and a kilo of fresh fruit.

Locally shot rabbits, pheasants and pigeons have also been exchanged for beer.

The Pigs pub, in Edgefield, near Holt, Norfolk, even encourages locals to contribute to its traditional food menu in return for free alcohol. Manager Cloe Wasey, 24, said the offer has taken off as people have started to feel the pinch financially. "We've been doing it for almost two years now but the success of it has only just recently started to boom with the credit crunch setting in," she added. "People need to find different ways to go out and this helps. "It's also great for us because we get produce at a good price, although we have high standards so the food we get in has to meet those. "We find the home grown stuff is often much better than what we can get from the suppliers. "Someone will say 'that rabbit tasted great' and we say "here, meet the person who shot it."'

Driver Derek Feast, 64, a regular in the pub, recently swapped some of the free range chicken eggs he breeds for a pint. "I have a job where I earn the national minimum wage so this little bit of extra money helps me get out," he said. "The odd penny here and there really helps."

Miss Wasey, who runs the pub with her business partner, Tim Abbott, 24, who is head chef, said the scheme has helped cement the pub's place at the heart of the village community. "It gives us a more local feel," she said.

The Pigs in Edgefield, near Holt, Norfolk, has been inundated with regulars clasping rabbits, pigeons, pheasant, crayfish and even chard, which they hand over at the bar for inspection.

If the quality is good enough, customers are rewarded with a pint of their chosen ale or money off their bill.

The practice has proved increasingly popular as living costs have risen.

The policy was devised by the pub's manager Cloe Wasey, 24, and her business partner, Tim Abbott, the head chef, also 24. Customers are greeted with a sign that reads: "If you breed, grow, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu, then bring it in and let's do a deal."

Miss Wasey said: "We are getting a lot more goods bartered as of late, which I can only assume is due to the credit crunch. "People have to look for new ways of paying and this just seemed the best option. "Being in the countryside, we have a lot of organised shoots and people would come into the pub afterwards with all their game in the car, but have nothing to do with it. It just rolled on from there."

Miss Wasey said goods had to be fresh and of top quality before they would be considered. Items that have been handed over in exchange for a pint include a brace of pheasant, three mackerel, a kilogram of potatoes and a kilogram of fruit. The produce is then passed on to Mr Abbott. "One person came in recently, saw the bartering board and went home and dug up their chard," said Miss Wasey. "We currently have Bright Lights rainbow chard on the board which we have put with mackerel - that was bartered as well. "When we get the good stuff, and it gets on to the specials board, it's brilliant. "Some will say 'that rabbit tasted great' and we say, 'Here, meet the person who shot it.'"

Miss Wasey said they had to be careful about what goods were accepted: "We have to make sure that nothing has been poached or stolen, but because it's a local pub, everyone knows everyone. We find the home grown stuff is often much better than what we can get from the suppliers - some of it was in the fields only hours before it is served."

Derek Feast, 64, a regular at the pub, recently swapped some of his free-range chicken eggs for a pint. "I have a job where I earn the national minimum wage so this little bit of extra money helps me get out," Mr Feast, a driver, said.

Drinkers in Edgefield, near Holt, are being offered the chance to barter their home-grown produce for free pints.

Anything that could be added to its traditional food menu will be considered, with the amount of pints, meals or vouchers offered in return linked to the size, quantity and quality of the items presented.

A sign inside the pub says: "If you grow, breed, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu, then bring it in and let's do a deal."

So far baskets of fresh fruit from local trees and home-grown potatoes, along with locally shot rabbits, pheasants, pigeons and three whole mackerel have been passed over the counter in exchange for ale.

Close Wasey, 24, manager of The Pigs, said that the offer started in 2006 but had taken off only as the price of a pint started to rise and local people started to feel the financial pinch.

"We've been doing it for almost two years now but the success of it has only just recently started to boom with the credit crunch setting in," she said. "People need to find different ways to go out and this helps. "It's also great for us because we get produce at a good price, although we have high standards so the food we get in has to meet those. "We find the home-grown stuff is often much better than what we can get from the suppliers. When we get the good stuff, and it gets on to the specials board, it's brilliant. "Someone will say, 'That rabbit tasted great,' and we say, 'Here, meet the person who shot it.' "It's almost a challenge for the chef to make the most of the ingredients."

Derek Feast, 64, a regular, recently swapped some of his free-range eggs for a pint. "I have a job where I earn the national minimum wage so this little bit of extra money helps me get out," he said. "The odd penny here and there really helps."

Ms Wasey, who runs the pub with her business partner, Tim Abbott, 24, who is head chef, said the scheme has helped to cement the pub's place at the heart of the village community. "It gives us a more local feel," she said. Mr Abbott said: "We were once offered eight pairs of pigs' testicles. It brought a bit of a lump to my throat." A North Norfolk council environmental officer said: "We need to look carefully at how pubs can make sure what they are doing is within the law. There is a difference between surplus game from a shoot and half a deer that may be roadkill." And afterwards there's the Revenue. It provides advice on how to record bartering deals in its self-assessment booklet.

STANDING IN THE RESTAURANT OF A POPULAR NORTH NORFOLK PUB, KARL GOWARD HOLDS A PIG'S HEAD ALOFT and addresses his audience.

"This animal has been killed. It has been slaughtered. Someone has used the loin but nothing else. I say don't let this animal die in vain - let's use the whole thing, the possibilities are endless."

There's far more to a pig than pork chops and bacon rashers, he explains. From the ears to the trotters, the tail to the tongue, there is hardly a bit of a pig that can't be turned into a delectable dish.

"There's pretty much nothing that can't be used on this incredible animal," he says. "There's so much left on him. These are things that are often consigned to the rubbish bin.

"Whole parts of the animal can be utilised that you are not already using. When you buy your pork chops or your racks of lamb, it's very ease to lose sight of where they come from. It's mindboggling to me that a chef in a kitchen can have no idea of what a shoulder of lamb does on that animal."

While it would be easy to make jokes about making a pig's ear of a meal, Karl's intent here was very serious. As the top man in the kitchen at the St John restaurant, near London's Smithfield meat market, the Norfolk-born chef is well versed in demonstrating that less fashionable cuts of meat have plenty of potential to excite the palate. Scrag end and chump chops might not sound like the most appealing parts of a lamb, and beef shin and brisket don't initially whet the appetite in the same way as a juicy fillet steak.

But in the right hands they can be just as tasty, as Karl explained to his audience recently. It's an attitude that makes financial as well as culinary sense, given that in the current economic climate restaurateurs need to be looking at every way possible of getting value for money.

Karl's recent masterclass came about after a pair of Norfolk restaurant owners decided to launch a series of events aimed at inspiring their staff and their contacts within the industry.

Iain Wilson, whose string of eateries includes Byfords at Holt, and Richard Hughes, who runs the Lavender House at Brundall, held their first "chefs' conference" at The Pigs, the pub they jointly own in Edgefield along with Gary Long. Since they bought the pub in 2006 it has developed a reputation for honest, locally-sourced cuisine, as demonstrated in Richard's new recipe book, The Pigs Book of Proper Pub Food.

Iain set the scene by telling the 40 attendees: "I'm now 36, I have been in this trade for 13 years and without a doubt this is the harshest climate I have come across. There's a definite change going on.

"China and India are much richer than they were a decade ago. Their consumption of dairy products is up 100pc.

"Anything we are buying from Europe this year is 15pc more expensive than last year because of the strength of the Euro against the pound.

"But we are pretty well off because other guys are sitting in a kitchen scratching their heads. We are all 40 of us doing something about it. Every single restaurant has got the same issues but the fact we are doing something about it gives us the edge."

The demonstration was just one part of the day-long event, which saw those attending gain a fuller understanding of the journey "from farm to fork" by visiting Swannington Farm, hearing from Hugh Judd of the English Beef and Lamb Executive, and seeing a butchery demonstration.

As well as The Pigs and Byfords, Iain has recently acquired the King's Head in Holt, while Richard also owns the Anna Sewell Restaurant in Yarmouth. Richard has known Karl since he taught him at City College, Norwich, where Karl took his first steps towards his career by studying for City & Guilds qualifications.

Karl is 35 and grew up in Blofield Heath. After City College he went to London where his first job was as a commis chef for The Basil Street Hotel.

After a decade of working around London's kitchens he got the job at St John, and then its sister restaurant St John Bread and Wine, in Spitalfields, after which he went to New York restaurants Soho House and Prune. He has been back in the UK since the beginning of the year and is once again at St John in Smithfield, which has made its reputation as a carnivore's heaven.

"Sometimes it gets unfairly bracketed as an offal restaurant," he says. "There's plenty of fresh fish, it's not just about these things here," he says, pointing to the pig's innards on the table in front of him, "but people like to pigeonhole everything."

He often returns to Norfolk and reminded the conference of how lucky people in the county's catering industry are to be based here. "I didn't realise this as a kid but you are in a fantastic part of the world. London may seem glamorous and exciting but the chefs in London would kill to have Cromer and Sheringham 10 miles away, to be surrounded by countryside, with pick-your-own fruit, and local farms rearing cattle and sheep. It's a fantastic opportunity that sometimes gets lots because it's not in the big city. It's all on your doorstep."

PIGGY PIECES
Recipes from The Pigs Book of Proper Pub Food by Richard Hughes, Tim Abbott and Richard Martin (£12.50).

POTTED HAM
Serves four as a first course
200g good unsalted butter
250g good cooked ham, all fat removed
½ teaspoon of English mustard
Up to ¼ teaspoon of ground mace or freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon of chopped, fresh sage

METHOD
Slowly melt the butter, clarify by skimming off the milk solids.
Put the ham in a food processor and blend briefly, or roughly chop by hand.
Beat in about three-quarters of the cooked butter and blend to a paste.
Season with mustard, mace or nutmeg, sage and black pepper.
Pack into four small ramekins, pots or glasses.
Chill until the butter sets (about 15 minutes), then cover and chill for several hours.

SLOW-BRAISED PIGS’ CHEEKS
Serves two
Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 1/140C
4 pigs’ cheeks, trimmed of fat
Flour for dusting and olive oil for frying
1 onion, peeled and cut into chunks
½ leek, outside leaves removed, washed and cut into 1cm cubes
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
2 sticks celery, cut into 1cm cubes
1 garlic clove, sliced
100g tomato puree
1 glass red wine
300ml brown stock, or enough to cover
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 bay leaf

METHOD
Season the pigs’ cheeks and dust with a little flour.
Heat some olive oil in a large ovenproof pan, and fry the cheeks until golden brown.
Add the onions, leek, celery, carrots and garlic, and fry gently until lightly browned.
Add the tomato puree and a little of the red wine.
Reduce until the tomato puree starts to caramelise and darken.
Return the cheeks to the pan and pour over just enough brown stock to cover.
Add the peppercorns, caraway seeds and bay leaf and bring to a simmer.
Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for four hours.
Stir every hour or so, adding a little more brown stock if it starts looking dry.
When tender, remove the cheeks, bring the sauce to the boil, and reduce to a good consistency.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with a parsnip puree and creamy mash for a main course.