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Kirkby Lonsdale - Dales Butchers

Posted by Unknown Sunday, March 9, 2014 0 comments

Dales Butchers is a good old-fashioned (and that's a compliment), traditional butchers in the lovely town of Kirkby Lonsdale.

Inside the shop:

there's everything you could want from a butcher, from prime cuts to tasty offal:

and traditional items like home-made haslet:

They sell Reg Johnson's free-range chickens from Goosnargh:

and some amazing sausages, including their traditional Cumberland and their award winning pork, duck, orange and cointreau sausage.

But the most memorable thing for me is their pies. Butchers normally get the meat right, but sometimes the pastry wrong (and visa versa for bakers). Here both the pastry and the meat are spot on, and the pies have a generous filling:

They also do very good pork pies, with unusual varieties like thse pork and damson pies:

My favourite was their pork pie with Mr Vikki's chilli jam:

It starts nice and mild, then there's a chilli kick in the middle (a kick but not excessively hot) and it then calms down, as you reach the other side. It's perfection in a pie!

Dales Butchers
2 Market Street
Kirkby Lonsdale
LA6 2AU

Tel: 015242 71278

Web: www.dalesbutchers.co.uk

Northwich - Chris Webb

Posted by Unknown Monday, November 18, 2013 0 comments

I've started this post with a picture of Chris Webb's excellent dry, home-cured treacle bacon. It's one of the best butchers I've ever been to (and I've been to some excellent ones).

Above this Witton Street shop (the business was established in 1929):

a sign says "Maintain thine honour and extend thy fame"!

People come from quite a distance to this traditional butchers.

It's a shop that will sell you cuts like shin beef and feather steak

which are cheaper than cuts you see in other butchers, and very tasty if you cook them right. They do of course sell all the more common cuts as well.

Webb's tomato sausages are very popular:

and we love their home-cured treacle bacon:

The shop is split in half, and next door you can buy their equally famous pies and pasties:

There's Webb's own Jubilee Pork Pie:

and we're rather partial to their lamb and mint pies:

There's also bread from Harrisons Quality Bakers. which would be great with their home-made potted beef:

C Webb & Sons
56 - 58 Witton Street
Northwich
Cheshire
CW9 5AE

Tel: 01606 42470

Melton Mowbray - Farm Shop at the Grange

Posted by Unknown Friday, October 4, 2013 0 comments

I've started this post with a picture of a Wild Beaver Pie! I've carefully positioned a bottle of Beaver beer next to it (just in case you thought I'd started eating semi-aquatic rodents)!

The Farm Shop at the Grange, is a great place for pie lovers, as they sell the full range of Brocklebys Pies, which are made next door to the shop.

The shop used to be run by Brocklebys but, as that business has expanded, the shop is now run by Stacey and Paul. It's a nice shop which aims to sell high quality local foods wherever possible. There's bread from the fantastic Hambleton Bakery, who won Britain's Best Bakery:

(I'm hoping to do a post about the fabulous Hambleton Bakery soon).

The shop sells beef from Holme Farm, Rampton, and Lincolnshire pork and Derbyshire lamb:

Their corn fed free range chickens have a lovely colour (and a better taste):

There's also free range chicken in some of the pies, which have travelled food yards to get here!

Some other pies of note include the wild deer pie (made with wild vension stewed in a red wine sauce) and Brockleby's beef and ale pie (which won an award for being best in the UK at the British Pie Awards last year):

To go with your pie you can buy beers from the Belvoir Brewery (7 miles up the road) - like Melton Red, or try their Blue Brew (made with Stilton whey!) as well as the Beaver Ale.

We're less than 2 miles from Melton Mowbray, and Brockleby's are one of only ten producers who make the proper traditional Melton Mowbray Pork Pie. The shop also sells cranberry topped or Stilton topped pork pies:

but being a traditionalist, I went for one of their Melton Mowbray pies, which are made with free-range rare breed pork and made with organic Leicestershire flour in the pastry:

I keep mentioning Stilton cheese, here they sell Webster's Stilton, which is made just 3 miles away in Saxelbye:

and they also sell Cropwell Bishop Stilton. Other cheeses sold include Lincolnshire Poacher cheese and Sparkenhoe Red Leicester.

I really like this shop, they've got strong links with their suppliers and sell top quality local produce. If you want to make it into a day out, it's next door to the Grange Garden Centre and the Alpine Restaurant and Bar.

Farm Shop at the Grange
The Grange Garden Centre
Melton Road
Asfordby Hill
Melton Mowbray
LE14 3QU

Tel: 01664 810310

Web: www.thegrangefarmshop.co.uk

Essington Fruit Farm

Posted by Unknown Saturday, June 30, 2012 0 comments

I knew Essington Fruit Farm was going to be a good place to visit before I'd even arrived. Last year they won first prize for Tea Room of the Year, NFU Local Food Champion Award, Producer of the Year and Retailer of the Year in the Taste of Staffordshire awards and they were the winner in the Local Food Farmer of the Year award, run by Farmers Weekly. This year they've already won the Own & Local Award from FARMA (The National Farmers’ Retail and Markets’ Association).

It's a family owned business run by Richard and Mary Simkin and their son Will. They talk about food yards here and not food miles!

I always approve of shops that give free samples:

While I was there pies just kept arriving from their bakery and they all tasted great!

They breed their own free range pork and pedigree Hereford beef, and have a good butchery counter:

There's an attractive deli counter:

where they sell sell cooked ham and pork and items like brisket and chawl:

Try their home-made corned beef, it's quite different to the stuff out of tins from Brazil.

They sell their own pork pies:

and I liked how they also did chicken balti pies

and chicken tikka pies!

Their farm grows 35 horticultural crops, like these cabbages:

and they have 10 different varieties of strawberry:

There's also a café and a plant nursery, with a good selection of grow your own vegetables:

and 50 acres of pick your own with around 30 different crops

It's no wonder that 99% of the customers in this busy shop are regulars!

Essington Fruit Farm
Bognop Road
Essington
Wolverhampton
WV11 2AZ

Tel: 01902 735724

Web: www.essingtonfarm.co.uk

Ripon

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, June 12, 2012 0 comments

Ripon is a delightful small cathedral city, with a fine market square. The fine obelisk that dominates the square was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Every Thursday there's a market here (I've been told there's a good baker here).

A farmers' market takes place on the third Sunday of every month, look out for Garth Cottage Nursery who specialise in growing herbs.

They still have a Hornblower, who maintains a 1,000 year old tradition of setting the night watch:

(thanks to Phil Catterall for the use of this image).

Also in the market place are T Appleton & Son butchers. I've heard very good reports of their pork pies, but sadly they weren't open when I called (I'll have to go back).

T Appleton & Son
6 Market Place East
Ripon
North Yorkshire
HG4 1BP

Tel: 01765 603198

Web: www.appletonsbutchers.co.uk

Ditton Priors - Reg May and Son

Posted by Unknown Monday, January 2, 2012 0 comments

I expect the majority of my readers won't even know where Ditton Priors is? If you've ever been to a fine food shop in Shropshire and bought a pork pie, there's a good chance you may have tried one made in this shop:

Reg May and Son is a traditional family butchers in the heart of Shropshire's farming community, so the customers expect good meat.

Inside the shop there's the usual range of home made sausages etc.:

and if you want a joint:

Reg, or his son Nick, will cut one to order to give you exactly what you want. But it's the pies that they particularly excel at. There's quiches and steak pies etc. and one of the nicest pork pies I've ever tasted (and I've tried a few):

What could be nicer than a glass of dry, slightly chilled, farmhouse cider and and this pork pie?

If you can't get to Ditton Priors, they sell these pork pies in A J Pugh in Bishops Castle, the Crusty Cob in Cleobury Mortimer, Andrew Francis butchers in Ludlow, Mad Jack's Deli in Shrewsbury and other fine food shops in the area.

Reg May and Son
South Road
Ditton Priors
Bridgnorth
Shropshire
WV16 6SJ

Tel: 01748 712628