AFT Introducing: Oakley Grange Farm

Photos: © Oakley Grange Farm

***
Oakley Grange Farm, in the heart of Leicestershire, is over 200 years old, and has been run by the Mee family for the past two generations. Richard and Inger took over the farm in 2001 and farm organically, raising beef cattle, pigs, sheep and laying hens alongside wheat, fruit and salad vegetables.

Their café is part of a busy working farm and boasts views over the countryside as well as into rural life. Tractors and animals alike can be
seen from the café windows and visitors can also benefit from their local
and farming expertise.

As much food as possible is either grown or reared on Oakley Grange Farm, and if not, they try to source from local suppliers. Everything is freshly prepared and served by Inger and the team in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

In the café, breakfast, afternoon tea, coffee and cake, is served as well as a wide range of hot lunches and sandwiches. The breakfast includes their own sausages, bacon and eggs along with roast tomatoes, mushrooms and toast made from the farm's home baked bread.

Organic beef, pork, lamb, eggs produced on the farm can be bought in their shop plus other carefully sourced  groceries including biscuits, preserves, pickles and chocolates.

To find out more about Oakley Grange Farm visit their page on 
The Artisan Food Trail here

Venison & Pork Chorizo with fennel and potatoes

Photo: © childsdesign

***
A nice simple recipe using Great Glen Charcuterie's Venison & Pork Chorizo which would make an ideal midweek meal.
The chorizo is wonderfully meaty, smokey and savoury with a good amount of spicing (though not hot) that mixes with the aniseed-tasting fennel and juicy tomatoes for a delicious meal.

View recipe

Venison and pork perfect chorizo partners

Photo: © childsdesign

***
Last month we announced a new product from Great Glen Charcuterie – Venison & Pork Chorizo.
Eager to get the word out and our opinion on their recent addition, Anja Baak made sure we received a pack to be put to the test.

Read full review

We are pleased to award Great Glen Charcuterie our 'Artisan Food Trail Approved' status for their Venison & Pork Chorizo.

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

Braised Pork with Prunes and a Potato Top

Photo: childsdesign

***
Choose good quality British pork for this dish and with several great producers on The Artisan Food Trail to choose from, you can’t go wrong.

It doesn't need to be an expensive cut either and we used shoulder as this seems to work best. The slow cooking makes the meat very tender and almost melting in texture.

Inspired by all things English, this recipe uses old traditional flavours that complement each other so well. Cider and apples for sharpness, prunes for sweetness and a dash of mace, thyme and juniper for warmth and fragrance.

Although optional, we can highly recommend adding Alan Coxon’s Ale-Gar
to give a nice depth to the finished flavour. To us, it just seemed very appropriate to add it as the rest of the ingredients echo the time which inspired the Ale-Gar’s recipe.

View recipe

Photo: childsdesign

Great Glen Charcuterie launches new chorizo

Great Glen Charcuterie has added a new chorizo to its line of charcuterie products.
The chorizo is made with a mixture of Wild Scottish Venison and Scottish produced Pork.

Jan Jacob Baak, Great Glen Charcuterie's director said:

"We wanted to expand our Venison & Pork range. The already well received Venison & Pork salami has now found a little brother in a full flavour packed Venison & Pork Chorizo. This new product in our Venison & Pork range adds a distinct variation to the already award winning pure venison chorizos. Working closely with local farmers to source the best of Scotland’s quality pork we have created a new exiting product that will please many of our customers." 

The Venison & Pork chorizo is made with the same high quality ingredients and unique preserving techniques that makes Great Glen Charcuterie products stand out. Over the years they have won many awards and this new product is sure to be another winner.

The chorizo is ready to eat but especially good to use in cooking and soon, some new recipe cards will be available to provide customers with inspiration.

Great Glen Charcuterie is based in the rugged Highlands of Scotland. 
They use sustainably sourced local wild venison and Scottish pork to produce a range of award winning pure venison and venison based charcuterie. 

Other products made include delicious salamis, chorizos, pepperonis, bresaola and smoked venison.
Great Glen Charcuterie is available from independent retailers 
and their online store.

UPDATE!: Read our review of this product

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

Bacon lovers unite

Photo: © childsdesign

***  
How wonderful would it be if the internet had the power to transmit aromas? If it did, we’d be uploading the olfactory delight of sizzling bacon to accompany the picture.

This week is Bacon Connoisseurs Week, but why only be a connoisseur for just one week of the year? Devoted lovers of bacon will tell you that it is something they could not live without. Bacon at its best brings back memories whether it’s the holiday breakfast cooked in a dented frying pan, atop a Calor gas stove on a windy British beach or simply lazy Sunday mornings. Bacon is a satisfier of appetite, a comfort, a restorative – some would say, a hangover cure.

Whatever your relationship with bacon, choose the best and buy British at the very least.
Bacon on The Artisan Food Trail is a real step up in terms of quality, craft, animal welfare and above all, flavour. This special flavour is what you get from rare breed pigs that have led a happy, natural life. A pig’s life outdoors which allows it to root around and run about in the fresh air, added to its particular breed, produces full flavoured meat with the all important fat. Remember fat equals flavour.

The rare breeds on the food trail include British Saddleback, Tamworth, Iron Age, Gloucester Old Spot, Large Black and English Lop, Middle White, and Oxford Sandy & Black. Not all of these breeds go into making bacon but the pork is just as wonderful, so well worth a try.

The following producers all rear pigs for pork, some produce bacon and other pork charcuterie products as well as pies and sausages.

Samphire in Norfolk has bacon in either smoked or unsmoked, available in various cuts. Pork, sausages and pork pies too.

Paganum Produce in the Yorkshire Dales create their own dry-cured streaky or back bacon as well as pork charcuterie including their famous Yorkshire Chorizo and of course the best home-reared pork.

Pilkington Farms in Hertfordshire cross-breed rare breeds to produce pork which has just the right amount of fat and flavour that their customers prefer.

Orchard View Farm in Buckinghamshire produces smoked streaky or back bacon as well as their award winning pork along with pies, sausages and ham.

Quality meat from Yorkshire

You’re probably making plans on what to put on the Christmas table this year, so if you’re looking for some top quality poultry, meats and charcuterie, Paganum Produce offer a wide selection.
Buying couldn’t be simpler as everything is available online or if you prefer the old fashioned method of communication, the people at Paganum are more than happy to take your call.

Stars of the Christmas table

Herb Fed Bronze Turkey
"For a bird with taste" these free range bronze birds are fed on fresh herbs from Thirsk and feed produced in a local mill for a true Yorkshire bird with a difference, moist & full of real turkey flavour.

Yorkshire Rib of Beef
Paganum Yorkshire Dales beef is sourced from breeds that give superior eating qualities and includes Short Horn, Welsh Black, Highland and Belted Galloway. All beef production and suppliers farm using traditional methods by farmers who are committed to animal welfare, sustainable agriculture and conservation.

Yorkshire Lamb
The lambs sourced by Paganum are from the Yorkshire Dales. Blue Faced Leicester rams crossed with Swaledale ewes produce superior tasting lamb, with the guarantee of traditional farming methods.
The lambs are grazed on a mixture of rich lowland Dales pasture and the high moors, where clean air and limestone grassland contributes to the assurance of great tasting lamb. The lamb is matured slowly, producing more succulent tasting meat.

Charcuterie

The festive time would not be complete without a variety of cured meats.

Yorkshire Bresaola
Marinated and cured Yorkshire Beef, first marinated then cured and air dried to produce a fantastic Italian style Beef Bresaola, serve with oil & lemon.

Pickled Yorkshire Beef
Prime Yorkshire Beef wet cured or pickled to the traditional Wildman Family Recipe. 
1.5kg Pickled Joint ready to cook, slice and enjoy, proper old fashioned fayre.

Yorkshire Pancetta
Dry cured home reared Malhamdale Oxford & Sandy Black Pork. 
A fantastic 400g (approx) slab of our own Yorkshire Pancetta, special cure, dry aged and peppered.

Yorkshire Guanciale

Dry cured home reared Malhamdale Oxford & Sandy Black Pork Jowl (cheek). 
A fantastic 300g (approx) slab of our own Yorkshire Guanciale, cured with juniper, thyme and garlic, dry aged and peppered.

This is just a selection so remember to visit the Paganum Produce page here on The Artisan Food Trail to read out more about them and to find links to their website and contact information.

We’re buzzing about honey… plus recipe for Zingy Honey Chilli Chicken

Photo: © childsdesign

 Sweet, gooey and scented, it’s easy to become slightly obsessed with honey, well for us anyway. Everywhere we go, we like to pick up a jar of local honey – there’s always a pot to hand in the pantry. The Artisan Food Trail is lucky enough to have Cardona & Son and as well as rearing rare breed pigs in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire they are enthusiatic beekeepers and also run a hive management scheme.

The best place to find good local honey is from your farmer’s market or deli – the label will have the exact address of origin. Decent local honey may not be cheap, but it is the pure unadulterated product likely to carry the signature flavour of our indigenous countryside and even our gardens.
It is truly amazing just how those busy honey bees gather the nectar and turn it into such a seductive food for us to plunder.

Photo: © childsdesign

Generally, bees can fly up to six miles from the hive but one or two is more common if food sources are close by. They collect the pollen and nectar in the spring (when most plants are in flower) and take it back to the hive where they process and store honey in honeycombs to be used as their winter sustenance. Bees make more honey than they actually need and a typical hive can hold up to around 25lb (11kg) surplus.

Depending on the types of plants that the bees forage on, the honey can be either runny and clear or opaque and set. The flowers also impart their unique flavour characteristics too, so honeys can vary considerably from region to region.

As well as spreading it on our toast in the morning, we love using honey in cooking – it is great for baking as it has hygroscopic qualities, meaning that it attracts water, thereby keeping cakes moist for longer.

Apart from the kitchen, honey also has a place in the medicine cabinet too. Its antiseptic properties make it a soother of sore throats and it is even good for the skin when applied externally.
Honey lasts practically for ever too, an explorer found a 2000 year old jar of honey in an Egyptian tomb and said it tasted delicious.

As honey is sweet thoughts normally turn to desserts but we’ve decided against this and used honey in a delicious main course savoury dish instead, to demonstrate the versatility of this gorgeous substance.

Zingy Honey Chilli Chicken (or Pork) – View recipe

Photo: © childsdesign

My Little Porkie – a gift with a difference

What is My Little Porkie?
Samphire always has Gloucester Old Spot and Saddleback piglets scurrying around and My Little Porkie gives you the chance to own one of them.
Don’t worry you don’t have to look after it, Samphire will do all that for you. You just choose your piglet at the start and then they will send you regular updates and photos showing you what it is getting up to. They can even arrange a visit. All you have to do is decide how you want your pork at the end (you'll be helped with that).

Free Range
All the pigs are pedigree rare breed and completely free range (sometimes a bit too free range when they escape!). The pigs are fed a natural diet and they have access to forage all year round. They get loads of apples in the autumn and all the excess from Samphire's kitchen garden throughout the year. This mixed diet produces the best tasting pork, ever.

Great Taste
They also live twice as long as their commercial cousins which makes a real difference to the cooking qualities of the pork. As they mature they lay down fat in the muscle and this melts when the meat cooks, basting it. No more dry, tasteless pork – moist meat and crunchy crackling every time!

Get Yours
You can order at any time of year and it will normally be about 5 months before delivery. If you can’t wait then just get in touch because there are normally a few older pigs being kept for Samphire themselves and they may be able to let you have one of them.

How Much?*
Because you get all of your pork at the end it isn't possible to tell you exactly how much it will cost as it depends on how much your pig weighs. Charges are £7.20/kg (offal is free) and most of the pigs give between 40-50kgs of meat so that works out at c.£300. (Delivery by overnight courier is £10).
A deposit of £95 is asked to reserve your piglet.

Bit worried that a whole pig is a bit too much? Why not get together with neighbours and have half a pig each?

If you are interested in knowing where your food comes from, My Little Porkie gives you a direct connection with the animal and how it lives – real provenance.
*Prices correct at time of publishing

For more information about Samphire, just visit their page on 
The Artisan Food Trail here where you'll find contact information and a link to their website

Toad in the Hole

Photo: © childsdesign

Crispy puffed up Yorkshire Pudding encasing a few good plump, meaty sausages makes a great family meal.
The trick to getting the pudding batter to billow up is to make sure you heat the fat in the tray, in which it is to be cooked. The fat should be smoking when you pour in the batter, this way it starts to cook immediately enabling a good rise.
Part-cooking the sausages before adding them to the batter ensures that they don't look anaemic – you want shiny brown burnished 'toads' to make it look appetising.
Served with a rich gravy this is sure to be a winner.

View recipe

The Artisan Food Trail's Best Bangers for British Sausage Week

British Sausage Week give us a chance to showcase our producers who make some great British sausages.
These aren’t the cheap, sad insipid offerings you might find in the supermarket, but brilliant bangers with bags of taste, great texture made with meat from animals that have led happy and healthy lives.

More often than not the animals are rare breeds too which means that these sausages have an unsurpassable flavour and texture. The sausage mix is skillfully blended with a variety of herbs and spices from the mild to the spicy to suit everyone’s preferences.

So whether you are making a hearty casserole, a Toad-in-the-Hole or just good old Bangers & Mash make sure you choose the best.

Photos: © childsdesign

Samphire
Samphire is an award winning smallholding in Norfolk rearing rare breed pigs and sheep. Ethical farming is at the heart of Samphire and they have been recognised by the RSPCA for their commitment to animal welfare.

 It’s not just their regulars who love their rare breed meat, Gary Rhodes said their sausages were the best he'd ever tasted

You can buy sausages online from a selection as follows:

The Samphire Sausage
An excellent partner to mashed potatoes and onion gravy, this sausage is a great all rounder with subtle seasonings of traditional spices and herbs. Ginger, mace and nutmeg provide the base to the top notes of sage, onion and coriander.

Sausage Selection – Six of the Best!
Samphire will put together a selection of their most popular sausages, ringing the changes as they create new flavours.
All sausages are made from our rare breed, free range pork and do not contain any colourings or flavour enhancers – they aren't needed!
For more information visit Samphire on The Artisan Food Trail here


Annie’s Market Garden
All ingredients are locally produced and sourced and all products are made at Annie’s.
The fantastic meat they produce (their customers will tell you so) is a direct result of the way they look after their animals. They graze freely in the orchards around the farm amongst the buttercups, wildflowers and natural pastures. 
Annie’s offer a range of exceptional Rare Breed meat products – Highland beef and also pork and lamb.

Annie’s Market Garden Pork Sausages
Traditional British breeds of pork (Berkshire & Gloucester Old Spot) are reared naturally and slowly, as nature intended. Annie’s are hoping to continue breeding the Berkshire pigs to help keep the bloodlines going. Annie’s firmly believe that for a great taste, time is needed – the rewards, great tasting native & rare breed pork perfect for making the best sausages.

For more information visit Annie’s Market Garden 
on The Artisan Food Trail here

Photos: © Capsicana taken by childsdesign

Capsicana Chilli Co
Capsicana has teamed up with a whole host of independent butchers across the the UK to bring you an absolutely delicious chilli sausage! They use a variety of authentic Mexican chillies to make their special chilli & spice blend and their selected butchers combine this with their fabulous sausage-making expertise and hey presto...  the best chilli sausages in the UK!!
Perfect for the BBQ, spicing up favourites like bangers & mash or making a Mexican style sausages and bean casserole.

Details of butchers using Capsicana’s chilli sausage blend 
available here 
For more information visit Capsicana Chilli Co 
on The Artisan Food Trail here



Paganum Produce
Yorkshire producer, Paganum’s selection of Premium Pork Sausages made in their traditional butchery to age old family recipes.

Classic Pork Sausage
Handmade special recipe Classic Pork Sausage in real skins and hand linked in the traditional way.

Gluten Free Sausage
Handmade special recipe Gluten Free Pork Sausage. A very high meat content gluten free sausage suitable for Coeliacs.

Pork & Honey Sausages
Handmade special recipe Pork & Honey Sausage in real skins and hand linked in the traditional way. A mild sausage, kids love 'em!

Cumberland Sausage
Handmade Cumberland Recipe Sausage in real skins. Great cooked in the oven in the traditional ring.


Chipolata Pork Sausage
A thin, short pork breakfast sausage, traditional at Christmas.

Gourmet Venison, Pork, Cranberry & Apple Sausage
Venison, Pork, Cranberry & Apple Sausage, real skins & hand linked in the traditional way.

Elite Sausage Box
Contains: Pork Leek & Chive, Ploughman’s Sausage, Prime Yorkshire Champion Pork Sausage thick, Prime Yorkshire Champion Pork Sausage thin, Pork & Caramelised Onion Sausage 
All pork is free range, outdoor reared in woods in Yorkshire.

Paganum Sausage Selection
Box of Paganum Sausages, real skins and hand linked in the traditional way, includes Classic Thin Link Breakfast Pork Sausage, Thick Pork & Honey Sausages and the Traditional Cumberland ring.

Visit Paganum Produce on The Artisan Food Trail here

Get to know your regional sausage

Photo: © childsdesign

A good sausage should be made with at least 70% high quality meat, usually beef or pork or a mixture of both. The remaining content is seasoning and breadcrumbs.

Across the UK there are many regional varieties of sausages and here are a few of the most easily found.

Cumberland Sausage
This is considered to be the meatiest British sausage. It is a chunky, coarse cut sausage spiced with black pepper and made in a continuous spiral. It is traditionally sold by length rather than weight. Looks very impressive when coiled in a spiral and cooked whole.

Gloucester Sausage
Traditionally made with Gloucester Old Spot (a rare breed) and flavoured with sage. Increasingly available from local specialists.

Lincolnshire Sausage
Old fashioned herby regional sausage traditionally made with pork, bread and sage (although thyme seems to be creeping in).

Lorne
Bit of an oddity, this is Scottish square slicing sausage. It is made with beef and pork, has a smooth texture and is probably destined for either the breakfast table or eaten in a sandwich with white sliced bread and brown sauce.

Manchester Sausage
A pork sausage, flavoured with white pepper, mace, nutmeg, ginger, sage and cloves.

Marylebone Sausage
A traditional London butchers sausage made with mace, ginger and sage.

Oxford Sausage
A regional sausage made with pork, veal and lemon. Herbs are usually sage, savory and marjoram

Pork and Apple (West Country)
Pork with apple and often cider or scrumpy, generally makes a moist sausage. Sage is often used, they are available nationally but very popular in the West Country. Traditionally made with Gloucester Old Spot which where reared in orchards and would have eaten the windfall apples.

Suffolk Sausage
A course chopped sausage with herbs, similar to Lincolnshire

Tomato Sausage
Pork and tomato, typical 10% tomato gives a distinctive red colour, they are popular in the Midlands. Can be combined with basil and sun dried tomatoes for the ‘Mediterranean’ taste

Yorkshire Sausage
White pepper, mace, nutmeg and cayenne are the predominant flavours in the Yorkshire sausage.

Get Your Bangers Out! It's British Sausage Week – 31st October – 6th November 2011

Slade frontman, Noddy Holder has been let out of his box slightly prematurely this year, and instead of shouting out a gravelly "It's Chriiiiiiiiistmaaaaaas!" he's proudly vociferating the brilliance of British bangers as ambassador and King of the Sizzle for LovePork's British Sausage Week.

Running from 31st October – 6th November 2011, this week is dedicated to all things sausage. Sausage, that's a word that has us Brits collapsing into a fit of giggles – nothing like a spot of innuendo to get the festivities going.

On a more serious note, British Sausage Week's aim is to make us all aware of how British pork is the best and encourages us to support our own farmers and producers by buying quality sausages.

There are many regional sausages throughout the British Isles that use traditional recipes that go back many generations.
There's the long coiled Cumberland sausage which is meaty with a coarse, chunky texture and black pepper giving a spicy bite; The Lincolnshire sausage, an old fashioned favourite scented with sage; West Country ones with pork and apple and maybe a touch of cider and Oxford sausages that contain veal, as well as pork. These are just a few of the many varieties made and the list continues to grow as producers experiment with different flavour combinations.

We can't resist a nicely cooked sausage. They should be cooked carefully over a medium heat so they cook slowly allowing the outside to gently caramelise so it becomes slightly sticky and the inside should be juicy. Don't have the heat too high or the sausage will burst and definitely do not prick them, this will make all the tasty juices escape.

The Artisan Food Trail is lucky enough to have a good number of food producers that make the finest sausages using meat from animals that have a led a healthy and happy life, so when you buy sausages make sure you choose British, local and bangers made with passion.

Over the coming week look out for more information about our sausage making friends, recipes, mouth-watering pictures and much more.

Luscious Pork Belly

Photo: © childsdesign

There’s something irresistible about slow cooked pork. It is meltingly tender and the flavour is rich and moreish. This recipe uses pork belly strips which do appear to have a lot of fat on them, but don’t let that put you off – anyway, that’s where all the gorgeous flavour comes from. The cooking process allows most of the fat to render out which can then be discarded.

However to cut through the fattiness, a spicy and zesty relish from
Edible Ornamentals is used which really cuts through any oiliness. Luscious Citrus Relish is just as its name describes and lends itself well to this oriental inspired recipe.

Although it takes time to cook, the oven does most of the work over that time – it even creates the sauce – leaving you to get on with other things as the house fills with delicious aromas.
To improve the texture of the pork, it is given a final sizzling in a pan.

View recipe

Norfolk's Own: Bray's Cottage Pork Pies

Bray’s Cottage Pork Pies are well known amongst foodies nationally for being the pork pie unlike other pork pies.
Hand made by a small team in a beautiful flint building above the spectacular North Norfolk coast the pies feature local outdoor pork and beautiful biscuity pastry.
They believe in the Slow Food philosophy, that eating should be satisfying and fun and that if you eat something you should understand it.

They use only the very best pork from outdoor and lovingly reared (in North Norfolk) pigs. Not offcuts, not the bits that you wouldn’t want on your plate, just the very best.
Winners of numerous taste tests and awards, their most popular pies contain a little smoky bacon with the fresh pork, a touch of onion marmalade and their secret blend of herbs and spices.

Early on the team discovered that filling the pies full of high quality meat left no room for jelly, they stopped including it and discovered that – a) no one minded as the pies were so moist and delicious and b) lots of people find the jelly off-putting, so the jelly-less pork pie was born!

Photos: © childsdesign

All this means that they make pork pie that makes you feel better after eating it, not worse. A celebration of real food, using real kitchen ingredients. A pie that’s for sharing, not a guilty secret. Bray’s Cottage are always thrilled to hear the great lengths that people will go to buy one of their pies and and how they organise days around visiting the growing list of wonderful shops that stock them.

Bray’s Cottage don’t have their own shop at the bakery, although you might strike lucky and find them in with warm pies to sell, but they supply the best Norfolk Farm shops and delis and take their pie-stall to events around the county, they are also supplying to a number of delis and pubs beyond Norfolk. Their lively Twitter feed is the best place to keep up with their activities.

Visit Bray's Cottage Pork Pies on The Artisan Food Trail here

'Piggy Sunday' at Samphire a success

'Piggy Sunday' proved to be a popular course as a group of enthusiastic people got stuck into some sausage making on Sunday...
Just click on the pictures to see the full image.



...Plus they also learned about all the cuts of pork with a butchery demonstration including mastering some butcher's knots.

The Real Squeal: Samphire

Samphire is an award winning smallholding in Norfolk rearing rare breed pigs and sheep. Ethical farming is at the heart of Samphire and they have been recognised by the RSPCA for their commitment to animal welfare winning their Good Business Award two years running.

Karen Nethercott became weary of the rat race and quit a successful career in corporate accountancy to start a new life and a smallholding in the country. Before she started she didn’t know anything about farming and learned through courses with the Norfolk Smallholders training group, from watching others and taking notes.
She and her husband Jeff now rear British Saddleback and Gloucester Old Spot pigs and Ryeland sheep, there are also chickens and geese on the farm too and a substantial kitchen garden.

Samphire is run on the belief that animals should be raised as naturally as possible – all Samphire meat has a great life under spacious Norfolk skies with plenty of fresh air and tasty meal times.
Only use rare breeds are used because they are passionate about preserving what is special about British rural culture and heritage. The animals thrive in non-intensive, natural farming environments and produce fabulous tasting meat.

Photos: © childsdesign

The food is really special because Samphire believes it’s better to be obsessed with making something exceptional than obsessing about price and competition.
It’s not just our regulars who love their rare breed meat either, Gary Rhodes said their sausages were the best he'd ever tasted and Giles Coren gave their delicious pork pies 10/10.

Sell their fabulous pork pies, sausages and other goodies at local farmers’ markets and also at a couple of markets in London, it is definitely worth getting along to their stall. If you can’t get to a market you can order online through their website or pick up from the farm.

My Little Porkie
Samphire always have Gloucester Old Spot and Saddleback piglets scurrying around and My Little Porkie gives you the chance to own one of them. There’s no worry about having to look after it as Samphire will do all that for you. You just choose your piglet at the start and then they will send you regular updates and photos showing you what it is getting up to. They can even arrange a visit. All you have to do is decide how you want your pork at the end (Samphire can help with that).

Throughout the year the smallholding is open to visitors for events and courses. The best way of finding out what is coming up is by joining Samphire's mailing list on the website or linking to their twitter or facebook pages.

Visit Samphire on The Artisan Food Trail here

Pork Pie Workshop: 25th September 2011

As part of the Norfolk Food Festival 2011, Bray's Cottage Pork Pies we will be holding a “Make your own pork pie” workshop at Pie HQ between Holt and Blakeney, North Norfolk. You’ll learn the secrets of hot water crust pastry without tears, be shown how to make pork pies of different sizes, decorate them and you’ll make your own to take home.


It is designed to be fun (all ingredients are supplied), there’ll be plenty of tea and coffee on hand and a light Norfolk lunch will be provided. Run by Sarah Pettegree, there should be plenty of information about Norfolk food to be learned too.

If it’s a nice day why not go for a walk in the beautiful North Norfolk lanes around HQ while your pies are baking and gather a few blackberries and rosehips for you to take home.

Because HQ’s kitchen is quite small numbers 
will be strictly limited to 6 places.
Cost: £45 including lunch.
Email: info@perfectpie.co.uk
Call: 01263 712958

Visit Bray's Cottage website: www.perfectpie.co.uk

Where is the event?

View Pork Pie Workshop: Bray's Cottage Pork Pies in a larger map

Keep an eye on the weather 
(in case you want to go for a stroll)

Choice Cuts: Paganum Produce

Paganum Produce is a small artisan butchery and charcuterie based at Church End Farm near Malham in the Yorkshire Dales.

With five generations of butchery, curing and farming experience supplying a traditional product range increasing a range of traditional meats, sausages, dry cured bacon and charcuterie with the benefit of an online shop and direct-to-door delivery.

The Name
“Paganum” is Latin for “Rural Tradition” and was chosen because rural tradition is something that they are passionate about. Traditional methods of farming for slower grown, happier animals. Traditional and rare breeds able to thrive in the outdoor life of the Yorkshire Dales. Traditional ways of hanging, preparing and cutting meat for a fuller flavour. And traditional standards of service where every customer counts.

History
The company is now headed by Chris Wildman and butchery runs deep in his family, the original butchers shop was opened in Bentham, Yorkshire in the mid 1800s by John Wildman (Great Great Grandfather), previously it existed as an on-farm butchery and following his death in 1894 the shop passed through a succession of Wildmans.

Provenance and Preparation
All meat and gourmet produce is fully traceable to family farms and small artisan firms in the Yorkshire Dales.

Sourcing locally means that all farmers and producers are known personally. They've all been chosen by Paganum for their commitment to animal welfare, sustainable agriculture and conservation.

All produce is British giving full confidence in that it's been produced here, not just packed here. They can absolutely guarantee that all fresh beef and lamb is fully traceable to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.

Special cuts can be provided as well as advice on the best type of meat for a particular recipe and how to cook whichever joint you choose. It's all down to preparation, hanging and cutting. Beef is hung for a minimum of 21 days, to ensure maximum taste and tenderness.

Yorkshire Chorizo
Paganum is also home to the Yorkshire Chorizo, a fully cured sausage using British pork and made in Yorkshire, of course.

Visit Paganum Produce on The Artisan Food Trail here

Course/Event, Sunday 25th September 2011: Piggy Sunday – Nose To Tail In A Day

Have you ever wanted to know how to keep pigs on a small scale?
Would you like to learn about pork butchery and make your own sausages?
Then we think you'll be interested in this one day course being run by Samphire.

Samphire is owned and run by Karen and Jeff Nethercott who ditched the corporate life to rear rare breed pigs and sheep on their beautiful Norfolk smallholding because, as they say, "it’s more fun isn’t it?"
Ethical farming is at the very heart of Samphire and they've have been lucky enough to win awards from the RSPCA for their commitment to animal welfare.

It’s not just their regulars who love their rare breed meat, Gary Rhodes said the Samphire sausages were the best he'd ever tasted and Giles Coren (The Times) gave their delicious pork pies 10/10.

Believing in giving their animals a completely free range life, plenty of space to muck about in and proper food with nothing nasty added they have found that rare breeds flourish in this environment and the resulting meat is the best you’ll ever taste.

Piggy Sunday
This Piggy Sunday will start with a tour of the smallholding to see how they keep their pigs on a small scale. You'll be given loads of tips on how to do it yourself and what you’ll need.

You'll then move on to a butchery session where Samphire's butcher, Steve will show you how a carcass is broken down and what options you have with cuts for the kitchen.

After a homemade lunch featuring some of their famous pork pies and sausages you'll spend the afternoon making sausages. It’s dead easy and you’ll soon have a pile of you very own hand crafted sausages to take home.

The day will wrap up with tea and homemade cakes.

When: 9.30am – 4.30pm, Sunday 25 Sept 2011
Where: Tibenham, South Norfolk
Cost: £85 per person includes taking home around 2kg sausages that you make (worth about £20)

To Book
Call 01379 674413 or click here to book online