7th March - Gruyere tasting on the deli.  Whether you love your cheese in a sandwich, melted on a baked potato or in a delicious fondue to dip hunks of bread and salami into gruyere is the cheese for you!

16th-21st Enjoy some of the special offers and tastings all week at our award-winning butchery during National Butcher’s Week.

17th St Patrick’s Day is the perfect opportunity to try out some Irish cheeses such as Cashel Blue, Boille and 5 Mile Town Creamery cheeses.

22nd Treat your Mum to fresh flowers and cook her a delicious meal or perhaps treat her to a hamper brimming with her favourite delights, either way GFS can play it’s part in helping your Mum to feel super special.

• Double loyalty card points - on everything in store every Thursday between 4.30pm and 6.30pm.
• Save up to 30% off the “Fish of the Week”, available Thursday through to Saturday.
• Save 10% off selected Butchery lines every Thursday.
• Save 50p & get double loyalty card points on Holdsworth Classic Assorted Handmade Chocolates 240g (offer ends 28th Feb).
• Save 10% & get double loyalty card points on Spoff Muesli and Porridge (offer ends 28th Feb).

* All offers are subject to availability and can be withdrawn at any time unless specified otherwise.  See in-store for details of these and other great value offers.

The Start of the new year is an exciting time for setting new goals, a chance to break bad habits and start as you mean to go on and what better way to start your day than with a healthy breakfast?

Farmhouse Breakfast Week, 25th - 31st January is an annual campaign that emphasises the importance of eating a healthy breakfast every day.  ‘Think Breakfast’ is the theme of this year’s celebration to encourage everyone to wake up to breakfast as part of a healthy balanced diet and active lifestyle.

Breakfast, it has been said many times, is the most important meal of the day.  So why exactly is this?

Think brain power - a healthy breakfast can boost concentration and mental performance as well as reduce stress levels.

Think nutrition - breakfast  an be an important source of vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Think weight management - breakfast kick-starts the metabolism and helps with weight control as it reduces cravings for mid-morning snacks.

Think variety - such is the choice of healthy breakfast foods from around the regions, that there is always a breakfast dish to suit everyone.

And on the subject of variety, here at Gonaslton Farm Shop we have a whole host of delicious breakfast favourites including gorgeous Spoff porridge oats and cereals, our own award-winning sausages and farm fresh meat, our own delicious home cured bacon, hand crafted breads and pastries, with locally produced marmalades and jams.

To support Farmhouse Breakfast week and to celebrate the wealth of high quality regional produce available across the UK, GFS will have tastings all week from the 25th - 31st January and as a special treat there will be double loyalty card points on selected breakfast favourites.

So remember, start your new year with the most important meal of the day, make it your new goal.

Gonalston Farm Shop in Nottinghamshire, UK, offers a wide selection of locally produced food. Visit our website to view our farmhouse cheese or our delicatessen at www.gonalstonfarmshop.co.uk
By Georgina Mason

In November, Gonalston Farm Shop (GFS) in Gonalston, Nottinghamshire were voted national UK finalists in two prestigious butchery awards namely, the categories of “Best On-Farm Butchery 2009″ announced by the National Farmers’ Retail & Markets Association (FARMA) and “Butcher’s Plus 2009″, announced by the Meat Trade Journal (MTD).

At GFS the pride of the farm shop is the full over-the-counter butchery service, which features the farm’s own beef, cherry picked from the herd, plus quality meat from other local farms. This is complimented by a grocery section, fresh fruit and veg area, delicatessen and fresh fish counter.

The team of trained butchers offer expert advice on everything from cuts to cooking tips and also produce an impressive array of award-winning sausages, burgers, kebabs and stuffed and rolled joints, incorporating local ingredients such as Southwell grown Bramley apples.

Georgina Mason, farm shop joint owner, commented, “We are incredibly proud to have been placed national finalists in these national awards. We are delighted that the team’s efforts have been recognised.”

The FARMA panel of judges commended GFS for their impressive butchery display, featuring some excellent meat from GFS’s own farm and the surrounding area. They also felt the friendly and professional service offered by the team of expert butchers and other staff was truly top class, making shopping there an enjoyable and rewarding experience. While the editor of the MTD, Ed Bedington commented: “GFS impressed our judges with its superb high class operation. Judges described the shop as oozing quality and choice, and were particularly impressed with its meat, fish and cheese counters.”

Gonalston Farm Shop offers the finest quality local and British farmhouse cheese and farm fresh meat plus a selection of delicacies from further afield in our delicatessen in Nottingham, UK. Visit our webiste for more details at www.gonalstonfarmshop.co.uk.

You can now pick up seasonal vegetable boxes from Gonalston Farm Shop.  Prepared freshly every day, made up from local vegetables and giving you a massive saving of 30%. 

The boxes cost £4.99 and consist of (seasonal variations may apply):

2kg Potatoes
1kg Carrots
400g Leeks
300g Onions
1 Cauliflower
1 Savoy Cabbage

Serves 4 as a veggie meal or 8 as an accompaniment to Turkey
 

1 clove garlic, crushed
1 small onion, chopped
15g butter
2 tsp Rapeseed oil
1 tbsp sherry
225g shelled mixed unsalted nuts, chopped
125g fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage
2 eggs, beaten
75g Stilton Cheese
75g cranberries, fresh or frozen
salt and black pepper  

Try this as an alternative to Christmas Pudding – quick and easy to make and lighter in texture then a traditional Christmas  pudding.

Serves 6-8

225g Pannetone, thinly sliced
250mls milk
50g sultanas
50g fresh or frozen cranberries
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
25g golden caster sugar
142mls double cream
½ tsp nutmeg
To serve – Double cream or Custard flavoured with Brandy, Cointreau or Baileys Cream Liquer and icing sugar for dusting

Award-winning Gonalston Farm Shop (GFS), Nottinghamshire welcomes the countdown to Christmas on Thursday 6^th November when the shop transforms into a Christmas gourmet’s delight.  The store will be bursting with Christmas specific products to whet the appetite.  And to get everyone into the Christmas spirit and to tantalise the taste-buds, producers and suppliers will be at the ready offering their products for all to sample including complimentary coffee and mulled wine served all day. 

This Christmas fayre starts at 11am, and to ensure even those who aren’t able to visit in the day don’t miss out, the Farm Shop will stay open until 7.00pm. As a one day only special, customers will be treated to double loyalty card points as well as great multi-buy offers on selected Christmas produce.

Customers will be able to see at first hand a selection of gift food hampers that make the ideal gift for the person who has it all or simply for those who are truly passionate about food. With speciality 3 in 1 birds, a Pheasant inside a Chicken inside a Turkey or Goose, be sure not to miss out and take the opportunity to place that all-important Christmas Poultry order. With a fine range of Christmas puddings, cakes and mince pies as well as juicy hams and pork pies, not to mention an impressive range of fine wines, speciality beers and ciders, Gonalston Farm Shop is a truly one stop shop for all Christmas foodie delights.

Cote de Boeuf can be a single rib cut from the centre of a full rib of Beef. It is grilled or fried and often served with a Bearnaise sauce and chips. It is also sometimes called a beef chop. Or it can be a traditional Beef Rib Steak Joint on the Bone made into a fabulous traditional Sunday lunch. Cooking beef on the bone helps to control the transfer of heat during cooking and helps stops meat from shrinking or toughening.

1 x 2.5 kg Rib of Beef with Bone, trimmed
vegetable oil for brushing
salt and black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC Gas 6.
2. Place the joint on a rack in a large roasting dish. Brush with the vegetable oil and season.
3. Cook for 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170oC Gas 3 and cook for 10-12minutes (rare) 15 –18minutes(medium) – 20-22minutes (well-done) per 500g.
4. Leave to rest, covered in foil for 15 minutes, before carving.

Put a selection of blanched root vegetables such as potatoes, parsnips and carrots and add quartered red onion and red pepper under the meat rack so that the fat from the meat drops onto the vegetables as they cook.

Cote de Boeuf is great served with a Red-Wine sauce.

For a red-wine sauce place 5-6 diced shallots into a pan, add 1 tbsp vegetable oil and gently sauté until softened, then add 2-3 cloves garlic, cook for 1 minute and add I bay leaf, 1 sprig thyme, 500mls red wine, 300mls port and 300mls chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes or until reduced by two thirds. Sieve, add the meat juices or a small knob of butter, whisk and serve with the cooked meat.

Top Tip - place 3 garlic cloves into a small dish and microwave them for approximately 20-30seconds. The skins will slip off really easily.

“At Gonalston Farm Shop, we feel that it is essential to reward loyalty. Our customers are our livelihood and what better way to ensure they return time and time again than by showing them how much we truly value their support” said Georgina Mason, joint owner of the business.

On Saturday 2^nd August, the Farm Shop celebrated its 5^th anniversary with a party atmosphere. Customers were treated to a guest appearance by well known and effervescent TV Celebrity Chef, Lesley Waters, who was on hand to sign her cook books and chat to our customers as well as assist in some food demonstrations staged by the shop’s suppliers.

Lesley presented the shop’s first ever paying customer Kevin Mantle, still a loyal customer 5 years down the line, with a whole turbot as well as a succulent and tender piece of Cote de Boeuf. “We wanted to thank Kevin for his loyalty and knowing how much he loves real quality food we felt it only fitting to present him with his favourite fish and the fabulous rib eye cut” said Georgina.

Customers were treated to double loyalty card points on purchases in the shop, delicious tastings as well as complimentary tea, coffee and heavenly birthday cake.

Thanks to the generosity of their customers who entered some fun competitions with a variety of prizes such as luxury food hampers, £350 was raised on the day to be shared between Rainbow’s, The East Midlands Children’s Hospice and Cancer Research UK.

With classic tractors as well as a farmyard of animals to entertain customers, the celebrations proved a great hit with young and old alike.