Mortimer Chocolate Powder

This week I have eventually gotten around to re-displaying the Mortimer Chocolate Powder. Rather than buying cocoa from multinational processors who have blended beans from many different origins to create a uniform taste, the Mortimer Chocolate Company find the best single origin cocoa beans. Like wine and coffee, the flavour of cocoa is influenced by the soil and region it is grown in. And so the Mortimer Chocolate Powders all taste different. It has taken me a while to find enough space in the shop to display the four different origin powders next to each other. Now I have done so I think the product will make much more sense to potential buyers. And with the descriptive card Adrian supplied, choosing a powder is much easier. The hope is that more people will notice and try the powders, though I very much doubt we’ll ever sell as much powder as we do brownies made from the chocolate powder!

Vegetables

This week we still have:
Apples
Broccoli
Carrots
Garlic
Onions
Pears (Conference)
Potatoes (Maris Piper)
Tomatoes

We also have:
Red Cabbage
Red Onions
And some very large flat muchrooms.

Soup-er Duper

One of the first new things to appear in the deli as the result of the speciality food fair I attended last month is Rod & Ben’s Organic Fresh Soup. Rod and Ben make the soup on their organic farm in Devon. After meeting them at the show, they sent me a pot to try, which I warmed, popped into a thermos and took on a walk a few weeks ago. I’m sure enjoying hearty piping hot soup watching the boats go by on a cool autumn day may have biased my judgement, but it really was very good soup. Thick and full of flavour. At the moment we’re trying four flavours, in 600g tubs (enough for two bowls):
Beetroot & Cumin
Leek & Potato
Soup of the Month, which is Mushroom & Tarragon
Plus a Vegetable Broth with Pesto (which is the only one to contain wheat/gluten).

This week’s fresh veg is the same as last week, the only exception being there are a lot more pumpkins and they are a lot bigger!

Holy Cheese, Batman!

Last week I was lucky enough to spend a day with the people from Emmi learning all about Swiss cheese. It was a fascinating day, though I have to admit the lunch was the best bit. Obviously heavy on the cheese we had a delicious raqulette, and cheesey fillo pastry pies. But it was also very interesting.

The things which stick in my mind was the video showing the cheese being made in small village dairies with local farmers bringing in little vans of milk to be made into cheese. And the origin of the holes in Swiss cheese. Wheels of Swiss cheese are wider and thinner than the truckles of English cheese like cheddar and Stilton and the texture much more springy and not crumbly. The reason being, these cheeses were produced up in the mountains in a time long before vans and motor cars. The only way to get them down the hill was to roll them. A few bumps and most cheeses would start to fall apart, but not the Swiss cheese with its internal suspension system. Clever? And tasty.

Fruit & Veg Update

This week we have:
Lots of Apples
Cox
Jonagold Red
Royal Gala
Russet

Broccoli
Carrots
Onions
Parsnips
Pears (Conference)
Potatoes
Pumpkins (Little Bear for eating and the huge halloween ones, all grown in Dorney)
Tomatoes

This week’s Fruit and Veg

Thinking about the return of the pickled onions got me thinking about our wonderful seasonal fruit and vegetables*. The range changes quicker than I really expected it would. Spring was so exciting with all sorts of new things arriving every couple of weeks. We had English lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, asparagus, raspberries, celery, broad beans, strawberries, courgettes, sweetcorn, plums, cherries, runner beans... And, even though we're well into autumn now, there are still new bits and pieces coming into season. This week it is the English broccoli. I'm going to try to list which vegetables we have available whenever something new arrives over the next few weeks.

This week we have:
Lots of Apples
Bramley
Cox
Jonagold Red
Royal Gala
Russet

Broccoli
Onions
Pears (Conference)
Potatoes
Pumpkins (Little Bear grown in Dorney)
Tomatoes

And a quick browse on our nearest supermarket's web site revealed all our prices are lower than theirs where I could find a comparable product! I couldn't find any fresh pumpkins or vine tomatoes sold by the weight rather than by the number of tomatoes. But where I could compare we are cheaper which I'm really pleased about.



* Though we started off selling just seasonal English fruit and veg (local where possible) we now also have imported bananas and citrus fruit.

British Cheese Awards 2008

Last week saw the announcement of the winners of the British Cheese Awards 2008. It has been a mixed blessing. The wonderful (and local to us) Barkham Blue, made by Sandy and Andy Rose near Wokingham, won no less than three major awards:
Best Blue Cheese
Best English Cheese
Supreme Champion

No mean feet as it was up against over 900 cheeses from all around the British Isles. We knew it was a wonderful cheese. A sweet, spicy blue, deliciously creamy and moreish. The trouble is that now everyone else knows how great it is and we can't get hold of any!

Another of our local specials, the Wigmore, made by Sandy Rose's cousin Anne, at Village Maid Dairies won best soft white. A good day for Berkshire cheese makers! Not such a good day for Berkshire delicatessens now facing a shortage of their favourites!

A full list of the winners can be found at:
http://www.thecheeseweb.com/contentok.php?id=278

and an article on the BBC web site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7649621.stm

They're Back!

Susie's Honeyed Pickled Onions have returned. Susie only makes them at this time of year when the onions are just right, and they only keep until spring so we’ve been without them for a few months. They were missed.

We had a bit of a run on these just before Christmas last year after lots of people who bought early for Christmas found they had accidentally eaten them all before Father Christmas had finished packing his sleigh. So this year we have the first batch Susie has made (which will be better if eaten from November onwards) and lots of them; giving everyone the chance to get some now and more in December!

I do like it when things like this come and go. I miss them when they're gone, but it is so exciting when they come back. Or is that just me?

Return of the Blog

This blog has been rather neglected recently. It wasn't intentional. It just didn't get written and once you miss a couple of weeks it is much harder to pick it up again. Where is a good place to resume?

The summer has been good for us (not the weather mind you). The shop was busy, brave people still went on picnics (though probably not as many as if we'd had some sun), visitors still came to see the college and castle and business was good. New products have arrived, a couple of slow sellers have ceased and the range looks pretty good at the moment (even if I do say so myself). There will be some exciting new products appearing over the next couple of months along with the return of some favourites from last winter. I will try harder with the blog.

Great Taste Awards 2008

I nearly forgot to tell you all about the winners of this year’s Great Taste Awards. I didn’t have time to spend a day as a judge this year so haven’t a sneak preview of the delights that were entered. But it didn’t matter as we stock a lot of the winners right here in the shop.

Teapigs had a very good night with two gold stars for their Jasmine Pearls and Mao Feng Green Tea, and one star for their Tung Ting Oolong Tea and Peppermint Leaves. Williamsons our black tea producer also won some awards. As did Pukka herbs.

Luscombe won a gold star for their organic Sicilian lemonade. Mother’s Garden, the olive oil from Spain which was mentioned by Delia Smith won a gold star as did Vallecoppa’s divine lemon infused extra virgin olive oil. Stratta entered their newest flavoured vinegars this year and won gold award for both the Sweet Black Mulberry and Sweet Damson.

Jules and Sharpie were awarded another star to add to their collection from last year. This time for hot mint jelly. And Tracklements also added to their collection with a star for their apple and sage jelly, strong horseradish & cream, apricot and ginger chutney, farmhouse pickle and onion marmalade.

Atkins & Potts won a gold star for their inventive Purple Basil Jam. Olives et al entered their Dukka in the "any other ingredient" category and it too won a gold star.

Piper’s Anglesey Sea Salt and Sea Salt & Somerset Cider Vinegar Crisps both won gold stars (as did another two of the flavours they produce).

Mike’s Smokehouse was awarded a gold star for heir smoked salmon pate, and for their hot-roast smoked salmon and smoked trout. The Ortiz anchovies also won a gold star.