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Hopes for September sun… $$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
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September 2021 | Issue 15
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The start of a new season…Welcome back to those who have been away, hopefully you have brought the sun back with you. For those of you that have stayed along for the ride, let’s hope for an Indian Summer! Just a little mention must go to many of our younger members of staff who any day now will be packing their bags and heading off to universities all over the country. We would like to thank them all for their hard work and wish them well in what we hope to be an exciting new chapter for them. For those of you who follow us on Instagram, make sure you keep up to speed with our latest posts, including ‘recipe reels’, ‘Kingfisher tours’ and take a look behind the scenes featuring some of our fabulous staff. Thank you to those of you who have already donated to Dorking Area Food Bank. If you feel able to contribute, please pick up one of the leaflets from inside the Farm Shop and simply pop the items in your basket. They will then be delivered to the food bank fortnightly, along with our own donations. In this months post we feature local craftsmen and women, a selection of new watercress recipes, a reminder of our Kingfisher Kids competition and to round it up, our ‘meet the team’ article with Reese.
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Autumnal Produce…As the seasons shift and the plum and apple harvest begin, make the most of the very early varieties as they have such a short window! Fruit & Veg… Ringden Farm Apples Calabrese Corn on the cob Squashes Wild Mushrooms Rainbow Chard Romenesco Blackberries Plums
Flowers… Hydrangeas Sunflowers Dahlia Blooms
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A new lease of life for our shopping baskets…
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We are delighted to have some brand new handmade, British willow shopping baskets for you collect your shopping in, when you visit us. “Hand made”, “British willow “, doesn’t this sound indulgent? Not at all, and here is why. Our original shopping basket have given over 18 years service! Catherine Beaumont, a local basket maker, made our original shopping baskets for us. We have known Cat for many years and have always admired her beautiful basket work. We were fed up with the cheap, foreign made baskets not being able to take the demands of holding customers shopping.
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Cat took up the challenge to make us a shopping basket with great enthusiasm and before we knew it we had two towering stacks of beautiful, robust hand made shopping baskets. It did seem like a huge investment at the time. But over 18 years on, we can honestly be very proud of our investment. These baskets have worked very hard and have certainly been put to the test with all your shopping! They have so often received admiring compliments too. Over the last 18 months in particular, the strain of many years of shopping has started to really takes its toll on some of the baskets. A catch up chat with Cat, last autumn, we obviously talked baskets, and Cat offered to take away our baskets in need of repair and mend them. So now we have plenty of baskets for you to shop with for at least another 18 years!!
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Baskets were a vital container from the very start of our business growing watercress. Watercress was sent to market in baskets from 1854 up until the early 1960’s. They were made by Cobbetts, Guildford. Cat Beaumont completes this basket making story… She worked with a veteran basket maker, Jack West who had worked at Cobbetts up until the business ceased in 1971. She gained much of her traditional basket skills and techniques, as well as a wealth of knowledge from Jack West.
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Simple Watercress Recipes…We have been developing a selection of new recipe cards using our homegrown superfood watercress. These are readily available in the shop and will also be put in your box when you do an online order. We can prove to you just how versatile watercress can be:
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A little piece of Kingfisher History…A few months ago we rediscovered our R.Coe & Sons branding irons, which is Kingfisher’s original name (for those of you that didn’t know). This spurred a little investigating by Charlotte, an enthusiastic member of staff known for her interest in all things historic! Her findings are fascinating…who knew pieces of metal could hold so much history. The branding irons date back to pre 1950’s and were used to mark tools & wooden planks used at our watercress beds. Back then R.Coe & Sons had multiple sites, so staff branded equipment in order to keep track of them! The irons were a little worse for wear so Charlotte kindly organised to have them restored. Ian Swain (a traditional tool restorer) did a fantastic job of this and filled us in on some lettering history. Traditionally, brands were hand cut for about £2 a letter, which at the time was very cheap! He remembers Mr Mather, who hand-cut brands up until the 1990’s when he retired. Authentically made brands are very hard to come by these days…so ours are definitely worth cherishing! A big thanks must go to Charlotte and Ian for bringing them back to life.
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Flora makes another appearance on Instagram…
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Back by popular demand, Flora returns with another IGTV. This time she’s talking all things local, focusing on our fresh produce, sourced from 15 mile foods and Secretts. Both are just down the road and keen on reducing food miles, plastic waste and water waste. We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to understand where produce comes from so look out for these signs inside the farm shop… |
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And for those online shoppers, look out for this blue Union Jack! It tells you which produce is grown here in Britain. Now more than ever it’s really important to support local businesses and as a business based in the Surrey Hills, we are surrounded by producers. Watch Flora’s tour to find out more about 15 Mile Foods and Secretts… |
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Just a little reminder…Calling all Kingfisher Kids! This year we’d really love all our young Kingfishers (up to 12 years old) to give us a helping hand to design a Christmas card! We are asking for your most creative drawing of our Farm Shop along with a sentence on your favourite thing about Kingfisher. Our wonderful flower girl Jo, is going to be judging the entries. As you can see above, Jo adores drawing and has marked a number of events in Kingfisher life with one of her beautiful and often very funny drawings. HOW TO ENTER… Deadline for entries: Friday 1st October All artwork must be A4 size All artwork must be accompanied with: Please deliver original artworks to a member of staff at the Farm Shop. Good luck little Kingfishers!
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Field Goods…Field, freezer, fork! Field Goods produce ultimate comfort foods and are very serious about sustainability. Started by two brothers from Devon who moved to London to start a restaurant and now out of Covid have created Field Goods. All their meals are free range and enclosed in recyclable & compostable packaging (even the film is recyclable). Find them in our freezers: Aubergine Parmigiana Beef Lasagne Thai Green Chicken Curry Lamb and Apricot Tagine
And something for dessert?
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Blanco Niño…Blanco Niño’s founder, Nick, is in pursuit of the perfect tortilla & he isn’t far off! These corn chips are incredibly moorish. The brand name originated from Nick’s travels in Mexico, where he learnt the true method of making tortillas. The locals coined his new nickname - Blanco Niño! You can find these colourful bags inside the Farm Shop: Lightly Salted Ancient Grain Chilli & Lime
Accompany some of these delicious tortillas with our fab new dips from The Honest Bean Company.
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Babushka Bakery…A new venture by a local solo baker. She grew up with her Russian Babushka Rachel (Babushka means grandma in Russian) and was always so excited when she used to bake her babka every Friday. The sweet smell of babka baking in the oven filled the house. "At Babushka bakery I am all about handmade Babka cakes! While trying to keep the traditional methods, I am bringing it up to date with comforting flavours and textures, using chocolate hazelnut, cinnamon walnut, lemon with raspberries and many more."
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Meet Reece…Now you’re probably thinking ‘oh hey I recognise the ruggedly handsome guy in that photo, he deals in public relations at the front of the shop!’ And although once I encouraged guidelines, even assigned customers to personal shoppers and the like, alas my sweet dear customer… I’ve retired from the public eye, my tenure in line duty ending a mere few months ago. But don’t fret, if you dared to venture up to the watercress beds you would still find me and the man in blue, Stuart himself, nurturing the very watercress that graces Kingfishers shelf’s, the very same cress your great grandparents may have sustained themselves on during World War Two. It’s good here at the Farm Shop, it may surprise you but compared to some, I am still somewhat of a greenhorn at Kingfisher. I feel welcomed all the same and I’m thankful to be part of a place with such a deep heritage and excellent standard. I’m particular to the mead we sell, it’s alcohol that tastes like honey. I would also propose you grab yourself Nelly’s pork and apple scotch egg, microwave it for approximately 1-2 minutes and then dash it with some of our Tubby Toms Tubbyaki sauce if you really want to treat yourself for lunch!
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August’s WINNER is…. Rosemary Henderson You’ve won a Kingfisher Fruit Box! Throughout September we would love you to ask your friends and relatives to sign up to our Monthly Post with the chance of winning our Pick of The Month Flower Bunch - Dhalias! |
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