Food & Drink

With KATY BEAUCHAMP

It’s jubilee picnic time

Not only are we about to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with street parties in just about every community, but June is also the perfect time to dig out the hamper and blanket and embrace picnic time – and not a coronation chicken sandwich (or any other filling) in sight.

SPICY POTATO SAMOSAS

INGREDIENTS

These samosas are cheap to make and even more delicious to eat

These make a great al fresco snack, are very budget-friendly (approx. 5p a samosa) and are also vegan.

METHOD Mix together the flour and 60ml of olive oil and water to make a soft dough and leave to rest. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until soft and mash them. Gently fry the onion in a further 60ml of the olive oil for ten minutes, then add all the spices and cook for a further five minutes. Add to the mashed potato and stir in the coriander and peas. Take walnut-sized pieces of the dough and roll into thin ovals. Put a teaspoon of the potato mixture on one side and fold over using a fingertip of water around the edge. Fry gently in the remaining oil for about three minutes on each side. Serve hot or at room temperature with a dip or salsa.

(makes 18 approx.) 500gms cubed potatoes (no need to peel) 400gms plain flour 180ml olive oil 200ml water A finely chopped medium onion 1 heaped tsp each of: grated ginger grated garlic ground cumin ground coriander ground turmeric salt and pepper (to taste) 50gms frozen peas Handful of fresh coriander (chopped)

STICKY MUESLI FLAPJACKS

Sweet and sticky flapjacks

These are really sticky, almost toffee-like, so much so you will need to separate the bars onto individual sheets of baking parchment or greaseproof paper.

METHOD Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan until well combined and cook gently for five minutes. Stir in muesli and chopped chips. Leave to rest in the pan for 30 minutes before tipping into a baking tray. Bake at 160°C for 20 minutes. It will be very soft when it comes out but will firm up when cool. Cut into bars (to a size to suit you). This is not so much a recipe but an idea which can be adapted to your own tastes – or that of your picnic partners. I use individual recycled jam jars as they look pretty.

METHOD Cut vegetables into batons the same height as your jar. Spoon your favourite dip e.g. hummus or garlic mayo into the bottom of the jar and stand vegetables on top. If using fruit, pour in your favourite yoghurt or custard and layer fruit on top. Don’t forget the spoons!

INGREDIENTS

(makes 12 big bars) 100gms white sugar 150gms butter 150gms golden syrup 350gms of your favourite muesli 50gms chocolate chips (optional)

FRUIT AND VEG JARS

Fruit and veg jars – the choice is yours

INGREDIENTS

(These are just suggestions) Carrots Peppers Mini sweetcorn Tomatoes Grapes Apples Stewed fruit (such as rhubarb)

Festival serves up tasty treats in Castle Cary

CASTLE Cary once again hosted an eat:Festival with dozens of stallholders filling Fore Street and Bailey Hill with food and drink.

Everything stops for cake

Ali Briaris, from Weston-super-Mare, on her stall Organisers Bev and Sarah Milner-Simonds with street entertainer Damian

Husband-and-wife team Andrew Franks and Molly Niu, who farm at Chewton Mendip

WILD FOOD The importance of sauce!

I LIKE cabbage, honestly I do. It’s not been easy as I certainly didn’t like the limp, well past its use by date but don’t want to waste it so will overcook to be sure, cabbage of my childhood. Mind you I wasn’t a fan of Brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower either. I can now say I With ADRIAN BOOTS love all of the above. Cauliflower, not so much. Maybe covered in a very cheesy sauce, then and only then is it fit for consumption.

More on the importance of sauce later. So this less than positive description of brassicas brings me to a wild plant that, at least to my tastebuds and maybe a few rarefied others, has a similar flavour to cabbage: Greater plantain.

Whilst running my regular foraging courses, I introduce participants to the greater plantain and inevitably someone says “I thought that plantain is a banana like thing…” or something similar. I answer that they are both called “plantain” but are very different beasts.

It always strikes me that we have knowledge of a tropical fruit yet not of a ubiquitous and edible common plant in our own back yard!

Greater plantain (Plantago major) is a perennial herb with broad, rounded leaves up to 25cm long (although more usually smaller in compacted areas and gardens) forming a basal rosette. They have three to nine veins through the leaves with the flower heads appearing on long stalked spikes.

It’s a very common plant found in grassy areas, often in gardens, gateways, footpaths and verges etc. and is available throughout the year, flowering June to October. The mature seeds are also edible once processed. The young tender leaves of spring and early summer are best as the mature ones are tougher and the veins running through the leaf rather stringy.

There are obvious geographical and physical differences between the banana plantain and our common plantain, yet there are also similarities in how it should be treated. Plantain (the banana) is rather bland and pappy and has to be cooked as it is inedible raw. It’s usually fried with added seasoning and served with richly flavoured sauces to make it even remotely enjoyable.

And this is where the similarities lie with cauliflower, sorry, common plantain – it needs to be combined with other ingredients and doused in a sauce of some description to get the best from it. So go gather a good handful of common plantain leaves, give them a good wash, remove the veins and chop up.

Add to a rich tomato, bean and chorizo based casserole where it will provide greenery to contrast with a very red dish, then see if you can detect that “cabbagy” flavour? If you can, then maybe add extra smokey paprika just to make sure . . .

Adrian Boots is a Landscape Ecologist, Wild Food Forager and Adventure Activity provider. You can visit his website: www.gowildactivities.co.uk to learn more about wild food foraging and activities you can do with him on the Mendip Hills.

GARDEN FOOD Huacatay sauce!

THISis one of a handful of preColumbian herbs from the Americas that we first grew about five years ago now. The others included pepiche and papalo, but honestly Peruvian black mint, also known as With JAKE Tagetes minuta, southern cone WHITSON marigold or huacatay, is the only one which we have grown consistently ever since. It has a wonderful aroma all of its own which I would describe as minty, with hints of coriander and maybe pineapple.

It likes a bit of warmth to germinate and also doesn’t like cold nights when growing – we start it in the propagator and keep a little bottom heat on it until well established.

In Peruvian cuisine it is most often used to make a sauce called salsa de huacatay, which can be served over grilled chicken, fish, cooked rice or potatoes, pretty much anything! To make it you add a large handful of huacatay leaves to a blender along with a couple of deseeded red chillies, the juice from two limes and four or five cloves of garlic. Blitz this until smooth, very gradually adding around 200ml of nice olive oil until you get a thick sauce almost like a mayonnaise, then season to taste with salt.

I like to also make a very simple paste of huacatay leaves in the pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. This is delicious on any number of things, spread on pitta breads, stirred into hummus, even mixed into a vinaigrette for dressing a green salad.

It’s easy then to take this paste on to create a spin on the classic mint sauce by thinning it down with few tablespoons of cider vinegar and a good pinch of sugar – absolutely delicious with a Sunday lamb roast.

Jacob Whitson is a chef, food writer and smallholder – he divides his time between the Mendips and Pembrokeshire.

Real ale festival returns

WESTON’S charity real ale and cider festival is back – bigger and better for 2022! Organised by the Lions Club of Weston-superMare, the festival will be held on the beach lawns on Friday, July 29th-31st.

The weekend long festival will host live music from The Tanoys, Irie Fire, and local talents like Johnny Edgar, Johnny Anderson and the Sea Shanty Band, The Steepholmers.

Offering a range of locally sourced ales and ciders from surrounding breweries like Pinkers Craft Brewery and Pitchfork Ales – the festival is back after two years and promises to be a fantastic event.

The festival will open its gates from 11am, entry £3, £5 after 5pm.The main beneficiaries this year are Parkinson’s UK and MIND charity as well as supporting local clubs, groups and the community.

Details: Facebook@Weston Lions Real Ale Festival www.westonlionsrealalefestival.co.uk

Community orchards

COMMUNITY organisations across Somerset have been planting young apple trees this spring as part of Thatchers Community Orchard project 2022. Thatchers has donated 350 apple trees to 50 groups across the UK who applied to be a part of this year’s project, now in its second year.

Martin Thatcher said: “The project shares our family’s passion for apple trees, building communities and constant support of the environment and ecosystem around us today and for the future.”

Peter Thatcher visited Stanley’s community garden in Worle. He’s pictured (front) with Muriel Skidmore; back (l to r) David Skidmore, Kelly March, Wayne Matthews and Simon Burr.

Open from midday every day

Old Parlour Café & Bar open Fri to Sun

Tucker’s Grave Inn, Faukland, Radstock, BA3 5XF.

T: 01225 962669

Jubilee celebrations at Tucker’s Grave Inn

THURSDAY JUNE 2nd Live music: Midnight Hour (evening) FRIDAY JUNE 3rd Fancy Dress Day: Family weekend camping prize for best dressed customer; cream teas and cakes. Live music: Modern Vintage (evening) SATURDAY JUNE 4th Live music: Jon Parry (afternoon), Zero Hour (evening) SUNDAY JUNE 5th Live music: John Pollard (afternoon) FOOD

Chappers breakfasts –Fri-Sun am Chappers fish & chips/burgers –Thu-Sat Nomads BBQ –Thu eve Prem’s Curry –Fri eve Prem’s Nachos –Sat eve

E: info@tuckersgraveinn.co.uk W: www.tuckersgraveinn.co.uk

Country shopping at its best

North Widcombe, West Harptree, Bristol BS40 6HW

Opening times:

Farm shop: 9am-5.30pm Mon-Sat, 9am-4pm Sundays Tea Room: 9am-4.30pm all week

Wheelchair access, children welcome, free parking, coaches by appointment

MEAT SUPPLIED FROM OUR OWN FARM

TEA ROOMS

Hot & cold meals Delicious cream teas Full English breakfasts Function room available for hire Barbecue time with our home-produced meat

Emma Bridgewater China & other gifts

Enjoy a good Sunday roast

Reduce plastic – with our reusable glass milk bottles

Newt in the hole –a farmer’s recipe for conservation

WHENis a hole in the ground not just a hole in the ground? When you add water.

Farmland ponds are rare oases, but are enormously important for wildlife across the Mendip Hills.

The area’s limestone bedrock causes water to drain quickly away – providing clean water for rivers further afield, but causing the Hills themselves to have little natural habitat for plants and animals that rely on freshwater. Historically, man-made ponds were an important feature of every field system, and the abundance and closeness of these farmland ponds made them a perfect habitat for many creatures –including rare great crested newts – who grew to rely on the farms of the area.

Many ponds were unfortunately lost when modern life and mains water was plumbed into Mendip, and they were no longer a valuable resource. Some were filled in, while others were forgotten and left to slowly deteriorate.

In more recent years, these ponds have again gained popularity with farmers and land managers looking to conserve some of the Mendip Hills’ unique cultural history and encourage more wildlife onto their land.

Mendip cobble-bottom ponds fall into two main categories – cart ponds which are rectangular with a sloping entrance and exit, designed to trundle a cart through to preserve its wooden wheels; and dew ponds which are either circular, semi-circular, or square(ish) with one sloping side and three walls, designed to provide a water source for livestock.

With two layers of cobble on top of a clay base, and held together with lime mortar, their construction is a skilled art form. Like drystone walling, many of these skills have fallen out of favour, but local landowners and contractors are relearning these skills in order to safeguard these historic features and the future of the Mendip Hill’s aquatic wildlife.

Farmers and landowners looking to protect historic features and local wildlife can get in touch with the Mendip Hills AONB Service to find out more about what financial support is available. The Farming in Protected Landscapes programme has allocated funding to restore 3 dew ponds on farms already this year, providing essential habitats within a dot-to-dot network of other ponds to support great crested newts and a variety of other wild creatures.

But it’s not just these distinctive farm ponds that have great potential for wildlife across the AONB – garden ponds can be vital havens for a whole variety of newts, frogs, bugs, and birds. Small, fish-free ponds with native plants and sloping rocky ends allow wildlife in our towns and villages a space to drink, rest, and even live in comfort. Guidance is available online from wildlife charities, or from some local libraries on the best techniques for creating garden ponds.

Celebrating 50 years of caring together

Fifty years ago, the Mendip Hills was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). From its distinctive characteristics, tranquil plateau and extraordinary views to the rich history, diverse wildlife, and abundance of outdoor and underground playgrounds, the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a treasured landscape to millions. In 2022, through a series of events, activities, and special moments we are celebrating what makes our treasured land so precious. Go to www.mendiphillsaonb.org.uk to find out more.

Megan Godley Farming Engagement Officer Farming in Protected Landscapes Mendip Hills AONB Charterhouse Centre, BS40 7XR Office telephone: 01761 462338 Email: megan@mendiphillsaonb.org.uk www.mendiphillsaonb.org.uk