What we are harvesting

With the new kitchen garden in full swing, I thought it would be useful to jot down what we have been harvesting - if only to remind me next year!



Polytunnel
Aubergines
Chilli peppers
Cucumbers incl. gherkins

Mexican gherkin - baby fruits that look so cute

Rocket and salad leaves

Tomatoes various, but we have loved the beefsteaks with their pink-red skin and tasty flesh and the profilic Diplom.

Kitchen garden
Beetroots - Cylindra proved the most popular as it was so easy to slice - had this weird growth habit of growing up out of the ground

Carrots - Nantes

Chard - Rainbow, red and white

Courgettes - my favourite has been Defender with a paler skin, we have just started harvesting Trombolino with an even paler skin but not sure about the flavour.
French beans - climbing, we picking small pods to eat whole and leving others for drying seed
Onions (red and white) and shallots

Potatoes - Bambino as earlies, Sante for maincrop - no blight and no eel worm!!! They were grown in large tyres and this proved very successful, although in a drier year it may be different.

Runner beans - Scarlet Emperor
Squashes - Petit Pain - I think I prefer these to courgette, especially when they are small and tender. Butternuts to come.
Spinach - Tarpy and perpetual
Sweet corn - looking good until last week when some animal had a nibble - they know just when the fruits are filling with sugar!

Being a Charcutier brings many rewards

Being a Charcutier brings many rewards, one such reward recently was a call from the BBC who asked if I could cook and share a recipe with the Hairy Bikers and their guests for their new series “Mums know best” which is scheduled for our screens this coming January.

Of course I was delighted to oblige as I am a proper foodie (Anorak) and I have many a hand-me down recipe to share, and given this event was built as a Recipe Fair, my two chosen dishes were perfect. The day came rather quickly and I found myself in a big circus top tent in the middle of a field at the Cotswold Farm Park surrounded by Blue Smurfs (BBC staff in light blue hoodys). Was I dreaming?

I produced two dishes for the day and given the fact I do not wish to give anything away until the screening in the New Year, I’ll refrain from telling you how things went until nearer the time. I can tell you though, that over the years I have been lucky enough to meet many a celebrity chef, however the Hairy Bikers were the most generous of them all. If you hear of the Hairy Bikers being in a town near you, then you will not be disappointed if you go along to meet them.

What I can tell you now is that I will be appearing on ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish over the next few weeks representing the South West Region, again I won’t give the game away, so you will have to tune in to see how well I did with my dish a Pea & Ham Verrine. First programme 5 October 2009 ......

Marc Frederic

Butchery revival

Yet more journalists have picked up on the butchery story. The latest is Chloe Scott, the Food and Drink editor at Metro. Chloe interviewed Sally about the butchery courses and the people who go on them. Chloe's angle was slightly different from the previous articles, focussing on the new film Julie & Julia that is released soon, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Its is based on the book by Julie Powell who decided to blog about her attempts to cook all 524 recipes in TV Chef Julia Child's cookbook. Her blog became a book and of course spawned the film.

Dan Green our tutor on the butchery courses was featured in the article which appeared in Metro on 1st September and this has resulted in calls from several TV production companies, so watch this space! He could be appearing on your screens.

DIY Butchery

Well, there has been a lot of media interest in our butchery courses over the last few days. On Sunday 9 August, there was an article in the Independent by Susie Mesure on the 'Rise and Rise of DIY Butchery'. I was interviewed for the article a few days ago and was delighted to see that I was included in the final version. A few days later I was interviewed by Jeni Barnett on LBC Radio about our courses. I hope both these features make more people intrested in butchering and processing their own meat.

The people who come on the butchery courses are absolutely fascinated by the meat. Dan who takes the courses, always puts the joints back together at the end of the session, so they can see how all the different joints relate to each other.

Butchery is very straightforward and although there are safety issues to consider, most people can manage to cut up the meat. OK, some of the cuts won't be perfect, but all can be eaten! Courses are ideal as they bring you up to speed quickly, and although you can buy a DVD or read about it in a book, you can't beat seeing it done for yourself. Our courses cover where to get the meat, the equipment you need, safety, food hygiene and then demonstrates the butchery of half a pig. The afternoon session covers sausage making and that is always great fun!

Our next butchery course in at the end of September - so if you are interested book soon.

Read the full DIY butchery article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/the-rise-and-rise-of-diy-butchery-1769703.html

Podcast of the Jeni Barnett's radio show on LBC can be found here but you do have to pay for it http://lbc.audioagain.com/index.php?sid=1&player=showchannel&channel_id=230

Summer Wild Meats and other course dates

Marc's first course here at Empire Farm was the Summer Wild Game Day. We had six people attending and I think they all had a great day. Marc got the 6 participants straight to work, giving them a rabbit each to skin and joint. Some of the rabbit disappeared into a pot of diced pork shoulder and pork fat which simmered on the hob for the rest of the day. Then they made up some spice mixes, a mild one and a spicy one. Next was the turn of the roe deer which had been hanging for 10 days. It was skinned outside, with everybody having a go. Then back to the butchery to cut it up. Some the rabbit loin together with fresh pork forcemeat was used to make some game sausage rolls - they came out of the oven in time for lunch - and they were yummy and a lovely twist on the standard sausage roll.

Lunch was a feast of various meats - Marc had bought along his popular rillettes of pork, some pate, but the highlight was probably the venison loin, rolled in black pepper and cooked on the hob, served with a Jaeger sauce. I must admit after such a large lunch it was difficult to get going again but there was no time to waste. Marc told everybody to retrieve their ramekin or jamjar that they had bought with them, so they could fill it with potted rabbit. This was prepared using the rabbit and pork that had been cooking all morning. Next it was game pie using pigeon, rabbit and bits of venison and pork. Everybody made their own pie which was popped in the oven. While the pies were cooking, the last part of the day was spent making venison sausages. Marc made it look so easy! Some had a go at linking but soon discovered it was not as easy as it looked!

By tea time, all the meat had been used up, the pies were cooked and the sausages linked. Hopefully everybody enjoyed their pie, potted rabbit and sausages when they got home. I managed to sneak out a pie and I must say it tasted great. Having seen how to make a game pie, I think it's something I am going to try for myself. Just need to buy some small pork pie tins.

This was the only Summer Wild Game, but Marc will be taking a winter wild game day using venison, pheasant, partridge, and rabbit. We have still to agree a date, but likely to be in November once the local shoots are up and running.

Marc's next course is the eagerly awaited Curing and Smoking Course on Sunday 4 October.

Marc Frederic - Le Charcutier Anglais

Last week I drove down to meet our new tutor, Marc Frederic, who lives in the pretty Devon coastal town of Dawlish. Despite his name, Marc is British but has lived for many years in France and he has a German wife. Marc is a larger than life character who is passionate about charcuterie. Trained for many years in France, he is possibly the only Englishman who is a French registered Boucher-Charcutier-Traiteur.

Once sat at the table, I was soon tucking into some freshly made mackerel pate. We got on the question of sourcing meat and Marc tells me that he is keen to see local breeds promoted, so his pork comes from Devon lop and black pigs and beef from Devon red rubies. He disappears for a minute and returns with some pots of pate, rillette of pork and some good old-fashioned pork dripping. I can take them home - great! Can't wait to try them. The conversation, naturally, leads on to charcuterie. So what is charcuterie? Its a French word that refers to the processing of meat into high quality cured or cooked products, such as bacon, ham, pate, terrines and pies. Marc shows me some photographs of cured products that I had never heard of before. It all looks fascinating. What about the courses? With Marc's vast experience, its difficult to decide what goes into which course. Finally, we decide that he will kick off with the summer game course at the end of July. Many years ago, Marc used to be a gamekeeper and has some great ideas for venison, pigeon and rabbit. That course is going to be fascinating and I'll have to make sure that I can listen in! [course details http://www.empirefarm.co.uk/summer-wild-food-day-947-0.html]. The next one will be a curing and smoking course, probably in August and then a charcuterie day later in the year.
If you can't get to one of Marc's courses, you may spot him on TV over the coming months. Watch out for further updates. If you want to know more about Marc and his products, you can visit his website www.moorishfoods.com

Ladybirds Under Threat

Over the last 5 years, the Asian Harlequin ladybird(left) has spread across the UK as far as the Orkney Islands, and now the native ladybird is under threat from this aggressive alien species . One thing that struck me this week was the sheer numbers of ladybirds in the walled gardens of Empire Farm, and this is something I fear may not be the case in years to come.The Harlequin is most common in South East England (with a large London population), and it crossed the English Channel from The Netherlands, where it was being used as a means to control aphids on crops. The Harlequin population is growing rapidly, and this is not helped by the warm summer, which allows further growth of these ladybirds.
Unlike British ladybirds, Harlequins don’t require a cold winter to become sexually mature, and so they can reproduce at an earlier age, allowing Harlequins to hatch earlier than British ladybirds. The Harlequin Ladybird can devour more than 10,000 aphids each year, as well as valuable lacewing larvae, meaning they have a greater environmental impact than their British cousins (right) as they eat more. It is their large appetite that worries many scientists, who fear that the Harlequin will drive out our British ladybirds due to their vast consumption of food. British ladybirds simply cannot compete, and face dwindling numbers as a result of this issue.
It is said that this Asian ladybird also eats soft fruit, as well as nearly 1000 different types of insect, and this will have a catastrophic impact on so many of our native species. Scientists from several different organizations will publish a report on the Harlequin menace at this year’s Royal Society Summer exhibition, with the intention of warming people of the threat posed by the Harlequins, and the dire ecological consequences that could happen if they are not controlled.
Other scientists believe harlequin numbers could be controlled using other organisms, such as fungal disease, male-killing bacteria, parasitic wasps and flies and a sexually transmitted mite that makes females infertile. However, people are warned not to try and help reduce harlequin numbers, as this could kill other native species, and would have zero effect on the total Harlequin population. The threat posed by Harlequin Ladybirds is serious, and if we do not act, then we will lose hundreds, or maybe thousands of native species.