Category Archive: Uncategorised

1. Mother’s Day gift ideas from North Pembrokeshire

   23rd March 2022 4:13 pm Leave a Comment

   It’s been a tough few years for everyone, and it might be that you’ve not managed to see the people you love as often as you’d like, or be able to share Christmases and birthdays with them. It seems like we’ve turned a bit of a corner as far as pandemic lockdowns go, and with Spring in the air, it’s much easier to meet outside.

   So, with Mother’s day looking like we’ll at least be able to share it with our Mothers and Mother figures this year, we help you deal with the next question: what to get as a Mother’s Day gift? Here are some fantastic North Pembrokeshire companies offering fantastic, local Mother’s Day gifts.

   1. Farmers Food at Home Mother’s Day Hamper

   

   Of course, we think that our hamper is the best Mother’s Day gift! Packed full of delicious, homemade Afternoon Tea goodies, it’s bound to bring a smile to Mum’s face. Our famous sausage rolls can be paired with an added jar of chutney, delight in the best scotch egg you’ve ever tasted, follow it up with a bite of delicious homemade chocolate brownie, and then top off your scone with cream and a large dollop of our Strawberry jam! All that (excluding chutney) for £15 – sorted! Order yours by calling us today, before they run out!

   2. Buy her a handmade gift from Corfitzon Crochet

   

   Nothing says ‘I love you’ like something handmade, and while it might not have been something you made, a one-off piece is always super special.
   That’s why a handmade item from Corfitzon Crochet is the perfect Mother’s Day gift. The ponchos are perfect for cool Spring evenings, and the gorgeous throws and blankets, made from the most beautifully coloured wool, can be customised to suit your Mum’s favourite colour palette.

   3. Order a bouquet of freshly picked flowers from Pembs Petals

   

   Want something a bit more dazzling than garage flowers? If you’re in North Pembrokeshire, then Mum’s in for a treat! Pembs Petals only use seasonal plants and flowers to make their beautiful bouquets, and occasionally they’ll be straight from owner Gill’s own garden! Made with the freshest flowers, in stunning natural arrangements using eco-friendly and compostible wrappings, this is how flowers were meant to be…

   4. Give Mum a spa at home with Coastal Soaps

   

   This Mum of two is well worth supporting as she runs her own small company, Coastal Soaps. Their beautiful soaps and bath salts are made from totally natural ingredients and are gentle on the skin. The products are infused with essential oils and will leave Mum feeling – and smelling – divine!

   Coastal Soaps also offer a range of wax melts, wax burners, and snap bars, and a starter kit for your Mum’s home is around £15. Order via Facebook, on their Etsy page, or pop into our shop to collect some of their fantastic products!

2. Our top 4 favourite winter vegetables

   17th November 2021 3:58 pm Leave a Comment

   

   The clock has gone back, the evenings are getting dark, and the mornings are hat and scarf worthy. It’s a cosy season, and it’s our favourite time of year for using up some delicious winter vegetables. There’s nothing like a warming soup or a hearty stew to take the chill of nippy November nights. Our veg boxes are full of delicious produce to make meals that will keep your body healthy and happy right through till the Spring sunshine arrives – order yours from The Paddock Farm Shop today!

   Here are our top 4 favourite winter vegetables, and ways in which you can get the best out of them!

   Carrots

   The humble carrot is probably your best friend during the coldest time of year. This king of winter vegetables is one of the best health foods around. It’s packed full of Vitamin A from the beta carotene which helps boost your immune system, Vitamin B6 which helps convert your food into energy, as well as plenty of other vitamins and minerals to kick-start your metabolism, lower blood pressure, and promote bone health.

   Carrots are a great filler food; add them to stews for a splash of colour on a dull day, juice them as part of your winter diet, or add them to soups. We particularly love a steaming bowl of carrot and ginger soup to warm the cockles on a cold November day.

   Here’s a great low-calorie carrot and ginger soup recipe from Delicious magazine that includes tangy orange and plenty of garlic for that extra healthy punch.

   Leeks

   Well, we wouldn’t be a proud Welsh company if we didn’t include our national veg in our top winter vegetables list, would we? These bright green, oniony beauties are closely related to garlic, chives, and shallots. They provide a uniquely sweet and mild onion flavour to dishes, and are more versatile than people think!

   Leeks are low in calories, full of fibre, and contain no fat at all, so they’re the perfect winter vegetable for staying healthy while staying in. You can have them as a side to main meals with butter, you can add them to soups (because who doesn’t love leek and potato stew with a few rashers of chopped Carn Edward bacon fried into it?), or, our all-time favourite winter dish, use them in Cawl.

   Welsh actor Michael Sheen taught Jamie Oliver his Cawl recipe (yes, really!) which uses the traditional cut of meat neck of lamb, plenty of chunky root veg, and piles of sweet and delicious leeks. Blasus!

   Parsnips

   These winter vegetables are a bit like Marmite – you either love them or you hate them. They’re a close relation to the carrot but are known for being uniquely super sweet and cream in colour.

   They’re a more carby vegetable than their relatives but are packed full of antioxidants, which help your body to defend itself against some cancers and chronic health conditions. They’re also a great source of fibre to get things moving if you’re not moving your body as much in the cold.

   They can bulk out soups, or are even used coated in parmesan as crisp alternatives, but we love them just as they are, roasted in the oven to have with our Sunday dinner.

   The BBC Good Food suggest that a little mistard, along with a drizzle of honey, adds just the right amount of heat in their mouth-watering recipe.

   Swedes

   Rich in calcium and magnesium, swedes are a vastly underrated vegetable. Sometimes called a rutabaga or Swedish turnip, swedes are a great source of vitamin C. Swedes are classed as a carbohydrate, and are a great winter vegetable alternative to potatoes with your sausage and mash.

   Although we like to think that this is a stalwart of Welsh cooking, swedes were actually only introduced to Britain in 1800, when King Gustav of Sweden sent seeds as gifts to British noblemen – hence then name, Swede!

   Boiling is the least nutritious way to cook swedes. Why not try something different, such as The Great British Chefs website recipe for Swede, Onion, and Cheese pie?

   For more fresh ingredients, why not visit us at The Paddock Farm Shop? Call ahead and book your seasonal veg box, or take a look at our online shop for preserves and chutneys to add to your winter recipes!

3. Foraging: fresh food from our hedgerows

   19th August 2021 4:23 pm Leave a Comment

   Foraging seems to have been a bit of a buzzword before the world shut down, and in the days of the pandemic, growing our own produce and hunting for wild treats in our hedgerows became something of a coveted hobby.  But hunting and gathering is no new trend; our hominine ancestors had foraged for food for millions of years before we, as homo sapiens, began to develop agriculture.  Foraging is in our collective memory, and so turning to the abundance of nourishment that our ample hedgerows provide is a natural step for those interested in where our food comes from and how to eat well from our local surroundings.

   With wet winters and temperate summer seasons, foraging for berries in the laden hedgerows around Pembrokeshire meant that Anne-Marie, the owner of Farmers Food at Home, could fill her popular jars of jams and preserves with the freshest, most delicious produce available quite literally on her doorstep.  Autumn has always been a favourite picking time for foragers like Anne-Marie, with the British countryside offering up juicy delights such as blackberries, crab apples, wild strawberries, rosehips, sloes, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and bullace, or wild plums.  

   

   These gorgeous goods can help you to create wonderful autumnal dishes of your own. In Anne-Marie’s kitchen, they culminate in the fantastic Hedgerow Jar Range, which includes Dandelion Honey, Rosehip Syrup, Rosehip Jelly, Crab Apple Jelly, Bramble Jelly, and Sloe Jelly – yum!

   Farmers Food at Home advocate eating fresh produce from your immediate area, so here are Anne-Marie’s top tips for successful foraging:

   1. Only pick from the areas that have abundant supplies of the plant that you’re looking for.  If you clear the area of the plant, then it could stop the future growth of that plant, damaging the species.  Hedgerows help to fight climate change by absorbing carbon from the air and storing it in plants, so there are environmental consequences to aggressive foraging.
   2. It’s also useful to remember that other animals such as birds, dormice, and foxes all like to eat nuts, berries and their leaves and grains.  For some species, the plentiful feast that’s available in the hedges in autumn sustains them while they hibernate during the winter, so leave some behind for our wildling friends and leave the local ecosystem as well as you found it.
   3. Speaking of the ecosystem, foraging is not only an excuse for a lovely walk in nature, you might even find some species living right under your noses that you didn’t even know were there!  Foraging is a really good opportunity for kids and adults to be more mindful of the ecosystem of which you’re a part.
   4. It’s helpful to learn to identify plants and their uses so that you can use all of the parts of the plant that are edible.  This also allows you to understand which plants or parts of plants could be poisonous, and avoid a cookery mishap.
   5. When you know what’s good and what’s not, get picking!  Take a bag or basket and eat fresh if you can.  Foraged foods are far more nutrient-dense than their supermarket equivalents as the freshness locks in both the flavours and the goodness.  Saying that, don’t be afraid to freeze berries, but do it straight after picking for the same reasons – get as much goodness out of those delicious morsels as possible!

   

   If you’re in West Wales and you fancy giving foraging a go but you’re not confident to go out by yourself, there are many guided foraging walks on offer, including ones offered by Oriel y Parc in St Davids.  If it’s the delicious goodies along the seashore that you’re interested in understanding a little better, why not book yourself on to a course Coastal Foraging with Craig to learn how the sea offers an abundance of food.

   And if you like the taste but don’t fancy the effort, then why not just buy the fantastic Hedgerow Jars straight from the online shop?  All the goodness of Autumn is captured for you in a gorgeous selection of jars from our kitchen to yours.

4. From Pubs to Paddocks: the growing success of Farmers Food at Home

   22nd July 2021 5:33 pm Leave a Comment

   

   It’s fair to say that every small business across the UK has had to work doubly hard to keep going during a worldwide pandemic, but few have made a growing success of their small, homemade business quite like Farmers Food at Home.  When shops were shutting down, the team at Farmers Food at Home were opening one; The Paddock Farm Shop in Llanreithan served Pembrokeshire families with fresh fruit, veg, dairy and baked goods, and meats throughout the pandemic, ensuring that residents were never without fresh produce when supermarkets were struggling to keep up with demand.

   Growing success in business runs in the family, though.  The Farmer family began when Sally and Bryan met in college and, with Bryan’s love of Pembrokeshire stemming from his childhood holidays, the family moved to West Wales.  Bryan worked on arable fields while Sally worked as a domestic science teacher – the makings of great food producers were there long before daughter Anne-Marie took up the growing success as Farmers Food at Home.   

   Moving into the next phase of this enterprising family’s growing success story, Bryan and Sally bought a large house with small acreage and opened a Bed and Breakfast.  The land allowed Bryan to begin working for the Pembrokeshire Vegetable Growers Association, and in 18 polytunnels on the land that now houses The Paddock Farm shop, Bryan grew cauliflowers, cabbages, and potatoes annually – over 8 million plants per year!

   When the demand for Pembrokeshire cauliflowers lessened, and never ones to rest on their laurels, the family moved on to their next go-getting adventure; running a popular Pembrokeshire pub.  The Farmer family bought The Farmers Arms in Mathry where Bryan pulled the pints and Sally prepared the delicious meals for 16 successful years.  It was here that Farmers Food at Home was born.  Daughter Anne-Marie offered jars of homemade jam, chutney, and preserves for sale from the counter of the family pub.  With an abundance of home produce available one bumper summer, along with blackberries gathered from Pembrokeshire’s hedgerows, Anne-Marie jumped at the opportunity to perfect her jam, chutney, and preserves recipes.  And with the experience of veg growing and excellent cookery skills running in the family, as well as the family’s ambitious attitude, the jars were soon selling out!

   One successful online shop and a brand new Farm Shop later, The Paddock now sells fruit and veg grown on the same land that Bryan, who is no longer with us, grew his cauliflowers for many years.  The go-getting family is also setting up a campsite on the family’s beautiful land, and Sally still tends to the veggies while Anne-Marie fills the jars and runs the shop with the help of her boys.  But is it Bryan’s hard work and care of this fertile green land that still feeds the magic into the fresh produce that fills the shelves and jars at Farmers Food at Home, making it an ever-growing success? We like to think so.