BBC Radio Northampton show

Vanessa Kimbell

The Winter months can be a bit quiet for many of us Artisan Food producers, so this is a good time to try to generate a bit of publicity. So I was delighted when Vanessa Kimbell invited me to join her and presenter Kevin Saddington for their live radio show, "Kitchen Garden" on BBC Radio Northampton on Sunday morning.

We had a jolly good discussion all about the history of Womersley, the making of our fruit vinegars and a couple of recipes too, below. I "met" Vanessa on Twitter and have corresponded with her for many months, finally meeting her properly at the Real Food Festival at Earl's Court last year. I can still picture her first approach to our stand, beaming smile and enjoying all the food treats in the hall. Sure enough, we had a jolly good chat and I discovered Vanessa was once a grower of lavender but, as can happen when handling plants with strong essential oils, she suddenly became so sensitive to it that she can no longer use any at all....which is a shame, since my favourite vinegar dressing is our Lime, Black Pepper and Lavender! The Orange & Mace proved a real winner with Vanessa, though, as you can hear on our soundcloud widget, here:

During the show, Kevin played some appropriate Sunday morning tracks (and Abba's Dancing Queen!) while we all had a taste of our sausage casserole recipe (using our Blackcurrant and Rosemary) which we'd had at home for supper the night before as well as our own Lemon Drizzle cake recipe using our Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper to make it really moist and delicious...

Sausage Casserole with

Womersley Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing

SERVES 4

Takes 25 minutes approx.

Ingredients:

·         1 tbsp Vegetable Oil

·         8 Thick Pork Sausages

·         1 Medium Red Onion, cut into thick slices

·         2 Braeburn or other eating apple with the skin left on, cored and each cut into wedges

·         1 ½ tbsp Womersley Rosemary Jelly

·         300ml/ ½ Pint Chicken Stock (can be made using a stock cube)

·         1 ½ tbsp Grainy Mustard

·         2 tbsp Womersley Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing

Method:

·         Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the pork sausages and fry for about five minutes, turning them so they brown all over. Add the onion slices and continue to fry until the onion and sausages have turned a dark gold, stirring occasionally.

Turn up the heat, add the apple wedges and stir them in carefully until they have glazed in the pan juices.

·         Stir the Rosemary Jelly into the chicken stock until it is dissolved, then add the Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing and mustard. Pour this in to the pan and cook on a high heat for 5 minutes.

·         Reduce the heat and leave to simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes until the sausages are cooked and the liquid has reduced to a syrupy gravy.

Serve with your choice of rice or potatoes and veg

Sausage Casserole with Womersley Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing

Lemon Drizzle Cake

 with Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Vinegar Drizzle

Ingredients for the cake:

125g butter

75g caster sugar

2 large eggs

Zest of one lemon

175g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

4 tablespoons milk

Ingredients for the Drizzle:

2 tbsp lemon juice

100g icing sugar

2 tbsp Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Vinegar

Method:

- Pre-heat oven to 180°C/ gas mark 4

- Butter and line a loaf or cake tin (make sure the lining goes well up the sides   of the tin)

- Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs and lemon zest and beat well

- Add flour and salt, folding gently until mixed

- Add milk and mix in

- Spoon cake mix into prepared tin

- Cook for 45 minutes until golden and skewer comes out clean

For the Drizzle:

(Make just before the cake is due out of the oven)

-    Put icing sugar, lemon juice and Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Vinegar into a small saucepan

-    Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved and the vinegar has reduced the mixture to a viscous drizzle

-          When cake is ready, take out of the oven and pierce it all over with a skewer. Pour the drizzle all over. Make sure the cake is totally cooled before taking out of the loaf tin or it will crumble.

Note: For a Gluten free cake, use Gluten Free flour and add extra milk.

Lemon Drizzle Cake (right) with the rest of the day's baking

A lovely Winter Warmer from Andrew Pern

Andrew Pern with a bottle
of our Raspberry Vinegar

Tucked away in the beautiful Yorkshire village of Harome, near Helmsley, is the thatched cottage of the Star Inn, home to one of Yorkshire's top chefs, Andrew Pern. The Star Inn has won many plaudits over the years since Andrew moved there in 1996, not least by Jasper Gerard, who wrote in The Telegraph in 2008 that "The Star is for jaded explorers on the verge of giving up the quest for the perfect rural pub."
Roux-trained, Andrew has won numerous awards including many years of a Michelin star and, last year being voted 19th in the National Restaurant Awards. He enjoys a great write up in the Egon Ronay Guide which states that "His and his team's cooking is quite exceptional..." and was a successful participant in last year's flagship BBC programme, Great British Menu. Andrew has also written a beautiful recipe book, "Loose Birds and Game" which features this exciting recipe, made with our Raspberry Vinegar...

Fallow Deer Pie with Liquorice Gravy, Scottish Girolles, Womersley Raspberry Vinegar and Curly Kale ‘Colcannon’

(Serves four)

I was sitting at home one night ‘in charge’ of the kids, there was a knock on the door. Standing there was Steve Smith, my Head Chef and a pie. We’d been talking about putting a Pie of the Day on the blackboard to keep The Star more ‘pubby’ and Steve conjured up this creation – combining deer and liquorice! In Yorkshire?! Somewhat dubiously, I tasted it, breaking open the shortcrust topping, to the steaming hot inside… and, I must say it is one of the nicest things I’ve ever eaten. I can still taste it now, a beautiful, deep flavour with a slight edge of fruit coming from the vinegar, and the vibrant mash to mop up those lovely, liquorice juices. Who’d have ever thought you’d hear me saying that? A must-try-it!

Ingredients

For the Pie:                                                                 For the shortcrust pastry:

1kg venison, diced                                                      50g plain flour

A little oil for frying                                                    30g butter

16 baby onions                                                            Pinch of salt                            

½ bottle of red wine                                                  Cold water                             

1 ltr game stock                                                         

2 cloves garlic, crushed                                              For the Colcannon:

8 Pontefract Cakes                                                     4 Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and diced

2 tbsp cornflour                                                          80g butter

1 sprig of tarragon                                                      20ml whipping cream

Seasoning                                                                    Seasoning

                                                                                    80g curly kale

100g girolle mushrooms

50ml Womersley Raspberry Vinegar

Deer Pie with Liquorice Gravy, taken from Andrew Pern's Book "Loose Birds & Game"

Method

Colour off the diced venison meat in a little oil with the baby onions. Fry off until nicely browned, then add the red wine, raspberry vinegar, stock, garlic and Pontefract Cakes. Simmer for approximately 1½ hours or until tender. Thicken with cornflour, add mushrooms, tarragon and seasoning, then allow to cool. Place in a suitable pot or pots, and set aside.

For the pastry, rub the plain flour and butter together with a pinch of salt, until ‘breadcrumb-like’, add the water and combine together into a smooth paste. Do NOT over-knead, as it will make the pastry tough. Chill for 30 minutes.

For the Colcannon, first boil the potatoes until soft. Drain through a sieve and mash with a little butter, cream, white pepper and salt. Add the sliced curly kale, which will wilt with the heat of the potatoes and keep warm.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and using a little flour for dusting to a thickness of 3mm. Place over the pots of venison meat mixture and trim so that the rim is covered. ‘Crimp’ the edges to stick the pastry down and make a little hole in the middle (or use a pot Blackbird!) to let out the steam. Brush the pastry with the remaining egg yolk and bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown. Warm the Colcannon and place on the plate with the pie alongside. Eat to your heart’s content!

Follow Andrew's Tweets on Twitter

If you would like to try more of Andrew's menu, do contact The Star Inn on 01439 770397 reservations@thestarinnatharome.co.uk  www.thestaratharome.co.uk/ 

Christmas and New Year, Food and Family

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas is well and truly over, now, and we even have some frost on the ground, at last. The Yorkshire forced rhubarb growers will be pleased with this, since the rhubarb needs that cold ground temperature to make it grow.
Our Christmas tree was decorated very tastefully, of course, and enhanced no end by a beautiful flower arrangement a friend sent us (thank you Katie!)

Following her emigration to Brisbane, this year was the first time for ages that the aforementioned Katie had not joined us on Christmas Day, so we had to find an alternative to the joint of ham she would traditionally bring with her. We found a honey glazed Gammon and, after some excellent ideas from a few Tweets, I decided to stick a few cloves in it and make up a glaze of more honey and some of our Orange & Mace vinegar. I'm delighted to say that it turned out really well! The ham was really succulent and the mixture of the Orange, honey and spices added well to the flavour of the meat.

Honey with Orange & Mace vinegar glazed Gammon

We also opted for a Turkey Butt(erfly) joint for our Christmas dinner again this year. Turkey can be dry if you don't take good care about the way it is cooked, so I decided to wrap it in foil until 30 minutes from the end of the cooking time, and I also glazed it with a liberal helping of our Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper before putting it in the oven. WOW! Amazingly, the flavour and texture was perfect; so much so, that even the frozen slices are still making for delicious sandwich fillings.

I have to admit we are not great ones for going overboard on decoration at Christmas time, but these twig reindeer adorn our kitchen windowsill. These are very special to us, being a farewell gift from Katie and her husband, Stephen.

 

Some tasty treats we got for Christmas included these divine chocolates from Stow-on-the-Wold chocolatiers, Miette. They are made by Katherine Abel in a shop which used to be the baker's on Digbeth Street, just off the Market Place. Last year, Silvana de Soissons visited and wrote a lovely article on her beautiful blog site, The Foodie Bugle.

Miette chocolates

Of course, NO Christmas would be complete without my fix of Kiwi goodies, so many thanks to my darling mother-in-law and father-in-law for these two staples. Peanut slabs may be shrinking over the years, but they still taste as good as ever. Want to try for yourself? You can buy them from SANZA online, along with lots of other tasty Antipodean treats.

Lastly, my darling wife, Jani, does make a really good Christmas cake (laced with Brandy) and this year our daughter, Laura, did the festive decoration: it has all gone now!

 

Smoked Salmon Pate Recipe

Christmas time is surely the season for Smoked salmon so I was delighted to receive this delicious recipe from fellow Tweeter, Bill King, today. After some Tweetery, I was delighted to meet Bill at Abergavenny on Sunday, full of enthusiasm for our vinegars and dressings. He left with a smile on his face and a bottle of our Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper, so I was keen to hear how he would use it...

Bill was a Local Government Officer who longed to be involved in food and was immensely keen on local food and quality ingredients. Cuts meant the chance to break free so, in anticipation, he went to Ballymaloe Cookery School, where "cooking is fun!" You can read about Bill's Ballymaloe experience on his blog, all 84 days of it, the highs the lows and the effect of being in the "Ballymaloe Bubble." Currently he is a "Freelance Foodie" (unemployed) but hoping to set up a deli - using his many local producer contacts and favourite ingredients with some in house production.

He is married to Janet who does not cook but enjoys food and indulges his foodie expeditions and expects to spend ages in a shop/stall whilst he discusses the product/ingredient and plan usage on the spot. Bill says that Janet's highest accolade is "YUM" whilst a 3* Michelin was rated "Alright"!!

Bill tells me that this recipe for Smoked Salmon Pate "really did lift the whole flavour sensation. I have used lemon juice in the past but found an amazing difference when the Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper dressing was substituted. Mrs K has just loaded a couple of homemade baguettes with the pate to feed a horde of ravenous midwives at their team meeting!" Can't be bad...

You can get a lot of pate from this recipe!

 

Smoked Salmon Pate

This richly indulgent pate has deep layers of taste and flavour and can be as coarse or fine as you like.

Ingredients

300g Smoked Salmon (I use Black Mountains Smokery for the deep smoke)

10 capers

2 small gherkins or cornichons, cut into slices

6 Black Peppercorns, crushed

3 Dessert spoons of Crème Fraiche

1 Dessert spoon of Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Dressing

Method

Tear the Smoked Salmon into large-ish pieces and place into a food processor with the capers, black pepper and gherkins. Process to a coarse pate.

Add the Crème Fraiche and pulse.

Then add the Womersley Dressing and process to a finer pate – you should still have some small chunks of salmon.

Serve with Melba toast, crudités or pipe onto crackers or blinis.

The dressing has natural companions for smoked salmon – Lemon and Juniper and the Basil and Bay add subtle background notes – and balances the lovely oily, smoky taste. I have never needed to add any salt but Halen Mon Sea Salt would be my salt of choice.

For small presentations I garnish with a little grated Lemon Zest; in a larger dipping bowl I would put thin slices of Lemon and Cucumber around the bowl.

SAY CHEESE!

Here is something to look forward to in the New Year, a really great opportunity to learn a lot about cheese and wine from someone who really knows her stuff, Juliet Harbutt. This would make a great gift for that special food lover in your life, not least because Juliet also loves our jellies with her cheese!

Juliet's knowledge and expertise in food and wine, and in particular cheese, has been gained running the British and New Zealand Cheese Awards,  judging at Awards and events around the world plus as a restaurateur  in New Zealand, a food retailer in London and while researching for countless articles on food and especially her cheese books. You can find out more about her Masterclasses and more on the Cheeseweb site.

Turkish recipe by Hulya Erdal

After corresponding with Food Writer and chef, Hulya Erdal, for several months, we finally met earlier this year at IFE in London when Hulya got to taste all our flavours and walk off with a couple of bottles to play with.
Since then, Hulya has been experimenting with recipes using our Strawberry & Mint Vinegar dressing and I was delighted to receive this lovely idea recently. Hulya is justifiably so proud of this recipe that the picture for it appears on her home page.

Biography

Having spent years as a Marketeer and PR in the food sector, Hulya is now a lecturer and writer in food and culinary skills.  She contributes to many national publications including writing a regular weekly column on all things foodie.  Hulya runs her own catering business and gives private talks and demonstrations to those interested in learning how to eat well and create fabulous meals.  With a few TV appearances under her belt including Channel 4's all new Iron Chef UK, F-word and BBC One London News, Hulya's first and last passion will always be food!  

I love the range of Womersley vinegars and dressings, they are versatile and marry well with my Turkish infusion of cooking.  Why not try my Turkish filo parcel served with a baby leaf and pomegranate salad and Womersley strawberry and mint dressing. Eye catching but so simple, you're sure to impress all your friends!

Turkish Filo Parcel served with a Baby Leaf and Pomegranate salad and 

Womersley Strawberry & Mint Dressing 

Photo by Soley Mustafa, Courtesy of Hulya Erdal

You will need (serves 4):
1 pack of chilled filo pastry, most supermarkets sell them, try Jus Rol.

150g feta cheese or something similar

50g Ricotta cheese

100g Halloumi, grated

A few leaves of fresh mint, dried will do if you can't get fresh

A sprig of fresh parsley, curly leaf or flat leaf

75g melted butter

For the salad:
Lambs lettuce, baby leaf spinach and some pomegranate kernels

Olive oil   
Womersley Strawberry & Mint Dressing 

Equipment: 

4 ramekins and one similar size diameter pastry cutter, palette
knife

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 190ºC/Gas mark 5.

• Remove the filo pastry from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for about half an hour. Meanwhile, grate the halloumi and finely chop the mint and parsley. Crumble the soft cheeses in a large bowl and then mix together all the cheese and herbs. Season with a little pepper but no salt as the cheese mixture has enough. 

• Set aside. 

• Melt the butter and set it aside.

• Take the pastry from it's pack and lay out flat. You'll find it will be 3 or 4 layers of pastry. Keep all the layers together for now, cut rounds in the pastry with the cutter.  You are aiming to have about 12 layers in total for each ramekin.

• Separate the layers out.

• Brush each ramekin with some melted butter. Now separate all the layers of rounds of pastry. 

• Place a sheet of pastry in each ramekin, brush the pastry then lay another sheet on top. Do this until you have six layers in each. 

• Now top each with some of the cheese and herb mixture.

• Repeat the process for the final six layers. Finish the top with more melted butter and if you like some toasted sesame seeds and nigella seeds.

• Now bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until crisp, risen and golden.

• Whilst the borek bakes, make the salad by mixing the baby leaves in a bowl with the pomegranate kernels and then drizzle over a little olive oil and some of the delicious Womersley Strawberry & Mint dressing.

• Carefully lift each borek from the ramekin using a palette knife to tease it from the bottom. Place on individual dishes with a some salad, serve to your friends, smile with pride and enjoy!

You can Follow Hulya on Twitter at twitter.com/Madebythechef

Festive Recipes with Orange & Mace

Following the huge success of Sarah Finn's Cinder Toffee Recipe recently, Sarah visited us at BBC Good Food Show and went away armed with a bottle of our newest flavour, Orange and Mace. And this is the result of her enthusiasm, two new recipes for you. Sarah has lots more really lovely recipes and it is well worth checking her site for more.

If you would like to try using our Orange & Mace yourself, give us a call on 01132 865 855 to place an order and Sue or Wendy will help you.

Roast Stuffed Pork Loin with Orange & Mace

This recipe can be used on any white meat used within a joint of ham, gammon, pork or turkey.

Ingredients:

●       2 tbsp plain flour

●       1 tsp caraway seeds

●       1 tsp ground mustard

●       3/4 tsp salt

●       1/2 tsp sugar

●       2 tsp of Womersley Orange & Mace Dressing

●       1/4 tsp pepper

●       3 lbs boneless pork loin roast

Method:

1.      Spread stuffing mixture over surface of the pork (see recipe below).

2.      Starting with the smallest side of the meat (which should be in the shape of a rectangle).

3.      Roll up tightly and secure with kitchen string.

At this point you can wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate if you are making ahead.

4.      In a small bowl, combine the first six ingredients; rub over roast. In a large pan, heat oil; brown roast on all sides.

5.      Place on a rack in a shallow roasting tray.Sprinkle over Orange & Mace dressing.

6.      Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees F for 1-1/2 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F.

7.      Let it stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

Walnut, Cranberry and Clementine Stuffing

A really gorgeous stuffing, baked on its own ( as a vegetarian option with cooked rice or quinoa instead of bread) or used within a joint of ham, gammon, pork or turkey.

Ingredients :

●       50g butter

●       2 parsnips, peeled and diced

●       1/4 tsp of grated nutmeg

●       1 tbsp of chopped fresh rosemary

●       100g cranberries (stoned & chopped) use dried if not available

●       Minced peel of one lemon

●       Minced peel of one clementine

●       3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

●       300g bread, cubed (or try wholemeal, sourdough) always take off crusts and preferably a day old

●       1/4 tsp each salt and pepper or to taste

●       230g walnut pieces,

●       3 eggs

●       250 ml apple sauce

●       2 tsp of Womersley Orange & Mace Dressing

Method :

1.      Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.

2.      Add the parsnips and nutmeg and cook until they are tender and browned, which should take about 8 minutes.

3.      Transfer them to a large bowl and add the rosemary, cranberries, parsley, clementines and bread.

4.      Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the Orange & Mace Dressing.

5.      Beat the eggs and apple sauce together and toss in with the bread mixture and walnuts.

6.      Bake covered with foil, for 20 minutes then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes.

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. 

 ------------------------------ 

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!