Wight Taste Trail The pick of the crop on an Isle of Wight food trail A Wightlink guide to the Island’s natural produce Local food that’s miles better his decade has seen a great resurgence of interest That’s why Wightlink has plotted a course through 1. Farmers’ Market, Ryde T– and pride – in Great British food. Chefs, food some of England’s most scenic countryside to 2. Rosemary Vineyard experts, even supermarkets are queuing up to tell create the Wight Taste Trail, featuring the pick of us that there’s much to savour in home-grown food the Island’s producers. Among them is a new wave 3. Sharon Orchard – not least because you’ll taste the full flavour in of local food heroes like Richard Hodgson, who 4. Captain Stan’s Fish Store products that have travelled fewer food miles. scooped ‘Best English Cheese’ at the World Cheese 5. Isle of Wight Garlic Eating local fare may mean that you can’t have all Awards in 2007 for his Isle of Wight Blue, and Ben 6. Farmer Jack’s Farm Shop of the food you like all of the time, but there is much Brown, whose salad leaves are sought after by the to be said for the great seasonal tastes of farm-fresh Island’s top chefs. Alongside these new boys are 7. Godshill Organics, Godshill asparagus and tomatoes in May, strawberries in long-established farmers like Jill Cawood, whose 8. Godshill Cider Company June, garlic in July and sweetcorn in August and dairy herd is recognised in the RSPCA 9. Brownrigg Poultry September. Freedom Food welfare scheme. Find And what each of these has in common out more in Meet 10. Godshill Cherries is that the crop flourishes on the Ryde the Producers 11. Ventnor Haven Fishery Fishbourne 1 Isle of Wight, where we profile 12. Afton Park Gardens which is Yarmouth 15 18 2 11 local 3 13. Calbourne Water Mill rapidly gaining 17 4 producers 14 16 a reputation 5 with a story 14. Rossiter’s Vineyard 13 12 6 as one of to tell. 15. Calbourne Classics the UK’s There are 16. Market Bakery regional 18 stops on the trail food centres. Aside from 7 including the weekly 17. Farmers’ Market, Newport 8 the rich variety of Wight-grown 9 Farmers’ Markets in 18. Briddlesford Farm Shop tomatoes that find their way into our 10 Newport and Ryde, where shops every summer, there’s a strong farming 11 you can find a diversity of tradition on this Island, whose varied landscape fresh local produce. Whether of chalk cliffs, high downs, river valleys and wetlands you choose to follow the trail supports sheep, beef and poultry as well as arable right around the Island or simply to pop and dairy farming. And that’s before you consider into the local producers closest to your holiday the crab and lobster-rich seas surrounding the Isle base, we hope that you’ll discover the great of Wight. Wight Taste. Dairy Farmer Jill Cawood with Jaffa, one of the two red and white cows in her 160-strong herd of Holstein Friesians. 1 2 Fresh to the plate Contents ne of the easiest ways to Meet the Producers Otaste local Wight food at Sue Brownrigg, Brownrigg Poultry 4-5 its freshest is to eat out on the Mike Curtis, Captain Stan’s Fish Store 6-7 Island. That’s because there’s a Jeff MacDonald, The Tomato Stall 8 great connection between the Farmers’ Markets, Newport and Ryde 9 Isle of Wight’s food producers Richard Hodgson, Isle of Wight Cheese Company 10 and chefs working in its top Mary Case, Beekeeper 11 restaurants, pubs and cafés. Colin Boswell, Isle of Wight Garlic 12-13 They’ve been quick to recognise Jill Cawood, Calbourne Classics 14 the new wave of producers Stuart Pierce, Godshill Cherries 15 whose energy and bright ideas Ben Brown, Farmer Jack’s Farm Shop 16 are transforming the Island food Sharon McNally, Sharon Orchard 17 scene – and are helping to put the Michael Poland, Mottistone Fold at Wroxall Cross Farm 21 Isle of Wight on the gastronomic map by creating menus with food On the Trail Godshill Cider Company 5 that comes direct from nearby Godshill Organics 5 farms or from the sea. Ventnor Haven Fishery 7 The Wight Taste Trail signposts Briddlesford Farm Shop 9 you to the Island restaurants with Market Bakery 9 the strongest commitment to Rosemary Vineyard 17 using local produce. These range Afton Park Gardens 18 from the fine dining restaurant Calbourne Water Mill 18 at Ventnor’s boutique hotel, Rossiters Vineyard 18 The Hambrough, to an Island Island beer: Goddards and Yates 18 institution, Saltys Restaurant, which serves seafood including Restaurants with a Taste of Wight scallops, crab, lobster and sea Robert Thompson at The Hambrough 20-21 bass direct from boats that Charlie Bartlett at the Garlic Farm Café/Restaurant 22 anchor in Yarmouth Harbour. Graham Walker at The Seaview 22 Mark Young at The St Helens 22-23 Mark Young, chef/proprietor of Cooking up local fare: Isle of Wight restaurants 23 The St Helens, meets up with grower Ben Brown to barbeque sweetcorn for a Crossing the Solent group of friends in his Arreton fields. Getting to the Isle of Wight 24 3 Meet theMeet producers The Island Free Ranger isit Sue Brownrigg’s idyllic farm job she juggled with bringing up two know the source, where it came from Vnear Godshill and you’ll see boys and supporting husband Paul’s and how it was produced. We really hundreds of hens hurrying around sheep farming. need to remember the connection in a grassy field carpeted with wild “We started in 2000 on 400 acres between the food we eat and the flowers, quite evidently making the here at Sheepwash and at Rowridge, countryside we so value. Without most of their right to roam. In the near Calbourne, and now have over the livestock, there won’t be any background are grazing sheep and 5,000 hens – as well as a large and countryside – and that’s unthinkable.” Brownrigg Poultry a fantastic pastoral landscape. It’s a unruly flock of very independently As a member of the Isle of Sheepwash Farm, lovely rural sight and one very close minded ducks. They’re all free-range Wight Farmers Market committee, Sheepwash Lane, Godshill. to the heart of the Island’s free and that’s the way I like it. From the Brownrigg is delighted to sense a 01983 840978 ranger, Sue Brownrigg. customer’s point of view the poultry growing concern among customers brownriggonline.co.uk Island born, Sue Brownrigg started tastes so much better but, more and a desire to get back to simple Map reference: 9 her free range poultry business to the point, the birds lead a happy, basics. “I’m really proud to be part of Fresh free range almost a decade ago at Sheepwash healthy life,” says Brownrigg. what’s seen as a ‘new wave’ in which chickens and Farm, just outside the picture Her quest is to get people to the mantra is ‘fresh is best’. Why fly ducks plus postcard village of Godshill. Before connect with the food they eat. “It food half way around the globe when seasonal geese that she had built up a flourishing doesn’t matter whether its fruit, you can support the local community and turkeys – is available trade supplying Christmas turkeys vegetables, meat or any other and buy produce that’s fresh and direct from the farm, as well as eggs. to local hotels and restaurants – a produce, it’s important that people naturally grown?” Take the Whitwell Road from Godshill and, after 1½ miles, turn left into Sheepwash Lane to find the farm directly ahead. Open: Year round. Wednesday- Saturday, 10am-4pm. Call or email [email protected] in advance or to pre-order. Available at: Farmers’ Markets in Newport and Ryde or at Farmer Jack’s, Arreton; Afton Park Gardens, Afton and Briddlesford Lodge Farm Shop, Wootton and farm shops across the Island. 4 On the trail… Godshill Cider Company The Cider Barn, High Street, Godshill 01983 840680 godshillcider.co.uk Map reference: 8 Home-produced ciders plus ginger beer and Island wines, local mustards, chutneys, pickles and preserves are available in a folksy barn in Godshill. Small sister shop in Shanklin. Open: Winter: 10am-5pm daily. Summer: 10am-6pm daily. Located opposite bus stop. Godshill Organics Newport Road, Godshill 01983 840723 godshillorganics.co.uk Map reference: 7 Voted the south-east’s ‘Best new farm shop’ by the National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association, this award winning shop offers one of Hampshire’s largest organic ranges and specialises in vegetables and salad produce. Organic groceries, meat, drinks, preserves and dried foods also available. Open: Monday to Saturday, 9am-6pm, Sunday, 9am-5pm. Located opposite bus stop. Available at: the Farmers’ Market, Newport. 5 Meet theMeet producers Captain Stan’s Fish Store 5 High Street Bembridge 01983 875572 Map reference: 4 The wide range of fresh fish and shellfish available at Captain Stan’s Fish Store includes wild bass, bream, red mullet, brill, turbot, Dover sole, plaice and John Dory as well as crab and lobster. Local prawns and mackerel are both on offer during summer months. Also: prepared fish products including fish cakes, crab pasties, crab cakes and monkfish Thai curry. Open: Year round. Tuesday-Saturday: 9am-4.30pm. Taste Captain Stan’s daily catch at: The St Helens, The Pilot Boat Inn and The Seaview.