Organic Food, Drinks, Sustainable Restaurants - Green Independent Natural Magazine

Saturday

13Mar2010

Field to Fork with a Food Safari

Cookery Schools,

Gourmet Experiences,

Meet The Producer

Forget about clocking up air miles to safari in Africa. Here in sunny Britain, you can enjoy a Food Safari to experience food, from 'field to fork' first hand. This is the bright idea of Polly and Tim Robinson, who offer the perfect gourmet experience while you enjoy an eco friendly escape in Suffolk. A food safari is a far cry from your usual cookery school; Food Safari is a gastronomic interactive experience that is bound to delight with its tasty variety - including Cheese in a Day, Catch and Cook and a unique event that sounds rather interesting, a Beer Safari!

Throughout the year, the Food Safari organises one day gourmet food experiences that are fully interactive with farm and food tours, often with hands-on cookery workshops and classes and even better, the chance to feast on the day's 'fruits' at The Anchor in Walberswick. Having been totally absorbed by The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, it has never felt more important to understand where our food is sourced from, to meet the producer... and even more so, witness the welfare of the animals we end up eating, and how they are processed before they arrive on our forks. Food Safari actively supports local producers so enjoy our whirlwind tour of Food Safari's events to tempt you into a gastronomic experience!

We love the idea of wild food foraging and where better to forage than Suffolk's coast which boasts an abundance of wild herbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, fungi, flowers and seashore foods. Depending on the time of year, an expert will take you on a 2 to 3 hour tour to forage to your heart's content. Later in the day, you'll also discover delicious recipes to turn your winnings into a yummy four course meal. Learn more about Wild Food Foraging Events here.

Wild Mushroom foraging takes place in October at the Food Safari.Having enjoyed many childhood holidays on the North Norfolk coast, The GIN Lady knows only too well the fishy delights the East Anglian coast has to offer. Last time I ventured to Suffolk, I discovered many a smokehouse, just like I did further north when I was much younger. Much to our delight, the Food Safari also offers Smokehouse Tours, a brilliant way to understand the magic behind smoked fish.

For this half day tour, you'll receive a behind the scenes tour of Pinney’s at Butley Creek, where "oysters have been cultivated for centuries and Richard Pinney started smoking fish in the 1950s". Then returning to Pinney’s own restaurant, The Butley Orford Oyesterage in Orford’s pretty market square, you'll experience a hands-on demonstration to carve a whole salmon. The finale? A relaxing seafood lunch! Find out more about the Food Safari's Smokehouse Tour.

Other seafood experiences include Food Safari's upcoming new day, Catch & Cook as well as Seafood in a Day. Sea to plate, this one day event also includes a smokehouse tour with the added bonus of getting on a boat tour - weather permitting - for a baiting up demonstration of lobster pots, with the aim to catch lobsters, edible, spider and hermit crabs, as well as other fish and shellfish. This combined with a hearty feast at The Butley Orford Oysterage, sounds like a cracking sea to plate event. Learn more about Seafood in a Day here.

While Suffolk offers up an abundance of seafood, its fertile land also supports a lot of livestock. In recent weeks, we've blogged about the importance of happy pigs, and this is your chance to see what a difference it makes first hand. Food Safari has partnered up with Blythburgh Farm and its Free Range pigs. And when they say Free Range, they mean it, as these pigs are free to roam in large paddocks giving them the space to behave naturally, like rooting in the soil and playing.

If you don't know how to tackle a pork carcass, then let award-winning butcher, Gerard King, show you. Gerard, from the Suffolk Food Hall, will demonstrate the forgotten cheaper cuts, like shoulder and belly, and suggest a variety of uses for your own kitchen. After this expert demonstration, you can have lots of fun making your own sausage recipes - think blue cheese, ginger, fennel, and paprika - to barbeque for lunch after. To end this event, you'll enjoy a relaxed pork lunch with beer and wine expertly selected by The Anchor’s own Mark Dorber. Tempted? Visit Food Safari's Free Range Pig in a Day now.

Go on a Free Range Pig In A Day event at Food SafariWild Meat in a Day has really got our attention, as we haven't got the foggiest on how to prepare wild meat. Harvesting wild meat is as sustainable as it gets, but what to do with your game? In partnership with Robert Gooch and Ray Kent of The Wild Meat Company, one of Rick Stein’s Food Heroes, this day event will help you shoot, hang and age game. Going one step further, you'll also learn how to butcher your locally-shot game with the necessary knife skills.

At this Wild Meat in a Day event you'll also hear from Madalene Bonvini-Hamel of the British Larder with some "exquisite, mouth watering game dishes" and get to learn her tips, ideas and advice for cooking game for when you get home.

At a "laid-back lunch" in The Anchor’s dining room you will be treated to a gourmet game menu complimented by a hand-picked selection of wine and beer. To get confident with game and enjoy some delicious wild grub, visit Wild Meat in a Day here.

Cheese after a meal or as a tasty appetiser is delightfully appealing, but the cheese making process is just as tantalising. Cheese in a Day offers the chance to discover dairy, from cow to cheese. On your visit you'll meet the pedigree Guernsey herd at a local farm and learn how all their food is created on farm (nothing goes to waste!) as well as experience the actual cheese making process by hand. Heck, you can even milk the cows if you want! Learn more about Cheese in a Day here.

Don't worry, the event doesn't mean hanging around until the cheeses age to get a matured taste!

Food Safari cater events for everyone, from private and corporate events to children safaris. The GIN Lady can't wait for her pre-schooler to turn six, as the Children's Food Safari is an exceptional day out for kids aged 6 to 12. Here your children will meet rare-breed pigs, chickens, see beehives, get into the vegetable garden and polytunnels and then will get hands-on making their own lunch, even collecting their own eggs to make pudding! This sounds like a great eco friendly excursion for children - your little ones will have the times of their lives and learn a lot too!

All this talk of food is making us thirsty which brings us to the Beer Safari - an inspired idea! Here you will learn the key ingredients found in beer and how beer is brewed by the experts. Food Safari knows only too well you can't truly enjoy the day without a lot of tasting... so at the end of your tour, you'll get to taste lots of local varieties at the local gastropub, and learn how to best match your food with beers. Read the Beer Safari information now.

Harvesting hops locally in SuffolkFood Safari is a true gift for foodies and one we will be enjoying ourselves in the very near future. As they offer a brilliant variety of foodie events, there surely must be a day's event you're salivating over too. To find out more, visit FoodSafari.co.uk. And why not also read our feature on Eco Friendly Places to Stay in Suffolk, to tempt you even more!

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Fair Trade Wines for The Big Swap

Party Drinks

Fair Trade wine hasn't always enjoyed a good reputation, and despite increasingly getting the thumbs up by sommeliers and wine lovers, the fairer wines still only account for less than 2% of the market. So unlike coffee, tea and chocolate which enjoy a far bigger market share (we'd still like them to be bigger), our Fair Trade food focus during The BIG Swap is going to be some tasty fair plonk. Cheers!

A good drinkable range of Fair Trade wines can be bought online at Traidcraft.Fair Trade wine is only grown in three countries: Argentina, Chile and South Africa. That's good news, as these countries experience good viticultural conditions - it's sunny enough to ripen the grapes - and traditional wines sipped from these regions account for 45% of the whole market. This is perhaps surprising when you consider France, Italy and Australia are significant producers.

So Fair Trade wine producers have the right environment but do they have the skill? Oz Clarke, the wine writer recently told the Guardian "FT wines are 100% better now, as shown by the fact that FT wine sales have gone up 45% in the last year in this country." So the whole Fair Trade wine market share - currently sitting at just less than 2% could experience a big rise soon if this trend continues, which it will if many of us commit to The Big Swap.

This is a fair trade swap The GIN Lady would like to undertake. While we're limiting our intake to a couple occasions a week (no more than a bottle, maybe more in total!), we reckon this is where we could make the most difference. So where to buy? Firstly scan the supermarket shelves and focus on the Fair Trade label for authentic varieties. Allegra McEvedy had her perceptions turned around by the Cinsault-Merlot blend by Origin Wines, South Africa. And at £4.97 a bottle, that's very good value. Fairhills Fairtrade Wines is another good option.

Traidcraft is also a fair place to go hunting, as they do something The GIN Lady favours... they source Fair Trade wines that are difficult to find on the High Street, so you add more to your sense of discovery.

The general feedback on FT wines is favourable: Fruity, inexpensive and highly quaffable. Traidcraft's tasty notes tell us their Lautaro Sauvignon Blanc "... is a beautiful pale yellow wine with delicate shades of colour and an intense floral and herbaceous aroma... and it is particularly brilliant with seafood." But what about roast dinners and cheese? Apparently the Merlot Reserve does the job wonderfully well with its "deep red colour with violet tints. It has a heady aroma and is full of red and black fruit flavours, well balanced with woodiness." You can buy these two wines as part of a Chilean box made up of 6 bottles and is currently reduced from £41 to £36.90. View online at Traidcraft. Alternatively you can buy 6 (or 12) bottles of the Merlot Reserve by itself.

Next on our shopping list is Valdevino to sip and try out on our taste palate. Famed in Argentina for its unique flavour, their Fair Trade and organic Torrentes white wine is "best served young and well-chilled [and this is]... subtly floral wine is wonderfully aromatic on the nose and packed with juicy fruit flavours." Drink alone (without food that is, not by yourself unless you want to!) or even better, invite some friends round for dinner for a creamy pasta dish, fresh salad or mildly spiced grub and serve up some Valdevino Torrentes to surprise your friends.

If you fancy a red wine to ideally accompany some red meat (organic and locally sourced as a treat of course), then we've been recommended the Valdevino Malbec. Tasting notes claim it's "warming and spicy with massive fruit intensity and touches of liquorice and fennel." Definitely worth a whirl, don't you think?!

The GIN Lady's ready to commit and do the big swap and only drink Fair Trade and Organic wine. Up to now, it's been a tad too easy to pick up the latest deal at the convenient supermarket, but imagine what we could do if we drink the talk. For us, the Fair Trade issue puts a whole different meaning on 'Drink Aware' - how about you?

Visit Traidcraft's Fair Trade wine range to discover more.

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Sillfield Farm is a Rare Breed

Meet The Producer

Farmer Peter Gott with his Cumberland SausageFollowing hot on the heels of our Sizzling Hot Story on Pig Business is the first of our Meet The Producer series. And as interviews go, talking to rare breed farmer Peter Gott at Sillfield Farm was a delight. And delight is the operative word here, as eating the produce of a rare breed farmer will tantalise your taste buds, it protects the future of sustainable farming and keeps UK Plc firmly in business. Read this and you and your tummy will not only feel better, you'll also be making a huge difference. How yummy is that?! We put the spotlight on Peter Gott who farms up in Cumbria at Sillfield Farm.

So why is it so important to sustain rare breeds? First off, rare breeds stem regional food. Where Peter farms in Cumbria their local foods boast Cumberland ham, sausage and bacon. But in the late 60s, consumers started to vote with their feet. Peter shares “In a funny sort of way in the last 25 years, domestic farm species have gone extinct because it’s not viable.” Peter adds “Something has to give. Intensive farming has only happened in the last 30 years because of food war rationing and the Common Agricultural Policy but the food doesn’t taste nearly as good.” The problem is compounded further as 6 large supermarkets control 90% of the food we eat.

Peter and his co-producers now face impossible competition due to the cheap food and huge demands made by the retail giants. Farmers across Britain have literally been forced to intensively farm to fatten up their animals as quickly as possible to supply the demand, and in the process, crowd the animals unbearably to save even more money. Peter states “Perfectly good meat is wasted for the sake of speed and money.”

Yummy meat pies on sale in Sillfield's Farm Shop and via mail orderPeter is passionate about bucking the trend and farming rare breeds. Peter told us “Our food has the wow factor. You have to ask why Serano ham tastes so good. We’ve evolved with a gene that says ‘that’s very tasty’, but we’re facing an agricultural industry where food is just a commodity – turning animals into money, but we’ve ignored the taste development. We should appreciate food for what it is. We need to respect food. The Italians, French and Spanish don’t seem to have lost it.”

The Slow Food movement is proving one way to buck the trend and one that Peter has embraced whole heartedly. Peter shared “In 1998, I discovered the Slow Food movement in Northern France. A couple of years later I went off to Turin [the heart of the movement], trotted around and was absolutely blown away by their passion for food, recipes and old breeds.” Here in the UK though, Peter along with his fellow food producers, are being pushed through hoops and hurdles in the name of safety which can only be a good thing... but it’s also having a negative impact. Peter stated “I’m not against the legislation, but much of it is unnecessary and reduces our ability to produce these weird and wonderful animals.” Peter ventures, “To halt the decline of good food and reverse the trend, we don’t have to interpret the rules from Brussels in the way we do as we’re misreading it. Like other slow food European countries, we need to interpret the legislation differently to fit the bill.” Peter adds passionately, “Our vision is to buck the decline of artisan production.”

Some happy rare breed pigs on Sillfield FarmIn the UK, Peter is himself a rare breed. With the average farmer age at 57 and rare breed farmers a tiny percentage of the whole farming community, what’s the hope for the future? Peter told us “We are seeing a younger generation come on board so there is hope for a revival. We even had The Prince’s Trust students at our farm last year learning the ropes.”

So what can we all do to boost this potential revival? Peter urges us to beware of cheap food as it’s not labelled with the country of origin, a topic we covered recently on pig business. And it’s not just pigs. Over 30% of our supermarket chickens are imported from Taiwan or South America. Peter says “There is no concern on how that chicken lived its life or what it ate as long as the end result is edible.” Peter adds “Cheap labour is getting the product into the supermarket but at what cost? We don’t look at the origin of our food when there’s a Two for One offer on the shelves.”

Food produced at Sillfield farm is an altogether different picture. The wild boar, the predecessor of all pigs, is Peter’s favourite breed. Peter enthused “Their intelligence far outweighs normal pigs and they’re not stupid either. We seem to have a mixed relationship towards pigs. We use the term pig for derision but we also use it for piggy banks.”

The Wild Boar is Peter Gott's favourite rare breedPeter also loves pigs because it’s the only animal that becomes two meats. Peter shares “We can eat the fresh meat on the shoulder, belly etc or cure it and it becomes bacon or parma ham.” Peter’s favourite food? “My dried cured bacon. It’s second to none. It’s the bee's knees.”

Sillfield Farm's bacon is the 'bee's knees'.Peter has a genuine fondness for his farm animals, with The ‘Old Girl’, his 12 year old sow, being his favourite who sadly passed away recently. An intensively reared sow wouldn’t live more than 3 years and it’s hard to imagine an unscrupulous intensive farmer in Eastern Europe, where much of our cheap supermarket sausage meat comes from, sharing the same feelings.

If you’re feeling the pinch like many of us, the solution is simple. Up our veggie intake which is cheaper and better for our health, allowing us to splash out on really tasty food from farmers like Peter Gott at Sillfield. Buying from the farmer’s market brigade, good butchers and farm shops is the answer. At the very least, buy British.

Thank you Peter! To get your culinary hands on Peter's rare breed food, you can visit Sillfield Farm or call 015395 67609 to mail order. Alternatively, you can order Sillfield Farm meats from the Virtual Farmers Market where you can also treat yourself to a whole lot of other small producer foods all under one roof. Bon appetite!

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Rare Breed Meat Online,

Sillfield Farm,

Slow Food Movement in the UK

Friday

22Jan2010

Saving your bacon and enjoying the sizzle!

Foodie Campaigns

While we enjoy a hearty vegetarian feast, nothing beats a mighty fine sausage sizzle once in a while, particularly the organic, outside reared variety - boy do they taste better! The same could be said for a weekend brunch with bacon et al. or failing that, a delicious roast pork dinner on Sundays. If, like us, you missed the publicity created by Jamie Oliver, you may well have thought all was well in the world of pigs - surely pig business couldn't be half as bad as the battery chicken industry? Think again. Having received a call from the Green Marchioness, Tracy Worcester, a lady we admire, we discovered we couldn't have been more wrong. Luckily we have a real chance of putting it right... together. Read our narrated picture story and act because TODAY YOU CAN SAVE YOUR BACON and make you, our pigs and the world a much happier place :-)

Just like the huge majority of us living in the UK, Tracy Worcester cares deeply for animals. Aren't her gorgeous brown pigs, pictured below, utterly adorable?!

Tracy Worcester and some lovely brown pigs

Aaaah, don't you just want to tickle them and pet them?

Tracy Worcester scratching her pig's nose

This good looking chap has been having so much fun rolling in the mud and snuffling out food in the beautiful countryside all day long...

What a happy pig!The good news is that upping our vegetarian intake saves you more money to put in your back pocket to buy good quality pork from a pig who has enjoyed a high quality lifestyle in the outdoors.

Photograph courtesy of John Ross Jr, who deliver high quality meat.

Here comes the unsavoury truth. But before you despair, it's easy peasy to solve if you read on and act. It only takes a moment.

Cheap pig meat sold by the giant supermarkets is from EU factories that stink in more ways than one: Think pig torture; cramp steel prisons the poor pigs can't move around in; no cosy straw; and intensive farms are breeding grounds for horrible diseases, to name just a few issues.

Every year 1.2 billion pigs worldwide are slaughtered for meat, of which more than half have been reared by industrial, intensive methods.

It's simple. EU pig farmers are breaking the law... and getting away with it. Most of us, even the conscientious, have probably eaten it - and it's easy too as labelling is non-existent because the sausage giants - like Walls, Richmond and Mattesons, found in every supermarket and corner shop - are loath to put country of origin labels on their meat (buy only British!). So in many ways the food industry - and the Government because they refuse to make proper labelling mandatory - are letting the unscrupulous pig farmers get away with it. God only knows what's in those cheap sausage rolls!

It doesn't stop there: UK pig farmers can't compete and many have gone or will go out of business; It can affect human health - e-coli, salmonella, MRSA, and swine flu should ring the alarm bells; and it damages the environment.

Enough! We want our pigs to be happy, just like we want our pets and other animals to be. And we can if we ACT NOW. Here's how...

Create more happiness for pigs and everyone by acting now!1. Ask your MP to attend the Pig Business event at the House of Commons on the 27th of January 2010 at 6-9pm as well as sign the Early Day Motion number 562 Pig Welfare - Click Pig Business Now!

You can also do more if you...

2. Know your bad labelling from your good labelling.

3. Join the RSPCA's 'Rooting for Pigs' campaign.

4. Support Farmer's markets and local farm shops. Buy British!

It only takes a few moments to make a real difference - feels good doesn't it?! Thanks for acting and supporting this change :-)

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Thursday

14Jan2010

Mooli's moveable feasts in Soho London

London Eateries

Soho is a regular haunt of The GIN Lady's, and our local knowledge has accumulated the top places to sip lattes, beers and cocktails as well as taste international flavours, from the Orient to Paris. Mooli's, where Old Delhi meets Tokyo, has now become our numero uno destination for a moveable feast (aka takeaway), a cool but calm place to re-energise on a shopping spree and a delicious stop to feed our tummies on a night out on the tiles or theatre trip. Today we take you on a tour of Mooli's, the latest foodie heaven to arrive on the West End streets.

We decided to pop along to the new Soho eaterie because it promises fresh baked Indian bread with the most delicious flavour sensation. Just bread. No E22. No E282. No Gum. In search of this refreshing 'clean food' change, we entered the cosy small restaurant and instantly warmed to its fresh, chic interior - a good match for its food.

We also had a lovely warm welcome from the Indian owners - Sam and Matthew - these two young chaps have put their heart and soul in to this fresh Indian 'joint'. Sam enthused "The two of us really did our research in India to come up with the best recipes, including Matthew's family in Kerala." Sam continued "But our toughest challenge was to find a way to produce fresh traditional roti bread in the numbers needed to supply a restaurant likes ours without the synthetic mix you typically find in commercial bread." S&M's search ended in triumph when they fell in love with Moolita.

Sam (left) and Matthew (right) left their City jobs to pursue their Mooli dreams.

Moolita provides the answer if you're sick and tired of eating flat breads jam-packed with synthetic ingredients - easily the case as commercially made flat breads are a far cry from the wholewheat natural breads S&M were after. Moolita is S&M's affectionate nickname for Lupita, a Mexican machine used by the Cool Chile Company to make their corn tortillas. Lucky for Sam, Matthew and their customers, Moolita is now a much-loved member of the Mooli family, as it makes the perfect wrap for their scrumptious Mooli's.

Now let's turn our attention to the whole package, the Mooli itself: Mooli /’mu:li/ n. 1. warm flavoursome fillings, zesty salsas, vibrant chutneys & crunchy salad, all rolled in a fresh homemade roti bread - is indeed what really grabbed our tastebud's attention!

For us Mooli's five chutneys are the star ingredients, setting these beauties apart from other Indian food we've eaten. Fresh, zingy and vibrant, they make your tastebuds sing... so much so we found ourselves begging to buy them separately in order to take home. We couldn't but for good reason: The chutneys don't have preservatives so their short shelf-life prevents their retail. But no matter... it just means we have to visit Mooli's on a more regular basis!

Pomegranate Salsa, Tamarind Chutney, Tomato Chutney, Mint and Coriander Chutney, Tamarind Chutney.

The first of their five Mooli's we got our eager teeth into was the Chicken Mooli. Tender? Tick. Fresh? Sure thing. What made it so fresh was its blend with our favourite chutney - mint and coriander... yum! And with a crunch of fresh apple and salad, this Mooli slipped down a treat... particularly if you're sipping one of their yummy lassi's (don't worry, Mooli's is licensed to sell beer and wine too!). And with its subtle spice, this is the perfect wholesome snack for those of you who run a mile from firey curries!

For the veggie lovers among you, we highly recommend the Paneer Mooli. The main ingredient, a light Indian cheese, melts in your mouth, and is artfully accompanied by a delicate but tasty panch puran five spice blend. These ingredients, coupled with their tomatoe chutney, fresh grated carrots and leafy salad, make this a triumph for Indian vegetarian cuisine. We'll definitely be eating this Mooli again!

If it wasn't for the fact that asparagus are so out of season at the moment, their Asparagus and Potato Mooli would have been our number one choice (we did let them know!). The two are of course an inspired coupling of ingredients - the two vegetables sit well together - and marry well with its dry roasted cumin (jeera), dried mango (amchur), yogurt and tangy tamarind. We'll definitely be back for second helpings during Asparagus's short season (starts end of April and lasts only 8 weeks).

Tasting the Beef Mooli made us realise their food is all about personal choice - we didn't like the beef, but it's Sam's firm favourite and we couldn't help but notice several customers were oohing and aahing over it. So there's only one thing for it - try it for yourself and see. The great thing is that you have a choice of Mooli size - mini or normal; a mini is perfect to test the waters. Perhaps it was the "heady blend of Malabar spices" that didn't grab us, but as we've said, it's a personal tastebud thing.

Last but not least is their Pork Mooli. This is definitely the choice for those of you who enjoy a spicy kick, with its slow cooked fiery Goan Pork. The meat with the pomegranate salsa and parsley made for a tasty contrast.

So there you have it... Five wonderful Mooli's to taste when you're next in town. And rumour has it, there's a sixth Mooli on the way - Soho is going Goat, a traditional staple meat of India's. Hats off to Mooli's founders, Sam and Matthew... The GIN Lady thinks you're onto a winner - see you soon!

50 Frith Street, Soho, London W1D4SQ. Telephone number: 0207 494 9075.

Opening Hours: Monday-Wednesday: 12 noon – 10.30pm, Thursday-Saturday: 12 noon – 11:30pm, Sunday: Closed. To find out more, visit Mooli's website.

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tagged

After Theatre Dining,

Fresh Indian Food,

Fresh food in West End,