Sloe Gin for the Rudding Park Lady Golfers

Dear Wild Cooks,

A few months ago I was out and about foraging away at Rudding Park when I bumped into some of the lady golfers on the 18 hole Hawtree Course. The ladies pointed me in the right direction to two amazing sloe bushes and as a token of my appreciation, I vowed to give them a bottle of my home made sloe gin for their Christmas party.

Rudding Park Lady Golfers at their Christmas Party

These amazing sloe bushes were packed to the max with burstingly fruity sloe berries! If you have not made your sloe gin yet there are some left on the black thorn trees but not many! They say sloe gin is best made after the first frost, well now you can squeeze the berries in your hands because they are so ripe! Please see my recipe for sloe gin.

Chef Richard Fiddler handing out the sloe gin!

I am afraid that all the recent snow is not good news for the golfers, but hopefully my sloe gin will put a smile on our Lady Captain’s face and the girls up at the Rudding Park Golf Club.

Despite the weather, we have happy lady golfers!

Steph x

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Wild Cook’s Tips for Christmas Presents – 5 days to go!

With less than a week to go Wild Cooks, here’s a few last minute great ideas for your foraging friends!

1. Lunch for two at Clocktower Restaurant, Rudding Park. Why not buy one of their vouchers or gift experiences, and then head off around the grounds at Rudding Park and spot some of my foraged food.

Festive lunches from £19.50 per person.

2. Take a trip to Taste the Wild and learn how to forage for yourself with the amazing Chris Bax and his lovely wife Rose. Head off with a group into the Yorkshire woods and find amazing foraged food, then enjoy sampling all your hard work!

Taste the Wild Course Schedule.

1 day foraging course for only £60 (including lunch).

3. “Forager”- the book by author and foraging guru Miles Irving.

On sale now at Amazon for just £16.95.

 

4. A Wooden Trug. A great starter piece of kit for a forager!

Pick one up at “The Gardening Website” for just £8.95 including postage and packing. You must be quick though in order to get your delivery in time for Christmas!

5. Your own desk top smoker! Ideal for smoking fish , game, duck, etc.

Available now on Amazon for just £63.00. This includes the smoker, lid, tray and recipe book.

Happy shopping Wild Cooks and a very Merry Christmas!

Steph x

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Why not infuse your own olive oil!

Coming from an Iberian county, olive oil is the centre of the kitchen – we use olive oil in everything.  I absolutely love olive oil.  I love it so much that on one occasion whilst back packing in India I had an enormous craving for olive oil drizzled on plain pasta.  The pasta was easy to find but there was no olive oil anywhere is Jaipur. After a few days of searching, in desperation I went to a pharmacy and I was delighted to discover that Indian boys use olive oil in their hair!  I can only tell you that this oil was super drizzled in pasta.

One of my best childhood memories is seeing bottles of olive oil at home with all sorts of things infusing in them.  I have a special recollection of an enormous bottle that was full of chillies.  Once a year it was our family tradition to top it up with new chillies and olive oil.

Many years later, I discovered that this bottle was in fact piri piri.  My family is originally from Mozambique, where piri piri comes from so when we moved to Portugal in 1974, the piri piri culture kept going in the house!

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Tips for a stress free Christmas – 15 Days to Go

9 December – why not leave the Turkey to roost this Christmas and ring in the changes with a pheasant dish – take a look at our pheasant recipe, which is ideal if you are having a smaller Christmas gathering.  Dash down to your butcher and order your brace today.

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