Food Made Good: Yeo Valley HQ

The Food Made Good awards exist to celebrate everything exciting about British restaurateurs, chefs and suppliers doing the extraordinary to make food good – delicious, ethical, sustainable. 

Yeo Valley HQ Canteen, long-time friends of The Simple Things, have been nominated for the People’s Favourite Award 2016.

And it’s easy to see why.

This is a thoroughly ethical restaurant sourcing seasonal and local food and ensuring they have zero waste to landfill. The building is kept warm using biofuel and the layout (big canteen tables) encourages people to talk and connect with others.

As well as being a fantastic work canteen they open it to the general public and run special events to encourage sustainability. It is also decorated in a really creative and quirky way which makes it feel like it’s not taking itself too seriously, putting everyone at ease with the humour. And the food tastes fabulous!

If you want to vote for Yeo Valley HQ Canteen, head to the Food Made Good site now! The awards take place on 22 March 2016.

Read more:

From the March issue

Yeo Valley posts

Enter our competition!

Plenty of delicious recipes in the March issue of The Simple Things, out now - buy, download or subscribe

Event: The Simple Things Sketching Day

Learn to sketch natural finds - this special day out for readers combines the chance to nose around Yeo Valley’s kitchen garden and learn to draw the natural world with local artist Natasha Clutterbuck

Join celebrated local artist Natasha Clutterbuck for an inspiring day of hands-on art in Yeo Valley’s Organic Garden. Natasha uses natural materials to create her own vibrant drawings of the garden and she will help you explore your own drawing style... no experience necessary!

Berry and vegetable juices, stone dust and soil form Natasha’s colour palette. Natural ochres from Mendip mud and the gorgeous gourds in the garden provide the materials and the subject for drawing with a difference.

Natasha will give you a tour around the garden from an artist’s perspective and show the simple beauty of the humble garden vegetable. So, to look at the world in a new way, learn a new skill and of course enjoy a delicious, locally sourced lunch and an abundance of tea and cake, come and join us for a very special day out at Yeo Valley.

READER EVENT: The Simple Things Sketching Day

Arrive at Yeo Valley in Somerset at 10.30 for a coffee and a mingle, before a demonstration of Natasha’s skills. After a delicious lunch of locally sourced ingredients cooked by Yeo Valley chefs, it’s your turn to get drawing. We’ll provide the inspiration, Natasha’s expertise, and a sketchbook to take back with you. Then there’ll be afternoon tea and cake to fortify you for the journey home. Book now as spaces are limited.

Date: 7 October
Location: Yeo Organic Garden, Somerset
Price: £49 (travel not included)
To book: Contact Jill on 01761 461425 or email events@yeovalley.co.uk

August's The Simple Things is on sale - buy, download or subscribe now.

Proudly Homemade Days Out: Planting plans and foraged finds

Join us for a special ‘veg and hedge’ day, hosted by Yeo Valley. Tour the gardens, make a planting plan and fresh pesto to take home, and learn what to cook with wild plants. 

The day takes place on Friday 22 May. Arrive just in time for elevenses in the tea rooms where you’ll be making fresh pesto with ransoms (wild garlic). Then the chefs from Yeo Valley’s staff canteen, Fodder, will bring in foraged finds from the hedgerow and demonstrate what you can use them for.

After a leisurely lunch, during which you can taste the morning’s work, you’ll get the chance to tour the gardens with Eileen, Yeo Valley’s garden designer. She’ll talk about how to make your garden both pretty and productive, answer your questions and you’ll get a planting plan for a raised bed to take home with you.

Tea and cake will furnish you for the journey home. All equipment will be provided, just bring your enthusiasm.

To book, contact Jill at events@yeovalley.co.uk or call 01761461425. Limited to 24 places. Price £65 per person. The day takes place at Yeo Valley Organic Garden, Holt Farm, Bath Road, Blagdon, North Somerset BS40 7SQ. Travel to and from Yeo Valley is not included.

Recipe: Tea smoked trout with horseradish and yogurt sauce

Just in time for the start of the trout fishing season, and with a nice garnish of seasonal watercress, we asked Yeo Valley for their favourite February recipe.  

Ingredients

10 tea bags
175g demerara sugar
175g long grain rice
4 trout fillets
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Foil

For the Horseradish & Yogurt Sauce:
100g Yeo Valley Natural Yogurt
1 tbsp of hot horseradish
Juice of a lemon
Small sprig of dill

Method

Cut the tea bags open, shake out the tea into a bowl and discard the bags. Add the sugar and rice and mix together.

Line a deep, heavy roasting tin with silver foil.

Spread the tea mixture over the base.

Cover with either a cooling rack or another layer of foil. Place the roasting tray on top of the stove and heat up.

Once the mixture is smoking slightly place the trout on the rack or on top of the foil, skin side down. Drizzle the trout with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Cover the roasting tin tightly with foil or a tightly covered lid, and leave to smoke on the stove over a moderate heat for 15-20 mins.

Mix all ingredients for the sauce together, season to taste, then spoon over the smoked trout and serve with fresh watercress.

Thanks to Yeo Valley for the recipe.

156th Mendip Ploughing Match

The 156th Mendip Ploughing Match was held on Yeo Valley’s Priddy Hill Farm earlier this month. A celebration of the local community, the soil, and of the heritage of the countryside, the Match also forms a stage in the progress of the Mendip champion to the National Ploughing Championships.

Featuring ploughing by hand, by horse, by tractor and even by steam engine, the art of ploughing through the ages is represented. Many of these forms of ploughing are unsustainable in modern agriculture so matches such as this enable people to come together and keep the skills alive. The love for these old machines - the tiny horticultural ploughs, a vintage Massey Ferguson that is over 50 years old - and the skill of those who maintain them is apparent all around. Vintage tractor entries made up the majority of competitors.

Yeo Valley Farm Manager, Jon Wilson, judged the grain and fodder classes, in which the best bale of hay, or 20lb bushel of oats is awarded a prize. There is even a class for the best piece of turf, and the heaviest pumpkin!

The atmosphere is that of a village fete. Mary Mead,  founder of Yeo Valley, is one of the vice presidents of the society and a number of staff participated. Some ploughed, some judged, and some just turned up for the fun.

Want more? Watch the film of the 2012 Mendip Ploughing Match.

Sponsored post: Creative cooking by the campfire

Warming, comforting and incredibly satisfying, sausages may be the ultimate campfire food. Read on for a simple recipe.

For summer road trips, family barbecues or camping in the garden with your little ones this is a particularly sumptuous way to cook them, and it looks fantastic. If you’re making this at home, try serving it with a pile of creamy mash.

Ingredients

600g cumberland sausage ring 1 tsp oil 1 onion, finely sliced 2 tsp wholegrain mustard 1 tbsp honey 150ml cider 100ml Yeo Valley Single Cream

Method

1. Insert 2 wooden skewers in a cross shape into the sausage to pin it into a spiral. Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan, large enough to take the sausage wheel. 2. Cook the sausage on a medium-low heat for 10 mins until browned, then turn it over and cook for a further 5 mins. 3. Lift the sausage out, spread the onions into the pan, stir into the pan juices then replace the sausage on top. Continue to cook gently for a further 5-10 mins until the onions are soft and the sausage is cooked through. 4. Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside. Spoon off any excess fat then stir the mustard and honey into the pan. Pour in the cider and bubble for 2 mins before stirring in the cream and seasoning to taste. 5. Divide the sausage into 4 and pour over the cider sauce.