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Soul food for wintery weekends – a bowl of homemade French onion soup and chunky slices of bread smeared thickly with butter. We ate Miracle Bread from Jane’s Handmade Bread bought at Abbey Ley’s farmers market spread with white goat’s butter.
I thought it was about time I shared with you a fabulous new local food business who produce fantastic pies.
I first met Neil from The Great North Pie Company at a farmer’s market at Abbey Ley’s last summer when I had a stall to advertise the local food awards I was running as a volunteer for CPRE Cheshire. A relatively new business on the local Cheshire food scene, Neil and his family set up in 2008 baking delicious pies using quality local produce.
The Great North Pie Company were a runner-up in our CPRE Cheshire ‘Buy Local’ Food Awardsand were a winner of the far more prestigious NW Fine Foods awards. On Sunday I bought a delicious beef and potato pie (with truffle oil!! a little non-local luxury we’re all allowed to indulge in!) for N and I to share for lunch.
We devoured the pie, with its melt-in-the-mouth beef that flakes apart into tender strands, along with hunks of Miracle Bread, also bought from the farmer’s market from Jane’s Handmade Bread, smeared with milky white goat’s butter. A truly scrumptious local meal.
N and I got back from our week in Italy last night, having had a truly wonderful holiday in Naples and on the Amalfi Coast. I have religiously kept a food diary of all the food we consumed and can’t wait to share the high’s and lo’s with you all.
I have also got over 400 photos (I know!) to go through so there will be a couple of installments over the next week or more, so please check back.
Here’s a sneak peek in the meantime of some of the delicious food we found and ate on our travels in Italy…
I thought it was about time I created a list of the farmer’s markets in Cheshire to share with everyone. I have only been to a handful of these that are closest to me, but if anyone has any recommendations on others that are worth the drive I would love to know. If I’ve missed any off, or the details need updating, please let me know. For a printable version, click here.
~ ABBEY LEYS FARM ~
1st Sunday of the month
9am – 2pm
Abbey Leys Farm, High Legh
~ ALDERLEY EDGE ~
2nd Sunday of the month
10am – 2pm
The Festival Hall, Alderley Edge
~ ALTRINCHAM ~
1st Friday of the month
7am – 2pm
Covered Market, Market Street
~ CHESTER ~
1st Wednesday of the month
10am – 4.30pm
Chester Town Hall Square
~ CLOVER BANK FARM ~
3rd Saturday of the month
8.30am – 12.30pm
Shellow Lane, North Rode, Macclesfield
~ CONGLETON ~
1st & 3rd Tuesday of the month
9am – 2pm
The Bridestones Centre, Congleton
~ CREWE ~
3rd Saturday of the month
9am – 3pm
Municipal Square, Crewe
~ CRONTON ~
2nd Saturday of the month
10am – 1.30pm
Cronton Nursery, Cronton
~ ELLESMERE PORT ~
4th Saturday of the month
9am – 4pm
adjoining Market Hall, Ellesmere Port
~ GOOSTREY ~
3rd Saturday of the month
10am – 1.30pm
Methodist Church Hall, Main Road, Goostrey
~ GROSVENOR GARDEN CENTRE ~
2nd Friday of the month
10am - 3pm
Pulford
~ HALE ~
3rd Sunday of the month
10am – 1.30pm
St Peter’s Assembly Rooms, Cecil Road, Hale
~ KINGSMEAD ~
4th Saturday of the month
10am – 1.30pm
Kingsmead Primary School, Northwich
~ KNUTSFORD ~
1st Saturday of the month
9am – 2pm
Silk Mill Street, Knutsford
~ MIDDLEWICH ~
1st Saturday of the month
10am – 2pm
Boosey’s Garden Centre
~ MOBBERLEY ~
4th Sunday of the month
10am – 2pm
Mobberley Victory Hall
~ MOLD ~
1st Saturday of the month
9am – 3pm
St Mary’s Church Hall, Mold
~ NANTWICH ~
Last Saturday of the month
9am – 2pm
The Square, Nantwich
~ NESTON ~
3rd Saturday of the month
9am – 2pm
Neston Town Hall
~ NORTHWICH ~
2nd Saturday of the month
9am – 3pm
Market Way, next to Northwich Market
~ POYNTON ~
1st Sunday of the month
9am – 1pm
Poynton Civic Hall, Park Lane
~ RODE HALL ~
1st Saturday of the month
9am – 2pm
Scholar Green, Allsager
~ VALE ROYAL ~
3rd Saturday of the month
10am – 2pm
Eddisbury Fruit Farm, Yeld Lane, Kelsall
~ WARRINGTON ~
2nd Sunday of the month
10.30am – 4.30pm
Walton Lea Project, Walton Gardens Heritage Yard
~ WIRRAL ~
2nd Saturday of the month
9am – 2pm
New Ferry Village Hall, Grove Street, New Ferry
~ WOODFORD ~
3rd Sunday of the month
9am – 1pm
Woodford Community Centre, Chester Road
cheese at Stroud Farmer's Market
I am visiting my family in the Cotswolds for the weekend. I have left N with his dissertation research, two naughty bunnies, and the rugby to keep him occupied. After having a rather blonde moment and ending up four junctions down the motorway too far and nearly in Bristol (I have done this trip a million times so there’s no excuses) I finally made it down on Friday for lunch with my parents.
Visiting my family in the Cotswolds always feels like I’m coming home, I just feel so relaxed and at ease here. By the time I was 18 I had lived in over twelve houses, been to about four or five different schools, and lived in the USA, but this is my home, the place I will always come back to.
home
This morning I dragged my mom and little sister (not so little anymore, nearly 16 as she likes to keep reminding us) to Stroud Farmer’s Market. I visited this renown farmer’s market for the first time last summer and it was fantastic. It is in the heart of Stroud, set throughout the small ancient streets and offers a huge variety of goods. I was struck by the choice, which is often so limited at farmer’s market, especially by the stalls selling vegetables.
extra virgin olive oil from Eleon
Despite being a rather chilly and blustering early Spring day, we had a lovely morning and came home with a basket of goodies. We weren’t there to do our weekly shop, although I wish I lived close enough to do my weekly shop here, so just bought some ‘treats’. We also tried some scrumptious olive oil and cheese. The little sister tried a lot of cheese.
delicious cheese from Shepton Mallet
My basket contained: Monmouthshire air dried ham from Trealy Farm…
charcuterie from Trealy Farm
…a Jammie (like a jammy dodger but made with shortcrust biscuits and homemade blackcurrant jam – I will be trying to recreate these at home) from Hobbs House Bakery…
Jammies from Hobbs House Bakery
…a piece of Morn Dew (cow) cheese and a Little Rachel (goat) cheese made by a man in Shepton Mallet (this is the best cheese I have tasted in a long time); a bottle of organic whole milk from Jess’s Ladies Organic Farm Milk (I dream about this milk when I’m at home in Cheshire – it is to die for and how all milk should be)…
milk and yoghurt from Jess's Ladies
and a Mixed Berry Doughnut (yes I said doughnut) made by Pippin Doughnuts.
doughnuts from Pippin Doughnuts
Mom’s contained: a bunch of locally grown purple tulips…
locally grown flowers
…two Mixed Berry Doughnuts and a Cinnamon and Brown Sugar doughnut from Pippin Doughnuts…
cinnamon and brown sugar doughnuts
a loaf of bread from a lovely bakers whose name I can’t remember…
lovely bread - bottom left
…an Organic Cotswold Brie from Simon Weaver (check out their website for some delicious sounding recipes); a Black Nancy (rolled in charcoal) and a Trickle both from the Shepton Mallet cheese man. The little sister also polished off a vegetable samosa.
bread, brownies and hot cross buns from Hobbs House Bakery
The afternoon was spent at the local garden centre where I picked up a couple of small trays of lettuce (oakleaf and red little gem) and some purple sprouting broccoli plug plants. I will plant them down at the allotment and cross my fingers that the wild bunnies don’t annihilate them.
All in all I have had a pretty perfect day – food and gardens – and my family thrown in for good measure.
Barcelona is one of my favourite cities in the world – at least, it’s probably my favourite out of all those I have visited. It is somewhere that I would happily go back to over and over again. I don’t really enjoy spending time in cities, having lived most of my life in the countryside I find them very claustrophobic, but Barcelona is different. It has an underlying calmness that runs through it streets, despite the hustle and bustle of city life. I would recommend it to anyone.
Peaceful park :: Barcelona ::
It has a fantastically rich food landscape, with beautiful cafes, tapas bars, patisseries and markets on every street. There are small bakeries selling baguettes, simply filled with a smear of fresh tomato and Serrano ham, ideal for the weary tourist. There are so many tapas bars to choose from that it’s hard to recommend one. We found one we liked in the Barri Gothic area and went back more than once – it was nice to go in the second time and for the waitress to recognise us. One of my favourite dishes were garlicky haricot beans.
selection of tapas :: Barcelona ::
There are stalls at ‘La Boqueria’ market with tables piled high with exotic magenta pink fruits with a cluster of black seeds, halved and sold with a spoon for a healthy snack on the move.
Fruit stall :: La Merchat Boqueria, Barcelona ::
Then there is the Christian Escriba Pastisseria on La Rambla.
Christian Escriba Pastisseria :: La Rambla, Barcelona ::
It is a stunning (much of Barcelona is stunning) small bakery – described on their website as a cake shop (www.escriba.es) – which has a small cafe, and tempting displays of pastries, cakes, chocolates, tarts, and other tasty things.
chocolate display :: Christian Escriba Pastisseria, Barcelona ::
Last time we visited we had brekfast here everyday.
Pastries and Spanish hot chocolate :: Christian Escriba Pastisseria ::
Should I ever live in Barcelona, my life would be happy but somewhat short lived if I breakfasted here everyday.
*I am going to try making my own Spanish style hot chocolate – I will post a recipe once it has been tried and tested!
Abbey Leys Farmers Market :: Cheshire ::
I am still defrosting after spending the morning in a draughty barn at the local farmers market. I am a volunteer with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and am the sole volunteer responsible for their local food work. I had a stall at a number of farmers markets in Cheshire over the summer, handing out leaflets and gathering nominations for a ‘Buy Local’ food awards we have been running.
This time I was helping with a project that is being piloted round the country called Mapping Local Food Webs. It sounds confusing and it is quite – but in brief it’s researching and documenting the relationships between farmer/producer, retailer and customer, and if there are any challenges. If you’re interested more information can be found at http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/.
The pilot project in the North West is being centred around Knutsford (if you’re reading this and from Knutsford (!) and are interested in getting involved please leave me a comment). We had a great map of Knutsford and the surrounding area of about a 15 miles radius. We asked people to put a coloured sticky dot on the map to show us where they had come from. It was really interesting to see where people had travelled from – from the really local who had walked down the road, to those who had travelled over 15 miles and had to stick their coloured dot on the edge of the map.
For me, I consider ‘local food’ to be food that is grown/produced within about 10 miles of where I live. Nationally I believe it is defined as food that is produced within 30 miles of you, which is actually quite a distance if you look at it on a map. It was a pretty quiet market today, the first of the year, but we are aiming to go back in a month when it should be back to its busy self, and hopefully the map will come with us and we should start to build up a really interesting picture of where people travel from to visit the market.
Manchester Christmas Market :: image from Manchester Evening News website ::
Yesterday N and I finished worked at lunchtime and headed into the city centre to do a bit of Christmas shopping. Manchester pulls out all the stops in terms of the number of Christmas markets that it features – around 5 or 6 dotted around the centre. Albert Square is the European Market, St Ann’s Square the German Market, Brazennose Street the World Market, Exchange Street the Arts & Crafts Market, and New Cathedral Street the Manchester Christmas Market.
We hopped off the tram at St Peter’s Sqaure and cut through to Albert Square – the European Market held here is probably the best way to start off your tour of the Manchester Christmas markets as it is a large square with lots of “streets” of wooden market cabins and a large log chalet bar in the middle selling Gluhwein. It’s a hub where everyone seems to congregate and there’s a nice feel to it. We then made our way down to the World market which I always seems to find the least interesting, which is odd considering a great many treasures in our house are ethnic pieces collected from around the globe. On to St Ann’s Square and finally to the ‘posh’ market in front of the designer shops.
A couple of hours later and we left the markets laden down with our goodies…two Camembert from Normandy… It’s safe to say N and I have discovered we aren’t really into the whole Christmas shopping thing. It made me feel strangely odd, like there was something wrong with me. Why wasn’t I rushing about in Marks & Spencer with my basket (I didn’t even have a basket) full of selection boxes of biscuits? Why wasn’t I in the crowd at the market stall selling large glowing rocks? Why didn’t I think my granny would like a giant plastic-wrapped iced gingerbread Christmas tree?
We really enjoyed the buzz at the Christmas markets; the fantastic wafts of cooking sausages, Raclette, mulled wine, and soaps as you passed different stalls; the lines of Christmas trees and bunches of red berries; even the fake snow shooting from a fake chimney atop a fake log cabin which combined with the smell of burning frankfurters resembled ash from a bonfire. We enjoyed all these things. We really enjoyed putting the heaters on full-whack in the car to defrost our numb fingers and bums after spending five minutes sitting on a platform after getting on the wrong tram.
So even though I had a crisis of confidence in my ability to be a British citizen and enjoy frenzied Christmas shopping for tat, I am comforted in the knowledge that I still like that Christmassy feeling – and part of that is (watching other people) on their made Christmas shopping sprees. I am firm in the knowledge that I love shopping, but it’s for food. There were some truly fantastic cheese stalls and I wish I had more money and a set of spare arteries to indulge in my love for cheese. To come home with only two Camembert is very restrained and probably due part to N being there for that look that says ‘Charlie, do we really need more cheese…?’ The Camembert will be saved (somehow!) for Christmas eve, removed from their wrapping, replaced in their box, bunged in the oven to be baked to a gooey deliciousness and served with crusty bread.
Camembert :: bought at the Manchester Christmas Markets ::
For those who share my love for all things cheese here is the recipe for the baked Camembert.
Camembert baked in the box
Enough for 2
A whole Camembert in its wooden box
A clove of garlic, halved (optional)
Drop of white wine (optional)
Sprig of thyme (optional)
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Remove the cheese from its plastic wrapper and put it back into the wooden box.
Slice a cross into the top of the Camembert. At this point you can put the lid on and bung it in the oven, but if you want you can do the following to it first. Rub the top of the cheese with the cut garlic clove, drizzle a little white wine into the centre where you made your slices, and stick a sprig of thyme into the top.
Bake the Camembert in its box with the lid on for 25-30 minutes when it should be hot and bubbling.
Serve with crusty white bread cut into chunks that can be dunked into the melted cheese. Eat beside a crackling fire on Christmas Eve.
*This dish also works well with Vacherin Mont d’Or – a fantastic French cheese that is wrapped in spruce bark and only available in the Autumn and Winter months – perfect for Christmas. Best served for more than two as it’s larger and richer than baked Camembert.
frosty morning
I am terrible at remembering to bring my camera with me when we go out. This morning we went down to our local farmers market at Abbey Leys Farm (http://www.abbeyleys.co.uk/). It’s a beautiful day – blue skies, sun shining, the countryside frosted with white icing – but bloody freezing. All our favourite local producers were there, everybody wrapped up in scarfs, hats and mittens. And I forgot my camera. And didn’t even have my phone which takes pretty good photos. I will learn, I promise – it’s so frustrating to want to share a lovely experience and not have any pictures to show of it.
For now I shall just have to tell you that we came away with a basket of farmhouse butter (from Preston), a string of onions (from Southport), half a dozen organic eggs (Abbey Leys), mini chocolate butter Stollen (from Warrington), a raspberry thickie made from Cheshire yoghurt (Tiresford Farm), and a french country loaf (from Love Bread in Knutsford). We had a quick chat with Sue at Little Heath Farm and emplored her to start making cocktail-sized sausages over the Christmas period – I have been craving those little sausages you find at Christmas parties that have been baked in the oven with honey and wholegrain mustard – yum! We also saw the Pie Man (Neil from The Great North Pie Company) who had, as usual, sold out an hour and a half into the market.
It has been a nice week for local food – the first ever Lymm Farmer’s Market was held at Oughtrington Community Centre to raise funds for their badly needed new boilers. I went down to volunteer and help out during the morning, and it seemed to be a big hit and a great success.
There were some of the local food ‘big boys’ like The Great Tasting Meat Company (http://www.greattastingmeat.co.uk/) , who were cooking up sausage and onion buns for chilly customers.
The Great Tasting Meat Company :: Lymm Farmer's Market ::
Our local box scheme providers – Northern Harvest (http://www.northernharvest.co.uk/) – were there with some fantastic bundles of cavalo nero, the only kind of kale I seem to manage. This was later cooked up into a fantastic Italian Bread and Cabbage soup.
Northern Harvest :: Lymm Farmer's Market ::
And some businesses from further afield who were new to us, like The Piemill (http://www.piemill.com/) from Cumbria.
Pies from The Piemill :: Lymm Farmer's Market ::
N is busy in the kitchen whipping up some Smoked Mackerel Pate for lunch. There was a near disaster when we discovered we were out of lemons, but the pate has been rescused with a few store cupboard staples – a glug of white wine vinegar (to give it a tang) and some lemon flavoured olive oil that we brought back from Croatia. It tastes almost as good, and is about to go down a treat on the bread from the market…
lettuce :: Saumur market, the Loire Valley ::
As I sit at home recovering from an operation to remove one of wisdom teeth (eugh!) I am again thinking about happier times and things. It is drizzling outside and I have let one of my bunnies out to roam the garden, although I’m sure he’s in fact hunkering down in his cosy house.
Last night as I tried to get off to sleep I was thinking about the local farmers markets and the different markets I’ve been to around the UK and abroad, and ultimately got to thinking what it is that makes a great farmers market. I have come to the conculsion it is vegetables. There are some delicious offerings at farmers markets – homemade pies, deep ruby coloured streaky bacon, and crusty sourdoughs – but for me, a table heaped with fresh, straight from the earth, picked that morning vegetables is what I’m really after.
My local farmers market it really good and swarming with people long before their advertised opening time, and has for sale many of those fantastic products I listed previously, but it does lack exciting vegetables. There are two markets which stick out in my mind for great, stomach-tingling vegetables: Stroud Farmers Market (in Gloucestershire) and the Saturday market in Saumur (a bit far to go for most UK shoppers as it’s in the Loire Valley in France). When I think back to my visits to these markets, it’s vegetables that I’m dreaming of – crisp lettuce the size of mixing bowls, boxes full of peas, heaps of heirloom tomatoes, new potatoes covered in soil.
Vegetables are at the heart of what we eat, they make up (or at least should I believe) the bulk of our meals and can be so exciting. Having a wide choice of vegetables encourages me to be creative, to eat simple, clean, refreshing food. Some of my best meals have been made without a kitchen, just a bowl of beautiful vegetables, a sharp knife, some seasoning and perhaps the odd barbque-singed sausage and hunk of gooey cheese for good measure. These are my best food memories.
simple tomato salad :: France ::
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