The London Honey man

Urban Food Fortnight

It’s Urban Food Fortnight until the 27th of September, so we thought we ought to get the new design of our London honey jar up on the website! We rather like the gold bee. As the honey harvest comes in to the warehouse in Bermondsey we have a wider range available on the website, including Buckinghamshire, Field Bean, Shropshire and Wood Sage. Steve started keeping bees in London over twenty years ago now, when the urban food scene was still in the early days. Many of the friends he made during the younger years of trading at Borough Market are now neighbours at Spa Terminus – such as Monmouth Coffee and the Ham and Cheese Company. Beekeeping has been a key into some amazing London places, such as peering into the Globe Theatre from the roof of the Tate Modern or climbing into an old water storage tank to see the bees at one of the apiaries in Wapping. But it’s the friends we’ve made along the way which really make it worthwhile, the people we’ve supplied for years and the fresh faces coming into the food scene that we continue to meet.  We’re flattered the lovely Melrose and Morgan, who are old allies, have included us in their pick of London Artisans for the Urban Food Fortnight.    Mead and Cheese Matching Another bastion of the London food scene is the fabulous La Fromagerie. If you need some help deciding what to eat with our Long Mynd Mead then La Fromagerie did an excellent job of matching cheeses to it for our recent launch party. They suggest the following: 1. ROVE DES GARRIGUES Lot, Midi Pyrénées Unpasteurised Goat’s Milk Traditional Rennet This is a wild and beautiful arid area with scrubby grassland of wild thyme and gorse & dense woodland of Chestnut trees.  The goats are allowed to roam and therefore eat lots of herbs and chestnuts which then give the milk its definitive herbal bosky flavours.  The early Spring cheeses are fresh and tangy and as the season progresses the flavours become more full.  (Approx weight 90g 45%fat) 2.  COEUR NEUFCHATEL Normandy Unpasteurised Cow’s Milk Traditional Rennet In a heart shape the rind has a soft, downy, velvety bloom and the cheese is close textured and crumbly with a gentle salty tang.  Best eaten quite young as the fresh mushroom aroma and light nutty flavours can become rather sharp and aggressive if allowed to ripen too far.  The gentle rolling countryside around Forges-les-Eaux is the best area to find these cheeses.  (Approx weight 200gr.  45% fat) 3.  SOUMAINTRAIN Burgundy Pasteurised Cow’s Milk Traditional Rennet Soft Camembert size cheese lightly washed with Annatto (orange coloured vegetable extract) and with scatterings of white bloomy moulds.  The taste is rich, mellow and fruity like clotted crème fraiche.  We washed the cheeses in the Mead wine before finishing the maturing process in our cellars.  (Approx weight 250g.  45% fat) 4.  WENSLEYDALE (RICHARD III) Bedale, North Yorkshire Pasteurised Cow’s Milk Vegetarian Rennet A semi-hard crumbly textured pasteurised cow’s milk cheese using vegetable rennet, with a smooth thin natural dry crust bound in muslin.  A moist, hazelnut creamy taste with fresh salty tang, and perfect for partnering dried fruits or even fruit cake.  (Approx weight 2.5kg  45% fat) 5.  BEAUVALE Cropwell Bishop Creamery, Nottingham Pasteurised cow’s milk Traditional rennet A rich and creamy cheese with a mellow nutty blue veining running through which is not too overpowering or bitter but has a salty hit which would be a good match for beer.  The cheeses are matured for 7 weeks, and the traditional rennet brings out the milk style of the Peak district grazing pastures which are rich in iron minerals.  A perfect cheese to enjoy on its own or as part of a cheeseboard with softer style cheeses. You can now buy our mead, a traditional alcoholic drink made from honey, at Fortnum’s Piccadilly store, at Melrose and Morgan, in store and online, as well as through Haringey Local Stores and the Quality Chop House.