|
September brings us Shades of Autumn…͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
|
September 2022 | Issue 27
|
Another month, another monthly post…We are happily enjoying the last of the summer, basking in the warm September sun. As the seasons progress, we move into darker nights and cooler days - which for us means preparations for Halloween and Christmas! This Halloween we are launching another Kingfisher Kids Competition. We’d love to see your little ones baking for our Scary Cookie Competition. Read more about that and find out how to enter here. A small reminder: Did you know that you can return your empty glass jars to us? That’s right, we will return your empties back to the relative business to be re-used. We work hard with our local suppliers to be more sustainable. These businesses include; Debbie’s Preserves, our local Bee Keeper’s, Tam’s Preserves, Toats Mylk and Aldhurst Farm. This month we have lots to share…an authentic gazpacho recipe from Natasha (a team member with ace cooking skills), get to know the team behind London Fermentary, read about our new compost kiosk, and we have exciting news about the Farm Shop.
|
The first signs of Autumn…
|
|
Inspiration for roasts and crumbles… The most bright & bold blooms… Hydrangeas Sunflowers Dahlias
|
|
|
|
|
|
Open for business…A new addition to our outdoor garden shop is a Compost Kiosk, making it much easier for you to pay for plants, compost, seeds, pots and fuel. There are also a few garden essentials at the Compost Kiosk; plant food and refillable bags with more to come! The Compost Kiosk is always open, but please do help yourself to information inside if it isn’t manned. All of the compost is 100% peat-free, and we offer a refill service with bags-for-life and the Kingfisher compost bucket scheme - a great way of reducing single-use plastic consumption. Barrie is particularly enjoying the perks of the job - sitting in the shade, with tea in hand and chatting to passers by! Remember, we now sell compost online too…find it here.
|
Maddings Café…We’ve recently started working with Maddings Café. It’s an exciting collaboration for us, as they have added our wonderful homegrown watercress onto their menu. Maddings has recently opened with imaginative and modern English food - the menu is an all day, farm to fork affair. It all looked utterly delicious, it’s the perfect brunch spot. There are plenty of other local producers on the menu, something that is important to the business. Situated at Whipley Manor Farm, a working farm with a vibrant complex of retail businesses alongside the café; a wine shop, florist, farm shop, deli and photographic gallery. We popped down to meet the team and to discuss future plans…Barrie was thoroughly impressed and proud to see our watercress on the menu! The team at Maddings have been incredibly creative with the café’s interior, from the utensil tins on the table to the birch bark feature wall, everything inside has it’s own little story. We love to see local businesses using our watercress, new collaborations are always exciting! If you’d like to chat with us about purchasing watercress for your business, then simply contact us to discuss an order.
|
Exciting news…Many of you will have spotted a few changes on your last trip to Kingfisher. We are having a new entrance installed at the front of our Farm Shop…which means we are asking customers to use a temporary entrance, situated at the back of the building. It’s just for now…and hopefully our new doors will be open very soon! The Farm & Flower Shop are open as usual…but don’t forget you can also pop online for a spot of shopping in the meantime. We will deliver groceries, flowers and much more, straight to your doorstep. Our electric van is out and about from Tuesday to Saturday, delivering locally throughout the Surrey Hills. We appreciate your co-operation whilst the works are taking place. Remember this is only temporary and the new alterations are definitely going to be an improvement to your arrival at the Farm Shop. We’re certainly looking forward to project completion very soon!
|
Meet London Fermentary…London Fermentary was registered in 2018, Elena is the driving force behind the brand. Andrei, her husband is always by her side, supporting, helping and buying the produce. We asked Elena about her customers and who they are… “All health-conscious people, people who want to improve and transform their life, people who understand importance of good bacteria in the human gut. Curious people, those who love umami flavours.” We certainly fall into that category, so let’s find out more…
|
|
“We got to know Kingfisher with our first business, Puntarelle&Co, when we imported Sicilian citrus fruits directly from Sicilian family growers. Marion would buy some amazing blood oranges from us. Kingfisher was the very first London Fermentary customer, very loyal and dedicated. Marion was very adventurous taking Fermented foods to the Farm Shop’s shelves in 2018. |
|
|
COVID-19 has only helped our business to grow. People became more aware how crucial is to look after themselves, by making better choices when it comes to food. People awakened more to the idea “we are what we eat”, as well as “it’s better to prevent illness, rather than treat the consequences”. Fermented foods fell perfectly into this movement, as it helps to build a more resilient immune system. Raw fermented food and drink are packed with high doses of live lactic acid bacteria. As we know, the majority of our immune system lives in our microbiome (the gut). Our gut is the house for billions of good bacteria, pathogens and viruses. In simple words, fermented food helps good bacteria in our gut to thrive and eliminates or suppresses pathogens, making the human immune system more resilient. |
|
|
|
|
Fermented foods are considered “functional & nutraceutical foods”, which means they have additional benefits, beyond supplying basic nutrition, such as dietary fibre, prebiotics, probiotics (even though we cannot use this word officially), antioxidants, vitamins, micro elements etc. Above all that, fermented food is super natural and delicious! We either buy ingredients directly from the farms we know, or from particular New Covent Garden Market suppliers. We really don't have much waste, as we only buy ingredients for the production. We buy our dry herbs and flowers for kefir water, from organic local sources when possible. London Fermentary was born from the idea of zero waste. I started to ferment vegetables that been left at the end of the week at Puntarelle&Co. We are not perfect example of sustainable business, simply because we don't live in a perfect world yet, where sustainability is not only a trend. We do all we can, where we can, to be sustainable as a business. It does come naturally in many areas, as growing up in Eastern Europe during post-Soviet Union times, Andrei and I didn’t have an abundant life, so some sustainability practices were learned from necessity and carried through the life on an everyday basis. Sustainability is a huge topic to discuss, I can talk about it for hours. In my opinion, everyone should be capable of fermenting basic veggies at home. It is so beneficial for your health, it’s delicious and you can save some "fridge lost" veggies by quickly fermenting them. There is a lot of info on our Instagram highlights named “summer ferments”. Go and have a browse there. I also run fermentation workshops via zoom, again these are usually announced on Instagram. If you are interested, please do follow our account and watch out for updates.” You can sign up to one of their workshops here.
|
|
|
|
Cut & Dried Crisps…Dried not fried! Made locally in the Surrey Hills, these are the perfect back to school, healthy snack. Choose from dried mango, kiwi, beetroot and many more! Find these crunchy crisps in a basket towards the back of our Farm Shop.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rowdy & Fancy’s…Ethically sourced coffee beans coated in a generous layer of delicious milk chocolate. This totally plastic-free pouch of goodness comes in a generous 150g size to keep you in snack heaven for longer! Find these chocolatey beans in a basket towards the back of our Farm Shop.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scary Cookie Competition…Calling all Kingfisher Kids! To celebrate Halloween this year, we’d really love all of our young Kingfishers (up to age 12 yrs old) to get baking. We want to be spooked by your most scary Halloween cookie or biscuit. The winner will win some Halloween treats! Head over to our website for information on how to enter.
|
|
|
|
