FOODIEbloggers
FROM CHEESE AND ALE TO LATE SUMMER PICNICS JOIN OUR FOODIE BLOGGERS AS THEY SHOP THEIR WAY AROUND THE WEST COUNTRY IN SEARCH OF THEIR FAVOURITE BITES
Salad Days
It’s funny what memories stay with you from childhood. One of my earliest was being stuck in a hot car with our jumpers pulled up over our noses as my parents brought back a particularly smelly camembert from France – even the passport control man at the ferry port recoiled in horror when my dad rolled down his window to hand over the documents. It was like a goat, a ferret and an old badger had died on the parcel shelf. At the time I would have been happy if I never clapped eyes on a piece of cheese again, but nowadays I couldn’t live without it. A slice of creamy brie, some oatcakes and a bunch of grapes and that’s my lunch sorted. A chunk of mature Cheddar and a crisp apple is pretty damn near perfection, especially eaten while standing up, gazing blankly out of a window. A wedge of aristocratic blue-veined stilton nibbled with a handful walnuts isn’t bad either, and don’t get me
started on melted goat’s cheese. Recently I’ve been introduced to a new organic brie from the people at Godminster in Bruton (of heart-shaped, purple-wax cheese fame). It comes in three flavours – plain, with peppercorns, and garlic and chives – and each one is creamy and distinctive in its own way. The cheeses are produced over the course of seven days using organic Jersey milk which is set using vegetarian rennet. The curds are hand-cut, scooped into moulds and hand turned, before being moved into drying rooms to let the flavours and creaminess develop. The result is a very nice cheese indeed. But don’t just take my word for it, go and buy one for yourself through
www.godminster.com or from delis and farmshops (RRP from £3.50 to £4.50). It looks great on the cheese board and gives the French brie a run for its money. Although I can’t vouch for what might happen if you left it in a hot car in the height of summer.
Living in Foodie Nirvana
CLARE HALL Editor of
Somerset based
countrycalling.co.uk
When the sun deigns to show its face my thoughts invariably turn to picnics. Best place in the West Country for them? For me it’s got to be the Quantocks with its choice of staggering Jurassic coastline, woodland and heart-stopping heathland. Hang around long enough and you’ll spot a disproportionate amount of wildlife, everything from red deer to woodpeckers. In my mind’s eye I’ll be unpacking a high-end picnic onto a vintage white tablecloth with not a tub of Tesco’s hummus or a packet of cheese and onion crisps in sight.
56 | THE WESTCOUNTRY FOODLOVER
CLAIRE BOWMAN Dorset based former Times food editor talks, tastes and writes about food most days for Positive PR
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60