March 2008

Dear Customer,

A very big thank you for your continued support and for helping make the last year and in particular last Christmas our busiest ever. Easter comes almost too early this year although it does give you an early opportunity to consume unusually large quantities of our delicious goods!

The Smoked duck breast (code WD), as it's unloaded still sizzling from the hot smoker, is a mouth watering sight, dark roasted, dripping succulence. We've been using Gressingham as well as the French Barbary and find them full of flavour. It makes a wonderful starter, warmed slightly to make the juices run, thinly sliced then served with a plum chutney or mixed into a salad. We are pleased to offer the single whole 220gm breast at £8.25 including p&p, Smoked Mackerel (code ML); asked so often for this fish, (which bears the wonderfully lugubrious Latin name of scomber scombrus), we thought it should finally make an appearance on our list. Naturally cured in salt then gently hot smoked over oak so as not to dry it out, it has a smooth creamy flavour, truly delicious as a starter or main course. They come boned, ready to eat, two fillets per pack, (pack weight appx. 200gms). With a two week shelf life, they also freeze well. One pack of fillets costs £5.50 including First Class p&p, three packs and over £4.95 each.

Special Easter offers: Whole sides of Smoked salmon (code S2). This un-sliced side is fast becoming one of our flag ship products. It is now sold in such -places as 'The Ivy and Le Caprice' and recently and very excitingly became the house salmon at Fortnum and Mason! It is prepared in delicious brine under the watchful and expert eyes of Steve and Tim before the long gentle oak smoke that gives it a full and rich flavour, almost peaty - very special. This Easter we have much pleasure in offering our S2 908gm (that's two pounds for those who don't do metric!), normally priced at £29.00, for just £26.00 including postage. These special offers are valid to the end of April. Cheshire Baked Ham (code HM). Our Cheshire hams were again hugely popular at Christmas. Dry cured, marinaded in brown sugar, they are moist and sweetly flavoured. The average weight is 1.4 kgs and they serve 12 - 14 people, ideal for Easter if you have a houseful of guests. Normally priced at £31.50, they are on special offer at £29.50 including First Class p&p.

'Jam with Lamb' Back in October we hosted the book launch for Richard Guests first cookery book 'Jam with Lamb'! It was a great success with over 150 people attending and it was very exciting for us to be associated with such a high profile event. Richard has been the Head chef at The Castle hotel in Taunton for 7 years and in that time we have become firm friends he is a chef of un-doubted quality whose stock is rising fast. The book is what my mother describes as a "proper cookery book, one you can read in bed rather than just reference in the kitchen" focused on the west country and the food available here it is a narrative with recipes and finished with stunning photography. I highly recommended it either as a gift or for your self and have great pleasure in adding it to our mailing list.

Recipe No.3 Salmon Fish cakes: I have pleasure in enclosing the recipe for our hot smoked salmon fish cakes which are another of our favourites from the restaurant. It is a recipe that is forever being asked for as people maintain that they can't find fish cakes that stay as moist as ours in the cooking! We hope you enjoy them and should you have any questions the girls in the restaurant will be more than happy to help.

Spring open days! This year due to Easter coming so early that the schools are not even breaking up for it! We have decided to have our traditional open days later and call them our spring open days. We will be holding them on Friday April the 11th and Saturday the 12th from 10am until 4pm. The shop will be fully stocked, bursting with all kinds of smoked goodies as well as cheeses, olives, pork pies, garlic, wine , nibbles and if my family have anything to do with it….. chocolates! You can enjoy sampling our complete range with a glass of wine in hand; look round the smoker where Steve and Tim will explain the intricacies of their craft!

Restaurant evening openings: After much discussion and a huge amount of requests we will this summer open the restaurant for four evening specials. We have decided to spread these across the spring and summer with the first being on April the 25th and the second on June the 20th. We will offer a set menu which we will change slightly from our usual lunchtime fayre. If you would like to book for either of these dates please just call and ask to be put through to the restaurant. We would love to see you and hope if successful such evenings will become a more regular fixture.

Bath and West show 2008: This year the Bath and West show falls entirely in May running from Wednesday the 28th through to Saturday the 31st. We will be there again serving our light lunches as part of the 'Spirit of the west' marquee which is where we are located. It offers something hard to find else where at the show in as much as we have tables and chairs to sit at under cover and enjoy good, real wholesome food (not a chip or burger in sight!) washed down with a glass of burrow hill cider or delicious local wine and finished off with a punnet of fresh strawberry's and clotted cream. Once re-charged you can attack the show with a re-newed vigour! We very much look forward to seeing you if you can make it, we can be found in the 'spirit of the west marquee' just down from the main cheese pavilion next to the main ring.

Smokery news: As you may expect it was all hands to the pumps with Christmas being as wonderfully busy as it was so there is always a collective sigh of relief in early January when we return to normal. We waived goodbye to the caravan and with it all our seasonal helpers and instantly turn our minds to how to improve for next year!! For those of you who have never visited us it is worth pointing out that the ratio of women to men here is about 14 to 3! So the collective clucking, oooing and aahing reached quite some crescendo when Steve our master smoker announced at our Christmas party that his Helen was pregnant and that come July the Taylor two will become Three! Our daughter Nancy has mastered the words Mummy and Daddy which obviously reduced us to tears the first time we heard it. That novelty has quickly worn off as from 4am onwards it is all she appears to want to shout until one of us answers her!

All of us here would like to wish you a very, very happy Easter.

Yours sincerely,

Jesse