2012 review

Well, what a year it has been! Highlights this year include awards, Olympics, our best year of sales ever, lots of shows, appearances on Radio, a successful trip to Scandinavia to launch our vinegars there and lots of plans in the pipeline for 2013....

We entered our Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar into the Taste Awards this year and the judges awarded it Gold**, describing it as "drop dead gorgeous!" Also, we decided to enter our Raspberry Vinegar since this was the first one my father, Martin, ever made and a good Yorkshire tradition with your roast beef and Yorkshire puddings.

Much of the year was taken up for us with providing LOCOG with our vinegars. We feel that we did our small part for providing a lasting legacy, showcasing some of the best of what food this country has to offer and we are proud to have been invited to supply our vinegars.

It is always fun to contribute to radio food programmes and so I was delighted to be invited to appear on Vanessa Kimbell's show on BBC Radio Northampton as well as Bill Buckley's Radio Oxford slot. Both are delightful and entertaining hosts and we were also joined by "Great British Bake Off's" Urvashi Roe and food journalist Hazel Paterson. You can listen again to these on the radio widget on the right, numbers 4 and 5.

Our Wendy went to Copenhagen recently and we have already received our first order to supply to Denmark. This is particularly exciting for us, since our brand designs are deliciously Scandinavian and they sure know their fruit vinegars in that part of Europe. More news on this soon....

And the year has been rounded off very nicely by Theo Paphitis awarding us an SBS award on 23rd December: the day which would have been Martin's 74th Birthday.

Thank you to all of you who have kept up the fruity enthusiasm this year, we hope you will find plenty more to keep your imagination flowing next year.

We wish you a very happy and peaceful New Year.

Last show of the Year

Abergavenny Christmas Food & Drink Fair

This Sunday 9th December 10am-5pm sees the last show of our year in the welcoming town of Abergavenny. It will be packed with people and lots of Christmas food gifts, so don't miss your chance. You can find more details on the event on the official site. We will be exhibiting in the Market Hall and will have lots of our fruity vinegars, gift packs and chutneys available. We even have a few of our very special new cotton tea towels left which will make an ideal gift for someone special. 

 

NEWS, NEWS AND MORE NEWS!

A whole load of shows planned for the next few weeks:

Thursday 22nd Nov. Late Night Shopping at Burford Garden Centre
We are amongst many others doing tastings in the wonderful surroundings at Burford.
Saturday 24th Nov. Cookery School Day Course at Swinton Park Cookery School. We will be talking a little about Womersley during Head Chef, John Rogers' course for Dinner Party cooking.
Saturday 24th Nov. Beverley Christmas Food and Drink Festival. We are joining others in this festive fair at Beverley Minster.
Weds-Sunday 28th Nov-2nd Dec. BBC GOOD FOOD SHOW, WINTER 2012. The biggest of the BBC Good Food Shows and the chance to find many Christmas food gifts. This year, there is also an app to help you find your way around the show. Just go to the app store and search for Good Food Show Winter 2012. We are on stand FLF60 in Hall 6, near Saturday Kitchen and within easy sniffing distance of the World Cheese Awards.
Saturday 1st Dec. Malton Food Lovers Christmas Market. We will be doing tastings and there will be cookery demos. FREE ENTRY and FREE PARKING.
Sunday 9th Dec. ABERGAVENNY Christmas Food and Drink Festival. We finish the year with this very busy and popular day in Abergavenny, armed with festive treats.

Happy Shopping!

COMPETITION TIME

BBC Good Food Show Winter

28^th Nov – 2^nd Dec 2012, NEC, Birmingham

The BBC Good Food Show Winter is back and to celebrate we have teamed up with the organisers to offer you the chance to WIN 3 pairs of general admission tickets!

The BBC Good Food Show is the biggest and best food Show in the country and this year the line up is just as stellar as always. Top foodie faces including John Torode, Gregg Wallace, James Martin, Gino D’Acampo and The Hairy Bikers plus many more will be taking to the Supertheatre, sponsored by Tesco Real Food. There will be hundreds of exhibitors from Cornish Cheese Co to David’s Chilli Oil and Luponde Tea plus BBC Good Food Show regulars including Foxes Spices and The Curry Sauce Company. And, of course, we will be there (Stand FLF60) armed with some stunning gift ideas for Christmas including, for the first time ever, Limited Edition tea towels made using our own designs. 

With Christmas just around the corner it will be the perfect place to pick up lots of other inspirational ideas for that special food enthusiast!

To enter, please: 

Sign up to our Newsletter using this QR code or the link below. But be quick, you must sign up by midday on Wednesday to be entered into the draw for tickets.

We will draw three random subscribers and we will post out your tickets ASAP.

SUBSCRIBE TO WOMERSLEY NEWSLETTER

If you would like to buy tickets, prices start at just £21.50

To book tickets please visit BBCGoodFoodShow.com or call 0844 581 1360

Terms and Conditions:

All tickets are general admission excluding Saturday.

Tickets are non refundable and non-exchangeable. Ticket terms and conditions apply.

Tickets will be mailed out directly to the competition holder by BBC Haymarket Exhibitions. 

Tickets do not include a seat in the supertheatre.

Thame and Dyrham Park

September rounds off this year with two really inspirational locations for food festivals. Following last year's successful Thame Food Festival, this year's is even bigger as the whole town centre will be closed off, allowing more space for exhibitors and visitors alike. And, for the first time ever, we will also be at Dyrham Park, just off Junction 18 of the M4 near Chippenham on Sunday: a beautiful National Trust home and garden.

 THAME FOOD FESTIVAL 9-5 Saturday 29th September

Lotte Duncan, Patron

Thame Food Festival is a landmark event in the food calendar. It attracts visitors to the town from far and wide. This wonderful showcase for local artisan food and drink producers and retailers in the region is a celebration of everything that is right with food and is a great chance to enjoy a bustling, fun filled, FREE, family day out in the centre of this historic Oxfordshire market town.
Visitors can choose to watch local and celebrity chef demonstrations or hear expert opinion and talks on selected food topics. There are children's workshops, hands-on food making stalls and a huge variety of wonderful exhibitor food stalls to sample and buy from. Events also include a fantastic raffle, competitions, street music and street entertainment.
The Patron of Thame Food Festival is TV chef and writer, Lotte Duncan, and the wonderful Ambassador is 'The Very Hungry Local Frenchman', Raymond Blanc. This rich vein of expert knowledge and food passion is enhanced by a wealth of food specialists and producers, and a great team of organisers. 
We were lucky enough to meet Raymond Blanc recently, at the 5th Anniversary of Brasserie Blanc, in Leeds, who we are proud to supply. As you can see, Wendy was putting her best foot forward that day...

Rupert Parsons, Raymond Blanc, Wendy Preston

DYRHAM PARK FOOD FESTIVAL 10-4 Sunday 30th September

With barely a pause for breath, we then zoom down the M4 overnight to set up our gazebo at the enchanting National Trust location of Dyrham Park for the latest Love Food festival.
The Love Food market will be packed full of spicy chorizo, freshly ground coffees, salt marsh lamb, dark chocolate brownies, local ales, seasonal fruit and vegetables, sloe wine, award winning sausages, chutneys, hand crafted goods and much more. The picnic area will also delight, with an excellent selection of street food providing some great lunch. Wash this down with award-winning cider and the Festival's much loved soundtrack and this will make for a very great Sunday.

Free children's activities for all ages will also be provided as Love Food Festival will be supporting the National Trust's "50 Things to do before you are 11¾" campaign, encouraging children to become less sofa-bound and get back out into the countryside.

For more details on both these events, do click on the links above which include maps and schedules.

Abergavenny FoodFest

The much anticipated Abergavenny Food Festival is once again almost upon us. Last year, this proved to be our busiest town food festival, full of knowledgeable and enthusiastic visitors. The town is so picturesque that I used a few spare minutes last year to take some photos as well, like this one:

Abergavenny Market Hall

We have been fortunate enough recently to supply our fruit vinegars to a particularly prestigious event of an elite sporting nature in a city not too far from here and this will be our first chance to show off our goods since the event ended. As you can tell, we are not allowed to say what this is, but come and taste for yourself why we were chosen...

This year, we are in the Market Hall and have far more space to exhibit. You can find us on Stall number 35, see the map below. Unlike last year, this means we'll be under cover (in the unlikely event of rain) and in the same area as the exciting Kitchen Stage where we hope to see the chefs doing a few demonstrations with our vinegars...well, you never know! You can see the timetable of the chefs demonstrating on the Abergavenny FoodFest site.

Do come along, then, to Abergavenny this Saturday and Sunday, 15th and 16th September for an exciting visit to a beautiful town at its' best. We will, for the first time, have our four chutneys available for you and our new Taste Award winners have lovely new labels, too...

September on the Road

Following a Summer of Sport, Gold and the occasional glimpse of watery sun, it is back to school/work and we are bracing ourselves to show off our big Taste Award winners. So that you can find us at a show, here is a brief run down of where we'll be over the next few weeks. And, for future reference, we have a calendar on our Shows page, too. Do click on the show links below for further information as each show has a host of other great reasons for you to visit:

31st August-2nd September Chatsworth Country Fair, Derbyshire
1st-2nd Sept Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival, Kingham, Oxfordshire
15th Sept Gail's Garden Party, Hampstead, London
15th-16th Sept Abergavenny Food Festival (our stand is in the Market Hall)
21st Sept Tasting at Local Roots, High Wycombe
29th Sept Thame Food Festival, Oxfordshire
30th Sept Love Food Festival, Dyrham Park, Bath

Goldrush

GREAT TASTE AWARDS

We are so delighted to report that our Raspberry Vinegar has been awarded Gold*** and Top50 in this year's Great Taste Awards and our Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar has won Gold**

 This is a particularly special recognition since Raspberry is the first one we did, following a traditional recipe, as we still do to this day. And our Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender is perhaps the most inventive recipe with its' fascinating fragrant and sour blend. The Lime one is the favourites in our home as a marinade for chicken breasts prior to pan-frying. And Raspberry is just sublime blended with Rapeseed Oil to make the perfect salad dressing.

In honour of these awards, here is a fantastic new recipe for you:

 

Rhubarb and Raspberry Vinegar Pasties

with Smoked Wensleydale Cheese

by Josh Angell

Ingredients:

PASTIES

200g Rhubarb, finely diced (Yorkshire Forced, if available)

1 Red Onion, finely diced

10ml Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil
100ml Womersley Raspberry Vinegar
75g Dark Brown Sugar

250g Puff Pastry

100g Oak Smoked Wensleydale Cheese

3 Egg Yolks
Pinch Salt and Pepper

DRESSING
50ml Womersley Blackberry Vinegar
25g Wholegrain Mustard
50ml Rapeseed Oil

Rocket or fresh salad leaf
Pinch Salt and Pepper

 

METHOD

 

1. Heat the finely diced red onion and rhubarb in a heavy based pan with the 10ml of rapeseed oil

2. Sweat off the onion and rhubarb, adding the Womersley Raspberry Vinegar at this point; also add seasoning and the dark brown sugar

3. Continue to cook on a low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally

4. When the contents have turned to a chutney-like state, set aside and allow to cool gently

5. Pre-heat oven to 180˚C, place a sheet of greaseproof paper on a flat baking sheet and set aside

6. Flour a clean, dry surface and roll out the puff pastry; using a 10cm cutter, cut discs of the puff pastry

7. Cut the cheese into 5cm squares and place on half of the puff pastry discs; place a spoonful of the chutney onto the cheese and then an additional disc of puff pastry on top

8. Seal the discs together using a fork and place the finished pasties on the baking sheet

9. Use the egg yolks to wash the pasties before placing them into the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

10. Whilst your pasties are in the oven, make the dressing; take a glass bowl and mix the Blackberry vinegar and mustard, along with the seasoning. Slowly add the oil, stirring continually to avoid the dressing splitting

11. Remove your pasties from the oven

12. Take your rocket or other fresh leaf, and dress lightly with the dressing.

13. Assemble on the plate and place your pasties on top; if preferred place an additional spoon of the chutney on top

14. Enjoy with a crisp glass of chilled chardonnay for that extra treat

YORKSHIRE DAY

Where better to celebrate Yorkshire Day than in Yorkshire! And, of course, we have a double reason to celebrate after having just heard that Yorkshire favourite, our Raspberry Vinegar, won TOP50 in this year's Taste Awards.
And that is exactly what we'll be doing next Wednesday, August 1st. We are exhibiting at Wentbridge House Hotel during the day and then we will also be Guest Producer at Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton near Tadcaster in the evening.

There will be a lot going on at Wentbridge House during the day, including chef demonstrations from some of Yorkshire's finest including Tim Bilton, Tom Rennolds, Robert Ramsden, Josh Angell and John Rogers as well as a whole host of entertainment for all the family including Flat Cap Flinging! The event is all in aid of Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, so do come and support them and us.

In the evening, top chef Ashley McCarthy is hosting a special evening to celebrate Yorkshire Day at the popular Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton. We will be doing a short talk about Fruit Vinegars....

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