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 Everyone can enjoy a sumptuous feast with a difference this Easter thanks to the Langley Chase Organic Farm’s award winning Manx Loaghtan Mutton. This dark, luxurious rare gamey breed has been judged at the prestigious Soil Association National Organic Food Awards to be the best organic meat of 2011.
Mutton – praised in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861) as “the meat most generally used in families” - was once part of the UK’s staple diet, but suffered a dramatic decline after the Second World War as food fashions moved towards lamb. Today, despite still being a rarity on most menus, chefs and food lovers are rediscovering the delights of this versatile and tasty meat. The Langley Chase award winning organic produce enables people to sample the very best mutton in the UK. To help those new to mutton, the farm has created a wide range of recipes delivered with every order.
Langley Chase Organic Farm, in Chippenham, Wiltshire, run by Mrs Jane Kallaway, exclusively rears Manx Loaghtan sheep, a striking four-horned primitive rare breed. Jane’s produce has won 14 National Organic Food Awards – including winning the top accolade, Best Organic Meat, for both her lamb and mutton three times – and her meat has been praised for its taste and tenderness by some of Britain’s best-loved chefs, including Mark Hix, Rick Stein and Hardeep Singh Kohli, [quotes below].
All produce is raised on the family farm’s species rich wildflower and hay meadows – giving the meat its distinctive taste and succulent flavour and providing traceability from the farm to the customer’s door.
Easter Meat Boxes
Easter Meat boxes start from £75 and can be ordered from the farm’s online shop: www.langleychase.co.uk. Each meat box is full of different cuts and joints all prepared by a Soil Association accredited Master Butcher. [Box contents listed below]. The contents are clearly labelled and provided with recipe ideas. Popular orders include our Mutton and Lamb Meat Boxes while the Mixed Taster Box enables customers to sample a wide range of the farm’s other delights including its unique Lamb Chorizo Picante Salami with smoked paprika, spices and chilli. Meat boxes can be delivered direct to any UK address or picked up from the farm.
Praise for Langley Chase Organic Farm’s lamb and mutton:
2011 National Organic Food Award judges: “Langley Chase mutton is tender, flavourful, succulent, really satisfying with great presentation – a lesson in why people should eat good mutton.” [See names of judges below].
Hardeep Singh Kohli (National Organic Food Award judge): “You can taste the love in great food and you can certainly taste it in Langley Chase mutton.”
Mark Hix: “Langley Chase lamb is delicious and tender with a little hint of game.”
Rick Stein: “Langley Chase is one of my favourite sources for lamb.”
Mrs Jane Kallaway said: “Mutton can be a really wonderful and versatile meat if it’s grown and produced well. We run our muttons as a separate flock, ensuring they get the best grazing and time to fully mature. They stay on the farm for around five years, grazing a diverse range of species rich organic pastures.They are traditionally hung for over 14 days and the result is a tender meat full of flavour that is a joy to cook.
“We know that many people are new to the delights of mutton so we’re introducing recipes for all orders. From mutton tagine to roast mutton shoulder – let Langley Chase help you make a perfect Easter.”
 As the number of farms that continue to produce eggs from battery hens is dwindling, the National Farmers Union is urging both restaurants and food companies to start sourcing their products with more concern for animal welfare. The NFU has issued a handy guide for consumers, listing those businesses involved in the food industry which had already promised to stop using eggs from battery hens; the production of which is now banned in the EU.
Defra, the government’s department for agriculture, is backing the NFU’s call that firms which use eggs in food production make an effort to ensure they are sourced from farms which have higher standards of animal welfare. This does not necessarily mean that businesses have to pay extra for free range eggs, as farms which use improved cage systems also come under the list of approved suppliers.
A number of major food manufacturers have already put their name to the NFU campaign, including United Biscuits, which makes McVitie’s and other top brands, as well as the firm behind the popular Mr Kipling cakes, Premier Foods. Supermarkets too have given their backing to the call, with Waitrose, Iceland, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all agreeing to only use chicken-friendly eggs in their own brand products.
Poultry chairman at the NFU, Charles Bourns, welcomed the decision by so many major companies to commit to supporting not only higher standards in animal welfare, but also the British egg industry, He added that some of the biggest names in food manufacturing in the UK had yet to reply to their request or had insisted that their eggs were sourced carefully, without providing any details.
The EU ban on battery hens, which came into force at the start of the year, has cost the British egg industry over £400 million to implement the new standards, yet producers in more than 10 European countries are still using old systems.
If you have ever fancied tasting Squirrel, then make your way along to the National Botanic Garden of Wales at the end of the month, January 28-29. The Food Fair is to be the final event in the Free January programme that the Garden is currently running and is all set to be a great event.
The food company ‘Taste of the Valleys’ are making their debut at the garden, and bringing with them their extensive range of local food products. There won’t only be Squirrel on the menu either, there will be partridge, pigeon, pheasant, venison, rabbit and wild duck, alongside their speciality sausages and cured bacons and gammons.
Ruth Askwith, of Taste of the Valleys, said: “We have just moved into the Carmarthen area and we are very keen to take part in local food events. Squirrel is one of our best sellers at the moment.”
For the more conservative palate, there will also be locally brewed beer and cider; Welsh-produced wine; longhorn beef, mutton and lamb; pork; Welsh Black beef; vegetarian treats; fabulous Carmarthenshire cheese; Welsh brew tea, chutneys, pickles, preserves; bread, cakes, sweets, honey, biscuits, brownies and chocolates.
In short, it’s an absolute feast!
The Garden is open from 10am until 4.30pm, admission to the Garden and the Food Fair is free.
For more information about events at the Garden, go to www.gardenofwales.org.uk or call 01558 667149.
There is something quintessentially English about taking tea in the afternoon, and whilst this is still a widely undertaken practice, what is in our cups has changed drastically over the past few years. One of the top companies synonymous with English tea is Twinings, and while they still supply the traditional teas such as Earl Grey, they have moved with the times and now produce a vast range of delicious teas to satisfy every palate.
There has been a surge of popularity in Green Tea over the past few years, and you are now as likely to take this as your afternoon cuppa as one of the more traditional blends. Twinings Green tea is delicious, refreshing and are created using only the highest quality and most succulent of green leaves. The health benefits of drinking green tea have long been championed in the far east, and now the British are also enjoying these benefits.
Their infusions of herbs and fruits combined with the floral notes make Twinings green tea a drink to suit any occasion. They are a great source of natural antioxidants, which is turn can protect us and our bodies from the damage that free radicals can cause. Twinings pride themselves on producing teas that are completely free from any additives, so you can rest assured that what is in your cup is completely natural.
Apart from your classic green tea, Twinings offer the discerning tea drinker a whole host of flavours, so you can have a different type of green tea every time you boil the kettle, and these are all natural flavourings. Choose from lemon, jasmine, cranberry, orange and lotus flower, peach and cherry blossom, tangerine and verbena, mango and lychee, apple and pear, pomegranate, pineapple and grapefruit, ginger and blueberry and raspberry.
Twinings have also infused green tea with Earl Grey leaves to make a very English cuppa with a twist, and also offer a decaffeinated green tea. Their special ‘gunpowder’ loose green tea is named after the shapes of the leaves after they have been wrapped as tightly as possible to get the full flavour out of them, and their light and delicate green tea is derived using a steaming method to produce a drink that is both smooth and mellow.
If you have yet to try green tea, or fancy having a cup that has an additional fruit flavour, your first stop should be Twinings, the British experts in tea production.
Article for Twinings -Buy tea online at the Twinings Tea Shop
 The London Wine and Food Show is taking place between January 12th and 14th, and is the seventh year that the event has been held. The event is very popular among people who love food and drink and there are many samples on offer as well as cooking demonstrations. The event runs in the evening on Thursday and Friday and during the day and evening on Saturday.
The corporate affairs manager is Heather Blackwell and she has commented, “The event is about more than just food and it has become a popular place for people to network. It is an incredibly social event and people from all around get together. It is popular for people to come to with their friends or family but you will also see plenty of couples at the event as well as people who’ve come by themselves.”
The event was originally established as a trade show but it has evolved into a more social event where there is a lot of conversation about favourite foods and drinks. Ms Blackwell continued, “What many people say they like about the event is that they will often bump into other people they know in the city and it has become such a social hub that they find themselves returning.”
In previous years the event was run from Friday through Sunday but the organisers have taken the Sunday out of the schedule based on feedback from previous years. About the change in scheduling Blackwell commented, “People generally don’t want to attend this kind of event on Sunday so we thought using Thursday night instead would be a good alternative. We tend to get different audiences each day and I’m quite keen to see who will turn up on Thursday evening.”
There are many activities taking place at the events including a cook off between local chefs as well as the appearance of a celebrity chef, Ted Reader. Friday night is called ‘Girls Night Out’ and the first 250 women to arrive at the event will be given a complimentary gift bag. About the Friday evening Blackwell continued, “We get a very different audience on Friday and it is very popular with women, but men are more than welcome.”
The Saturday schedule is rather different and focuses on the sampling of foods. There are also several seminars being held about the food available at the show. One of the highlights of this year’s show is sure to be the cheese tasting room which has always been a great success in the past.
The event has previously drawn around 6000 people over the three days that it operates for. This year Blackwell is hoping that around 8000 people will attend the event and some of the organisers are even thinking this number might reach 9000.
These growing numbers are a testament to how popular the event has become but organisers have stated that they don’t think it will continue to grow much more in the near future. They state, “The event is currently held in the Progress Building and when we started out we did not fill up the whole place but now we would struggle to fit anything more in. We might look at expanding the capacity of the show in a few years but right now we are fairly content with the size of the event.”
 A dairy based in Knutsford has recently been named the best farming business in the United Kingdom. The dairy is based at Yew tree farm and is called Delamere Dairy. The award ceremony that gave the dairy this recognition was held at the House of Commons and is designed to applaud those who are achieving most in the UK farming industry.
Roger and Liz Sutton founded the company more than a quarter of a century ago and it is located in the heart of Cheshire. Their first farm product was goats milk, but today they’ve moved on to a much wider variety of products, although they still stay close to their roots by selling their original milk The dairy has expanded to such an extent that it is now shipping to the Far East and other international locations.
In a recent interview with the Guardian newspaper Mrs Sutton commented, “It is such an honour to have received this award, especially as we don’t enter that many competitions, this is just one that carries such high prestige in the farming industry that we felt we could not ignore the opportunity to compete. We didn’t realise that we had been entered into the main prize category and it was quite a shock to win as we only expected to be entered into the marketing category.”
The team responsible for deciding who should win the award said that the dairy was a wonderful example of a company that had capitalised on a niche market. The panel commented, “The dairy moved from a small goat farming establishment to become a company with a wide range of products and a strong brand. Its excellent packaging has made it appealing to overseas as well as domestic markets and is an exemplary example of successful farming in the United Kingdom.”
 At the World Cheese Awards 2011 a company from Hampshire has won a silver medal. Hampshire Cheeses, which is located in Overton, has been given the award for its Tunworth Cheese. This cheese was also recently recognised by the Hampshire Countryside Awards for its excellence.
This year’s World Cheese Awards were held in London and over 200 judges from all over the world were involved in tasting over 2000 cheeses coming from 30 different countries.
Several other cheese makers from Hampshire also recognised including Two Hoots, who produced a blue cheese of note, in fact it was so good that the judges awarded it one of the places in the top 55 of all cheeses produced worldwide.
Hampshire Fare is a group responsible for championing local food in Hampshire and the chairman of it is Mike Wright. He recently commented, “It was wonderful that the cheese from Hampshire was recognised locally at the Hampshire Countryside Awards but it seems that the cheese producers were not content with this and have gone on to great success internationally.”
 A French Champagne maker has made English sparkling wine for the first time and it is set to go on sale, giving the clearest indication yet that British fizz is truly coming of age. Meonhill is made from grapes that were grown in Hampshire from French root stocks, and will be available to buy early in 2012.
This is the first time French wine makers have invested in cultivating the grape in Hampshire, Kent and Sussex, three counties that have close resemblances to both the climate and the chalky geology that are found in Northern France.
The first planned release is for 5000 bottles from Didier Pierson-Whitaker, who owns a grand cru vineyard in the Champagne region of France, and they come at a time when a dramatic rise in demand and sales of Champagne style sparkling wines has been reported by established English vintners.
Waitrose have said that sales of the 18 English sparkling wines they carry has risen by nearly a third compared with last Christmas’ sales, whilst Ridgeview, a sparkling wine maker from the South Downs have reported that in the last two years their sales have trebled. Mardi Roberts is the sales manager for Ridgeview, and has said that they can’t keep up as the demand is outstripping the production and exports have shot up.
Sir Gilbert Scott, the restaurant recently opened in London by top chef Marcus Waring, is selling more glasses of sparkling wines made in England than they are of Moët et Chandon, the biggest global brand to come out of the Champagne region. Mark Cesareo is the restaurant’s head sommelier, and he said that when he first added English sparkling wine to his list 5 years ago customers were scared but now that has completely changed.
He added that it had been the English that had been the most adverse to trying it, with French guests happy to try it out. He now stocks three English wines that sell by the glass; Ridgeview, Nyetimber and Gusborne, and if he sells 10 cases of Moët in a week he will sell 6 cases if Gusborne, 5 cases of Ridgeway and 3 cases of Nyetimber.
According to data released by the Foods Standard Agency, UK cultivation of three main grape varieties used to make champagne style wines; Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, has quadrupled since 2005. These grape varieties now cover more than half of the space in the UK that is devoted solely to vineyards, stretching across 1235 acres.
Farmers are also catching on, and recently 4 parcels of arable land in Barham Court, Kent, that has previously always been used for cereal crops, are now being sold to be used as a vineyard for sparkling wine. Waitrose also pressed the first grapes last autumn from their own new vineyard in Hampshire, and will have their own brand sparkling wine on the shelves in either 2013 or 2014.
Although the industry is now looking rosy, it is not without a lot of hard work and determination from those involved as they have not received the kind of support that is given to wine makers in France, a fact that makes this current success even sweeter.
 When BrewDog named one of their beers Sink the Bismarck, we thought they were a bit controversial – then we realised they served selected bottles in dead animal skins and sent a dwarf to Westminster to protest against drink measurement laws. Their latest stunt involves driving a tank around Camden to promote their newly opened London bar – brilliant.
Situated nearby the local tube station, BrewDog Camden is one of the coolest stop off points on the way in or out of the area. Too long have BrewDog venues been confined within Scottish borders but finally the craft beer revolution has invaded the English capital…and they are mechanised.
Rolling a genuine military tank through the streets of Camden was the first advance and behind that, a night of pumping craft beer into BrewDog goblets and serving it up to new ‘recruits’ saw the revolution swiftly secure their first London stronghold.
BrewDog veterans working the bars are highly intelligent when it comes to craft beer and have a passion to match. That passion stems all the way from the BrewDog Aberdeenshire HQ where founders James Watt and Martin Dickie run the entire operation – from brewing the ale from scratch to enabling followers to buy beer online.
The Camden rendezvous is the first BrewDog bar outside of Scotland and provides a base for further empire expansion. The launch was a success and BrewDog are expected to seize even more strongholds in the near future, with Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds in their sights.
Contrary to BrewDog’s domineering activity, the philosophy behind the movement is one of peaceful justice for real ale. BrewDog are aiming to reach a stage where craft beer, whether it is their own or not, recovers its high ranking status above the heavily commercialised lagers of today.
Capturing the hearts and minds of beer lovers across the nation, BrewDog are waging the coolest and tastiest type of warfare there is and they are inviting everybody to join in – this awesome bar in Camden is just the beginning.
 Those baking experts at Baking Mad have once again put together a list of top tips for home baking treats over the Christmas season. There is no better time of year that to be both creative and save money by baking some homemade goodies to give as gift. This is a brilliant way of creating heartfelt and personalised gifts and show the recipients how much you care.
Whether it be mini mince pies, individual Christmas puddings or homemade jams, why not try a few different recipes as well and create a delicious and tantalising homemade Christmas hamper. Don’t fret if you think your baking is too amateurish to pull this off, that’s exactly what the experts at BakingMad.com are there for.
BakingMad.com is the place to go for recipes that include inspirational Christmas cupcakes and many other top tips and snippets of advice from the home baking experts. Great results every time are assured thanks to all Baking Mad’s recipes using only the finest baking ingredients available, so for some inspiration this Christmas visit http://www.bakingmad.com/ideas/christmas-gift-hampers
 The classic Christmas cake is beautifully decorated with Mich Turner’s superior quality Ready to Roll White Icing.
Mich Turner, founder of London’s Little Venice Cake Company, is the queen of couture cakes. Her Ready to Roll Madagascan vanilla icing is made using the finest ingredients, making it ideal for those special baking occasions when you require a perfect finish.
Ingredients:
1.25 kg Mixed Dried Fruit
100 ml rum or brandy, plus extra for feeding
1 Orange zest and juice
1 Lemon zest and juice
125 grams Billington’s Natural Glace Cherries
275 grams Allinson Nature Friendly Plain White Flour
2 tsp ground mixed spice
225 grams Butter softened
225 grams Billington’s Light Muscovado Sugar
5 Large Eggs
100 grams Almonds ground
1 kg Silverspoon Ready to Roll Marzipan designed by Mich Turner
2 tbsp Apricot Jam
1kg Silver Spoon Ready to Roll Vanilla Icing designed by Mich Turner
Silver Balls (Silver Spoon Cakecraft) a few to decorate
1. Put all the mixed dried fruit into a large mixing bowl and add the brandy, orange juice and the zest of both the orange and lemon. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for 24 hours, shaking occasionally.
2. Line a round 23cm cake tin or a square 20cm square tin with three layers of greaseproof paper. You will also need a double layer of brown paper to wrap round the outside of the tin.
3. Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C Fan/300°F, Gas 2.
4. Rinse the cherries carefully in warm water. Dry and cut into quarters
5. Sift the flour and mixed spice together
6. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time, adding a
tablespoon of the flour mix after each addition.
7. Fold in the remaining flour, ground almonds, cherries and the soaked dried fruit
8. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the top with the back of a spoon, making a slight well in the middle of the cake. Wrap the brown paper round the cake tin and tie with string. Bake the cake for 1 hour, then reduce the oven temperature to 140°C/120°C Fan/275°F, Gas 1 and bake for
3 hours or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Cover the top loosely with foil if the cake is browning too much.
9. Remove the cake from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack (leave the baking paper on).
10. When cold wrap the cake in foil and store carefully. To feed the cake, pierce the cake a few times with a skewer. Drizzle over 2tbsp brandy, rewrap and store. Repeat a few times.
11. To Marzipan the cake: Warm the apricot jam in a small pan or in the microwave, until melted and just warm. Remove all the paper from the cake and place on a cake board. Lightly knead a small piece of marzipan and use this to fill in the gaps between the cake and the board. Brush the warm jam over the top and sides of the cake
12. Lightly dust the work surface with icing sugar and roll out the remaining marzipan into a circle or square large enough to cover the cake (about 35cm for a 23cm diameter round cake or 20cm square cake). Using the rolling pin, lift the marzipan and lay it over the cake. Ease it down the sides with your hands ensuring there are no air pockets. Trim excess marzipan off the sides with a kitchen knife. Dust your hands with icing sugar and rub the cake lightly with your hands to ensure a smooth finish. If possible leave the marzipan to set and dry for 1 to 2 days at room temperature
13. To Ice the cake: When ready to ice the cakes, brush the marzipaned cakes lightly with a little alcohol or boiled water. Lightly dust the work surface with icing sugar. Lightly knead the icing and roll to thickness of 5mm thick and 35cm circle or square. Using the rolling pin, lift the icing and lay it over the cake. Push it down the sides with your hands ensuring there are no air pockets and gently easing out and folds or pleats.
14. Trim off the excess icing around the base with a sharp knife. Lightly dust with icing sugar then, using the palms of clean hands, make a polishing action over the icing to smooth the surface as much as possible. Collect all the icing trimmings and knead until smooth. Roll out again to a 5mm thickness and using the cutter of your choice (snowflakes, stars, Christmas trees, snowman), cut a number of the shapes in various sizes. Brush the bottom of the shapes with boiled water and stick to the cake. Decorate with a few Silver Spoon Cakecraft Silver Balls. Again is possible leave the icing to set of 1-2 days.
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Everyone can enjoy a sumptuous feast with a difference this Easter thanks to the Langley Chase Organic Farm’s award winning Manx Loaghtan Mutton. This dark, luxurious rare gamey breed has been judged at the prestigious Soil Association National Organic Food Awards to be the best organic meat of 2011.
