For many, many years we have been asked if we sell honey and I’ve always had to disappoint our customers.  But finally - hurrah - we have found a source of gorgeous local honey.  The hives, almost 300 of them, are based around the south Cotswold area and down as far as the Severn vale.  The nectar comes from a large variety of blossoms, depending on season, including hawthorne, dandelion, fruit blossom, lime, clover, sycamore and horse chestnut.  The resulting honey is delicate and floral, and I for one, spoon it most mornings on to my porridge.  Cotswold Blossom Honey is available through many of our stockists and through our online shop.

With summer approaching (we live in hope!) we have other new products to whet your appetites.  Dill Mustard Sauce is great with smoked or poached salmon, trout and mackerel, Smokey Barbeque Sauce and Sticky Barbeque Sauce are the first in what we hope will become a range of barbeque accompaniments.  Smokey is fantastic with all kinds of barbequed and grilled meats and vegetables and Sticky works as a terrific glaze or marinade for spare ribs and chicken.

We were pleased and rather taken by surprise, to  hear that the short film on our website  won Stroud Community TV’s Best Local Business Film award.  The film, made by Tim Pellatt from production company Cordial AV was made last year to introduce us as finalists at the Taste of Gloucestershire Food and Farming Awards.  The judges described the film as ‘engaging and informative from the start, great use of cutaways … short, sweet and to the point’  Tim said his approach is ‘always to understand the ethics and ethos of the company rather than to blindly promote.  Kitchen Garden Foods represents an extension to MD Barbara Moinet’s own principles and this comes across in the interview.’

Couldn’t resist sharing this with everyone.  This is a ‘trifle’ of sorts inspired by my daughter Lucy, which uses our Three Fruit Marmalade in the topping.   I tried it out on customers at the Wholefoods Market in Cheltenham yesterday and it went down a storm, with many people saying they’d rather have this than Christmas pudding.  You could also use another fine cut marmalade such as Kitchen Garden Fine Cut Grapefruit Marmalade

700g panettone (this is the weight of an average large panettone)

250g mascarpone cheese

500ml crème fraiche

100ml brandy

Juice of 7 large clementines, 4 oranges or aprox 200ml of bottled orange juice

227g of Kitchen Garden Three Fruit Marmalade

Crumble the panettone into a large serving bowl and pour over the brandy and fruit juice.  At this point it is a good idea to push the panettone down gently into the bowl to allow the liquid to soak in more effectively.  Mix together the crème fraiche, mascarpone and Kitchen Garden Three Fruit Marmalade and spoon on to the top of the panettone and smooth the top.  Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 24 hours to allow the flavours to develop.

Chutney is not just for Christmas …. but it’s a good time of year to indulge a little and here are a few of our festive suggestions

• Christmas Chutney (of course!) with cold turkey, ham or beef
• Apricot Chutney as an essential ingredient in Coronation Turkey
• Piccalilli is perfect with pork pies and cheeses
• Fig & Plum Relish with cheese flans and tarts for party nibbles
• Red Onion Marmalade to serve with cocktail sausages

A Happy Christmas  to all our customers from the Kitchen Garden team.

The success of our lovely lime green gift boxes encouraged us to broaden the range, and we have just launched a gorgeous cherry red box featuring the following combos:

Ginger Selection – Lemon & Ginger Marmalade with Pear & Ginger Jam

Boozy Marmalade Selection – Lemon & Whisky Marmalade with Orange & Brandy Marmalade

Speciality Jam Selection – Cherry & Amaretto Jam with Apricot & Almond Jam

Organic Selection – Organic Seville Orange Marmalade with Organic Three Fruit Marmalade

Available from selected stockists or through our Online Shop

To celebrate Great British Beef Week, 23rd – 30th April, the fabulously named ‘Ladies in Beef’ have come up with some great recipes to encourage us all to enjoy that most iconic of British meats.  Many of our farm shop customers, some of whom rear their own beef cattle, are taking part in the week’s promotions, Old Farm at Dorn and Foxbury Farm Shop to name a couple.

I have also devised a simple recipe to incorporate our newly launched Red Pepper and Chilli Relish in a beefburger.

Ingredients

500g minced British beef, one onion (finely chopped), a slice of few days old bread (crusts removed, soaked in a little milk to soften), one egg, 2 tablespoons of Kitchen Garden Red Pepper and Chilli Relish, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley, seasoned flour.

 Method

Mix all ingredients together – best done by mixing with your hands – messy but very effective! Shape the burgers and coat lightly with seasoned flour. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and fry for about five minutes on each side, being careful to avoid burning them, and making sure that the middle is completely cooked.

These can also be cooked in the oven or on a barbeque.

 This is a very versatile recipe which can also be used to make a meat loaf. Put the beef mixture into a greased loaf tin, cook in a medium oven for around 30-40 minutes, slice and serve hot or cold.  The Red Pepper and Chilli Relish can also be substituted with other Kitchen Garden products – try Horseradish Sauce or any of our mustards (one tablespoon would probably be enough), and Organic Tomato Chutney would also work well.