Not everything that tastes fantastic looks fabulous.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wrote a great piece, intended to compliment another of his insightful food investigation programmes, for the BBC recently. It was unequivocally about food waste. The waste caused domestically was examined but one of the other main themes was about perfectly good vegetables that go straight from farm to skip! Why? They aren’t pretty enough for the supermarkets root vegetable fashion parade and ever present size and shape guidelines. Interestingly echoing the same point we made out in why the Forest of Dean & Wye Valley is a bit like Tuscany piece.
We spent a great morning, albeit an early start on a misty October dawn, in Monmouthshire with Apple County Cider inspecting and photographing the individual apples for their single variety Dabinett and Vilberie award winning ciders – and they have the Golden Fork Great Taste trophy to prove it!
Apple varieties. Apple County Cider
If you have ever been to a craft cider producers you will know that any preconceived romantic notions of wooden barrels, rickety small outbuildings and ancient machinery are , well just romantic. More likely is a somewhat more workaday air – which incidentally, we here at WyeDean Deli Confidential are hopelessly romantic about anyway. The raw materials don’t get much better in the fashion stakes either. Cider making varieties, taste sharp and sometimes very dry (Dabinett has a dessert apple flavour at first with a very dry note on the back of the palate) and they look anything but appealing. They are small, perfectly formed – but small, and the cider maker doesn’t care much for how they look – scabby, with chunks missing is just fine. Piled up in the cider yard they look for all the world like a Waitrose sound stage back lot of the extras that didn’t quite get the Director’s nod. We watched them getting their first wash of the process from the elevated water contents of a large mechanical digger bucket from about ten feet high. It made them glisten but they still looked about as far away from a dessert apple as you can get.
But the skilled cider maker, as Ben Culpin has already proved himself (against stiff national competition) to be, can see the whole Act and Play and not just Scene 1. Ben is interested in the backstory and the bitter-sweet sub-plots, essential if you are intending to make a block-buster with appeal and longevity rather than a B movie. It’s the complex taste and personality, not the look, that is in demand. It’s a bit like, instead of casting Hale Berry in the female lead you choose ______________, sorry we bottled offending anyone – so insert your own suggestions in the space provided!
Ben Culpin. Apple County Cider
Tell you what Ben, don’t go for the easy option of using any apples you can get and then blending. Why not try and make stunning single variety ciders and a perry in a traditional method and then trying wowing the public and cider glitterati and winning national awards for your work? Oh, you did that already! Anyway, there is the crux of it. It’s all about the taste. In Ben’s and Steph Culpins’ case, the quality of the taste of the craft product they are happy to call Apple County Cider.
Apple varieties. Apple County Cider
It is sometimes frustrating (identifying cider apples can be a very nuanced hobby!) but always very rewarding to see the varieties in the growers orchard. The difficulty of identification can be easily demonstrated by “Googling” images for any apple variety and trying to work which, of the half dozen different results, is the right one! WyeDean Deli Confidential always brings you the news and back story to makers, growers and suppliers. Although we can’t say too much, we think that there may be news in the not too distant future of a possible new variety from the Apple County Cider yard……Exclusive alert!! You didn’t hear it from us but we think that a single variety Yarlington Mill cider will soon be added to the Apple County stable. If you do, and we recommend you do, visit their cider shop you’ll find all the same great taste in farmyard chic but always remember it’s really about the taste. Stock up for the holidays.
As well as being editor, chief photographer and head washer-upper at WyeDean Deli Confidential I also, amongst other things, shoot travel pictures for an agency with offices around the world. Of course a significant part of capturing the spirit of any place is the local quality food and drink and the people that go with that. Markets particularly, so long neglected in England, seem to attract me like a moth to a bedroom light. So, having spent most of September in three regions (equivalent of UK counties) of Italy, I am feeling particularly spoilt! I know, it’s tough isn’t it â please donât, sympathy isn’t good for my self-esteem…..
Call it the vino rosso, the sunshine or the total immersion in the language of love, but a very funny feeling struck me during that trip on more than one occasion – How similar to the countryside of Tuscany, Italy is the Forest of Dean & Wye Valley. OK, I know that the similarities do have some limitations but before you write me off as a hopeless romantic or a raging drunkard, let me try and convince you.
The hills around Bagni di Lucca and Seravezza are heavily wooded with broad leaved trees, most of which, Beech, Oak, Ash, Chestnut,  would be easily recognisable to any DeanWye inhabitant, Although steeper that anything here, the mountains are home to and have a long history in, quarrying â marble in their case. The people are either typically conservative country people of those who have moved into the area because they too want to become âtypical country peopleâ. There is a real sense of community and local pride in the small towns and tiny villages. The countryside around the villages is teeming with natures larder. Then thereâs the weatherâŠ.sorry, itâs all too easy to get carried away with these comparisons. Apart from the last example, the parallel to the DeanWye is, in my estimation, very difficult to deny.
Italy 2015
But, somehow they are very different. Firstly, September is the busiest time of year in the Italian wild mushroom season. Wild mushrooms are very important to Italians. No not the farmed ones; the wild ones. Chefs and restaurant owners all have their own mushroom men – fungaioli. Men who venture into the woods, on dark damp dusks and dawns to secret spots and locations whispered to them by their fathers father. They tend to be students of the natural world and lifelong woodsmen. Mushroom season is a prelude to Chestnut season which gets equal billing with the Italian countryside residents and, well, I think you get the picture. Much, much more on fungi later. Here, I’m not to sure many normal people even think about seasonal wild foods with any passion at all – why is that?
Ceps
This natural food of the forest, like all other wild foods, is noble food in the Italian psyche. Itâs tied up in the peasant and wartime partisan lifestyle ethos of eking a living from the land in the absence of anything else. But that ethos isnât something that is obvious or even expressed. It is the taste and the earthy, nutty smell of the product which confers the nobility. On one lazy Sunday lunch sitting outside in the shade, I ordered Tagliatelle al Tartufo (black truffles) and I could smell my lunch as soon as it passed the kitchen door â heaven! Â Itâs the sense of occasion that stems from the seasonality, passing of the seasons and the transition of one part of the year to another. Itâs in the occasion that everyone can be involved in and enjoy. Itâs in the added luxuriousness it brings to the already very simple, tasty and fabulous Italian food. And of course, this being Italy â itâs time for a festival on the subject where locals and visitors alike have the day off, drink a little wine and and eat very well indeed!
Bread served in a paper bag
Forget the UK as a whole. Ask yourself why donât we in the Forest of Dean & Wye Valley prize this wild local crop as highly? Why donât we value the fabulous venison, boar and game? Why donât we all go mad for the hedgerow berry bonanza? And why donât we go wild foraging for wild salads and herbs? All of it is right there! Itâs what makes our area so special and yet we lack the passion for it. Perhaps itâs because we have lost connection with the land itself, the growing of and the variety of food, unaffected by chemicals, drugs and fertilizers. Then ask yourself this; if we have in fact lost that wondrous adventure of first finding our food, or some part of a meal, before we eat it in favour of what we like to call convenience â is that convenient trade-off to our quality of life really worth it?
We stayed in Bagni di Lucca as a guest of Tuscan Rooms a remarkably beautiful four storey town house and former soda syphon factory in a  previous life. The fully restored accommodation, complete with a real lift (extremely rare in Italian villages), vertiginous garden terrace and original four flights of marble staircase is ideally situated to explore the region. Right beside the river and in the heart of the lower town and distance walking to a great bar, a pasticceria and several restaurants, guests can rent a room, a floor or the whole shebang. Paul and Colette, the owners, will even pick you up from the airport by arrangement. If you would like to see some of the images from that trip visit my Travel gallery on Facebook
Italy 2015
More mushroom-iness
If you regularly slip on obvious wet patches in the office lobby, donât secure your ladders properly, donât wear your seat belt or are constantly scolding your hands under the tap marked hot â this warning health is for YOU!
Some mushrooms are edible, delicious and good for you. Some are not. Some, no one knows if they are edible or not. Some need specific cooking preparation before eating and some can only be eaten in small quantities or the toxins build up in your body. IF, you have no idea which type of mushroom you have picked â donât eat it. IF the jury is still out on which type of mushroom you have picked â donât eat it. IF, you nevertheless go ahead and eat it anyway â please leave some of the raw ingredient in a convenient and obvious place for the para-medics to find or, as one eccentric mycologist did, write the scientific name in full on your hand in biro in the last remaining seconds before becoming comatose.
Fungaioli, skilled Italian mushroom hunters, gather mushrooms because they happen to know all about the habitat, natural and social history of a species from a collective experience of people like themselves. They tend not to be transient fungi hunters in it for the money between recorded episodes of âThe Only Way is Essexâ.
Wild mushrooms Italy 2015
Fungaioli are also very savvy Fungus Sales Executives. They often deliver their treasure trove of truffley goodness in an attractive open topped wooden fruit box when the restaurant is open and full of customers just to ramp up the anticipation of the food obsessed Italians. Restaurant owners love this as itâs more likely that customers will return to THEIR restaurant for their autumnal fungus fix having seen the overflowing mushroom box come through the front door! Porcino (piglets in Italian) are the favourites amongst Italian chefs and restaurant customers alike. We know them by the common name of Cep but in fact, they are from a group more properly referred to as Boletus. With around 36 different Boletus in the British fungus list alone, most of which are edible, you start to see the sheer variety available and we havenât even started on the Ink caps or the newly emerging Parasols!
Chicken of the Woods Sulphur Polypore
In the current Tesco magazine a passionate and no doubt very nice Managing Director of somewhere or other, reports delivering 5 tons of three varieties (one of them native to Asia) to Tesco of mushrooms a week â three varieties! In the Dean Wye we have another giant flavour of the wild mushroom world â Chanterelle â a soft egg yellow funnel shaped mushroom with an exquisite taste. In spring Morels with their honeycomb heads, grow under our apple tree! Another spring fruiting mushroom is Chicken of the Woods, delicious when young and fresh. The Germans and the Dutch love them! Parasols, mentioned earlier, are delicious and gloriously paper-white when cut, if picked very early. The text books will tell you that, although not poisonous, they can be very bitter once opened.
Morel
With a gay spirit of adventure I decided to test that assertion of bitterness and sliced one of the open caps (they are so large â small kids use them as parasols hence the name) before frying them in a little butter, I added parsley and a little black pepper just before serving and tried them. They looked fabulous but the text books are accurate and I pulled a muscle in my contorting face trying to get them out of my mouth as soon as possible.
Even if you can identify a specimen, the common names donât always instil confidence. Take for example, Trombette dei Morti (Trumpets of the dead). This mushroom apes the shape of a black trumpet but its Halloweenesque name actually arose because it grows around the 2nd November, All Soulsâ Day. Itâs other common name of Truffles of the Poor hints at its widespread use once dried and powdered as a food additive because of its intense aroma.
If you are interested in learning more about mushrooms we can recommend the book Mushrooms by Roger Phillips. It has very helpful with, sometimes life-sized, images of each mushroom together with a useful information panel and notes on edibility.
As an update to our blog of 18th August about the, then upcoming, Food and Beer Pairing event hosted by Harts Barn Cookery School and Hillside Brewery we caught up with Paul Williamson and Yvette Farrell to see how it all went.
Paul; the evening was a great success, with lovely feedback from our 40 visitors. The atmosphere was great too, very lively with great food and beer, with a fun interactive pub quiz based on beer throughout the evening.  Derek Orford, Master Brewer & Beer Sommelier, kept everyone entertained and informed with his wisdom and deep knowledge discussing the beer and food pairing. The food of course, (menu and food created by the talented Yvette Farrell) was a complete hit! Check out the menu in our previous blog post Food & Drink Pairing
Unashamed plug time
Paul says; Hillside is an exciting brewery running green sustainable brewing methods with a wide range of beer & craft ales. Itâs a family owned and run company, based in the Forest of Dean on a stunning 40 acre farm. We opened in May 2014 and have since received over 16 awards. We offer Brewery tours & tasting, team building days including additional fun activities, cookery classes and more! We also have an onsite shop selling our beers, merchandise, and local produce such as wine and chutneys and even beer ice cream! We are the perfect location for the perfect day out! We pride ourselves in producing high quality ales in small batches of the finest ingredients using traditional methods which have been developed and mastered over a lifetime. We want to change people’s perception of beer and what can be achieved. We are dedicated to sustainable brewing and we want to share our passion for great beer with you. Yvette;Harts Barn Cookery School launched in 2011 and have gone from strength to strength. We believe in the âsocialisationâ of food, bringing people together whether they are learning a new skill in the kitchen to sitting down and enjoying the fruits of their labours. Most of all though, we believe in the food, the freshness, the quality, the flavours, the localism and above all, great ingredients cooked simply to produce the finest plate from the Forest & Wye.
Upcoming Events for food and beer lovers.
Check out both websites for full events listings this autumn and winter.
Have a beer and warm your cockles by the fire – Hillside bonfire night on Friday 6th
November, Christmas Market 5th and 6th December and a Christmas carol service on Friday 18th December.
Harts Barn have published their Supper Club schedule with âIndian and the 80âsâ on 30th October, âAsian Flavoursâ on 27th November, Traditional Christmas Supper â several dates and a homage to the apple at their Wassail on 15th January 2016.
Ben and Steph Culpin over at Apple County Cider have been working really hard to consolidate the Whitehouse Farm brand of traditionally made cider. And their latest addition to the range is a beautiful single variety Perry. The award winner cider maker, Ben Culpin, is on a mission to put Monmouthshire back on the cider making map as one of the top apple counties. And he’s not doing too badly already! Ben and Steph have previously scooped the “silverware” at the Welsh Cider and Perry Championships. And now their Vilberie dry cider beat off 10,000 entries to be named as one of Britain’s Top 50 Foods in the Great Taste 2015 awards. Apple County success in these awards, run as a blind tasting by some of the food industry’s most sensitive palates puts them in with a chance of winning the Great Taste Golden Fork award to be announced on 7th September.
Apple County Cider from Monmouthshire.
We’ll be running an in depth feature on Apple County later in the year but for now, Ben and Steph welcome visitors to the farm in the picturesque village of Skenfrith situated in the beautiful county of Monmouthshire. Or you can buy cider from them online. Just visit the website for more details.
Two of the most enjoyable meals I have ever had have been tasting menus where the accompanying drinks were skilfully and expertly selected specifically for me course by course.
Start with a great and characterful menu of interesting ingredients and then pair your chosen tipple to the specific flavours, acidity, sweetness and aromas of the food â Genius! Many of you may have had similar experiences but it doesnât just have to be about wine. Lots of great, and sometimes surprising, combinations work and appeal to the palate enhancing the flavours of the food and the accompanying drink. The skill is in the pairing. Occasionally this happens by accident (see our Ice wine and pizza article) but itâs much more successfully achieved by experts! Those clever local food people at Harts Barn and ace beer brewers at Hillside have teamed up to prove it to you in a fab event coming in September.
Too often in this country what we eat and drink is often dictated by our perceptions that something is more acceptable or more sophisticated than something else. We want to be seen by others to have good taste and to understand the finer things. For a long time this meant wine, and specifically French wine and the majority of British people, feeling they lacked sufficient knowledge on the subject, used price as an indicator of quality and sophistication. Then a few Australianâs smashed in the door at “Le Bistro” and proved the complete nonsense of that with big bold flavours in deep gorgeous reds that wouldn’t break the bank. Take another example and look back fifteen years to the lowly reputation of the Spanish classic – Rioja, and then take a look at the supermarket prices of today.
The point is times change and things move on. And this is what is happening in the beer and cider marketplace. The dominance of the big factories, like a medieval castle before gunpowder, canât be easily or quickly overturned but it can be undermined, chipped away at and laid siege too. In the UK and across Europe, notably in Italy, people are making great craft beer again in ever growing numbers. Our new perceptions are that craft beer it is cool, tasty and sophisticated. Trendy young men and women in designer suits in shiny, busy London bars choose craft beer from around the UK as their wind-down Friday drink of choice whilst chatting about â well who knows what. Thereâs not a beard or a pullover in site! Although in fairness full beards are very much in fashion so weâll withdraw that.
The timing is perfect for beer to come out of the shadows in the UK and step toward the front of stage where it belongs. In the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley we are ahead of that curve, weâre in the vanguard and the reason shouldnât come as a surprise to anyone â we have great natural ingredients and we use them simply but superbly in keeping with our unashamedly rural and no nonsense approach, âerm, a bit like Provence in fact if you are feeling the need for a sophisticated interlude from yesteryear!
And so, in the spirit of all of this Yvette Farrell from Harts Barn will be on the hobs and larder whilst the ever likeable Derek, master beer sommelier from Hillside, has been drawing beer from the impressive May Hill cellar to bring you an evening of fun and learning where the food is paired to the beer – just as it should be.
We were lucky enough to be invited to the launch of several new Hillside Brewery products last night! And what a very nice evening it was. Paul Williamson introduced three new products from his ever popular and ever growing brewery on the hill at Longhope, Gloucestershire.
Proof that Paul has Hillside Brewery written right through him.
Firstly we had the new HCL craft lager â thatâs right lager – (4.3% ABV), served only slightly chilled so that all of the fabulous fruit aromas could come through. Next up, The Forest Falcon (4.6% ABV), a lovely golden ale with hints of spice and cherries. And, finally we had the introduction of Hillsides first foray into cider making with the HR8 & GL17 Â (6.4% ABV), a traditional cloudy farmhouse cider with a tangy, dry sharpness made from 100% apples â a real treat and one to watch for sure.
As Paul gave a presentation on the new products and chatted informally about them, family and staff from the brewery made sure that everyoneâs glasses were charged to accompany the tasting notes. Here then, was a masterclass for the assembled beer aficionadoâs in the production of craft ales (and now cider) from the beer geniuses up on the hill.
Tasting and nibbles in the run up to presentations.
Also on hand to add even more interest to this very educational event was Mark Andrews from Charles Faram, hop factors, growers and merchants. Mark followed a short presentation with a lively Q&A session particularly on the new world beating experimental hops in development at the Herefordshire Farm. The Forest Falcon is the very first beer to use these hops in a commercial product!!
Lively and informal Q&A session.
Paul Williamson finished the presentations with a quick recap of the last year at the Gloucestershire brewery (Hillside recently turned 1) before teasing the audience with the plans for the next 12 months. Plans, which included a home brewing completion where the winner will get to brew their winning recipe at Hillside! Paul and his team have already been tipped as one of the countryâs top 4 new breweries to watch by a leading beer writer and this evening did nothing to dent our confidence that this is a craft producer going places.
But enough with education; Paul finished with the, all important and oft neglected, health benefits of beer drinking (in moderation) before the bread and cheese and a few more beer and cider tastings. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Tuesday evening.
Relaxed atmosphere in the barn.
If you, or anyone you know, have been affected by reading this article and being missed off the invitation list for this launch event, make sure that you follow Paul and his endeavours via the web and their social media and I’m sure in return, you’ll get invited to the next oneâŠ..
We aren’t experts! Let’s get that cleared up straight away, but, and this is just our opinion, there are several key elements to running a cheese shop! First, one needs a shop and some cheese â self evidently and preferably, it should be very good cheese. Next, one needs a person – but not just any person! A person who truly knows about cheese (not gained from an in-house training course or gleaned via product notes) , but whose passion  about cheese … well … over flows. There is a type of knowledge you only get when you hit the buffers and realise that you donât know something. This spurs you on to investigate and to research and learn, as well as appreciate and test. This type of enlightenment is what we like to call âbicycle knowledgeâ. Bicycle knowledge, once obtained, never leaves you, it never grows old or out of date, itâs even immune from the cruel ravages of ages. Like great cheese itself, this knowledge matures.
Bankers in general, or anyone who âworked in the cityâ, often get a bad press. Gordon, Fred and the crew have a lot to answer for Iâm sure! But that in no way speaks about the men and women, like you and I, whose occupation happened to be in the biggest and best financial centre in the world. However, there comes a time though when people want more.
How do you get âmoreâ? – thatâs the tough one.
Not for Tom Lewis, he just followed his dream and passion to one day own a deli. And now he does â The Marches Delicatessen – and itâs a very fine deli indeed, in a Welsh country town that really needs one.
The Marches Delicatessen window, Abergavenny.
“Having spent 6 years in London I was ready to come back to Wales. I was not really enjoying the job I was doing and lacked the drive to push on. I grew up near here and had been looking at opening my own delicatessen. An opportunity presented itself to move to Abergavenny – so I quit my job, moved back from London and opened The Marches”.
Our latest best friend, Tom Lewis â a very bright eyed and cheerful fella, already has some bicycle knowledge about cheese and seemingly there is nothing going to stop him from acquiring more. He is ever present in the shop and at the weekends his girlfriend and mum occasionally help out.
The obvious question of course….Why a cheese shop/deli?
“I’ve always been interested in it since childhood holidays in France. I really got into it whilst at university in Aberystwyth. There is an amazing delicatessen called Ultracomida, which first opened my eyes to some of the great Welsh produce being made. I knew I wanted to do something focusing on local produce and did not want to restrict it to Wales, so hence why I called it The Marches. I focus on produce from Wales, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire”.
Have you ever made cheese?
“Not yet, but there are plans to dabble in making some fresh cheese like ricotta or mozzarella. But having seen how much skill goes into making the cheeses we sell, I fear anything I make would turn out to be an embarrassment by comparison”.
Tom’s favourite cheese (anywhere) – “Mouldy Mabel  is a beautiful creamy blue cheese from Carmarthen & made using Jersey Cows milk or Celtic Promise, a wash rind cheese which although pungent has a that taste is much more a subtle, smooth & buttery”.
Tom on the spot time – Favourite maker and why? “Harry & Sue Ryder of Wye Valley Cheese – not only is their cheese amazing, it is very local and they were the first people I visited when I started to meet the producers. Sitting with Harry and watching him make the cheese was a real privilege”.
Tom Lewis’ The Marches Delicatessen, Abergavenny.
Whilst we were chatting we met Jane, a lovely customer of Tomâs and a regular customer and Abergavenny resident. She popped in intrigued by the âcheese of the weekâ billboard outside offering Rachel (a Somerset goats cheese by Pete Humphries). Jane told us,  âI just love this shop. When I walk in it makes me feel happy. Tom has transformed this place into somewhere you just want to walk into â itâs fantastic that someone would do this for our town. I canât really say any more than that.â Except, Jane doesn’t like goats cheese, “Itâs too strong!” – a woman whose opinion has been tainted by the plethora of goatâs cheese starters!
Very well stocked deli – The Marches Delicatessen, Abergavenny.
Tom says âI get lots of customers who decline even a tasting of anything â goaty. A bit like Jane their palates have been spoilt by mass produced goatâs cheese. It does generally have a tang to it, but some of them are very subtle indeed, not at all what you would expect. It can depend on how you are serving it or what you plan to drink with it. I’m always on hand to advise customers and let them try a littleâ
Tom stocks lots of great and tantalising deli products, but we really wanted to concentrate on the cheese today. We first met Tom, by luck, back in early December 2014 and heâd been in business for a little over 2 months (Sept 2014). Even then, despite the spartan premises, he had founded something special and had us hooked. For us it was cheese and what he was trying to do with Marches Deli. Well, it took us a few months to return – and in the meantime he seems to have worked wonders on all manner of tasty and different stock in the shop and the cheese counter was bursting with goodness!!
Blue Monk – The Marches Delicatessen, Abergavenny.
Everything looked fab, but we singled out a couple for tasting. The health and safety wallers will have you keep your cheese in the fridge , take it out, not put it down anywhere, but eat it straight from the wrapper whilst wearing gloves. But, we aren’t feeding anyone, we aren’t serving it and we absolve anyone in the council from blame – so, if itâs all the same to you, we adopted the French method of cheese management and put it on the passenger seat for the sunny drive home before leaving it out on the kitchen worktop for a few hours. We lived long enough to write this thankfully.
Wye Valley Mellow
Wye Valley Mellow, The Marches Delicatessen, Abergavenny.
The back story to this farmhouse maker is frankly incredible. The cheese lived up to the back story admirably. It has a nice thick crust that conceals a very creamy coloured, crumbly, but smooth tasting cheese which was just a delight. It has a milky cheesiness with a very pleasant slight hint of chewiness. We got the faint smell of exceedingly fresh shellfish, not fishy, just, well fresh! Itâs very creamy to taste with a lovely tangy mature after-taste on the back of the palate. Weâll take some!
Crottin Affine â France
Cute rounded individual cheeses, with a nutty soft white crust from the cave-aging process. Beneath that is a yellow waxy layer and inside a white creamy cheese with a wonderful smell of a classic French camembert. This would be perfect with a soft fruity chutney and a glass of ice wine. Is this a good time to tell you that… Â itâs actually a Goats cheese â this is the one Jane!
Our lovely friends up at Hillside Brewery are 1 year old!! And to prove it they threw a great party, “The Hillside Sausage & Ale Festival” in their spacious bar/barn/venue/dance hall â not quite sure what official name it has, but it accommodates all of the aforementioned.
Sausage Fest!
The Sausage & Ale Festival was a great success and the party goers spilled out onto the sun drenched terrace on a fabulous Saturday in the Forest of Dean. Anzac; Legend; Pinnacle and Legless Cow were all available on draft. Their other beers were all available in bottles and the fully stocked bar catered for every other taste, including âfruit based drinks for the ladiesâ â Al Murray pub landlord on wine.
With live music from the Hillside Stage throughout the day, the event started with a real party atmosphere. First up on stage was The Six Foot Way – the raucous Irish folk band from Cinderford. We also had a solo set from the lovely Lydia Borg and a couple of sets from the Ukes uv Hazzard collective. Headliners were Vapor, with the fabulously voiced Onika Patterson smoothing over some classic reggae and soul tracks, making them her own.
Vapor last played on the Hillside Stage back in February when we all felt the chill wind of living atop May Hill. Since then, the Hillside crew have been busy installing amazing see through wind screens on the open doors, which eliminate the wind without cutting down the light. And the overhead heaters (which have always been there) now work fantastically that the wind has gone making the barn a great place for parties.
The sausage part of the deal came in the form of Cameronâs Butchers traditional and chilli sausages as hot dogs with chips â just what was needed for between-beers sustenance. A great mix of locals; real ale lovers; Paulâs friends and family and visitors alike â the visitors from London and Southampton were duly awarded the furthest travellers prize. All eight of them called in on spec and stayed all night!
All in all it was a great party and the Hillside field (superb views) was given over to camping for the party goers so no-one had to drive or taxi, if they didn’t want to. Camping is something that will be on offer at selected future events so follow Hillsides Facebook page or website for details.
The Speech House Hotel is the most iconic hotel in the Forest of Dean. Situated, as it is, at the very heart of the Forest of Dean and housing the ancient home of Britainâs oldest court has made it well known, and well loved by all. Nowadays, itâs equally well known for the adjacent Speech House field, home to the Forest Activities Festival, the Forest Showcase and the grand annual Fireworks night display events to name, but a few.
In charge at the hotel, husband and wife team, Peter & Gill Hands, run a tight ship with customer satisfaction unashamedly front and centre of everything they do. And the latest big news is that Hillside Breweryâs traditional IPA style best bitter – Legless Cow â is well and truly re-homed in the Speech House bar and on draught. Â The beer, named for the healthy appreciation the cattle up at Hillside have for the spent grain from the brewing process, has already sold out the first delivery. We caught up with Peter Hands, and Paul Williamson from Hillside as he delivered the next consignment.
Peter Hands of The Speech House Hotel takes delivery of Hillside Brewery Legless Cow ale, by Paul Williamson.
The ever ebullient host Peter, who has only recently made his Twitter debut, has been having a little bit of âpunâ in the Speech House social media channel (@speechhouse) on the Legless Cow theme. He started with âThere’s a Legless Cow meandering its way to the Speech House. Watch this space for more on its journey.â On a roll and seemingly unstoppable, he waded in with âWe are looking forward 2 stabling the Legless Cow at Speech House when Paul rounds her up and drives her down. Moooch joy @Hillsidebrewery.â We hesitate to say finally, because we donât think heâs done yet, but âMooovalous this Legless Cow Beer, Prime cut hops. No udder one like it. Cheers from Speech House Barâ â we can hear echoes of – “I thank you, Iâm here all week!!”
Hillside Brewery Legless Cow. Traditional IPA style best bitter.
Peter & Gill have always been supporters of local food and drink businesses. We last chatted to Peter at the inaugural Tourism Association event See, Taste, Buy in the spring where he was chatting to local suppliers to see, taste and, where possible, source good local produce. Paul from Hillside was there, but the two were already acquainted by that time. We chatted to Peter about the latest introduction to the Speech House bar:
WyeDean Deli Confidential: âSo, Hillside Breweryâs Legless Cow on draught.â
Peter Hands: âI love Legless Cow and the name still brings a smile to my face. We love what Hillside are trying to do and weâd love to be able to say that a much larger part of our stock is sourced from the DeanWye and other local producers with low food miles.â
WyeDean Deli Confidential: âWhat are the drawbacks or the hurdles in trying to achieve that?â
Peter Hands: âTheoretically – none. But we have to offer our customers great service and great quality products in everything we do. One of the key factors on the quality issue, when it comes to local producers, as opposed to national producers,  is consistency. Customers may already know a brand from their travels or they may be coming back to us, as so many do, and they expect that the things they love are the same each and every time. Itâs a commercial decision to stock local (and one which we are happy to make), but we canât accept products which change with the weather â itâs just a guaranteed way to disappoint the customer. Thatâs why we like Hillside Brewery. We’ve been up there and met Paul and his staff and looked at the operation. We like what they do, we like the fun and the passion they bring to it and we are seriously impressed with the investment they have made to ensure that their beers are top quality â consistently!”
WyeDean Deli Confidential: âAren’t local products more expensive than big brands?”
Peter Hands: âThey donât have to be. Big brands have definitely got the muscle when it comes to pricing, but we are always looking for the best prices from our suppliers â we have to. And the real key is, yes customers expect value for money, but itâs a mistake to assume that is their only driver, our customers also want quality. Itâs also a mistake to assume that customers make those decisions in that order. In my experience quality and taste comes first every time.â
Paul Williamson: âItâs great to hear Peter pick up on the consistency issue. We’ve worked so hard on our recipes to get the quality, depth of flavour and variety into our CAMRA recognised craft ales, but making the best beer in the world is pointless if you can only ever produce one batch of it.â
So, down at Speech House, the welcome is great; the countryside is great; the hotel is great (as is the food) and the bar is well-stocked with great local beers. The jokes â wellâŠâŠâŠ.
Well the dust has well and truly settled on the inaugural Wye Valley & Forest of Dean Tourism Associationâs new food and drink event Local Produce, See, Taste, Buy. The event, originally conceived to match producers with potential  clients from within the tourism associationsâ extensive and diverse membership, was quickly turned over to a public event to coincide with English and Welsh Tourism Weeks respectively. Sited in the spacious âThe Venueâ function room on the CSMA site at Whitemead Park, exhibitors and visitors were protected against the worst the Forest spring weather might throw at anyone. In the event it turned out to be a beautiful Forest of Dean spring morning.
As the exhibitors built their stands before public opening at 10am the sights and sounds, and most of all smells of our fabulous local producers started to build and fill in the background hubbub.
Great names in beer Hillside Brewery LINK www.hillsidebrewery.com and cider Severn Cider LINK www.severncider.com were there in strength with Paul Williamson owner and head honcho from the Hillside Brewery with a broad selection of the great beers crafted up on the hill. Also showing, and tasting for the first time, their new Anzac beer brewed especially for the Gloucester Beer Festival. Nick Bull was in charge over at Severn Cider where, even though we were working hard, we had to have a small sample of their killer Severn Cider Perry.
Alongside these headline names in the now thriving local craft drinks industry, was the very tasty Apple County Cider applecountycider.co.uk with their deciderly good Dabinett and Vilberie dry and medium brands â very easy to imagine drinking those two beauties on a warm sunny evening! We also had Ty Gwyn cider, VQ Country Wines sporting their new swanky designer labels with the same great quality fruit wines still inside. Parva Farm Vineyard were there too showing a good selection of their Welsh wine from the terroir of Tintern – some great news for Judith and Colin lately in that Marks & Spencer have taken their award winning Bacchus white wine into stock. We couldnât resist a tasting stop at the amply stocked Chase Distillery stand either â hic!
Adding to the ambience were the great aromas of Jamesâ Gourmet Coffee brewing constantly in the background, Rayeesaâs Kitchen homemade curry sauce bases simmering away in the tasting pot and fabulous charcuterie cooking on the hot plate from the guys over at Native Breeds. Smarts Gloucestershire Cheeses seem to be essential to any successful food and drink event and no matter how many times youâve tasted their Gloucesterâs before, resistance is futile! Celiaâs Pantry was on hand to dispense Caribbean inspired tangy chutney flavours to go with it all.
For dessert there were two great ice cream makers were there Kelsmor Dairy and Hillbrooks Luxury Ice Cream with their own distinctive flavours â all of course available for tasting. The Chocolate Bar had a dazzling array of beautiful handmade chocolates to tempt the palate for that sumptuous finish.
The timing of the event is driven by the original concept to put producers and tourism association and other local buyers together before the busy Easter season and we think that that makes a lot of sense. A little later mind you and Whitemead would have been thronging with visitors to increase the footfall for the traders and give visitors a fantastic showcase of the produce and the ability to stock up the holiday larders for their stay and to take home.
The Venue is a great place for this event although perversely Whitemead donât actually signpost the halls location at the site entrances which makes things difficult for new conference visitors. The public parking there is also very restrictive (the design and concept of the site envisaged all of the visitor cars being parked around the site outside respective holiday lodges, caravans or tents). We spoke to Mike Carter (centre manager) who had already identified this issue as a growth limiting factor for this and other events. Heâs on the case he assures us.
Does this new event conflict with the hugely popular Forest Showcase event in the autumn fields of the Speech House Hotel www.thespeechhouse.co.uk ? Not according to John Theophilus of the Tourism Association. âWe developed this idea primarily as a trade show for producers to meet buyers from the local economy and tourism sector â and we think that it has worked extremely well! We are delighted so many members of the public came along too as it helps to spread the word about the great work being done in our tourism sector. This incidentally adds a great deal to the local economy. Itâs events such as this that make you realise how widespread the influence of a thriving tourism economy can be to the whole local economyâ.
Overall we loved the concept and thought that, as a first year launch event, it was a real bonus to the local food and drink network. We would definitely have liked to have seen even more buy-in from local businesses – every tourism association member and every pub in the area were sent invitations and we think all of them should have attended!
We know only too well that profit margins for local businesses are always tight and the drive for economy in purchasing is a constant pressure on small business. Small artisan producers make up for this lack of scale costs with bags of flavour, localism, innovation and skill. This added value is demonstrated nowhere better than in the tourism sector because those values produce a cash sales equivalent and really register with visitors who want to buy local great produce.
If you run a business selling food and drink, why not follow the lead of the Tourism Association and look for one new local supplier today? Let us know how you get on, weâd love to tell your local collaboration story.
