by Simone Sekers THE first shrimping trip of the season is always a triumph of expectation over fulfilment, but the glittering May sunshine on the waves is so enticing that we can never resist. The very fact that there are waves is an indication that shrimping isn’t going to work – that chilly spring breeze…
MACCLESFIELD in Cheshire holds its Treacle Market on the last Saturday of every month; it’s a relatively new invention, aimed at bringing back life to one of the most attractive small towns that orbit Manchester. It reminded me of our own Frome Independent, the market stalls trickling down the hills and congregating wherever there’s a…
THE 2016 World Cheese Awards, run by the Guild of Fine Food, which is based in Gillingham, will be crossing the Bay of Biscay to take place in the Basque country, at San Sebastian during the city’s tenure as European Capital of Culture. As the dairy industry continues to experience challenging times, this is a…
IF there is one thing you won’t hear at the end of one of Steven Oxford’s baking courses at the historic family bakery near Sherborne, it is “We need more buns!” The five of us who enjoyed a baking day at Alweston before Christmas went home laden with enough mouth-watering baked goods to stock a…
IN late November I joined some 250 white-coated cheese assessors from across the globe, assembled at the NEC to officiate at the World Cheese Awards. Nigh on 3,000 cheeses, (2,727 to be exact) spread across 62 judging tables meant approximately 42 cheeses for each judging team to assess within two and a half hours. It’s…
HERE in the UK we are using the week to pay homage to that wonderful sweet sticky substance that is made by bees from the nectar of flowers. Yes, National Honey Week is here and it’s time you too got stuck in. Besides keeping the peas on your knife (only joking, Mr Debrett, I know…
by Simone Sekers ALL our friends have just had, or are about to have, holidays which take them, laboriously, to foreign parts. Jordan for one lot, a tour down the Duoro for another. To their surprise, we have just returned from a five-day trip to Bedfordshire (“Bedfordshire?”’ was asked in the tones of Algy’s aunt…
ON the first stage of our home-bound flight from Alaska, from Anchorage to Seattle in Washington State, I got into one of those unpredictable, expansive conversations you sometimes have on a plane. The passenger next to me was a courtly old man who clearly wanted to chat. He was in his late 80s and a…
If you were among the thousands of cheese lovers who headed to Sturminster Newton for this year’s record-breaking Cheese Festival, you probably bought a selection of the delights on offer, took them home and put them in the fridge. Wrong! Here’s how to do it … Dude, where’s my cheese? THE size of fridges has…
by Simone Sekers IT’s raining again, and so I am searching through my collection of tattered recipe books for something to do with the glut of mulberries we are enjoying. These are fruit about which much is written in terms of flavour, but little in terms of what to do with them. Many people don’t…