Prize Winning Green Fingers

We've talked a lot about our pigs and meat products but just as important is the horticulture work that goes on at Redborne. The farm produces a range of seasonal vegies and Jan is able to transform every scrap of land and even recycle a few interesting items into planters that are full of blooming flowers and plants.

Over the last year the grounds have bloomed in an array of beautiful colours and shapes and smells (all pleasent we promise). The latest plans for the coming year are: A Strawberry Cream Tea and a whole series of fruit and vegetable pick your owns. If you want more information on seasonable fruit and veg then feel free to get in touch.

Recipes

We thought it would be nice to have some inspiring Recipe suggestions using Products from Redborne:


This week we thought we'd treat you to two recipes the first thanks to www.lovepork.co.uk

Gammon and Sausage Paella

From: 'Love Summer, Love Pork'

• Serves 4
• Cooking Time 30 mins

Recipe ingredients

225g (8oz) Smoked gammon steak, fat removed and
cut into cubes
2 Spicy pork sausages, thickly sliced
15mlsp (1tbsp) Olive oil
1 Onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 Cloves garlic, squashed
5mlsp (1tsp) Smoked paprika
300g (10oz) Short grain paella rice
Pinch saffron, infused in a little water
1.1 litre (2pts) Pork stock
Seasoning
1 Orange pepper, deseeded and chopped
225g (8oz) Green beans, tails removed

Preparation

In a large shallow pan heat oil and add onion and garlic. Cook until starting to soften. Add the gammon and sausage, continue to cook until browned.

Add the paprika and the rice, cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add the saffron plus water and about half of the stock. Stir well, add pepper and beans. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Add more stock during the cooking as it becomes absorbed, stir and then leave to absorb all the flavours.

Serve straight away as soon as rice is tender and liquid absorbed.


The next recipe one of our own:

Huevos Rancheros

Serves 4
Cooking time 20mins

Recipe ingredients

500g Bacon
2 Avocadoes
500g Cherry tomatoes
1 Onion
4 eggs
4 Tortillas
Tomato Puree
1 Tin of Black Eyed Beans
200g Grated cheese
1 Lime

Preparation

Make the salsa by chopping the tomatoes, peeling and dicing the onion and avocadoes and adding to a bowl with the juice of one lime. Mix well and set aside.

Fry the bacon in a dry non stick pan (Good bacon shouldn't need any fat). Whilst the bacon is cooking spread the tortillas with tomato puree like a pizza base, sprinkle with black eye beans and cheese and place under the grill until the cheese bubbles.


Add the bacon to the tortilla and fry the eggs in the bacon fat, Top the tortillas with salsa and the fried eggs and serve.


Redborne Farm sells bacon, fresh eggs and a range of sausages.


If you value local food why not search on these websites for more suppliers:


http://www.artisanfoodtrail.co.uk/

http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/

http://www.farmshop.uk.com/

Enter your postcode to find local food:

The Importance of Welfare

On occasions a student will ask, 'Why do you look after the animals when you're only going to eat them anyway?'

The answer isn't a simple one and stems from where we choose to draw the line. We could produce a larger quantity of cheap products and ensure that all of our animals are kept in very sterile conditions. We feel that this doesn't produce a happy animal, happy animals produce larger litters of piglets, are healthier and if we're honest taste a lot better.

We have tried wherever possible to give all our animals the best conditions, from our free range chickens and turkeys to our sheep with their extensive grazing. Even our pigs are spending more time outside furrowing and digging in the soil displaying their natural behaviour. The breeds we keep strive to give the animals the best possible life, they are slow to grow and mature giving them plenty of time to develop and grow. This puts less stress on the animals producing rich, deep flavours and a product that staff and students can be proud of.

For more information on better welfare products see:

http://www.lovepork.co.uk/pork-promise?gclid=CK2OqeXZ2a0CFcsKtAoddmw8lg

From egg to plate: The Turkey Story

At Redborne School farm your Christmas Turkey undergoes quite a Journey. They arrive in July as day old chicks. And are counted into their brood pen. The brood pen has deep warm bedding and lots of warm lamps to keep them toasty. At first they are fed on chick crumbs specially designed for easy digestion.

The Turkeys are injected to prevent a range of common illnesses to give them a happy active life free to enjoy the large outdoor pen they roam in the day time.

The Turkey's are secured at night in a warm barn heated during the worst weather. Students feed and care for the animals throughout the summer and all the way through until December. Our turkeys, being free range and slow growing traditional breeds take at least 6 months to grow to maturity. This differs from mass produced birds taking just 3 months. The length of time a bird takes will affect the overall taste, the longer they live the more depth of flavour.   

The Turkeys are plucked by the Farm students. Plucking by hand is a very laborious process and takes a considerable amount of skill. Students start with limited or no experience and tend to leave us with a new skill few people in the UKcurrently posess.

The Turkey is finally finished and prepped for the oven by Redborne Staff ensuring a high quality product for Christmas Day. In order to produce these turkeys it takes hundreds of hours of labour over months at a time to ensure that one meal is picture perfect.