Hip hip hooray! It’s always good to give a cheer and, whilst we are jolly proud of our recent awards, we’ve also been delighted to welcome a team of heroes for the day, supporting Help for Heroes with a bee keeping experience for a group of wounded injured and sick veterans.
A regular saying of mine is ‘You’ve got to be in it to win it’ and this month we were very pleased to have entered the Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards an we have been awarded not one but two awards for both our Brentford Honey and our Garden Piccalilli.
A medium-hued honey with nice thick viscosity, this is interesting with complex flavours coming through mid-palate. One could taste the large variety of flowers that have contributed to the making of this very enjoyable honey. Guild of Fine Food
With this award under our belt, we were very excited as we started to harvest this year’s honey. As Winnie the Pooh says, ‘You never can tell with bees’ and we never know how much honey we will get each year, but after the sticky business of extracting it from the wax comb, it’s a great pleasure to affix the award sticker onto the finished jars!
Really attractive looking pickle… Refreshingly non-sweet and tangy….Would be lovely with ham. Guild of Fine Food
Our next award was for the recipe that we made for Xanthe Clay of The Telegraph back in 2011. Unlike a chutney, the vegetables in a piccalilli are salted rather than cooked to keep them crunchy then bathed in an Indian inspired vinegar based sauce that pickles and preserves them for many months. Whilst my daughter may not appreciate me posting this photo of us making it eleven years ago, I love that this recipe is still attracting attention!
As well as the awards above, which recognises some of the products that we make, we were delighted to be recognised as a London Attraction for our Courses and Bakery.
Apparently, with our FIVE STAR reviews, this places us in the top 10% of attractions worldwide! Thanks so much to everyone who has posted a review, we really appreciate it.
Just wanted to say the biggest of ‘thank yous’ for having us yesterday! You made us all feel so welcome and your passion and enthusiasm for bees and a sustainable lifestyle are inspiring Adrianna Duffill, Help for Heroes
Alongside our regular courses and weekly micro bakery, we always save some space in the diary for private events, such as Corporate Days, Schools Visits and any other group that wants to take time out to explore the good life in the city. So when Adrianna contacted us from Help for Heroes we were only too delighted to plan a special day for a group of veterans that have served our country as heroes.
Looking forward
We start a new series of Online Bread Classes in September and our business start up Become A Bread Angel – Start Your Own Micro Bakery
We’ll be gathering in the harvests, both at home and on the allotment , ready to preserve with Introduction to Pickles and Preserves on Tuesday 30th August
Our girls, all 27 of them!, will be centre of attention for Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens In London on Wednesday 31st August
We are bulk buying organic milk for Introduction To Making Cheese on Wednesday 7th September
Finally, as part of Sourdough September we invite you to join us for Full Day Making Sourdough on Tuesday 13th September
Other news:
- Our two male chicks have moved to their ‘forever homes’ where they will each have a flock of ladies each to entertain them!
- We’ve taken a chance and planted a Pomegranate tree, fortunately it seems to be thriving even with this dry weather
- It was a delight to train a new Bread Angel from Saudi Arabia, she was with us here at Hen Corner for two days and will continue her training virtually
Jobs for the week:
- Collect the apple press from Abundance London ready for Cider Sunday
- Borrow big pans for Apple & Chilli Jelly
- Write the final chapters for my book…
Thanks for joining us on the journey, let us know how you are preserving your gluts of homegrown fruit and veg!
Sara
6 comments
What a fabulously full newsletter and very well done on the Honey award! I am making lots of plum compote over here 🙂
Wonderful! Will you bottle it or freeze it? It sounds delicious
A mixture of those two things! Will see how far into autumn the stash will take us… 😉
We don’t have much fruit or veg. The squash flowers just stayed as flowers and dried up without turning into fruit. (Yes, we did water them!) We’ve had about 3 passion fruits and a handful of blackberries.
Wow! Passion fruits – très exotique
Erm, you haven’t seen them …