We speak to some of the top food producers in Essex to find out why ‘keeping it local’ is so important to them and discover their tasty products that we think you’ll love.
The chef
Chris Ball is Head Chef at the Galvin Green Man, Great Waltham in Chelmsford. 'We are very lucky with all of our produce and suppliers - as much as we can it's sourced locally,' says Chris. 'Since Day One we’ve had our Scotch egg. All our pork for the restaurant comes from Gt Garnetts in Bishop’s Green. They are lovely people, and we are always on the phone to Julie to talk about what they have at its prime and what we can cook with it. Our Scotch egg recipe has always been a trade secret, but I was demonstrating them earlier this summer at the Foodies Festival in Chelmsford. We’ve always kept it hush-hush but we decided to let people into the secret. It’s all about the cooking time on the actual egg: six minutes 10 seconds on a rolling boil and then straight into iced water. Then it’s wrapped in 90 grams of sausage meat. We also leave our eggs, once cooked, for a further day in the fridge so that they get a chance to firm up. That way, when you go to roll the meat around the outside they don’t crack in the middle. We started working with Julie eight years ago using their Old Spot pigs. To be honest we haven’t changed our core recipe of the sausage meat since then. It’s such a lovely ingredient and our Scotch eggs are one of our most popular dishes so why change it?'
From July the Galvin relaunched the pub side of the business with a new pub classics menu.'It’s proper British pub food: sausage and mash, chicken, leak and ham hock pie with proper gravy and local broccoli. We are also doing fish and chips all week long, steak frites and gammon, egg and chips.' The Galvin Green Man still has its destination restaurant for special occasions but as Essex’s second-oldest timber-framed pub, the team were keen to celebrate its pub heritage too. 'We wanted to bring the pub up to its former glory. You finish work or pick the kids up from school, and you want food you could cook at home - but, here, you don’t have to and you also don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for what we're offering either either! Our fish comes from Direct Seafoods and Marrfish, both from Essex. We use Colchester Oysters, too, and one of our private dining rooms has been revamped. and of course another great Essex product: Maldon Salt. We're so proud to be using it that we've even named one of our revamped dining rooms after it!'
galvinrestaurants.com
The Oyster farmers
Since the 1700s the Haward Family have been cultivating oysters in and around the creeks of Mersea Island. Harvesting them from the river Blackwater, they are some of the finest in the world, with the Colchester Native Oyster receiving prestigious Slow Food Presidia status. The Hawards sell their oysters online and also via their stall at London's Borough Market, which is open six days a week. Tom Haward is the eighth generation of his family to be working in the oyster business. 'My sister Caz runs the Company Shed fish restaurant, which is a completely separate business now,' he explains. 'As director and operations manager, I've taken over from my dad, Richard, who's now retired, and basically run the Richard Hayward Oysters business, from harvesting through to packing through to sales.'
Tom says the team are struggling to keep up with demand, selling 30,000 – 40,000 oysters per week. 'It’s a good problem to have,' he concedes, 'but we are at capacity. There is that really important tension between sustainability and running a business. You can get greedy and suddenly you are taking too much out of the sea. At the end of the day, oysters take time to grow. You can’t hurry that up and you can’t force them to grow faster. Over the past five years we've spent a lot of time making the best product we possibly can. If our oysters weren't happy, the quality of the meat wouldn’t be very good. When we're shucking at the moment the meat is the best we’ve ever seen it. We’ve spent time looking after the environment the oysters are growing in and try not to do too much.'
Tom is hoping his daughter, Autumn, currently aged two, might become the ninth generation to enter the family business: 'At the weekend she had three oysters before we opened our stall - she loves them.' This might not yet be to Autumn's taste but, for adults, Tom recommends trying his oysters this summer with lime juice, white-wine vinegar with shallots, chilli and coriander. 'It really compliments the flavour.'
The part of the business Tom enjoys the most is being out in his boat hand-picking: 'It's backbreaking work but I love it. The oyster beds at low tide are so peaceful - it’s like a wilderness: just you, the water and the oysters. It certainly helps to quieten my mind.'
richardhawardsoysters.shop
The ice-cream maker
Dominic Parry is the founder and owner of Saffron Ice Cream Company. 2010 was the first time Dominic made a batch of ice cream in his mum’s kitchen. He initially moved to business premises in Henham in 2010 and then into Saffron Walden, his current premises, in 2017.
'We are super-proud of what we’ve done and all that we have achieved,' says Dominic. 'What’s really nice is when customers take time out of their day to say [on social media] that they’ve found some of our ice cream, perhaps at the National Trust or RHS and really enjoyed it. The fact they thank us for that really does mean something - it’s a big pat on the back for us.'
He’s a huge advocate of Essex produce.'We’ve just picked up another 500 kilos this afternoon of strawberries from Cammas Hall Farm for our strawberry ice cream - always a hit at this time of the year. We use their fruit for all of our ice creams. We also use rum from the Essex Spirit Distillery, while Tiptree supplies us with their lemon curd. The honey we use comes from farms local to us here in Saffron Walden. The coffee is roasted literally just up the road from us, and the elderflower comes from the farm here where we are based.'
Unsurprisingly, Saffron Ice Cream Company have won many awards - including our own Essex Life award for Best New Business in 2013 - and several Great Taste awards, too, for their ice cream flavours, which this summer include handpicked blackberry ice cream. 'It has the most amazing colour as well as flavour,' enthuses Dominic. 'We will soon be thinking about our cinnamon biscuit ice cream made with local apples too...”
Saffron Ice Cream Company ice cream is available from outlets including Blackwells, Poplar Nursery, Assington Farm Shop, and Lathcoats Farm shop and café. Sustainability is a priority for Dominic: last year, the company adopted a non-plastic packaging option for all of its products, ensuring everything is 100% recyclable.
saffronicecream.co.uk
