The same of course must be said for ‘local’.  We’ve all heard of sandwiches made abroad and packaged in the UK, labelled British Produce.  The ‘local’ label can quite justifiably persuade a buyer into parting with his hard earned cash and may even command a premium, but it can also easily be abused by unscrupulous retailers.  Best to buy direct or from someone you trust.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8364731/One-sixth-of-fresh-organic-or-handmade-food-is-fake.html

For anyone who has participated, it’s a wonderful way to see the diversity and quality of Hampshire produce.  Things have moved such a long way from the home-made-iness of sweaty cakes in clingfilm and chutneys in old jamjars and the local industry is now highly professionalised, competing head on with national and international brands available in our supermarkets.

The Festival gives punters a chance to try new things, see what’s made on their doorsteps and of course meet the people behind the produce.

On to the National Awards now…

http://www.hampshirefare.co.uk/viewnews.asp?nID=523

What inspired you to start your cake business?
Since my twins were diagnosed with coeliac disease I’ve learned how to
bake without gluten, which was quite a challenge at first! Then last year I
took a career break and decided to set up Springwell Cakes which fits in
really well around looking after the girls.

What makes your cakes different?
I’m determined that the cakes I make taste fantastic as well as looking
amazing. It’s really important to me to use fresh, high quality
ingredients, local ones wherever possible, and to tailor the flavour to the
client’s wishes. Whether the cake is gluten free, dairy or nut free, or a
traditional cake, it has to be gorgeous inside as well as outside. Because
most of my cakes are bespoke I’ve had some amazingly creative commissions, from fish, figures and flowers to cars and cats!

Where is your favourite restaurant or food product?
Favourite restaurant is St John in Odiham High Street which we’ve been to
a few times as a special treat – amazing food!

Favourite local food product
It has to be watercress from the honesty box in Mapledurwell – not to be
missed!

What’s your favourite product or way to use your product?
I really love making my lemony cupcakes which have a zingy dollop of home made lemon curd inside. The girls love any cupcakes at all as long as they get to decorate them in amazingly bright colours with butterflies, roses and silver dragees!

How do you try to keep things local?
With cakes it’s a bit tricky to source some of the ingredients locally,
however, I always use free range eggs which we get from a lovely couple who also supply Waitrose.

However, when we began to research what the UK produces of these ‘basics’ we were actually pleasantly surprised.  For instance, did you know that Heinz produces its Baked Beans in Wigan?  And the potatoes from Burts Crips are grown in Odiham (even though they get shipped to Devon for frying  – ??? – sadly true).

And then we just started selecting local in preference to national or – God forbid – European!  So our bottled water is Hildon from Broughton, our tea is Twinings from Andover and bubble bath is Radox from Slough!  We’ve got local meat, pies and bread from Farncombe, eggs from Elstead and ice cream from Bordon.

And of course all our full eatlocale range from Hampshire, Surrey & Berkshire.

We’ve had to accept a few non-local basics just to build a range that people will buy, but we’re going to be on the look out for as much as possible that’s made in the UK.

We’ve  also given the shop a new look – more reminiscent of the grocers of bygone ages with dressers and painted wooden shelves.  So far villagers seem pretty interested – one said it looked a bit West End, which we assume is a compliment!

When we went down to see the presses and bottling facility we were blown away by the scale of the operation, juxtaposed by the very farmy feel to the place – and Chris personally handing us the boxes of juice we picked up.  The operation needs to be big as Hill Farm presses and bottles apples from Leckford, for Waitrose, but somehow Chris and Carol manage to keep things small and personal.

The flavours are reminiscent of flavours from the past – Ashmead’s Kernal, Russet and Damson & Sloe.  Each one with a different sweetness, sharpness or dryness.  In addition, Hill Farm blends some of its juices with other flavours: Elderflower, Pear and Ginger.  Our neighbour drinks the pleasantly sharp Apple & Ginger religiously each morning!

At eatlocale, we always stock Apple & Ginger (of course), Cloudy and Cox & Bramley.  And we vary other flavours through the season.

Just last week all the gourmet glitterati got together at Olympia to sell their wares to discerning buyers from across the UK.  Naturally eatlocale went along to suss out any new potential producers, as well as catch up with the current bunch to find out what’s new.

1. Nisi’s – fresh from swooping triple gold at the Great Taste Awards for her amaretti, is just rolling out new flavour lines – amaretti with chocolate chunks and limonetti
2. Atkins & Potts – quite rightly were singing from the rooftops about their winning horseradish and beetroot relish and plum and ginger chutney, both of which we now stock.
3. Chocolate Craft – always a real favourite at Christmas time, Debbie presented her new range, with stunning packaging – gorgeous Christmas pudding truffles amongst others.
4. Meanwhile we’ve met Gail at Caracoli in Alresford, a visually stunning deli-cum-coffee shop on the Georgian high street.  She presented her kitchen range of products – we’re now stocking the museli and granola and will take on the delicious ale cake and nuts in time for Christmas.
5. Finally, our desperate quest for cheese biscuits looks like it may have reached a conclusion.  We think we’ve found something special in Little Rose Bakery, based in Bishops Waltham in Hampshire – Hampshire Ploughmans and Hampshire Malt biscuits for cheese, both 2010 Gold Taste Award winners.

Colin & Jenny Boswell, with their five children run The Garlic Farm in the Arreton Valley on the Isle of Wight.  They’ve been growing garlic there for more than 25 years and now have a business that not only cultivates garlic but uses it in all sorts of chutneys, pickles, mayonnaises, butters, oils and pestos.  And more than that you can even have the full on garlic experience, by eating in the cafe and staying on the farm.

We first got excited by the gigantic elephant garlic we bought from The Garlic Farm.  These are planted about now in September to harvest next summer.  They act as a centrepiece to a dinner party starter, roasted.  The smaller, but still huge smoked garlics are great, boiled with mashed potato or fried off with onions for a lovely bacon and tomato based pasta.

And you can even buy garlic cloves as seed to grow your own.

But don’t think it’s all raw ingredients and hard work.  There’s a plethora of delicious chutneys (rhubarb, pear & garlic is our favourite), mustards (garlic & horseradish is a must have for beef lovers) and garlic mayonnaises. 

At eatlocale we stock many of the delicious chutneys and mustard, as well as the garlic itself.   You can buy tonnes more on The Garlic Farm website or at the many farmers markets they attend.

The latest round of Gold Taste Awards have just been announced for 2010. These highly prestigious awards are important for producers as they’re the result of blind tasting by some of the most refined palates in the country. We met one of the judges this summer at an event and he gave us a tiny insight into the lengths the award organisers go to keep everything secret and anonymous.

So we’re delighted to see more than 120 winners from across Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire – and particularly so many eatlocale producers – Atkins & Potts, Nisi’s, Two Hoots, Summerdown Mints, Hill Farm Juice, The Tomato Stall & Lyburn.

So now you don’t need to take any risks – no higher accolade can be bestowed on food! Give them a try:

Three Gold Stars “Wow you must taste this”

Nisi’s Amaretti biscuits – we have several addicts in the local village shop in Shackleford

Two Gold Stars “Faultless”

Atkins & Potts Kashmiri Korma Sauce

Hill Farm Juice’s Cloudy Apple Juice

One Star “Close to perfect”

Oven Roasted Tomatoes with Basil Infused Oil

Tomato Ketchup

Lyburn’s Stoney Cross and Two Hoots’s Barkham Blue (both Three Gold Stars) are available in the eatlocale section of Shackleford Village Shop, near Godalming.

Chris Pratt is the young entrepreneurial producer of Pratt’s Rapeseed Oil. Having watched his farming family harvest the rapeseed for animal feed, he saw an opportunity to cold press the oil to create a delicious refined extra virgin rapeseed oil, plus two flavoured oils.

about the products

at eatlocale we stock the plain rapeseed oil which can be used for cooking, as well as a base for dressings and marinades. Rapeseed oil burns at a higher temperature than olive oil, so it smokes less; also it’s better for you than olive oil, high in omega 3 and lower in saturated fats.

the star of the show as far as we’re concerned is the Ginger & Lemongrass oil. I don’t think I’ve ever offered a sample to someone who hasn’t bought it – for those of us who don’t have lemongrass sitting in the fridge, this oil is great for creating that ‘hint of thai’ to a soup or stirfry. Delicious as a dip or as a marinade for prawns; perfect for the barbecue!

Chris has now extended his range to create two new rapeseed oil based vinaigrettes – cider and balsamic. We stock both at eatlocale

what makes you get up each day to make and sell your oils?

firstly and most importantly I enjoy what I do and I love supplying people food that my family has grown and produced. This is often how I feel when things are going well and the sun is shining and I am selling lots of oil to happy customers. As often as things go well they seem to go badly and when that happens I think it is a case of determination and bloody mindedness to make my business successful and in order to do this, I have to be up and putting in the hours.

what’s your favourite way to use rapeseed oil?

one of the things that I love about rapeseed oil is the fact that it is so versatile and is fantastic to use raw as an ingredient in mayonnaise, salad dressings and pesto where the nutty flavour really comes through but it is equally good for things like roast potatoes giving you a lovely crisp golden roast potatoes. If I had to choose though it would be using it raw as an ingredient, from a producer’s point of view this gives me the most satisfaction as I really get to taste the flavour.

which flavour do you like best?

for personal use I like the plain, but I would say that I am most pleased with the Ginger and Lemongrass oil because I have never seen any other oil like this on the market and I was worried how people would respond to unusual flavours like this. Most of the flavoured oils on the market are fairly safe, for example Basil or Garlic and to do something different and for it to turn out to be so popular is very satisfying.

what do you enjoy most about producing your own oil/being your own boss?

i enjoy the freedom of being my own boss!

links to Chris Pratt’s oils

Plain rapeseed oil

Ginger & Lemongrass Rapeseed Oil

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Cider Vinaigrette