Vinegar is Wonderful

I already told you about the tremendous flavour of Aspall Cyder in an earlier post. As I was so impressed by the flavour of Aspall's cyder, I wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to know how it's produced and what happens to the by-products. I found out that vinegar is one of such by-products and that Aspall offers 4 different kinds of vinegar. I had never tried vinegar before, but I heard that English people like to eat chips with vinegar. So I bought a bottle of Aspall's Apple Balsamic Vinegar and tried this local produce with chips.The result? I was astonished!

Aspall Apple Balsamic Vinegar

Delightful and Organic Vegetables

Organic produce is constantly becoming more and more popular in today's world. Organic produce are those that are produced using environmentally sound methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives. I am a big fan of organic produce, that's why I support Maple Farm and its vegetables.

Maple Farm Vegetable

A Touch of Home

As I am a German guy, I admire meat more than anything else regarding food. It took me quite a long time to find what I had been looking for since I came to England - great sausages! I love sausages and I bought some at several supermarkets, but I couldn't find any sausage which was comparable to "my sausages" in Germany. But then I came up with delicious sausages produced by Wicks Manor Farm. I already told you that I tried its fantastic ham, but as I'm speechless regarding the sausages I have to write about a product of this farm again.

Pork and Mustard Sausages

Milk is not Milk!

I recently told you about the amazing cheese produced by Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses. The reason I write this post now has to do with a question I was asking myself after I had eaten the Suffolk Gold cheese...

The question I was asking myself was: How can the cheese be so tremendous in its flavour? To answer this question, I went to Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses and asked Jason, the owner of this small family-run business, what the reason of the great flavour was...

Happy Cows at Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses

Delicious Smoked Fish from Suffolk

Have you ever tried smoked fish from Suffolk? If not, you missed something in your life! My parents came to visit me and I wanted to show them how beautiful England and especially East England was. We made a trip to Suffolk and ended our trip in Orford, where we visited the nice small church and the beautiful castle. 

My mother wanted to eat fish, as she doesn't eat a lot of fish in Germany, so we decided to go the Butley Orford Oysterage restaurant which is located between the castle and the church and which offers local produce. I asked the waitress what would be the best fish they offer, and she told me i should try smoked fish. After I tried it, I couldn't believe my gustative nerve, can you imagine why?

Smoked Fish

Scrumtious Oysters

To be honest, I didn't want to write about sea food because I'm not an expert in it, but then I went to Colchester with a couple of friends to visit this beautiful town in Essex. As this was an exhausting trip, a friend proposed to eat something which is produced or grown locally. We came up with Richard Haward's Oysters, which didn't really convince me, because I usually don't like things I haven't tried before. But after having tried the oysters, I am proud to say I'm a big fan of oysters now!

Awesome in taste - Oysters

Better than French Wine...

What is better than having a nice wine for dinner? Right, there is almost nothing comparable to a good wine. I usually prefer nice French wines because they have an outstanding quality, but then i heard of Carter's Vineyards in Colchester. A friend told me that they produce the best English wine and that i should really try it. So I went to Carter's Vineyard, bought a bottle of King Koel red wine and was impressed when I first tried it. Incredible flavour, this wine is better than any wine I ever drank before!

Magnificent Wine

Carter's Vineyards is a very small business, providing its customers with a good service, high standards and quality wines . It is run by Ben Bunting who is a vineyard enthusiast and puts a lot of effort in his business. His love and devotion is the reason for the company's brilliant reputation and his customers are always satisfied with his great wines. If you like wine, there is no way to circumvent Carter's Vineyards wine, especially the exciting King Koel, a red wine with complex flavours of redcurrants, raspberries and liquorice and gentle tannins from its eleven months ageing in French oak barrels. Besides, it has already won several awards, for example East Anglian Wine of the Year 2006, Founders Trophy 2006 and Gold Medal Winner 2006.

If you want to visit, call or buy a product of this local producer, I have provided the address, the telephone number and e-mail-address below:

 Carter's Vineyards

Green Lane, Boxted
Colchester
Essex
CO4 5TS

Tel: +44 (0) 1206271136
Email: enquiries@cartersvineyards.co.uk

 

Healthy, Tasty, Fresh - Fruit

Do you like apples? If  your answer is yes, I have got the right farm for you to buy them. The Park Fruit Farm near Frinton-on-sea on the Essex-Suffolk boarder grow more than 40 varieties of fresh, organic and tasty apples. I have been to the farm and I have to admit that I was really overwhelmed by the friendliness and kindness there. As the range of different varieties of apples is so astonishing, I couldn't choose which apples to buy, so they let me try all the apples I wanted to...

Park Fruit Farm Apples

A worldwide-known Salt...

Have you ever heard of Maldon Salt? I had heard of it before I came to England, but I hadn't known that it was a small family run business in Essex. Maldon Salt is a high quality, unique and prestigious produce which is still hand-harvested and known all over the world...

Maldon Salt

Great Mustard from Suffolk

As I have a sweet tooth, I love sauces with my meals, especially mustard, which can be eaten with ham sandwiches, sausages and English breakfast of course. My favourite mustard is "Classic English Mustard" produced by Stoke Sauces in Suffolk, because I like its hot and strong flavour.

Classic English Mustard

Hidden in the heart of rural Suffolk, Stoke Sauces was founded in 2004 with the belief that food should be honest, clean and taste delicious. All the products are hand-produced and Stoke Sauces has already won awards for their sauces, as they only use best ingredients for its mustard, mayonnaise or sauces. I can strongly recommend "Classic English Mustard", but if you don't like its strong and hot taste, you can just try one of the other 74 products they offer!

If you want to visit, call or buy a product of this local producer, I have provided the address, the telephone number and e-mail-address below:

Essfoods Limited

Rendlesham Hall

Rendlesham

Woodbridge

Suffolk IP12 2RG

Tel: 01394 462150

Email: sales@stokessauces.co.uk

Golden Cheese for Everyone

When talking of local produce in the counties Essex and Suffolk, there is probably one thing which must not be missing - dairy products and especially cheese from Suffolk! Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses have 2 main cheeses, the Suffolk Gold and the Suffolk Blue cheese and they both are untouchable in flavour...

 

Suffolk Gold Cheese

The best ham I've ever eaten...

If you are a meat fanatic as I am, I can really advise you to try Wicks Manor Farm's ham. This succulent ham has a great flavour and is available in different types, you can either have smoked or unsmoked ham or even honey roasted ham.

Tasty Ham

Since I tried this ham first, I've never tried any other ham, because in my eyes it is the best ham in the world! Wicks Manor Farm ham is butchered, cured and cooked on the farm in their ham room, which was especially built for this produce. The reason I love Wicks Manor Farm is that the pigs are born and bred on the farm and that they have plenty of space to live and enjoy their lives. Wicks Manor's pigs are happy, and that's why the ham is so delicious. The pigs are sent to a local abattoir before being returned to our licensed cutting plant on the farm. A short trip to the abattoir means the meat quality is fantastic. If you want to try ham, try Wicks Manor's ham and you won't be disappointed!


If you want to visit, call or buy a product of this local producer, I have provided the address, the telephone number and e-mail-address below:

Wicks Manor

Witham Road

Tolleshunt Major

Maldon

Essex CM9 8JU

Tel: 01621 860629

Email: fergushowie@wicksmanor.co.uk

Aspall Cyder - a must for everyone...

Before I came to England, I had never heard of Cyder in my life. As I really love the Counties Essex and Suffolk and their local produce, I thought I should try Cyder which is locally produced. One of my friends recommended Aspall Suffolk Cyder because according to him this was the best Cyder he has ever drunk...

Aspall Suffolk Cyder