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Posted Saturday, 19 May 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Voting is open for the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2012 You can win some amazing foodie prizes and even vote for your fave food blog (*cough*)

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 Monday, 23 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Today (23rd April) is St George’s Day. George was a saint, martyr, slayer of dragons and, as far as history is concerned, probably nothing whatsoever to do with England. Hagiographic uncertainties aside, St. George’s Day was traditionally a big British feast day. As we’ve commented before, it’s a shame that so many of our foodie traditions have all but died out and St George’s Day is no exception. Worse still is that fact that, as a nation, we still don't seem to be particulalry comfortable celebrating Englishness. With a bit of luck the various festivities this year will help with that.

In terms of seasonal foods to look out for, two in particular Spring to mind (geddit?) today: Asparagus and St. George’s Mushrooms. 23rd is officially the first day of the asparagus season and St. George’s Mushrooms are a rare exception to the fungi “season” which, for most UK species, is autumnal. They generally grow in grassland and woodland, particularly those on rich limestone soils. Of course, they get their name from the tradition that they first appear in the UK in mid to late April. Did you know that 23rd April is also William Shakespeare’s birthday? Doesn't get much more English than that now, does it?

If youre looking for something really English to celebrate with tonight, how about Mark Hix's Asparagus and St George's Mushroom risotto?

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

At Well Seasoned we've always been fans of "nose-to-tail eating". Fergus Henderson of restaurant St John's is famed for using the phrase as the title to his 2004 recipe book but it, and the ethical principles behind it, have actually been around for much longer. While occasionally it's been hijacked and used as an excuse for gruesome food experiments, it's really just about taking a considerate approach to our meat - if we kill animals for food, we owe it to them to eat as much of them as we comfortably can.

Sustain, the charitable alliance for better food and farming has called for the first half of May to be 'Nose-to-Tail Fortnight', and they are approaching restaurants across London to promote ethical meat to their customers by using the fortnight as an excuse to put offal and other unloved cuts on the menu. As consumers, if you're out on the town between 30 April and 14 May it's pretty easy to support the campaign - simply visit a participating restaurant and order something delicious! If you're a restaurateur and want to take part, get in touch with Sustain though their Ethical Eats website and they'll be happy to help by providing posters and publicity.

http://www.sustainweb.org/ethicaleats/

Posted Sunday, 15 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Despite persistent rumours that Spring, and even Summer, are on the way, last week the Twig came down with what seems to be a severe Winter cold, medically described as "a real stinker". As luck would have it, this weekend we came across something that might just be of help.

Sea Buckthorn is, at first glance, the plant that your mother warned you about. Bright orange berries are accompanied by inch long thorns on this incredibly hardy shrub. It can be found in most UK coastal regions, thriving in harsh, salty conditions that make other plants want to cry. Yet, for generations, those in the know have harvested Sea Buckthorn and put it to a variety of uses. Genghis Khan (a real person) and pegasus (probably not real) are among those reputed to have enjoyed the taste, or at least the medicinal benefits, of Buckthorn berries. They were probably on to something; modern analysis has shown Sea Buckthorn to have 12 times the levels of vitamin C found in oranges. It also has high levels of antioxidants, vitamin E and several other scientific-sounding things that may or may not do you lots of good.

Anyway, as we nosed our way around Blackheath Farmers market this weekend we found an enticing bottle of Sea Buckthorn cordial and had to give it a go. At £4.50 a pop (literally, in the case of the sparkling version) it's not cheap, but then if you'd gone to the effort of harvesting the stuff, you wouldn't give it away either.

Sea Buckthorn is, in it's natural state, incredibly tart but sweeten it up with a bit of sugar and add some spring water and you'll have a very refreshing, citrusy drink with a sweet taste but a slightly dry and quite grown-up aftertaste. Undiluted it would make a great addition to some fizz for a Summer cocktail and also makes an excellent jam.

If you want to harvest your own, few people will stop you because the plant has become a bit of a nuisance in places. However, do take a pair of very sturdy gloves, a bucket (very few of the berries will come off whole and it's mainly the juice you want anyway) and some plasters. You've got a couple of months to toughen you're hands up - the berries will start to show in July and will then be around until the Winter.

Our ready-to-drink Still Sea Buckthorn was purchased from Wild About Food, a small London-based company selling wild food products and wild cooking classes www.wildaboutfood.co.uk

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 Thursday, 12 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

We've just heard that the results of the "Love Your Local Sausage" competition are in! Strictly for local, free range producers, the competition ran from from 18 January to 20 February with sausages entered by 21 producers, all of whom sell their wares at London Farmers' Markets.

And the tastiest sausage in London is....the Cumberland sausage from Rockwell End Pigs. 

A short-list of five of those voted for by the public were put to a tasting panel (including food critic Charles Campion, St John's Fergus Henderson, butcher and blogger Charlotte Harbottle and chef Alan Stewart). The competition was organised by the Jellied Eel Magazine with London Farmers Markets (LFM) to promote some of the wonderful local produce on offer at farmers' markets in the capital. Cheryl Cohen, Director at LFM (which runs 20 weekly certified farmers' markets across London, providing sites for 183 farmers) said, 'The competition helped to highlight some of the fantastic quality products our traders sell and the hard time pig farmers are having. We wanted to show that it really is worth paying a little extra for the high welfare of animals and high quality meat content in your sausage.'

Winner, Matt Emmet rears rare breed slow growing Saddlebacks and Tamworths on his farm in Rockwell. He'll be presented with his award at Marylebone Farmers' Market by the Deputy Mayor of Westminster on Sunday 29th April. Runner up David Wilkinson has been pig farming for 27 years. His Downland Pigs have won gold awards in the Taste of the West. Food critic Charles Campion said; "The Breakfast Marmalade Sausage deserves a special commendation for innovative flavours. Making a sausage with marmalade sounds strange but this banger was surprisingly more-ish".

The competition also highlighted the importance of using the whole of the animal. Ben Reynolds, the Jellied Eel magazine, explains: "We were keen to focus on sausages as a brilliant example of the diversity of great produce available local to London. The sausage is also a great way of making sure that the less well loved cuts of meat don't go to waste and that farmers make money from all the carcass. We hope this competition has meant more people have gone out to farmers markets and tried some new sausages"

The Well Seasoned team are hoping to get hold of some of the prize-winning porky produce soon to give you our own verdict. In the meantime, congrats to Matt and all of those shortlisted - keep that quality piggy production going!

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 Tuesday, 10 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Compared to our ancestors, as a nation we celebrate remarkably few feast days with the two main exceptions being Christmas and Easter. They're such a rare treat that the Well Seasoned team always like to push the boat out and hopefully you did too this weekend. For the first three days of the Easter break we were treated to some pretty decent weather and, well, it wouldn't be a bank holiday without a downpour so we'll gloss over Monday's meteorological mishap. For seasonal sports fans there was plenty of drama with the delayed Boat Race and some welcome good news in the cricket.

Food-wise we tucked into souper-seasonal nettle soup followed by new-season lamb and some of the first new potatoes of the year. Rhubarb is still very much on the menu and our rhubarb and ginger fool was just the ticket to round off a fabulous Easter blow out.

So, despite the fact that we're only just coming out of the "hungry gap" there is a good amount of food to choose from at Easter and we certainly enjoyed ours. However, one of the real benefits of having Monday off work is the opportunity to have a tipple when you'd normally be getting ready for bed and setting the alarm clock and so it was on Sunday night as we cracked open some Otter Ale. Having drunk our way through a couple of bottles we thought it was fair to review them for the blog.

Now, the more alert amongst you will know that Otter are sponsoring our Summer competition so it's a little hard to claim this is an entirely impartial review. Nevertheless, as a British brewery using quality natural ingredients, hopefully you'll still be interested to read our thoughts on Otter's flagship brew. The first thing you notice when you open the bottle is a rich, malty but fresh aroma with definite hints of caramel. Pour the drink into a glass and you see more of that caramel richness; the ale is a beautiful rich, coppery brown. The beer is made with spring water from the River Otter and that certainly comes across in the light, fresh flavour. It is creamy, malty and rich without being heavy. Without wanting to upset the real ale purists (and possibly the guys at Otter!) we're pretty sure it would also make a great bitter shandy on a Summer's afternoon. Otter is a fine British brew which should please most real ale drinkers whilst offering newcomers an easy entry-level taster.

As a spotty bank worker in an ill-fitting suit said in the early 90s "it's not all work, work, work." and that's very much how we felt late on Sunday night as we sat surrounded by the remains of our Easter roast, a couple of empty bottles and a mound of crumpled Easter egg wrappers. We hope you had a good one too.

Posted Tuesday, 3 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

There's no getting away from it - grey, pointy snails were never going to set the culinary world on fire. But whelks don't do themselves any favours either. While they are waiting for the pot, and indeed while being cooked, they produce a fair amount of (completely harmless) slime which is not exactly going to win them many fans. Nor does it get much better once they've been shelled; you are rewarded with an fairly unpleasant-looking muscley mass on your plate. But - and it's a big but - whelks are in fact very tasty. Give them a chance and this meaty mollusc can be a real Spring treat.

Having been out of favour for some time, it's actually pretty tricky to track whelks down and, when you do manage it, recipes for them are hard to come by. On the plus side, if you do manage to find a friendly fishmonger with some to flog, chances are they'll be at a pretty decent price.

To prepare they just need to be boiled for 10 minutes and no more (unless you enjoy the experience of chewing on a tyre). Although the traditional way to serve them is with a simple splash of vinegar, they lend themselves to quite a range of hot and cold dishes. For a very simple starter you can serve them warm with some DIY garlic and herb mayonnaise and crusty brown toast. If you're feeling adventurous, try this rather more exotic baked whelk recipe from Mark Hix.

And finally...Did you know, that whelks are carnivourous? In fact, they are active predators. They have special mouth parts that enable them to bore through the shells of other molluscs. They then inject digestive enzymes into the hole and suck out the liquidised shellfish. Sorry, that's probably enough to put you right off your food. We told you they didn't help themselves...

Posted Wednesday, 21 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

It's been a beautiful week weather-wise and even though the Spring equinox only happened this week (on the 20 March - the earliest equinox in more than 100 years) you'd be forgiven for thinking that we were well into Spring already. It's not unusual to have snow in March but it seems pretty unlikely at the moment as we bask in temperatures of up to 18 degrees.

Earlier this month we mentioned the arrival of mackerel to our shores - a sure sign that Spring was coming early. Well, now it seems the cuttlefish have turned up too. They're not usually found in any numbers until April or May so it looks like things really are a little out of kilter this year. But fear not. The seasons have never been confined by our rigid calendar. As we say elsewhere on the site, they are excitingly unpredictable. Think of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter as the worst of all party guests - you know they are coming but they’ll probably turn up early, leave late or be on great form for five minutes then completely lose the plot; which is why you can never be quite sure when anything will be bang in season.

You're unlikely to chance upon a cuttlefish. They are still pretty rare on fishmongers slabs and you'll probably have to order one in. It's well worth the effort though (and not just for the conspiratorial nod you'll get from the fishmonger when he hands over your special delivery). They are every bit as tasty as squid and you won't (or at least shouldn't) find those in our waters until the Summer.

Here's our guide to preparing cuttlefish:

• Give yourself plenty of time. You'll need a sharp knife, chopping board, a tea towel and a metal sink.
• Make sure you're using a non-porous surface like glass or granite. Unless you're a fan of the "ink-stained school desk" look, definitely avoid wooden work surfaces.
• Start with your cuttlefish on a board in front of you.
• Cut off and keep the tentacles by slicing just in front of the eyes.
• Firmly but steadily pull the remainder of the head away from the body. Most of the guts will come away with it. Discard all of this.
• Now put your hand inside the body and gently work out the rest of the innards and the cuttle (the large bone-like cartilage beloved of budgerigars) Give the inside a quick rinse. 
• Preferably all of this should be done without rupturing the ink sac which you'll find inside the body, towards the back end....but its best done in or near the metal sink, just in case you do. If you can get it out whole, reserve the ink because several recipes make use of it. Some cuttlefish, especially those from online retailers, will come with the ink already removed and in a little sachet.
• Next, remove the slippery skin from the body. It should peel off fairly easily leaving bright white flesh. Use the tea towel to help you grip.
• The side wings will usually come off with the skin. Peel and keep those too.

Although a little tricky the first time you can't go too badly wrong and it is well worth persevering because at the end of the process you are left with a huge amount of sweet, white meat, all of which can be cooked the same way as squid. As with squid, if you want to avoid eating rubber, the cooking either needs to be very quick or very long.

Their early arrival has caught us a little off guard but we'll try to post some cuttlefish recipes later in the month. In the meantime, here's our top tip: If you're using either squid of cuttlefish for calamari (squid rings) turn the body inside out before you slice it into rings. This will ensure the rings stay circular when you fry them, rather than collapsing or turning into a figure of eight. Neat, eh? Every day is a school day with Well Seasoned.

Posted Friday, 16 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

How It Should Be (HiSbe) is a community interest company helping people and businesses make ethical, informed choices about their food. Check out the HiSbe website for ethical eating tips and their latest video (which, features none other than your favourite seasonal food website). Now that's definitely How it Should Be.

Posted Wednesday, 7 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Last month we blogged about potted meat and how so many of our food preparation methods are born out of necessity rather than taste. It just so happens that some of these methods also produce amazing flavours so, even in in the days of fridges and freezers, when the old methods of preservation aren't strictly necessary, we continue to use them just because they taste great. Another good example of this is smoking, a method of preserving food that dates back hundreds or even thousands of years.

Smoke preserves in two different ways: first, it dries the food (most commonly meat or fish), making it a less comfortable environment for many bacteria. Secondly, the smoke itself has antibacterial qualities. The combined effect is a greatly prolonged shelf life accompanied by a delicious smokey flavour. For the DIY-foodie it's also fairly straightforward to make your own smoker. So, even if you have no interest in preserving your food it's well worth having a go. Regular readers will know that smoked mackerel pate is a favourite Summer treat for the Well Seasoned team.

These days, of course, smoking is definitely more about flavour and a great deal of thought goes into producing artisan smoked products, with carefully selected smokes infusing a wide variety of meats and fish. Last weekend we were lucky enough to taste some new products from one such artisan producer - Smoked. Smoked is a young company run by Julianna Barnaby and Jon Elliott. They produce a range of smoked and cured products from their farm in the beautiful Wealden downland in East Sussex. Local is the word here: the meats are all sourced from the farm or nearby countryside with oak shavings from a nearby timber yard being used for the smoke. Julianna and Jon use various cures, blended from spices, herbs, sugar and salt. We pressed them for some more details but the actual recipes are a closely guarded secret!

The current range of Smoked products include Cinnamon and Orange Smoked Duck, Cold Smoked Peppered Venison and Harissa Smoked Pigeon breast. We sampled the Harissa Smoked Pigeon and the Scandinavian Style Cold Smoked Venison. Two distinctly different and inventive products with very different tastes. The pigeon was a firm, meaty texture with a punchy, but not overpowering harissa and lime flavouring - evocative of North African souks and a baking desert sun. The venison was a more delicate affair; a moist, carpaccio-style thin sliced meat with a gentle smokiness. We thought the venison would make a brilliant canape topping whilst the pigeon is perhaps more suited to a summer salad with couscous for that authentic Morroccan experience. Both products are delicious with a wide range of possible uses.

Smoked is a great example of a small scale producer, using creative flavours and ingredients to produce fine artisan foods. Their products are sold online or you can catch Julianna and Jon at various markets including Maltby Street Market once a month, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells Farmers markets.

As a green, manic comic book hero once said - Schmokin'!

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 Saturday, 3 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Last month we blogged about honest food labelling. It's time that producers and retailers were completely honest with consumers so that we can make informed choices about our food. Compassion in World Farming have just announced a new campaign for 2012 that we'll be supporting. The aim, essentially, is to have the same labelling laws for dairy and meat as we have for eggs. EU law now dictates that egg producers have to say if eggs are from caged hens, indoor-reared animals or free range. It's a clear and simple requirement that lets shoppers decide, on a fully informed basis, between products on offer. There's no reason why the same laws shouldn't be applied to dairy and meat. As CIWF puts it "Consumers want to be able to choose foods that ensure higher animal welfare. We believe that all foods should be honestly labelled, not only those such as Organic and Freedom Food that actively promote higher welfare. It’s time that we knew where our food comes from and how it is farmed." Quite. You can find out more about CIWF's campaign HERE. This Sunday (March 4th) Compassion’s Philip Lymbery will speak on BBC One’s Countryfile about how food labelling must change to help deliver higher welfare for farm animals. Tune in, check out the website and show your support for clear food labelling.

Posted Friday, 2 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Climate Week starts on the 12th March and will be of interest to anyone concerned about climate change. Almost by definition, seasonal food fans are an eco-conscious bunch but this year's Climate Week will be of particular interest because it is focusing on practical solutions including local sourcing of food. So, it's right up our street.

The first Climate Week in March 2011 apparently saw half a million people attending 3,000 events in Britain’s biggest ever "environmental occasion". Check out the website for more details. http://www.climateweek.com/

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, 22 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The Sunday Times recently reported that a Norfolk pig farm had been guilty of long term neglect of it's animals. It was a shocking and tragic case with pigs apparently suffering widespread mistreatment and cruelty on a farm certified by the Red Tractor Scheme. But, the otherwise accurate article was marred by an important misrepresentation. The story was published under the headline “Pigs are beaten to death on ‘ethical’ farm”

So what's the mistake? Well, the Red Tractor Scheme (RTS) is not an "ethical" scheme as most consumers would understand it. It is a "quality assurance" scheme but that does not ensure higher than average welfare conditions for animals.

Now, before we go any further, this is not an attack on the RTS. The organisation does a great deal to ensure minimum standards in UK farming and has issued a clear and unambiguous statement condemning what was found on the farm in question. But that does not take away from the critical issue that there is still widespread confusion and uncertainty around food labels and welfare schemes in the country. How can we, as consumers, be expected to make informed choices, and use our purchasing power for the good of animal welfare, if we don't know what we are buying?

Two widely used schemes in the country are the Red Tractor Scheme and Lion Eggs. According to Compassion in World Farming, these labels simply mean:

- These food labels mostly ensure compliance with minimum legislative requirements for both standard and free-range production (in terms of animal welfare provision)
- Most, but not all, British meat, eggs and milk are certified to these standards
- The standards do little to prevent the serious welfare issues of confinement in cages, high stocking densities, fast-growing breeds and many mutilations
- Some of the standards do not enforce minimum legislative requirements adequately (e.g. prohibition of routine tail docking in pigs and the provision of appropriate manipulable material for pigs)
- Some of the standards are higher than minimum legislative requirements (e.g. castration of pigs is not allowed and sows have not been kept in stalls since 1999; maximum permissible stocking densities for broiler chickens are lower than both EU and national legislation.)

So, in many ways, buying into these assurance schemes does not guarantee you much more than you can already expect from any British producer. There is certainly no guarantee of significantly higher ethical or welfare standards than those required by law.

To make matters worse, in addition to the quality assurance schemes, producers are still able to use a range of potentially misleading words. Amongst our "favourites" are Fresh, Natural, Farm fresh, Barn fresh, Traditional and Heritage. Each of these has certain connotations but, apart from general consumer laws (which dictate that the public cannot be mislead) there are no restrictions on their use. So "100% traditional farm-fresh eggs" say nothing about the welfare conditions of the hens. Even if they came with the Lion Mark, you would be none the wiser; there is no reason why those eggs should not be your average intensively farmed variety (and they very probably are).

Remember, it costs more to produce Organic and Free Range produce and use of the terms is regulated by law. Shoppers pay a premium for them and so retailers and producers tend to shout about it. If it doesn't explicitly say it on the box, it almost certainly isn't. Become an educated consumer. Click here to read CIWF's detailed guide on food welfare labelling.

Posted Tuesday, 21 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

One of the driving factors behind our love of all things local and seasonal is, of course, the environment. Eating locally is a really simple way of reducing your food miles and your CO2 footprint. Earlier this week we were sent this really simple food miles calculator. Not only does it tell you how far your food has travelled, it will also give an estimate of the CO2 produced, depending on how it was transported. Get the kids checking how far their food has travelled and learning geography at the same time. We've found it weirdly addictive!

Posted Sunday, 19 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

It's pancake day on Tuesday! We thought you might enjoy the top 10 pancake facts we uncovered during our research:

1. The first recipe for a pancake appeared in an English cookbook in the fifteenth century.

2. In Ireland, the eldest daughter would traditionally toss the first pancake. If she did so successfully she would supposedly marry within the year.

3. The name Shrove comes from the old word “shrive” which means to confess.

4. In the Midlands, the first pancake was given to the family chickens to ensure they produced eggs for the forthcoming year.

5. Elsewhere in England, the first three pancakes were sacred. They were marked with the sign of the cross and sprinkled with salt to ward off evil.

6. In Brazil they celebrate “Terça-feira gorda”, in Greece it is known as “Apocreas and in Iceland “Sprengidagur” (Bursting day).

7. The record for speed pancakes flipping is 349 tosses in 2 minutes.

8. Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli holds the world record for the highest pancake toss at 329cm.

9. The first recorded pancake race was in Olney, Buckinghamshire in 1445.

10. The tiny African Pancake Tortoise has a flat, soft and flexible shell, enabling it to squeeze under rocks when in danger. aaaah.

Posted Tuesday, 14 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

It wasn't that long ago that your average kitchen didn't even have electricity, let alone a refrigerator. In those days, many methods of cooking were developed as a necessary part of preparing and preserving the food rather than just for novelty or adding flavour. Take pies for example. In ye olden times a thick pastry topping was designed to exclude air and thus preserve the meat. These days, it's definitely more about taste and texture. A flaky rough puff is hardly going to do much for a steak and kidney's shelf life.

So, many modern dishes have a practical genesis that isn't necessarily apparent in our age of fridges, freezers and high hygiene standards. And so it is with potted food. For the uninitiated, potting involves packing your pre-poached ingredient (usually meat or fish) into a pot and sealing it in with a layer of clarified, spiced butter. Some old recipes claim that game, once properly potted, could be kept for a month, making the process a god-send for your medieval kitchen manager. The important factor was, of course, getting a good seal with the butter, resulting in the equivalent of an airtight jar. Old recipes stressed the need for clarified butter (made by heating and separating the butter to remove the milk solids). This too helps the food last longer and most recipes still suggest it although, unless you're planning an unaided voyage around some desolate cape any time soon, this is no longer critical. These days, potted meats are an altogther more delicate affair, eaten as a pate or terrine with crusty toast and a decent chutney; warm toast is essential if you want the butter to melt, allowing the flavours and textures a proper opportunity to mingle.

That's a rather long introduction but segues neatly into our telling you about a very new company doing exciting things with this very old process. The Potted Game Company is a partnership between three young and talented chefs, Hugh Coulson, Jemima Palmer-Tomkinson, and Rory Baxter, united by a shared passion for British food and indeed all things culinary. Jemima, Rory and Hugh were keen to start a venture that made use of the great range of abundant but underrated meats and fish that we have in the UK. Having stumbled across some old recipes for potted meat, they set about putting a modern twist on the product and the Potted Game Company was born.

The small but diverse range currently consists of five products; Pheasant with smoked bacon and hazelnut, Rabbit with cider and English Mustard, Wood Pigeon with walnuts and ginger, Trout with lemon zest and spices and Partridge with apricot and cashew nuts. It will come as no surprise that, as a company trying to create an exciting, young brand, the team have steered clear of the ubiquitous (if delicious) potted shrimp. Seasonal specials such as grouse and crayfish occasionally make an appearance and some more unusual meats like wild boar and squirrel are currently in development.

Over the weekend we caught up with Jemima at London's Borough Market and then returned to the Barn to tuck into samples of the rabbit, partridge and pigeon with a stack of freshly toasted sourdough. Each of them was delicious but our particular favourites were the rabbit and the pigeon. The latter was robust and flavoursome with a perfect balance of ginger and spices; ideal for game fans to enjoy all year round. The rabbit was more delicately flavoured and would make an excellent and gentle introduction for anyone who has yet to discover the delicious world of British game; subtly spiced, moist and not in any way 'gamey'.

The Potted Game Company is a small business but with enthusiastic individuals behind it and we can see it going far. It's always exciting to see a new British producer making use of great British ingredients. If you're a regular at Borough Market make sure you pick up a pot when you're next in town. Otherwise, keep an eye out at other farmers markets and in higher end supermarkets; we have a feeling The Potted Game Company's products will be on a shop shelf near you soon. If you can't wait that long, you can also buy online.

For more information on the Potted Game Company, check out their website.

Posted Friday, 3 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Yesterday, 2 February, was Groundhog Day. It's probably fair to say that few of us in the UK would have heard of the day if it wasn't for the eponymous Bill Murray film in the late 90s. But, quirky romantic comedies aside, there is an interesting seasonal background to the festival.

According to folklore, if a groundhog sees his shadow when he emerges from his burrow, winter will last for six more weeks. If it's a cloudy day, the Spring will come early. (Folklore doesn't seem to provide for the possibility that Spring will be late...)

The tradition actually appears to date back to the Christian celebration of Candlemas, which takes place on the same date, and the Germans in particular seem to be the likely importers of it to the US. There is, though, some interesting speculation that the day developed to allow for a compromise between the two conflicting views of when Spring actually starts. Most western traditions dictate that Spring begins on the Vernal Equinox (usually 20th March, when the days start being longer than the nights), whereas pagans favoured the festival of Imbolc (which, as we reported last month, is celebrated in early February). Thus, by allowing the groundhog to choose between the two possibilities, a row was avoided. Permitting a rodent to dictate the national calender seems an odd form of govenment policy but, then again, we're not aware of any civil wars sparked by the subject, so maybe it worked.

Of the 37 recorded groundhog forecasts this year, 27 (73%) have predicted an early Spring. If today's weather is anything to go by, we're not totally convinced they've got it right...

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 Wednesday, 25 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  2 Comment(s)

Tonight is Burns' Night and that, of course, means haggis. For the uninitiated, haggis is a savoury dish made from various minced sheep offal, mixed with oatmeal and a variety of herbs and spices. Traditionally a sheep's stomach is used to encase the mixture but artificial casings are now also frequently used. Despite first appearances, haggis is actually very tasty and, as far as we're concerned, a great way to use up some of that offal which would otherwise go to waste. Traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" together with whisky (of course) no Burns' Night supper would be complete without it or Robert Burns's most famous poem, Address to a Haggis. There are few verifiable facts as to the origins of the haggis but it's likely that they were first prepared by cattle herdsmen for easy transportation on the droving journeys across the Highlands. They would certainly have been poor mans food (with the finer cuts of lamb and mutton being reserved for the wealthy land owners). Apparently some 33% of Americans believe haggis to be an animal. You can't exactly blame them when most Scots do nothing to dispel the myth. To this day, rumours abound of an of a small Scottish beast with legs on one side shorter than the other to enable it to run across the highlands without tripping over! Happy Burn's Night to all our Scottish readers.

Posted Monday, 23 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Most people know pollock is a fish but few would claim to have eaten it. As it happens, pollock is a member of the cod family, so it has a familiar taste. However, because it has an off-white or grey flesh, rather than cod's bright white lustre, it is rarely eaten as a fillet. Instead, it is usually minced and used as a filling for fish fingers or fish pies. So, the chances are you have eaten it, you just didn't know! For some reason, the West Country has traditionally embraced pollock as an eating fish and given it due respect. The Scots also eat their fair share (and like to give it an oatmeal coating). But apart from that, for no good reason, it has historically been regulated to cat food. In recent years pollock has regained some popularity and you will now find it in many supermarkets, especially as frozen fillets but increasingly on the wet slab. In 2009, Sainsbury's inexplicably tried to rebrand it as "Colin" (the French name for the fish) and market it as a sustainable alterative to cod. Top marks for intention, none for execution JS. In fact, pollock already has plenty of alternative (and perfectly marketable) names. Depending on the exact species and your location you might also know it as lythe, coley or saithe. Whatever it's called, whilst we'd have to admit it doesn't look quite as appetising as cod, it really is every bit as flavoursome and very considerably cheaper. We tried it recently in this really simple recipe from Jamie Oliver. If this wasn't a family blog we'd say it was the dog's pollocks (sorry).

Pollock is good to eat all year round but at its best from now (late January/early February) through to the end of the summer. Next time you're knocking up a fishy dishy, give pollock a go.

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

The 2012 awards are now open again for you to nominate your favourite ethical businesses. This year is the seventh year of these great awards that celebrate and reward all of those amazing people and businesses that lead the way in ethical, sustainable living. This year there are two new categories; one for arts and culture and, in recognition of the Olympic year, a sports category. The website is open for votes and nominations now. We'd love it if you nominated us again, but we don't want to be greedy, so don't worry too much about that - just make sure you get involved and vote for your favourite ethical businesses.

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

Although the problems of food waste have been well documented in recent years, the scale of it is still staggering. Apparently, wastage for the UK alone now amounts to something like 20 million tonnes annually. Whether it’s fresh fish thrown back into the sea, vegetables ignored for being too ugly, or unusual cuts of meat simply discarded, the amount of produce that doesn't make it onto our dinner plates and into our mouths is pretty amazing. Chef Tom Hunt is one of the people trying to do something about it with his pop up restaurant concept, Forgotten Feast.

Tom knows a thing or two about food. He began his career with Ben and Jake Hodges (formerly of The River Cafe). He then worked as head chef at Aqua Italia in Bristol and then on to Dorset where he worked alongside Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gill Meller as sous chef and food demonstrator for River Cottage HQ. A respectable pedigree in quality, seasonal and ethical eating if ever there was one.

The Forgotten Feast was launched in Autumn 2011 in partnership with the food charity FareShare. Their first event was specifically focused on highlighting another cause that the Well Seasoned team are passionate about - the incredible wastage of fish that happens as a consequence of EU quotas. Using fish and foods that would otherwise have been discarded, Tom's menu included Forgotten Fish Stew with Cured Pigs Head Bacon & Thames Crayfish and Glut Salad of Miss-fits Chargrilled Courgettes & Baby Leeks with Tarragon. As you can see, Forgotten Feast aim to show that using forgotten ingredients doesn't mean you can't have high-end dining.

Forgotten Feast are now looking for people and businesses that may be interested in supplying food, venues and educational speakers for future events. The next event is at the Friends of the Earth 40th birthday party at the end of January, followed by an official launch on Valentines night. After those events there will be regular events throughout the year. If you or somebody you know would like to help fight food waste, follow Tom on twitter (@tomsfeast) or check out his website www.tomsfeast.com

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 Saturday, 14 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

If you ever owned any music by 2 Unlimited or pride yourself on knowing all the words to Ice Ice Baby, chances are you'll love this. Otherwise you'll absolutely hate it. But I'm afraid we just had to share. 

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

In case you missed the Latest News section on our frontpage, this Sunday lunchtime we'll be talking about seasonal food on BBC Radio Oxford. Tune in to the Bill Buckley show from 1pm to listen (we should be on from around 1.20pm). Click the logo to open the BBC iPlayer and listen live.

Posted Thursday, 12 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

2011 was Year of the Allotment. Well, alright, not officially, but it certainly saw one of the biggest surges in allotment ownership applications for many years. The climate of austerity combined with various publicity campaigns and the renewed interest that the whole country has seen in local, seasonal food, means that tens of thousands of people have decided to put their names on their local waiting list. In some parts of London the lists are said to be more than 40 years long.

Many allotments, in addition to private patches, provide space for community food projects to grow produce while educating local people on the delights of 'growing your own'. If you're a London resident and keen to get a bit of experience or just fancy getting your hands dirty, how about lending hand for the Big Dig? Capital Growth is hoping to mobilise thousands of volunteers across London to help community food-growing spaces prepare for the new growing season. The dates are Friday, 16th and Saturday, 17th March 2012. Check out the Big Dig website for more details. 

Posted Wednesday, 11 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

We were delighted when, at the very end of 2011 it was announced that the last battery hen in the UK had been rehoused. This followed decades of campaigning from animal welfare groups and, ultimately, an EU wide ban on keeping laying hens in battery cages. The new position still isn't ideal. In the UK we still keep chickens in small cages but they are now "enriched" (with litter, perches and claw-shortening devices) and larger. Disappointingly though, it seems that several countries in the EU, despite being subject to the same legislation, are not yet complying with the ban. The British Egg Industry Council claims that more than a third of EU cage egg production will break the new rules, with more than 80 million hens still being kept in illegal cages in 2012. So there's more work to be done but at least the changes are coming and thr UK is leading the way.

Back in 2009 one of our first ever Well Seasoned adventures (and one of the very first posts on our old blog) was a day spent with campaigners from Compassion in World Farming collecting signatures for their petition against battery cages. We're really pleased and proud to have played a small part in that campaign and delighted to now be seeing the fruits of those labours.

If you'd like to help to rehouse or sponsor an ex-battery hen, try getting in get in touch with the British Hen Welfare Trust, the charity that that re-homes battery hens and educates the public about how they can make a difference to hen welfare.

Here's to a free range future.

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, 9 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Just in case you missed it, here's the intro to our January newsletter, The Bramble. The Bramble comes out on the first Friday of every month and is packed full of recipes, event and competition news. If you want to avoid missing future editions you can sign up for them here.

Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year? Hopefully not. It won't be any surprise when we tell you we had a pretty good time of it over Christmas. There's no seasonal feast bigger than Christmas and if we can't get that right we'd be in trouble. What did we eat? Well, pretty much everything you would expect with goose and wild boar topping the list as our meaty alternatives to turkey this year. It's always hard to choose a favourite vegetable from the smorgasbord on offer but our newly discovered balsamic sprouts (see below) deserve a special mention for changing the way we think about the little green veg we so love to hate. Talking of things we hate, around this time of year you can always rely on the papers printing two stories. First, there is the claim that a particular day in January is the most depressing day of the year. Secondly, there will be a story from divorce lawyers claiming that another day of the month is the day when they receive most new enquiries. In some ways a dislike of January is understandable - the big celebrations are over yet the cold, wet weather continues (see last week's storms for details). But here at Well Seasoned we think January gets a bad rap. There's loads of reasons to be positive about it. Cold crisp mornings, bright blue skies, Burns Night, walks in the countryside, not doing anything in the garden, the days getting longer, snow, robins...the list goes on. And of course, there's still loads of great food on offer. So, as John Lennon so nearly said, give January a chance. Anyway, it'll be the Olympics soon...or does that just make it worse?

Did you know...? The Anglo Saxons called January Wolf Monath because it was the month the wolves came to the villages to look for food. Eek!

And here's that sprout recipe we mentioned...

OK, it might be 355 days before we eat them again but we discovered this recipe over Christmas and wanted to share it with you. There are still some great sprouts around so consider accompanying your next roast with them.

350g brussels sprouts
150g bacon lardons
30ml good balsamic vinegar
25g butter

Boil a pan of water, add a couple of good pinches of salt. Boil the sprouts for 2 minutes then drain and set aside. In a frying pan, fry the bacon over a moderate heat until crispy. Add in the sprouts, balsamic and butter and fry for a further minute. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Posted Friday, 6 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Every year, as regular readers of the blog will know, we grow a crop of chillies. We usually grow two or three varieties and, having planted in March, we usually enjoy fresh chillies from around July onwards. Then, some time toward the autumn, we take what's left of the crop and dry it out to store and use over the winter. So, we know the basics of chilli growing. However, we are but amateurs compared to the giant of the jalapeno, Michael Michaud. Michael runs Sea Spring Seeds, a mail order seeds and plug plant business in West Bexington, Dorset. It was here that he developed the now-famous Dorset Naga, a contender for the world's hottest chilli! Michael really does know pretty much everything there is to know about growing chillies and has just posted his top 10 tips on his amusingly titled blog, Mr VegHead Says. Interestingly, he recommends sowing your slower growing chillies now. Yes, it's deepest darkest January and you should already be getting those slow growing habaneros in the soil.

Posted Monday, 2 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

In Spring of this year we wrote a blog piece about eating carp. Having spoken to a few niche producers, we were pretty sure that there was something of a revival going on for this flavoursome (if fiddly) freshwater fish. We thought that it wouldn't be long before we saw it in the shops and, lo and behold, on our trip to Southwark last weekend we saw a huge pile of fresh mirror carp on the slab of Borough Market's biggest fishmonger. We're hardly going to take the credit for this new trend in London's foodie-central but it's nice to be proved right occasionally. Annoyingly, we didn't have a camera with us so you'll just have to imagine the scene. Think big, green and weirdly scaly (the fish, not us).

Posted Sunday, 1 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

A very happy new year from all of us at Well Seasoned.

2011 was pretty eventful - it feels like we've had a decade's news in one year! On the food side of things, it was no different. Food crisis, obesity epidemic, fish discards and food labelling all made the headlines. Here are some of our favourites from the BBC:

January - Smart wrapping can detect off food

February - Plans for Lincolnshire Super Dairy withdrawn after pressure from campaigners

March - Unethical fish discards must end

April - Best Before dates to be scrapped

May - Rising food prices increasing the squeeze on the world's poor

June - Climate to wreak havoc on world food supplies

July - EU targets food origin with meat labelling

August - Global governments must get tough on obesity

September - Do celebrity chefs create more food waste?

October - Could insects solve the world food crisis?

November - M1 shut after marmite lorry overturns

December - Devon charity recourses "last battery hen"

Posted Sunday, 25 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

A very Merry Christmas from all of us at Well Seasoned. May all your mince pies be piping hot and covered in cream!

Posted Wednesday, 21 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Today (21 December) is the Winter Solstice. If you've seen our Events Calendar you'll know that this is the shortest day of the year and, after tonight (more accurately, 5.30am tomorrow morning), the days will start getting longer again. Not by much (in fact only about seven seconds to start with) but it's a welcome thought in the cold, dark days of December that we've turned the seasonal corner and that the longer days of Spring and Summer will soon be with us again.

Semi-interesting fact of the day.....The word "solstice" is derived from the Latin meaning "sun stands still".

Posted Monday, 19 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

As seasonal food fans we try to embrace the changes that the seasons bring to our diet and, by definition, this means we accept that some things just aren't available all year round. That got us thinking though; what sort of menu could you construct with British ingredients that are good at any time of the year? As New Years Eve approaches, we reckon there are at least 20 tasty ingredients that you could safely resolve to eat without ever having to resort to imported varieties:

Veg

Onions
Potatoes
Spinach
Carrots

Fish

Cod
Crab
Lobster
Mackerel
Mussels
Oysters
Pollock
Salmon
Scallops
Seabass

Wild meat

Rabbit
Boar
Pigeon

Reared meat

Beef
Pork
Chicken
Lamb

If an average dish requires 6 ingredients, then some basic maths suggests there are something like 38,000 completely different combinations here, and 27 million combinations in total. OK, beef with lamb and mussels might not work but you get the idea!   

Posted Friday, 16 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Christmas is, of course, the biggest of our seasonal feasts, but is everything you think you know about our 'traditional' festive food right? We had a really good natter earlier in the week with our friends at Emerald Street and they've written a great newsletter featuring Well Seasoned and Christmas food. You can read it HERE.

(If you like what you see and fancy doing a little bit for chariddy in the season of goodwill, sign up to receive future editions of the newsletter and The Stylist magazine, Emerald Street's parent publication, will donate £1 to Look Good... Feel Better, a charity which offers make-up and skincare workshops to women undergoing cancer treatment.)

Posted Wednesday, 14 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Earlier this year we blogged about raw milk. We reported how the ever-dwindling number of suppliers face strict regulation, including having to sell their product direct to the consumer. It is for this reason that you never see raw milk in the shops....until now. Ingenious farmer Steve Hook who featured in our previous piece (and is also a previous Well Seasoned Producer of the Month) has come up with a solution. Londoners can now buy his milk in Selfridges - from a vending machine. By law, a customer buying milk from the machine is contracting directly with Steve and the store is just giving him a licence to place the machine in its Food Hall (presumably for a share of the profits!) So there you have it - raw milk, straight from the farm gate...in the middle of the city.

Posted Saturday, 10 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Earlier this year we watched Channel 4's latest recruits, Tim, Thom and Trev, AKA the Three Hungry Boys, foraging, fishing and blagging their way around the Scottish islands (no we're not jealous - the lucky beggars are living our dream and get to be on the telly). It would have been tempting to put together a show which made it look easy - success after success showing us that the good, frugal life is within our grasp. Instead, amongst the successes we witnessed some equally entertaining failures as the boys crunched their way through gritty mussels, miserably munched on shore crabs and (in the penultimate show, before a more triumphant sign-off) struggled to get any sleep in a soggy field shelter, hungry and midge-bitten. With refreshing and rather endearing honesty we were shown that foraging, when your next meal really depends on it, can be a painful experience but that shouldn't stop us from getting out there and at least giving it a go. And so it is with the 3HBs' new book, "How to catch, trap, forage and generally blag your way to survival in the wild."

To avoid disappointment, it is worth saying what this book is not: it isn't a survival guide, or a detailed foraging manual or a cookbook in the true sense. Instead, it straddles all of those things in a glossy scrapbook style with hints, tips, pictures, childhood memories and anecdotes. Divided into sections based on foraging environments: river, rocks, sea, woods etc, the book dips into the essentials of outdoor activities including mushrooming, fly fishing, spearfishing and shooting, as well as ancillary skills like bartering and even a couple of pages on playing the guitar. 

In most parts then, the book is a gentle introduction rather than an in-depth exploration of the topics and so anyone looking for the latter will think it lightweight. For example, Thom's tips on pike fishing amount to a two page spread (including pictures) which won't exactly cut the mustard with experienced anglers who know all too well that things are rarely that simple. Equally, the chefs among you will find the recipes, on the whole, unchallenging. Yet, ultimately, none of this really detracts from the book. What you have in HTCTFAGBYWTSITW (doesn't really work as a snappy acronym does it?) is a truly enjoyable ramble through the British landscape, nibbling at, rather than gorging on, the joys of foraging, fishing and wild eating. It's wholesome Boys Own fun for the 21st Century. With lows as well as highs (Tim's piece on the trauma of catching, killing and eating his first pike rang struck a real chord with the Twig who endured a remarkably similar experience), light-hearted banter and entertaining pictures (many taken by Tim Cresswell himself), the book is a joyful, chatty celebration of the great outdoors.

As the boys' introduction says "ultimately, what we would really like is for this book to inspire you to go an adventure of your own" and in that goal it will certainly succeed. If it wasn't so bloomin' cold outside we'd be on the beach looking for razor clams right now. As it is, we might just sit back with a warm cup of cocoa and enjoy a spot of armchair foraging.

Tim Thom and Trev have clearly written their own thoughts and personal memories into this book; TV show spin-off it may be, but it is not lacking the personal touch and it's easy to see why this likeable trio are rapidly recruiting an army of fans. They are young and cool (do the kids still say that?) enough to appeal to the next generation of foragers and foodies alike and the book will no doubt feature on the Christmas lists of many. Just don't buy it for your budding Bear Grylls unless you're prepared to be nagged daily to lead their next expedition.

Three Hungry Boys - How to catch, trap, forage and generally blag your way to survival in the wild is out now (RRP £20). We also have a signed copy up for grabs in our in our Winter competition.

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 Saturday, 5 November 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

Posted Monday, 24 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Sending us free stuff doesnt guarantee you a mention on the blog...but it's always worth a try. This week we took delivery of a huge box which turned out to be full of some delicious bars from fellow Essex foodie folk, Eat Natural. There are certainly enough to keep our rucksacks full for several winter foraging missions. Eat Natural have been making their fruit and nut bars for 10 years now and they certainly seem to have a winning recipe. Importantly (and the reason we feel able to give them a guilt-free plug on here) the company works in partnership with the Red Squirrel Survival Trust to help stop the decline of red squrirrels in the UK. Every time you buy a bar of Eat Natural with peanuts, almonds or hazelnuts, you're giving a donation to RSST. They say if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Turns out that if you buy peanuts, you get squirrels.

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 Monday, 3 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

What a cracking weekend we had weather-wise. North of 30 degrees in October! Although this weekend was an extreme example, it's actually not that unusual to have a spell of good weather in the middle of October. We certainly had it last year and may get it again before the month is out. It's so frequent that there's even a traditional name for it: "St Luke's Little Summer" named after the feast day of St Luke on the 18th. Let's hope there's more great autumnal weather to come. (In particular we're hoping for clear skies this Saturday at the Southampton Pumpkin Festival. Click here to read about our exciting product launch.)

Posted Wednesday, 14 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

It's no fluke that things which grow at the same time of year often taste good together. Our forager ancestors learned to couple their freshly caught summer fish with the samphire growing in the nearby marshes and to match their autumn pork with the local apples that the pigs had fed on. Our tastebuds have evolved with the same instinctive ability to pair flavours and, of course, seasonal eating is all about combining the best natural ingredients which are available at the same time. So, with our hedgerows bursting with sloes and with the game season kicking off, we were very excited to be able to try some of the the Real Boar Company's 'wild boar with sloe gin' salami recently. It's a great combination for this time of year. A Great Taste 2011 double gold star winner, the salami has the distinct gamey richness of wild boar with a mellow, fruity and spicy sloe gin twist. We've raved about the RBC and wild boar before (their salamis are apparently sold in three of the top five restaurants in the world and in establishments holding a total of 15 Michelin stars!) and this year's offering is no exception. Definitely worth considering if you're putting together an autumnal plate of British charcuterie.

Posted Thursday, 8 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Well Seasoned is all about British food and drink and, since it's often thought of as the quintessential British drink, it seems fair that we should do a feature on tea at some point, even if it doesn't grow here and we can't call it seasonal in any meaningful way!

As a nation we've been drinking the stuff for more than 350 years but how did a drink, whose story begins in China, end up as a stalwart feature of British life? Time for a potted history of tea...

Take yourself back to 2737 BC. The story is that a Chinese emperor was sitting under a tree in his garden whilst a servant boiled some drinking water. Some leaves from a nearby tree fell into the water and the Emperor decided to drink it anyway. The tree was a Chinese tea tree (Camellia sinensis) and thus the drink was born.

In terms of European tea drinking, this didn't start until the late 1500s when Portuguese traders and missionaries working in the East brought samples back to their home country. At this time, Britain was still behind the curve and the East India Company still had a monopoly on imports from the region. Although British tea drinking on a small scale was happening by the 1600s, it was Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II who really kick started the trend. She was Portuguese and her love of tea ensured it became a fashionable drink across the country. The end of the East India Company's monopoly on trade with China (after it ceased operations in 1834) also meant the tea trade became an open market, further boosting sales. By the middle of the 18th Century tea had become the nation's favourite drink (replacing the far less healthy ale and gin!) and according to the British Tea Council (could an institution get any more British?) 165 million cups of tea are now drunk in Britain every day. That's an astonishing average of 3 cups per person.

We recently sampled some new fruit teas sent to us by our friend Richard at Storm Tea, a company founded over a decade ago and one of few remaining small tea merchants in the country. Among the goodies we tried was a very funky box of organic Red Berry and Rose tea, one of Storm's range of fruit infusions to accompany their more traditional teas like English breakfast and Earl Grey (all certified organic).

As we mulled over our plans for the Autumn season in the Barn last week, we boiled the kettle and brewed up a few cups. The Red Berry's undeniably full and fruity aroma was matched by the taste. Fruit teas can sometimes promise a lot but deliver little. Storm's was full bodied and flavoursome, evoking memories of early autumn hedgerows. Hibiscus, rosehips and rose petals infused to create a pleasingly fruity, warming and characterful drink which we thought would be a particularly good start to those crisp and bright autumnal mornings. As a caffiene-free alternative, Storm's fruity offering might not quite match the punchy "black with five sugars" the Twig demands before his dawn foraging sessions, but it's apparantly full of vitamins to help to stave off those early winter colds. If you fancy something different from your normal builders brew, take a look at Storm's website.

Posted Friday, 19 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

You may recall that, last year, we supported the Game-to-Eat campaign which promotes eating game throughout the UK. As the new season kicks off, we have received an update from the campaign which contains some great figures:

• Over the last ten years (during which the campaign invested some £1.5m) game sales have increased 92%.
• The UK game market is now worth £75m.
• Last season the GtoE campaign reached 55.6m people

So, a success in anyone's book. To find out more, take a look at the campaign's new website www.gametoeat.co.uk which contains news and recipe ideas.

The campaign's 2011 recipe booklet, featuring original recipes from 'sleb chef Valentine Warner can be downloaded HERE for free. We didn't have to be asked twice to try Tandoori Partridge with Naan. Delicious.

Posted Monday, 8 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

At Well Seasoned we've always tried to encourage people to do what they can in terms of seasonal living. Not everyone has space for a vegetable patch and it's pretty rare for anyone to be completely self-sufficient these days, especially if you live in a town. But, at the same time, we're pretty confident that everyone should be able to find somewhere to grow something. Our first ever blog piece (on the old Well Seasoned blog) was about growing chillies on your windowsill and in fact we still do that today, even though we're now lucky enough to have the Barn and the WS allotment at our disposal. If you still think you don't have enough space to pot a potato (let along swing a cat), have a read of our latest guest blog piece from rooftop gardener and newly-published author, Helen Babbs...

My tiny rented flat sits atop a 1930s terraced house in north London, on a cul-de-sac that’s sandwiched between three busy main roads that heave in the direction of Camden and King’s Cross. Buffeted by traffic noise, and framed by the backs of Mary Poppins style townhouses and chimney tops, my small home is found in an urban but oddly idyllic spot.

What makes my part of this paltry palace extra special is the fact my bedroom has a door that opens out onto a fenced-in flat roof. Just three metres square in size, I’ve made it my mission to turn this patch of grey into an aerial, edible garden.

Despite having no gardening skills whatsoever, I’ve managed to turn the rooftop into an allotment of sorts. I’ve grown myself a set of green fingers and toes, and I’m pretty proud of them. Floating on its cloud of noise and dust mere footsteps away from my bed, I confess I’ve done some of my best roof garden work still in my pyjamas.

I’ve discovered that lots of plants can bear an entirely container bound life. This week I’ve harvested a haul, albeit a humble one, of heritage purple potatoes that were grown in a hessian sack lined with a bin bag. Their skin is an iridescent indigo and their flesh an equally inky purple.

A few weeks earlier I dug up some gorgeously striped bulbs of garlic, grown in a large pot from supermarket bought cloves. At the moment I’m growing runner beans, squashes and tomatoes, all in containers, alongside various salad leaves and fragrant herbs.

Evening primroses are blooming in an old paint pot and a strawberry plant is getting bushy in a rusty colander. Sweet-peas are tangling themselves in knots as they tumble out of a beautiful picnic basket that I found discarded on the street. Wooden vegetable boxes house oregano, sage and mint, and a couple of tomato plants have found a happy home in an upended, broken cat travel basket.

Alongside edible crops I’ve also sought out fragrant and night blooming flowers. Warm evenings on the roof are perfumed by lavender, tobacco plant, rose and jasmine. I’ve turned my urban balcony into a true living room – an outdoor space woven about with plants where (when the weather is kind) I can daydream, moon bathe and entertain friends.

A city girl, I also love nature and I’m fascinated by urban ecology. London supports a wealth of wild species and natural land covers an impressive swathe of the capital. What already exists is valuable and should be protected. I wanted to create a little bit more green space, and I’ve made my roof a wildlife friendly one, full of flowers that attract bees, butterflies, birds and moths.

I share the space with various creatures. There are havoc-wreaking squirrels and hungry slugs and snails, but also welcome beetles, bees, butterflies, birds and even bats. Bugs like undisturbed areas that are allowed to grow a little wild, while other creatures are attracted by specific plants or the promise of nesting materials and food.

Pollinators are drawn in by the nectar-rich likes of lavender and sweet-pea. Runner bean, strawberry and potato flowers are also loved. Evening primrose and tobacco attract moths. Ladybirds eat my aphids, birds eat my slugs and bats pick off any biting mosquitoes.

My favourite visitors are a dishevelled blackbird and his lady wife. He sits and sings on my fence posts, while she steals string from my bean poles. Their efforts mean a space that’s sandwiched between the Camden and Holloway Roads is sound-tracked with birdsong as well as bus hum.

There’s something extra special about the wildlife and wild places found within a city sprawl. The fact that nature can be vigorous and that a range of creatures can survive and even thrive in such a seething, heaving place as London is brilliant. I love the fact my tiny rooftop kitchen garden has become a nature reserve of sorts.

Helen has just written a book about the glory of growing things and urban ecology. It charts a year spent on her Holloway rooftop and adventures off into London’s wildernesses. My Garden, the City and Me – Rooftop Adventures in the Wilds of London is published by Timber Press. Read more at www.aerialediblegardening.co.uk and www.helenbabbs.wordpress.com

Posted Monday, 1 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  3 Comment(s)

As you'll have seen if you've looked at our Events page, tomorrow (2nd August) is the Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show - the oldest surviving gooseberry fair in the world. To celebrate, we're reproducing our recipe (originally published in our July newsletter) for gooseberry bellini.

For 2 glasses

• 100g ripe, plump gooseberries
• 3 dessert spoons of caster sugar (gooseberries are quite tart so this is rather than more than needed for more traditional fruits)
• Chilled cava or other sparkling wine (if you’d like to use a British wine try Denbies Whitedowns Cuvee NV)

Using a sharp knife, remove the stalks and stems from the gooseberries (this will take a little time but is worth doing to avoid woody bits in your drink). Place into a bowl and add the sugar. Using a hand blender, blend the fruit and sugar into a smooth puree. Strain the puree through a sieve. Take your champagne glass, pour in some of the puree up to about 1/3 and top up with the sparkling wine. Give a gentle stir and enjoy. You’ll have a refreshing, light drink perfect for a summer afternoon’s barbecue or a more sophisticated evening party. Cheers!

Posted Friday, 29 July 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

Introducing Well Seasoned's seasonal wine blog, by Patrick!

Generally on the Well Seasoned Blog we focus on seasonal food. We've always thought there are two elements to the enjoyment of seasonal food: (1) that the food is grown in the season and (2) that the food is a type of food which we enjoy eating in a particular season. So, for example, we enjoy eating a warm hearty beef stew on a cold December's day and on a balmy Summer afternoon trying a zingy salad like Alex's cumin mackerel, beetroot and thyme chutney.

This second element of seasonal eating is also, we think, particularly applicable to wine. Does anyone drink a light rose in February? or would a heavy Shiraz really work with a sunny picnic in July? Probably not. But, do we enjoy a glass of Pinot Grigio in the sunshine? well, yes, almost certainly!

So, we thought that, starting this Summer, each season we'd provide our thoughts on which wines, we think, work best for the season. Of course, it always depends on what you are eating (not to mention spending!) and so to keep us focussed, each season we will give you a few recommendations as to general good value types of wine that befit the season, next we will choose a key seasonal ingredient and recipe, and then match a type of wine to it. Finally we will have a third category: British wine of the season.

So, here we go:

Good Summer Wines

For lunches and evenings outside in the sunshine (pah - when it is here!), we like light Rose d'Anjou from the Loire or other fresh and citrus based white Loire wines such as Touraine or Vouvray. If you want something a little more floral go for a Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc. Summer salads with interesting leaves like endive, rocket and radicchio or which are loaded with herbs and garlic have fairly strong flavours and are best suited by fairly neutral wines such as wines from the Pinot Grigio or Pinot Blanc/Bianco grapes.

Match the Ingredient

Lamb is bang in season now with the young sheep having grown to a good enough size to make it to the table. For a lamb recipe try our New Season Lamb with Samphire and Lemon Thyme Gremolata. Lamb goes well with most red wines and Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot wines provide excellent complimentary wines. For the dish recommended above, however, there is a sense of Summer and freshness in the gremolata. Matching wine with lemon can be tricky, but we have found that rustic reds such as Italian Chiantis and Valpolicellas or a Rioja Reserva should provide the necessary balance to this tasty Summer supper.

Best of British

At the moment our research is very light in this area and we are open to suggestions. One wine we will recommend is the sparkling wine made at Chapel Down. I had some at my Grandmother's 80th birthday party on a scorching day and it was absolutely delicious. Chapel Down's sparkling pinot noir wins our Summer 2011 Best of British wine. 

If you're in the mood for some wine with your Summer recipes, M&S have a decent wine offer on at the moment which might be worth trying.  Let us know if you have any thoughts or suggestion on the above and we'd love to know what you're drinking with your seasonal menus this month.

What goes well with pumpkin soup, baked potatoes and bonfire smoke? Find out in our next wine blog in the Autumn! 

Posted Friday, 29 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

We've had a few emails recently asking for copies of our old newsletters and so have created a new page where you can find them all. Click here to go to the Library. It's amazing that it's been less than year since we first started The Bramble and in that time we've gathered more than 700 subscribers, 375 facebook followers and 8,500 followers on Twitter. The seasonal food revolution continues at full pace! Our August newsletter is out next Friday (we always try to send it on the first friday of each month). If you'd like a copy but aren't on our mailing list, you can sign up here.

Posted Monday, 25 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  3 Comment(s)

A week today, 1st August, will be Lammas Day...loaf mass day. It's the ancient festival of the first day of the wheat harvest when, traditionally, farmers would bring bread or flour from the new crop to church. Tenant farmers would also be obliged to take a share of their flour to their landlord. These days, Lammas Day has fallen away as a food festival in favour of harvest festival which takes place a bit later in the year. Still, the Well Seasoned team love reviving some of the old traditions and have decided we should either take a bag of flour round to our landlord or bake some bread. He thinks we're pretty weird anyway so, rather than confirm his suspicions, we went with the latter. Here's a very simple recipe for soda bread. Seriously, if you think you can't bake bread, just have a go at this.

Soda bread

170g self-raising wholemeal flour
170g plain flour (if you prefer you can just use 340g of plain rather than mixing the two)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ pint buttermilk
splash of milk

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Mix the flours, salt and bicarb in a large bowl.
Make a little well in the middle of the flour and pour in the buttermilk.
Stir well with a fork until you have an even dough. It should be very slightly sticky. You can add a splash of milk if its too stiff (or a little more flour it its too sticky.)
Flour a board or work surface and turn the dough out onto it.
Kneed the dough for a couple of minutes. If it starts to stick, just flour the board and your hands a little more.
Form into a nice round shape, cut a little cross in the top with a sharp knife.
Place on a lightly floured baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes (it should sound hollow when you tap the bottom).
When cooked, cool for a while on a wire rack but its best eaten when still slightly warm.  

Posted Wednesday, 20 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  5 Comment(s)

Last weekend the Well Seasoned team bought something at a local farmers' market. By law it had to come with a printed health warning and could only be sold to us by the person who made it; it would have been illegal for a supermarket to sell it. What was this mystery ingredient, so potentially injurious to human health? It was cows milk. Not ordinary, pasteurised milk though, but "raw" or "real" milk. This is the milk of olden days, straight from the cow and which has foregone the pasteurising process that most people now expect (and to which all supermarket milk is, by law, subject.)

Less than 0.01% of milk sold in the UK is raw. To its fans it is the food of the gods, next to which the shop-bought stuff pales in comparison. To many food safety experts however, it is a potentially serious health risk, harbouring bacteria such as salmonella and E.coli. In England the government allows people to make an informed choice about buying raw milk by insisting that bottles come with a warning that "This milk has not been heat treated and may therefore contain organisms harmful to health.". In Scotland, sales are banned altogether.

So who's right? Well, the Food Standards Agency say that between 1992 and 1999, half of all milk-related food poisoning cases in the UK were due to raw milk (none, incidentally, was fatal). They also point to the fact that in the past many people contracted tuberculosis from raw milk. On the other hand, raw milk suppliers say that the data is old and the health risks exaggerated (we are talking about hundreds, rather than thousands of cases, spread over that seven year period.) Further, they say that in many ways raw milk is positively good for you since pasteurisation kills off many of the enzymes, vitamins and bacteria that are good for the human digestive system. Certainly, since 1985 when the laws were last updated, dairy safety and hygiene standards have improved - reported cases of illness are pretty few and far between - and the anecdotal evidence is that raw milk may be helpful to people suffering from a range of conditions including asthma and, curiously, lactose intolerance.

So, it's probably a fair summary that the risks associated with raw milk are real but rare. But why would anyone want to buy untreated milk, even if the risks are small? Well, the simple answer is that it just tastes much better. As well as our farmers' market milk, we bought some raw milk butter from organic milk producers Hook & Son, based in Hailsham, East Sussex. Both were delicious (and neither made us ill!) They are undeniably richer and smoother products than their pasteurised counterparts. The milk was sweet and creamy, the butter was full-flavoured and extremely... well, buttery. There is little doubt that raw milk wins on flavour.

Raw cows milk isn't the only real milk out there either. Sam Steggles runs Fielding Cottage, a raw goat milk producer. He suggests that goats milk is a good alternative for those wanting to try raw milk. "Goat's milk is less allergic - it doesn't contain the complex protein that stimulates allergic reactions to cow's milk. Goat's milk is also easier to digest than cow's milk." Sam recognises that there are some health concerns but insists they can be minimised with strict cleaning regimes and regular safety inspections "I think that there are risks with anything" he says, "however, our goats are always kept clean and healthy. We take a very strict milking policy and cleanliness is paramount. I think that the tests that we are subject to are adequate and all our test results have always been fine."

Ten years ago there were more than 500 producers selling raw milk in the UK. Now there are fewer than 100. Fortunately for those few survivors, raw milk does seem to be enjoying something of a revival. The reawakening public interest in food provenance and traditional farming methods has meant a generation of new foodies willing to think outside of the supermarket box. This, coupled with the ability of producers to reach a wider market via the internet (which still count as sales "direct from the farm" as far as the law is concerned) has led to a significant surge in raw milk sales.

It does seem odd that, when cigarettes and alcohol can be freely sold by shops to consenting adults, raw milk, which is subject to a strict regime of checks and tests, cannot. Clearly it's right to make people aware of the risks but as young(ish), healthy(ish) foodies with a taste for quality food, and admittedly getting a bit of a subversive kick out of drinking the illicit white stuff, we'll certainly be back for more.

Posted Monday, 18 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

In the second of our series of interviews with people who share our love of the outdoor, seasonal world, the Well Seasoned team have been speaking to David Lindo, a.k.a. the Urban Birder about woodcock, curlew and jam roly-poly, Read the full interview HERE.

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

If you don't know by now that we're big fans of scallops then we're doing something seriously wrong. But it's worth saying that one of the reasons we love them so much is the experience of collecting and preparing them. A morning in Lyme Bay on the dive boat followed by an hour in the water with our scuba kit and an afternoon in the kitchen is all so rewarding. It beats a trip to the supermarket any day.

Well, we can't teach you how to dive on this blog (we're pretty sure our insurance won't cover us for that) but we can tell you how to prepare your own scallops. The advantages are obvious - you'll know that your scallops are as fresh as it's possible to be and you wont have to pay anyone to do the job for you.

First, with the curved edge of the shell sitting in your palm, rest the fanned edge of the scallop on a chopping board.

Force a strong, sharp knife into the gap at the edge of the shell near to the hinge. If the scallop is slightly open, this will be an easy task. If not, it'll take a little more work and wiggling of the knife. Push the knife right across to the other side of the shell and then slice downwards, keeping the knife slightly angled towards the flat edge of the shell so that you slice as much of the white muscle as possible away from the flat shell.

Having sliced through the muscle the scallop will gently fall open to reveal its inner workings. The edible parts are the white muscle and the orange coral. The size and shape of both will vary depending on the condition of the scallop.  

Remove the black stomach sac with your fingers. Be gentle with it because you want to avoid tearing it if at all possible. It's not poisonous as such but if it does burst you should rinse the spillage off the rest of the scallop as soon as possible. 

Next, break off the flat edge of the shell and pull away the frills. They will peel off without much resistance.

You should now have the curved part of the shell with the white muscle and coral sitting neatly in it.

Cut away the muscle from the shell with a blunt knife or a spoon. Again, you want to save as much of the muscle as possible. 

Now give the scallop a little trim and a rinse under the tap. Pat dry with some kitchen towel. 

That's it! For our example we trimmed off the coral (as most restaurants will do) but there's no reason to do so other than for presentation.

Scallops really are one of the easier shellfish to prepare so if you looking for that smug glow that only comes with being able to say to the fishmonger "don't worry, I'll do it myself", pick up some scallops and give it a go. 

PS It goes without saying that if you're young (or old but clumsy) you should get an adult to help you with this. A missing finger can put a serious downer on your scallop dinner. Keep is safe and seasonal!

Posted Saturday, 9 July 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

New wife, new job, new house, new garden. I'll leave you to decide which of the four causes the most angst in my life at the moment. Well, perhaps I won't. It's obviously the bloody garden.

Having got back from honeymoon at the beginning of last week, I was hoping for progress for our little salad patch, herb garden, various strains of ridiculous looking tomatoes provided by Jamie@Homebase, corn, raspberry and loganberry plants. I was expecting a scene of devastation, death and decay but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Clearly the rain we've had in the last fortnight (not on the day of the wedding, fortunately) has done wonders for the flora.

The salad patch had gone from what had risked being pulled up as weeds to gargantuan, lush and leafy plants. Although the leaves had grown slightly too mature so as to develop a pretty robust flavour, they were happily added to the salad bowl to supplement a salad of sheeps' milk cheese and chorizo that had made it back in the sack from our honeymoon to the Basque country. 1 nil to the gardener.

Next I tended to our tomatoes. They had all started out at the same size back in late April and have all benefitted from identical amounts of sun. Clearly though, not all tomatoes are created equals. Red zebra and black cherry have punched their way into the lead and needed tying up to the bamboo. Tomato limmony, a heritage variety that is supposed to produce monstous beefsteak fruits is the runt of the litter. Let's hope the latter is a grower and not a shower, because I'm not holding out much hope. At this rate, I will be sending a very disappointed letter to Mr Oliver because the chances of me enjoying some Laverstoke Park buffalo mozarella with at least one home-grown beefsteak tomato is looking ropey.

From a fair degree of satisfaction, to abject despair. The raspberry and loganberry (a cross between a blackberry and raspberry) plants looked miserable. Totally devoid of greenery where they'd previously shown vague signs of life. What had happened? They were my leftfield-hope for the garden - something to prove to Lara that we could grow some cool stuff, even in Tooting. I had images of late summer raspberries piled high on vanilla ice-cream, of enough berries to go into the vodka bottle for this year's winter warmer. I've got two single sticks in a pot of dirt that don't look they've ever been alive. Bugger.

Anyway, it would be great to hear about any of your home-grown stories. If you've got any tips for 'berries then do let us know at the usual address, because I'm not sure Gardeners' Question Time is quite ready for Well Seasoned.

Posted Thursday, 7 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The European lobster hommarus gammarus is the king of crustaceans. Its size and appearance (both the dark blue of the natural animal and the bright red, once cooked) are impressive and have long been coveted by seafood fans, making it a famously expensive dish.

Generally caught in pots or 'creels' all year round by small inshore boats, they don't have a "season" as such, and the quality of any individual animal will depend on when it last spawned or moulted, but they are generally at their best from mid-Summer through to early Spring.

For the Well Seasoned team, our lobster season starts in July when we first don our scuba gear specifically to hunt for lobsters (before then we tend to focus our diving efforts on scallops and since lobsters prefer lots of rocks with plenty of places to hide in, it's rare to find them on the sandy, flat scallop beds).

This weekend is our first dedicated lobster dive and we'll let you know how we get on. Apparently the Twig once did a university course studying lobster behaviour - we're not sure if that will be of any help, or just shows how weird he is, but in the meantime, we've compiled some top lobster facts and stats for you:

• The lobster belongs to the same taxonomic group as crabs, prawns and shrimps, the Decapoda (meaning ten legs).
• Most lobsters caught commercially are around 0.7kg and with a total body length of about 40 cm.
• To be of legal landing size in the UK the lobster's carapace (the front section of their shell) must be at least 9cm long.
• It is thought that lobsters can live for more that 100 years.
• Most lobsters of dinner table size are between five and seven years old.
• Killing lobsters by boiling is illegal in some places (such as in Reggio Emilia Italy, where you can be fined up to €495).
• You can expect to pay £15 to £25 for a live lobster (although you'll get them for significantly less on the quayside, straight off the boat).
• The largest ever recorded European Lobster was 1.26m long and weighed 9.3 kg, It was caught in 1931 in Fowey, Cornwall. Monster!

Finally, a lobster joke told to us recently by a fisheries officer. To appreciate it you have to know that, in order to protect spawning lobsters, fishermen who catch "berried" or egg-laying females will cut a v-shaped notch into their tales before throwing them back. It's illegal to land any lobster carrying this protective sign. 　

In a small Dorset fishing village, a local man was walking up the quayside carrying two live lobsters, one in each hand and each with a v-notch cut into his tail. As he's bundling his kit and lobsters into his car a local fisheries officer comes up to him, sees the lobsters and says "Gotcha. Those lobsters are both v-notched and it's illegal to take them from the wild."
The man says, "No, I'm afraid you are wrong! These are two trained lobsters that I caught ages ago. The v-notch is just a little sign that helps me recognise them."
The fisheries officer asks, "Trained? How?"
"Well," says the man, "each day I bring them down to the harbour here, drop 'em in the water and let them go for a swim. I smoke a couple of cigarettes, then, when we're ready to go, I give them a whistle, they trot out of the sea and we all go home."
"A likely story," says the fisheries officer says. "Let's take them down to the harbour now and see if it’s true." So the man goes ahead of the fisheries officer, back along the harbour wall, where he carefully lowers both lobsters into the water. The man sits back and lights a cigarette. After about 15 minutes the fisheries officer says to the man,
"OK. Now how about whistling?"
"What for?" the man asks. The fisheries officer answers, "To call in the lobsters!"
The man says, "What lobsters?"

Well, we thought it was pretty funny! Have a great weekend everyone. We'll be back on the blog early next week. Until then, keep it snappy and seasonal!

Posted Thursday, 7 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Today we (re)introduce you to Well Seasoned's campaign anthem from Shropshire-based rural rap enthusiasts, the SY6. In case you haven't heard the story before, at the beginning of our campaign we thought it would be great to have a catchy tune to call our own and to shamelessly draw attention to ourselves at events. Unfortunately the Well Seasoned team's musical skills extend no further than a primary school certificate of merit for the recorder, so we concluded some outside help was needed. We then came across Jake and the SY6 who had already produced the comedy hit 'We Make Hay' (as well as some rather more serious "real" music). It couldn't have been a better match so we asked if he'd be interested in penning our campaign anthem for us. Jake and the Church Stretton massive not only came up with a very catchy tune (which surely secures them top spot in the sub-genre of hay and vegetable-themed hip hop) but also a brilliant video to accompany it. Here it is in it's full glory. (And yes, we did have the idea before Yeo Valley muscled in on the act - but we're definitely not bitter...)

If the embedded video doesnt work you can always watch it on our YouTube channel 

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 Thursday, 30 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

2011 has been a good year for fish sustainability in the UK. Public consciousness has gone through the roof and it looks like the EU will soon (finally) be acting to do something about fish discards.

As you may have seen, one of Well Seasoned's seasonal competitions is to win a DVD of The End of the Line, the award-winning film that can claim a lot of the credit for kick-starting the groundswell. After production of The End of the Line finished, a number of the film makers were so moved by what they had discovered that they formed The Blue Marine Foundation, a UK charity aimed at increasing the global marine reserves from 1% to 10% of our oceans within the next 10 years.

Last week we were lucky enough to get an exclusive interview with (the appropriately named) Marina Vaughan, director of the charity. Click HERE to read what she had to say.

Posted Friday, 17 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Squid is great right now. It's a robust fish so can be accompanied by some pretty punchy ingredients and goes particularly well with fresh, strong flavours like lemon, garlic and chilli.

Probably because many peoples' first taste of squid is calamari on a Mediterranean holiday, they are often surprised to hear you can catch them quite easily in British waters. From July through to late Autumn, squid will be caught from boats and harbour walls all over the UK. They are cannibalistic and so the lures used by anglers to catch them are shaped like baby squid!

Their unusual looks scare a few people off but squid are actually very easy to prepare. Your fishmonger will be more than happy to do it for you but, if you fancy having a go yourself, here's what you need to do. 

One word of caution before you start: it's fairly straighforward to prepare squid without rupturing the ink sac. But the ink stains like nobody's business and so, just in case, you should avoid doing it in your Sunday best or on your finest wooden work surface! Wear and an apron and use a non-permeable surface like glass or stainless steel.

1. Place your fresh squid on the table in front of you.

2. Hold the head firmly and pull steadily away from the body. This should separate both the head and the innards, including the ink sac, from the body. 

3. Cut the tentacles and front part of the head, just in front of the eyes. Discard the eyes and innards.

4. Gripping the squid with a tea towel, peel off the skin and discard.

5. Pull the two side fins from the body and clean any membrane still attached to them.

6. Delve into the body and remove the cartilaginous transparent "quill" (which looks like a large plastic feather)

7. Rinse the inside of the body to remove any remaining mucus or innards. If you're cooking calamari you'll want to keep the body intact. Other recipes require you to slice the body open. This is best done by putting a knife inside and slicing outwards, which will leave you with a large triangle of beautiful white meat.

8. You can enjoy the body, tentacles and fins which are all edible. In general the tentacles will require less cooking than the other parts.

Posted Wednesday, 8 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Following our launch event at the Southampton Pumpkin show last October, Well Seasoned has been invited (and enthusiastically agreed!) to support a degree programme at Solent University and to join its Partner Affiliation Network.

The PAN is a group of companies aligned to course areas in the School of Design including, in Well Seasoned's case, the university's three BA(Hons) Food Management degrees. We hope to be involved with a range of activities to help students on the courses including project work, work placements and guest speaking on the subjects of seasonal food and the Well Seasoned brand.

Alongside well-known brands such as IKEA, Fat Face and B&Q, we're delighted to be involved with this innovative programme and we're very much looking forward to taking to the podium for a guest lecturing slot or two (although whether this will actually be a help or a hindrance to the students remains to be seen)

You can find more on Solent University, PAN and the Food Management degrees HERE

Posted Thursday, 5 May 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

We are surprised, delighted and humbled in equal measures to announce that the Well Seasoned website has been shortlisted for the Observer Ethical Awards "best blog" of 2011. Known as the Green Oscars, the Observer awards recognise organisations, individuals and young people whose work makes ethical living more accessible and achievable. Naturally we're stunned even to be considered and we couldn't have done it without a loyal following who contribute so much to our musings, as well as spreading the seasonal word so effectively. So, if you're reading this, a genuine, heartfelt thank you. The judging panel is a real Who's Who of the green world including luminaries such as Brian Cox, Colin Firth, Deborah Meaden, Ben Fogle and Gordon Roddick. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony in June which, obviously, we'll be attending with knobs on.

Read more on the awards and the shortlist HERE.

Posted Monday, 2 May 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  3 Comment(s)

When you last bought cooking oil, what did you buy? I'd wager some kind of olive oil. Use of olive oil has exploded in recent years and it is now the dominant home-cooking oil. But why do we automatically reach for olive oil when we have some really good home-grown varieties? Quality rapeseed oils are becoming increasingly available these days and at Well Seasoned we're big fans. Not just because of the lower food miles associated with UK-produced oils but because they taste great. As you might guess from the bright yellow flowers that cover our countryside in late Spring, rapeseed produced a vivid yellow oil with a buttery, sweet flavour. Look for cold pressed varieties and use them for frying,baking or for salad dressings. Great taste and low in saturated fats; it's liquid gold.

Posted Tuesday, 1 March 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

As you know, at Well Seasoned we love our good quality meat and provenance is high on our list of requirements when we're buying it. We recently asked Helen Mackellar from Orchard View Farm, our Producer of the Month for March, to tell us exactly how her porky pals make it from being a twinkle in their mother's eye to a meltingly tender piece of pork belly on your plate. Here's what she told us:

“All our traditional breed, free range pigs are raised on our small holding in Buckinghamshire, between Aylesbury and Thame.  27 acres of pasture land nestling at the foot of the Chiltern Hills: an idyllic location in which to raise our Large Black and Oxford Sandy Black pigs and Jacob lambs.

We started rearing pigs in 2009 and currently have 22 with one sow due imminently. Sows come in season every 3 weeks.  This is her fertile period and the time when the boar must serve her in order that she become “in pig”.  Gestation is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days so the waiting starts!  Ten days before giving birth she will ‘bag-up’, meaning her belly will drop and her milk will start to form, so it is time to think about moving her to her own house.

Once it comes to giving birth, a sow is best left alone, she will just get on with it, and getting close to her at this stage is not a good idea as she can be very protective of her vulnerable young!  Once all is quiet we sneak a peak into the house to check all is well and try to count the number of new arrivals, generally a fruitless endeavour as all that can be seen is a mass of small pigs.  The mother’s milk is a great source of food and the young piglets grow fast: after a week or so the first adventurous ones venture out of the house to check out their new surroundings.  At four weeks they are starting steal mums food from the trough at which point feeding time becomes a more hectic undertaking with a seething mass of little bodies jostling, squeaking and grunting around the food trough, often making it difficult to get the food into the trough.

The piglets grow up fast and by eight weeks are independent from their mother, in that their diet is predominantly the food we give them, rather than the milk they get from their mother and so it is time to wean them.  Taking their mother away sounds a fairly traumatic process, but our experience shows us that the mothers at least have generally had enough of their piglets by this stage and are glad of a quieter and less demanding life.  Generally once the sows have finished feeding their litter they are quite slim so we feed them up for a month or so (depending on the sow, her age & how long she takes to regain weight). We aim for the sows to have 3 litters in 2 years. Some of the larger, more intensive pig farms go for 2.5 per year, but we want our sows to have a longer and less stressful life!

Once the piglets are independent of their mothers, they are fed twice a day on an non-GM diet of pig nuts supplemented by fruit & veg that can't be sold from a local fruit & veg shop. Contrary to popular belief, however, pigs don't eat everything! They can't have potatoes or parsnips or too much citrus fruit. We've also taken the active decision to not be certified as organic as we want to have the option to treat our animals with the appropriate medication when they are sick and with preventative medication, such as worming. The animals' welfare is of utmost importance to us and all them do live in at least the conditions required by organic standards, if not better.

Pigs are most certainly highly intelligent and when left in a large group do work as team, something we have experienced to our cost a number of times!  Team work generally takes the form of a mass ‘great escape’ style breakout with some piglets working on removing electric insulators whilst others get their noses under an intermediary post.  With their work complete all that remains is for them to pluck up the courage to rush the now severely weakened fence.  Once out they rarely go far and can be easily tempted back in with a bucket of food – pigs love their food!  As pig keepers you soon learn, never underestimate a pig, they will always surprise you!

As the piglets near 6 months old, we start to make decisions about their futures.  The males will all go at 6 months old and become chops and joints.  If you wait much longer than this there is a risk of boar taint spoiling the meat.  Now, if you are a continental then boar taint is something you might like, but not for our delicate English palette!  With the girls we make a choice whether to keep them an extra month or two and get slightly larger chops and joints or some good sized hams, or keep them a few more months and make them into sausages or to keep them as a breeding sow as part of our succession planning.  We currently take 2-3 pigs per month to the abattoir so that's about 30 per year, although we plan to increase that as demand increases. Our ultimate plan is 8 per month (but that may be in a couple of year's time)!

So, early on a given Thursday (about 5am) we load up the pigs and drive off (with the tons of requisite paperwork) to the abattoir in Long Compton, near Chipping Norton.  There is always a moment of reflection when any of our animals go to slaughter; however, we know we have given them the best life, with plenty of space, high quality food and the sun on their backs.  Better this than some poor factory farmed animal.  We then return the following Tuesday to collect them, butchered to our customers exact requirements.

Once we get the butchered meat and sausages home, we wrap it in catering grade parchment and secure it with butchers string for a traditional look and so it can be safely frozen without risk of “freezer burn” and then pack it into boxes for our individual customers.  This type of packaging is also environmentally friendly, which with the 75 ‘food miles’ per pig, makes this about as environmentally friendly as possible.

Once packed, each customer can either come to the farm to collect their meat box or have it delivered, if they live locally.  We are promoting ourselves as providing local food but we also can deliver by courier if you live further afield and don’t want to miss out on the delicious free range, traditional breed pork.

We also like to enjoy and share the fruits of our labour with our friends!  Personally I like to cook the joints “low and slow” as it gives the most amazingly tender, falling off the bone meat and the flavours have the chance to fully develop and mature during the cooking process.  We had a wonderful party recently where the “piece de resistance” was an entire pork shoulder which I had cooked for about 20 hours – divine, if I say so myself!”

Thanks Helen! For more on the Orchard View Farm story and to order from the farm, check out www.orchardviewfarm.co.uk or email Helen at helen@orchardviewfarm.co.uk Pork is available in mixed cut boxes of 5kg (£45), 10kg (£85) or 20kg (£150) and if you're one of the first two people to mention 'Well Seasoned' when you order, you'll get a kilo of Orchard View Farm's best bangers for free.

And finally, if you're trying to do the supermarket comparison maths, Tesco is currently charging about £6/kg for their fresh pork leg joint. So, we think that Orchard View Farm's prices represent pretty extraordinary value when you consider everything that Helen and her family go through to make sure their piglets have the best possible life. They taste pretty good too. Mmmmm, bacon.