the saltirequotation

The questions in the application for the SaltireFoundation are ridiculously hard! Urgh. A maximum word limit of 100 words whilst still trying to prove that I want to give something back to Scotland.

More urgh.

http://www.saltirefoundation.com

The smell of herbs

On Thursday 24th February I visited Scotherbs in Longforgan, a producer, supplier and manufacturer of fresh culinary herbs and salad leaves. The great story behind this company; Robert Wilson, a dairy farmer has trouble with pricing and makes the hard decision to sell his entire herd. Not sure what to do next, but noticing a gap in the market, the farmer and his wife plant herbs in the farmhouse garden and in 1984 Scotherbs was born! Dramatically increasing in size over the years, helped along with a contract with Wm Low in 1989 which eventually became part of the Tesco group in 1994.

Scotherbs are now based across the road (a.k.a. the small A90) from the original farmhouse in a custom built packing facility and supply nationally to Tesco, have Scottish listings with Adsa, Morrisons and Aldi and have a branded seasonal lising with Asda. They also supply to wholesalers and caterers directly, in Scotland.

On the factory tour, around the 2000sq metre pack house, everywhere smelled of luscious, fresh herbs. The employees (of which there are 130 seasonal staff, all directly employed which means no agency staff) were insistent that they had gotten so used to it that they did not smell it any more. How unfortunate, I thought.

Quality monitoring and control was of an incredibly high standard, which they would have to be having such a lucrative deal with Tesco, we were shown through each step in the process with regard to quality control mostly. One person in the chain stood out for her intense passion of what she was doing. She, as a supervisor, was individually and wholly responsible for finished pack inspection. When detailing to us what her job actually entailed, I could see 
that she understood completely that as the last point of control before the product arrived at the supermarket, her keen eye was entirely responsible.

This is an old picture, they have a completely different packing system now, but I think it helps you to imagine the glorious smell.

We even got a free goody bag with the usual suspects of rosemary, thyme, coriander, parsley and mint. And they threw in a branded pen and pencil.


The website is here if  you're intrigued.

scrambled legs

Something that I rediscovered earlier this year, through a good friend of mine, is scrambled eggs cooked in a pan. I guess I have been a bit lax of late and have resorted to relying on my humble microwave to scramble my eggs. My friend was cooking me breakfast and I seem to remember shouting "why on earth are you cooking your eggs in a pot?". Her retort was that she had always done it that way. And boy, did I feel a bit sheepish. Because those eggs were perfectly cooked.

I had not realised that my microwave took joy in overcooking eggs and I had just dealt with over-cooked scrambled eggs.

a.k.a. Omelette.

My quest in perfecting my scrambled egg recipe had begun. Finding the perfect pot really consisted of me trying the first pot in the drawer and deciding it was useless (so much for non-stick), and settling on one of those heavy-bottomed two-toned pots, like le creuset I think.

Whisking is somehow not necessary. However it is essential that you season after the eggs are cooked. Salt again is a culprit in ruining the moisture levels in eggs. 

I've found in my trials and tribulations that it often helped to take the pot off the heat and continue stirring (vigorously, with a wooden spoon) the eggs over the residual heat allows the eggs to cook thoroughly. Especially when they are very nearly cooked (I like them still very moist and runny). Adding a bit of butter or margarine helps to make the eggs creamy and have a 'glistening' character to it. Obviously, it also helps to stop the eggs from sticking to the pot.


I think I can safely say that I will not go back to using a microwave for scrambled eggs.

Other points to note:

• Use fresh eggs.
• In my opinion, having spent a day comparing barn eggs vs. free range, I would always recommend free range for size, colour and flavour.
• Always accompany with a big steaming mug of tea!

something something something campylo...

Due to the fact that my excessively long title does not seem to fit on this current page, although the space in the header of the edit page is rather adequate.

I am not sure this page will have one defined topic, although I'm guessing food will be the wide choice. Be it cooking, growing, food safety or food technology, here's hoping this blog actually turns out to be worthwhile.

G