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The Mayor’s Christmas Hamper

Mayor Phil Bettington asked the Ledbury Food Group to create a couple of Christmas hampers using local food and drink for St Michaels Hospice and to raise money for the Christmas Lights. I shopped up and down Ledbury high street on behalf of the Ledbury Food Group looking for the sort of goodies I would like to receive as Christmas presents. The Three Counties Cider shop sells hampers so you can make up your own – and choose cider and juice at the same time.

I found mulberry jam and blackcurrant leaf (yes leaf) cordial from Handley Organics. They are made from Caroline Handley’s own fruit bushes. The cordial tastes of blackcurrant but is lighter and slightly herby. Kaye at Four Oaks makes chilli jam and chutneys and Wallers Butchers sell Three Counties Gourmet mustard. I bought pickled onions from Jenkins the Greengrocers and honey from Gladwyn James. At Llandinabo Butchers most produce is local, they have lots of game at the moment and their eggs and pork pies are excellent, but perhaps not for a hamper. The Cider shop supplied some of Frank’s fabulous biscuits as well as pear juice.

Of course we have our own chocolatier at Celebrations and I chose chocolate covered mandarins with a Chrismassy taste. Gurneys Butchers has lots of fine local meats and Spar sells local drinks, cakes and vegetables. Hay Wines have an excellent range of local beers, ciders and wines and gave us some Dorothy’s Christmas Ale as a festive addition to the hamper. Ceci Paulo deli is of course continental, but their bread and several cheeses are local. They provided Tyrrells crisps for us.

So think about shopping in Ledbury and making up hampers for food loving friends.

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Christmas is coming ‘someone’s’ geese are getting fat…..

Before the popularity of the turkey goose was the Christmas celebration bird of choice. Easy to rear for anyone who had a piece of land or easily purchased from the many butchers that abounded on our high streets. That’s before freezers made their appearance – both commercial and domestic! Now it’s out on our butchers’ shelves again, albeit sparsely. More of a ‘niche’ buy. Probably because people are wary of cooking it and for a one off piece of meat it doesn’t have the versatility of the turkey when it comes to post Christmas dining……

So this is the brief tale of a local farming family who have a history of rearing – alongside the main farming activities – and supplying our local butchers with the Christmas goose – and what that entails….. It all starts around the end of May. At one time the eggs were hatched on the farm but now it is more practical to buy the goslings at around four days old from a supplier. They purchase around one hundred in number. To begin with they are kept under lamps and artificial light and fed on poultry crumb for four weeks. During this time there is a natural wastage of around 10% – survival of the fittest! Once ‘in feather’ they can be released on to the fields and for seven months they are free to roam. Protection is all important. Predators abound. A watchful eye is kept and the birds come in every night…. At the beginning of December the birds are brought into the sheds, corn fed, and on the 20th they are ready for dispatching. Until recently that was a hands on affair but to make life easier a professional gang is now hired to perform the task as well as the plucking.

An interesting note was that now ‘wet’ plucking makes feather removal ‘cleaner’ but when ‘hand done’ the down from the goose could be retrieved and sold for eiderdowns and pillows. A lucrative by product. My friend made me laugh when she said she was educated on those proceeds! Now her ‘by product’ is goose fat. The fat inside the bird once removed, she renders down and ‘jars’. A local friend makes the labels… Our local butchers market it and we get the benefit of making great roast potatoes…!

So the 20th has arrived and this labour intensive season is coming to an end for another year. The geese are individually dressed and made table ready. Giblets included – so important for that meaty gravy…! All that is left to do is the delivery of the birds to butchers – around Ledbury and Bromyard. I say ‘all’ ‘cos it’s an early morning call for the driver…..

So that’s it folks. My first blog ever and, hopefully, if you enjoyed it, not my last. So go on. Order that goose from Wallers or Gurneys – I’ve ordered mine! A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to one and all.

PS As a footnote from my source – always remember to slice the cooked goose thinly. And another great tip – the unused and usually discarded ‘feathered wing’ from the bird is great for sweeping down the back of the aga or getting in those cobwebby corners!…..she’ll have some to spare…. !

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Welcome to the blog! (and start your Christmas shopping)

Would I like to start a blog about local food?  It would mean going round to local food growers, producers and suppliers, sampling their wares, talking to them and writing about it…

I had heard of the Ledbury Food Group, taken part in the original survey and been interested in what was happening now, so I was intrigued. And they weren’t to know just how interested in food I am, so I tried not to sound too keen – or greedy.  But actually I was going “yippee”, and so far everyone I have mentioned the blog to has asked to come along!

That is the thing about this part of the country.  People are genuinely enthusiastic about local produce – and with good reason.  Moving here five years ago I was delighted to discover how delicious the local meat, poultry and game was, to find that the fruit & veg I was buying came from down the road, and to realize just how many local cider and perry producers were within a stone’s throw of my house. As well as delivering delicious produce that reaches a wide audience, and being businesses that hold their own in a very competitive market, providing jobs for local people, these producers are rooted in the landscape and history of the area – and I think you can taste that in what they offer.  Read the interview with Once Upon A Tree producer Ann Stanier to feel that sense of place.

So, where do I start?  Watch this space for news about people starting new foodie ventures, for profiles of old favourites and for anything of interest to do with food that is going on within a 30 mile radius of Ledbury.  I hope I can expand your knowledge of what is out there, and make you think about some of the issues around local food.

Contact me (melissa@ledburyfoodgroup.org) if there are places you have come across that you think everyone should know about, or even ones that you have just heard about and would like to know more – I can’t wait to get going!

Finally, although I disapprove of getting organised for Christmas too early, it has dawned upon me that it is looming, and I came across this yesterday, hot off the press (Tilley’s, of course!  See about this long-established Ledbury business on http://www.ledburyportal.co.uk/portal/ )  So here is an idea for the perfect present for local food-lovers (easy to post too)  Tinsmiths’ 2013 Letterpress Calendar offers an ingredient for each month and invites you to look at their blog for maybe a recipe or an activity to do with it.  January’s is water, and promises a walk to fetch water from the Malvern Hills, but I’m looking forward to blackcurrants in July, oh and bangers in November – intriguing! See it under Accessories (Books and Stationery) on their website: http://shop.tinsmiths.co.uk/index.php

 

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The Hotel Inspector gives Ledbury the thumbs up

Alex Polizzi, TV’s Hotel Inspector, enjoyed glamping in Herefordshire and was delighted by her visit to Ledbury:

‘There are lovely walks in the area, but as almost always, the lure of a town proved greater, and I had the excuse of needing to buy the ingredients for a stew. We bought beef at the award-winning Llandinabo Farm Shop in Ledbury, had a quick lunch at the Cameron & Swan café and delicatessen, invested in a bottle of Champagne at Hay Wines, bought a few early Christmas presents at Tinsmiths … ‘

The full story is here:

Confessions of a convert to camping

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OpenHighStreet comes to Hereford

Will Ledbury be next? Openhighstreet.com offers the ability to shop with local high street shops and have produce delivered to your home at a time to suit you. Recently featured in the Observer/Guardian article, it may be what the high street needs to provide the convenience of the supermarket and provide the local, fresh, quality produce of the high street. Only available in Hereford now, will Ledbury be next?

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After Food miles, here comes Beer Miles

The Prince of Wales pub in Church Lane has a beer menu that as well as describing the beer – fancy a “light and fruity beer with good hoppy bitterness”? then an Otter Bitter is for you – also provides the distance from the brewery. So that fruity Otter has come 87 miles, whereas a drop of Butty Back only has to stagger 9.5 miles to  quench your thirst.

Well done to the Prince of Wales for thinking local.