Cider, Meat and Eggs

This is part 3 of our series, A Trip South West. 

Next up, we drop in on Cornish Orchards Cider. It’s always a pleasure to meet people so knowledgeable about what they do. Head cider-maker Chris Newton had a wealth of insight on all things apple related.

The operation at Cornish Orchards was huge. After a quick tour Chris introduced us to Margaret, who was ready and waiting back at the farm shop. It was time for the all important taste test. Margaret talked us through the different ciders, all of which were delicious, but it was the vintage cider that really impressed. It was crystal clear like a white wine, with a complex taste, far removed from anything you might expect from a cider. 

  

Cornish Orchards are clearly growing but they seem to have kept their ethos strong. Maybe this is because of the people at the heart of the project - Margaret, Chris, and long standing local staff who are clearly so passionate about the company and their product. They sent us off with a little box of ciders to enjoy that evening. 

Next up, a trip to Philip Warren the butchers in Launceston, well known by London's restaurants for their expertise in sourcing and dry ageing meat. It was great walk around their ageing fridges and talk to Ian (part of the Warren family) about the different native and rare breeds they farm themselves and source from the small hillside farms of Devon and Cornwall. Warrens can dry age meat in their fridges for as long as a restaurant specifies, which makes for really big flavour. Our final stop of the day was a visit to Dave and Wendy, introduced to us by Matt from the Cornwall Project. We arrived at the farm quite late in the day, but the animals were all still grazing and the chickens were not yet home in their sheds. We wandered about the field as the sun was going down.They must have about 150 hens and almost all seemed to be out of the shed digging for worms, flicking dust on their backs, feeling curious – so clearly healthy and happy.That night we drove up the coast to Sidmouth. With kale and white sprouting broccoli from Sean, huge fatty steaks from Warren’s, half a dozen eggs from Dave and Wendy and a bottle or two of cider from Cornish Orchards, we were all set to camp.By the time we were setting up, night had fallen and we found ourselves scrambling around in the black, freezing night trying to light a fire. Once the fire had taken, Joel cooked up all the veg and a steak for each of us and topped with some Cornish butter and a fresh egg. Cooking fresh food on a fire with your friends, and the gentle sound of the sea in the distance - unbeatable really.

The Modern Salad Grower

This is part 2 of our series: A Trip South West.

Matt from The Cornwall Project is setting up links between London chefs and the very best of Cornwall’s producers. That’s how we met Sean, the Modern Salad Grower. 

Keveral farm is a community growing project, which operates alongside others in the area. Sean is a salad grower there.

We spent hours wandering around the farms, with Sean constantly passing us back little clippings of his incredible micro-herbs, salads, flowers. There was so much variety in these little leaves and petals; some explosive, some subtle, citrus flowers and peppery salads.

Even between farms he’d spot something growing in the hedgerow that he wanted us to get a flavour of.


The last site Sean took us to was a field full of kale and white & purple sprouting broccoli – on top of a rolling hill, with a beautiful view of the ocean. Sean points out his home on a similar hill in the distance. Not a bad place to work and live! We're really looking forward to using Sean's amazing produce in our menu, and going back to visit him again soon.

A Trip South West: Poco + The Bristol Pound

A few weeks ago, Good Egg founder Joel and chef Alex went on a little trip down to the South West to meet some of our new suppliers, and stop in at places we'd be meaning to visit on the way. This is their diary.

Joel and I packed up the old VW Camper with a couple of changes of clothes, two friends, and Baxter the dog.

All set for the first Good Egg supplier trip of the spring. With 2 days full of appointments across the South West, we decided to get a head start, set off in the evening and spend the first night in Bristol.  First stop Poco, The Observer’s ethical restaurant of the Year 2014. They hold a 3 star Sustainable Restaurant Award, something we'd love to work towards. One of the Poco founders, Jen, has already told us all about the great work the SRA do and how Poco are implementing sustainable ideas into every part of their work. We were intrigued to see how a 3 star restaurant of this standard operated – and the menu looked great. The old VW Camper made it down to Bristol in good time and we hit Poco right in the middle of dinner service.

 The place was buzzing. We took Jen’s recommendation on what to order from the seasonal menu, drawn out on large black boards at the far end of the restaurant. Everything was delicious - my highlight was the deep fried mussels and the kimchi. Their April menu is now up online and they’ve been substituted for deep fried Oysters (which sound even better). At the end of the night we noticed a chef weighing the waste from the evening’s service on a fishhook. There was practically nothing in the bag. Poco was impressive on every level. Almost all of their waste is recycled, composted or reused somehow. I can't wait for the day we can string up a waste bag that small after such a busy service. An old friend joined us for dinner – Bristolian Michael Loydd-Jones. He’s part of the team that set up the Bristol Pound, a local currency encouraging local trade. Mikey is a great source of knowledge when it comes to sustainable economics. He gave me a copy of Felicity Lawrence’s book ‘Not on the Label’ which is all about where food comes from and production methods – if that's your thing, I’d really recommend it. 

Magic Breakfast

For a while now, we've been a partner to the lovely Magic Breakfast. They're a charity and they work to get nutritious breakfasts served up to kids in schools where more than 35% are on free meals. 1 in 4 of these guys are going into school hungry - or having eaten something like sweeties - which as you can imagine is a hard way to start a working day. 

We do workshops, cook alongs for children and parents - just trying to get everyone thinking about what a healthy breakfast might be, and how to make one cheaply and easily. A few weeks ago we did an assembly with the juniors of Mandeville School in E5. We had chat about what their favourite celebs have for breakfast (who knew Barack Obama was a muesli man?) followed by a cook-off style Omelette Challenge, between teachers, which the kids loved.

As well as this we're trying out coffee mornings with parents - our last we cooked up a Shakshuka demo, for fun, and got everyone to share ideas (and educate us!) about recipes that are affordable, but also that children will actually be keen to eat. 

So far we've worked with Mandeville and Princess May School - with plans to visit other schools in Stoke Newington and Hackney very soon.

It's definitely a learning process for us too as we work out what gets kids most involved. The team at social enterprise Year Here are helping us come up with an impact plan - a strategy to help us offer long term support and visits to quite a few schools. We'll keep you updated!

Appetizing

"An appetizing store has the mingling odors of salt, smoke, pickle and sweet," says Federman, who ran Russ and Daughters from 1978 until he retired three years ago. "So, all of that coming together makes for a unique sensory experience."

Joel Rose, writing for The Salt, tells the story of Russ and Daughters, an appetizing store on New York's Lower East Side. We love how this family-run delicatessen has become a world famous institution. They opened on the Lower East Side in 1914, and specialise in smoked fish and bagels of the highest quality.

Meal with a View

We’ve been working with Jack Graham to develop the curriculum for our School Breakfast Programme. His programme, Year Here, gets young grads to work in frontline jobs - homelessness shelters, care homes - and design solutions to social issues. This year they’re living and working in Poplar, one of London’s most deprived areas – and they invited us to cook up a kick-off dinner in Poplar’s brutalist Balfron tower.

We made roasted Jerusalem artichoke soup, Scottish coley roasted in the bag with Za’atar, fennel, olives and tomatoes – served up with Persian rice, and roasted whole cauliflower with tahini.  After that English Apple and pear crumble, with homemade vanilla custard.

The view up there was something special. 

 

On Stokey

"The Stoke Newington of the present era is a bright and animated, yet in parts restful place." The Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington official guide, 1928.

Stoke Newington Church Street is where we began our search over a year ago, and I couldn’t imagine opening anywhere else. We’ve been spending afternoons in Hackney Archives, digging out old maps of the area, and drainage plans (a precursor to planning permission). We asked @historyofstokey about the site - a post from him coming soon. 

We also found out Alan Denney has been photographing the area since the Seventies. The building next door to our site used to be Recorder House, the headquarters of the North London Recorder publication, with its beautiful handmade sign.