water, water everywhere, and quite a lot to drink...

If there is one natural resource associated with the Lake District, it is, of course, water and this water is wonderfully soft. Fortunately, if you live outside Cumbria, you can still get hold of some of this life giving stuff by buying it in bottles.

High above Ennerdale Water, Lakeland Spring Water is collected at Standing Stones, the spring being some 860 feet high up, which helps maintain its purity. The readers of the Daily Telegraph were obviously impressed with it when they voted it as one of the most refreshing tasting bottled waters available.

Cartmel Valley in South Lakeland was once covered with white willow forests - trees that now form much of the peat that carpets the valley. It is this peat and the natural limestone layers that filter Willow Water and account for its unique properties. The water naturally contains traces of salicin, a natural painkiller which comes from white willow bark. The water has many followers claiming many things, you'll just have to try it yourself, taking the Willow Water challenge, to see if it is beneficial for you.

The third water supplier is the Eden Valley Mineral Water Company, which takes around 250 million litres of spring water per year from five boreholes near Armathwaite. This water is bottled and sold under the name Aqua Pura. The water comes from one of largest groundwater aquifers in Europe, which is also protected as an EU Special Area of Conservation.

Content and photography supplied by www.artisan-food.com, funded by Distinctly Cumbrian.