Food

Tuesday’s arrival of in-season Seville bitter oranges in the farm shop indicates that it is time to start marmalade making. The oranges are grown organically on the Ave Maria farm in the heart of Spain’s bitter orange growing region, where the orchards date back to the late 19th century and the increasing British appetite for…

The late summer warmth has been perfect for sweetening the ripe plums in the farm’s orchards. It’s been a pleasure to pick this year, and the plums are juicy and moreish. There’s no chance of saving them to make a crumble once you get a handful. In the farm shop now!

The flavour of autumn is wholly captured by the trusty apple. We have four great varieties in the farm shop now – recently picked from the farm’s orchard they each have admirable characteristics… Duke of Devonshire – a Cumbrian apple through and through. Developed by the head gardener at Holker Hall in 1835, this is an…

Milk was centre stage for a few moments this morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Discussing the government’s new food labelling system the presenter, Sarah Montague, wondered whether some foods, like milk, might be misrepresented as ‘bad’ which would sidestep its nutritional benefits. The health minister Anna Soubry quickly pointed out that milk is…

It’s Real Bread Maker Week, celebrating local skilled bakers, users of bread machines and, best of all,  hands that measure flour into bowls, mix and knead. Local bakers supplying Low Sizergh Barn are Staff of Life, Lovingly Artisan and Grange Bakery. These small bakeries have attitude about bread that we share here at the farm,…

Cumbria’s only fully functioning watermill is run by Ana and Nick Jones their small team of people at Little Salkeld in the north of the county. They have been there since 1975, milling organic and biodynamic specialist flours from 2 UK farmers. Nick chairs the Traditional Cornmillers Guild which commissioned filmmakers Taskscape Associates and the…

Everyone at Low Sizergh is thrilled to have won the Best Farm Shop category in the inaugural Cumbria Life Food and Drink Awards. Included in the judges’ assessment were our fabulous staff, the product range, and Cumbrian influences. It is certainly true that we wouldn’t be where we are without being where we are, which…

Looking around the orchard after the strong winds this week it’s striking how much fruit the apple trees have set. The tremendous blossoms of April have became the copious fruitlets of May. It’s time to thin, or in September we will be disappointed with our apples, and that’s a tragic prospect.

At the Watermill, Little Salkeld, yesterday, a few of us from Low Sizergh Barn learned about grains, blends of flour and the pleasure of bread baking. We met the miller, dusty with flour, listened to the huge stones grinding the biodynamic grains that come from English farms, and marvelled at old machinery. It was technology…