Food & Drink

Eco-friendly food shopping

Jar Zero Waste Shop is a family run business located at 4 Market Street, in the heart of Tavistock. It stocks a wide selection of sustainable products, such as organic store cupboard foods, fresh foods including breads and sweet bakes, teas and locally roasted coffees, herbs and spices, self-care and cleaning refills, as well as zero waste home and lifestyle products.

Zero waste shopping is all about bringing your own containers, to refill with ethically sourced organic foods which you can buy loose by weight. This avoids plastic packaging waste and also food waste, as you can buy just as much as you need. Over-packaging of foods is a huge source of unnecessary waste that has a large impact on the environment - most plastics cannot be recycled, or can only be recycled a few times, and are impossible to completely dispose of. The wide use of plastics in every industry over the past few decades has led to increasing amounts in landfill and micro plastics seeping into our oceans. Jar seeks to buy good quality, sustainable foods in bulk, mostly in paper sacks, that are ethically sourced from cooperative food wholesalers and from suppliers in the ‘circular economy’ (cleaning liquid and oil tubs are sent back to be washed and refilled); we also stock locally made goods to support the local economy.

Sisters Helen and Caroline set up the first Jar shop in Plymouth three years ago, with the ambition of making low waste, sustainable shopping available in the city. The shop was granted funding from the council and opened on the Barbican in 2019, as the first of its kind in Plymouth. Realising there wasn’t a food refill shop in Tavistock, Helen and Caroline worked with family local to Tavistock, Aunt Susan and Uncle Tim, to open Jar Tavistock in 2022. They have had a wonderful response to waste free shopping in the town and the shop continues to grow and add new products.

A popular membership scheme offers a discount to regular shoppers, and bulk discounts are available if you would like zero waste supplies for your business. Helen and Caroline have recently opened a new shop on Hyde Park Road in Plymouth, and members are able to use their discount at any of the three shops. For more details see Facebook & Instagram: @jartavistock; www. jarplymouth.co.uk or contact orders@ jarplymouth.co.uk or 01822 487507.

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What’s in a name?

It’s very satisfying when a customer announces they don’t like something – chardonnay or even French wine, for example – then later leaves with a bottle of French chardonnay! Often this follows a discussion about ‘terroir’, the French word used to describe every aspect of the environment in which grapes are grown. The same name does not equal the same wine...

‘Terroir’ literally means ‘land’, but in wine terms a great deal more besides. Soil is certainly vital – vines usually produce the best grapes when they struggle to survive, sending long, searching roots to find limited water and barely adequate nutrition. They grow best on loam, clay, and on sandy or volcanic soil. So the reason the vine you planted five years ago has never fruited, is probably because you treat it too well!

Sunshine and warmth are important, though the combination is not always obvious – you can grow great malbec high in the Andes because although there’s little warmth, there’s lots of sunshine. Vines can therefore be planted in areas of more or less sun as required. Chablis is a hill village in France that grows chardonnay (though it’s never called chardonnay, just Chablis). Exactly where on the hill, grapes are planted determines whether they will make Petit Chablis, Chablis, Premier Cru or Grand Cru wines – the prices of which vary enormously. The parts of the hill with the best exposure to sun, best drainage and the right soil type are the most valuable.

Proximity to water is frequently a decisive factor in the quality of wine. Large bodies of water moderate temperatures around them, allowing grapes to ripen evenly over a longer time, which is a very good thing (consider sea-swimming in October – water warms slowly during summer and releases the warmth slowly when the weather cools).

Moisture and humidity encourage diseases and pests – especially moulds. Yet the world’s finest dessert wines are made by encouraging botrytis cinerea, a mould that depletes the water in grapes, intensifying the flavours. This requires cool, misty mornings and warm, sunny afternoons – a great example of how tricky ‘terroir’ can be.

Of course, there’s more to this, but in simple terms if the right grapes are grown in exactly the right environment, the result is perfectly ripened grapes and great wine. Naturally, few places are perfect, so the resulting wines vary! A chardonnay grown in French limestone soil will taste very different to one grown in Chile on volcanic soil. Other factors such as wine-making techniques (e.g. barrel ageing) are also very significant, but I’m afraid I’m out of space. The bottom line? The more wines you sample, the more you will properly understand the variety available!

Dave Anning SW Bottle Shop

Festive Feasting 3 course Festive Lunch £29 • 3 course Festive Dinner £33

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Meatballs with pasta

When I was living with my parents in Italy, and was so much younger than today, the smell of my mother cooking this recipe was guaranteed to get me out of bed!

Ingredients (for 4 people)

300g minced beef 200g sausage meat Beef marrow, around 80g (optional) 2 garlic cloves 1 onion 100g finely chopped mature cheddar cheese Parsley 50g breadcrumbs 1 tin of tomatoes A bit of tomato puree A glass of dry white wine Some basil Salt and pepper 500g rigatoni, paccheri, or penne Cornish Mature Gouda or your favourite local hard cheese

Method

Finely chop two garlic cloves, a quarter of an onion, the beef marrow, parsley, and cheddar, and mix everything in a large bowl with the breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper and mix well again. With slightly damp hands, take a small chunk of meat and roll it between your hands to make a ball (between 4cm and 6cm in diameter). Set it aside on a flat plate and continue with the rest of the mixture. Cover the meatballs with clingfilm and put them in the fridge for a couple of hours.

In a large pot, gently fry two garlic cloves and half a chopped onion. When nicely golden, gently add the meatballs and cook for 20 minutes at medium heat, turning the meatballs to seal them. Add the wine and let it evaporate. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Taking care not to break up the meatballs, add a generous spoonful of tomato puree and stir well - be careful! Once mixed, add the tin of tomatoes and cover with a lid to let it simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Once ready, add the basil leaves and start boiling the water for the pasta. Remove the meatballs and sauce from the heat and set aside. Cook the pasta until al dente.

Add the cooked pasta to the meatballs and sauce with some grated Cornish Mature Gouda and mix until all the pasta is covered with the sauce. Serve the pasta, put extra meatballs on the top and grate a generous portion of Cornish Gouda over the top.

Sit down, eat your pasta and have a fantastic nap!

Recipe by Italian Jack – your Italian experience in the heart of Devon: private chef; dinner & lunch delivery; cooking classes; professional consulting; supper clubs.

Contact 07745 934897 or for more details see italianjack.co.uk or facebook. com/groups/italianjack

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