All you knead to know

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12186525_10153367135288558_6880246592293046059_oIf you were listening earlier, you’ll have heard June, Tina and Sue waxing lyrical about the croissants and morning rolls brought into the studio by today’s guest Gail Hooley.

Definitely a batch made in heaven – the smile on Sue’s face here says it all!

Between mouthfuls of buttery, flaky croissants and tasty little rolls, the Girls Around Town managed to find time to chat to Gail about her work as an artisan bread maker and the community group she runs at the Ecocentre in Screveton.

They were even given a quick masterclass in the right way to knead – no more aching arms and backs, it’s all in the way you position your feet!!

If you fancy finding out how to make your own clean bread in a convivial and social environment, Gail’s group meets every other Thursday and places are £5 per session.

eco_building-300x187It’s just one of a whole range of events and activities taking place at the Ecocentre, an amazing building of straw bale, rammed earth construction with a sedum roof which sits on a working farm close to Newark.

Since January 2015, over 3200 people have visited Screveton to take part in activities which, in addition to the fortnightly bread making group, include

  • Yoga for All
  • Seated Yoga for Seniors
  • Community Health Club
  • Quercus Community (for young adults with learning difficulties)
  • Men in Sheds
  • Community Allotment Club

Perhaps one of the special events on the menu over the next couple of months appeals to you? Take your pick from

  • Grow, Cook, Eat on Friday 30 October at 7pm – Chef Robert Reid will be in the kitchen demonstrating how to make the most of local seasonal produce, without it costing the earth. Tickets are £12.50 each, to include cookery demo, food and a glass of wine.
  • Turkey Tasting Event on Saturday 28 November
  • Christmas Event and Wreath Making Workshop on Saturday 12 December

Or why not just drop in between 9am and 1pm any Saturday and enjoy a full English breakfast with their own farm-reared sausages, for just £5? Like Gail’s croissants and rolls, breakfast at the Ecocentre’s Saturday Kitchen Café comes highly recommended – just ask Tina!!

For details of all events and activities at the centre, visit the website, email office@farmeco.co.uk or call 01949 21261.

A batch made in heaven

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breadNo cake on the show on Saturday – it’s all about bread this week!

After 30 years in finance and the motor industry, in 2008 Gail Hooley escaped to Southern Ireland to explore a firm belief that good, clean food and health are inextricably linked.

Working on a 100 acre organic farm in County Cork, where fresh bread was made every day, she began to question how such a simple and organic process has become so adulterated by industrial bread makers, who now take so many shortcuts to produce a more complex, less digestible, less nutritious loaf.

A course with Andrew Whitley, a professional organic baker, founder of Bread Matters and co-founder of the Real Bread Campaign, provided some of the answers. But it also generated a desire to get the message across to the local community so in February 2014 she returned to Bread Matters to learn how to run a community bread making initiative.

Gail will be joining the Girls Around Town after 11am to talk about how she’s now using her skills at the Ecocentre in Screveton, teaching people to make their own clean bread in a convivial and social environment, in the hope that they in turn will take those skills out into the community and encourage friends and family to eat good bread.

Tune in or listen online from 10am to 1pm to find out more – June, Tina and Sue are crossing their fingers in the hope that Gail may even be bringing samples of the staff of life for them to try!

A Nottinghamshire event with international appeal

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bramley food fest 2From a handful of pips planted in a cottage garden over 200 years ago to the world’s most well-known cooking apple – every October, the town of Southwell hosts a celebration of its beloved Bramley.

Like the fruit itself, the Southwell Bramley Apple Festival continues to grow and organisers are promising it will be bigger and better than ever when it returns on Saturday 24 October.

Despite the fact that its origins are firmly rooted in Nottinghamshire, today the apple once nicknamed The King of Covent Garden flourishes as far afield as Japan, where grafts taken to the country were used to establish orchards, mainly around the town of Obuse.

They even have their own book of 27 Bramley recipes and among the visitors to this year’s festival is Professor Matsumoto, a Japanese apple researcher who will be taking part in the opening ceremony and helping to strengthen the links between Southwell and Japanese apple growers.

So what’s on the menu for this year’s festival?

Start your day in historic Southwell Minster, the stunning setting for the Festival of Food and Drink, where you’ll find cookery demonstrations, an impressive display of apples from John Hempsall’s Heritage Orchard and 30 stalls representing the very best of local produce.

bramley workhouseVisit the recently refurbished Archbishop’s Palace and Education Centre for children’s craft and cookery activities, including a mystery trail and quiz in the garden. And for more apple-related activities, take a stroll down to Southwell Workhouse where you can have a go at creating the longest apple peel, follow an apple trail and listen to stories from The Workhouse Storytellers.

bramley apple pieNo celebration of the Bramley would be complete without pies of course! As always members of the Nottinghamshire Federation of Women’s Institutes will be making their contribution with the Annual Apple Pie Competition – head over to Southwell’s local library, the Bramley Centre, to see the entries and while you’re there check out the WI stalls and sample some of their refreshments.

Local retailers will be entering into the festival spirit with apple-themed window displays and there’ll be music and dance from the Lord Conyers Morris Men and the Minster School Ceilidh Band.

With the Bramley Apple Painting Competition, the Poetry Competition, a giant apple workshop and the crowning of this year’s Bramley Apple King and Queen – not to mention a special Bramley Race at Southwell Racecourse on Thursday 22 September – it all adds up to a sure-fire recipe for success.

For more information about things to see and do at this year’s festival, visit the website or contact the Tourist Information Centre on 01636 819038.