Sunday 11 March 2018

A new source of meat

As you know, I am very fond of vegetables, but I am not a vegetarian. I like meat - especially good-quality meat - and I have recently found a new source of it, and it is this that I want to write about today.


A few weeks ago we discovered (purely by chance) that there is a small market in nearby Farnborough every Friday. When I say small, I mean only 3 or 4 stalls, but one of those belongs to the delightfully named "Abby's Happy Farm". This stall carries a surprisingly wide range of meat products, as well as complementary items like eggs (chicken and duck), honey, vinegars, chutneys etc. The first time we saw the stall we were a bit dubious, because Farnborough is not noted for its high-class shops or cuisine, and stalls selling cheap meat of indeterminate origin would most likely be more typical there. However, we had a chat with the stallholder (I know she is not Abby!) and were pleasantly surprised to find that all the meat comes from grass-fed animals reared on local, traceable farms, and much of it from Abby's Happy Farm itself, which is in the village of Herriard (about 15 miles from here). Incidentally, that village is also the place of origin of the award-winning cheese called Tunworth.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, we bought a few items to try. We initially tried some fairly "safe" things like plain Pork sausages, Chicken breast and shin of Beef, mainly so that we could compare them with their supermarket equivalents. We were not disappointed. When cooked, the beef went meltingly tender and the sausages didn't ooze watery white gunk! I would say that the prices were marginally more than what you would pay in a supermarket, but the quality was a huge amount better. When you get good meat, you need less of it too, because it seems more satisfying and there is often less to throw away (e.g. fat and gristle).

Chicken Breast - 2 for £3.50

Next time we visited the stall we were a bit more adventurous, and bought some less-ordinary items like a Ham hock, a whole Chicken, two Venison steaks, some Merguez sausages (good in a tagine, with cous-cous) and even a piece of Morcilla (a Spanish-style blood sausage, a bit like Black Pudding). To be honest, we didn't enjoy the Ham hock, but that's probably more a reflection on our tastes than the quality of the meat. It just never went as falling-apart tender as we pictured it would. Maybe we cooked it wrongly? Likewise, although the Morcilla tasted nice, it was a lot softer than we had anticipated, and it disintegrated on cooking. The Merguez however were fabulous, a great texture with just the right level of spicing, and we are now hoping to get more of them as soon as possible

Star purchase though was some diced Mutton. Mutton is not widely available in the UK. It seems to have fallen out of favour. Most people think of it as being old (probably tough) Lamb. We had actually hoped to get some Goat, with which to make a Caribbean curry, but Goat was not in season, so the Mutton was our second choice. It was really good - very tasty meat, and cooked long and slow it was very tender too. In my opinion it was far superior to Beef or Lamb in this context. I personally think that a lot of the meat sold in our supermarkets today is too "young" - it is sold very soon after slaughter and has had little time to mature and develop flavour. Most people know that extended ageing of beef for steaks is a good thing, so why do they think that Stewing Beef should be sold two days after slaughter?


Diced Mutton - £11.50 per kilo

Anyway, we are hooked now, and are visiting Farnborough every Friday, just to get meat from this stall. I have to say that one of the things we like best about it is that the lady who runs it is really pleasant - chatty, informative, polite, not at all pushy - and genuinely proud of the produce on offer. This counts for a lot in these day of surly, clueless shop-assistants and socially-sterile Self-checkout supermarkets.

This Friday's purchases were two Chicken Breasts, two Mutton Chops, a pack of diced Mutton and a pack of Lamb Mince. Jane and I may well be arguing over who gets to cook what!

Mutton Chops - £12.50 per kilo

Lamb Mince - £8.95 per kilo

Some of you may say that you can get cheaper meat than this. I'm sure that's true, but I believe quality takes precedence over price, and furthermore I like the idea of supporting small local businesses in preference to huge greedy corporates with their dubious commercial practices.

12 comments:

  1. We have cut down drastically on red meat. Any processed meat such as sausages or burgers (other than homemade, even our butchers own burgers contain ingredients that are not allowed) are banned. Also any bacon or ham. We are eating more poultry, fish, eggs and veggie meals. Eating out is tricky - it’s amazing how many recipes include bacon. Not a fad it’s following hospital advice.

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    1. Oh dear, that must be a real penance for you! My options are restricted by not eating fish or seafood.

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    2. We don’t eat seafood either. Actually we are enjoying our new diet. It’s fir Martyn really but I’m happy to go along with it.

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  2. I'm with Sue trying to cut down on meat, but I love it so, next to vegetables, that is. Your meat shop looks like heaven on earth, especially those mutton chops. Lamb chops here are full of gristle and bone and I would never pay the price of a rack.

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    1. We've never had Mutton chops. Have you got any good recipes for them?

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    2. No. I've never seen mutton sold in the US. I was just comparing those mutton chops with only a small bone to the horrible lamb chops we get here. I've wanted to try something called Lancashire Hot Pot. (I read too many British cooking websites!)

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    3. Lancashire hotpot is a favourite of ours! My wife is from Lancashire. These days it's normally made with Lamb, because Mutton is not widely available.

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  3. WE buy all our meat from our local farm shop now and the price is great and is the quality. I now buy a lot of my veggies there too. And eat a lot of veggie food as well. Your find sounds great

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    1. The farm shop sounds like a good option. We have a couple near us, but they are very expensive. They position themselves as more like upmarket Delis.

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  4. Their shop is in Alton, and they will deliver locally.

    Sue Grant.

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    1. Yes, I have seen the FB page of Joyce & Lucas. I presume that they butcher the meat raised on Abby's Happy Farm?

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  5. This looks great. I keep meaning to try and find some Mutton to see how it differs. I might try at this week at my "grandmothers Butcher" whilst I'm over here.
    I haven't worked out what I would make with it yet though

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