Farmers Markets

[welsh wizard]

Hi Dave, I only intend to use the hops for colour really so I would not need any great quantity. I live in the middle of one of the largest hop growing areas in GB but of course we are not in hop bine season yet.

Most brewerys around here (and I have been to most ) use a hop disc which is a lot easier than sacks of hops. I dont know if I could use one of those whizzed up but been as it goes into the beer, I would have thought so, but I will need to ask at the meeting on Monday.

I will let you know how I get on, but a trawl of the internet putting "hop recipies" in the search has produced not a lot, neither have I found anyone who sells ground hops. They are interestingly used a lot around here for putting under pillows to aid sleep, but dont ask me how this happens, but it is a local tradition.

Cheers WW

[markgadd]

Dave I think I've done every concevable blood presure tablet going.

WW what is a hop disc ?

And your welcome o the golden hop in our garden as it's on the wifes hit list.

[welsh wizard]

Hi Mark

A hop disc is a just compressed hops made into a tablet form. In days of yore hops came in sacks and trust me a sack pf hops is very light and a lot of sacks were needed, but now becase they are compressed it makes using them a lot less time consuming - anyway that is what I have been told........


Cheers WW

[saucisson]

I would imagine that if you broke a corner off a disk and soaked it in the liquid you were putting into the mix it would rehydrate and break up, although you may need to heat it a bit.

Hops for home brewing are now available in rock hard compressed form in vacuum packed foil bags a bit like fresh coffee

Dave

[saucisson]

Did you come across this WW?
http://www.allaboutbeer.com/food/hops.html

Apparently you can use the fresh shoot tips like asparagus.

Dave

[welsh wizard]

Hi Dave - yes this is the only thing I did come across ref hop recipies and I believe they are popular in London. But you would not want to pay those prices for them!

Cheers WW

[welsh wizard]

Update:

Went to see the Director of the Ludlow Brewery and in a nut shell they are happy for me to make, promote and sell a sausage with their name on, so progress there. We have done a little swap on the beer for sausages and we are both happy, well Im happy and he's full........

Hops are VERY bitter, and I know because I have just tried them! I think I am going to have to boil them first and see what difference that makes before putting them into a sausage - a kitchen smelling like a brewery, that should please the wife.

Sales around the pub / resturant trade are going well and yesterday I delivered 15kg just into one pub who would now also like to take on my smoked salmon - so positive steps there. In fact from my marketing promo last week all but 1 pub has said they would take them on a "special board" basis so I wait and see. I have got the press coming around next week to do a story on "quitting the rat race etc etc", so I will use that as a springboard for my next sausage forray into Ludlow, which is the home of the sausage, but I cant compete with their prices, nor do I want to.

My local Butcher has agreed to take my sausages on and sell them in his shops because they dont compete with his, which are mainly just a plain pork sausage. I have aslo agreed to hold a tasting day in one of his shops to promote my products and he will then sell them at 10% off rrp - you know the usual stuff.

I seem to at last have a pitch on the local market in the mid week so that should start in a fortnights time after the May fair has left the square. Festival season is on its way and that too should bring in some much needed shillings - I now need to get hold of a cheap (ish) portable gas bbq for the cooking of sausage tasters on.

By by for now, and if this semi blog is peeing anyone off just let me know and I will cease, no problembo.

Where is that Ludlow Gold beer for the sausages???????? Cheers WW.

[jenny_haddow]

Please continue WW.

It's better than 'The Archers'!

[Fallow Buck]

Definately keep it coming!!

FB

[Hobbitfeet]

You don't need a labourer/gofer/ beer tester do you? I'm your man!

[welsh wizard]

Hobbitfeet my old mate you are always welcome.

Cheers WW

PS picked up another order tonight for 15lb of Beef and Horseradish - oh well more work for the Reeber!

[Lance Yeoh]

Way to go WW! I'm been thinking of doing the same thing to get out of the rat race but I'm still behind my desk after more than a year.
Just can't get myself to take that leap of faith I guess.

I mean sausage is a big thing here but not the kind of sausages we make. What the people here had come to know as sausages are actually cheap emulsion hot dogs. It's really hard to change that kind of mindset and to get them to purchase sausages at about almost 10 times the price they're paying now.

[welsh wizard]

Hi Lance, I hear where you are coming from, although I must say that I attended a fete of sorts last weekend and there were the usual paste sausage sellers but charging �2.50 for a hot dog. I was there charging �3.50 with some salad and coleslaw for a proper sausage and did OK.

However it is a huge leap of faith...................

Cheers WW

[welsh wizard]

Update - As you now know markets are not my main RTM and the local pub / resturant trade is building momentum. I started out selling sausages etc for quite a high price compared to the local butchers but there does not seem to be as much of a price sensitivity as you may think. Good quality will out I always think, and it seems to be happening.

I am now making a sausage of the month (sausage pin up) and trying to concentrate the minds of my customers to place all their monthly orders during one week. This cutts down on my faffing about time and I can concentrate on one type of sausage. Last month I made a Hereford Cider and apple sausage and crafted it into a Cumberland type wheel. This the pubs very much liked as it was easy portion controll as each wheel comes in at c6 - 8oz. This month I am making a pork and perry sausage, which I have some early orders for.

Smoked Salmon is going extreemly well and last Tuesday saw me in Birmingham Fish Market at 4am buying a considerable amount of salmon for the old Bradley (I can do about 8 sides at a time). The fish man very kindly put the salmon into the car in polystyrene boxes which had holes in the bottom and on the way home I stopped for breakfast and a local business meeting, at which point the ice in the boxes started to melt and go over the boot of the car. Well to cut a long story short my car now has an unusual aroma of stale fish and air fresh, and yesterday my son added some of his aftershave to the aroma - it stinks! Anyone know what taks the smell away? Someone said to burn custard powder but I think I am being had!

Pies are going well and as I live in one of the largest asparagus growing areas in Britain I am now making Chicken and asparagus pies which are very yummy.

I will start to introduce bacon into the MM next month and see how that goes.

All in all very early days and I am not earning a huge amount of money, but I picked up an outside catering bash for 150 last week so I believe there is a light at the end of the tunnell even if it is the oncoming train!

Cheers WW

[Hobbitfeet]

Congrats WW! I'm proud of you! You have done wha so many of us lack the confidence to do. More power to your elbow!