THE Prince of Wales is to be given a true taste of the Durham dales when he visits the region today.

On the menu for Charles's visit to the Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services (Utass), at Middleton-in-Teesdale, is Kirk Caryn Mutton Stew.

The stew is named after the new building the prince is going to open and has been devised by Debra Bainbridge, a former Middleton Primary School cook, who now works at the Bridge Inn in the village.

It will contain local organic vegetables and organic mutton from Piercebridge Organic Farm, near Darlington.

Ms Bainbridge, who is also an auxiliary worker at Utass, said: "This is the first time I've cooked it. It stews for hours to get it nice and tender.

"I'm not doing anything special with it, it's just the same as anybody else would get.

"It's the proper stuff, just plain old English food. I think he will prefer it like that."

The stew is being cooked in honour of Prince Charles's Mutton Renaissance campaign to get the meat back into supermarkets.

The idea for the campaign came when Prince Charles visited Utass in 2002 and farmers told him of the difficulties they had selling old sheep.

In a speech to restaurateurs and chefs last month, he said: "This started me thinking, and I remembered that when I was growing up, mutton was one of my favourite dishes, but that it had all but disappeared over the last 30 or 40 years."

Chris Hodgson, of Piercebridge Organic Farm, said he was delighted the prince would be trying his produce.

He said: "He's probably one of the most famous people to have tried it, although it does go all over the country."