BBC GOOD FOOD SHOW, THE AFTERMATH

In case you were ever in any doubt, it is pretty exhausting doing five days of exhibition at the NEC, but it is also very rewarding...
I arrived very early on Wednesday morning to see what an amazing job our Wendy and Mark had done in designing and assembling our new stand specially for the show. Together with some well disguised kitchen cabinets, Wendy had also brought some aromatic fresh basil, rosemary and geranium to make it all look a lot fresher. This is how it looked half an hour before the first day began:

We exhibited in the Food Lovers area which was a really great part of the hall to be in, since we were with all the artisans and other food producers, rather than competing with appliance and hardware. Also, we had a great position so we saw a lot of people over the five days, all keen to add a touch of fruitiness to their vinegar!

One of the joys of being a producer of a food ingredient with which many are unfamiliar, is that it gives us the opportunity to have a lot of conversations about food, meals, matching flavours, suggested uses and just to discuss how very versatile our fruit vinegars and dressings are. And, at the NEC, we could really give vent to this to thousands of visitors. Also, we took all four of our herb jellies: Rosemary, Geranium, Apache Chilli and Lavender. These proved to be more popular than ever, and led to one customer commenting that "this is the best thing I have ever tasted from a jar!"

We also reintroduced our pouches of olives at the show. My parents used to add two of our flavours to olives and put them in jars: Green olives with our Strawberry & Mint and Black Olives with our Blackcurrant & Rosemary. Needless to say the samples were wolfed down, but the pouches also proved very popular, so we hope to start making these in earnest for you very soon.

"Womersley" is a difficult word to pronounce until you are familiar with it, so it was a joy to meet several people who know the village where I grew up in Yorkshire (and where our story began) as well as a few called Womersley. (If you want to know how to pronounce it, say the "o" as you say the "o" in "woman").

FREE PRIZE DRAW RESULT

We were delighted to get lots of entries in our free prize draw and can report that Mrs Stewart of Newport Pagnell was the lucky winner of 4 Wensleydale Cremaery Cheeses, one of our beautiful slate display stands and some olives, jelly and vinegars. 

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SATURDAY

As a bonus on Saturday, we were joined by Urvashi Roe and Simon Blackwell from BBC Great British Bake Off who both did recipe demonstrations using our fruity vinegars. I will post Urvashi's later, but here is Simon's delicious recipe which he used to make two cakes: after barely a few minutes, they were all gone!

Simon cuts the cake...

Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

     By Simon Blackwell 

Ingredients:  
  
  Cake:
            200g  Self Raising Flour
            125g  Caster Sugar
           ¼ tsp  Salt
           ½ tsp  Bicarbonate of Soda
           200ml  Soya Milk
           100ml  Corn Oil
           2 tbsp  Golden Syrup
           ½ tsp  Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar Dressing
                     Rind of 1 Lemon

 Drizzle:
                     Juice of 1 Lemon
           2 tbsp Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar Dressing
               25g Caster Sugar
 Approx 1 tbsp Icing Sugar to thicken

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F.

2. Line the base of a 7 inch cake tin with baking paper.

3. Sift flour,salt and sugar into a bowl and make a well in the middle.

4. Dissolve bicarb into the milk and then pour into the well.

5. Add corn oil, syrup, Womersley Foods Lime, Black Pepper and Lavender Dressing and lemon rind.

6. Beat until the mixture is a smooth lump free batter.

7. Pour batter into the lined tin and bake in the lower middle part of your oven for 25 minutes until golden brown, and until a metal skewer comes out of the middle of the cake clean.

8. Whilst the cake is cooking, heat the lemon juice, Womersley Foods Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Dressing and sugar until the sugar has dissolved to make a lemon syrup.

9. When you have removed the cake from the oven and it is still warm, prick all over with a cocktail stick and drizzle some of the syrup over the cake so that it soaks into the sponge.

    
Save half back if you like to drizzle over the cake just before serving.

I got a slice!

Many thanks to Simon for this recipe and for entertaining us all on Saturday afternoon. Also, thank you to Callie Blackwell for the slice photo.

BBC Good Food Show

For the first time ever, we will be exhibiting at the NEC for the BBC Good Food Show Winter this week. Our Wendy has worked all hours to design and construct a really great new stand specially for the show. We look forward to seeing you as we get fruity with some surprising new ideas to tickle your tastebuds....

So you can find us, we are in Hall 6, arrowed in the map below, on Stand FLF46:

 
We are also fortunate enough to have fellow Botanical Enthusiast, Urvashi Roe, and Simon Blackwell from the "BBC Great British Bake Off" series both doing demonstrations on our stand on Saturday. Both of them have been extremely busy since the series ended, so we are very fortunate to have them with us, showing how very versatile our vinegars and dressings can be.

Me and Urvashi Roe at Nymans at the Green Garden Festival

Simon Blackwell

We are also offering visitors the chance to buy one of this year's best recipe books, "Scandilicous" which the author, Signe Johansen, has kindly signed copies of for us. And, as if all that were not enough, we have a prize competition running too. But you'll have to come along to see just what that is.... see you there.

Bristol and Bath Shows

As you may have seen on our News and Shows page, we were in both Bristol and Bath recently for two fun and friendly food shows. And they are FREE!
These two shows were organised by Chloe and Lorna from Love Food Festivals who have a number of festivals in the area during the year designed to get children (and adults) from the Bristol area out into the countryside. They are keen to have a good show for visitors and exhibitors alike, but also, they are about learning 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 food and its' provenance in various ways including hands on experience, tasting, art and storytelling.

Green Park Station, BATH

Almond pastries and cheese!

Fancy cakes

Sciolti chocolates

They invite teachers from local schools along with families, countryside education agencies, chefs and farmers to show what resources are available to us and how we can work together to best use and preserve our wonderful countryside. I found these shows to be amongst the most family friendly I have ever attanded as well as having plenty of genuinely enthusiastic food lovers.


Lorna grew up in the Dorset countryside with a passion for the sourcing of local food which she sees as so important in our daily lives. As she says: "we have somehow lost sight of the connection between our food and where it comes from. The aim of Love Food is to build and to encourage this link in every way possible for customers to learn from suppliers and for suppliers to learn from customers."

The Paintworks, BRISTOL

Two weeks after we had gathered in Bath, we visited the artisan quarter of Bristol for a Halloween special. Lots of stall holders had gone to a lot of trouble with their displays including plenty of scary baking....

Pumpkin Cake pops

A variation on the traditional Gingerbread men

Some surprisingly good Beetroot bread

If you would like to see what these shows are like, the next one is at Dyrham Park near Bath (just off Junction 18 of the M4) on December 11th. The National Trust have very kindly allowed FREE entry to the house and gardens for all children on this day, too. Sadly, we cannot be there for that one as we'll be at Abergavenny that day. But, if you would like to exhibit at one of the Love Food Festivals, give Lorna a call: she is very enthusiastic!

A Trip to Batsford Arboretum

It was such an amazingly warm day yesterday, that we decided to go for a leisurely walk in the Cotswolds. It had been a few years since we last visited Batsford Arboretum near Moreton in Marsh, so this was the ideal opportunity to make a return trip...

 

Lichen on the trees in front of Batsford House

The majority of the layout of Batsford Arboretum was little more than a dream when its creator inherited the Batsford Estates from John Freeman-Mitford in 1886.During the 1860s Algernon Bertram (Bertie) Freeman-Mitford (later 1st Lord Redesdale) travelled widely in oriental Asia and was deeply influenced by the landscapes in China and Japan. He became fascinated by many of the plants he found there, especially the bamboos. However, it was not until 1890 that Bertie was able to turn his attention to the gardens.

One of the many Maple trees in Batsford

He adopted a radical approach, almost erasing all traces of the original layout. He created a 'wild' garden of near natural plantings inspired by his observations of plant groupings in the Japanese landscape. He was able to create a garden which combined conventional parkland with a garden landscape. Most of the major trees, many of which are most unusual, were his original plantings.

The Late afternoon sun shines on the Bamboos

He also created one of the foremost bamboo collections of the time and some of these still live on today. As well as introducing a multitude of unusual plants, Bertie Mitford created an artificial watercourse some 600 metres long down the west side of the gardens. He enlisted the help of the well known landscapers, the Pulham Brothers, to build other major features which can still be seen today including the rockeries, streams and waterfalls, lake and the hermits cave.

Liquidambar Styraciflua, "Sweetgum"

 

In 1916 Bertie, now the 1st Lord Redesdale, died and was succeeded by his second son David who was father of the famous Mitford girls. The five older girls and their brother Tom all lived at Batsford during the first world war. The oldest, Nancy, based the early part of her novel 'Love in a Cold Climate' on their time at Batsford. 

The estate was sold to cover death duties in 1919 to Gilbert Hamilton Wills, later the 1st Lord Dulverton. His wife, Victoria took a great interest in the gardens making many additions. During the war years and for some time after 1945, the wild gardens were neglected and became somewhat overgrown. Frederick Hamilton Wills succeeded his father as the 2nd Lord Dulverton in 1956. Fortunately he had a great passion for trees and together with Mr. Ken Hope, his head forester, he proceeded throughout the 1960s to halt the decline. With great vigour and enthusiasm he consolidated the existing collections as well as adding a multitude of other trees to Batsford. He was single-handedly responsible for raising the status of Batsford to an arboretum of international standing.

The Autumn colours in front of the house

In 1984 Batsford Park was donated to a charitable trust founded by the 2nd Lord Dulverton to ensure the future of the arboretum. The 2nd Lord Dulverton died in 1992 and the Batsford Arboretum continues to be administered by the Batsford Foundation who proceed to develop the arboretum as a place of great beauty to enjoy as an educational resource.

The last two years have seen a major rebuilding plan in the garden centre and cafe/restaurant area. There is now plenty on offer for a family visit, with excellent food and drinks. Plenty of visitors were tucking into their Sunday roast when we visited: Roast Beef and Yorkshire puddings. Fortunately, the arboretum is large enough to walk off even the heartiest lunch!

The new build and border

If you would like to visit, please check the Batsford website for opening times and charges as well as details on the important Conservation work carried out there. We will certainly not be leaving it so long before returning again...
More pictures on my Flickr page

Understanding Blackberries, with Recipe

Last week, I got to visit New Covent Garden Market for the first time. It is MASSIVE! But, hiding in the maze of vans, pallets and fruit and veg is a smart little meeting venue called The Orangery...
Following a flurry of activity on Twitter about the developments in Blackberries (the fruit, not the smartphone) Hargreaves Plants (Berry Buddies) and Carol Ford of Growing Direct decided to arrange a get together titled "Understanding Blackberries." Now, you might think that a whole load of people getting together to talk about blackberries would be stretching attention spans a little, but with careful planning and a great list of speakers, it was fascinating!

José Souto

The evening included an entertaining cookery demonstration from guest of honour, Chef José Souto, Master C.G.C. and Chef Lecturer in Culinary Arts at Westminster Kingsway College, London. José cooked several treats for us, including this delicious Roast Loin of Muntjac with our Blackberry Vinegar.The vinegar brought a beautiful Autumnal fruitiness to the meat and made it so tender. José really got the best out of both the Muntjac and the vinegar in this well crafted recipe...

Roast loin of Muntjac glazed with

Womersley Blackberry vinegar syrup 
and served with a Blackberry infused jus

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 Muntjac loin

250g Blackberries

500ml Venison stock

150g game trimmings (cut small dice venison is best to use but other game or a mix of game will do) cut into small dice

1 Carrot

½ small Onion         

½ stick Celery

½ Garlic clove

1 tea spoon Tomato puree

1 glass Red Wine

Sprig of fresh Thyme

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Oil

A good dash of Womersley Blackberry vinegar

1 teaspoon of sugar (optional) 

Method

1. Fry off Game trimmings with a little oil to give a good colour: do a bit at a time. Remove from pan and keep to one side.
2. Fry off veg that has been diced small in same pan with a little more oil again to give good colour.  
3. Once veg has fried, add Trimmings to veg and add tomato puree. Fry off for 2 to 3 min. 
4. Add wine, thyme and allow to reduce by half. 
5. Add stock, season and reduce by a third. 
6. Strain through a fine strainer and if you would like a thicker consistency reduce some more.  
7. Keep 2 or 3 blackberries back for garnish. Put the rest in a pan with a dash of water and cover.
8. Once the blackberries have stewed for a minute or 2, remove the pan from the heat and, using a hand blender, liquidise them. 
9. Strain the blackberry puree and fold into the jus. If need be, reduce the jus until it is like double cream.
10. Season and fry the Muntjac loin in oil sealing it on all sides then remove from pan.
11. To the pan add the Womersley Blackberry vinegar, allow to reduce to a thick syrup.
12. Place the loins back into pan and roll them in the syrup so they have a good covering of the glaze.
13. Place Muntjac into oven at 180°C for 5 min then remove and allow to stand for 10 min uncovered in a warm area of the kitchen.
14. Deglaze the pan with the jus just to take off the flavours of the syrup.
15. Cut the venison, serve with the Blackberry jus and whole fresh Blackberries. 

Afterwards, José was joined by Vickie from Humbers Homemade as they demonstrated how to make a flavoursome Blackberry jam.
 

We were also treated to an insight into recent and future developments in the fruit with particular attention to the varieties Ouichita (pronounced Which-it-ah), Apache (yes, the same name as the chilli we use!) Reuben, Navaho and Chester (the variety we use in our Blackberry Vinegar).

Chester Blackberries

Professor John Clark from Arkansas University was particularly entertaining as he described the breeding, selection and developments of new cultivars. There is a lot more on this in an excellent blog article on the Berry Buddies site.
We also enjoyed an informative talk from the soft fruit buyer of ASDA, Andy Jackson. He bravely predicted that these new varieties will see a healthy increase in sales of blackberries over the next 3-5 years which, at £30M, only account for about 4% of the soft fruit sales in the UK today. This could be very valuable since soft fruits is the highest value sector in supermarket groceries. R&D Manager of Hargreaves, Jane Fairlie, showed the different levels of flavour volatility and this showed that our favoured variety, Chester, has a relatively low flavour volatility. However, Jane was amazed at the intesnsity of flavour of our Blackberry vinegar which just goes to show that there is a blackberry variety out there for everyone!

 
Notes: Thanks to all who arranged "Understanding Blackberries" and congratulations particularly to Carol Ford for organising such a good turn out and in such a short time! Thanks, too, to Jonathan Brown of Hargreaves Plants and to Liz O'Keefe of FPJ for the photographs.

"Duck and Lime" by Ben Spalding

GRESSINGHAM DUCK BREAST, ATOMIC RED, GLAZED GIZZARDS

With Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar Dressing

By Ben Spalding of Roganic

Ingredients

2 Gressingham Duck Breasts (plucked)

250g atomic red carrots or (young carrots with green tops attached)

10 large donkey carrots

200g salted butter

50g mizuna or rocket leaves

200g concentrated brown chicken stock to sauce consistency or 4 chicken stock cubes mixed with boiling water

100ml Womersley Lime, black pepper and Lavender vinegar dressing

10 Redcurrants

Rapeseed oil to finish

Maldon sea salt to finish

Fine table salt to cook with

Ground black pepper to cook with

Method

Carrot Puree

·         Peel and juice half the carrots, then reserve,  meanwhile slice the other half thinly and boil until tender in salted water

·         Strain the tender carrots off through a colander and then return to the pot and cover with the reserved carrot juice, boil until reduced to almost dry and then blend for 3 minutes in a blender until silky smooth, check the seasoning and add 50g salted butter while blending, then transfer the puree to a small pan with cling film over until required later on.

Duck

·         Pre heat the oven to 180°c

·         Heat a large non stick pan , lay the 2 duck breasts out and rub with rapeseed oil and season both sides heavily with fine salt and black pepper, place the duck breasts in the pan skin side down and heat on a low heat to render the fat for up to 20 minutes, pouring the fat away every few minutes.

Bring it all together

·         Meanwhile, heat a wide pot with a glug of rapeseed oil. When hot add the carrots with skins on and everything, season well with fine salt and black pepper and place a lid on the pot, shaking the pan every few minutes to pot roast the carrots. After 10 minutes, add 100g salted butter and continue to cook with the lid on until just cooked, then pull off the heat and keep warm.

·         Now the duck breast is rendered, transfer it to a tray and into the oven for 5 minutes, remove and rest

·         Warm the brown chicken stock and add 100ml Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar Dressing and the redcurrants and keep warm.

·         Assemble on 2 large plates, add a good spoonful of the carrot puree, lay the carrots out all over and then slice the two duck breasts each into 6 slices, drain on a cloth and finish with Maldon sea salt. Pour the sauce all over the meat and finish with rocket leaves scattered naturally over the top.

·         Serve.

  

Notes: Many thanks to Ben Spalding for taking time out from his very busy kitchen to write down this recipe for us. If you would like to see some of the other great dishes at Roganic, do check out these photos and you can make a reservation at Roganic:

19, Blandford St,London,W1U 3DH     Tel:0207 4860380    Email:info@roganic.co.uk  

Cinder Toffee Recipe by Sarah Finn

"Cinder toffee is made with vinegar and bicarbonate of soda in the mix. They react together so it froths before it sets into millions of little bubbles. Usually any taste of vinegar is neutralised, leaving you with a buttery toffee flavour. So when I tasted Womersley's Golden Raspberry & Apache Chilli Vinegar this is the recipe, I have experimented with to introduce a little heat and sweetness. I use this for Bonfire night, when you are waiting for the fireworks, and to eat a little home made sweet to pass the time away."

Cinder Toffee

Ingredients: 

50g salted butter
300ml water
4 teaspoons Womersley Golden Raspberry & Apache Chilli vinegar dressing
3 tablespoons golden syrup
450g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

Method:

Grease the baking tin with butter.
Heat the butter, water and Womersley vinegar in an extra large saucepan as the mixture does rise, and using a sugar thermometer. 

Heat until butter is melted.
Stir in the sugar and golden syrup, heat until dissolved.

Stop stirring, bring back to boil.
Boil until thermometer reads hard crack stage 154°C or else it may sink after rising.
Remove toffee from the heat and gently stir in bicarbonate of soda until bubbles are calm.
Pour mixture into greased pan, cool for 10-20 minutes.
Break toffee into pieces.

Notes: Thank you to Sarah Finn for this recipe and do have a look at her excellent website with lots of tips for "Growing, Cooking, Eating on a Budget." There are lots more recipes for you there. Sarah has worked all over the country, cooking and waiting in 5 star hotels, racecourses and havscontinued to train in various aspects of food and wine up to a Diploma in Wine and Hotel & Catering Management. Follow Sarah on Twitter.