LUDLOW FOOD CENTRE
Ludlow Food Centre is a large farm shop situated in Bromfield, 2 miles north west of Ludlow. It not only sells produce from the area, but also makes some products on site, including preserves, chutneys, bread, and delicatessen.
Meat and dairy produce from the cattle reared on the Earl of Plymouth's Oakly Park Estate form an important part of what is on sale, with more than 80% of the Centre's produce coming from Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Powys.
The shop is very spacious and bathed in natural light from the ceiling windows. The jars seen to the left are jams, preserves and chutneys, original products of the Centre. The kitchens where the foods are prepared have large glass walls and customers can observe the production process.
Such an emphasis on original and local produce is quite remarkable, as most of the large-scale farm shops also sell the products of the industrial producers that we can see on normal supermarket shelves. Also remarkable is their eco-friendly approach, using bio-degradable vinyl bags and shopping baskets made of rattan.
This is the cheese counter. The cheeses are also mainly locally sourced, including one produced by the centre, but there are also some other British and foreign ones.
Thanks to the kind help of a Japanese lady who works there, we were shown around the production area by Mr. Sandy Boyd, managing director of the Centre.
As we were interested in cheese, he first led us to the cheese room, where cheeses are matured and some cheese making experiments are conducted. There is also a kitchen where the dairy products are prepared, but, as it was late afternoon, the operation of the day was already finished.
The temperature and humidity control is crucial to cheese making and this room has a very heavy door similar to the ones used for walk-in refrigerators. As soon as the door was opened, we were welcomed by strong moldy smell. I had an idea that the British cheeses are not as smelly as certain French cheese, but the cheese room is evidently a different matter.
The yellow cheeses in the photo above are the younger ones and white matter on surface is a vegetable fat used to seal the cheeses to stop the blue mold that cover the cheeses from getting inside over the 9 months that the cheese matures (in case of Stilton, the cheeses are deliberately spiked to let the air and mould in, to develop). It is the mold (put on purpose, of course) that gives matured cheese a distinctive flavour.
And after some months of aging, the cheeses get covered by even more mold (no wonder why we smelt mold !).
These cheeses are not yet on sale, as they have to mature for 9 months. They don't even have a name at this stage as this is decided by the Viscount of Windsor, owner of the estate, once the cheese has matured. It is a cheddar type cheese, so I guessed something like Montgomery cheddar that also is tinged with green mold.
This is meat hanging room. The carcass in the middle is wild venison shot inside the Estate. The wild venison is sold at the meat counter of the Centre.
We saw also hanging beef. After three weeks of hanging, it is cut into various parts and some are left matured even longer. This hanging process gives the meat a better flavour and tender texture.
We were also shown the bread making room, deli kitchen and storage: we were impressed by cleanliness and tidiness of all the working spaces.
This is Sandy who showed us the Centre. He is posing with the purple sprouts, in season when we visited there in March. He is very gentle and friendly and it was obvious, from his behavior, how enthusiastic and serious he is about food and the Centre.
The people working in the Centre are knowledgeable about the produce they are selling, so they can give you necessary information when it comes to choosing what to buy.
The Japanese employee who introduced us to Sandy is planning to organise events to introduce English produce and food culture to the Japanese (and presumably also to other foreigners). It would be wonderful if her plans come to fruition.
Ludlow Food Centre
Bromfield, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 2JR
Tel. 01584 856000
e-mail: greatfood@ludlowfoodcentre.co.uk
http://www.ludlowfoodcentre.co.uk/ (check here for direction and opening hours)
Tasting Section
The bakers of Ludlow Food Centre bake hand-make bread from English flour, using fresh yeast, and combining various flours if necessary. Sandy is very proud of it, as many industrial producers make bread from "ready mixture" with all the necessary ingredients already mixed together.
And the one that he is particularly proud of is natural sour dough bread, for which they don't use even yeast, but naturally fermented agent. He showed us the fermenting dough prepared for the next day.
I am not a big fan of sour dough, but, having heard that, I could not resist trying it, so I bought one. It costs £1.39 for 400g loaf. It is about double the price of cheap bread of supermarket, but more or less the same as expensive ones; considering the work involved and quality of ingredients, I think it is reasonably priced.
It had many air-holes, like French country bread (pain de campagne) and a distinct sour smell, but on tasting, it was only slightly sour, and eaten with butter and jam, the sourness was almost unnoticeable. It was moist and had nice consistency. I thought it was at its best, when slightly toasted, buttered and eaten with slices of smoked salmon. When you have a chance to go there, I recommend you try it.
