The Hungry Sailors in Yarmouth
Dick and James go cherry picking at Godshill Cherry Orchard and stop there to cook up some tasty cherry drop scones. Yum!
Get their Cherry drop scones recipe
Yarmouth
Dick and James continue their journey around the South Coast of Britain, mooring their beautiful pilot cutter in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, a place rich with foodie offerings. They visit a dairy farmer who names every single cow in her herd, and a veal farm where public misconceptions about the meat are challenged – and with their ingredients they cook rose veal with a cherry dressing followed by caramelised oranges with honey comb, clotted cream and Irish whiskey.
Brief history
The Isle of Wight is famous for its rich variety of tomatoes and the varied landscape of chalk cliffs, high downs, river valleys and wetlands supports sheep, poultry and beef. There’s also arable and dairy farming, along with the lobster and crab-rich seas.
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles (3–6 km) off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent.
One of the lords of the Island - Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick - was actually given a title of King to the Isle of Wight in 1444 by Henry V1, who attended the ceremony and placed the crown on his head.
The Solent is a strait (narrow channel of water) separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland. The Solent is a major shipping route. Much of its coastline is designated as a Special Area of Conservation. The Solent became the departure area of the ill-fated ocean liner, Titanic, in April 1912 and in 1982 Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, was lifted off the seabed of the Solent, 437 years after it sank.
Featured local producers
Dick and James begin their local journey at Briddlesford Lodge farm, which is primarily a dairy farm but also rears their bull calves for veal. Veal often gets bad press as people tend to think about white veal favoured in Europe, where the calves are reared in crates. Briddlesford are keen to tackle what they believe to be misguided public perception, they raise their calves in good conditions until they are 8 months old at which point they are slaughtered. Dick and James takes some veal to cook with on the boat.
Briddlesford Lodge Farm
Get Dick and James' Rose veal with cherry dressing recipe
Next it's off to Godshill Cherry Orchard where Stuart Pierce has 8 acres of cherries and 12 different varieties which are staggered to ensure a longer production period. The different varieties are white heart (white cherries with some red) and then the remaining 11 are red varieties including stella - which is the most prolific and most popular in the domestic garden. Red cherries are firmer but the different varieties all turn to different shades of red, ripening in different colours, and vary in juiciness and sweetness.The boys sit down at the farm to make some tasty cherry drop scones.
To satisfy their sweet tooth, Dick and James visit The Sweet Factory in Alum Bay. The factory has been their for 10 years, and before that was in a nearby village. The machinery they use dates back to the 1950s and they make sweets on average 7-8 times per day. There are 35 different flavours of sweets made there, including pineapple chunks, cherry cola, apple and custard, rhubarb and cream and many more.
Alum Bay traditional sweet manufacturers
The boys then head off to Isle of Wight Honey to meet Mary Case and sample the delicious honey. Mary has 80 hives that are spread over 8 apiaries around the island, mainly on the south western side. The different locations of the bees gives varied flavours because of the nectar on which the bees are feeding. One set of hives is located in the Godshill Cherry Orchard which means she is able to produce jars of 'cherry honey'. she also does rape crop honey, which is paler in colour and set hard with a very smooth grain. The lime crop has been particularly good in 2011, so she has lime honey and is particulary fond of blackberry honey (produced later in the year).Dick and James get some honeycomb here to make dessert with on the boat.
Isle of Wight Honey, Mary Case - Tel: 01983 740223
Get their Caramelised oranges with honeycomb recipe
Next the boys are off to Calbourne classics which is a dairy farm run entirely by women. They produce their own clotted cream, amongst other products such as yoghurt and ice-cream. Each cow is individually named and has a passport with surname and ancestry.
Also from this episode:
Other notable local producers
Wheeler's Crab Shed
The Isle of Wight Bacon Company
King's Manor Farm shop
