It’s been a bitterly cold few weeks, but the evenings are slowly getting lighter, and February is a good time to get some lovely fresh locally-grown vegetables. Our curly kale (pictured) grown in Chidham, has a fantastic taste after a few minutes in a steamer, and is available in green and red varieties.
Other locally-grown produce available includes several varieties of potatoes and cabbages, and – now that the frost has subsided – watercress is back, and ready to be stuffed in a sandwich or blended into a delicious, healthy soup. Yum!
Not quite so local, but worth a quick mention, this week we are expecting a fresh delivery of onions from Roscoff, from our very own friendly French onion man. Très bien!
“Johnnies” is the name given to men from Roscoff who travel to Britain each year at the end of summer to sell their onions. The phenomenon began in the 19th century, first on foot, then on bicycles, as the Johnnies touted from door to door laden with onions to sell. In the early part of the 20th century there were more than 1,500 Frenchmen trading in this way; now there are around twenty remaining.
This week we have had our very own delivery of onion plaits from Roscoff, as well as plaits of shallots and garlic. Presented in this way, the produce is able to stay fresh for at least six months. The photo below shows our two visiting “Johnnies”. The onion, shallot and garlic plaits are available in our shop now.
Southbourne Farm Shop now has its own Twitter page, at: www.twitter.com/thefarmshop
Twitter allows us to provide quick and simple updates about the farm shop. You can view these updates on our Twitter page, or in the column to the right.
If you are a Twitter user, please do “follow” us… it would be great to receive your feedback and messages.
We are very excited about our new range of preserves, jams and chutneys from Butler’s Grove. We have obtained flavours that we do not necessarily stock in our other ranges, including the very novel Traffic Jam (shown left), which re-creates the red-orange-green of a traffic light, with layers of strawberry, orange and gooseberry preserve! The range also includes Green Tomato Chutney, Peach Melba Preserve, Sweet Orange & Cider Marmalade, and Fig & Rhubarb Preserve (which has been the bestseller to-date).
To entice the sunshine, another new range in our shop is New Forest Ice Cream, delicious ice cream in family-size tubs and small snack-size tubs (which even come with their own little plastic spoon… too convenient!). Choose from vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and mint choc chip.
Finally, a quick mention of our new stock of local asparagus sourced from Chichester; it’s in at last!
Spring has arrived, and with it some new produce on our shelves to tantalise your taste buds. We have new flavours in our “My Favourite Bear” biscuit range: Go Bananas Bear (made with real bananas), Muddy Bear (with chocolate), Berry Good Bear (with blackcurrants), Blowing Raspberries Bear (with raspberries), and Snow Bear (white chocolate). These biscuits are made with all-natural ingredients.
These Fine English Digestives and Fine English Oatcake Rounds are absolutely delicious. Made from 100% English flour and butter, these delicate biscuits are a fantastic choice if you fancy something indulgent with your cup of tea!
We also have back in stock Mondovino Black Olive Crackers, the ultimate gourmet nibble best served with a cool glass of white wine.
We have several other tasty biscuits on offer in our shop, including an extensive range of Border Biscuits. Made in Scotland, these treats offer mouth-watering ingredients like butterscotch, fresh butter, rich milk chocolate and juicy sultanas.
Our Bay Tree pasta sauces have proven to be popular over the years, and we now have a selection of “straight from Italy” pasta bags, ready to serve after 10 minutes in boiling water.
As the weather gets warmer over the coming weeks, our new Orchard Pig Sparkling Jonagold apple juice, and Orchard Pig Pear juice blended with apple juice provide a great, refreshing taste. Of course, additional to all the above, spring also brings us a fresh selection of local fruit and vegetables. We have fresh deliveries every morning.
We have recently added more tasty dishes to our selection of frozen Field-Fare meals. The Field-Fare brand launched in 2004, offering an extensive range of high quality produce, sourcing ingredients wherever possible from UK suppliers. All the ready meals that we stock can be cooked direct from frozen.
Our range currently features: Beef Lasagne, Chicken Tikka Masala, Sausage & Onion Casserole, Fisherman’s Pie, Steak & Ale Pie, Chicken Leek & Mushroom Pie, Macaroni Cheese, Mushroom with Stilton and Pinenut Parcel, Asparagus and Gruyere Crown, Salmon en Croute, Sweet Pepper and Goats Cheese Filo, and Beef Wellington. The new additions are Lamb Moussaka, Coq au Vin, and Cottage Pie.
And for dessert, we have Rhubarb & Ginger Crumble, Cherry Pie, or Chocolate Brownie Sponge Pudding with Chocolate Sauce!
These meals offer quick and convenient tasty dishes, and they can be found in our new freezer cabinets towards the back of the shop.
We have a delicious range of chilled alternative meats from Kezie Foods delivered fresh each Wednesday: ostrich, wild boar, kangaroo and venison, available as sausages, burgers and fillet steaks. Ostrich is a wonderful red meat; high in iron, and low in cholestrol and fat. Kangaroo meat is succulent and lean, again high in iron and low in cholestrol and fat. Wild Boar has a sweet, nutty, tender taste, and the venison sausages offer a rich, tender taste. You never know, with Spring approaching soon you might get the chance to try some of these on your Barbecue!
As with most of the country, the Farm Shop had a blanket of snow resting upon it this morning. The photos below show our animals weathering the chill. They seemed happy as long as the snow didn’t cause any delay or cancellations to their food supply! Click on thumbnails for large image.
The seville orange season is relatively short, but sevilles offer a superbly intense taste to homemade orange marmalade. There are many recipes for seville orange marmalade online, but as an example, you can find one here (link opens in new window). The ingredients are simple; all that is required are seville oranges, a lemon, and granulated sugar. The end results are worth the effort.
Our Southbourne Farm Shop 100% natural fibre bags are back in stock, and offer a practical alternative to having carrier bags for your shopping. They are strong, durable and of course better for the environment.
In addition, all our polythene carrier bags are now biodegradeable, so if you DO require a carrier bag, the good news is that it won’t be filling a landfill site for decades to come.
