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The British Organic Carrot supper club

October 4, 2018 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Food

This summer I’ve been working on a fantastic project-British Organic carrots. I’ve driven over two thousand miles, all over the UK, to visit organic carrot farmers from Inverness to Cambridgeshire, via Norfolk, Aberdeenshire and Shropshire.

I’ve learnt about the dedication and hard work it takes to be a farmer. I’ve met some great characters and enjoyed beautiful British countryside. I’ve also realised how bloody sexy farmers are. They all exude health and strength. Conventional farmers have an average age of 55, but organic farmers tend to be younger and more innovative. Farmers are the backbone of this country, they are custodians of the land.

Organic carrots are worth paying for, they simply taste better. All carrots are good for you, but in my experience, organic carrots are sweeter. Grown organically, each carrot has more space to grow in. Butterflies, ladybirds and other insects control diseases, rather than spraying with pesticides. Organic carrots are rotated, usually on a seven year schedule, to different fields, avoiding the need for synthetic fertilisers. Fields are hand weeded which is also a factor in pushing up the cost. But when we are talking about paying more, it’s merely pennies: if conventional carrots cost 50p, then organic carrots will cost a quid. Organic carrots are a cheap luxury: gourmet produce for very little extra.

One of my favourite things is to take an ingredient and go wild with it, pushing it as far as I can take it.
Last week I held an organic carrot supper club at my home featuring an 11 course organic carrot menu for buyers, farmers, supermarkets and press. Food people can often be blasé about invitations to meals, they’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the postcard. So it was a particular pleasure to have some of the growers attend. They brought their humour and their appetite!

I also got through 25 kilos of organic carrots, mostly orange, but also some purple and yellow. My eyesight is now Xray vision. The recipes I’ve created range from the sublime to the ridiculous, but are all very very tasty.

Menu

Carrot syrup with champagne
Carrot ‘smoked salmon’ with home made mini bagels, cream cheese, capers, dill.
Carrot ‘coral’ with sour salt in obulato cones
Quail eggs with carrot caviar
Shot glass of Carroty Bloody Mary, rimmed with carrot powder
Carrot falafel with carrot kimchi
Carrot and turmeric soup
Carrot sorbet
Halbit, carrots, girolles, yellow courgettes in a bag
Cheese board with Persian carrot jam and carrot cheesy biscuits
Carrot cake
Carrot and cardamom pate de fruits
Carrot iced biscuit
The menu. British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
carrot and sour salt rimmed glasses. British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
home made mini bagels using malted flour. British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
carrot falafel. British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
Carrot 'coral' and sour salt in obulato cones. British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
carrot carpaccio British Organic Carrot supper club pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
carrot 'smoked salmon' British Organic Carrot supper club pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
the room British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
carrot caviar British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
orange quail eggs filled with carrot caviar British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
Carrot napkins and calligraphy British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
Table settings British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
Carrot cakes at British Organic Carrot supper club Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
Farmer Joe Rolfe wearing my carrot fascinator. British Organic Carrot supper club. Pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

Joe Rolfe, Organic carrot farmer from Norfolk.

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
My piece in the @hamandhigh about the 3 day @heat My piece in the @hamandhigh about the  3 day @heathostile training course. Incredibly interesting & challenging. Link: https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/things-to-do/hostile-environment-training-9037980 to read more #hostileenvironmenttraining
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My first supperclub in two years will take place t My first supperclub in two years will take place this Saturday 18th June starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £50 byo you can book here: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club there are still a few places left. Pescetarian menu. Scandi and botanical influences. #gettingbackonmyfeet #postpandemic #smallbusinesses #supperclub #london
I recently completed the 3 day @heathostile train I recently completed the 3 day  @heathostile training course. On the last day I was kidnapped by ex-special forces for a few hours & learnt how to deal with compliance training & a hostile environment. It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. 3 intense days of combat first aid, navigation & how to survive in a war zone. I handled short, long guns, mortars, grenades, bullets, and tourniquet & bandaged an amputee. I learnt where to sit in a car, where to hide from a bullet, where to protect myself if in a car. It was brilliant. Highly recommended for any journalists, photographers, cameramen, charity workers, paramedics going into any difficult environment say a disaster or war. The stories from the tutors & the other participants were so interesting. My piece on it out soon. Book a course: https://hostile-environment.co.uk/  They also do jungle & desert training. I’d love to join the Antarctic expedition. Anyway that’s me hooded in the front. #adventures #het #hostileenvironmenttraining #experiences #travel
Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking o Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking on doors, going to libraries, searching through graveyards for my Irish forebears. It’s really hard to find information prior to 1850. I found this in last years trip to Arbroath in Scotland. Headstones wear out, records are lost or burnt in a fire, everybody has the same name and are known by nicknames, successive children have the same first name, that usually means they died and the next one is called by the same thing. Women did have children out of wedlock, and people remarried more often than you’d think, plus families fall out & never see each other again. I learnt that my Irish great grandfather michael went to Glasgow & met a woman who came from a similar place: somewhere wild & beautiful by the sea. Then they and their children came to london. Chasing the work & the money always. Politics and economics matter for they push people around from rural to city. And now we rodgers are Londoners. #ireland #scotland #family #travel #roots
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