|
Author: |
Cecilia |
Created: |
Sunday, June 07, 2009 9:25 PM |
|
|
Good food, interesting people and news from the Cumbrian food scene |
|
New stone baked loaves from Staff of Life |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 10:05 AM
|
|
|
Local favourite artisan baker Simon Thomas, of the Staff of Life bakery, has greatly expanded his capacity and range by converting a listed former Smokehouse in Kendal into a new bakery with a fantastic 25 tonne wood fired brick oven. The oven reaches as much as 450° C when it is first heated up, according to Simon. "We pile wood to the top of the fire box to start out and after only 3 or 4 minutes of burning we have to put more wood in again".
The impetus to set up the new bakery came when regional food and drink store chain Booths wanted to sell more Staff of Life bread than what they were already taking from Simon's exi ...
|
 |
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
Sharrow Bay head chef moves to Harvey Nick's – for a week |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Monday, September 21, 2009 2:45 PM
|
|
|
It seems Sharrow Bay has struck up a lasting culinary relationship with Knightsbridge top shop Harvey Nichols. Head chef Mark Teasdale heads south at the end of this week to show well-to-do Londoners what Cumbria can offer on a plate. This is what the press release said:
"Sharrow Bay has once again been picked to showcase its Michelin star cuisine at the prestigious Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor restaurant in Knightsbridge as part of the British Food Fortnight celebrations. Running from Friday 25th September to Thursday 1st October, Sharrow Bay Head Chef, Mark Teasdale, will be joining Fifth Floor Executive Chef, Jonas Karlsson, in the Harvey Nichols kitchens. Using the best of Cumbrian produce, they will display their own distinctive style of cooking through a range of collaborative menus especially created for the occasion. The menus will feature some of Sharrow's signature dishes, such as, their sell-out dessert from last year; the world famous stick ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
September is Damson Time! |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Thursday, September 17, 2009 12:38 PM
|
|
|
There are few crops that do really well in the Cumbrian climate and geography, but the damsons grown in the Lyth and Winster Valleys are a notable exception. These are part of the plum family, but smaller and with a distinctive tart flavour. In September the fruit is ready for harvest, and you can buy fresh damsons straight from the farms. Damsons came to Britain with the Romans - you often find damson trees around sites of Roman camps.
Today damsons are popularly used to make damson gin, and each farm makes it for their own use. At Cowmire Hall in Winster Valley, Victoria and Oliver Barratt produce and sell a damson gin with fruit from their own orchard. The damsons are steeped in cane sugar and then added to gin, blended specially for Cowmire Hall. This ruby ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
Great food at Westmoreland Show |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Thursday, September 10, 2009 8:00 PM
|
|
|
How lucky were the organisers – the first stunningly beautiful day for yonks. Unsurprisingly, the sun brought the crowds...and it took me two and a half hours to get from Low Sizergh Barn to the show car park. Never mind, it was a great day, and the food marquee was buzzing.
Newcomer Kendal Cordials here - Mike and Helen Hindle produce a variety of cordials out of their home...I tried the Lime and it was gorgeous. Give these guys a try when you get a chance. We'll come back with more info when we have it.
Some of the other usual suspects...Gerald Fowler of the Chilli Pepper Company, encouraging some young foodies to give his hot stuff a try. In ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
Keep an eye out for a great new delivery service – for local food! |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Thursday, September 10, 2009 10:00 AM
|
|
|
It's been almost two years in the making, but in the next few weeks beelocal will start what promises to be a great online shopping and home delivery service for local food – out of Kendal. I met the brain behind the company, David Redmayne, at the Westmoreland Show today, and he was happy to tell me that this clearly quite complex venture is now ready to take off. David has signed on 14 local food producers (so far), who have all installed the beelocal software. This basically means that you will be able to shop online from any of these producers, all from the www.beelocal.co.uk website, and get your food delivered the very next day.
Living in Grasmere, which isn't really near any good farm shop, we are very ex ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
Cumbria's meat production is sustainable |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Thursday, September 03, 2009 12:17 PM
|
|
|
It's with great interest I am watching the Future of Food series currently running on BBC 2. In episode 2 George Alagiah investigated meat production and how it can be done in a sustainable way, rather than cause the depletion of natural resources, notably water and oil. A key issue is that the cattle should feed on grass rather than on grain, which could be used for human consumption.
The programme made me particularly happy to live in this region, because of course most of Cumbria's meat is produced exactly according to these principles. Take the Herdwick sheep reared at Yew Tree Farm in Coniston for example.
These sheep are outside all year round, and do not require any extra feed – only what the rough terrain on the fells provide. Jon ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
Swedish celebrations |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Monday, June 22, 2009 5:27 AM
|
|
|
If you want to celebrate Swedish style, you might not go for a sweet sponge cake (and nobody uses fruitcakes for decorating!), but rather you'd serve your guests what would have to be translated as a "sandwich cake".
Luke helped me make one to celebrate a birthday recently – perfect: lunch and cake in one! If you live in Sweden for any length of time, you will be served such a delicacy at some point; usually at a birthday reception, christening, funeral, or any other gathering where expedient food is required. It's a cake - but instead of being sweet it is made up of savoury goodies.
I had not actually ever made one before, but had eaten many, many, so tried to de-construct from memory. Which worked pretty well. The creamy looking substanc ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
Two essential guides to Cumbrian food |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Monday, June 08, 2009 8:25 PM
|
|
|
Two new publications about the county’s food offerings are now available.
The Lake District Cumbria Food & Drink guide by Christian Dymond,
part of his own Dymond Guide series, is an excellent and comprehensive
guide to the best of food in the region. It includes restaurants, pubs,
cafés, food and drink producers, food and farm shops as well as cookery
courses offered. It’s well organised; eateries are listed by town or
village, which is of course the best way if you are travelling around
the county looking for a top meal. The producers are organised by f ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
The North West's Finest |
|
|
By Cecilia on
Monday, June 08, 2009 5:49 PM
|
|
|
About 50 foodies travelled to Ewood Park in Blackburn on June 3 to have our say on which food products from the North West stand out this year.
There were chefs, food writers, food producers and foodie members of
the public. At our table the representative of the latter category was
Lucinda Bryant, food and nutrition consultant, who was more
knowledgeable than most of the rest of us I think! She's on the left in the pic above, followed by Sue Souter, director of the eponymous PR firm
who, among other things, produce the Food North West newsletter Blend,
Ellen Rogers, who is responsible for the Northern Hospitality Awards
and Leigh Myers, group executive chef for the Nelson (Northwest)
Hotels, based in Cheshire.
Each table judged about six or seven of ...
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
|
More...
|
|
|
|
|