A chance to celebrate the best of the nation’s food and drink as autumn nights draw in

September is a dull month for anyone interested in food. With the veg patch empty, the barbecue packed away and the strawberries finished, the high days of summer are just a fading memory.

But thanks to Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight, autumn now delivers a tasty treat before the dark days of winter settle in.

The two-week celebration of local and seasonal produce features hundreds of events from Orkney to Gretna Green. Some are simple suppers in country inns, others are full blown local festivals. Together they help explain the remarkable food and drink export figures released earlier this week by the Scottish Government. Our natural produce has never been more popular and if you doubt that, Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight is home-grown proof.

One of the star events is Eat Bute, now in its fourth year. The two-day feast of island produce takes place today and tomorrow, in and around the magnificent gothic mansion Mount Stuart. Last year it began with a gala dinner in the Great Hall with top London chefs Fergus Henderson, Jeremy Lee and Skye Gyngell on-hand to cook and pay tribute to the quality of ingredients. The langoustines had been landed earlier in the day by local fishermen, the beef came from Mount Stuart and the vegetables and berries for dessert were all grown in the estate’s kitchen garden.

The London cheferatti seemed genuinely amazed to have the chance to cook with produce that hadn’t travelled more than a couple of miles from field to plate but that is the beauty of Scotland. Like Arran, Bute is blessed with a brilliant network of local suppliers and producers, ranging from Ritchie’s smokehouse to Loch Fad fisheries and Duncan Lyon’s Rose Veal.

The suffocating influence of the big supermarkets is a ferry ride away and that has given local food producers some breathing-space.

But it doesn’t mean Bute is immune to the pressures of the outside world. Last year the local creamery closed, bringing to an end production of the award- winning Isle of Bute cheddar. Behind that decision were the harsh economies of milk production on a vast scale and at a cut price as demanded by the giant retailers.

However, Bute has a secret weapon in the ongoing fight to keep local food on the menu. In recent years the Mount Stuart Trust has been working with Rothesay Joint Campus school to ensure the consumers of the future appreciate what is on their doorstep.

Local farmers donate meat for home economics classes and the school has its own kitchen garden, supplying fruit vegetables for pupil lunches. For those London chefs who have to deal with wasteful food miles, the school handily points out their produce only travels 194 food steps from the garden to the kitchen.

Throughout their time at the school, the 800 pupils share responsibility for cultivation and also learn about planning, sustainability and budgeting. The aim is to impart valuable life skills, but perhaps the most important lesson is learned at lunchtime.

In an end-of-year project, the school says: “School- grown dinners are labelled so that everyone knows it’s one of ours. We find that if pupils have grown vegetables themselves they are more likely to eat them.”

Everyone concerned about Scotland’s appalling health record and obesity epidemic should think about that very carefully. With support from the local community but without consultants or industry experts, one school on a small Scottish island seems to have made a remarkable discovery in the battle to improve our diet.

Children like local food. So why can’t every school in Scotland grow their own?.The future for the Scottish food and drink sector depends on the consumers of tomorrow and in Bute they are giving a lesson we should all learn.