… one of my reasons for starting this blog was to extol the virtues of Lincolnshire food and Lincolnshire producers… a much neglected and often over-looked county (just try playing ‘Where’s Lincolnshire?’ next time you watch the BBC Weather…) … and whilst I regularly use produce, when in season, from the county I feel that I haven’t really sung it’s praises regularly enough…
… and so whilst thinking about what kind of Christmas presents to buy our dear friends Richard and Peter, (both foodies) the idea of a Lincolnshire hamper came to mind… I like to call it ‘gifting with produce’… or even ‘locally sourced love’… but most definitely a ‘present with pride’.
The Lincolnshire Hamper contains:
A bottle of Heart of Gold cold-pressed rapeseed oil
A bottle of Belvoir Ginger Cordial
A jar of Lincolnshire Honey
A pack of Lincolnshire Poacher cheese
A pack of Cote Hill Yellow cheese
A loaf of Myers Lincolnshire Plum Bread
… and because it’s soon to be the new year and I’m so damn proud… (drum-roll please) … for the first time ever on this little blog of mine, I am giving away a Lincolnshire Hamper, as above, to one of my lucky readers… all you have to do is post a comment telling me what your favourite local food is (local to you, that is…) and I will randomly pick a winner in the new year… because the giveaway is food based i’m afraid its UK address’s only please but this doesn’t mean my international friends cannot enter, they could win this for a UK based friend or relative… lovely… good luck to all… and may I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2011!
eat and of course, enjoy!
I work opposite Borough Market in London and if I have time at lunchtime I love to browse all the stalls. There is a butcher's (unfortunately I'm too busy looking at the produce so don't know it's name) that makes fantastic sausages and I'm always trying different ones.
Wow – very generous of you! Living in Edinburgh it would be hard to pick my fave local food, haggis (veggie of course!) or a deep fried mars bar!!! Joking, I'm pretty hooked on a locally produced rapeseed oil at the mo, can't be beaten ;0)
Oooo! Belvoir Ginger Cordial! You lucky thing!
Let me think… really local would be fruit, veg and eggs from my garden and jars of honey from the beekeeper up the road. But more seriously you cannot beat the Old English Sausages from my local butcher at Kedington, Suffolk.
Other favourites are Aspall Cyders and Vinegars from Stowmarket in Suffolk and smoked eel from River Farm Smokery just over the border in Cambridgeshire. And bread from Cobs Bakery in Cambridge is always a treat… there's so much to choose from!
Happy New Year
Celia
I live in the Black Country and my favourite local food is groaty pudding, a rich heartly stew made out traditionally out of groats but made more often now from lentils. I love it!
Thank you for having a giveaway
oh that all looks soooo yummy dom! you are such a fantastic supporter of local food!
hmmm here in chelmsford there isn't much that springs to mind, although I do buy chutneys and cheeses from the farmers markets….
Tiptree jams and sauces and lemon curd line the top shelf in my fridge….little scarlet strawberry jam is a MUST in the summer!!
My parents have a house in NOrfolk and we regularly stuff our faces with cromer crabs…
you've inspired me! i'm off to collect some goodies for a new years meal….let's see what i can find 🙂
Happy new year DOM!
Am down in London so, other than mentioning things like pie and mash or eels (which I've not yet had) it's hard to think of much that's local.
I'd go either with the joys of cooking with our home-grown produce…
Or, what makes me proud of London, in a food sense, is the incredible diversity of cuisines here, and the quality of cooking. Anyone who still trots out the 60s and 70s line about British food being rubbish ought to be dragged around London with me for a week!
Gotta be cumberland sausage when i head back north for the holidays. handmade by the butcher in my hometown, delicious.
that with the coniston blue bird bitter from the conistion brewery
What a generous giveaway!
I live near Ely, in Cambridgeshire, which used to be famous for it's local eels (the name's a bit of a clue!). Unfortunately the eels are becoming too rare to be readily available, but that doesn't stop smoked eeels being one of my favourite smoked fish.
Being East Anglian also means I know where Lincolnshire is – does that give me a better chance?(Just kidding!;))
These little berries are not your favorite, but local to me are cranberries. They also produced cranberry honey from the bees who live on the bog. What a wonderful give away. Good luck to all my UK friends.
Oh you lovely lovely man – I'm certainly up for getting my mits on this gorgeous hamper. I drink the belvoir cordials and had no idea they came from Lincolnshire.
I'm very lucky down here in Cornwall and am completely spoilt for choice, but if I really had to plump for one thing, it would have to be clotted cream.
Quite fancy the idea of being dragged around London by Kavey!
In Northamptonshire my fav local product is brixworth pate.
I live in the lovely county of Sussex and there is a fabulous cheese produced here called Sussex Charmer which is a cross between chedder and parmasan cheese, two of my favourites! I'll have to send you a wedge Dom. Sam.x
What a lovely give away! Oh how I wish I lived in the UK! Your hamper looks like it's filled with a nice selection of your local bounty! Best wishes to the UK winner!
MY favorite food would have to be my wild Maine blueberries, I like to think of them of “blue gold.”
Looking forward to spending more time “visiting” with you in 2011! Happy New Year my friend!!!
Happy New year and thank you, my favourite local foods are Stilton, the village is 3 miles away but its not made there any more. I love it with a passion, I do like my cheeses and already have my eye on the two in your hamper.
A bit further afield we have Melton Mowbray and the home of the Pork Pie, I will travel for my food delights.
This is a lovely food basket and I wish everyone luck.
It's important to promote your local food culture. I applaud your efforts.
Cheers.
Velva
PS Yes please to your comment on my blog for making this the year we meet up. Shall we be more specific and give ourselves an end of Jan deadline? Or end of Feb? 😉
I live in lancashire and I love lancashire mild cheese made from a local cheese maker near garstang, preston
just caught up with this post Dom, totally with you on all of those things – tho my Mum's plum bread is the best. In Louth last year I bought some cold stuffed pork chine – fantastic! and try buying that anywhere but Lincolnshire
Happy New Year.
I am in Cajun country – south Louisiana, and one of my favorite local foods is tasso, a smoked premium lean cut of spicy pork or beaf used for seasoning or just to eat as-is. I have a new blog-friend in the UK I would love to win this for. (I LOVE YOUR KITCHEN!)
I love this idea (I'm from Lincolnshire but in London). Whenever I go back I try to go to The Cheese Society in Lincoln (one of favourite restaurants!. My friend always gives us the most amazing Lincolnshire sausages from the butcher's in Market Rasen too.
I have two. One of them is a cider, so I think we'll give that one a miss, because you're asking about food, not alcohol.
I like perl las blue cheese. Apparently, when it was first made, it wasn't meant to be blue. Just a happy coincidence!
You've left sausages out of the hamper, Dom. Criminal. Lincolnshires are the #1!
This is a wonderful idea – got me thinking about what I would include in an Aberdeenshire hamper.
I think I'll go for safe and boring and say oats. I use them a lot and think they are a wonderful kitchen staple. Alford is not far from here and is famous for its oatmeal. Or I could say Aberdeen Angus. Or the langoustines or haddock fished just a few miles from here.
Yes, I have changed my mind – I'm going for haddock as my favourite. I love a good fish supper – the beautiful, huge, chunks of juicy white fish within the crispy batter, or smoked haddock especially in Cullen Skink – the Laird of soups – and Cullen is just a few short miles from here too. Haddock!
My favorite local food would have to be the raisin filled shortbread cookies, made by a little elderly lady, at The Anderson's General Store. A rich raisin sauce between two layers of cookie, they're big, moist, and have the most wonderful old fashioned taste. I by them by the dozen and keep them in my freezer for extra special treats.
I love making food hampers as gifts. Along with some wine I put in a bottle of apple juice from our local apple farm.I usually include two local cheeses, Baylough cheddar & Cashel Blue, some Clonakilty black & white pudding & some of my own homemade pate or tomato relish, a box of really good crackers & a bag of Bewleys coffee beans. I also add a homemade lemon drizzle cake which everyone seems to enjoy. If it's Christmas time I put in some homemade cranberry & port sauce.
The only problem is nobody ever thinks to do something similar in return which would actually be a brilliant present for me.
I'm very lucky living where I do in East Devon, by the seaside – loads of great local produce to choose from. However, choose I must and I'm going to pick Denhay Cheddar from just over the border in Dorset – available in my cheese shop in town, but also in every Waitrose, as it's their own brand West Country Cheddar. Nice and mature, cut from the truckle, without the little calcium lactate crystals – I know some love those, but I don't!
Am I too late? I hope not! Well, here goes . . . I have just discovered a new microbrewery in Kentish Town (north London) which produces a fabulous light ale called Camden Town Ale . . . grassy with a hint of butterscotch. Be still my beating heart!
And not strictly local to me, but to my family (who I visit about once a month) in Bingley in Yorkshire. There is a fishmonger (whose name may or may not be Steve) in Bingley market who comes down from Grimsby about 3 times a week (and frankly I think my dad is keeping him in business since he buys so much fish). His fish is fab and fresh but he also hot smokes his own salmon . . . a little taste of fishy heaven!