Day 4: A relaxed and hurried day with exciting news thrown in

It's been one of those funny old days today, not least because I'm off to a special event tonight and feel that I should be relaxing and getting ready for it.

It's Suffolk's Creating the Greenest County awards and I've been shortlisted in the "Community\Communications and Events" category for my work in promoting waste reduction. As you can guess, I am very excited indeed and because I'm off to the gala celebration tonight, I thought I'd post early with an update of the Suffolk food I've managed to munch my way through today.

Hmmm, when I put it like that, I sound like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, chomping my way through the Suffolk countryside until I'm fit to burst....

Today's diary is more of a simple tale than yesterday's, which started in a very relaxing manner with coffee at home with friends.

"Coffee!" I hear you exclaim.  "That's not from Suffolk!"

True, the county's not known for having fields of coffee berries, and could not be considered to be local produce, but there is a local company that imports fairtrade coffee beans for roasting at its site in Woodbridge.  And that's what I've been enjoying all week, slow roasted filter coffee from Paddy & Scott's, a couple of guys who have received plenty of accolades from the food industry and hospitality trade.

The problem was I was so relaxed the morning, I realised that I'd forgotten to have breakfast.  This is very unusual for me, which shows how I'm out of my routine, so by 11.30am I'd become exceedingly hungry and quickly grabbed a bowl of Munchy Seeds Granola, topped with Marybelle strawberry yoghurt and chopped apple, all produced and grown in Suffolk.

No sooner had I finished my brunch,  I received some wonderful news, the kind that makes you pause and smile. It was a message from my sister-in-law announcing the arrival of her first baby and our latest nephew, who as I type is just 7 hours old...well that's a good excuse to crack open the Ickworth Bubbly as soon as we get an opportunity.

But for now, the day called for a modest lunch, with some James White apple juice and a salad courtesy of www.welovelocalfood.co.uk, including potatoes, ham and beetroot, as well as Purely Pesto's guacamole and hummus.

So that's it from me.  I've now got a "posh do" to go to and I've got to be ready within an hour.  If you're interested in keeping up to date with the results of the awards, they will be tweeted live by @GreenSuffolk on Twitter.

Hope you have a great evening and I'll be back for a catchup tomorrow.

UPDATE: 19th March

Well the bad news is I didn't win, but the good news is I got to eat even more Suffolk food.  Well, you wouldn't expect to go to The Greenest County awards and not have local food on the menu would you.  And here it is with Althorne Farm Chicken served with seasonal vegetables from Home Farm, Nacton.

I forgot to take a photo of dessert, but for the record it was Hasketon Apple and Almond Tart served with cream from Rendham Hall in Saxmundham.

It just goes to show that sourcing local food for large events such as weddings, conferences or meetings isn't actually rocket science.  It's simply about knowing where to go for the right produce.

Now I might not have won an award, but I am pleased to say, my good friend Alison Plumridge did, so here's a plug for her work at the Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, in reducing its carbon footprint so much, she won the Green Community Building award as well as the Green Business Hero Award.  Here we are celebrating her double whammy. 

And here are the winners of the award for which I was shortlisted.  Greener Fram, a fabulous community group promoting sustainability in Framlingham, East Suffolk, who also won two awards for their great work in inspiring people in their local area.

But the best news is that The Suffolk Diet is still intact.  Thanks to the menu that evening, I managed to get through the day eating nothing but Suffolk produce, which is big win for this latest challenge.  I was as nervous about that as I was waiting for the awards announcement and can definitely say the meal was a winner!

Day 1: New tricks. Granola and Smokey Kippers.

(Photo: Kippers from Pinney's of Orford)

So it's officially Day 1 of the Suffolk Diet and what a great start to my culinary adventures it has been.

Being a creature of habit, you'd normally find me tied to a bowl of Ready Brek as part of my breakfast routine, but today I ventured down the unchartered path of granola, combined with a topping of lemon yoghurt and chopped apple.

And yes, I can guarantee they were all Suffolk products.  The granola is part of the Munchy Seeds range from Leiston.  The yoghurt comes from Marybelle dairies, which is based in Halesworth and the apples hail from the High House Fruit Farm, along with the apple juice that you can see in the photo. In fact, we passed a sign to the Sudbourne based farm during our visit to Orford yesterday.  So already my knowledge of Suffolk's geography is improving, simply by extending the range of food that we eat.

Now, it might have been a good start for me, but I'm afraid that when it came to the children, it was more of a matter of mixed outcomes, with my youngest starting off the day with his regular Weetabix.  He's only five and knows what he likes, so is a pretty tough cookie to budge into the realm of new experiences.  When Paul from Local Food Direct first set me the challenge, I made him aware how the children might react, so we agreed that it wasn't essential to drag the kids or even my husband along with me, but to include them whenever they could be tempted.  And I learned the first trick this morning, serving both boys some extra toast (made from bread that I picked up at the Aldeburgh Market shop yesterday) topped off with Suffolk honey for one and Mirabelle Jam for the other.

But shhh, gather around quietly because I believe this could be my first confession. While checking the label on the jam, which is made from locally foraged plums by Highways Handmade Preserves, its address read as "Rickinghall, Diss, Norfolk".  Oops, I could have sworn Rickinghall was in Suffolk.  So maybe my geography isn't so good after all.  So if there are any local experts out there, please tell.

Thank goodness for the kippers that we had for brunch. Having come from Pinney's of Orford, I can certainly vouch that is most definitely part of Suffolk, especially as we went on a trip out there yesterday.

I don't recall ever having kippers before, but I'd been inspired to try them out by a friend's entry on her Facebook page. (So thanks Terry-anna, if you're looking in - from Facebook to Blogger, that's the power of social media).

It may have been a great start to the day, but I think " la pièce de résistance" just had to be tonight's main course, which featured Sutton Hoo chicken burgers (more info about the birds can be found at the excellent Food Safari blog) accompanied by a range of the county's salad vegetables and leaves, which Paul delivered on Friday.  I must admit I had to be careful with the chicken burgers. I'd ordered plain ones for the children but chose the Chilli and Lemon flavour for me and my husband.  Bless the Lord that I didn't mix them up!

The chunky chips were also made from Suffolk grown potatoes, drizzled with Hillfarm's Rapeseed Oil and roasted in the oven.  And check out my chunky chip stacking technique!  I thought I'd also experiment with the art of presentation.

And look what else I made while the oven was on...my very own crisps!

If you've never made them before, it's easy.  Just slice the potatoes thinly - using a cheese slicer if you like - spray lightly with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then place on a baking tray in a hot oven.  Bake for 10-15 minutes and keep checking regularly, removing them one-by-one as they become crisp.  

They really are delicious.but I haven't eaten them yet, because I was too busy indulging in this...

...The Vanilla Bakery's Lemon Drizzle Cake, which I bought at the market on Saturday and which is still going  strong!

So, as Day 1 draws to a close, I think it's been pretty successful all-in-all, with fabulous Suffolk food truly being the highlight of the day.  This challenge has really has awoken my interest and enthusiasm for what I bring to our dining room table.

However, there is one more tale to tell and I have to confess I haven't been at home all day! 

I ventured out at lunchtime to meet up with some girlfriends at the Bury St Edmunds Garden Centre, where I'm afraid the food was out of my control. Although the menu highlighted that they source local food where possible, on account of the queue being extremely long I didn't dare to ask about specific detail for fear of being glared at by the people behind me.  At least the trifle I ordered was made on-site and as for the tea, it might not have been from Suffolk, but it did come from Tregothnan, which has its own tea plantation in Cornwall and is... only a few hundred miles away.

What a surprise eh...tea from Cornwall!  Who'd have guessed it.

Now if it can be grown there, I wonder if there's any hope for a plantation here in the east!