We like our new (well recycled if you will excuse the pun) PJ taste bicycle. We like it so much that we are going to leave it in a different place every day for the next month so that the good people of Sheffield can enjoy it too.
The PJ taste bicycle
To make sure it gets found we are offering a free lunch to the first person who tweets or e-mails its location to us everyday until the end of October 2011. Happy hunting.
Please see detailed t’s and c’s at www.pjtaste.co.uk
This season of mellow fruitfulness continues and today we joined in an annual Woodthorpe Hall ritual extracting the juicy goodness from excess apples collected from all over Sheffield. I have a particular affection for the cider press at the Hall having been married within its very walls in 2008, so it was interesting to see it used for its originally intended purpose.
Apple juice pouring off the press
By the time we arrived it was clear that the 15 or so family, friends and willing volunteers had perfected a slick system which was resulting in an impressively continuous stream of apple juice flowing off the press. Richard Shepley, (Dick) later explained that this was the result of 40 years of continuous improvement in the process.
Dick Shepley
The apple juice pressed at Woodthorpe is used to make their legendary Woodthorpe Hall cider. Plenty was being quaffed to assist the work involved and on tasting it was wonderfully fruity. This full flavour was exceptionally well balanced by the powerful level of alcohol recorded at 10.2% by volume – at this strength worryingly refreshing. Dick was a great host and insisted we keep drinking, offering next their special apple and pear blend. This was also very moreish, slightly sweeter with almost a “candyfloss” caramelised flavour.
But back to the job in hand. The well practised system goes like this. First the apples are washed. One of the volunteers told me that this years innovation was heated water so no more freezing fingers during this stage.
Innovation for 2011
Like a lot of Dick’s equipment it may not look particularly pretty but its the practical result that matters. In this case keeping the people at this station happy is vital for it is they who not only wash the fruit but carry out quality control by cutting off any bad bits and discarding stray stalk and leaves.
From here the apples go into a two stage chopping and shredding process. Another great old piece of agricultural machinery carries out the initial chopping using a powerful grater at the bottom of its hopper.
Apples chopped in the first stage
This is juicing on an industrial scale so spades are used to shovel the chopped apple into buckets ready for transfer to the shredder. This machine makes short work of bucket after bucket of apple chips, reducing them to a fine mulch which oozes with juice and is clearly ready for the press.
Apple chips are shovelled into the shredder
Once out of the shredder the mulch is again shovelled into buckets and can be finally carried through to the cider press. Its heavy work with what I would estimate to be in excess of 20 kilos of apple in each bucket. The apple mulch is tipped into a large hessian sheet which is held in shape by the wooden ‘cheese mould’ which is a square frame or former.
The apple is distributed to an even depth by hand and even at this stage the juice is starting to pour off the press. There is a full-time job for at least another two people to man the washing-up bowls in rotation to catch the juice and transfer via a simple sieve into the 20 litre plastic bottles in which Dick initially collects the juice. With the first frame full the cloth is carefully folded over the top and the wooden frame lifted off (I was very impressed with the skill shown by the men at this as if they have been making beds all their life). Two wooden slats are then placed on top of this first “cheese” and a second one built on top. As the buckets of apple mulch are added to the frame for a second time the weight immediately causes the juice production to accelerate and at times a torrent of juice seems to be flowing. After folding the cloth on the second cheese and removing the frame the full weight of the press can start to be employed. Another two men, taking one side each, gradually wind down the press applying huge pressure which requires long lever extensions to the screws handles. And all the time the juice flows on appearing for much longer than you would imagine. We guessed that at least 80 litres came from
Carefully folding the cloth to form the "cheese"
each pressing of these two cheeses. This would correspond roughly to one litre from every two kilo of apples based on the estimate of 80 kilo of apples going into each “cheese”, 160 kilo in the press at any one time.
Later in the afternoon a couple of pressings of the very special pear and apple mix were done, the resulting juice tasting different but indistinguishable in appearance. This necessitated an ingenious storage system as the containers were filled – pure apple to the right the blend with pear to the left as you exit the cider press.
Containers filled with juice
Sampling the juice neat off the press
And so another year and another harvest is dispatched. Now the natural alchemy will begin as the natural yeasts start their work of fermentation to produce another vintage to be enjoyed in 2012. Great thanks to Dick and Sue at Woodthorpe Hall for allowing us to join in and experience this occasion.
Saturday 17 September and my first experience of an organised fungi foray with an official expert leader! This was the Sorby Natural History Society Fungus Group meeting to Coombs Dale. I was looking forward to some expert identification help to improve on my “it could be that or maybe that approach” – not to be recommended particularly if any culinary intention is in mind. Of course my first interest is in edible species but the dale’s environment of predominantly hazel and ash woodland on a limestone base was not promising. This, explained Jim Horsfall the leader, was simply because most edible mushrooms do not associate with these sort of hosts. However, the 3 hour excursion provided an excellent opportunity to widen my mycological knowledge which will help in all cases of identification. Having taken some notes and photographs it has also provided plenty of ammunition for follow-up research.
The Participants
Starting from the Calver Crossaroads we walked towards Stoney Middleton on the main road but soon struck off to the left along a lane leading into Coomb Dale. It always amazes me that when you are looking and your eyes are tuned in how soon you start to make finds. In this instance it was immediately on entering the wood that we found our first fungus of the day being Stag’s Horn or Candlesnuff Fungus – Xylaria hypoxylon. Both names are very descriptive as the picture shows:
A few feet away Jim discovered this inkcap. It was identified as Glistening Inkcap, Coprinus micaceus.
Glistening Inkcap
Up to this point I had only been aware of Shaggy Inkcaps as these are an edible species. Edible though only to a point as they contain coprine which when mixed with alcohol causes severe symptoms of nausea and palpitations. It is the same chemical that is present in disulfiram (Antabuse), an anti-drinking drug used in the treatment of alcohol dependence.
The next find demonstrated how hard it can be to positively identify an individual species within a group or genus. The best that could be said of this fungus was that it was a member of the Mycena genus – a closer study with a microscope to look at details of its spore shape for example would apparently be needed. This was getting technical!
One of the Mycena genus?
Moving along, but only a few feet we came across a Cramp Ball – Daldinia concentrica, otherwise known as King Alfred’s cakes given their resemblance to a very overdone day of baking.
Cramp Balls
These have been used as a means of carrying fire once they are completely dry. They are very common although appearing mostly exclusively on dead ash.
Fairy bonnet inkcap Coprinus disseminatus or trooping crumble cap was a great sight on this log, their ranks of neat lines really living up to their trooping name.
Trooping Crumble Cap
Stinking Dapperling – Lepiota aspera, (below) was found among a series of Bitter Poisonpie – Hebeloma sinapizans. These had the distinctive radish smell. I noticed that the group did a lot of smelling – obviously a mycologists trait.
Stinking Dapperling
The lovely little tuft of fungus below was identified by the group on the walk as honey fungus, a species which can be eaten after first boiling in milk and discarding the liqour. I duly added it to my basket to examine further later. At home I was not convinced it resembled fully the pictures in my books so sent the picture to John Harris at the mushroom diary. Here is his response:
So not sure on this one, illustrating the need for further experience and perhaps seeing these fungus developing over different stages.
Moving further up the dale we came out of the trees and onto steep meadows on limestone scree. We climbed up and Jim pointed our Rock Rose – Helianthemum nummularium, growing prolifically.
Rock Rose
The presence of this plant is good news for mycologists as their woody roots provide habitat for fungi to associate with. However, it was not until towards the top of the ridge that we found a web cap. We were not able to identify this specifically suffice to say that web caps – the Cortinarius genus – are generally dangerous and best avoided altogether.
Spot the distinctive web of fibres - cortina on this specimin
On the way back across the meadows we found a lovely Parasol Mushroom – Macrolepiota procera. These are an edible species but as it was a solitary soul I left it in situ to shed its spores.
Parasol Mushroom
Just before we dipped back into the woods I spotted this lovely bracket fungus a group know as Polypores. Jim thought it may have been Hen of the Woods but as the rain was coming down we did not linger long to make further investigation.
Hen of the Woods?
We dropped back towards the main road and added Field Mushrooms Agaricus campestris “Dog Sick” fungus and Jelly Fungus – Dacrymyces chrysospermus to the day’s tally. In all in this short excursion I counted that we had found around 24 species and the opportunity to look at them with others of greater knowledge was brilliant. Heres to an Autumn of fruitful mellowness and many more foraging trips. Thanks to Jim Horsfall and The Sorby Natural History Society who hold a wide range of indoor meetings and outdoor field trips. Find out more here.
If of interest here are some recommended fungi guides:
Rogers Mushrooms – http://www.rogersmushrooms.com
Probably the most complete collection of photographs and mushroom information available online.
MushroomExpert.Com – http://www.mushroomexpert.com
Another extensive mushroom identification site. This one focuses specifically on North America. Whilst there is a considerable overlap between UK and US fungi, some of the mushrooms described are not found in the UK. Care should be taken therefore in using the keys on this site to identify UK fungi.
MykoWeb – http://www.mykoweb.com
Another good, but US centric, mushroom site.
BioImages – Virtual Field-Guide (UK) – http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/T156447.HTM
Extensive set of photographs to help confirm identification. However, the site lacks any search facility or identification keys and has be browsed by taxonomy. This makes the site less useful for identifying unknown fungi.
Northern Ireland Fungus Group – http://www.nifg.org.uk
A large collection of species photos but no other identification information.
As a small independent business retailing food its easy to be overwhelmed by these tough economic times, as well as the fierce competition from the larger groups. Indeed having recently experienced the pain of some of our local suppliers and more owner operated restaurants go out of business in Sheffield, it would be easy to concede defeat to the power of the multi-national. So what can we do? Well having recently done some work with Andy Hanselman I have had some ideas about how we can show in his words, how we are “Dramatically and Demonstrably Different”. Being clear about this is a good start as being involved in day-to-day production and sales its easy to lose sight of what the customer sees or wants. However, for the sake of the business and the team it’s now the time to do some work on the business instead of just in the business.
The PJ taste Team
First it is important to understand what are we fighting against. In our case supermarkets and large groups of coffee shops and chains of sandwich shops have developed the power to dominate the market. It’s important that we don’t simply gripe about this but understand how it has happened. They have got into this position by providing a customer experience that works. Making themselves easy to buy from, concentrating on their core offer and creating a clear and defined vision of what we can expect from them. The problems I believe start as they reach a high level of market saturation. At this point do we the customer really still have a choice or are we now too far from the point of production to understand or influence the quality of ingredients. Importantly I also believe that all the focus becomes on short-term profit which does not factor in possible longer term costs to our health and the environment. The experience can also become rather sterile and does nothing to help families derive the joy from eating and drinking. The insidious effects of the supermarkets march to domination are now being more fully understood and explained. Leading the way have been figures like Joanna Blythman who’s 2007 book “Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets” outline the corrosive effect of supermarkets on our farming and our food culture. More recently the mantle is being taken up by people like the Anslow sisters with their social enterprise hiSbe – standing for how it Should be – people before profit.
So what can we do to encourage new customers to buy from us? I say new because thankfully our existing customers are very loyal and have already “bought” the benefits of the interestingly seasonal, Sheffield Food that we make. The following ideas are work in progress but at least should provide a starting point and your input would be most welcome.
1. Being “Dramatically and Demonstrably Different”
We are dramatically different but demonstrating it is another matter! It’s about getting the facts out in the open and developing a clear and coherent way of communicating with our target audience. By being small and flexible enough to source local ingredients that are suited to being grown/produced in our region in a sensible seasonal fashion we can produce the best in terms of flavour, freshness and nutrition. It’s of course only a “can” because a close working relationship between us and the grower/producer is required to ensure these potential benefits are realised. It’s about building up trust, understanding the product and each others needs and importantly working together to tackle issues such as efficient distribution. That is why for example we like to pay our local suppliers cash on delivery, why we consider together how to minimise delivery journeys and how we may discuss for instance utilising all the cuts from the animal with the butcher.
By being close to the growers we have some great stories to tell. Add in the range of products we make ourselves and the stories get even closer to the source. Here are some facts to get into the open:
The benefits of local super fresh milk. We use milk from Mosleys in the Rivelin Valley and from a little further away from our base Our Cow Molly at Dungworth (Eddie from Our Cow Molly is a cousin of the Mosley family). We also use Our Cow Molly’s ice cream – its great in our milk shakes. A visitor to our shop would probably not know this at the moment.
Our Cow Molly Branded Milk
The thing about this Sheffield milk is that the milk delivered on Monday comes out of the cows on Monday – the same Monday not the week before!. This is in stark contrast to most supermarket bought milk which by their own admission is a minimum of five days old before we get the opportunity to purchase it. This matters nutritionally as the vitamin content is depleted with each day’s age, and the process of protein degradation which sours milk is well on the way. In addition with the milk coming for a defined, small high quality herd where the farmer knows and respects each animal as an individual the husbandry is as natural as possible, with winter feed being produced on the farm from silage and hay. This builds trust and a direct connection between us and the producer. As you can see from the picture above Our Cow Molly are being proactively innovative by branding their milk as the genuine Sheffield article and providing the facts on freshness and quality. Our aim is to pass this on with passion to our customers. For further interest here is some information about the Nutritional Aspects of Milk.
PJ taste Citrus Hits™ our very own soft drinks are made from infusions of Yorkshire herbs and fruits and bottled in a re-used J2O bottle (supplied by the Old Bear Brewery in Keighley. Made in small batches it allows us to use seasonal produce, and the lack of any preservatives or pasteurisation maintains the natural flavours. My favourite is the amazing Blackberry and Orange which is now very much in season.
Another delivery of re-used J2O bottles
The picture above was taken by Cindy Cheung as part of her Eat Sheffield for a Week challenge during the Sheffield Food Festival. It features a Lemon and Lavender Citrus Hit and a PJ taste Ultimate Cheese toastie. We make these toasties from the Spelt sourdough that we make from organic Yorkshire wheat sourced from Carr House Farm in Driffield.
So the stories are there the job is to communicate them in a systematic and planned way keeping them fresh, interesting and topical. We are sharpening the tools we have to do this by way of a quarterly newsletter, regular PR features in the local press, a refurbishment of the shop to project a clear external image and concise descriptions/links to the stories inside. Perhaps boringly but crucially we are systemising these activities and agreeing targets, sharing responsibility for them within our team and investing in a regular focused meeting structure to report back and monitor progress against these goals. And all this needs to feel spontaneous to our audience – who said running your own business was easy!
2. Being Easy to Buy From.
Could do better would be the verdict at the moment! How can we improve? Heres the ideas:
a) Research shows that the time people are prepared to queue has reduced to a mere 2 minutes. As our peak business is over the lunch time period its important to maximise the capacity to serve and reduce queuing to the minimum. We are re-organising the customer flow accordingly, to also ensure that everyone needs to pass our retail items, and that all the main food offers can be referred to at an external menu.
b) The ongoing involvement of our staff to share the objectives and benefit from their experience is vital but something we have failed to make the most of on occasions. Hopefully we will do our group training in a more planned way than Starbucks famously did in 2008. Being easy to buy from starts with that front line experience, and developing it relies on the eyes and ears of the staff on the ground.
c) Would an on-line order system work for the delivery of lunch to your desk. Order by 11 and we deliver by 1pm? Is this too big an extension of our business model?
d) Our business is currently Monday to Friday mainly catering for that early morning cappuccino, a grab and go lunch and some interesting hot dishes to eat in. Is there an opportunity to open for an early evening Bistro Night? Or to offer a high quality simple meal for people to buy on the way home and enjoy in the evening. We could feature a key ingredient each month and produce a meal for 2 for £10 (£10 + VAT to eat in) which would be convenient and a direct alternative to a leading supermarkets headline offer. Too copy cat, too much brand extension or another idea worth exploring?
e) What do we do about opening on quieter times in our case Saturdays. With a decline in sales its easy to see savings in staff time by reducing opening hours. Is this the answer or would it be better to find a new market.
These ideas are part of a journey but the pressure is on to ensure we make the right turns in the near future. The opportunity to work in partnership with external groups who share our desire to ensure that we all have a variety of food choices on the high street in the future is vital. We welcome these opinions and support and look forward to shaping and telling the stories for many years to come.
Our Wednesday evening contribution to the Sheffield Food Festival week (Monday 4th July – Sunday 10 July) was a classroom based session with the expert nutritionist Claire Gillis.
Claire Gillis from Integrate Nutrition
We chose to focus on a practical session with some recipe demonstrations around the topic of eating to maintain steady levels of energy through avoiding peaks and troughs of sugar.
We started the evening with some nibbles including blanched hog weed shoots (locally picked Heracleum sphondylium), celery and new season carrots with a herbed Longley Farm bioactive yoghurt. We drank a carrot, orange and ginger juice and fresh picked Yarrow tea (Achillea millefolium) which was a beautiful golden colour with an almost oily weight to it. Yarrow is a member of the Asteraceae or Compositae family (daisy family) and is extremely common certainly around the East side of Sheffield where I live and I have found can be picked during most of the year.
The picture shows that when in flower (as it is around this time of year) yarrow can be easily confused with plants in the potentially dangerous Umbelliferae family including hemlock and fools parsley both very poisonous. Interestingly Hogweed flowers are also similar and sometimes confused as well not surprisingly as this plant is also a member of the Umbelliferae family. So we had the potential to cause serious harm before progressing past the nibbles!
Yarrow leaves are distinctive
Fresh made juices are currently enjoying another boost of popularity with endorsements from celebrities such as Simon Cowell who says his daily juice containing chokeberry is the secret to his youth? Chokeberry contains high levels of anthocyanins which as one of the flavanoids is thought to be nutritionally important for their antioxidant activity. However, as an example of how progressive research develops and changes nutritionists views of what is good, bad or better for us this link to research in 2007 show that good old vitamin C may be 1,000 to 3,000 times more active as an antioxidant than flavonoids.
It’s true that made fresh rather than bought pre-packaged juices are likely to contain double the vitamin C content as they have avoided preservation techniques such as heat treatment. The exception to this rule could be our own Citrus Hits which being a short shelf life fresh product have not been pasteurised or had added preservatives (and are pre-packaged in reused J2O bottles!). You can buy these at our shop at 249 Glossop Road.
But back to our classroom session. After nibbles Claire gave some background to the wide-ranging health benefits which come from ensuring our blood sugar levels are balanced. Heres a summary:
“Often energy slumps throughout the day can be attributed to keeping blood sugar levels balanced. In terms of general health, this is essential as over time, imbalanced blood sugar levels can be attributed to complaints such as sleep problems, difficulty loosing weight and even affects stress levels due to hormonal imbalance.
Balancing out protein and carbohydrates is key as this naturally will help keep a balance of glucose being slowly released into the blood. Snacking (often feared by those watching their weight) is good, obviously the choice of snack is key eg a piece of fruit with a small handful of nuts or power bar!
Avoid excess caffeine and sugary drinks and snacks which will spike up blood sugar levels, what goes up, must come down! After blood sugar levels rapidly rise, they will rapidly fall, creating a vicious cycle as you will then crave more sugar or caffeine”.
To illustrate some of this theory we demonstrated some simple recipes which although delicious contribute balanced energy. Seemingly illogically we started with dessert (they needed a little time to set). So we made two versions of chocolate mousse – chocolate and avocado and a lovely chocolate mousse made with ground nuts and no added sugar (apart of the amount already blended within the chocolate we used). All recipes are below.
Peter in cookery demonstration mode
We followed this by looking at breakfast, a meal which Claire said is often the hardest to tackle as the danger is that a quick simple carbohydrate fix is the closest to hand. Big culprits here are many mainstream breakfast cereals which as well as being based on refined wheat also contain added simple sugars, sometimes in the form of sugar-coating on the added fruit. Claire brought five supermarket cereals and surprisingly the one with the highest sugar content at 43% was the premium example marketed as a healthy option. Claire recommended that it pays dividends to scan the ingredients label, looking at the percentages of carbohydrates, protein, fat and fibre in order to make comparisons. A useful guide is the glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load concepts which rank how quickly and to what extent foods increase blood glucose levels. Eating foods with a low glycemic index such as whole grains, nuts and seeds and oats ensures that the glucose energy os released slowly. So an example of a good breakfast could be porridge combined with a sprinkling of nuts and seeds with perhaps a probiotic natural yoghurt for additional added protein. This combination of protein from the nuts, seeds and dairy input helps slow down the glucose release from the carbohydrate. The corollary from this is that a piece of mass market white bread toasted with jam is actually nutritionally poor and unlikely to satisfy hunger for long after the sugar spike caused quickly wears off.
For any good foodie lunch cannot come quickly enough but the message that snacking is good is even better. But again a carefull choice of snack pays dividends. Fruit is great so apples, grapes, peaches and pears are good with bananas containing a bit more quickly absorbed sugar so not quite as good (bananas have a higher glycemic index). Nuts, seeds and perhaps a PJ taste powerbar containing oats, organic Yorkshire hemp seed and nuts, are also good. It’s interesting that following the session I will review using dates as the main binding ingredient for our Powerbar and perhaps substitute prunes as I have learnt that these have a much lower glycemic index.
We looked next at lunch and how the choice of a salad containing say an oily fish, poached salmon or mackerel with a variety of colourful green vegetables and herbs is a great alternative to a traditional sandwich.
Finally it was time to taste the puddings with the chocolate and nut based mousse getting the delegates vote over the avocado based alternative although they both demonstrated that a delicious finale to the meal does not have to be a nutritional disaster!
Claire Gillis and PJ taste would like to thank the participants of our classroom session and the Sheffield Food Festival for creating the opportunity to host this event. Now heres some recipes:
PJ taste Wheat Free Noodle Salad – makes 4 portions
1 bags King Sorba Brown Rice Noodles
Quarter bunch fresh coriander
1 inch piece of root ginger peeled
2 dried red chillies
1 stems of Lemon Grass
Spring onion tops
Mixed seeds or toasted sesame seeds
Dressing
Mix in a bottle:
200ml light olive oil
150ml wheat free soya sauce
20ml sesame oil
2 tsps runny honey
50ml lemon juice, or lime juice
1) Cook and refresh noodles in plenty of boiling salted water.
2) Chop coriander, ginger, chillies and the tender parts of lemon grass very finely together.
3) Make up dressing by mixing and shaking well.
4) Chop noodles and mix with dressing and coriander mix.
5) Divide into bowls and then either:
a) Add half a chicken breast or 75g of cubed smoked Tofu. Finish with a little more dressing, sprinkle of chopped spring onion, ¼ wedge of Lime (any seeds removed), spring onion split in half and a sprinkle of mixed seed mix.
Seared Salmon Steak
150-200g piece of Salmon skin on (preferably wild salmon or Alaskan Salmon to benefit from higher ratios of Omega 3 to Omega 6 oils than are formed in farmed salmon)
To prepare the fish score through the skin into the flesh. You can flavor with fresh herbs like parsley, mint, coriander, chervil (and/or spices) by rubbing into the skin/flesh. Some salt will help the skin crisp up.
To cook get a little olive oil nearly smoking in a frying pan and add the fish skin side down. Leave to cook and sizzle until you can see that the flesh has changed colour and become translucent two-thirds of the way through. Turn decisively with a fish slice and cook the remaining third. This whole process should only take say 3 or 4 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet.
Chocolate avocado mousse
Blend an avocado with tablespoon (or more depending on taste) of pure, raw cacao powder and some natural yoghurt and a little agave syrup. Put into a dish and leave to set if you can wait!
Chocolate and Nut Mousse
serves 2
75g good quality dark chocolate
50g hazelnuts, ground
2 eggs, separated
Melt chocolate then stir in ground nuts and egg yolks (one at a time). Beat egg whites and fold into chocolate mixture. As this recipe contains raw egg its worth deciding whether you use pasteurised egg to guarentee that no bacteria such as Salmonella is introduced. Ensure that your eggs are in date and are stamped to confirm they are from a Salmonella free flock and have been stored in the refrigerator.
The inimitable Miss Cindy is a woman on a crusade to champion all that is good about Sheffield produced food and drink. We like her. She enjoys discovering new flavours, producers and retailers of Sheffield Food and as part of next week’s Sheffield Food Festival has set herself a challenge. This is to eat for the full week produce grown and made in Sheffield, the substance of which is woven into her Menu Plan.
We are offering for the whole of July a 10% discount on a range of specially selected PJ taste produce. This will be available at 249 Glossop Road to followers of the Missie – collect your badge now from PJ taste at 249 Glossop Road or at PJ taste@Site Canteen.
Another Fine PJ taste Mess
Here is the full list of featured items – so go on grab a badge and enjoy a range of breakfast and lunch items throughout July with a discount incentive.
Breakfast:
Coppice House Farm Dry Cured Bacon Sandwich
PJ taste Porridge Pots with Organic Yorkshire Hemp
PJ taste fruit pots with Longley Farm bio yoghurt
PJ taste preserves made with Sheffield Fruit – e.g. Strawberry, Plum, Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Hawthorn, Sloe and Rowan Berry on toast
Lunch:
PJ taste Plougmans – Yorkshire Cheeses (Amberwood Smoked – cows milk, Mrs Bells Yorkshire Blue and a Mature Wensleydale, apple, PJ Taste hand baked breads including sourdough bread with Carr House Farm Spelt Flour, Caraway Crackers and Olives
PJ taste Peppered mackerel Salad (fish from Mann’s Fishmonger, Sheffield with Sheffield Grown New Potatoes and Salad Leaves)
PJ taste Noodle Salad with Tofu
PJ taste Ultimate Cheese Toastie with Caramelised Local Onions and Henderson’s Relish, Roast Vegetables and Smoked Cheese, Povey Farm Ham with Cheddar
Drinks:
PJ taste Milk Shake – shakes made with vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, Our Cow Molly ice cream and Sheffield Milk
Citrus Hits® infusions of Yorkshire herbs and Fruits with fresh fruit juice bottled in a re-used J2O bottle
Snacks:
PJ taste Power Bars
Umptious muffins
Yorkshire Crisps Company crisps – packets and tubs
Treats:
Another Fine PJ taste Mess. Sheffield soft fruit, Sheffield Cream and Our Cow Molly Ice Cream
Here’s a challenge. A recee of Wyming Brook yesterday afternoon in preparation for our Forage and Feast event next Tuesday evening revealed a total of 27 edible plants. These are listed below. The challenge is to weave as many as possible into the menu for the wild food BBQ which will feature later that evening. This will keep me busy but all suggestions are welcome.
Belinda Wiggs from Sheffield Wildlife Trust
I was privileged to be guided around the reserve by Belinda Wiggs an ecologist from Sheffield Wildlife Trust. This was a case of accelerated learning with my knowledge of plants increasing rapidly, as I was able to quiz Belinda virtually at each step! The trust look after this reserve which is part of the Eastern Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest. There is loads of wildlife at the reserve, including bizarrely named moths – the Dusky Slug, Common Lutestring and Northern Spinach; and the dozens of bird species benefitting from the variety of food, from pine seed eating crossbills to black and white dippers which forage for aquatic insects along the fast flowing streams. The trust over the last 2 or 3 months have been carrying out an extensive survey of the bird life and it will be interesting to see the results. In autumn, a variety of fungi can be found, with Jew’s Ear, Plums and Custard and Amethyst Deceiver, just a few of the species to be found.
Common Spotted-orchid - not everything is edible!
We found that this year things seem to be progressing quite early with not only signs of fungi (see the Orange Bay Bolete being held by Belinda above) but also bushes such as the bilberries already being in full fruit. As we wandered around the reserve we nibbled selected plants. New to me was the taste of Pink Purslane (very spinachy, with denser more robust leaves but still tender with a slight bitter/pepper finish), Sweet Cicerly (lovely initial hay like sweetness followed by aniseed), Pineappleweed (we didn’t eat this one but the flowers crushed between fingers gave a heady scent like a roomful of pineapples – although a good tea can be made from the leaves and flowers), ground elder (a little like parsley crossed with celery) and finally chickweed (a little stringy with a mild spinach taste).
I am looking forward to devising some interesting dishes with these sort of taste sensations in mind – a really helpful web resource in this regard is Plants for a Future. Heres some information about them: “Plants For A Future (PFAF) is a charitable company, originally set up to support the work of Ken and Addy Fern on their experimental site in Cornwall, where they carried out research and provided information on edible and otherwise useful plants suitable for growing outdoors in a temperate climate. Over time they planted 1500 species of edible plants on ‘The Field’ in Cornwall, which was their base since 1989. Over ten years ago, Ken began compiling a database, which currently consists of approximately 7000 species of plants.”
Marsh Thistle - the core of the flowering shoot is edible
The plants found on Tuesday 28 June which could be used in some form in food and drink recipes (please remember that you should not consume any wild plant unless you able to identify it with 100% accuracy):
