Artisan producer of wild venison charcuterie, Great Glen Game is set to exhibit at biggest UK Trade Fair for the first time

Photo: © childsdesign

The company based in the Highlands of Scotland will showcase their range of wild venison products at the Food & Drink Expo at Birmingham’s NEC, from the 25th – 27th March 2012.

Great Glen Game’s marketing director Anja Baak, said: "The Food & Drink Expo is a fantastic opportunity for us to meet food buyers from the UK and overseas and show our products. We are also looking forward to meeting current customers."

Photo: © childsdesign

Great Glen Game uses local, sustainably sourced wild venison to make a range of cured and smoked products such as salami, chorizo, bresaola and smoked venison. They will also showcase their latest product which is a smoked grouse breast.

Using only pure, wild venison and combining age-old curing techniques with modern innovative technology, the company strives to create products of great taste and distinction.

“We are hoping to build on the success that we’ve been experiencing in the last year. Great Glen Game has secured deals with many new stockists across the UK and started exporting to The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium”

“Our products have real provenance and the fact that we use sustainable sourced venison makes them very popular.”

Visitors to the Great Glen Game stand will have an opportunity to taste the unique products which have won numerous Great Taste Awards over the last years and are used by Michelin starred chefs.

Great Glen Game products are handmade with pure wild venison, which is a lean meat, low cholesterol and low calorie making them a healthy alternative to more common pork based charcuterie. The products are available in retail packs and whole products.
The products are sold at Fortnum & Mason and many independent food halls, delicatessen and farmshops.

Great Glen Game can be found at the Scotland Food and Drink Pavilion on stand J130J

To find out more about Great Glen Game visit their page on The Artisan Food Trail here

Food & Drink Expo featuring Farm Shop & Deli Show: 25th – 27th March 2012

Food & Drink Expo featuring Farm Shop & Deli is set to be the UK's largest food and drink focused trade show this year.
Join the industry from 25-27 March 2012 at Birmingham's NEC for three days of innovation and inspiration.

See over 550 exhibiting companies catering for the grocery, wholesale, foodservice, speciality retail and manufacturing sectors – from familiar and established brands through to fledgling artisan start-ups.

Don't miss the live events at The Brainfood Factory and Farm Shop & Deli Live featuring leading industry experts. Focus is on the key issues affecting your business in today's tough economic climate.

The Artisan Food Trail members that will be exhibiting this year are:
Breckland Orchard
Fudge Kitchen
Great Glen Game
Trotter's Independent Condiments

For more information about the event see the website www.foodanddrinkexpo.co.uk

Our Stars of British Pie Week

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Samphire
A pork pie with crunchy pastry, well seasoned rare breed pork and just the right amount of jelly. What more could you ask for? Unless you’d like to add a little sweetness ….. perhaps one with onion marmalade?

Brays Cottage Pork Pies
Pork pies made with the best bits of pork and bacon and their own blend of herbs and spices. Varieties available are, Onion Marmalade, chilli, Chorizo and Naked.

Annie's Market Garden
Inspired by her Grandad and her Mum, Annie shares her family tradition of baking wonderful pies using local ingredients.
Varieties available are Beef & Kidney Pie, Beef & Ale Pie, Beef & Onion Pie, Minced Beef and Vegetable Pie, as well as pasties and pork pies.

Rabbit Pie

Photo: © childsdesign

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There are various recipes for rabbit pie and this is the AFT Kitchen's version, which in one way or another is probably an adaption of those recipes.
We made this one to celebrate British Pie Week and have included some flavours that conjure up the British countryside, wild rabbit, of course, apples and cider. For an old-fashioned feel, the sauce is perked up with mace and mustard.
The pastry is very short. The ratio of fat to flour is quite high, but it makes the pastry so melt-in-the-mouth gorgeous.

Please do try to use wild rabbit as it is sure to have had a better life before being killed, plus a diet of wild grass and herbs can only improve the taste.

View recipe

The Edible Garden Show: 16th – 18th March 2012

The Edible Garden Show is the ultimate grow your own event. Home to celebrity gardeners, chefs, experts and a fantastic range of exhibitors offering your favourite gardening products along with new and exciting products to the market, all available to buy whether you are a seasoned expert or just getting started.

The Edible Garden Show is held over three days at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire where you can see, try and buy the latest products, hear tips and advice in talks from resident experts, watch some great demonstrations, get involved in potting and planting or just relax and enjoy the show. From Experts Theatre, Cookery Theatre and Potting Shed to the Smallholders Marquee, if you are interested in growing or rearing your own this is the show for you.

Everything you need – seeds, compost and machinery through to chickens, sheds, polytunnels and greenhouses. Wormeries, tools, bee hives, plants and so much more.

As well as the 'growing' aspect, you'll be able to gain inspiration from some of the best British food producers who will be selling some amazing hand made products.




Here are the AFT members that are confirmed as exhibiting:

The Artisan Smokehouse
A small family run and owned smokehouse on the Suffolk coast producing award-winning smoked food, made in small quantities to ensure quality and freshness.

Edible Ornamentals
Bedfordshire chilli grower selling chilli plants, fresh chillies and their very own hand made sauces and relishes.

Samphire
Award winning food from a Norfolk smallholding. Producer of rare breed pork and makers of amazing pork pies, sausages, sausage rolls and sweet treats.

Womersley Fruit & Herb Vinegars
Yorkshire artisan maker of fine fruit vinegars and herb jellies.




This should be a good event especially for those who are looking to learn more about how they can make a success of their garden or allotment.

For more information about the event see the website: www.theediblegardenshow.co.uk

When: 16th – 18th March 2012
Where: Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire


View The Edible Garden Show in a larger map

Feast your Pies! It's British Pie Week: 5th – 11th March 2012

Photos: © childsdesign

It's a time to celebrate all things encased in pastry, a true honour of what's a great British culinary institution.

Happiness is indeed pie-shaped, something enticing enclosed inside a crisp rich pastry shell never fails to please.
A hot pie is the ultimate comfort food during winter, fresh from the oven, the contents bubbling within and when the crust is broken a sudden gush of steam delivers its appetising aromas to eager hungry diners.
A pie can be eaten cold too which of course makes it perfectly portable and just right for any picnic.
Pies can be as simple or as complicated as you wish. You don't even need a recipe – just pastry and your imagination… or you could buy one from our great artisan food producers.

Later this week we'll be pointing you towards those artisan pies and even including a recipe.

Get ready for Feast East this weekend: 2nd – 4th March 2012

Chilford Hall, Linton, Cambridgeshire 2nd - 4th March 2012

Tim Matthews,
The Artisan Smokehouse

We're getting ready to visit our first foodie event of 2012 – Feast East and we're looking forward to discovering some more great regional produce as well as meet up with some of our Artisan Food Trail members.
Run by Tastes of Anglia the event showcases some of the best small food producers from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Claire Martinsen, Breckland Orchard

Friday morning is dedicated to trade visitors only, so we'll be taking this opportunity to talk to producers about what we're doing to help raise awareness of artisan food across the UK. By the time we visit, The Artisan Food Trail will be one year old. It has been an interesting journey getting this far and we're still growing as the word continues to spread throughout the food community.

Rachel & Deb, The Nutty Tarts

From Friday afternoon and then on Saturday and Sunday, Feast East is open to the public, so if you're going along please remember to visit
The Artisan Smokehouse, Breckland Orchard and Nutty Tarts Gifts & Goodies, three of our members who will be taking part.

Tastes of Anglia gets ready for its annual food festival Feast East 2012

Now in its 18th year, the annual food festival, Feast East held byTastes of Anglia, will take place on 2nd-4th March 2012, in the magnificent surroundings of Chilford Hall in Cambridgeshire. The show consists of three food halls to explore, crammed full of producers from across the region and beyond. The popular cookery demo marquee will also return, where local, up and coming chefs demonstrate a variety of dishes using local ingredients. Feast East kick starts the show season and is always well attended by both trade buyers and public alike. Many local and artisan producers have stands and Tastes of Anglia host Feast East alongside specialist show experts Oakleigh Fairs.

With some 80 stallholders, Feast East is open exclusively to trade visitors Friday morning and allows buyers the freedom to source and meet the producers and talk to Tastes of Anglia about their local delivery service. Public entrance is from 1.30pm Friday and 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday.

Each year the show attracts thousands of local and regional food fans. They can taste, buy and meet the producers and do it all inside the historic surroundings of Chilford Hall Vineyard and Conference Centre, one of the largest dedicated events venues in Eastern England. The show has a relaxed and friendly feel and boasts popular quirky elements such as the ‘Best Dressed Stand’ competition which is eagerly fought over by the producers, who make such a terrific effort. This year’s event promises to be a real feast for the senses – but especially for the tastes buds!

Local and regional producers will also be joined by other guest producers. Amongst those producers, members of The Artisan Food Trail exhibiting for 2012 are:

The Artisan Smokehouse
Breckland Orchard
Nutty Tarts

Others in attendance include:
St Peters Brewery, Wilkins Preserves, Lucy’s Dressings, Hillfarm Oils, Adnams, Garden of Suffolk, Essfoods (Stokes), Ronaldos Ices, Lakenham Creamery, Crush Foods, Essex Larders, The Chilli Company and Musks Sausages.

If you fancy going there is a chance to win one of five tickets at the bottom of this post!

What is Tastes of Anglia?
Tastes of Anglia is the Eastern region’s food and drink marketing group, set up in the early nineties to be the voice for local food and drink produced in the East of England. It is a membership organisation with over 300 members and is sister group to the other regional food groups across England. It provides members with a wide range of support services including representation at events, workshops, funded training and signposting to many local, national and international opportunities. In 2001 it also launched a local delivery service which now has a turnover of over £1.3 million and serves over 250 customers across East Anglia and into London.

Tastes of Anglia gives support to quality food and drink producers
Tastes of Anglia’s primary aim is to promote the interests of its enthusiastic membership of high quality local food and drink producers, independent retail and catering businesses, affiliate service providers, wholesalers and retailers. Two decades on, it acts as a not-for-profit self-funded venture and represents some of the finest manufacturers and growers of the region's best produce, ingredients and products from large household names to the smallest one-person enterprises.
Beyond its core marketing and business support activities is a dedicated passion in nurturing real local and seasonal food and the whole rural sector across the six counties of its region, namely Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Essex and Bedfordshire.

Growing local and regional network
Operations Director, Tony Bower says “I believe the East of England is the UK’s most vibrant, exciting and diverse region. We are fortunate to work with some of the finest producers and artisan companies in the country, who make a huge variety of amazing products. Our local delivery business started in 2001 and has grown each year as the demand for quality local products from consumers has continued to increase. We were pioneers in giving producers access to many more customers. We are delighted to now supply farm shops, garden centres, delis, independent retailers, CoOps and National Trust properties.”

Delivering choice, quality and provenance
They offer direct weekly deliveries and special point of sale to help highlight their local producer members. They distribute ambient, chilled and frozen products on a fleet of multi temperature liveried vans and represent 75 local producers and have over 2000 lines on their price list. “It’s a team effort” continues Tony, “We are fortunate to work with the finest products made by many fantastic local producers. The retailers and catering outlets have embraced the power of local and provided what their customers wanted; now they can offer more local choice, local quality and real local provenance.”

www.feasteast.co.uk
www.tastesofanglia.com
Tel 01473 785 750

Show stand bookings via Oakleigh Fairs 0800 141 2823
Discounted public entry tickets from www.oakleighfairs.co.uk

Why not enter our competition to win one of five tickets to either Saturday or Sunday of the event? 
Visit The Artisan Food Trail website, answer a simple question, leaving your details and you’ll be entered into the draw.
Sorry this competition has now closed