Competitions Competition   Enter! News   Transport Voucher Events February 2008 Links And finally...

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2008 from the Year of Food and Farming South East (YOFFSE). Despite the wet and windy weather outside, things are definitely 'hotting up' for the region, with the promise of events and activities being planned for the months ahead.

Farmhouse Breakfast Week

School children have been learning why it’s so important to get a great start to their day throughout last week. The annual campaign, Farmhouse Breakfast Week, which ran from 20 – 26 January, highlights the importance of starting the day with a healthy breakfast, based on whole grains. The Week was organised by the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA), with NFU support, and activities included events across the South East, where farmers and food producers provided samples of local breakfast produce.

Winter scene - Ashburnham, East Sussex

Here are just a few of them :- On the Isle of Wight, pupils at Haylands Primary School in Ryde relished a breakfast of local produce on Friday, 25 January. They learned about the huge diversity of produce grown on their very own sunshine Isle, including cereals, milk, bacon and sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, fruit juice, honey, bread and butter. Visitors were offered a sample of Buttercup milk, Briddlesford Lodge Farm’s own Guernsey milk, and an Island Breakfast bap made from local bacon and bread. Other breakfast produce was on sale too.

YOFFSE Event Manager, Gillian van der Meer, cooked up a storm during breakfast interviews on air for Sovereign radio in Eastbourne and BBC Southern Counties Radio during the week. Gillian was able to help children understand the origins of their food and to adopt healthy lifestyles through a breakfast detectives quiz at Sidley Community Primary School, near Bexhill, East Sussex and at Shipbourne Primary School, Kent, where more than 50 children chose, cooked and sampled local breakfast produce from Shipbourne Farmers’ Market.

Children at Bury School, Pulborough, West Sussex tuck into a farmhouse breakfast

A delicious array of Kentish fare livened up the breakfast club menu at Whitfield and Aspen School, at Whitfield, near Dover. Crunchy Cox apples, locally-baked bread, fruity flapjacks, honey and Kentish fruit jams complemented the usual options of cereal, yoghurt and toast. The School hopes to entice greater numbers of its four to 11-year-old pupils to support the club. School governor and NFU member Rosemary Plommer of Maydensole Farm, Whitfield, is encouraging the move to boost attendance.

To find out more about Farmhouse Breakfasts, visit the Farmhouse Breakfast Week website.

Contacts info@yoffse.org.uk  Ian: 01491 642300  Gillian: 01323 832578  Laura: 01483 884841  Marilyn: 01243 587475

Farmhouse Breakfast Week events in schools have been generously supported by the South East Food Group Partnership.

Prizes to be won!

It’s Pancake Day on 5 February and the YOFFSE Steering Group are marking this occasion with the launch of their very first prize promotion. Rise to the challenge and cook the largest mountain of pancakes at your school!

How to enter

The challenge is open to Primary and Secondary Schools.  Prizes include Transport Vouchers, worth up to £300 and growing kits for school gardens. To find out more, download the competition details. 

St George’ Day Poetry Competition

Now in its second year, this very popular competition is endorsed by YOFF Programme Director, Tony Cooke. Children aged 14 and under are being invited to write a poem about what food and farming in England means to them. More details will follow in our next newsletter.

Transport Voucher

YOFFSE sponsors, SEEDA, are providing resources to help schools visit farms. Schools across the South East region can apply for a Transport Voucher, worth up to £300. Primary, Secondary and Special schools registered with the Year of Food and Farming, are invited to apply for a year class to experience a visit to a farm, horticultural grower or producer, or to take part in a countryside activity. The form can be downloaded from our website.

Winter Warmer

Lamb cutlets with mint butter and redcurrant sauce
Served with mashed potato, this provides a delicious everyday alternative to the traditional Sunday roast.

125g (4oz) butter 2 tablespoons chopped mint 8 lamb cutlets Salt and pepper For the sauce: 2 shallots, finely chopped 250g (8oz) jar redcurrant jelly 1 teaspoon English mustard powder 2 tablespoons apple juice

Make the mint butter by beating together the butter and mint. Shape into a log, 4cm (1 1/4 in) in diameter. Wrap in clingfilm or greaseproof paper and refrigerate. Make the sauce by boiling the shallots in water for 5 minutes, draining and heating together the redcurrant jelly, mustard, drained shallots and apple juice. Season the lamb cutlets on both sides and grill until done to your taste - usually between 4-6 minutes each side. Put on a serving plate and garnish with a disc of mint butter cut from the 'log' and serve with the sauce.

For seasonal recipes using Red Tractor assured produce, visit the 'My Red Tractor' website ...

The following are events taking place across the region in February:
"If February give much snow, a fine summer it doth foreshow"