The growing influx of visitors to Seahouses in Northumberland has seen a soaring demand for herring and salmon smoked in the traditional way in the 19thcentury smokehouses of Swallow Fish, a family business run by former fisherman Patrick Wilkin and his wife Karen.
The local fishing fleet has been badly hit by restrictions on North Sea catches, but Patrick is now ordering more than 50t a year of herring caught and frozen aboard Norwegian and Icelandic trawlers.
The herring are split, brined and hung on tenterhooks for 12-15 hours, and smoked over mounds of oak sawdust - no dyes or additives are used.
Among
