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Posted Tuesday, 15 May 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

With just two weeks to go to our Summer season, you'd think we'd be getting some decent weather by now. But, as I write this, there is rain sheeting down the Barn windows and 2012's peculiar weather continues.

Living seasonally means embracing the seasons in all their rainy/windy/dry/hot glory but perhaps one of the hardest things is learning to live with the uncertainty of it all. If you saw the front page of our website last week you'll have seen that we were due to go to the Vale of Evesham Asparagus Festival. Sadly, the festival had to be cancelled because...well, there's no asparagus.

As you'll probably know, the season officially starts on 23 April (St George's Day) but this year, it came and went and the asparagus was nowhere to be seen. The recent wet weather and flooding has caused a real shortage of the crop which, when it's wet, remains pretty dormant. All a bit ironic since the festival was actually started as a way of raising funds for the area after the very severe floods of 2007.  

We're still about a week away from cropping for most of the British asparagus farmers. But fear not! On the plus side, when the growth does come we'll have the stuff coming out of our ears because the plants have been holding back all of their energy, waiting for the warm weather. Better still, the Jubilee Weekend is at the beginning of June - usually the end of the season, but it's likely that the delay means they'll still be more than enough to go round on that festival of Britishness.

So sometimes these things work out for the best. Mind you, as I finish writing this the rain has turned to hail. You've got to love the great British weather.

Posted Tuesday, 8 May 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  2 Comment(s)

As you'll know if you're a Twitter follower, we spent last week down in the West Country visiting a range of producers, retailers and general foodie types. On Wednesday we found ourselves at River Cottage.

When Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall first shacked up in a converted gamekeeper's cottage in 1998, even as an established TV presenter and writer he probably didn't realise the influence he would end up having on British food consciousness. The original River Cottage TV series followed his move from London to Dorset to become a self-sufficient smallholder, at the same time creating a generation of small scale farmers, foragers and food enthusiasts wanting to live the River Cottage life themselves.

So, if seasonal eating has a Mecca, it's on the Devon-Dorset border. The physical location has changed - the project quickly out-grew the original cottage - but at the new River Cottage HQ (Park Farm near Axminster) its spirit lives on. As well as acting for a location for the ongoing River Cottage TV programmes, RCHQ hosts parties, weddings and cookery courses for lovers of the organic, seasonal lifestyle. You won't be surprised to hear that the Well Seasoned team are big fans and felt our trip wouldn't have been complete without a visit.

We we're signed up for the simply named "Bread" course and arrived at RCHQ around 9.30am to be taken by tractor and (comfortable) trailer down a bumpy track to the farm. Park Farm itself took us slightly by surprise. Fans of the TV series will recognise its componant parts but it is all rather more compact than you might expect. All the activities take place in and around the main farmhouse and a small number of outbuildings. Due to a serious fire in the main events barn a few months ago, most events are currently being hosted in a sturdy but temporary marquee in a field behind the house. Also, the farm is...well, just a farm. Until you get inside there is little evidence that this is the business hub of a household name celebrity's publishing empire. It's unassuming and in some places pleasingly messy - RCHQ is a working farm rather than a theme park.

It was a cold morning and we were slightly nervous about the "temporary events space". We needn't have worried - the space was well heated and well equipped. In the classroom, 15 or so workstations were neatly arranged in front of the "teachers desk" at the front. We started in the attached dining room with host Steve Lamb, long-standing RC cast member, introducing the day and serving up tea and drop scones drizzled with honey. Steve then introduced our tutor for the day, Aiden Chapman, a master baker with more than two decades of experience.

Throughout the day, Aiden showed us all the basics of bread making and expertly guided us through the methods of producing sourdough, foccacia, pizza bases, and soda bread. Aiden's teaching was totally in line with the River Cottage ethos. "Artisan", "handmade" and "rustic" all got more than a passing mention as he encouraged us to throw away the rule-book and, rather than focussing on recipes, to create "real" bread (with just four ingredients - flour, water, salt and yeast) with soul. Aiden lives and breathes bread (yes ok, medically dangerous but you get the idea) and his enthusiasm is infectious. By lunchtime we'd recapped all the basics of making bread and were secretly planning to chuck in our day jobs and start the Well Seasoned bakery.

Interestingly, there was no sign of Dan "the Breadman" Stevens, author of the RC Bread handbook (which is included in the course price) and original tutor of the course. Conspiracy theorists speculated whether the aforementioned fire was the result of a baking mishap and he left under a cloud of burning buns. Others thought he was probably just on holiday. Either way, whilst not a problem it did mean that the recipes and techniques we were taught were slightly different from those in the book.

For lunch we sat down to pizzas rolled and topped ourselves to be cooked in the outdoor wood-fired pizza oven. At least, that had been the plan. Some wet wood mean that the oven wasn't reaching the required temperature and so our creations were whisked away for finisihing in the indoor kitchen. So, the cooking was a disappointent but the surroundings definitely weren't. We were lucky in that, after what seemed like one of the wettest weeks on record, the weather was stunning and the surroundings of RCHQ are truly beautiful - unspolit rolling green hills of Devon and Dorset with hardly another dwelling in sight. It's easy to see why HF-W has chosen the area as home both for his business empire and personally (apparantly he lives on another farm just down the road).

After our pizzas (which were substanatial but billed as a snack rather than lunch itself) we returned to the workstations for the second part of the course, honing our kneading skills and leaning some more complex techniques. At around 3.30pm we'd pulled the last soda bread out of the oven and sat down for the "real" meal, a two course meal of frittata with home made chorizo and nettles followed by pudding of a "rhubarb frumble" a delightful mix of custard, yoghurt, rhubarb and crumble. The second meal was perhaps not needed - after a full morning of snacking on various doughy creations we were already pretty full and concluded that we'd have preferred to pay a bit less and skip the meal (apparently introduced at the request of corporate attendees who wanted more opportunity to chat with the other guests).

After we'd eaten, there was no pressure to leave and we were free to amble around the famous veg garden and farmhouse for as long as we wanted. We returned up the track laden with bready goodies and some missing items from our ever-growing collection of River Cottage merchandise (all of which had been on display and available to buy but with no hard sell).

Our visit to River Cottage HQ made for a memorable day. Everything and everyone at River Cottage both talked the talk and walked the walk. Without exception the staff we met were polite, courteous and enthusiastic. It's clear that RC make a point of recruiting and working with dedicated people. Or perhaps they brain wash them with a 24 hour loop of RC and Cook on the Wildside once they've signed up - Either way, it' a formula that works. All in all, a fascinating and educational experience.

At £180 a person, Hugh isn't going to dispel the myth that the River Cottage lifestyle is a wealthy middle-class pursuit, but we felt the course was pretty good value. We'd spent the whole day at RCHQ, learned a huge amount and left very well fed. River Cottage deserves the good name that it has and we certainly hope to go back in due course....we've just got a bit of saving to do first.

River Cottage cookery courses can be booked at: http://www.rivercottage.net/
Aiden Chapman's artisan Phoenix Bakery is in Weymouth: http://www.phoenixbakery.co.uk/
The Real Bread Campaign supports good, honest bread http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/

Posted Wednesday, 18 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Foraging books and forums are filled with stories of what can go wrong if you don't do your homework properly. Some seem to delight in tales of sickness and even the death of those misfortunates who dropped a tasty-looking but wrongly-identified plant into the cooking pot. Fortunately, however, nature isn't always so cruel and occasionally it presents us with something that is so easy to identify that even the Well Seasoned team can get it right with their eyes closed.

The smell alone will alert you to any crop of Ramsons or wild garlic within a few hundred yards. Also known as 'bear's garlic', the air in woodlands throughout Britain is currently thick with the pungent, garlicky whiff of this real foragers' treat. Once you do find them, you can confirm your identification by looking for unique star-shaped white flowers and waxy green leaves. In fact, so familiar and identifiable are wild garlic colonies that 'garlic woods' feature as landmarks on many old maps of the British countryside.

Despite the strong odour, the taste is mild and you can use them as a substitute for spring onion or chives in pretty much any dish. So get out there and get picking, safe in the knowledge that your prize will be unmistakably tasty.

The wild garlic season usually lasts until early June. For an embarrassingly simple wild garlic recipe, check out our wild garlic butter.

Posted Tuesday, 17 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Today sees the revival of a curious seasonal custom in Hungerford, Berkshire. Taking place on the second Tuesday after Easter, the Hocktide festival dates back to the 14th century. Its exact origins are unclear. Some say it dates back to a particular massacre of the invading Danes, others claim that it was when Prince John of Gaunt gave the commoners of the district free grazing and fishing rights. A final seasonal spin is that the festival celebrates the end of the medieval financial year. Either way, commemorative celebrations have now been taking place for some 600 years.

There is no mayor in Hungerford. Instead, the senior citizen of the town is known as the Constable and at the Hocktide celebrations he is elected at a special Hocktide Court. First off, the Bellman, a town crier, calls the meeting in the town hall. Then the court elects the Constable and two "Tutti-Men". Each Tutti-Man carries a pole with a posy of spring flowers (a tutti) tied to it. To add to the weirdness, and with no particular explanation, each pole has an orange on the top. The Tutti-Men are then led through the streets by the Orange-Man to collect kisses from all the ladies in the High Street. In what seems like a reasonable deal, the ladies each receive an orange in return.

A classic British combo of tradition and nonsense. For more details, check out the Hungerford Museum website.

Posted Friday, 13 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

There's a great deal to be said for being out in the countryside to escape it all, but occasionally some modern technology comes along that is pretty handy. This month, whilst rustling around the undergrowth of the iPhone store, we came across the Foragers Apprentice, a new iPhone app released by chef David Beazley. David works at the Ashburton Cookery school in Devon. You can tell from their website that they've really embraced social media and t'interweb technology generally so it's no surprise to see them getting involved with this app.

Designed "to inform and inspire you to make the most of nature's bounty whether you are on a family walk in the woods or by the sea" it looked right up our street so we invested £1.99 or our hard-earned pocket money and spent last night playing with it.

The app is designed for novice foragers and neatly combines hints and tips on finding food with 25 high quality recipes. Other foraging apps we've seen have been let down by the recipes - often basic field grub rather than decent meals to enjoy at home - so it's great to see ideas like stuffed mushrooms, crab cakes and watercress soup on the menu, none of which you'd be embarrassed to serve up at a dinner party.

The app has a good array of features including "What's in Season", showing when you what should be able to find at any particular time of the year, a neat "hotspots" feature which allows you to record your find locations and different experience levels. It's all accompanied by some 20 or so professionally-produced videos focusing on foraging favourites including brown crab, mussels and mushrooms.

If you're already a seasoned forager and know your St George's from your false morels you wont be learning that much new apart from the recipes. However, for the novice or intermediate forager, it's a great little app with good quality content and for £1.99 you can't go too far wrong. Four stars from us and we'll certainly be adding it to our virtual knapsack.

You can buy the Foragers Apprentice from the iPhone store and through the app's website.

Posted Wednesday, 11 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

We reported last month that the mackerel were already being caught off the South coast, another sure sign that Spring had sprung early. If you're looking for a sustainable, under-rated and delicious fish you won't do any better than mackerel and we've been urging people to grab a rod and catch their own for some time. We had a couple of emails from beginners wanting a few more tips on kit, casting and catching mackerel so thought we'd do our best to give you all the info we can.

The absolute simplest way to experience mackerel fishing is to book yourself a spot on a fishing trip. You'll find them in most harbour towns these days and you can expect to pay £7 to £10 per person for a two hour session with all kit and instruction supplied (plus a share of the spoils) which is pretty good value and a great introduction for real beginners. But, assuming you'd rather invest in some kit that you can use at your own pace and whenever you're down at the coast, here's our mega mackerel masterclass to help you catch your own sustainable dinner, direct from the beach.

Basic kit

You'll need some kit, natch. But don't be tempted to spend hundreds of pounds on tackle online. We reckon you can kit yourself for a mackerel session for under £50 and the best place to go is your local tackle shop. Not only will you be supporting local businesses, you'll also be getting access to a wealth of free fishing information. Fishing shop owners are a friendly bunch and will be happy to talk as much as you like, especially if they smell a sale. They should know everything about their kit as well as vital local knowledge on the best spots. Tell the shop owner what you're after and hopefully you'll come out with at least the following:

• A rod (suitable for casting. Our preference is for a telescopic pike rod which extends to about 10 foot but neatly collapses down to about 3 foot.)
• A reel (again, suitable for casting rather than boat fishing or fly fishing. It's worth spending a bit extra on your reel as this is the real working part of your kit and needs to be robust.)
• Main line (at least 10lb breaking strain)
• Shock leader line (ideally 10lb breaking strain for every ounce of lead being used - so, 30lb if you're using a 3oz lead)
• A selection of mackerel feathers (pre-tied strings of 3 to 6 hooks, with a feather, foil strip or similar sparkly adornment)
• A selection of ledgers (a simple lead weight or "bomb" in a streamlined shape, with a small loop at the top to attach to your line) from 2oz to 4 oz

If you're a complete newbie you'll need to know how to set the kit up. Your helpful shop owner should be happy to show you how to do this but make sure you pay attention. You'll need to know a few basic knots as well as how the rod and reel work, so don't be shy to ask and make sure you've committed it all to memory before you part with your hard-earned cash.

When to go

Although mackerel are present in our waters all year round, they usually only come inshore early Spring. For some reason on the South coast they seem to disappear in late June/July - no one really knows why - but they come back after a couple of weeks and then hang around until September/October. The first thing to remember is that mackerel are either within casting distance of the shore, in which case you should catch them, or they aren't, in which case you won't. A wise and experienced angler once told us that the best way to fish for mackerel is to wait until you've seen someone else catch some, then get casting and there's a lot of truth in that. If you can't wait or there's no one else around, you can maximise your chances by fishing at high tide and in the hours either side of sunrise and sunset. Calm, still days are best but as mackerel have no eyelids, they don't like bright sunshine - if it's a very sunny day, they'll be nearer the bottom. Signs you might look for include a thin slick of oil on the surface of the water and seabirds diving into the water (they aren't actually eating the mackerel but the bait fish - usually sand eels - that the mackerel are chasing.) In the height of Summer you might even see the sand eels bubbling on the surface of the water, sometimes just yards from the beach. Mackerel have even been known to beach themselves in the hunt for their food!

Where to go

You'll need a beach or pier that gets you easy access to deep water. So, rapidly shelving pebble beaches like Chesil, are ideal, or any long pier, such as Brighton. Piers may have rules about when you can fish so it's well worth checking in advance. They also get busy very early in the day so you'll want to be up early to bagsy a decent spot. Larger beaches are easier to get a pitch on but you'll still find that the best spots (or those nearest to the car park) get taken early. Rocky headlands are also good but they can be very dangerous and you'll need to take extra care on these - be careful as you scramble across, watch the tide coming in and always make sure your exit route is accessible. The beaches to avoid are shallow-sloping sand ones; you're unlikely to get the depth you need here.

Setting up

When you've found your spot, start setting up your kit. Mackerel are voracious predators and so will snap at anything that passes their nose. This is why you can be pretty sure of catching them if they are around. Although the most common bit of kit, feathers are not essential and any kind of spinner or plug will also be effective. Many fishermen prefer to use these as they provide a bit more sport. Both ends of the line of feathers will have a pre-tied loop so that one end can be attached to your line and a weight can be attached to the other. The most weight you will need is a 4 oz ledger - anything heavier just makes for harder work when casting. To attach the ledger to the weight, simply pass the pre-tied loop through the eye of the ledger, loop it round the weight and pull tight. This is simpler than tying it and can easily be undone if you want to try a smaller or larger weight. Ideally you will have a "shock leader" tied to your main line. Not everyone uses a shock leader and it's not strictly "necessary" to catch fish but we'd certainly advise using one. It is a piece of extra strong line to take the strain if your cast goes wrong. Without one, you risk your weight snapping off and flying down the beach. At best, irritating and at worst, deadly to other beach users. Now you'll need to tie a swivel clip to the end of your shock leader. Finally, clip the pre-tied loop of the feathers into the swivel and close it. You should now be holding (in this order!) a rod, a reel with line (including shock leader), a swivel clip, your string of hooks, and finally, a weight.

Casting and retrieving

Now, get casting. Aim to get as much distance as possible. Although the fish can be very close to the shore, the further you cast the more water you'll cover and the more chance you'll have of catching. But remember that you can vary your depth too - it's no good casting miles and always retrieving your feathers though the top 10 meters if the fish are at 20m. So, mix it up a bit. Leave a few seconds before you start your retrieve to allow the weight to sink a bit. If that draws a blank, try again but with a quicker or slower retrieve. You'll see people lots of different techniques - some people just reel straight in, others prefer to twitch the rod or use a series of pulls and reeling in. Give all of these a go and find the one that suits you. Ultimately, they'll all work if the fish are there.

Catching

You'll know when you've caught anything - there will be a sudden increase in resistance and you'll feel the fish fighting at the end of the line. It's a unique and exciting feeling if you've never caught one before but, once you've felt that initial tug, it's worth trying not to get too excited. The fish that's there is likely to stay hooked but your hooks may well be in the middle of a shoal and, if you give it a few more moments, you have a chance of catching a few more. So, wait a few seconds and then reel in. With this method it's not that unusual to score a "full house" with a fish on every one of your hooks!

Dispatching

Once you've reeled in your catch, kill it quickly. Unhook it from the line then give is a couple of sharp blows to the head with a "priest" or study stick. It can look brutal but it's the most humane method. Mackerel spoils very quickly so once you've killed it, gut it as soon as you can and then store it in a cool bag or a bucket or water. Then get that barbeque lit! The fresher the better is definitely the rule for mackerel.

And finally...

If you fish regularly throughout the Summer you will have days when you can catch hundreds of mackerel. It's easy to get carried away but try only to catch as many as you're going to eat. Mackerel can't be caught and released as they have a very sensitive skin membrane which degrades as soon as it's been touched. If handled by human hands, even very gently, mackerel will die within days. They do freeze well but mackerel are always best fresh. So if you don't have a plan for them, best to leave them in the sea and come back another day. Conversely, some days you'll do everything right and just wont be able to catch them. If that's the case, pack up, and get down to the pub before you get totally fed up. There are no guarantees with fishing and it's important to know when to cut your losses. Retain some of your enthusiasm for another day and remember that it wouldn't be any fun if you caught something every time, now would it?

So, to all mackerel novices - good luck down at the beach this season and let us know how you get on!

Posted Monday, 5 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Did you know...? Mustard is one of the world oldest condiments. It has a long history in Britain and was probably introduced by the Romans. They mixed grape juice (‘must’), with ground mustard seeds to make 'mustum ardens' ("burning wine"). From this, we get the word mustard and we've been enjoying it ever since.

There's plenty of historical references to it. Mustard balls (an early use of the plant where ground mustard seeds were mixed with spices, rolled into balls and dried) are mentioned in Shakespeare’s King Henry The Fourth, Part II. Pope John Paul XXII loved the stuff so much that in the early 1300’s he created a new Vatican position of Grand Moutardier du Pape - grand Mustard-maker to the Pope!

If you're in the Midlands a new event this year celebrates all that's great about this fantascially English condiment. The Great British Mustard Bash on 11 March is actually taking place at Colonel Colman's old house!

http://www.mustardbash.co.uk/

Posted Thursday, 23 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Seafood fans will be able to fill their boots this weekend (and for the whole of next week) at the Rye Scallop Festival. As well as a host of fishy fun, restaurants throughout the famous fishing town will be hosting scallop-themed menus. For beach fans, the festival spreads out to the Winchelsea and the beautiful Camber Sands:

www.ryebayscallops.co.uk

Initially, we weren't too sure about publicising this one. Rye Bay Scallops are dredged and we know the damage that dredging causes in sensitive parts of the marine ecosystem. But here's what Rye Bay Scallops told us about sustainability of the Rye scallop beds:

"Scallops have long been fished in the waters of Rye Bay. Local bye-laws restricting the fishermen to harvesting their scallop catch from 1st November until the 30th April are strictly adhered to by Rye’s fleet who use the small (under 10 metre) RX registered boats. The beds are checked regularly and allowed to regenerate when necessary. There are also size restrictions on the catch, leaving the smaller scallops in the water for future years. Checks undertaken by both DEFRA and the local fishermen ensure that stocks are healthy and sustainably maintained."

Sustainable Fisheries Development Officers have confirmed that, despite general concerns over bottom-trawling the sea bed in more sentitive parts of the marine ecosytsem, the Rye catch has a negligible environmental impact. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that the scallop numbers may even be increasing. “…..harvesting of scallops in Sussex is one of the most stringent in terms of restrictions etc. The East Channel scallop fishery is a productive one, so that coupled with a responsible, abiding industry, should certainly pave the way to sustainability.” 

The Rye Bay fishermen find that 70′-80′ is the minimum depth that scallops can be found in this area which does make hand diving impractical. But with the restrictions on size, season and limited boat capacity Rye fishing industry continues to harvest annually without any noticeable reduction in stock.

Some facts and Figures from Rye Bal Scallop Festival:

• “The cheapest sea-towne for provision of fish for our house.” King Charles 1, 1628 speaking of Rye.
• Rye’s fishing fleet moors almost two miles from the sea
• There are more than 300 species of scallop in the world!
• You can tell the age of a scallop by its shell, one ring forms each year.
• Scallops can be traced back 300 million years in fossil form.
• The scallop is a mollusc and the only bivalve that can swim.
• The scallop is an excellent source of protein, calcium, iron and vitamin B12.
• The orange roe in a scallop is called coral.

Posted Thursday, 23 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

As we blogged back in January, the season for Sevilles, the traditional marmalade orange, is remarkably short. If you don't make your marmalade before the end of that month you'll often have trouble finding them in the shops. Thankfully, once made, marmalade will keep for months, if not years, meaning there's plenty of time to enjoy the fruits (geddit?) of your labours.

This weekend, we're celebrating all things orange and marmaladey at the 7th World’s Original Marmalade Awards and Festival. The festival is taking place at Dalemain Mansion & Gardens in Cumbria on Saturday and Sunday (25th & 26th February - sorry, the date in our original post was wrong!) and apparently includes a marmalade church service...whatever that is. Check our their new website for more details: www.marmaladeawards.com

Posted Wednesday, 15 February 2012  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

Cockle picking during February is an excellent seasonal activity with great rewards - we're right in the middle of the cockle season but there are fewer beachcombers out harvesting the fruits of the sea. It can be, however, a very cold activity as I found out on a recent trip to Studland beach in Dorset. Given this, it is very important to ensure that the cockles are as tasty as they can be and not full of grit as can so often be the case. Whilst down in Dorset last weekend, the people we were staying with suggested a technique for purging cockles that I can confirm worked a treat:

1. Put the cockles in cold or sea water
2. Add a sprinkling of porridge oats
3. Change the water after 4 or 5 hours
4. Add some more oats
5. Repeat the process for as long as you can until the time for eating

The idea is that the cockles feed on the oats and as they feed, they discharge the grit which may be caught up in their shells. We changed the water for tap water about 3 times over a 24 hour period and this resulted in a complete purging of the cockles with no grit tasted. 

Our recipe for cooking the cockles was not dissimilar to a classic moule marinières:

- About 3 dozen cockles
- One onion finely chopped
- Two cloves of garlic
- 2-3 glasses of white wine
- half pint of vegetable or chicken stock
- Parsley
- Dollop of creme fraiche

Fry the onions and the garlic until they are soft. Add the purged cockles and white wine until the alcohol has been burnt off. Add the stock and cook the cockles until they open. Add the parsley, creme fraiche and season. Serve with warm crusty bread and a spoon. We actually had a few clams (smooth rather than ridged shell) in the pot as well. They take a fraction longer to open (and therefore indicate that they are cooked), but otherwise are a welcome addition to a February beachcomber's broth!

Posted Wednesday, 1 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The scene has hardly changed since the 12th Century. It's Autumn in the New Forest and ancient breeds of pig are roaming freely on the Hampshire heathland, foraging and snuffling through leafy undergrowth. They are hunting primarily for acorns but beech nuts, chestnuts and crab apples also feature in their free porcine picnic. It's a tradition dating back hundreds of years; certain inhabitants of the Forest, known as Commoners, are claiming their right to graze pigs in the National Park. In fact, as well as getting a free meal, the pigs are doing good for the more famous residents of the forest because acorns are poisonous to the wild ponies. The practice is known as pannage and it takes place every Autumn. The local forest wardens, or Verderers, together with the Forestry Commission decide when it will begin and end, depending on the weather and when the acorns start dropping. The pannage season usually lasts for 60 days, ending in November or December, after which the pannage pigs are 'finished' on a diet of whey and barley (a pure acorn diet can make for an overpowering flavour so the finishing makes it more palatable). The result is a truly unique tasting meat with a wonderful texture and unusually dark appearance (it can be almost black if the pig has had a high proportion of acorns in its diet). You can still get your hand on some pannage pork but the short season is already coming to close for the year. Make a note in your diary for the late Autumn and experience a very special seasonal and local treat. You can find a list of New Forest Producers supplying pannage pork here.

Posted Monday, 30 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

At Well Seasoned, as you know, we love our jam and preserves. One highlight of our seasonal calendar, in January (when the Christmas and New Year festivities are but distant memories) is the short season for Seville oranges, the key ingredient of marmalade. Now, wherever possible on this blog our focus is on British seasonal produce but there are some things that just don't grow in the UK and oranges, unsurprisingly, are one of them. We excuse ourselves on the grounds that, despite the continental provenance of the fruit, marmalade is quintessentially British; a cup of tea, a thick slice of brown bread with generous layers of butter and home made marmalade is what Sunday mornings were made for. If you've already been dabbling in the kitchen and reckon you've come up with a winner you could enter The World Marmalade Festival which is taking place in Cumbria next month (12 & 13th February). And if you've yet to warm up your jam thermometer, you'll need to get your skates on. Seville oranges are in the shops now but you'll probably only be able to buy them for another couple of weeks. Oh, and make sure you make enough to last you through to January 2013! Here's our favourite marmalade recipe.

Posted Thursday, 26 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

By any standards we've had a very mild winter. Our trees and flowers are reacting to only light frosts and an almost complete lack of snow by flowering much earlier that they normally do. There are signs of an early Spring all around us with snowdrops, cherry blossom and daffodils all making appearances well before the end of January. Unusual as it may seem, such early blossoming is far from unprecedented and indeed for many years people have celebrated the first signs of Spring around this time. The 2000 year old Imbolc Fire Festival in Huddersfield is a great example of an ancient pagan Spring festival brought back to life for modern times. An procession of torches, fire sculptures and fireworks all feature in the proceedings as well as a theatrical battle between the Green Man of Spring and Jack Frost of Winter (with the crowd hoping that the Green Man will be victorious, making way for the new green shoots of Spring). If you fancy welcoming Spring in with a pagan twist, the festival runs from noon to midnight on 4th February and starts at Marsden station.

Posted Tuesday, 17 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

If you're a regular (and careful) reader of the blog you may just have worked out that, a long, long time ago, the Twig was an oceanography student at Southampton University. He's always looking for an excuse to see if the cafeteria chips are still up to the same high standard and this March there's a good opportunity.

The oceans cover almost three-quarters of the Earth’s surface, yet little more than one percent of the deep ocean floor has been explored in detail: we know more about the surface of Mars than the ocean floor. 17th March 2012 is Ocean & Earth day and the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton is opening its doors to the general public to tell people a bit more about what they do to uncover the mysteries of the blue planet.

Visitors to Ocean & Earth Day will get the chance to go aboard a working research vessel, operate an underwater vehicle, visit the aquarium, take a closer look at fossils and sea life and listen to fascinating and informative talks. You can also eat chips in the cafeteria.

Click here for more details on the NOC & Ocean and Earth Day.

Posted Monday, 16 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The Twig really enjoyed his radio appearance on BBC Oxford over the weekend. In a six minute slot we managed to cover cheese, pheasant, rhubarb and cupcakes! If you missed the show you can catch it again HERE for the next week or so (our bit starts at 1h 24m).

Posted Monday, 9 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

In John Buchan's 1925 novel, 'John Macnab', three rich but bored London gentlemen decide to go poaching on Scottish game estates. Over time this led to something known as the Macnab Challenge where country sports enthusiasts aim to bag a stag, a brace of grouse and a salmon, all within a 24-hour period. Clearly those kind of activities don't come cheap and the Well Seasoned team are unlikely to be undertaking the Macnab Challenge any time soon. However, last weekend we were invited to try something a little more within our reach, known as the McDougal.

Taking place in leafy Sussex rather than the craggy glens of Scotland, the McDougal is run by Doug Chalmers at his small sporting estate just outside Battle in East Sussex. The aim of his Macnab-inspired challenge is to go rough shooting in the morning to bag a cock pheasant then, over lunch, to use its tail feathers to tie, unassisted, a fishing fly known as a "pheasant tail nymph". After lunch, you then have to use your own hand-tied fly to catch a trout in one of the estate's two lakes.

Never ones to turn down a challenge, on Saturday morning, whilst the sun was just rising, our team of four set off for deepest, darkest Sussex to the very spot where the Saxon Army camped before the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It was mild, dry and bright with a gentle breeze - perfect for a day in the countryside - and, as we joined Doug and head keeper Roy in the fishing lodge for bacon sandwiches, coffee and our safety briefing, we knew we were in for a treat. At around 10am we set off. Throughout the morning, as we strolled through the fields, hedges and woodlands of the 85 acre estate, several pheasants noisily took to the air but the majority of them were hens rather than the cock pheasants we needed for the challenge. By lunchtime, the low number of cock pheasants combined with some pretty shoddy shooting skills meant we had bagged 8 birds in total with only two cock birds - only two of the team were still in with a chance of completing the McDougal. Nevertheless, for them, the challenge was on!

After a hearty lunch of venison stew, apple pie and a glass or two of red wine we plucked some of the impressive, long tail feathers from the cock pheasants and were introduced to the ancient art of fly tying. As you might expect, Doug's decades of experience made it look very easy. Tiny snippets of feathers, some fine wire and a small brass bead were tied onto the tiny fishing hook to resemble the freshwater nymphs that typically inhabit the chalk streams of southern England. The rules of the challenge are simple but strict - you have to catch the trout with your own fly. If you lose it in the grass (a common fate for first time fly fishermen) you have to find it or tie another one. There's no borrowing from the kit box if you want to be a successful McDougler.

After 30 minutes or so of patient tuition, we all had something that could just about be said to resemble a fly and so, on the dot of 2pm, we set off towards the lakes armed with our rods. We were a bit sceptical - not only was our fly-tying handiwork pretty poor, but January is also a hard time to catch trout. At this time of year they usually move towards deeper water where it is marginally warmer and the fish are suspicious of flies because there aren't naturally many of them around in the winter. Yet, incredibly, Nick, one of our number, with his very first cast, found himself reeling in a decent sized fish - a beautiful, silver rainbow trout. The rest of the team looked on enviously as he played the fish into the landing net. Sadly for him, he already knew he wasn't going to be a McDougler because he'd failed in the morning's quest for a pheasant. But he'd shown us that it could be done and, fired up, the rest of us set about casting our own.

Within forty minutes there were two more fish in the bag but both from the pheasant-less anglers. The mild, calm weather meant we were having an unseasonably good day on the trout. Surely it was only a matter of time before one of the two challenge contenders caught their own? Unfortunately, they were demonstrating rather less natural talent with the rods. Despite more patient mentoring from Doug and his team, the trout just weren't going for their flies. Mind you, it helps if your fly is actually in the water; Tom, one of the contenders, did indeed manage to get his fly snagged on the lawn behind him and lost a good 20 minutes of fishing time doggedly hunting for his hook which he knew to be "somewhere in the grass". After a full two hours of arm-aching casting they were still without a nibble and reluctantly reeled in at 4pm when the whistle blew to signal the end of the challenge.

So, challenge failed but honours fairly even among the team, we returned to the lodge for tea and cakes. We weren't too disheartened; only something like 1 in 6 successfully complete the challenge and the day would hardly have had the same excitement if we'd be guaranteed success. We left the estate well fed, with a brace of birds each and three trout between us, all of which would be prepared for the pot over the weekend. All in all, a wonderful day out in some beautiful countryside and, as we crunched up the estate's gravel driveway back to our cars, we firmly resolved to return next year for another attempt.

Both fishing and shooting are emotive subjects and rightly prompt people to consider the moral issues involved. Killing your own food, and shooting it in particular, is obviously not something to be taken lightly but we strongly feel that, done properly, these are some of the most defensible ways of gathering and eating your food. The birds we shot and the fish that we caught had all lived wild or virtually wild lives and had been as happy and free range as it is possible to be. They were then swiftly and humanely dispatched, every one of them to be savoured by the person who caught or shot it and who appreciates its value even more so because of that. If you're a principled vegetarian then you are unlikely ever to think that killing your own food is right. On the other hand, if we eat any meat or fish (and 95% of the population do), our duty must be to ensure that the animals we eat live comfortable lives and are treated with respect. Wild or near-wild animals live happier lives that any of their farmed cousins and, provided we can be confident of a quick dispatch when the time comes, it's hard to see how that is not a better alternative. If you ever get the opportunity to go shooting or fishing for your own food, do at least consider it. Taking an active part in the catching of fish and the shooting of game is a great way to get into our beautiful British countryside and to appreciate, first hand, the source of your food.

Posted Monday, 28 November 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Last week we were told that Jamie Oliver's latest restaurant, Union Jacks, was open for business. With rumours of it being an all new British food concept, we jumped to it.

Not content with Jamie's Italian, which now boasts some 20 branches across the UK, the nation's favourite Essex Boy has teamed up with Chris Bianco (owner of Pizzeria Bianco in the US) and decided that what the country really needs is a new pizza joint. Sorry, not pizza but "British flats" ("I'm churning pizzas out in the Italian, so we've got to come up with something completely different. Only, not that different because Mr Bianco here only knows about pizza"). The restaurant had a soft launch on 11 November and is now in full swing.

"Where wood-fired flatbreads meet great British flavours" is pretty much all the sparse Union Jack's website tells you. Beyond that, there's very little online about what Jamie is trying to achieve with this place. So, armed with virtually no information but looking forward to a "journey of discovery through Britain" and Jack's promise to "reintroduce you to familiar flavours, cooked and presented the Union Jacks way" last Friday night we made our way through London's bustling Theatreland to the new St Giles complex in Covent Garden to see what was cooking.

A 360 degree glass sided box at the bottom of an ultra modern office block (upper floors still unoccupied) is always going to be hard to put your stamp on, but from the outside the place looked fresh and was certainly full. We were greeted by a lively, young waitress who showed us to our formica table where we sat on two artfully distressed 70's style school chairs. In the open plan kitchen behind us we could see a large wood-fired pizza oven and above it, on a large American diner-type display, the menu. What utterly baffled us was what the vibe of this place was meant to be. Is it a seaside cafe? A 70s tea shop? Or a When Harry Met Sally style diner? It was all just rather confused.

Dodgy decor aside, the menu is commendably brimming with locally-sourced produce. All of the feature ingredients are achingly British (Cornish sardines, Westcombe Cheddar, Norfolk chicken livers) and the cheery Britpop soundtrack which accompanied our meal hammered home the point that the decor didn't - this is England (or Britain), definitely not Italy - got that?

An impressive list of British wines, beers and ciders is on offer to accompany your chosen slice of green and pleasant land and the menu generously lists all of the restaurant's regional suppliers, down to the chap who sells the wood for the ovens. The main course menu consists entirely of the aforementioned British flats - that is, a flat bread creatively topped with British ingredients including, in each case, a British cheese, and we jumped straight in with a Red Ox (oxtail & brisket, slow braised in Worcestershire sauce, Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, watercress & fresh horseradish) and a Woodman (mixed field & wild mushrooms, Westcombe Cheddar, pickled red onion, tarragon & chervil). The Red Ox was rich and flavoursome with a decent peppery kick from both the watercress and the horseradish. But the Red Leicester cheese became a bit cloying after a few slices and it was rather like eating a giant cheese on toast with Worcester sauce (excellent midnight feast, just not necessarily something to pay twelve quid for). The Woodman mushrooms were succulent and chunky but again it was let down by the cheese and by the end of the main course we could feel our arteries clogging. 

The Italians are rather good at doing pizza and have been at it for quite a long time so they know a thing or two about this and it's not by chance that mozerella is a pizza cheese. It stays soft and light when baked and does not share the same rich fattiness as hard cheeses. Understandably, having decided that this is a British restaurant, Jamie wants to use British cheese. Now, that's wholly laudable and there are plenty of great British cheeses out there that work brilliantly on pizza, but Jamie isn't using them. In the same way as the decor, it just feels rather hastily put together when a bit more time could have yielded something much more rounded.

For pudding, we were tempted by the treacle tart and retro Arctic Roll but opted for a couple of scoops of home made ice cream - one Marathon/Snickers and one of Earl Grey tea - and a pot of tea. The ice creams were both delicious, perfectly textured and a great balance of flavour and creaminess. Our pot of tea came in a knitted tea cosy; a final fluffy reminder (just in case we'd forgotten) that even peach and mango fruit tea can still be so very English. Pukka.

Top marks for the idea (obviously, you won't get any argument from us that British food, or at least British ingredients, is 100% where it's at) and top marks for service (friendly, professional and attentive throughout) but a bit more time is needed both on the menu and the surroundings to keep this particular flag flying.

Posted Monday, 14 November 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

In parts of France between October and November when it gets damp, but the remainder of the summer warmth keeps the chill off your backs, whole villages decamp to the forests with long sticks, big baskets and a competitive streak usually reserved for the rugby pitch. Having experienced both the rugby and the aggressive foraging culture of the rural Massif Central, it's a small miracle I'm here to bore you with the stories.

Waking up sore and hungover from the previous day's game, I was often confronted by team mates with a totally unnatural desire (for most rugby players) pour aller chercher les champignons. Bit weird to be honest. But, the cepe/porcini/penny bun was the prize treasure amongst the many woods and we'd spend hours poking around trying to find the small brown protrusions in the moss that often signalled a vast beast of a cepe tucked under the carpet. It was excitement, almost like no other. Almost like Lucille, almost like Elodie, almost like trying to hide the fact you were an Englishman every Saturday afternoon when the whistle went. We'd usually collect a basket-full that would see most London restaurant's through a lunch and dinner service, then head back for a hastily prepared omelette aux cepes, half a baguette and a couple of coupes rouges. And we were the amateurs. Most of the village were out before (or more likely instead of) work, trying to get the march on their neighbours but never leading the competition to the stash; they'd collect to sell to the local mushroom trader who would be round in his van every lunchtime, with the day's price, buying crateloads of these things.

So what? The French are more committed foragers? They connect with their flora and fauna, then eat more of it than us? They should work more and forage less? Mais oui rosbif. Bully for them, we'll get over it. And there are plenty of mushrooms to be found in the UK - cepes, girolles, chanterelles, field mushrooms (they need a better name), tromps de mort, morels; we've got them all and probably fewer people to find them.

Now, fungi love warm and damp and as most of you will know, autumn is traditionally the season for mushroom foraging. Unfortunately though, this year's Indian summer has meant the season got off to a pretty bad start. Most of us have walked through dry undergrowth and brown ferns in the last few weeks and this has coincided with an almost total lack of 'shroom. Fortunately the onset of the wetter weather has encouraged the fungi to fire it up and the season has now begun in earnest. If you're out in the next few weeks, particularly in the beech woods or on the big mossy carpets of the New Forest keep your eyes open. And make sure you defend your patch against any aggressive Frenchmen.

There is lots of good info on the web, but make sure you positively ID your quarry before getting to work in the kitchem. Try this website, amongst plenty of others, for some good beta:

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

Posted Thursday, 13 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

On Tuesday evening we went to the Delfina in achingly trendy Bermondsey Street, London. This part of town has seen something of a renaissance in recent years, partly due to the arty set that has moved in (just this month Jay Jopling has opened White Cube, his third London gallery) but also on the foodie side of things. Its proximity to Borough Market has ensured that none of the myriad of new restaurants on the street has an excuse not to serve excellent quality seasonal produce.

Delfina, part restaurant, part gallery, has a very good kitchen that has served a decent menu for some time now but this week's event was something a bit different. The entire evening was themed around honey.

We kicked off with cocktails, rum or vodka with various combinations of honey lemon and lime. As we nibbled on crab and ham hock canapés, each with subtle honey flavours, we chatted to Dale Gibson, our host for the evening. Dale is a resident of Bermondsey Street. He's a stockbroker by day and beekeeper by evening and weekends (and any other spare time). His "micro brand" Bermondsey Street Honey was recently voted Best Restaurant Honey at the London Honey Show.

As we sat down to dinner, Dale began a fascinating seminar on how, on the roof of his Bermondsey Street house, he keeps up to 280,000 (though currently nearer 160,000) bees in just four hives, producing an astonishing 80 kg of honey. When asked how many hives he'd like to have he candidly tells us that "four is the absolute maximum - unless I also want a divorce." Dale's bees scour the South East London area which is surprisingly rich in flowering plants and trees. Most plentiful around Bermondsey Street are apparently willow and local garden flowers. Naturally, the taste and fragrance of the flowers that the bees collect from is reflected in the honey produced.

Delfina's kitchen is not in use full time so, in exchange for a regular supply of honey, Dale has access to the food-grade preparation facility that he needs in order to sell his honey to the public. The stock markets are very low at the moment but, even so, it's hard to see Bermondsey Street Honey replacing Dale's day job. It's clearly a labour of love for him rather than a scalable business. That's not to say he doesn't take the quality of his honey very seriously though. Other interesting snippets came out over dinner. Did you know, for example, that it is something of a country tradition that a pound of honey should never cost more than an agricultural labourer's hourly wage?

After the talk, and surrounded by bee-themed pictures and paintings, we tucked into a very well constructed honey-themed menu. Our starter was a honey, fig and shallot tart. Main course was braised shoulder of Norfolk pork with a mouth-watering honey and bramble apple gratin. Finally, we finished with a stunning Williams pear and vanilla cheesecake with honey sorbet. Our three courses were accompanied by three very different but expertly matched wines, each with unmistakable notes of honey.

All in all, a great evening and a fascinating insight into the ancient world of beekeeping in a very modern setting. Proceeds from the evening went to Keeper's Lodge, a Kennington based community project. All of the dishes have been added to Delfina's menu until 11 November.

Posted Monday, 10 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

We had a great time at the Pumpkin Festival this weekend, selling (and selling out!) our Autumn Pesto. More details to follow on the blog in due course but, in the meantime, you can see a selection of our photos from the day on our Facebook page.

Posted Thursday, 6 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

As you might have seen from our events calendar, just before Halloween, on the last Sunday of October, an age-old festival takes place in the village of Hinton St George in Somerset. We love the story behind this festival which is recorded in local legend.

A local fair traditionally took place during the day at nearby Chiselborough, some three and a half miles to the east of Hinton. The men of the village would always go to the fair to do business but inevitably they failed to return home at the end of the day having done a bit too much "business" in the local hostelries! The wives of the village would then have to go looking for them (or, if some versions are to be believed, to scare them into coming home!) and would carry home-made lanterns carved out of roots and turnips known as "punkies". The annual "event" became a local joke, soon to be preserved in folklore as Punky Night.

These days it is a (comparatively) sober affair with the children of the village parading through the streets with lanterns and singing the traditional song:

It's Punky Night Tonight
It's Punky Night Tonight
Give us a Candle, give us a light
It's Punky Night Tonight

It's Punky Night Tonight
It's Punky Night Tonight
Adam and Eve won't believe
It's Punky Night Tonight

Posted Tuesday, 20 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

We had planned, in the third and final installment of our Esssex Food Odyssey, to tell you about Maldon Sea Salt. On our final day, we went looking for the producers of that fine seasoning but have to confess that, whilst we searched for high and low, we couldn't find them! We only found their distribution centre and so, somewhat disappointingly, we have nothing of any interest to report on Maldon Sea Salt other than a photo of a sign and a link to their website.

We did, however, get hold of an excellent and good value butterfly leg of lamb from the excellent Ansells' butchers in Maldon (wonderful old fashioned butchers and definitely worth buying from if you are in the area) and bbq-ed it the following night with some Maldon Sea Salt seasoning. As regular readers will be aware, we love late Summer leg of lamb as there is a decent amount of meat on it and a more developed flavour than the Spring lamb.

This was the rather ad hoc marinade we left the lamb in for 4 hours:

good slurp of olive oil
zest of 2 lemons
3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
3 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
6 garlic cloves, crushed
3 fresh bay leaves

We seasoned the lamb (approx. 2.7 kilos) before bbq-ing over a medium heat for 45 minutes or so. It came out beatuifully pink in the middle and crispy on the outside. A stunning end to our trip. And on that high note, we ended our foodie tour of Essex. As we reflected on our Odyssey, we concluded that, at lesat in respect of some foods (jam, oysters and salt!), it's really true that the only way is Essex.

Oh, and if anyone ever comes across a large sea salt plant in the area, do let us know...

Posted Friday, 9 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Last week, we reported on the first leg of our Essex Food Odyssey, including a trip to West Mersea and the Company Shed. In our latest interview we catch up with Tom Haward, proprietor of the Shed. Want to know about oyster farming? He's your man. You can read the interview HERE.

Posted Wednesday, 7 September 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  3 Comment(s)

About 8 Miles West of Mersea Island is the town of Tiptree, a name synonymous with jam, conserves and a successful British food brand.

For 125 years the Wilkin family have been making jam at their factory in Tiptree and now export it all over the World (I once found some in a hotel in Manila!). Most of the fruit is grown on their farms (including loganberry, medlers, mulberries and damson) and during the picking seasons (currently operating in earnest) holiday makers join the work force to complete the harvest. There is a little museum at the factory, together with a tea room. On our visit last weekend though, most of our time was spent in the shop and after much tasting we decided that Loganberry, narrowly pipped Little Scarlet Strawberry and Tiny Tip Raspberry as our favourite Tiptree jam.

A good jam obviously goes well with scones and later we made some scones using the recipe below:

Easy Scone Recipe

400g plain flour
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
175g soft butter
250ml buttermilk

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (Gas Mark 7). Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl. Add butter and mix until it resembles dry breadcrumbs. Add buttermilk and mix further. Roll half the dough into a ball and flatten on a surface covered with flour. Cut into pieces with a scone cutter. Repeat with the remaining dough. Place on baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

Posted Monday, 5 September 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

This really is the time of plenty in terms of seasonal pickings (see the September edition of the Bramble). Last week, on a forage around my parents garden and local area, I collected plums, blackberries, apples and a few late raspberries from her fruit and veg patch. The plums found their way into a crumble and the apples, blackberries and remaining raspberries became delicious flapjacks.

Have a go at this really easy fruity flapjack recipe if you have some spare apples and blackberries from a countryside walk (not that we want to encourage scrumping!):

500g apples
25g caster sugar
Plate full of blackberries
40g dark muscovoda sugar
150g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g oats

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C. Butter a 25 cm tin and line with buttered baking paper. Peel, core and slice the apples and then simmer gently with the caster sugar in a covered saucepan until soft. Stir in the blackberries. In a separate pan, gently heat and stir the golden syrup, dark muscovado sugar and butter until the sugar has dissolved and the butter melted. Stir in the oats. Use three-quarters of the oat mixture to line the tin. Pour over the apple and blackberry mixture and then cover with the remaining oats. Bake for half an hour. They'll still be a little soft when they come out the oven. Leave to cool then slice and enjoy.

Posted Saturday, 3 September 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  1 Comment(s)

Now you may spend most of your time sniggering at TOWIE when you think of Essex and not believe that the county has much to offer the world in terms of culinary leadership, but something which I have been telling people for years is that Essex is well worth visiting if you are interested in good British food. Not only is it the county that gave the world Jamie Oliver, it is also a county which produces seafood, jams and sea salt which have a reputation around the World.

Over the Bank Holiday, we went on a little road trip around Essex to explore some of the hidden corners. First up was West Mersea and the Company Shed to try some seafood and eat some of the famous Colchester Native Oysters. The Company Shed was founded 25 years ago by Heather Haward and had very humble beginnings as a fishmonger selling local oysters, cockles and mussels. Over the years it has grown to a fishmonger/BYO restaurant/food pilgrimage destination for many people beyond the boundaries of Essex. You take your own bread, wine and sauces and the Shed give you plates of fresh seafood and glasses for your wine. It is quite amazing and with the Native Oyster season just about to begin, now seems as good a time to go as any. One word of warning is that it has become quite popular and they don't take bookings; I suggest arriving early to avoid disappointment.

As we discovered, we were a week to soon for the Colchester Native Oyster season, so instead we had to settle on some delicious rock oysters (more to come on this distinction in a future blog). The best item we were served, however, was razor clams with bacon and onions. They were absolutely delicious. I am not sure how they were cooked, but at home I noticed that Mark Hix has got a good similar recipe in his book: "Seasonal Food". The razor clam season has just started and runs from about now for the next 5 or 6 months. We recommend getting stuck in if you have the chance and definitely getting yourself to West Mersea to try some of their delights.

The next instalment of the Essex Food Odyssey will follow shortly.....

Posted Thursday, 18 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The elder tree must be one of the most recognisable and versatile trees of the British countryside. From May onwards we see the clusters of little white flowers emerging, their delicate floral flavour lending itself to a wide variety of uses. Leave the flowers for a couple of months and by August/September the Summer sunshine has turned them into an abundance of little purple berries, with almost as many uses again.

Once ripe, you only have a short period of time to harvest elderberries - use them or lose them...generally to the pigeons. We've never actually seen a smiling pigeon with purple juice smeared all over its face, but they must be out there.

Now for a small confession. If our elderberries for this recipe were a work of art, they might be described in the sale catalogue as having "unconfirmed provenance". That is to say, we pilfered them. But before anyone gets too excited, we should say that the particular tree we harvested from is in a local, council-owned park. The council certainly have no interest in harvesting the berries and most years they simply go to waste. We make no apology for putting good food to good use and so, one midnight foraging session later and we're sitting on a small bucket full of elderberries.

Jam would have been a good way of destroying the evidence, as would bulking out a blackberry crumble but we wanted to try something a little different and so we made a legendary recipe known as Pontac (or Pontack) Sauce. This particular recipe is a slight variation on the one contained in the well known foragers bible Food For Free by Richard Mabey.

Pontac sauce is not meant to be a thick ketchup but something more akin to Worcester sauce. It has a fruity, peppery taste and goes particularly well with game, especially venison and liver. A few dashes will spice up any gravy or casserole. It famously mellows with age and is reputed to be at its best after seven years. In fact, it will be pretty respectable after 6 months so if you get some bottled-up now, keep it in a dark cupboard and you will just be able to get it out of the larder for the end of the game season.

Unfortunately, the long maturing period does also mean that the proceeds of our crime could be around for the best part of a decade. Fingers crossed that the source of our sauce remains a secret and that we make better cooks than crooks!

Pontac Sauce Recipe

500g elderberries
500ml boiling vinegar or claret
1 onion or 200g of shallots, chopped
1 tsp salt
8 cloves
4 allspice berries
1 blade of mace
tbsp peppercorns
15g grated root ginger, bruised

Strip the berries off the stalks and place in an ovenproof dish with the vinegar (or claret). Cover, and place in a very low oven for 4-6 hours or overnight. Remove from the oven and put the berries in a saucepan with the salt, mace, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, onion and ginger, crushing the berries with a spoon or potato masher to release all the juice. Boil for 10-20 minutes. Remove, strain through a sieve. Discard what is in the sieve and return the strained liquid to the pan. Boil for another 5 minutes then bottle securely and store in a dark cupboard.

Posted Wednesday, 10 August 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

Some of the WS team were on tour again last weekend. I crossed the channel for a friend’s wedding in Toulouse and whilst our warm weather often seems to result in the local Footlocker being ransacked then burnt to the ground, the heat and humidity of the Haute-Garonne (an area just north of the Pyrenees about 400km from Barcelona) appears to encourage people to grow some pretty special tomatoes.

Whilst my plants at home have struggled through the summer (“not enough soil” says the Twig), the market tables in Place Capitole in Toulouse were heaving under the weight of some really gnarly, beastly looking fruits (almost certainly a number of varieties of Heritage and Marmande in some extraordinary colours).

I know it's not the 1990s, Floyd isn't on the box anymore (RIP) and that we're all spending our summer holidays in teepees in Cornwall, but France and the French still do it for me every now and again. Gazing at the tomatoes in the market I had a bit of an RSM* when I thought of the insipid, underripe, flavourless, anaemic pish that we’re often sold by supermarkets over here.

However, I quickly pulled myself together when I remembered that we can grow (and I regularly buy) some very flavoursome, cooler-climate varieties of our own. Granted, we don’t have the sunshine to ripen the monstrous beefsteaks, but there is much to appreciate in the British tomato. The stats below (via the British Tomato Growers’ Association) show the type of tommies we grow in the UK and confirm that we very much favour the smaller, cool-climate varieties:

Classic 48%
Cherry 19%
Cocktail 11%
Plum (baby plum, midi plum and large plum) 21%
Beef 1%

But this does not mean that our fruits lack flavour. Far from it. Left to ripen fully, they have a deep, sweet, satisfying flavour that is magnificent and British. The majority of basic tomatoes imported from overseas have often been picked very quickly so that they’re firm, travel well, but taste dreadful. Don't waste your time. Do your best to find and support UK growers by asking for British varieties at the supermarket, heading to the farmers’ market or growing your own.

I have a summer obsession with a quick and easily-tumbled-together salad of heritage tomatoes, some sweet red onion, thyme leaves, good olive oil, quality red-wine vinegar (the current favourite, flavour savour) and some Maldon sea salt. Mopped up with a hunk of sourdough, this makes for an amazing weekend afternoon snack.

Keep it red, juicy and seasonal!

* Rick Stein Moment – noun. Spontaneous, critical rant focussed on the lack of quality produce sold in the UK, usually accompanied by an increasingly ruddy complexion (or sunburn), mild sweating and a restaurant plug.

Posted Wednesday, 13 July 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

A couple of weeks ago we were all due to celebrate Alex’s wedding in glorious Hampshire sunshine. The setting was idyllic over-looking the Test which was busy with swans paddling up and down and swallows gliding along the surface catching the flies hovering above the water. Hampshire trout, lamb and Summer berries were all part of a suitably seasonal menu: Alex’s choices certainly showed that he lives by the Well Seasoned views he espouses.

Being a Well Seasoned wedding, and given that the ceremony wasn’t until the afternoon, a few of us (without Alex, who rightly considered it could be a little 'undiplomatic') judged there to be ample time to bag a few pigeons before the nuptials got under way.

June and July aren’t the greatest pigeon months, but through a friend at wherewisemenshoot we found ourselves in a promising hide with a suitable number of decoys prepared. Our anticipation was high.... but it turned out to be misplaced as very few pigeons came anywhere near the decoys all morning, and those that did continued largely unscathed (we put it down to sympathy pre-wedding nerves). After two and a half hours we had talked about a lot of rubbish and bagged just two pigeons.

Two pigeons don't go very far between six people which was a shame as I was hoping to try the pigeon, beetroot and watercress salad recipe below. This will obviously have to wait until the proper pigeon season gets going in August when the stubble is out. We might even be able to persuade Alex to join us then....

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 seasoned pigeon breasts
225g beetroot
A knob of butter
50g toasted hazelnuts
2-3 teaspoons mix of summer herbs (e.g. thyme, tarragon and parsley)
2 large handfuls of summer leaves including watercress

For the dressing:

100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard
A pinch of sugar Seasoning

Cooking:

1. Slice the beetroot into small wedges and parboil for 15-20 minutes.
2. Warm the butter in a pan on a high-ish heat and add the drained beetroot wedges.
3. Season and sauté until they start caramelising (10 minutes).
4. Turn the heat up and add the pigeon breasts to the pan, cooking them for 1-2 minutes a side (they should still be a little pink in the middle).
5. Remove the pigeon and beetroot from the heat and mix up the dressing using all of the above ingredients and any pan juices left over from the pigeon and beetroot.
6. Slice the pigeon and toss with the beetroot, nuts, herbs, leaves and dressing.

The lack of pigeons also means we don't have a picture for you, so you'll have to put up with an old picture of some pan-fried pigeon breast and horseradish (also delicious). We thought about a picture of Alex in his wedding kit too. Unfortunately the photographer was only there for five hours so there aren't many good ones :)

Posted Monday, 11 July 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

This weekend I took my wife for a weekend away in Cartmel to celebrate her birthday. Cartmel and South Lakeland has developed a bit of a reputation as a food pilgrims’ paradise with loads of wonderful local produce and products coming from the surrounding area. Morecombe Bay produces delicious clams and potted shrimps, whilst Cartmel is home of a national pub favourite, the Sticky Toffee pudding. There is also a Michelin starred restaurant called L’Enclume and many other good pubs and restaurants in the town.

However, what really caught my eye was the beautiful Cartmel racecourse which is only a minute’s walk from the town centre. This Thursday there is a BBQ raceday at Cartmel and it is a great shame that we have had to return from our weekend away in South Lakeland.

For anyone in the area, I suggest getting to Cartmel this Thursday for a splendid Summer afternoon’s racing with a BBQ, finished off with some excellent sticky toffee pudding.

For everyone else, try the Cartmel Village Shop online to get your fill of specialist sticky toffee pudding.

Posted Wednesday, 6 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Did you know that there are wild boar, alive and well in the British countryside? We're not talking about farmed animals here but genuinely wild beasts. The breed itself is known as "wild boar" so, even where it has been farm-reared, the retailers will use the 'wild' name. However, many people will be surprised to learn that there are actual wild ones (wild wild boar?) roaming free in the UK.

In the past, large numbers of boar inhabited our woods and fields. The Tudors loved to hunt them and a spit roast wild boar was the centrepiece of many a mediaeval knees-up. Sadly, some time in the 17th Century, British boar were hunted to extinction and nothing was seen of them for many years. But then, in the 1980s, boar farms breeding imported animals were established in Britain. In several incidents, most notably the great storm of 1987, some of the animals escaped and in a few rare cases they were able to establish themselves as free-living populations. Although there is some debate as to how widespread they are, since around 1990 breeding populations have existed in our countryside and are now certainly established in Kent, Sussex, Dorset and the Forest of Dean.

The boar are extremely wary, generally venturing out only at night. However, they cause problems for a number of groups including farmers and estate managers, who have to deal with the damage they do to the land (boar feed in the same way as pigs, quickly reducing the ground to a hummocky quagmire) and ramblers who, on several occasions have startled boar with their dogs, unexpectedly finding themselves in the middle of a canine/porcine rumpus.

Because the boar are extremely hardy and have no natural predators, most land managers agree that they need to be culled in the same ways as deer. This ensures a healthy population and limits the damage they do to crops, land and fencing. The upside for us foodies is that, if you know where to get it, truly wild boar meat is a seriously tasty, free range and organic feast. Really wild boar breed during the Summer and so, while there isn't a legal season for them, you'll probably have to wait until September to eat any.

Pete, an estate wildlife manager in the Kent/Sussex countryside, has been monitoring the boar in the area for several years now and recently sent us this amazing picture of a whole family captured by the night vision cameras he has been using to track them. There is a healthy debate surrounding the boar and whether (or to what degree) their populations should be kept in check by hunting. Some farmers would prefer to eradicate them altogether but Pete sees the boar on his estate most weeks and has no doubt that they are in the area to stay. His view is that it's great to see these magnificent beasts roaming the British countryside again and that a control programme which maintains a healthy wild population whilst providing us with the occasional meaty treat, is the answer. We couldn't agree more.

Posted Monday, 4 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Meat is the new clubbing. Well, possibly not (although, insert your own joke here about mutton dressed as lamb) but last Friday we opted out of the usual after-work entertainment to head up to North London for a date with a dead sheep.

One of the buzz words you'll have heard a lot in the last few years is "reconnecting" people with their food. The advent of supermarkets and the increase in city dwelling has meant people, and children especially, no longer appreciate where food comes from, or what has to be done to it to put it on your plate. A five minute walk from Regents Park station brings us to the London home of a company doing something about this, the Ginger Pig. The Ginger Pig is well-known amongst London foodies and warriors of the new food revolution. Combining earthy, real farming on the Yorkshire Moors with a presence in hip Borough Market and the rather swanky Marylebone butchers that we found ourselves in, it's very much "on trend" when it comes to putting people back in touch with what they're eating.

The Ginger Pig's butchery master classes, taught by two resident butchers Perry and Borut, introduce foodies to basic butchery and food preparation techniques for their choice of beef, pork or lamb. We had opted for the lamb course with a view to honing our knife skills before the Autumn season.

It really was fascinating stuff. After a brief introductory talk, a whole lamb carcass was slapped down onto the slab in front of us and we were shown how to prepare all of the major lamb cuts, plus several lesser-known ones. By the end of the presentation, our heads were swimming with all the butchery terms that Perry and Borut have spent a lifetime learning: scrag end, middle, best end, haunch, saddle, shank... the list went on and on, certainly too much to take in in one go. Thankfully, the groups are kept to a maximum of eleven, meaning everyone had the chance to ask questions of the butchers as we went along.

But the lesson went well beyond just carving the thing up. We learned how the lamb had made it to the slab in the first place and how the nature of the meat changes over time, and through the seasons, from the delicate Spring lamb through to the slightly hardier Autumn lamb, then hogget, and then, after two years, mutton. We chatted through the different parts of the animal and how what the muscles do dictates the proper cooking process - hard working leg and shoulder muscles need longer cooking whereas the back meat, which generally does less work, can be cooked rather quicker.

All of our questions were easily and patiently answered by the two professionals who are clearly immersed the in world of quality meat production. Did you know, for example, that the breed of sheep has very little to do with the flavour of your meat? Whilst it might dictate the amount of fat on your cut, the flavour almost entirely comes down to the animal's feed. That's why Autumn lamb has a fuller flavour than Spring lamb - because it has been given time to mature and eat quality grass over the Summer. The Spring lamb is more expensive only because it's the first of the season.

After butchering the carcass as a group, we rolled up our sleeves and got on with our individual task for the evening which was boning and rolling a whole shoulder of lamb each. Up to this point, butchery had all looked rather easy but it will hardly surprise you to learn that we managed to make a hash of it. Perry had neatly boned and prepped his shoulder in a little under 10 minutes (and even then it was clear he was taking his time for our benefit). We took twice as long to produce far less presentable results. Following several patient reminders on how to tie the authentic butchers knot (a skill that we never actually mastered. We have to come clean and say that, as time pressed on, we sneakily resorted to a couple of half hitches) we finished off our joints and threw a table cloth over the slab for dinner. We then had a delicious supper of hogget that had been slow cooking since 5pm that afternoon. It goes without saying that the meat was excellent. After four hours in the oven it could practically be talked off the bone. Perhaps less expected was the excellent bread and butter pudding that Borut brought out to finish off the evening.

All of this, we should say, was accompanied by several relaxing glasses of red wine and some great chat (which unsurprisingly revolved around the group's collective love of food.) At the end of the evening, we each took home our huge rolled shoulder (easily enough to feed 5 people and, incidentally, worth around £50 on its own) and convinced ourselves, through a Cab-Sav induced haze, that butchery definitely was a potential career move. At £135 per person it's hardly cheap but it's pretty good value, and if you're looking for a gift for a London foodie, a butchery master class should be near the top of your shopping list.

Posted Sunday, 26 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

So, this last weekend we were in Glastonbury. The unique meteorological conditions (biblical rain for two days followed by 48 hours of scorching sunshine) meant a rare opportunity to come home with both trench-foot and severe sunburn.

Yes, it was horrendously wet and muddy at times, but as we like to say (whilst, admittedly, sounding like our granddads) there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing and preparation. Some sturdy footwear and decent wet weather gear meant we could still enjoy what is truly a global showcase of musical talent. You can see and read plenty about the music in the national press so we wont bang on about it here. Suffice to say there's pretty much something for everyone and so, if you're into your music, of any kind, you'll be missing out if you don't make it to Glastonbury at least once in your life.

On to then food then and, having not been for two years, we were actually very pleasantly surprised. It really did feel like the seasonal, local message was getting through in places. For every greasy burger van (of which there are still plenty!) there was a stall purveying one or more regionally-sourced speciality such as Welsh venison burgers, Somerset pork sausages and even free range British ostrich steaks.

Perhaps the best part of it though, was that each of these products was competing keenly on price with said greasy burger. It's really no longer the case of twice the price for an organic beef burger, but possibly £6.50 competing with £6.

As the size of the quality food market increases, simple economics dictates that the price differential between it and the cheaper stuff also gets squeezed. The end result is a much easier choice for festival-goers deliberating between an anonymous bacon butty and an outdoor-reared porker from a local farm for an extra few pence.

There's no Glastonbury next year but we'll be returning in 2013 and we'll let you know if the seasonal revolution has continued at the same pace. If it has, we're unlikely to go hungry.

Posted Monday, 20 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Last week the Well Seasoned team were at Royal Ascot. The world famous annual race meeting celebrates the very best of horse racing and fashion. Ascot week can normally be relied on to be sunny and still. Not this year! Squally rain and showers dominated the weather on Wednesday and Friday with at least some heavy rain on every other day. The WS team did have the odd flutter and came out on top (though sadly not enough to make up for the ticket price!)

As ever, we had one eye on the food and were given some staggering statistics. We're still waiting to hear the final numbers for 2011 but in 2010 the following quantities were consumed over the 5 day meeting:

• 48,992 bottles of champagne
• 63,746 glasses of Pimms
• 162,736 draught pints of beer
• 35,000 strawberry scones
• 1,400 kilos of fresh lobsters
• 25,000 local spears of asparagus
• 6,780 punnets of strawberries

Recession? What recession?

Posted Sunday, 12 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

This weekend we cycled 35km through South London starting from Greenwich. After a rainy start to the day we weren't that optimistic about the weather but it turned into a wonderfully bright and warm afternoon.

In early June Britain is straddling Spring and Summer and you can see this in the plants and shrubs all over the countryside. This shot of a bramble bush captures the point where blackberry flowers are just turning into recognisable berries. The revolution has begun and will continue all though Summer.

Around September time this green, hairy unappetising berry will be a juicy, dark purple one. We can't wait.

Posted Monday, 6 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

As you'll know if you follow our Twitter feed, our first scallop dive of the season was meant to be last month but was cancelled due to high winds. Such a shame but that's seasonality for you!

Last weekend, after several more weeks of anticipation, we finally made it to the South coast with our dive kit. We took our charter boat Atlanta, with experienced skipper Dave Pitman, out of Weymouth harbour and were destined for one of our favourite scallop spots - the Lulworth Banks, a flat, sandy area of seabed outside Lulworth Cove and near to the famous (if you did GCSE Geography) Durdle Door. Unfortunately, the weather was again to foil our carefully made plans. Having checked the weather forecast Dave told us that, although the dive was techincally still do-able, we probably wouldnt want to 'unless you want to see your breakfast again'. High winds and choppy seas had conspired to put the Banks off-limits. Thankfully, all was not lost. Dave knew a smaller scallop bed, just outside Weymouth harbour in the lee of the the Isle of Portland. There the boat would be sheltered from the highest winds and we'd have a much more comfortable day of it. It goes to show how a little bit of local knowledge can be a very valuable thing.

After a 20 minute motor out of Weymouth harbour we were kitted up and ready to dive. We dropped into the water (I would love to add “gracefully” or “elegantly” here but any of you who know about diving in the UK will also know that such things are impossible - check out this short video clip) and descended the 10m or so to the seabed. Our 50 minutes dive yielded about 50 legal-sized (at least 10cm across the shell) scallops.

If you ever find yourself doubting the mantra that fresh British seasonal food is best, I would urge you to try a fresh South coast hand-dived scallop and compare it to a foreign, dredged, frozen, supermarket one. There is absolutely no competition – an embarrassing Round One, knock-out defeat of the foreign contender. Victory to the eco-friendly British heavyweight.

On the topic of scallop dredging; we have dived previously on areas of the South Coast where dredging has taken place and the damage caused is horrific. If an equivalent activity was permitted on land where the eco-conscious public could see the result, it would be banned in weeks. A huge metal frame with spring loaded claws is dragged along the seabed, tearing up all in its path. It’s wholesale plunder of the seabed on an industrial scale and it devastates the entire area for years. If you are buying scallops, ask if they are hand-dived and, if not, think about choosing something else. And as a tip, restaurants pay a premium for the best scallops and so if your menu doesn't say that they are 'hand dived' or 'diver caught' then they almost certainly aren't.

Scallop cerviche:

A cerviche is a classic south American dish. If science is your thing, we are informed that the citrus juices denature the proteins in a similar way to cooking, meaning that no heat is needed. As it happens, scallops can be eaten raw anyway provided they are very fresh (we tried some completely raw on the way back into harbour and can thoroughly recommend it) so there’s no problem marinating for a very short time if you need to. This recipe is our own twist on the dish and serves four as a starter.

10-12 good sized hand-dived scallops, trimmed and quartered. Clean and reserve 4 shells to serve in.
Juice of 2 limes, 1 lemon and 1 orange
1 shallot or small red onion, sliced very thinly
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 fresh green jalapeno chilli, deseeded and sliced very thinly
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 level teaspoon unrefined sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1/2 tablespoon coriander, chopped

Combine all of the ingredients apart from the herbs in a bowl or plastic tub (not metal because it can taint the flavour). Ensure the scallops are submerged in the liquid. Marinate for half an hour. Stir in the chopped herbs and spoon the finished cerviche into the four cleaned shells to serve.

Posted Thursday, 2 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Following our big weekend fishing trip, we thought you might like to know what happened to the mackerel that didn't get barbecued on the beach. Well, the Twig's brother, who's a dab hand at these things, gave us this great recipe for a very simple smoked mackerel pate.

You can buy (or make) a smoker very cheaply and it really adds an extra dimension to a number of foods, especially fish. We went with an oak sawdust to create a really rich flavour which accompanies the strong horseradish very well.

• 400g smoked mackerel fillets
• 250ml crème fraîche
• 2-3 tbsp grated or creamed horseradish
• Zest and juice of half a lemon
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp chopped dill 

Skin and bone the smoked fish then blend in a liquidizer (or mash well with a fork) with all the other ingredients and chill in a bowl or ramekins for 2 hours. Sprinkle with a little paprika for that cheffy touch and enjoy with a sourdough or brown bread toast and a squeeze of lemon.

Posted Wednesday, 1 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Chesil beach in Dorset is 18 miles long stretching from Portland to West Bay. Geologically it is a unique landmark (from my A-level days I think it’s a shingle spit but don’t quote me on that). It forms part of the truly spectacular Jurassic coast – a UNESCO world heritage site (which puts it on a par with the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon). Another feature that Chesil has, and the main reason it attracts seasonal food fans, is a steeply sloping bank into the warm (ok, it’s all relative), clear waters of the South coast. Strong currents flow up and down the beach with the tides, bringing with them, in the Summer months starting around May, large numbers of bait fish in the form of sprats and sand eels. And where there’s small fish there will be bigger ones…

From late May onwards, huge mackerel shoals patrol up and down the Chesil shoreline, hoovering up the bait fish in massive numbers. Which is great, because it means that they come close enough to be caught from the shore. What’s more, mackerel seem to have by-passed the usual evolutionary rules and developed an astonishingly relaxed attitude to eating, which means they snap at anything that passes their nose, including a big shiny hook with a feather stuck to it. All in all this makes them extremely easy to catch. Apparently in the past, shoals have been so close to the shore and so frenzied in their feeding that they have beached themselves at Chesil for lucky anglers to stock their freezers without even having to trouble the tackle box! On most occasions though, the standard kit is a casting rod with a 3oz lead weight and anything from three to six feathered hooks on the business end.

Last Friday, as reported on Twitter, we set off for Chesil beach and by mid-afternoon we were parked up in the Ferrybridge car park just of Portland. It's a steep climb up and over the back side of Chesil beach but what welcomes you at the top is an uninterrupted view of the full 18 mile stretch of beach. A truly unique sight. Three hours of fishing produced about 10 good sized fish. Not the greatest catch ever but enough to give four people a good meal and as many as we wanted.

Because mackerel are an oily fish they will cook well on the BBQ with very little accompaniment and that's exactly what we did. There really can't be much that's more satisfying than cooking a meal of fresh fish that you've caught yourself as the sun sets on a glorious early Summer's day. Magic.

Posted Monday, 9 May 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Posted Saturday, 16 April 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  2 Comment(s)

In the last two decades an alien plague has been sweeping through our rivers. The American Signal crayfish (pacifastacus leniusculus) was introduced to the UK in the 70′s. Many escaped from poorly managed crayfish farms and entered our ponds and river systems where they have wreaked havoc. Not only do the Signals compete for food with our native white clawed crayfish, they also carry a virus which, whilst harmless to the Signal, is deadly to its indigenous cousin. Worse still, the Signals have a significant impact on our fish stocks because they feed on, among other things, fish eggs.

What does all this have to do with seasonal food? Well, thankfully crayfish also happen to be delicious and they start becoming available around now. As a wild pest there is no legally-enforced season for them but they are easiest to catch from mid April through to October when the waters warm up and they become more mobile (for the colder part of the year they hibernate in riverbank burrows). The most common way to catch crayfish is to trap them. It's easy enough to get hold of traps; they come in a variety of shapes and sizes but all are designed on the same principles as lobster pots - it's easy to get in and hard to get out! Unfortunately, a sea (well, more of a pond) of red tape awaits you if you want to trap your own crayfish legally - you’ll need a licence from the Environment Agency and, to be safe, you’ll also need to read-up on the legislation which covers trapping, transporting and storing them.

Whilst the Well Seasoned team do have crayfish licences (what self-respecting foraging fanatic wouldn't?), we also have a strong sense of adventure and so decided to try something a bit different. Rather than wait for the crays to come to us, we thought we'd go in search of them. So, last week on a fairly grey afternoon, we packed our scuba gear and headed towards a lake somewhere near Heathrow airport. We'd heard rumours on the foraging grapevine that this particular lake was full of the palatable pinching pests. Crayfish are nocturnal so we waited until dark before donning our kit and plunging into the murky water (which could generously be described as "refreshingly cool"). We made our way round the edges of the lake shining our torches into every nook and cranny. Sure enough, the place was harbouring a good number of the critters, hiding under rocks, sunken logs and in burrows. As the dive went on we found more venturing out of their hiding places and into open water in search of an evening meal. We didn't catch every one we saw; they are remarkably nimble! If you don't manage to grab them at your first attempt there is a good chance they'll motor backwards with a flick of their strong tail, to be lost in a cloud of fine silt.

In the course of our 40 minute dive we managed to collect about 20 of the blighters. While underwater our neoprene gloves protected us from the worst of the nips but the odd profanity echoed around Berkshire as we transplanted them from our net collecting bags into a bucket for the return journey. Once back at the Barn the Signals were purged in fresh water for 24 hours to ensure they were free of muddy lake water (and other nasties that might be lurking in their digestive system).

If this all sounds like too much hard work you'll be pleased to hear you can also now buy crayfish live from some farmers' markets and fishmongers. Trapped crays cost the retailer very little so you can expect a bumper bag at a low cost. If they don't have them in stock they might be able to order you some in so do ask. Once you’ve caught or bought your crayfish, they are easy to prepare: the generally accepted humane way to deal with them is to put them into the freezer for half an hour (which sends them to sleep) before plunging them into a large pan of boiling water (which kills them instantly), bring it back to the boil and boil for another five minutes or so. They will turn bright red and look just like mini lobsters. Once cooked, allow them to cool and then peel in the same way as big prawns. Most meat is in the tail but with larger specimens it’s definitely worth cracking open the claws too.

You can substitute crayfish for lobster or prawns in most dishes. We kept it simple and put ours into a tasty, retro crayfish cocktail:

Wild Crayfish Cocktail (serves 4 as a starter)

20 crayfish
Fresh early salad leaves
2 tablespoons free range egg mayonnaise
1 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Pinch of mustard powder
Half a lemon

Prepare the crayfish as above. Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard powder and cayenne. Pile crayfish onto the salad leaves and cover in the spicy sauce. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice.

You'd be cray-zy (sorry) not to give crayfish a try and (if you have the kit and qualifications) night-diving for them is terrific fun. All this in the knowledge that you'll be giving the aquatic environment a helping hand at the same time. Ethical, cheap and tasty - doesn't get much better than that, does it?