An embarrassment of game

Game is a special treat of the autumn and winter and on the Suffolk coast we are lucky to have an abundance of wild game. Birds of the air and beasts of the field are abundant here, with plentiful grain and hedgerows for food and shelter on farmland; we also get migratory birds such as wild duck on the marshes in autumn and more unusually woodcock in mid-winter and the long-billed snipe, from which we get the word ‘sniper’ because it’s difficult to shoot.


Pheasants and partridges are usually farmed in pens before being released, but about 20-30 per cent are entirely wild here — more than in other parts of the country. The most widely available game in Suffolk is venison. Deer populations, especially Muntjac, are steadily increasing and when driving around the Suffolk lanes it’s not uncommon now to see a muntjac creeping out of the hedgerow.

Wild, as opposed to farmed, game is the gourmet’s choice - animals that have roamed freely are likely to be a little more robust in flavour and texture than their farmed counterparts, which will have had a more restricted range.

Whether you have the opportunity to shoot your own game, are given it by a friendly farmer or simply pick some up from one of the Suffolk Coast’s many independent butchers you may be left wondering how to prepare it, cook it or even what wine to drink with it.

Wild Meat in a Day is led by Robert Gooch, a Rick Stein ‘food hero’ who runs game dealer the Wild Meat Company (www.wildmeat.co.uk). Robert, who has worked in farming all his life and knows all the farms and estates from where they harvest the game. One of Robert’s butcher’s Ray Kent, who was the hugely popular Framlingham butcher for over 30 years, leads a small group through a game butchery workshop. Attendees are given a haunch of venison, a partridge or a rabbit and shown how to skin or bone it picking up many tips along the way for preparing game in your own kitchen.

Lunch, at The Anchor, Walberswick, encourages us to think about the different textures and flavours of deer species. Generally speaking, the smaller the deer, the more fine-grained and delicate the meat will be. Roe and muntjac are more gently flavoured animals while fallow deer have grainier, richer meat, and the big red deer give the most open-textured and gamey venison of all.


Gathered around a long table there’s a sense of a great celebratory feast, sharing together the fruits of the Suffolk countryside and complimented by a succession of interesting and often local beers.

For more information about Food Safari and the Wild Meat in a Day course visit www.foodsafari.co.uk or call 01728 621380


Dates for 2010
Wild Meat in a Day, The Anchor, Walberswick
Saturday 6 February
Sunday 28 March
Saturday 2 October 2,
Sunday 21 November 21

The Wild Meat Company supplies a wide range of freshly prepared game meat at farmers markets across the Suffolk Coast and via its web site www.wildmeat.co.uk

Unseasonable thoughts of samphire

I've just been ask to write about what makes foraging for wild food in Suffolk special and thought I should share them. Memories of harvesting samphire from Suffolk's tidal esturaries transported me to the height of summer when Samphire is at its best a stark contrast to this grey January!

Marsh samphire is a tidal plant of the salt marshes and mud flats. The many upspoilt creeks of the Suffolk coast at Blythburgh, Snape and Orford make Suffolk an excellent place to find it.

Not to be confused with Rock Samphire which as the name suggests grows on rocks and cliff faces. These are two totally unrelated plants which have the same name, derived from the French for St Peter - St Pierre after the fisherman saint. As a general rule marsh samphire has its feet firmly in the water and rock samphire always has its feet dry!

They also taste completely different. The former is very salty and is delicious steamed or raw. Rock samphire is very carrotty and has quite a medicinal undertone.

Marsh samphire is a delicious accompaniment to fish and seafood, being both salty and fleshy. It can be lightly steamed and served with butter. Each individual finger of marsh samphire has a central woody core and it should be held by the base and pulled through the teeth so you avoid eating the woody core. Young tips can be eaten as they are because the woody core tends to be only through the bottom half of each ‘finger’. It can be lightly batteered and deep fried to create a delicious snack, use it in salads or served simply with parmesan and olive oil.

Harvesting
Remember to follow the basic rules of foraging: seek permission from land owners before entering private land; keep away from roads, fields that may have been sprayed or busy footpaths popular with dog walkers. You shouldn't collect plants from a protected area such as nature reserve or Site of Special Scientific Interest and always leave a few healthy plants untouched to continue their life cycle.

When picking samphire pinch out or snip off the tops of the plants, leaving the more fibrous stems in the ground; that way, not only will you have less washing and trimming to do, there's also a fair chance that what you've left in the mud will continue to grow.

Foraging for wild food inspires you to look at sometimes everyday plants in a new light. Common weeds often have forgotten uses either culinary or herbal and it's great to get out into the countryside to connect with the natural environment.

Best of all wild food is free and often delicious!

For more information about Food Safari's Wild Food in a Day on the Suffolk coast click here:

Lobsters, Crabs, Eels and Oysters

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of one of Suffolk's (if not the country's) great seafood establishments, Pinney's of Orford. Recently Food Safari took a group of intrepid seafarers to find out more. Along they way we found dozens of lobsters, numerous crabs and a few lively eels.

We kicked off the day with a trip up the River Ore; with the 2nd World War military buildings of Orfordness on one side and impressive Henry II era castle on the other. Peter, our skipper and guide explained that he'd laid lobster pots and an eel net in various spots. Nothing was guaranteed but he hoped we'd have a good catch.

Moving from spot to spot, Peter pulled pots filled with numerous treasures, including various sizes of lobsters, common shore crabs, eels, whelks, sea urchins and jellyfish eggs. Peter showed us how to identify male and female lobsters (the swimmerets, the small feather appendages on the underside of the tail on male lobster (cock) are hard, whereas on a female (hen) lobster, they are soft and feathery). Peter reminded us that you are not allowed to fish for lobster unless you have a valid permit and you must return the lobsters to the sea that are below the legal 10cm size, that is measuring from the eye’s to where the tail is attached to the body. But we were lucky enough to find a few lobsters which were large enough to keep and a couple of lucky people were able to take one to prepare at home.

Positively the most lively find of the day were a few eels, whose writhing, snake-like bodies caused shrieks of horror from some of us on board, including me! Determined that we shouldn't have the opportunity to prove how hard they are to kill, these eels would not be stopped, and frequently managed to wriggle their way out of the crate onto the floor of the boat and rather too close to our unsuspecting feet!

Back on dry land, and with the lobsters safely stowed in the fridge, we set off to Butley Creek, home of Pinney's of Orford. At the tail end of the second world war, Richard Pinney, fed up with London life took to the Suffolk coast and began looking for ways to make a living. His first enterprise was cutting rushes from local dikes and rivers, drying and platting them into mats and carpets. He then turned his attention to the river and set about restoring the derelict oyster beds in Butley Creek. Despite being warned by local people that if he wanted to lose all his money, oysters were a good way to do it, he started laying down oysters from Portugal, which grew and fattened very well.

At the same time, being a keen fisherman, he began to look for new things to do with his catch, he began to experiment with smoking in a disused compartment at the end of his cottage. The results were so good that he decided to buy some salmon and the smoking business grew from there. He developed a unique system of burning whole oak logs - a system which has been refined but hardly changed to this day.

We were welcomed by Bill Pinney, founder Richard's son, who went out to dredge for oysters before our eyes. While partner, Harvey Allen, told us the history of Pinney's. Bill explained how his father discovered that Butley Creek's combination of natural plankton's, salinity and clean waters, was an excellent oyster fattening ground. The oysters grown now are bought in from the hatcheries at a very small size and laid on our beds for 2-3 years before being harvested.

While at Butley Creek, I spotted both samphire and sea purslane growing on the banks of the river, a bonus for everyone concerned who harvested some to take home.


The amazing smells coming from the smokehouse lured us over, and I asked Harvey if he ever tired of the delicious smell. His answer was, of course, "no". In the smokehouse, we saw how the fish are first salted or brined, and then hung in the smokehouse where they are then flavoured and preserved by smoke that is produced by gently smouldering whole oak logs in a specially designed smokebox. Trout, mackerel, sprats, eels, cod roe etc are hung for a few hours before being hot smoked (cooked over the open fire) while salmon is cured over a period of about 48 hour.

By this time our tummies were beginning to rumble and we headed pack to the Pinney family's restaurant, The Butley Orford Oysterage, in Orford's pretty Market Hill. The restaurant and shop were opened in the 60s and as well as serving Butley Oysters, and smoked fish we also found other fish landed daily by the family's boat. Suitably revived by a glass of Muscadet and one too many smoked prawns, we were treated to a demonstration of how to carve a whole smoked salmon and how to open oysters, before all have a go ourselves. The group was something of a team now and calls of encouragement and generous rounds of applause rewarded everyone's efforts.


Finally we settled down to enjoy a delicious seafood platter of some of Pinney's finest produce - oysters and smoked salmon of course, but also rollmops, angels on horseback, and scallops, all the more enjoyable for knowing exactly where they had come from.

For more information about joining Seafood in a Day visit: www.foodsafari.co.uk

The fantastic photographs in this blog are courtesy of Emma Kindred of eightOne.

Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival Fringe

Over 70 farmers, local food producers, farm shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants have contributed to a jam-packed programme of farm and wildlife walks, cookery and butchery demonstrations, dinners and behind-the-scenes events for the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival Fringe.

You can see the full programme of Fringe Events on the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival web site

The Fringe Festival runs from September 26 - October 4 and has been generously funded by Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

We are particularly grateful to Jason Gathorne-Hardy and his Alde Valley Food Adventures in association with White House Farm. Once again Jason is making a major contribution to the Food & Drink Fesitival Fringe with a series of unique events at White House Farm, Great Glemham in the upper Alde Valley. These events include:

Amazing Grazing in the Alde Valley
A two week exhibition in the Lambing Barns at White House Farm. Come & join a celebration of local crafts, farming, landscape, villages & churches in the beautiful Alde Valley of East Suffolk.
Friday 25 - Friday 9

Saturdays 10.00 - 5.00, Sundays 12.00 - 4.00, Tuesday – Friday 10.00 - 6.00 (closed Monday).

Wild Food Walk
1 1/2 hour guided walk and wild food lunch.
Saturday 26; 11.00 - 2.00
£25 pp for 1 1/2 hr guided walk & wild food lunch, Children under 16 £8, under 5s free

Wild Food Feast
Wild Food Supper and Music BYO Wine / Beer
Saturday 26; 6.00 - 11.00
£22 pp, Children under 16 £8, under 5s free

Festival Feast
A buffet feast from the farms of the Alde Valley, one of the UK’s most innovative and productive local food economies. Come and joins us for a feast of fresh seasonal farmed and wild foods, fires, woodland nature walk, farm videos, open farm art exhibition, music and Alde Valley Lamb barbeque. Autumn cordials and teas included. BYO beer and wine.
Saturday 3; 6.00 - 10.00
£22 pp, under 16s £8, under 5s free

White House Farm, Sweffling Road, Great Glemham

t: 01728 663531, e: riveralde@btinternet.com, www.foodadventures.co.uk

(NB: an incorrect phone number was printed on the flyers please call 01728 663531)

Other highlights of the Festival Fringe include:

• Cookery demonstrations with Fergus Henderson and Stuart Oetzmann of Metfield Bakery


• Behind the scenes tours at Pinney’s of Orford, James White, Munchy Seeds and Emmett’s of Peasenhall


• Farm walks at Maple Farm, Peakhill Farm and Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses


• Meet the producer events including an evening of East Anglian Cheese and Charcuterie organised by Lawsons Delicatessen in Aldeburgh

Britain's First Ever Brewers' Market

26 July, Snape Maltings, Suffolk

Applying the idea of a Farmers' Market to beers, Britain’s first Brewer's Market will bring together 12 of East Anglia's best microbrewers at Snape Maltings, near Aldeburgh on Sunday 26 July. The event revives Snape’s long connection with brewing over 30 years after the site ceased malting barley for beer.

The Brewers’ Market will feature twelve microbreweries each selling their bottled beer to take home as well as to enjoy there and then. There’ll be the opportunity to meet the brewers themselves, and to discuss with them what makes their beer special. Sustenance will be provided by Snape’s resident Metfield Bakery who will serve sausages and freshly baked pizzas.

For anyone who wants to learn more about different beer styles and how to match beer with food, the day will be made all the more special by tutored beer tastings led by beer guru, Mark Dorber of Beer Academy and proprietor of The Anchor at Walberswick.Snape Brewer's Market runs from 12 - 6pm on Sunday, July 26th
Snape Maltings, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, IP17 1SR
http://www.snapemaltings.co.uk/

Entry to the market is free. There is plenty of free parking available at Snape Maltings.

Tutored tastings with Mark Dorber will run at 12.00 and 3.00. Tickets cost £5 and should be booked in advance. Call Snape Maltings 01728 688303

Breweries will include:

• Elmtree Beers, Snetterton, Norfolk


• Iceni, Thetford, Norfolk


• Tipples, Acle, Norfolk


• Humpty Dumpty, Reedham, Norfolk


• Grain, Harleston, Norfolk


• Bartram's Brewery, Rougham, Suffolk


• Opa Hay Brewery, Beccles, Suffolk


• Cliff Quay Brewery, Ipswich, Suffolk


• St Peters, Suffolk


• Real Ale Shop, Suffolk

Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival Fringe - Call for events

26 September - 4 October, 2009

‘The most significant food festival in Britain’ Rose Prince, The Telegraph

I have been asked by the Directors of the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival to coordinate the Festival Fringe and I'm looking for farms, farm shops, delis, butchers, bakers, pubs, cafes and restaurants to host events across East Suffolk as part of British Food Fortnight.

Please have a look at the information below and contact me if you have a suggestion or would like to host an event:

The Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival takes place this year from September 26 – October 4 for the fourth time. In 2007 we introduced a programme of events taking place on farms and in shops, pubs and restaurants across East Suffolk to highlight the diversity and quality of the area’s food and drink to both visitors and residents.

Would you host an event during this period to welcome the public to your farm, kitchen, shop, pub or cafe to learn more about your business and meet the people behind it? It’s a great way for you to reach a new audience and build loyalty with existing customers.

This year we aim to expand the programme of Fringe Events and increase the attendance at each event. This year we will run the Fringe event after the main Festival at Snape Maltings (Saturday 26 – Sunday 27 September) to coincide with British Food Fortnight. This will enable us to profile the Fringe Events at the Festival and to encourage more people to get involved.
In the past the Fringe Events programme has included:

• Farm walks
• Butchery demonstrations
• Cookery demonstrations
• Talks and debates
• Behind‐the‐scenes tours
• Meet the producers events at farms shops & delis
• Festival menus at pubs, cafes and restaurants.
  

We’re looking for unique events that will give people a unique opportunity to find out more about local food. Why not consider teaming up with other organisations nearby, for example a farm walk followed by lunch in a local pub. We’re particularly keen to have some more events for children this year either after school or on either of the weekends.

If you would like more information please contact Polly Robinson, Festival Fringe Coordinator,
on 01728 621380 or 07966 475195 or email polly@foodsafari.co.uk.

Stop Tesco - Halesworth - ACT NOW to protect local food

From Lady Caroline Cranbrook
As some of you may know, Tesco has applied for planning permission for a superstore in Halesworth, opposite the Co-op (Rainbow, which has recently spent £1m upgrading and wishes to enlarge its premises). Halesworth is a small market town, very much at ease with itself, and well-supplied with a variety of independent shops - two bakers, two butchers, two greengrocers, a deli, an organic shop, a wine merchant, fish shop, famous toy shop, excellent shoe shop, clothes shop, several stationers and booksellers, a small Spar, etc. In the surrounding area there are villages which still have one or more shops (eg Yoxford, Peasenhall, Stradbroke, Laxfield).

The area is known for the abundance, variety and quality of its independent food producers. These have developed and expanded because there are plenty of independent shops. It is these shops which are the seedbed and nursery for new and existing food producers. The effect of a superstore, such as the one proposed by Tesco, will be to drive these independent shops out of business. On the whole they are doing well, despite the economic downturn, but they operate on small margins and a Tesco superstore will have a devastating effect on them.

The local meat wholesaler, Bramfield Meats, supplies virtually all the local butchers, farm shops and farmers markets with meat (either indirectly by preparing local independent livestock farmers' meat for sale or directly by buying in local meat from the local abattoir). Bramfield Meats is very concerned about the effect Tesco will have on the butchers and farm shops and fears it will undermine their business. If this were to happen and Bramfield Meats were to close, it would be catastrophic for local livestock producers - and for the landscape which is grazed by sheep and cattle.

The Tesco proposal is for a superstore. It is far too large (22,500 sq ft). This is about a third bigger than the Somerfields/Waitrose supermarket in Saxmundham and in the wrong place. the population of Halesworth is ca. 5-6,000 (including children). Tesco is anticipating a throughput of about 7,000 shopping visits a week, so they anticipate attracting shoppers from the villages and market towns in the area. We know that the new Saxmundham Waitrose (on an existing site) has affected food shops in Aldeburgh, nearby farm shops and also the food shops in Saxmundham high street. In Beccles, where a large superstore opened a few years ago, shops next to Tesco are alright but those in the middle of the town are suffering. It is also in the wrong place and will bring traffic to a standstill on Halesworth 'ring road'.

If any of you have the time and value our unique local food economy, I urge you to write (NO EMAILS ALLOWED) to Waveney District Council with a letter of objection. I am attaching a leaflet (not prepared by me) which presents some of the arguments and gives details of the address for letters.
Letters must arrive at Waveney District Council by 18 June, should contain the Proposal Number DC/09/0455/FUL and should be addressed to
Planning Office
Waveney District Council
Town Hall, High Street
Lowestoft NR32 1HS.
best wishes and many thanks - we are told that letters really do count!

TESCO for HALESWORTH?

Please consider the following matters and, if any of them concern you, write a letter to Waveney District Council before 18 June.

1. Should planning strategy be overturned?
Tesco wants to put a store on the Dairy Farm site - south of Angel Link and west of Saxons Way – an area which Waveney District Council had designated for housing and a Community Centre on a well landscaped site - Do you think much needed housing and a Community Centre close to the centre of the town should be sacrificed?

2. Disfiguring the town with a conspicuous building
A store on the higher ground of the Dairy Farm site will inevitably be conspicuous and out of character - Are you happy to see Halesworth disfigured in this way?

3. Additional traffic congestion and pollution
A store on the Dairy Farm site would undoubtedly generate more traffic congestion and pollution on Saxons Way which already handles more than 1000 vehicles per hour at peak times - Does this worry you?

4. Added risk of flash floods
A large car park and extensive building will have a fast run-off of rain water in storms and will increase the risk of flash floods (Halesworth had serious floods in 1968 and again in 1993) – Are you aware of and concerned about this added risk?

5. Should Halesworth be allowed to die?
The experience of many other towns as small as Halesworth (much smaller than Beccles) where Tesco has built stores has been that, far from making the towns more lively, these stores have led to devastation of the town centres with many shops closing and with the inevitable breakdown of community spirit. If that happened to Halesworth, the effect would be irreversible - Do you wish the town to take such a risk?

6. Would the town really benefit?
The proposed store would bring new jobs, but many of these would be part-time and any benefit would have to be offset against the job losses due to shops being forced out of business and closing; this in turn would damage their local suppliers and also local services such as sign writers, stationers, electricians, carpenters, etc - Are you convinced that the town would benefit?

If you are concerned, write NOW - before it is too late to: The Planning Office, Waveney District Council, Town Hall, High Street, Lowestoft NR32 1HS

Quote the following reference DC/09/0455/FUL and copy your letter to the Chairman of the Development Control Committee - each letter counts! Letters may be left at the offices of WDC in London Road, Halesworth.

For further information on the campaigns to stop Tesco ruining small towns see http://www.spig.clara.net/stoptesco/