Oxford farmers' market

Farmers' market
Gloucester Green
alternate Thursdays every month



Apostrophy madness aside, the market is a great place to buy fresh meat from farmers, giving better choice than the usual weekly Wednesday market, and with a few interesting stalls that outstrips the usually excellent covered market.




The hog roast man is usually there, and aside from excellent roast pork baps, he also sells fresh bacon and pork ribs.



Fresh soup is always to be had.



Local ales.



Masses of crackling: the hog will usually come to 200-250 portion.



This lady sells amazing goats' cheese. Garlic, herb, pepper, it's all excellent.



Small batch farm-made dairy products.



Not being a sucker for meaningless adjectives like 'farm made', these cheeses spoke for themselves. The smoked cheddar was singularly outstanding.





The pork man (one of many) sells excellent tongue.



Blue veined brie.



By 12 noon the doughnuts have all sold out.



The mushroom man sells interesting varieties: shiitaki, shimeiji, oyster and the best giant portobellos we've tasted.



We took home one of the cute little punnets of beets. Watch this space for our beet-growing antics!



All sorts of vegetables I never thought to grow at home: including sweetcorn!



This man sells brilliant mutton, and also game when in season as well as grain-fed duck, smoked chicken and also venison.











Mmm, smallgoods...



Little Whittenham lamb, as well as beef from a local farm every alternate market.



The breads aren't my favourite: I prefer our local baker at Gatineau.

Steak cook off

Sooo, Sainsbury's has a special on rump steak, but rather than spending hard earned cash on inferior steak, we thought we'd put it to the test against some of the best that Oxford has to offer.



Off we rush to M Feller, Son and Daughter, the premium butcher in the local covered market, which serves up organic meats of the highest quality.



M Feller's is the butchery that usually has whole beasts hanging outside its window.

The second butcher (photo soon) that we visited was our usual, and the friendly folk there purvey Old Spot pork, goat and fun foods besides. We'd recently had a delicious pork belly from them, and wanted to try their rump steak as well.



The three pundits: Sainsbury's standard on the left weighs in at £9.69 per kilo, our local butcher at not much more: £11.99 per kilo, and the organic beef on the right at a whopping £18.99 a kilo.



The steak on the left is obviously wetter, exuding some fluid. The middle steak was hung for 21 days, I was told, but was cut from a whole rump straight out of a wet-seal bag. The smallest piece was also 21 days old, but as the organic butcher is frequently seen breaking down half carcasses, this is more believable; it is also the driest steak of the three.



Get close to your meat.



The Sainsbury's steak, in all its glory.



The local butcher's: slightly less wet and a darker colour.



The organic steak almost looks purple here.



My (fairly) new buy: a super-sized cast iron griddle that sits on two hobs on our stove. The reverse side is a flat griddle perfect for bacon and eggs. Tonight, it's all about the grill marks.



The pieces are salted, and put on in order of size.



Flipped.



Flipped again.



The taste test: In a blindfold test, I managed to pick all three steaks on texture and taste.

The Sainsbury's (bottom right) was a distinctively wetter steak, with a juicier bite. Tender enough, but slightly less beefy - although not to the point where this becomes a problem.

The local butcher's (bottom left) was unfortunately very chewy for some reason. Perhaps it's the wet-ageing or the fact that it was cut from the outside of the rump, but it had a distinctively chewier and harder texture.

The organic steak was the best, with a dry grilled surface but juicy thanks to it being served rare.

The damage: The three steaks came to approximately £6 each, but with obvious variance in size. The Sainsbury's was the best value/taste ratio, coming in cheapest but with a perfectly acceptable texture and taste. The local butcher's fared poorly, but this may be an isolated event. The organic steak was tasty, but at twice the cost of the Sainsbury's, one would need to demonstrate that being organic is significantly superior to warrant the price tag. I never thought that I'd say this, but the Sainsbury's standard rump steak comes off incredibly well in a blind cook off.

What we've been eating - goose egg(s)!

The Wednesday market in Oxford has stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, a fishmonger in his van, and random bits and bobs.



An elderly man and his wife sell cheeses, bacon and eggs (a glorious mix, for which the couple should win medals), and for the past two weeks they have had goose eggs for sale.



Quite a bit larger than a hen's egg, these monstrosities were an incredible white colour. At £1.50 each, they were quite pricey.



The egg itself is mostly yolk, with an incredibly translucent albumen, quite unlike egg white. The yolk is a dark, bright orange. Can a colour be both dark and bright?



For comparison, the size of the egg compared to a small jar of Colman's mustard. Each egg probably weighs in at around four large hen eggs, or six small.



Aren't they pretty? We blew out one of them for A to paint.



The shell is so incredibly white, and very strong - similar in a way to M&M candy shells, when tapped.



The yolk that was blown out...



And turned into this delicious omelette au fine herbs with the baby parsley and basil that SS provided a few weeks ago. The egg tasted... slightly tougher than hen eggs, although that's unfair, as it was an almost crunchy, bouncy texture rather than the toughness of an over-scrambled egg. Quite delicious, but not for every-day meals!

What we've been eating - Easter!

A terrible photograph of A's amazing interpretation of Monet's gardener's masterpiece: water lillies.



Sunset on the Thames.



Vincent's 'big daisies'; sunflowers.




Fauna.



Scarlett Johansson's 'Girl with the Big Pouty Lips'.



Flora.



More flora.



More fauna.



Food colouring and icing sugar makes the most amazing fractals.



Try it, it's fun!



Easter lunch/dinner laid out for seven.



Everybody gets a little party pack, complete with plenty of chocolate, sugary things, and a little toy.



Tiny little eggs on a bed of home-sprouted mustard cress.



So cuuuute...



Cottage cheese and radishes.



Side servings of baby tomatoes and radishes.



My offering: a meat brick encased in bacon.



Mustard.



Horseradish cream.



Horseradish and beetroot.



A crusty loaf from Gatineau: those loving bakers who got up on Easter Sunday to provide us with freshly baked bread for our table.



This blue-tit mother is rather confused, and is sitting on quail eggs.



A sliced ballotine of fish, encased in aspic.



Roast loin of pork stuffed with prunes and roasted garlic.

Unfortunately the rest of the food was demolished before photos could be taken. Guests first, blog second, I'm afraid.



Our dear, dear friends K and A couldn't find a shop open to procure presents, so found an ethnic foods store that had dried fish. Thanks, guys!