Category: Local Producers

Congratulations to Ledbury ‘Real Bread’ baker Peter Cooks Bread for landing the top prize of overall winner of the Tiptree World Bread Awards 2014 for their category winning Ciabatta. Their signature loaf, ‘Cider Crumb’, won a Bronze at the awards and is made from combining light malthouse and white flour with apples and Tom Oliver’s Dry Cider and they also won Gold for their Blackberry Focaccia.

Peter Cooks Bread bake at the Hop Pocket at Bishops Frome and their bread is available at Ceci Paolo and the Market House delis in Ledbury, and at The Nest – Hand Made Scotch Egg Co – on the Hereford Road. For anyone who would like to find out more about Real Bread or try their hand at making it, they are starting bread-making workshops in November.

The choice for food shoppers in Ledbury has become even wider with the opening in the past week of two new shops in the High Street extending even further the range of locally produced foods available in Ledbury.

Handley Organics moved from the Homend to its new premises in the High Street – right by the market area – on Saturday 26^th July.  The much larger shop will enable Caroline Handley to expand the already considerable offering of local and organic foods. A good place to look for new food ideas.

By Ledbury’s ancient -Market House, the Market House café has opened the Market House Deli next door – doors opened last Wednesday (23^rd July). This new venture for Heather and her team stocks a range of local products including fresh baked local bread, as well as their own coffee blend and pastries.

It’s great that two established local businesses have expanded to increase still further the range of good food available on Ledbury’s high street!

If you haven’t heard already The Farmers Arms pub at Wellington Heath has re-opened its doors. With a fresh and enthusiastic approach the new landlords are determined to make this local pub popular again.

The new owner is a builder. He has updated the premises making it light, warm and welcoming. Lawrence and Carolyn Joplin are the excited incumbents. Recently managing The Bell at Yarpole, Carolyn tells me they have been in the locale for many years and are delighted to have the opportunity to run this pub as a freehouse, with all the opportunities such a project brings with it.

Lawrence is the chef. He has knowledge and experience of producing a good, varied menu from quality produce and ingredients. He was a late starter in the cookery profession and his interest led him to working free and gratis in a Michelin star kitchen to start him on his chosen career. He went on to study catering at Hereford College as a mature student. Then on to working in high end kitchens with the likes of Claude Bosi in Ludlow and finally with Darren Field at Englands Gate at Bodenham. He was now equipped to face the gastronomic world head on, starting his own kitchen at the above mentioned – The Bell at Yarpole. In fact, their passion for good food extends to dining at good eateries, even when they get time off…!

Lawrence is very keen to source as many of his supplies as possible locally. This can expand as their tenure lengthens. Already using some butchers in Ledbury, The Food Group has contributed a list of many local suppliers of all kinds of produce, which the couple can avail themselves of. The menu also features a variety of fish dishes – the New Wave company from Gloucester is happy to replenish stocks daily – a new one on me. And, just in case you thought all this was sounding more restauranty and less pubby, there is a barter board for us mortals who ‘home grow.’ Included on the Sunday Roast menu, if your family all enjoy chicken, you can order a whole one with all the trimmings to carve at your table. Now there’s a good idea.

On the social side we have sparked some ideas for inclusion in Ledbury’s Big Breakfast and Poetry Festival events. In August, plans to have a Sausage Festival at the pub are already on the table. Excuse the pun… Musical, Quiz and Themed events are all a possibility for the future – creating a social hub being the intention.

Lawrence and Carolyn, with their family, Joe and Hannah, really want to make this pub a success. It will require a lot of hard work and dedication and I hope that with local support the possibilities for The Farmers’ Arms are endless. Cheers!

Suddenly the fruit bushes were full of jewel-like redcurrants glowing like rubies in the bright sunshine!  And I mean full, it has been a bumper harvest which has meant jam-making on days when it was really too hot to be near a stove.  Some stored in the freezer for summer pudding to be eaten long after the memory of this wonderful hot weather has faded, some made into a spiced redcurrant jelly to go with lamb or pigeon breast (a friend was musing on just how good the pigeons who had eaten all her redcurrants would taste if only she could capture them!)  There will be more to make into a sweet redcurrant and raspberry jam, and some we have simply eaten, spooning it on to yoghurt for breakfast, or sneaking spoonfuls from the bowl in the fridge.  But the blackcurrants that don’t go into summer pudding or get poured over ice cream just have to be made into a traditional jam, thick, with a soft set and not too sweet.  I could eat it by the spoonful….

Tomatoes too are finally starting to ripen, much later than last year because of the cold spring.  Picking a handful of small plum tomatoes, a new variety to us called Lucciola, I couldn’t resist popping one in my mouth.  Sweet, with a deep flavour and delicious, the skin not tough because they have ripened quickly.  Perfect with home-grown basil, again aromatic and tasty because of the warm weather, some locally bought, if not manufactured, mozzarella (from Ceci Paolo, it’s worth it!) and olive oil smuggled home in our suitcases last year from Paxos.  That will be perfect for tonight’s supper, along with a green salad of lettuce and our own broad beans, and some freshly pulled radishes, nicely hot and crunchy. Bliss!

If you are barbecuing during this hot spell – we have had to let the Aga go out as the dog was complaining he couldn’t sleep in the heat, so are using the ancient table-top barbecue we bought years ago for any roasting – then do consider this home grown charcoal.  Is it just my imagination or is it not only easier to use, lighting quickly and smoking less,  and gives a better heat, but also makes things taste better?  Probably, but hey!  We might as well cook our wonderful Herefordshire meat and vegetables over local charcoal while we wait for the scientific analysis of my claims.

Enjoy the summer, and all that it provides.