Author: footloose

I’m Carol but I am also often known as ‘The Sausage Roll Lady’! As I run The Sausage Roll Kitchen as well, from my home where I live with my very own permanent ‘quality controllers’ – My Firefighter Husband Matt and my two children – Noah and Annie.

I grew up cooking with an AGA so whilst daunting for some it comes naturally to me, so it made sense to start the businesses using the AGA as at least one was always on! I have run The Sausage Roll Kitchen for a number of years now, so there is always someone at our kitchen table expecting food, and a waft of pastry fills the air constantly so I’m told, think I have become nose blind to it!

Emsworth is a quite coastal village in the south of England

Where you can find the Coal Exchange and one of the best home cooked pub lunches on the South Coast

They offer an extensive but simple menu which includes all the popular wholesome pub meals. Generous portions of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, a large beer battered cod fillet served with chips, baked ham egg and chips or steak and ale pie.

To be finished off with something sweet homemade and drowned in cream

One of the few outdoor markets I have been to, with a bit of character, is the Hampshire Farmers Market in Emsworth.

Held in the Village Square the stalls are interesting and imaginative.

Offering the best scotch eggs on the South Coast

Hand cut homemade pork pies

And artisan bread. Just some of the stalls to be browsed on a lazy Saturday morning.

“My best ever memory of true baking success was when I was about 3 or 4 years old & I made fairy cakes with my long suffering Mum. My Dad came home from work & I was so excited … Dad took a bite & rolled on his back with his arms & legs in the air to play dead – I just KNEW he loved them.”

As do so many of the customers who have found the Baking Bird, Lizzie Crow on her bun run.  Homemade pies, savouries, quiches, tempting tarts, drizzled cakes and puff pastries.

The kitchen in her Dorset cottage is always busy. The walls lined with pots and pans, with herbs and ingredients in every nook and cranny and  the wholesome heady aroma of freshly baked bread, cakes and pastry.

A regular at the Dorset Farmers Markets she can also be found  at the Royal Standard  in  Upwey.

I had an hour to kill in Midhurst. So I settled myself into a tearoom run by Neil and Theresa Cannings.

Tilly’s of Midhurst fronts onto Rumbolds Hill so you can’t miss it. But it is far enough away from everything else to make it a little different. They serve breakfast, light lunches and traditional afternoon teas.

I was tempted by the home cooked Gammon Platter but settled for a bowl of soup with a thick slice of bread as it was still a bit early for lunch.

 

One party request  that led to another, the start of what has become Fee’s Food. Being asked to do something that makes people happy.

A simple beginning that has grown into a coffee shop, a catering service and online oven ready meals.

Situated in Rock everything is done by hand in small batches and by people who are passionate about what they do.  Where the ready made meals are prepared with the same ingredients and care as one expects from a home run kitchen.

There are no shortcuts or compromises, just delicious, wholesome, homemade and unfussy food.

Such as Alfie’s home baked doughnuts. Handmade from scratch with a choice of vanilla custard, chocolate and raspberry jam or the Smoked Haddock Rarebit that is a firm favourite in the shop. Perfect quick lunch, light mid week supper or if spread on small pieces of toast, an incredibly moreish canapé.

 

Cider is the traditional drink in Wales and a new generation of artisan craft producers are reviving the old traditional methods of production.

Producers like Toloja Orchards additive-free range of traditional Welsh craft cider produced from handpicked and pressed apples from their orchards and small farm overlooking Cardigan Bay in West Wales.

They also produce a cider brandy, mead, apple and pear wine as well as cider vinegar which goes into the wide range of gourmet mustards.

The Foxcombe Bakehouse started with the family farm shop. Baking cakes and pasties in Lewdown, a small village off  the old A30 in Devon. Later the family moved to  Foxcombe Farm

Not far from where it all started. As the business started to build a reputation for home cooked food, demand grew and the need for a purpose built bakery to keep up.

The Tea Barn at Durleighmarsh Farm specialises in some of the best homemade cakes to be found locally.

A real passion is all things cake led naturally to afternoon teas. A fine treat that is always homemade, fresh and seasonal. They use quality ingredients serving them with loose leaf tea or freshly ground coffee if preferred. Afternoon teas are available from early afternoon and require 24 hours notice as everything is made fresh to order.