food – a spark in your veins

5th October 2017

October at Woodlands Farm: sloe gin, Apple Day, half-term activities and ecological surveys

There’s lots going on at Woodlands Farm during October: a Hedgerow Liqueurs course on Sunday, the annual Apple Day fête, half-term activities for children and the regular range of ecological surveys.

Hannah, the Education Officer at the farm, wrote with details of the Hedgerow Liqueurs course:

HEDGEROW LIQUEURS
Sunday 8th October 2017 12.00—4.30pm
Price £12 (£8 members) 18+ years only
Sloes are scarce, so we will be using a mixture of fresh picked fruit and frozen fruit, to make together our delicious sloe gin this year, in good time for Christmas
Bring your own gin or spirit of choice together with at least a one litre, wide neck (>2.5cm) container. Kilner type jars, 1.5 litre, will be available at cost price. Sugar and sloes will be provided by Woodlands Farm.
Book early via the Farm Office, numbers limited

This is followed by the annual Apple Day fair on the following Sunday:

Join us for a celebration of traditional British apples on Sunday 15th October 2017, from 11am-4pm. Discover and buy many different types of traditional British apples. There will be a variety of activities including a treasure hunt, apple pressing to make delicious juice, stalls selling local produce, including our own honey and home-made jams, cakes and try some Kentish Cider. A great day out for all the family. Entry is free, but donations are welcome and go towards the running of the Farm. No parking on site. Please use public transport.

Archy, the farm’s new Manx Loaghtan ram, should be out in the field with the ewes by then: he’s getting a bit frustrated in his current home in the barn. The farm will also be getting some longhorn cattle soon as they start to focus more on rare breed animals.

At the end of the month it’s half term week, and as usual the Farm have laid on some interesting and educational activities for children. Again Hannah wrote with the details:

October Half Term Events
Wednesday 25th October   Farm Rhymes and Riddles 1pm-3pm £2 per child
Test your skills at solving rhymes and riddles as you try our trail. Can you figure out what animal each riddle is about, while exploring the farm. Work them all out and get a prize! There will also be a chance to meet some of our animals. No need to book just drop in.
Thursday 26th October   Leaf Lanterns 10am – 12noon and 1pm-3pm £4 per child
Join us for an autumn walk round the farm to find out about different types of trees and leaves. We will be collecting what we find to then use to make and decorate a leaf lantern to take home. Booking is essential, to book call 020 8319 8900.
Friday 27th October     Halloween Trail and crafts 11am-3pm £3 per child.
Halloween is just round the corner so join us for a day of spooky crafts. There will be a creepy animal facts trail round the farm where you can find out all the gruesome and scary things about British wildlife. Come dressed up to get in the full spooky spirit. No need to book, just drop in.

Some of the farm's awards this year — Some of the farm’s awards this year

The farm’s regular schedule of ecological surveys continues through the month. Previous months have seen surveys of pond life, bees, moths, bats and wild flower meadow plants (lots of magical missile-repelling Corky Fruited Water Dropworts), and the first mammal surveys. The mammal surveys continue this month and there is the last of the monthly bee walks of 2017. The currently planned survey activities for October are:

Wednesday 11th October 3.30pm – Mammal survey setting up traps
Thursday 12th October, 9am – Mammal survey collect traps
Tuesday 17th October, 3.30pm – Mammal survey setting up traps
Wednesday 18th October 9am – Mammal survey, collect traps
Wednesday 18th October, 2pm – Bee walk – last of the year
Monday 30th October, 10am – Dipping pond maintenance. Wellies or waders recommended!

If you’d like to help with the wildlife surveys contact Hannah Ricketts on education@thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org

20th September 2015

Sloe down

It’s autumn and the wild fruit is ripe at Woodlands Farm: the season to slowly forage for sloes and damsons and prepare some sloe gin. Maureen from the farm wrote to tell us about a chance to make some Hedgerow Liqueurs next Saturday:

Hedgerow Liqueurs
Saturday 26 September 2015 10am-4pm
Price: £20 (£15 members) 18+ years only
Join us for a tramp and forage around the hedgerows, followed by sloe gin making. Bring your own gin or spirit of choice together with at least a one litre, wide-neck container. Alternatively, Kilner type jars, 1.5 litre, will be available at cost price. Sugar, sloes and wild damsons will be provided by Woodlands Farm. Book early as numbers are limited. Please dress appropriately for outdoor activities.
To book your tickets go to our website at: www.thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org

Tickets are available through eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hedgerow-liqueurs-tickets-18554315457

25th September 2014

Sloe, sloe quick sip sloe

Hannah from Woodlands Farm e-mailed to say that the sloes on the farm are ready to be harvested already, a lot earlier than usual, so they have hastily arranged their annual Hedgerow Liqueurs day for Saturday 4th October 2014 :

Join us for a tramp and forage around the hedgerows, followed by sloe gin making.
Bring your own gin or spirit of choice together with at least a one litre, wide neck (>2.5cm) container. Alternatively, Kilner type jars, 1.5 litre, will be available at cost price. Sugar, sloes and wild damsons will be provided by Woodlands Farm.
Book early via the Farm Office, numbers limited
Please dress appropriately for outdoor activities and bring a packed lunch

9.45am—3.30pm
Price £15 (£10 members)
18+years only

You can contact the farm to book a place by phone on 020 8319 8900 or by e-mail on woodlandsft@aol.com

There’s another new arrival to visit at the farm: a British White calf born recently, seen below with her mother Clover.

Clover the British White and her new calf at Woodlands Farm

14th October 2013

Delicious Hooch

Autumn is a fruitful foraging season, and Woodlands Farm is a fruitful place to forage for sloe berries and wild damsons. They will be foraging on Saturday, and using some of the fruit they gather to make Sloe Gin. Barry Gray from the farm wrote with details:

I attach a flyer for our autumn forage for sloes and wild damsons, with an opportunity to make sloe gin. This is a chance to see Woodlands Farm in autumn, hunt for wild fruit in the hedgerows and learn to make delicious country liqueurs in time for Christmas. Every participant leaves with a bottle of delicious hooch!

HEDGEROW LIQUEURS

Saturday 19th October 2013
1.00—5.00 pm
Price £8 (£5 members)
18+ years only
Join us for a tramp and forage around the hedgerows, followed by sloe gin making.
Bring your own gin or spirit of choice together with at least a one litre, wide neck (>2.5cm) container. Alternatively, Kilner type jars, 1.5 litre, will be available at cost price. Sugar, sloes and wild damsons will be provided by Woodlands Farm.
Book early via the Farm Office, numbers limited

Please dress appropriately for outdoor activities

You can contact the farm to book a place by phone on 020 8319 8900 or by e-mail on woodlandsft@aol.com

Just so you know what to look for there are some photos below of sloe berries on the blackthorns at the farm, and there’s a Sloe Gin recipe in a previous post.

22nd February 2013

Special offer at the Jasmine Restaurant

Detail of the Kapalishvara Temple, Chennai

Avzol from the Jasmine Restaurant on Shooters Hill e-mailed about my search for the perfect naan, and with a special offer for e-shootershill readers. He wrote:

Special offer for all at E-Shooters Hill and also for your readers and subscribers. 20% Off* on all collections and deliveries at The Jasmine Restaurant until 19/03/2013.

*when paid in cash 10% otherwise, offer excludes king prawn dishes, chef’s specials and drinks.

Avzol thought that the secret of a perfect naan was in the preparation and freshness of the dough; they make their dough just before the restaurant opens and keep it chilled, but they only make enough dough balls to last the evening, so it’s fresh every day. In his wide and long experience of tasting naan, he has “never found any naan tastier than those made by street vendors across India and Bangladesh, I suspect their over use of ghees make it that much more tastier”. So the more fat, the more flavour but the less healthy! At the Jasmine they aim to provide healthier food by using fresher ingredients and less salt, oils and ghee.

Seems like a good excuse to go for a curry.

16th January 2013

French Evening at City View

City View Restaurant at Shooters Hill Post 16 Campus are holding a fund raising event on the evening of 7th February to help pay for a trip to Paris in April for their level 2 & 3 students. Most of the food will be donated by their suppliers, 3663, and other suppliers have either donated a raffle prize or given a discount. The Paris trip will also be funded by diners’ tips over the last year.

While in Paris the students will be having a go at croissant and baguette making, as well as seeing the sights of the city.

The evening costs £30, and starts with a tasting of some of the college’s French wines, with the opportunity to buy some to drink with your meal. The menu has a very French theme:

Wine tasting Reception
***
Escargots a l’ail
Snails in Garlic Butter
Or
Cuisses de Grenouilles Provençale
Frogs Legs Provençale

Second Course

Quenelles de Brochet avec Bisque Sc
Quenelles of Pike with Bisque Sauce

Main course

Coq au vin

Plateau de Fromage
Selection French Cheeses

Dessert

Tarte aux Citron
Lemon Tart

Chocolat Tarte
Chocolate Tart

Pot au Chocolat avec Madeleines
Chocolate pot with Madeleines
***
Café & Petit Fours

Tables can can be booked through the City View web pages or by phone on 020 8319 9790. If the food is anything like my recent visit to City View then it will be an excellent evening, though best approached with an empty tummy.

25th November 2012

City View Restaurant

It’s not often that a meal out ends with the chefs coming out of the kitchen to hear what you thought of their cooking and to share the tricks of their trade, but that’s what happened at the end of my Fine Dining evening at the City View Restaurant. In fact everyone in the crowded restaurant gave the young chefs a round of applause in appreciation of their cooking skills.

Before I visited City View I didn’t know what a Lemon Liaison was, now I know how to prepare one.

The chefs at the restaurant at the Shooters Hill Campus on Red Lion Lane are students studying for NVQs in catering and hospitality. At the Thursday Fine Dining Evening they all wear the red caps showing they are advanced, level 3 catering students – the level 2s wear black caps and level 1s white caps. As well as preparing and cooking food for City View, students take on the role of greeters and waiters at the restaurant and prepare food for the campus canteens which cater for up to 250 students a day. Last year 100% of the students passed their NVQs; work destinations for alumni include the Ivy, the Tate Modern restaurant and the Tudor Barn.

Earlier this year students had the opportunity to work with Michelin-starred chefs Richard Corrigan and Ron Blaauw on the catering for Sail Royal Greenwich Olympic tall ships cruises on the Thames. The London Calling web site explained their task:

Michelin-starred chefs Richard Corrigan and Ron Blaauw (from Holland) have combined their skills to create recipes and menus designed specifically for the Sail Greenwich Ltd Olympic cruises. Under Corrigan’s and Blaauw’s guidance and supervision, three choices of menus (Walking Dinner, Gourmet Buffet or Buffet – each with a lunch and dinner variant) are produced by catering and hospitality students at Shooters Hill Post 16 Campus college. These students are already famous for their successful City View Restaurant, and the food served on Thalassa promises to be equally appetizing.

There are some great pictures of Richard Corrigan and Ron Blaauw with Shooters Hill students on the Uretopia Flickr site.

The menu for the evening looked interesting; it included several dishes I hadn’t tried before:

Tomato & Basil Soup

Garnished with Chicken Quenelles and Lemon Liaison

SECOND COURSE

Smoked Salmon and Prawn Parcels

Lime and Dill Mayonnaise

MAIN COURSES

Pan Fried Calves Liver with Crispy Pancetta with Lime Butter and Raspberry Vinegar

Served with Boursin, Sage & Potato Beignets

Grilled Parrot Fish with Ginger Garlic Dill & Turmeric Marinade

Served Creamed Potatoes

Cassette of Baby Vegetables

& Wild Mushroom “Choron”

Followed by

A Choice of Dessert, Fresh Fruit Salad or Cheese from the Sweet Trolley

Coffee

The food was really very good; my only criticism was that the portions were too generous, and I had no room to try any of the amazing looking confections on the well-stocked dessert trolley. Our menu started with Tomato & Basil Soup garnished with Chicken Quenelles and Lemon Liaison which was delicious. The quenelle was surprisingly light, with a definite lemony nip to the chicken filling. A bottle of Australian Chardonnay, costing a fraction of the price charged by most restaurants, matched it well. The Smoked Salmon and Prawn Parcel had a generous portion of creamy prawns with a tang of lime, wrapped in smoked salmon.

Smoked Salmon and Prawn Parcels with Lime and Dill Mayonnaise at City View Restaurant

Then the delicately flavoured fish, perfectly cooked, on a mound of smoothly creamed potato, with a creamy dill, prawn and caper sauce. And was it my imagination or had the sauce been shaped into a picture of a blue whale? When the post-prandial cup of decaffeinated coffee was accompanied by a dish of chocolate-swirled cinder toffee I was starting to feel like my “waffer thin mint” moment was approaching.

Grilled Parrot Fish with Ginger Garlic Dill & Turmeric Marinade served with Creamed Potatoes

The Fine Dining Evening costs £20 per person excluding drinks, which just about covers the cost of the ingredients. The restaurant is decorated with photographs and art work produced by students and has great views over the city. There’s been some changes since City View was last mentioned on e-shootershill: they now accept payment by card and cheque and they have relocated the smoking area. There are plenty of car-parking places in the evening, though we enjoyed the walk down the hill.

City View also opens at lunch time from Tuesday to Friday. A full four course menu is available, but it is possible to choose which courses you have – for example just the soup course. When I visited at lunch time the main course was a generously portioned slow cooked braised lamb shanks served with buttered mash and greens, but I stuck to a starter of polenta crusted salmon goujons with spiced tomato and red pepper relish, which was delicious and enough for lunch.

Both lunch and the Fine Dining Evening can be booked through the City View web pages or by phone on 020 8319 9790. The web site has been redesigned recently and now includes a City View blog page for diners’ comments. If you want to really spoil yourself the college also have very reasonably priced, well equipped hair and beauty salons.

City View Restaurant is well worth a visit, and you never know you may have a meal prepared by a future celebrity chef.

18th October 2012

Shrewsbury House Social

Mike, our friendly, local Very Green Grocer has organised a social get-together at Shrewsbury House on Saturday afternoon, starting at 2.30pm. His invitation reads:

The Very Green Grocer invites all its customers, friends and local residents to Shrewsbury House for a social get together.
The aim is for the local community to be aware of the gifted and generous people who live amongst us and also how Shrewsbury House can bring us together on a more regular basis.

Entertainment on the day will be provided by local professional artists:
Jo Quail International Cellist,
Acoustic Chairs – Shrewsbury Park Estate based Duo. “The Woolwich Community Choir”. A local choir looking for new recruits and sponsorship.
Also:
Richard Watson’s Model Train display
Seed and plant swap
Playdoh table
Complimentary Cheese & Wine, first come first served, Donated Cakes, Scones etc.
You do not have to bring something to share but let’s see what happens on the day.

I hear also that Shrewsbury House are looking for vounteers to help staff the community centre, so if you have a couple of hours spare to help at the desk, in the garden or in the office, your help would be appreciated.

10th October 2012

Sloe Season at Woodlands Farm – Bring Gin

Maureen from Woodlands Farm sent me details of their 2012 Hedgerow Liqueurs and Wild Wines event on Saturday 20th October:

Saturday 20th October 2012
1.00pm-4.30pm
£10 (£8 for Woodlands Farm Trust members)
Over-18s only
Join us for a tramp around the hedgerows, followed by sloe gin making.
Bring your own gin or spirit of choice together with at least a one litre, wide neck (>2.5cm) container.
Book early via the Farm Office, numbers limited.
Please dress appropriately for outdoor activities.

To whet your appetite for sloe gin there’s a reminder of how it is made in this previous post.

While there you might like to drop in on their latest arrival – a little white bull born to Ennis, one of the farm’s Irish Moiled cows, yesterday evening. I hear there might be a competition to name the bull at the Woodlands Farm Apple Day on Sunday. Meanwhile here are some photos of Ennis and her calf…

Ennis the Irsh Moiled Cow and her new calf

4th October 2012

Million Meal Appeal this weekend

Last year shoppers’ donations helped food redistribution charity Fareshare beat by 200,000 its target of collecting enough food for 1 million meals – a total of 1.2million meals. They are hoping for similar success this weekend, 6th & 7th October, when their Million Meal Appeal takes place at Sainsbury’s supermarkets across the UK.

FareShare‘s usual way of working is to collect food that food retailers such as supermarkets are unable to sell and would otherwise throw away – 3,600 tonnes of food last year – and then distribute it to a network of some 700 organisations in the UK, such as church groups, hostels, women’s refuges and school breakfast clubs. Last year they fed 36,500 vulnerable people each day. They typically get fresh but perishable food, and they don’t usually get many non-perishable items such as pasta, rice, tinned food etc. The Million Meal Appeal asks shoppers to buy an extra food item from this list and donate it to the FareShare trolley on their way out of the supermarket. Last year Sainsbury’s matched shoppers’ donations.

Fareshare have recruited 600 volunteers for this year’s appeal, though they still need more. Volunteers greet customers, give them the shopping list and encourage them to buy an additional item of food for FareShare.

Last year shoppers at Sainsbury’s in Woolwich and Greenwich filled many shopping trolleys with food donations; hopefully this year we will be just as generous.