Local Markets

One of the things we'll be doing with this blog is putting together a random collection of places to buy nice food in the North Staffordshire area. A kind of Food Lovers' Guide to North Staffs, partly inspired by Henrietta Green's groundbreaking survey of Britain back in the 1990s.

It's slightly confusing getting to grips with the various farmers' markets - although it's been very welcome to find them at all! Some way south of here, there's a peripatetic farmers' market which travels between Stone (1st Saturday of the month), Stafford (2nd Saturday) & Penkridge (3rd Saturday). These markets presumably attract the same suppliers. When we were up here earlier this year we went to the Penkridge market, which was excellent. It clashes with the Leek food market, also on the 3rd Saturday each month. On the fourth Saturday (the weekend just gone) there's a market at Eccleshall, which seemed to have different suppliers from Penkridge, from memory - more from south Cheshire and towards Market Drayton in Shropshire.

It was a nice little market held in the car park of the Royal Oak pub. About 10-15 stalls, selling a good variety of produce. We didn't actually need that much, but fancied going along to see what it was like. So, we were very impressed by the selection from Park Hill Farm - we got a beautiful looking piece of brisket and some beef mince. The mature cheshire cheese produced by H.S. Bourne is fantastic and a real find. We also got some very good bread from the London Road bakery in Stoke and some lovely eggs under the name Ben's Eggs & produced at Loggerheads. The egg people on Cambridge market told us to look out for eggs from Black Rock hens, so it's nice to see that's the breed used in this case. We still miss the great sourdough from the Cambridge bread stall - it doesn't seem to be available round here, at least on current evidence.

Creating a National Day?

On the Today programme this morning we heard that Gordon Brown, a man apparently keen to wrap himself in flags, wants the St George flag to fly from government buildings in England. Tireless promoters of the national cultural capital English Heritage are also keen for us to explore the 'many ways' in which St George's day can be celebrated. What these might be boils down to paying English Heritage the dosh they demand for access to the bits of heritage they curate.

Elsewhere noisy patriotism in Yorkshire and a Lancastrian businessman takes matters into his own hands.

But nobody will really take St George's Day seriously without it being a public holiday, will they? Otherwise it will just be that very modern English tradition of an annual press flurry and a collection of ways to cash in on a marketing opportunity.

23 April – St George's Day

Saint George has enjoyed a long history of veneration in the Christian church, although he is perhaps best known as the patron saint of England – as well as soldiers and boy scouts. Devotion to the saint as a soldier and martyr had its early centre at Diospolis (Lydda – Lod in present-day Israel) in Palestine (Donald Attwater, Dictionary of Saints). However, there is no early Life to give biographical details, as Attwater points out, 'as early as the beginning of the sixth century he was referred to as a good man “whose deeds are known only to God”'. The legendary details, maiden, dragon and all, were popularised in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend at the end of the Middle Ages.

The English haven't really embraced their patron saint in the more recent past. His cult was probably brought back by Crusaders at the turn of the twelfth century and it managed to displace that of Edward the Confessor by the middle of the fourteenth century (who still enjoyed a special status, as can be seen from the Wilton Diptych). The popular devotion to the saint was expressed through guilds and contfraternities which in late medieval English towns were the focus of local piety and religious fund-raising. He also makes an appearance in most of the Christmas mumming plays, in combat with the 'Turkish Knight' – called 'Bold Slasher' in the mumming play I remember from reading Enid Blyton's Christmas Book when little.

But the Reformation rather did for St George, as it did for other saints. As Steve Roud points out in The English Year, the saint's effigies did not escape the wrath of reform in the sixteenth century and ever since, there's been a degree of apathy, despite campaigns in the national press, marketing campaigns and the growing popularity of waving his flag to support the national sports teams. Whether this sporting connection – or scepticism towards the European Union – will lead to a renaissance in affection for the saint is another matter.

Ronald Hutton also charts the rise and fall of St George in The Stations of the Sun:

The compromising of St George's Day by its Catholic associations combined with England's subsequent lack of any dramatic national renewal to leave it unusual among nations in its total lack of a patriotic holiday.

The Victorians had a go at a revival, helped by the catholic revival in the Anglican Church, which reduced the English Church's ingrained hostility towards the saints. But the twentieth century, despite the efforts of press and marketing, has seen another decline, epitomised by the lack of an official holiday, to the present day.

Nevertheless, Saint George was in Leek in North Staffordshire the Saturday just gone, in Crusader garb on a white horse. It provided an opportunity for what seemed to be local re-enactors to get in their medieval costumes; and was a marketing ploy for the excellent fine food market, which is definitely one to re-visit in future weeks. It was perishing cold on Saturday, so we had a quick wander round, bought some steak pies, black pudding and a chicken carcass to turn into stock at 20p... We'll be back for the next one (it's every third Saturday), where we'll try to notice more than just the wind!

Jubilate Sunday - the 3rd after Easter

By any measurement the period of 'Hocktide', in pre-Reformation England a time of celebration and feasting to rival the twelve days of Christmas, is over by now. Ignoring the miserable two days of festivities prescribed by Edward VI's prime minister, the Duke of Somerset, we can't really stretch it to three weeks. It's the midpoint of the period between Easter and Ascension and when it comes to finding something to mark the seasons, the comprehensive nature of Bach's cantatas is always something to fall back on.

It's probably reading a bit much into it to see the negative image of Easter festivities in the sombre music for this day, although it's probably not too far removed given the progress of the biblical narrative which concerns itself with the trials that will face the apostles in their future. The text which Bach had as his starting point was : 'You shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy'. As John Eliot Gardiner points out in his sleeve notes, the three surviving cantatas, of which two are outstanding (and one merely excellent!), base themselves upon the journey implicit in this quotation.

Gardiner's collection, the first disc of Volume 24 of his complete cantata cycle, makes an excellent starting point. He brings together all three of the cantatas for today: BWV 12 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen'; BWV 103 'Ihr werdet weinen und heulen'; and BWV 146 'Wir mussen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen'. Of these, the first is the most recorded and probably the most significant. Beginning with a beautiful, sad instrumental sinfonia, it progresses to a particularly moving chorus, the music dropping down like the tears it describes. It was later re-used by Bach as the 'Crucifixus' of his B Minor Mass. The cantata depicts the journey from sorrow to joy, from pain to healing, in which the alto soloist meditates on the cross, the bass sings of following where Christ is leading and the tenor, with the help of a chorale, Jesu, meine Freude (Gardiner uses a trumpet, others an organ, Herreweghe, below, an oboe) achieves the meaningful reconciliation, underlined by the joyful shot of one of Bach's favourite chorales (or hymn tunes), 'Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan', which brings the piece to a close.


Gardiner's BWV 12 stands its ground well compared to other fine recordings, not least in his painstaking and intense interpretation of the opening chorus. Philippe Herreweghe's is the outstanding version, in my opinion, with outstanding soloists, great sound and a performance by tenor Mark Padmore which is even better than his singing for Gardiner.

'Weinen, Klagen...' also features upon the second volume of the Purcell Quartet's series of early Bach cantatas. This excellent CD is available on Chandos Records' download site - www.theclassicalshop.net. In a similar way to the people at Linn Records, Chandos offer their new release CDs in a standard 320kbps MP3 format, or as lossless WMA or WAV files. This is the sort of thing that'll make downloads really competitive with CDs. In addition you can download the cover art and the booklet - the latter can be annoyingly lacking with other download sites. It's an easy way to buy music: the lossless audio version is offered cheaper than the standard CD price, the transaction is conducted by credit or debit card (once you've registered an account) and the files are then made available for individual download or as one zip file. The zip file seems to default to the WMA format, so if you wanted it as WAV files, or as the Apple AIFF format, you'd have to click each track individually.

So much for the purchasing. The sound is gorgeous - it's debatable as to whether you can hear the difference on most systems between 320kbps MP3 & lossless audio, but it gives you the opportunity of burning a CD-quality disc of your own to play on your stereo. And is future-proof also. One concern about building a library of lower-quality downloads is that they might sound worse as audio technology moves on. The performance is very good indeed: four of Bach's finest cantatas, sung one voice to a part, the performers' voices are both distinctive and blend together very well. The recording of BWV 12 compares very favourably with Gardiner's brilliant live version and with that of Cantus Colln, performed with the same minimal forces. Charles Daniels is, for me, the pick of the singers: his 'Sei getreu, alle Pein' is beautifully sung with a great balance between his voice and the trumpet chorale. If anything, later on the disc, his 'Mein Verlangen' in 'Komm, du süße Todesstunde' is even better.

I've come to realise that the problem with posts like this is that there is so much to find in a single cantata that including others will either lead to an excessively long entry, or will be so brief as to be not worthwhile. So I'll go for the latter. Suffice to say that BWV 103 is another wonderful piece, of which the opening chorus is the pick, performed with admirable bite and venom by Gardiner. Here he has some serious competition from the recent recording by Masaaki Suzuki (on Volume 36 of his complete series) and the older version by Gustav Leonhardt, both of which also excel in the opening. There's not too much to choose between Leonhardt and Suzuki, and both are slightly more successful than Gardiner to my ears.

BWV 146 is not so well-known or well-recorded, but it is a real gem of a piece. It's a substantial cantata, in which each movement has something special about it. The opening sinfonia is a wonderful tour de force for the organ obligato, given a bravura performance by Silas Standage for Gardiner. The chorus which follows is an oasis of stillness after this big-boned beginning. More wonderfully focused and intense choral singing from the Monteverdi Choir here. These sort of dramatic contrasts in performance are where, for me, Gardiner particularly excels: further contrasts in the arias are also carried off with great aplomb (not to mention the beautiful obligatos). This double CD is one of the best of his series so far and I'd recommend it very much.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb...

We have inherited a rhubarb patch at our new home & very pleased we are about it. This morning we breakfasted on Rhubarb Muffins from Nigella Lawson's Feast, which are excellent but a maybe a touch sugary to qualify as a particularly healthy start to the day. I think I would probably make them with wholemeal flour next time - I struggle with using plain white flour for something as rustic as a rhubarb muffin. I notice from Nigella's website that she has a interesting collection of rhubarb recipes (I really like the sound of rhubarb & muscat jelly from How to Eat). & am now wondering about investing in the ones I don't have. Time to have quick search round Greenmetropolis to see if I can get hold of any bargain copies. We've talked before about making Rhubarb Schnapps according to a Nigella recipe given to us by a friend. Just to ring the changes we invested in a 1.5 litre bottle of vodka from Waitrose & have done some experimenting - creating 2 batches, 1 with 3cm piece of chopped fresh ginger added & the other with the pared rind of 1 organic orange. We'll report back on the results.

Ginger & orange are, of course, classic partners for rhubarb. We have an ancient rhubarb jam recipe from Living magazine (inherited via a godmother) which makes the most of this marriage of flavours between citrus & rhubarb - giving a marmalady twist to rhubarb jam.

Citrussy Rhubarb Jam
600g prepared rhubarb chopped into 2cm lengths
1 lemon
1 orange
250ml water
100g raisins
1/4 tsp allspice
500g sugar

Squeeze the citrus fruits & then cover the skins in cold water in a pan & boil for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat & cool, then slice very thinly. Put all the ingredients apart from the raisins & spices into a large, heavy-based saucepan. Heat very gently to dissolve the sugar & then bring the mixture to a fast boil, stirring frequently to prevent the jam sticking to the pan. Boil until the jam is thick - this takes about 20 minutes. Then add the raisins & spices & boil for a further 5 minutes. Allow the jam to cool slightly & then pot in warm, sterilized jars.

We've also made rhubarb chutney for the first time using a recipe from Fork to Fork by Monty & Sarah Don. This is one of our favourite books for inspiration - it's the kind of book that cheers you up rather than making you feel inadequate - there are some fantastic recipes & a very interesting veg garden diary. We shall see how the chutney turns out - preserving is a waiting game after all - but we haven't been let down by one of Sarah Don's recipe's yet.

Safely Moved!

No posts for a while as we've been up to our eyeballs in moving house before, during and after Easter. No time for any more reflections on Easter: and it's a lot easier to follow the seasons when you're in one place rather than two! But now we're settled in, we can start to think more about seasonal customs, food and drink.

It's all gone pretty smoothly, thankfully. Only one (potential) casualty from the move as well, which was good going. The bottom fell out of a box and our soda syphon ended up hurling itself to the floor. I can't see any damage on it, other than a dent in the metal 'netting' which protects the glass. But we'll just have to try using it, wrapping it in a towel as the CO2 cartridge goes in.

The plants in pots have survived the removal lorry and the northern latitudes and as you can see from the pictures our seedlings also made the journey. They came by car, lashed with parcel tape to boxes to stop them flying around. The top picture is mostly tomato plants; the one to the right mostly chillies. They're all putting on new leaves nicely.

Another relief was the survival of our supplies of booze. Our favourite dry and sweet vermouths - Dolin and Punt e Mes respectively - which we found in the wonderful Bacchanalia shop on Mill Road in Cambridge, will be eked out in cocktails over the next few months. Our various concoctions made with fruit and vodka - quince, (forced) rhubarb and some blackcurrants that we found while emptying the old freezer - are also settling down after their trip north.

Most importantly, our small but perfectly formed collection of 75cl bottles of Belgian beer - again from Bacchanalia - emerged from their boxes unscathed. Although we think that it'll be a good while before they've settled down to be ready to drink. We were very happy to unwrap the De Cam Oude Lambiek (bottled 2005) and the selection from Drie Fonteinen - two bottles of the Vintage Gueuze (bottle dates of 2002 and 2003) as well as some of their Oude Kriek and their raspberry Hommage.