January 2012 newsletter

Deep intake of clean, crisp, winter air … Eyes wide open, best foot forward and welcome to you, 2012
By Lucy Gatward, Marketing Manager

Deep mid winter is a beautiful time of year I think, full of the promise of beginnings and opportunity. This year more than any other it’s concerned with how we relate to each other too. I think the new focus on living within our means forces us to see and work with what we’ve got. Our local environment therefore, becomes more important, as we’re likely to be spending more time in it!

How very Better Food that feels… our raison d’etre has always been about looking after what we have locally – buying from local farmers and artisan producers keeps the local economy buoyant and resilient, and means our customers, you, get access to healthy, interesting, indigenous produce.

My personal inclination is very much in line with a general swell towards keeping things simple, bunkering down a bit, cooking more, growing more, walking more, travelling less.

So our mid winter mission for 2012 is this: keep well and warm, healthy and in touch. We’ll do our very best to keep you loaded up with everything you need to achieve this.

A New Year message from Phil

Dear BFC customers,

A big thank you to all of you who have supported a business that strives to make a difference in the world. I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas foods you had from us including the turkey’s with attitude. They certainly lived life to the full right up to the last. We had one of these at home and I have to say I think it had the best flavour of any turkey I have ever tasted.

Here at BFC we’ll be going into 2012 with our best foot forward and wanting to build on our success of 2011. It feels like the tide is turning towards more localism and a more community-orientated way of life that has to be good for our families, our high streets and our security.

Many of our customers have helped to make The Community Farm  a real success and it’s great to go into the new year knowing it has so much support behind it. Andy, the Farm Manager, has great plans for the growing this year and Laurence, the Box and Wholesale Manager, is looking at how we can manage the growth in box numbers efficiently. All this helps to enable lots of community and education work. There is now an education and training program in place for 2012, so take a look at the new look website and see how you can be involved.

Happy New Year

Phil.

Here’s what our Better Foodies recommend for keeping it local and simple in 2012

Doves Farm Einkorn Flour
£2.89/kg

Einkorn is reputedly the original wheat, developed by farmers in the Middle East over 20,000 years ago. Since then, other varieties of wheat which produced higher yields and were easier to grow on our increasingly depleted soils became more popular. Doves Farm have been cultivating the Einkorn grain since 2008 and here at Better Food we’re always in favour of returning to the source and getting back to basics.  By supporting the reintroduction of heritage foods and bringing it to the awareness of our customers, we hope that we can play a small part in promoting its growth.

The National Trust Complete Traditional Recipe Book
£25

This is a classic British cookbook containing all the traditional family favourites. We think that this year is the year of the celebrating what is simple, local and in season. These are tried and tested recipes that will take you on a tour of the British Isles throughout time. From time- Toad in the Hole or Rice Pudding, local gems such as Stargazey Pie from Cornwall or Singin’ Hinnies from Northumberland, recipes also include instructions on how to be cooked on an Aga. The book also explores the history behind some of the key dishes in British cooking, from 14th-century Macaroni Cheese to 19th-century Mulligatawny Soup, and the introductions to each chapter provide a fascinating account of our culinary traditions and influences. Sarah Edington’s research has uncovered long-forgotten but delicious tastes of history from the roots of British cooking.

Bramley and Gage
6 O’clock Gin £17.49/35cl
Sloe Gin £14.99/35cl

Over Christmas we started stocking spirits from Bramley and Gage, based in Thornbury, just north of Bristol. Multi award winning Bristol 6 ‘clock gin in particular has proved very popular. Inspired by his forefather, seafarer Edward Kain, who would eagerly await Gin O’clock, current owner Michael carefully selects and precisely balances juniper with six other botanicals to chime together as sweetly as any timepiece. Orange peel adds a citrus in delightful harmony with floral elderflower. The result is a clean, smooth and richly flavoured gin. There’s also a fantastic organic sloe gin, handmade in the traditional way, in small batches, using local hand-picked, wild, hedgerow sloes. Delicious.

 

Bristol Independents Awards 2011/12

The Bristol Independents campaign is an initiative to support Bristol’s diverse independent shops and street markets, by encouraging shoppers to rediscover what’s on offer on their local high streets. So far the campaign has focused on food, and earlier this year launched a search to uncover Bristol’s favourite food businesses. You can now vote for your favourite amongst the 42 nominees, and see just what it is that local people value about these businesses. 

http://bristolindependents.co.uk/

The campaign is gearing-up for Bristol Independents Day 2012, on 4 July. They are looking for traders and shoppers right across the city to get involved, and would love to hear from anyone who’d like to help make plans for events and promotions on their own local high street.

For more information, contact us at: bristol.independents@gmail.com

Recipes

What’s in season?

Celeriac

Type: The ugly sister of tall, slender Celery

Vitamin and mineral content: Vitamins A, B and C, minerals including iodine, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and potassium is a good antioxidant.

Reputedly good for: Among other things, it is said to help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of bowel cancer.

Availability: October to March in the UK.

Storage: Keeps for several weeks if loosely wrapped and kept in the fridge.

Preparation: Luckily for celeriac, beauty comes from within, so don’t be put off by its knobbly exterior. The French eat celeriac raw (or quickly blanched) and thinly sliced with mayonnaise in a dish known as céleri rémoulade, but it can also be mashed and mixed with other root veg, where it will add a smooth nutty flavour. Cut any remaining leaves of and remove the tough outer layers. The stalk can be used with restraint in stocks and sauces.

Origins: Celeriac is derived from wild celery whose origins are in the wild bogs of Asia. While celery has been used inEuropesince ancient times (it is mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey as ‘selinon’), it is unclear when celeriac was first cultivated, although it was used in recipes as far back as the seventeenth century.

Celeriac & Leek Gratin (serves 4)
as a side dish – it’s quite rich and is a good accompaniment to most meats or a tomato based veggie dish.

1 medium celeriac, peeled and sliced into pound coin thick slices
1 leak, cleaned and trimmed, sliced into 1 cm thick rounds
1 tub crème fraiche
125g gruyere cheese, grated
1 slice brown bread, toasted and crumbled into crumbs
50g butter
salt and pepper
nutmeg

• Put the sliced celeriac and leek in an oven dish and cut up half the butter into tiny pieces and drop over the veg. Add salt and pepper and put into a high, pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes, or until soft, turning contents after about 5 minutes so everything is covered in the melted butter (add a tiny bit of olive oil if more fat needed).
• Put the rest of the butter into a pan on a very low heat and melt. Add the cheese and the crème fraiche – keep on lowest heat or the crème fraiche will curdle – and stir until all melted. Add pepper and a small grating of nutmeg if you have it.
• Pour cheese mixture over the veg, sprinkle the bread crumbs and put back into the oven for about 5 minutes until golden brown and crispy on top.

Kale

Type: Kale is a member of the brassica family, along with cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. You’re most likely to find curly leaved kale in your veg boxes in this country, especially during the winter months, which is survives well.

Vitamin and mineral content: Kale is a good source of vitamins A, C and E, and contains minterals including manganese, iron, calcium and potassium

Reputedly good for: Kale is said to be a preventor of the onset of various cancers, due to phytochemicals it contains, such as sulphoraphane. It is also a powerful antioxidant has anti-inflammatory properties.

Availability: Kale is a great winter veg, available from September right through to February.

Storage: Kale keeps pretty well in the fridge loosley packed in a plastic bag. It’s bitter taste gets stronger the longer it’s kept, so it’s best eaten after a few days.

Preparation: Give it a good wash and break of any fibrous-looking stalks.

Origins: Kale has been used as a staple food across Europe for hundreds of years, predating even cabbage. The Ancient Greeks cultivated an early curly-leaved vegetable, thought to be the ancestor of modern kale, as far back as the fourth century BC. In and out of favour over the centuries, it was re-established in the 19th century by Russian traders who took it as far as North America.

Kale with garlic and cinnamon (serves 4)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
450g kale or other chunky leafy green, finely chopped
225ml vegetable stock
1 tsp red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onion for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
• Stir in the cinnamon. Add the kale and mix well.
• Add the vegetable stock and wine vinegar. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until kale is tender. Season to taste.

The Story Group

From early January we’ll be selling special packs of mince, stew, beef sausage and meat balls from our friends at The Story Group in Chew Magna.

£3.99 a pack of any 3 packs for £10

The Story produce organic meat from several family farms rearing traditional British breeds.  They have standards of animal care and welfare, and because of this they are able to supply us with delicious and nutritious meat of the highest quality.

Italian meatloaf

50g fresh white breadcrumbs
4 tbsp finely grated Parmesan
500g pack minced beef
1 onion, finely chopped
100g pancetta, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp tomato purée

• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5.
• Line the long sides and base of a 2lb loaf tin with double thickness baking parchment.
• Mix 2 tbsp each of the breadcrumbs and Parmesan in a small bowl and set aside.
• Tip all the remaining ingredients into a large bowl with a good shake of salt and pepper and mix well – hands are the best for this job.
• Press the mixture into the loaf tin and sprinkle with the reserved crumb mix.
• Bake for 40-45 mins until the top is golden and crunchy. If the top does not colour in the oven, pop the tin under the grill and brown the top for 5 mins.
• Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then lift out using the parchment and put on a board. Slice and serve with potatoes and kale or red cabbage.