Traditional Taste: Turkey on test

Photo: © childsdesign

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Christmas can be stressful enough for most of us, what with all the presents to find and wrap, not forgetting someone on the card list and then there's the food preparations to be made.

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We are pleased to award Morton's Traditional Taste our 'Artisan Food Trail Approved' status 

for their Free Range Bronze Turkey.

To find out more about Morton's Traditional Taste visit their page 
on The Artisan Food Trail here.

WIN a Turkey, Lino Cutting Workshop or Christmas Fudge in our Christmas competition

Make sure you take part in our spectacular 12 Days of Christmas competition as we have some fantastic prizes on offer, 37 in all.
Over the next few days we'll be telling you about the prizes you could win and today we start with the first three…

Free Range Norfolk Bronze Turkey from Morton's Traditional Taste

Weighing in at 6.5kg this turkey could be the star of your Christmas table.
Morton's produce award winning poultry on their farm in Norfolk and each and every bird is free to roam and lives a natural and happy life. The turkeys grow slowly ensuring they taste great making them the perfect choice for the festive celebrations.

Find out more about Morton's on their website here

Lino Cutting & Drypoint Workshop from 

Roots Shoots & Leaves

Roots Shoots & Leaves offers a range gardening courses, rural skills and craft courses in south Hampshire. All courses are run from their very own home and garden.
This course will include a full day of printmaking techniques to enjoy. Try out a range of different print techniques from linocuts to drypoint etchings. On the day you will be able to produce a series of mini prints using the above techniques.

Find out more about this Roots Shoots & Leaves workshop on their website here

Christmas Gourmet Miniature Fudge Treats from Fudge Kitchen

This would make a lovely gift or you could just keep them to yourself!
Fudge Kitchen hand make all their fudge in small batches making these little treats quite special, ideal for brightening up the dinner table or popped inside your homemade crackers.
Each gourmet butter fudge treat is colourfully twist wrapped and each box contains six each of two Christmas flavours – Mince Pie and Continental Gingerbread.

Find out more about Fudge Kitchen on their website here

There are many more prizes in our 12 Days of Christmas competition so why not head over to The Artisan Food Trail website and
This competition has now closed

Look out for further posts where we focus on the prizes you could win and remember the competition closes at midnight on 12th December 2014.

Succulent smoked duck breasts from Morton's Traditional Taste

Photo: ©Morton's Traditional Taste

Rob Morton is carrying on his family tradition of farming and butchery, by creating local quality produce from his free-range poultry farm in Norfolk.

Hall Farm was established as far back as 1945 when Rob’s grandfather came down from Scotland with a dairy herd. Wishing to maintain the family’s farming and butchery heritage, Rob’s father and now Rob, himself are continue to provide their quality service and meats to other local meat producers, the local catering industry including fine restaurants and bistros in Norfolk and to the surrounding  local community.

The traditional Norfolk farm consists of a large family farmhouse and courtyard of barns and outhouses. Some of these buildings had largely become redundant as they were no longer suitable for modern day farm machinery. Rather than letting them sit unused, Rob converted one of them into a smokehouse with a fully hygienic area. This became an extension of their farming business in November 2012 to cure and smoke the game and meats that Morton’s farms produce.



The video shows Rob preparing and smoking duck breast.

The duck breast in placed in brine for 2-3 hours. The meat is then rinsed and washed to get rid of the excess the salt off the surface. The duck breasts are placed briefly on racks to dry out, before putting them straight into the smoker for 3 hours. The meat is smoked slowly to allow the aromas from the selected wood chippings to infuse throughout.

For a particular flavour, Rob has chosen the chippings from old whiskey barrels which are ground up finely and placed in the bottom of the smoker. After lighting, the chippings are left to smoulder allowing the smoke to permeated the duck breasts sitting above, giving the meat its distinctive taste and flavour.

Rob says: “A good smoked meat, is still moist, with a hint of the smoked flavour, that’s not overpowering just from the curing process of salt and smoke; but when you put the meat in your mouth, it melts on your tongue and  you want to taste the smokiness and moisture of the meat infused with the flavours from the smoke”.

Rob personally recommends slicing the Smoked Gressingham Duck or Morton’s own Smoked Chicken thinly on a freshly prepared Caesar Salad as a delicious summer meal.

To find out more about Morton’s Traditional Taste visit their page on The Artisan Food Trail here

A turkey with taste from Morton's

For most people Christmas is probably the only time they will buy a whole turkey to take centre stage on the festive table.
Christmas comes but once a year, so why not invest a little more in making sure you have the best bird for the occasion. To get the best you really need to think about buying a turkey that has been reared in the most natural way as possible and also consider the breed – Bronze or Norfolk Black are unrivalled when it comes to taste and succulence.

All Morton's turkeys are free-range

We are proud to have Morton's Traditional Taste on The Artisan Food Trail. They rear their free range turkeys in Norfolk to the highest welfare standards – all birds are free range and have been grown slowly which develops into a true traditional taste to savour.





At Morton's you can be sure of a true tasting turkey this Christmas as they follow a quality code to guarantee that their turkeys do not disappoint.

A big bird too much?
Maybe you find a whole turkey a little on the large size if your family gathering is small, so Morton's have the perfect alternative – the Two Bird Roast – a part-boned free range chicken filled with duck breast and layered with chestnut, orange and thyme stuffing.

Place your order now!

If you wish to order your Christmas turkey from Morton's Traditional Taste then please visit their page on The Artisan Food Trail here where you'll find more information and links taking you to their website where you can place an order online.

Farm Fresh & Free Range: Morton's Traditional Taste

Photo: © Morton's Traditional Taste

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At Whitwell hall farms you are guaranteed a turkey that is reared to the highest welfare standards with a true "traditional taste" to savour. The Morton family first descended on Norfolk back in 1941 when "Papa" Morton came down from Scotland to establish a dairy herd.

Rob Morton (a 3rd generation Morton) with the help of his wife Becca and (a little helping hand! from there three young children George, Sam and Emily) has been rearing traditional farm-fresh turkeys for the past 10 years. The aim is not to be the biggest supplier (rearing up to 1000 birds) but more to offer customers a true free range bird that is produced in the time honoured tradition.

So what makes a Morton’s turkey different to the one from your local supermarket? Only the best quality chicks make it to Morton’s, where they are given a growing period nine weeks longer than an intensively reared turkey. They are fed on a cereal diet containing no growth promoters or additives, and housed in sheds on clean straw with 24 hour access to range in large paddocks. Morton’s only rear a small number of birds each year, which means they can keep a close eye on them as well as enabling the birds to roam free as they wish. To develop the traditional depth of flavour, the meat is also matured for a minimum of ten days in the cold stores.

The welfare of the turkeys is high priority for Morton’s as they understand that by providing the best possible environment for the birds they can supply a superior product as well as giving customers a clear conscience.
People want to know how their food is produced and the Morton’s website has a lot of information with pictures of how the turkeys live so they can see that they have a happy healthy life.

Rearing different breeds – Bronze and Norfolk Black turkeys – means that Morton’s can offer their customers a range of sizes from 4.5kg up to 11.5kg. The Bronze are the bigger birds and choice of breed is a matter of taste.
The Bronze has a fuller, rounded breast, while the Norfolk Black has a longer narrower breast and a more gamey flavour. Although the Bronze is the most popular choice, the Norfolk Black has a strong following amongst those who appreciate its fuller flavour and who like to support the traditional breed.

After bringing the day-old turkey chicks – called poults – from an Essex farm in June, they spend the following months enjoying the outdoor life on Rob’s family farm in Skeyton. They are eventually prepared on the farm, which avoids the stress of live transportation.

The Smokehouse
At “The Smokehouse” Morton's aim to offer a range of smoked products that are second to none, having spent years perfecting their free range poultry products they have now turned their attention into developing some award winning smoked products.

Using time-honoured traditions and combining the finest meats, cures, smoke and enthusiasm to deliver superb products from the family farm in Norfolk.

So why not try some of their smoked chicken or duck breast, traditionally cured with molasses and gently smoked over whisky infused oak chippings to create a light delicate flavour that is true to the taste.

For more about Morton's Traditional Taste visit their page on 
The Artisan Food Trail here