Squash Recipe

A little while ago, I got a very enthusiastic Tweet from Jacqui Smith of Homesmiths Interior Design Services. Homesmiths are based in Sussex and are a dynamic husband and wife team who bring to their clients a blend of sound technical ability and creative flair. Jacqui and her husband David are based in Haywards Heath, very close to our old family home of Nymans, where our story began...
In her Tweet, Jacqui took time off from her busy day with fabrics and furniture to share one of her kitchen tips; she mentioned what a great addition our Strawberry & Mint is to one of her favourite recipes. Fortunately, she has decided to share her discovery with us all, so here is her recipe for you, too.

Butternut Squash Salad with

Womersley Strawberry & Mint Vinegar Dressing

Serves 2


Ingredients

Half a Butternut Squash
Olive Oil
2 large peeled Garlic Cloves
1 Pack feta cheese, cubed
Handful of almonds, blanched and toasted
Fresh Garden Mint & salad leaves

Method

1. Roast the squash with the Olive Oil and garlic
2. Assemble the salad leaves, roasted squash, cubed feta and almonds in your bowl
3. Mix pureed garlic from the roasted cloves with olive oil and seasoning. Drizzle over the salad
4. Dress with Womersley Strawberry & Mint vinegar dressing
5. Garnish with a sprig of fresh Garden Mint

Jacqui says of using our vinegar in this dish:

"The mint from the vinegar adds depth to the fresh mint and the fruitiness of the strawberry just seems to complement the tang of the feta. More generally, I find that the vinegars are complex enough to use on their own as a dressing, which I do regularly!"

If you would like to buy some of our Strawberry & Mint vinegar Dressing, please see our Where to Buy page.

Brasserie Blanc, Leeds

Game on at Brasserie Blanc

Diners at Brasserie Blanc in Leeds can't get enough Yorkshire game. So much so that manager, Jayne Castle, has invited Nigel Sampson from Holme Farmed Venison in Sherburn in Elmet to host a special Game Evening at the Brasserie on Monday 24^th October.

City girl Jayne donned her wellies and met up with the team on the farm to put the finishing touches to the sumptuous seasonal menu. The 3-course dinner will start with platter of guinea fowl and prune terrine as well as smoked venison haunch, Maman Blanc salads, bread and chutney. The main course is packed with autumnal flavours and includes venison saddle with a chocolate sauce and Blackberry Vinegar made by us at Womersley!

Fresh game is at it's best at this time of year and a combination of wider availability, celebrity chef endorsement and strong healthy eating benefits has seen the public's appetite for all types of game increase in recent years. This is always evident at Brasserie Blanc with venison outstripping other meat dishes when it is on the seasonal specials board.

Jayne Castle, said: “We want to support our local suppliers and showcase their products in the Brasserie. Our chefs love nothing more than being able to work with fresh, local produce and they've excelled themselves with this game themed menu. Diners on the night will be able to hear Nigel and Kate's story and find out more about glorious game  and life on the farm.”

The Game Dinner is £39 per person for a 3-course dinner and mulled wine reception. Book places online at www.brasserieblanc.com or call 0113 2206060.

Brasserie Blanc, Leeds

Botanical Chocolate

LOOK!! We're not the only ones to be Botanically Enthused: Fiona Sciolti has developed a great reputation as an inventive Artisan chocolatier who uses herbs in her garden and many other local flavours including teas and honey.

Fiona is half Italian and she certainly combines that famous Italian passion with a good palate to produce beautiful and delicious chocolates, many of them seasonal.

Fiona Sciolti

The last time I saw the beautiful Sciolti chocolates was at Bath Love Food Fest, where Giles Sciolti was joined by their daughter to show off the chocolates Fiona had stayed up till 4am making!

The Sciolti Display

Earlier this year, Fiona approached us with the idea of using our flavours for her chocolates and we are delighted that she has now made three different varieties which Fiona describes:

Rosemary & Blackcurrant

Womersley are to vinegars and jellies, what I am to chocolates.  They grow and use natural English flavours to infuse into their amazing range.  This is the second of three chocolates that I have created especially for Womersley, combining their Apple & Rosemary Jelly and enhanced with their Blackcurrant & Rosemary Vinegar to create a chocolate cleverly matched and packed full of surprising flavour.

Dandelion & Apache Chilli Vinegar

A chocolate with humour! Never mind all these lovely herbs and blossoms and fruits found in the garden; I figured we had way too many dandelions. Dandelions have been used for cooking for thousands of years and in Italy the new leaves are harvested for salads. However, in my chocolate, I've incorporated the beautiful yellow petals, and you'll see them running through the ganache, like strands of saffron. Team this with Womersley's stunning Golden Raspberry & Apache Chilli Vinegar Dressing, to sharpen it up a little, and suddenly you have honey from a weed.

Geranium

The third in the trilogy of Womersley/ Sciolti Botanical Chocolates. Actually I have been hunting pelagoniums all Summer long... they're surprisingly difficult to find.  Anyway Womersley conveniently helped me out with their stunning Geranium Jelly, with it's sensual and fragrant Turkish Delight tones. I love this one, and as a thank you, have decored the chocolate with a lustred Womersley W.


You can see all these and more on the Sciolti Chocolate website, where you can buy your own. Just type in "Womersley" in the search box. Also, do have a read of Andy Hunting's blog piece on Fiona's use of our vinegars in her chocolates.
Like us, Fiona does Food shows (we will both be at The Festival of Pride this weekend, near Newark, Notts.)

Go on, give yourself a double dose of Botanical Enthusiasm... 

Note: Many thanks to Fiona and Giles Sciolti for their help in providing photos and words for this post.

Nymans, Home of the Messel Family

Amidst lots of publicity around Raspberry Vinegar, I was looking forward to a weekend at our old family home in Sussex and witnessing our visitors getting the "wow factor" when they tasted ours. A good variety of exhibitors at the Nymans annual Green Gardening Festival enjoyed a warm sunny weekend and my neighbours, Yummy Lollies sold out of their delicious fruit ice lollies on both days.

The Summer Borders in October!

Strangely, it always seemed to rain when I visited my grandparents at Nymans and this persisted into my visit to the Green Garden Fair last year. So I was really delighted to feel the warmth of the sun in October this time and to have the opportunity to get a few photos of Nymans looking its best.

Fuschia Detail

 

In the late 19th century, the Messel family bought the Nymans estate, in the picturesque High Weald landscape of Sussex, to make a home in the country. It became a happy family home and refuge from their town house at 18 Stafford Terrace in Kensington. Inspired by the setting and the soil, the Messels created one of the great gardens, with experimental designs and new plants from around the world. Here they entertained family and friends, enjoying relaxing times, strolling in the garden, playing, picnicking and walking in the woods. 

The Entrance Wild Flowers

My father, Martin Parsons, was the only member of the family to be born at Nymans and it was this start in his life which made him the "Botanically Enthused" person he became. As a child, he suffered terribly from croup and it was inhaling the fragrance of the hyssop grown under his bedroom window which gave him some relief from the incessant coughing. Years later, having moved to Womersley, my father used the kitchen garden to grow the masses of fruit and herbs which were eventually used in his concoctions which we make to this day.

The Summer Borders

Nymans is now a very popular National Trust property and rejoices in being an excellent location for family visits. The team has done a superb job over the past few years of maintaining the colourful and abundant gardens whilst making the whole property feel like it is still a family home. I believe it is precisely this connection with the family which persists in ensuring that Nymans attracts many new AND repeat visitors. 

The Ruins of the House

I was delighted to greet Urvashi Roe and her family on our stand. Urvashi was fresh from her appearance on the popular BBC programme "The Great British Bake Off" and we both enjoyed sharing our views on being "Botanically Enthused."

Urvashi Roe getting all Botanical

Coming up: Bristol and Bath Shows

After much anticipation, I am delighted to say that we will be at two Love Food Festivals this month. BATH on Sunday 9th and BRISTOL on Sunday 30th:

Bath, Green Park Station

Bristol, Paintworks, Bath Road

And, we will have lots of these great gift ideas for you, in good time for your Christmas shopping

Festival Organiser, Lorna Knapman, grew up in the area and says of the festivals:

"The aim is to get children (and adults) from the Bristol area out into the countryside learning about how and where our food should come from, how to grow and cook their own food and generally try to spark an interest in the topic through various mediums including hands on experience, tasting, art, movement and storytelling."

Thame Food Festival

We had the most beautiful day in Thame on September 24th. The large crowds enjoyed a fabulously sunny day and many exhibitors sold out! 

The Ubiquitous Tasty Food Festival Hog Roast

One of the down sides of being a food producer at a food festival, is that we usually don't get the opportunity to get around and see the other exhibitors. At Thame, however, I was very lucky to have help from Annie's Kitchen, Just Biscuits and Sainsbury's chef who all spent a while on my stand while I stocked up on tasters, took a few snaps, spoke to a few visitors and went to see some other excellent displays from Charlie Beldam of Cotswold Gold, Robert from GranaryDeli, and No2 Pound Street (basking in the glory of their new Award for Best New Cheese Retailer, 2011). 

Some Button cheeses at No2 Pound Street

Lotte Duncan

Lotte Duncan's fairy cakes

The Patron of Thame food festival is Lotte Duncan, pictured right, who also has a fabulous food shop and loves using our vinegars and dressings in her salads. Lotte took time out from being on her stand to give the audience a demonstration using some local ingredients and included our Strawberry and Mint Dressing on her dish which ensured lots of visitors to our stand wanting to repeat the dish themselves with one of our bottles! 

Opposite me, there was a fine Paella cooking for much of the day, so at least I got a great lunch!

 I was amazed at how many people had seen the first episode of Nigel Slater's new TV series, Simple Cooking, in which Nigel made a Beetroot and Goat's Cheese Salad with some Raspberry Vinegar. Needless to say, I made sure we had plenty of Raspberry Vinegar on our stand, which proved to be just as well! You can find his recipe on the BBC website and even see it again on iplayer.

A bustling Thame, full of food lovers