Sourdough Rye Bread

YEO VALLEY ORGANIC

BY TIM MEAD

“Our desire to accelerate organic food into the nation’s diets by making it accessible and readily available has not waned. If anything, we’re redoubling our efforts to help people better understand the benefits of food produced from regenerative organic farming systems

Our journey began over 60 years ago in Somerset’s Yeo Valley, when my parents bought Holt Farm and a herd of 30 British Friesian cows in 1961. Back then we were farming in a way that didn’t have a label. It was about working in harmony with our environment and my family has been doing it since the 15th century. The land at Holt Farm was wet, rich in grass species and good for dairy cows. During the 1970s we started making yoghurt with leftover skimmed milk from the tearooms, which was still quite exotic then. In the 1990s, we decided to produce organic yoghurt and work with a cooperative of British organic dairy farmers who would supply Yeo Valley, with a guarantee to buy their milk to meet our growing demand. Fast forward to today and we use over 100 million litres of organic milk a year and sell two million products a week, supporting over 100 British organic dairy farmers. I’m still very much the farming apprentice; my mother is the farmer of the family, now joined by my nephew. She has championed sustainable dairy farming for the past 60 years and is a firm believer in farming forever. Pedigree British Friesian cows are her lifelong passion and the Lakemead herd has earned her the reputation as one of the finest breeders in the country. We remain a family business and our production company is now 20% employee-owned. Our desire to accelerate organic food into the nation’s diets by making it accessible and readily available has not waned. If anything, we’re redoubling our efforts to help people better understand the benefits of food produced from regenerative organic farming systems like ours. Across our farms in the Yeo Valley and on the Mendip Hills, our dairy, beef cattle and sheep are helping to regenerate soil, locking in carbon and helping to reverse climate change. Our grazing ground is holistically managed, and chemical-free. We’ve measured the carbon in the soil on our own farm and found that we have equivalent to 150 years’ worth of the farm’s annual emissions. Now we’re expanding soil measuring and mentoring across our supplying farms. We see our role as twofold, firstly to provide natural healthy food and secondly to do so in a way that puts more back into the land than we take out.

HERBY BEEF WELLINGTON WITH CHIMICHURRI BUTTER

There’s no better way to celebrate a delicious piece of beef than in a Wellington, and we’ve given this one a twist. It’s worth getting the best meat you can; we love to know where our meat is from and we’re lucky to have our own organic grassfed mob grazed beef cattle.

For the Wellington

Olive oil

1kg fillet of beef Yeo Valley Organic unsalted butter 1 pack of ready-rolled puff pastry 8 slices of Parma ham 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander 1 free-range egg 1 tbsp Yeo Valley Organic milk

For the chimichurri butter

1 block of Yeo Valley Organic unsalted butter, at room temperature ½ small bunch each of fresh coriander, parsley and thyme 2 cloves of garlic, peeled 1 tsp chilli flakes Salt, to taste

For the Wellington

Heat a generous drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan on a high heat and sear the beef all over. Add a large knob of butter and baste the beef once melted. Leave the seared beef fillet in the fridge to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Place the ready-rolled pastry on a floured surface and gently roll it slightly bigger. Lay the slices of Parma ham on the pastry with the edges slightly overlapping, leaving a border around the edge. Sprinkle the herbs on top, then lay the beef fillet in the centre.

Beat the egg with the milk in a small bowl and use this to brush the uncovered pastry. Fold the pastry over the beef and then roll it over until you get a seam at the base of the Wellington. Tuck the sides under and then brush the pastry with more egg wash to coat all over. Chill the Wellington in the fridge for at least an hour, or even overnight.

For the chimichurri butter

Combine all the ingredients in a blender, adding more or less chilli depending on your heat preference! Roll the butter into a sausage shape using a sheet of cling film, then chill in the fridge for at least an hour. To cook the Wellington, preheat the oven to 200°c and transfer it straight from the fridge to a baking tray, then place in the hot oven to cook for 30-35 minutes. Leave the Wellington to rest for at least 15 minutes once done, then serve with slices of the chimichurri butter, your favourite salad and roasted beetroots.