Unboxing the Farmer’s Choice meat box

These past couple of boxes have been moving slowly, for which I do apologise but can blame on work and life in general. It’s really quite spectacular to think that since September I have made my way through six different meat boxes. My next and seventh box is slightly different to the others – it’s from Farmer’s Choice, an online butcher that acts as a collective for local free range farms. Farmer’s Choice isn’t a farm itself and also offers products at a slightly lower price point, I suspect because everything is delivered flash frozen. I will disclaim that I was approached (and flattered!) by Farmer’s Choice to feature their stuff on my blog, and having found them an interesting proposition, I said yes.

Italian-inspired Laverstoke buffalo burgers

Britain is currently experiencing a heatwave. Men are removing their tops, ladies their dignity, and everyone’s getting the BBQ set out. The closest we got to a BBQ mood this weekend was by cooking some lovely Laverstoke buffalo burgers – which are also sadly the last item I will be covering in my Laverstoke box.

Pork wonton dumplings

This weekend I had a go at making my own wonton dumplings with Laverstoke organic pork mince. When I was a kid, I remember helping my mum make jiaozi dumplings in preparation for dinner parties. I found great pleasure in pleating the folds of the pastry and getting them just right. Later in life, this obsessive repetitive action turned into an interest in modular origami. There is much to be said of folding flat planes into 3D units, multiple times over.

Bacon, butternut squash and lentil curry

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts this week. I’ve been completely knocked out by a dreadful cold all week – the kind that renders at least three of your senses useless (smell, taste, sound) and leaves you gasping for breath when you eat because your nose is so bunged up. Needless to say I have had no appetite.

Black pudding scotch eggs

One of the great things about writing this blog is getting the chance to talk to the amazing people who run the farms and make them work. I’ve been speaking with the lovely David from Laverstoke Park Farm for about a month, and I was delighted when he asked me to write a guest blog post for the Laverstoke Park blog.