Food for thought

How did the farm shop start?

Will & Annabel Longe are the inspiration behind Grange Farm Shop in Hasketon, a family-run affair that has seen many changes over the decades. We invited Will to tell us more about their loveaffair with the business….

When did your working relationship with Grange Farm start?

My parents took on the farm 50 years ago and from an early age I worked on the farm every school holiday, picking apples, pruning fruit trees, and helping out in the shop. I wasn’t paid much but still remember an Easter holiday spent digging out bramble roots to finally save up the £12.49 required to buy a Walkman! Today, it’s a great joy to see our daughter Matilda and son Albert helping out and hopefully that will continue for many years to come.

Grange Farm has been a fruit farm for a very long time and some of our oldest buildings date back to the mid-1700s. By the 1940s, the farm was selling fruit and veg in London. However, in 1953, the then owner, Mrs Tile, and her manager, Arthur Hubbard, realised that there was a greater need on their doorstep and opened the shop. This year celebrates 70 years in business, which is something to be very proud of!

When did you take on the business and why?

Annabel and I took on the business in 2019, having moved the family back from London to be nearer my parents who were approaching their eighties and wanting to step back from the running of the farm. With two young children, we also wanted to escape London’s busyness and set down our roots in the countryside. It was a steep learning curve for us both because we had no relevant business experience. From 1998-2014, I worked for the HALO Trust conducting humanitarian landmine clearance and bomb disposal in countries that had suffered conflict, including Libya, Afghanistan and DRC. Annabel had also enjoyed a rich and varied career, amongst other things, working for Warner Brothers Records, as an interior designer, and living and working in Romania.

For us, Grange Farm Shop is all about bringing people together, cooking and sharing food makes us human. Our old family motto is “Without food and wine, love grows cold” and actually, as corny as it may sound, it sums up our ethos. We source and promote real food, quality food, food with provenance, food grown with the environment in mind.

With the cost-of-living crisis seemingly here to stay for some time, how can you compete with the big supermarkets?

Our philosophy is to eat less but better, shop less but better. We would rather our customers buy some of our locally reared meat once per week and eat well. We are proud of our producers and their food. 90% of our expenditure goes back into an economy within a 30-mile radius of our shop, so shopping at Grange Farm puts money in local people’s pockets and that is a far better way to get out of the cost-of-living crisis than shopping in supermarkets, or the ‘money hoovers’ as we call them!

Do you have any new plans for the farm?

Our region has such a rich growing history that we want to celebrate and showcase it. Our farm changed radically in ‘98/99 when the old orchards were grubbed up and replaced by arable farming. We have the opportunity to replant and open our land up for access: to connect people to food and the landscape it’s grown in. We now have a path linking the farm to footpaths that lead to Fynn Valley, the Deben and Woodbridge and we’ve planted several fruit and nut trees and have beehives, creating a rich environment for nature and the public. A local charity has started running a forest school for young people struggling in mainstream education in our woods, and we’re working hard on a foodie event list for 2023.

What does the future hold for Grange Farm Shop?

So much! We’ve got a fabulous team here, and love combining with our neighbouring businesses on site – A Passion for Seafood, Barn Café, EJaRt Creative and Richard Rush Antiques - to host events, something we’ll be doing more of in 2023. Above all, we’ll continue to strive to make this a better business, for our customers, for the local community and for Mother Nature too. It’s an allconsuming passion for us and we’re in it for the long-term!

Breaking bread

Influenced by her Greek Cypriot heritage, chef Maria Elia’s recipes are full of rich Mediterranean flavours layered with subtle hints of Middle Eastern spice. We pull up a chair at her dining table to find out where she will be popping up across Suffolk this year.

Many of you might recognise Maria from the popular cooking shows of the nineties such as Great Food Live, Saturday Cooks, Ready Steady Cook and Market Kitchen, where she regularly shared chopping boards with the likes of Gino D’Acampo and Anthony Worrall Thompson. Passionate about cooking from a very early age, Maria grew up in her parent’s restaurant in Richmond, and even as a very small child was given the responsibility of chief potato riddler. “Even now, the smell of peeled potatoes can transport me back there, and I can still feel the raw energy and excitement of being in a busy working kitchen.” Her father is Greek Cypriot and many of her dishes have been inspired by his traditional cooking and an instinctive connection with the flavours of her culinary heritage.

With busy working parents, Maria would often be the one to prepare supper for the family, inventing recipes from ingredients left in the fridge, and this drive to provide food for the table led her to enrol on a five-year apprenticeship with Trusthouse Forte. After graduating, Maria worked at a newly opened restaurant in Dorset before taking to the high seas, working as a chef on private luxury yachts that took her all around

About Food

the world. “This was an amazing experience, we worked hard and played hard, and I loved the challenge of having to design menus based on whatever was available in the local markets, or the fresh fish, lobster or octopus the fishermen would hold up as they came alongside.”

As tempting as this globe-trotting lifestyle was, the restaurant scene in London was hotting up and Maria returned to work at Stephen Terry’s Coast before moving on to the kitchens of Delfina, a cool canteen for resident artists in London’s up and coming Bermondsey Street. “During this time, I was fortunate enough to spend a season in Spain, cooking with culinary maestro Ferran Adrià at El Bulli and Elena Arzack in San Sebastian. It was incredible and when I returned to Delfina, I was offered the position of head chef and relished the chance to experiment with my own flavours and menu ideas.” Maria stayed for ten years, overseeing its expansion and running a busy and highly successful restaurant and event venue, regularly cooking for 100 covers in the à la carte restaurant or catering for up to 500 guests at one of the exhibition previews.

Maria’s career continued to blossom, and as well as her regular TV appearances, she opened The Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room and Café as head chef – receiving two AA Rosettes, a mention in the Michelin guide, and rave reviews from AA Gill and Giles Coren – and then Jimmy’s Restaurant at the Landing Resort and Spa in South Lake Tahoe, California, which quickly became a favourite haunt for the rich and famous of Beverly Hills. She also travelled extensively, cooking her way across Rwanda, Arizona, Tuscany and Cannes, where she ran an exclusive pop-up at the Lions Festival, and returning to Cyprus to cook with her father, who ran a taverna in the Troodos mountains, finally allowing herself to slow a little and reconnect with the flavours of her childhood.

Now living in Suffolk, Maria has no plans to slow down, and recently converted one of her barns into an amazing light-filled space where she hosts regular dining experiences and private parties. She has also held several pop-ups, taking over the kitchens of The Sorrel Horse in Shottisham and New Street Market in Woodbridge. Her innovative menus, which include her signature savoury baklavas and famous moussaka croquettes, include Greek Cypriot inspired dishes such as slow cooked lamb shank with tomatoes orzo and feta; rabbit rillette on anise lavoush with Greek honey and figs; and a decadently rich Tahini chocolate pudding, have been a huge hit and she has plans for more events at the barn. These include a Spring Awakening supper on the 18th March and a Greek Easter feast on 16th April, as well as another pop-up at the Sorrel Horse from the 8th-12th March.

She is also hoping to hold a series of drop-in events, firing up her Turkish BBQ on a sunny afternoon and serving traditional souvlaki with Cypriot fried potatoes and homemade tzatziki. The spontaneity of this type of event, where friends gather to eat and drink together, is at the heart of Maria’s love for cooking and is a passion I, for one, will be more than happy to share.

To subscribe to Maria’s newsletter email her on hello@thisismariaelia.com Instagram @mariaelia9

About Taste

Counter intuitive

Peasenhall Deli is the new venture of business partners Mark Mills and Lucy Davies, the team behind the tremendously popular Bakehouse at Emmerdale Farm Shop. Bakers extraordinaire, they’ll be serving artisan sandwiches, light lunches and savoury bakes from the counter that can be accompanied by a wide selection of fresh seasonal salads. And then there’s the sweet counter, which will be regularly topped up with a fresh and varied selection of cakes and treats, all baked in house at the new site - previously Salter & King, the butchers – just off the high street.

In true deli style, you can also expect to find a great selection of local cheeses, charcuterie and cured meats, along with bread, fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs and other pantry items. Open in time for Easter, you can follow their progress on Instagram /peasenhalldeli

Say cheese!

Join writer, photographer, and author of A Portrait of British Cheese, Angus D. Birditt, for an evening of hedgerow-inspired cheese and wine at the Food Museum. On the night, Angus will be discussing his book and his adventures discovering artisan cheeses across the British Isles. The book celebrates the excellence of artisan and farmhouse cheese in the British Isles, showing how they are profoundly connected to the land, farm animals and the people involved in making them. It has recently been longlisted for the André Simon Awards, the prestigious annual awards for food and drink books.

Angus will also be discussing the museum’s Hedgerow exhibition, curated by him and currently on display, and taking questions from the audience, all accompanied by a selection of delicious hedgerow inspired cheeses paired with local wines.

Venue:

The Food Museum, Stowmarket, IP14 1SL Date & Time:

Thursday, 30th March 2023, 6pm – 8pm

For more information and to book, head to www.foodmuseum.org.uk/events

There’s a new kid on the block in Southwold, and it’s definitely brought colour and verve to the High St! Serving the most fabulous all-day brunch, gourmet fries and waffles, Loaded is the brainchild of Emma Barber, a local lass who had long felt that there was a gap in the market in Southwold and so, after celebrating a significant birthday, she decided that there was no time like the present and took the plunge, opening Loaded’s doors in December 2022.

Emma sources her meat from Cleveleys and the fruit and veg from Wangford Farm Shop, both just down the road, and as well as serving up perennial favourites such as BBQ pulled pork, and brisket and blue cheese topped fries, she has worked hard to create a mouth-watering variety of choices for vegetarians, vegans and gluten intolerant customers too.

Eat in or take out, there’s no need to book, just pop in or order online! Easy peasy. Open Thursday - Sunday, 10am – 9pm www.loaded-southwold.com