Orange is the new black...

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We are organising the artisan food part of the magnificent Marmalade festival, to be held at Dalemain on February the 10th this year. There will be around 24 local producers attending and we are planning to make it a real taste sensation. The Artisan food marquee and Dalemain's historic barn will be connected together and this is where all the producers will be. We have a fantastic line up of producers, below is a sample of what will be on offer.

We are also getting some superb publicity for the event. 4 full pages in the Telegraph magazine, 4 Pages in Tastes of Britain, an article in the Field and lots of good local coverage too. It seems that Orange is the new Black, well at least in a food sense.

We have some fantastic local artisans who will all be bringing their own citrus twist to the festival, they range from Susan Aglionby who breeds Longhorn cattle and as well as selling her beef, will be cooking some of her excellent slow grown, grass fed, traditional breed organic beef for people to taste (click here or more info).

Susan is part of the Hadrian Organics network and will also be accompanied by Eva’s organics, a fantastic local organic vegetable grower who runs an excellent local box scheme in the North of the county.

We have two local artisan cheese producers, Leonie Fairburn from Thornby Moor and Lynne Ballentyne Dykes from Wardhall Dairy who produce excellent cheeses from single-herd raw milk, they will be matching their popular hard and soft as well as goats cheeses with citrus chutneys amongst other things. To complement this we will also have a great selection of other citrus cheeses from around the UK bought to us by John Natlacen of Churchmouse Cheeses, recently voted as “the best independent cheese shop in 2007” (Click here for article)

People will be able to try cooked venison with cranberry and orange jelly as well as sample a canape of Venison Pate with Cumberland jelly, the venison is from Deer ‘n’ Dexter, (click here for article)

We have one of the countries finest stoneground organic millers attending, notably the Watermill (click here for article) and whilst on the bread theme, The Moody Bakers a local cooperative with an excellent reputation and products will have a selection of breads, marmalade cakes and lemon drizzle squares. The counties butter maker will be selling handmade butter, called Cream of Cumbria, “you may be able to whip their cream, but you can’t beat their butter”.

Jane Maggs from Wild and Fruitful will be creating the official “Festival marmalade” out of Seville oranges and locally grown quince, a fitting challenge for a producer who is known for her excellent jams, jellies and chutneys. Also present will be Lizzie Smith who has won many awards for her fabulous Cumbrian Frutta Cotta, and recently created a Mostarda version that was awarded the “best new product” at the recent NW fine food awards. (click here for article)

The Gift of Oil, described by Gordon Ramsey as having “dazzling oils and amazing vinegars” will present a variety of citrus infused oils for sampling. Our very special Lyth Valley Damsons can be sampled steeped in Gin from Cowmire Hall and there is lots more too..

Chef, Nick Martin, who we call “Cumbria’s culinary ambassador” will be cooking various dishes too, based on local produce, just in case you are not tempted by any of the food on the stalls!

I hope to see you there, come and visit the Artisan-food stall and watch me preserve some lemons, you can also buy the winning festival bread and there's lots more we plan to do.! - Martin

Martins thoughts...

Orange is the new black...