Seasonal Food | 99 Station Street

Posts Tagged ‘seasonal food’

Seasonal favourites | The Blackberry

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

The blackberry is one of the real gems of the hedgerow, up there with the sloe. Like any fruit, too much water can produce a soft tasteless berry and too little, will prevent them reaching their potential. It has a great range of use and is easily available to anybody willing to forage.

There are three safety points that need to be in mind when you go blackberry picking; brambles are sharp, always wash what you pick, watch out for cars. The good news about brambles, if they are yours, is that they can be cut back drastically after the blackcurrant harvest and they will stay down for most of the year.

After the picking, you have plenty of choices of what to do with your fruit. Blackberry gin, crumble, jam or a rich sauce to go with game, goose or duck. Some of you will have spotted that last sentence and asking why goose and game are not game. My definition of game is wild but the majority of goose and duck are farmed.

If you want to go a stage further with the sauce, you could sieve it and spoon, warm, over ice cream.

Tags: august, blackberries, blackberry, In Season, seasonal food
Posted in Food, In Season | No Comments »

August | The start of the main game season

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Another emotive subject in the same week, sorry but nature does have it’s own timings too. The glorious 12th kicks off the grouse season with a bang, but a lot of tradition and common sense is built into why this time of year is right for game. Many crops finish off about now and are ready for harvest. The very same crops which we would hope to store or use before winter are also the food of many game animals. Rabbits, pigeons and squirrels are a pest all year round but the mature game birds are taking advantage of the grain and the fruit. A number of birds are readying themselves for their long flights south and will be bulking up on energy. The last thing a farmer would want to see is part of his corn field disappearing to Florida inside a flock of geese.

The hidden side of the game season is in the conservation of species, a main reason why there is no year round shooting. Organisations like The British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) work on the basis of the balance between hunting and sustainability. Game is raised naturally, it’s lean, humanely treated, traditional and most importantly full of flavour.

One of favourite treatments of game is smoking. Venison and pigeon are especially deservant of cherry or maple wood. This is accompanied by a seasonal fruit source, often blackberry and other hedge treats.

If you want to know more about when you can get hold of game, we have compiled a PDF chart of the British game seasons.

Tags: august, deer, game, grouse, In Season, seasonal food, shooting
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

July – What’s in Season

Monday, July 5th, 2010

If you are lucky, you might catch the very last of the British asparagus season. Should you prefer tastes of a more mediterranean nature, then there are some great finds in the garden at this time of year; garlic, brocolli, courgettes and basil. The only problem with basil, tomato or chilli growth is that you may need to share your crop with aphids. So, as with all things natural and native, is the cycles behind the seasons. While the aphids are gorging on your finest greenhouse produce, you will notice the hatching of ladybirds. If you can capture a few of these and introduce them to your trouble plants, you will have one of best defences in the garden.

Sadly another pest is prevalent at the moment, my arch-enemy, the grey squirrel. The walnut tree is starting to show the first fruit of the year and the tree rats have noticed.

What could go nicer with some of those summery herbs, but lobster, prawns and some of the first scallops (check at the end of the month).

Anyway, just putting the finishing touches to a recipe involving squirrel, beetroot and thyme …

Tags: In Season, july, seasonal food
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

June – What’s in Season

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

What a great time of the year for lots of gentle flavours. It is almost corny, but sea fish with salads and herbs is June on a plate. A lot of those iron rich leaves are at their best now, adding both crunch and strong taste to the plate. A lot of the freshly available veg is subtle and very good for steaming or stir fry such as new potatoes, broccoli, courgettes and carrots.

Cherries are at their best and the blossom has dropped. One of the first signs of their appearance is the sudden arrival of red bird poo everywhere there are cherry trees. Perfect combination is woodpigeon with cherry sauce, both in peak condition. Very little other game is in season or available.

If fish is your thing, sea fish are at their best. As always, try and source sustainably and locally.

Tags: In Season, June, seasonal food
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

May – What’s in Season

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

This is one of the pivotal times of the year, when the food mood completely changes. Oysters and scallops are out and spring lamb is in. It’s not quite ready for summer and many of the gentler flavours of the earth are at their best. There is very little in the way of fresh fruit available, unless you count rhubarb, which is technically a vegetable. To keep things light, gentle green leaves such as spinach, rocket and lettuce are available.

May is also a good month for foraging. Wild garlic and nettles are coming to their best and will be optimum about the end of the month. Wild mushrooms will be there for the keen eyed.

Most white sea fish is at it’s best as well as samphire and gull’s eggs. Perhaps the best treat, is the short lived asparagus season, especially with a soft boiled gulls egg.

Tags: In Season, May, seasonal food
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

April – What’s in Season

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

The real stars of the show this month are the early vegetables and fruits. These are mainly the green leaved varieties such as brocoli, purple sprouting brocolli, rocket, spinach, rhubarb and a couple of our own favourites wild garlic and nettles. A lot of iron rich veg to compliment the strong flavours of wood pigeon and salmon.

Jersey new potatoes are being harvested and are lovely on their own as a side dish or to go with some of the more delicate fish on offer as well as spring lamb.

Flavours of this time of year are earthy and green, which will give way to more subtle fruits and salads in the next couple of months. Shellfish will fade away over summer to some extent, certainly scallops and oysters will be in their breeding season.

The arrival of mint will bring in the best of the lamb, but also the start of the Pimm’s season

Tags: april, In Season, season, seasonal food
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

Spring is here ?

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Officially Spring starts on the Vernal Equinox, to you and me, that’s the 20th of March each year. I like to think a bit more simply than that and call it when things start to grow again. About two weeks ago I saw the first shoots of wild garlic coming up in one our raised beds. The other sign is the lawn will need it’s first cut of the year this weekend. Overall, gardens lay pretty much dormant after all the leaves drop off and stay that way until March. The frosts should have gone and the ground is warming up. Something else that got my attention was the wormery suddenly sprang back to life and we needed to start feeding vegetable scraps and shredded paper to it.

Wild garlic growing in a garden is not wild, or is it? The “wild” bit is more of a name as it plentiful in woodlands outside of the domesticated environment. In the wild it tends to be found growing around trees, which is also a great place of interest for dogs. So, one key advantage of growing it at home, is that you can control what is grows in and what contaminants it might come into contact with. This is the same for any greenery, especially nettles, even though you really don’t want these growing at home.

Tags: In Season, seasonal food, spring
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

January – What’s in Season

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

As Winter is firmly locked in, the more resilient foods flourish. Those hard root vegetables are at their best, parsnips, celeriac, sprouts and turnips all benefit from the cold snap. Guinea fowl and rabbit are available for the well wrapped up hunter and some deer are just coming to the end of their season. Firm white fish are optimum; monfish, halibut and turbot. If you like to chew on what has to be the closest relative of the hairbrush, try conger eel for it’s firm delicious meat and the unfathomable volume of bones. Some of the real gems are the shellfish; cockles, mussels, clams and winkles for those buttery, creamery, hearty bowlfuls. Oysters will be fantastic at this time of year and certainly keep at their peak until after Valentine’s Day.

Much of the food used at this time of year would have needed to be stored, preserved or immediately available to the cook. Some of the shellfish and game were gathered through foraging or hunting, vegetables stored in cold, dark places and other ingredients dried, salted or pickled. Perhaps it is no surprise that game seems to go well with a rich fruit sauce, as jam making may have been one way of keeping the produce for longer.

Our latest seasonal menu is available by clicking here

Tags: guinea fowl, In Season, january, oysters, rabbit, seasonal food
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

November – In Season

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

What a great month. The leaves are almost all down and the fruit is picked and packed away. November is the time of the year when you know the warm weather has gone and those cosy nights are leading you upto Christmas and the New Year. A sudden chill hardens off great seasonal veg and the last of those should be coming out of the ground. If you can find any blackberries still on the brambles, then it’s been a mild autumn to date.

The seafood is exceptional especially oysters, mussels and scallops. They go perfectly with a celeriac salad and following by hot pear or apple tart. A good fish but a sod to prepare, conger eel is at it’s best. If you like a fish with more bones than a halloween parade, then conger is for you.

Given that this is now the run up to the Santa season, there are also chestnuts, brussel sprouts and goose coming to their peak.

All of this is pales alongside the game season and fantastic venison and guinea fowl.

The only thing missing is squirrel. There has to be some way I can keep them away from the walnut tree

Tags: guinea fowl, In Season, mussels, scallops, seasonal food, venison
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

October – In Season

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

What a great month for food. This is an especially busy period for collecting fruit and vegetables, blackberries come in to prime condition about now and apple will continue to ripen. Nuts and tree rats (squirrels) are also in abundance, with the latter trying to reduce the former.

Wild mushrooms are at their best in October and go very nicely with the game that is available at this time of year. Fresh garlic, horseradish and delicious root vegetables complete these robust dishes.

Some of the finest seafood is to include coastal squid and gorgeous plump scallops.

The Autumn months do not offer the subtlest flavours of the year, but certainly provide hearty dishes running upto the cold season.

If you are lucky, you may witness some of the last goose migrating, you will certainly hear them. Some have already starting flying over the last week and one commentator remarked that this could signal a cold snap on it’s way.

Tags: blackberries, In Season, scallops, seasonal food
Posted in In Season | No Comments »

99 Station Street