Supplier Spotlight
Easy Bean
Easy Bean ~ A delicious range of one pot meals that can be eaten on the go or as supper in a mo!
We are a small, innovative company determined to give beans the culinary status they deserve. We believe in creating food that’s as delicious as it is healthy; and that eating a balanced diet of wholesome all natural food makes perfect sense. We think "food with soul" conveys the essence of this cuisine. We make delicious and wholesome food-to-go, hand prepared in small batches, using 100% natural ingredients and all in a "One Pot Meal".
How it all began...
I was fortunate to be brought up on a farm and on lots of wholesome food! Vegetables from the kitchen garden, apples from the orchard, milk fresh from the cow, eggs collected that day and home reared meat, and all taken for granted.
Then, some years later, I worked in tropical agriculture in Africa and Latin America, which is probably where my fascination for the pulse (beans, peas & lentils) began. Not only did I appreciate their contribution to so many cuisines and their nutritional status, but I was excited by the enormous variety and the regional differences, as well as their ability to fertilize the soil as they grow by putting nitrogen back into the soil. Superfood and Superplant!
Returning to the UK, it seems to me a pity that only the vegetarians (and a few enlightened others!) are wised up to the virtues of pulses; and I wonder why they don’t have the status as in other parts of Europe. Cassoulet in France is an obvious example, or Fabada from Asturias in Spain or Salsicce e Fagioli a favourite in Tuscany.
Which brings me back to the task we have set ourselves – "giving beans the culinary status they deserve". Most importantly, we look forward to sharing with you: our passion for good food, along with our love of the bean.
Inspired by the bean and one-pot recipes from around the world, we have created a range of healthy and versatile recipes. Enjoy on-the-go or serve up as a tasty supper…oh, and don’t forget to reuse or recycle that pot!
Christina Baskerville
(unashamedly a bean fiend)
www.easybean.co.uk
About Vintage Roots Organic Wine
In the beginning…
Our roots extend back to 1986 when we started our business with the help of 'The Enterprise Allowance Scheme', which gave budding young entrepreneurs the chance of receiving £40 a week (the equivalent of state benefit at the time) for a year, to help launch new businesses!
Three friends Lance, Neil and Peter (who left in 1991) had a wish to work for themselves promoting something they passionately believed in and could enjoy at the same time - hence organic wine! So with a short list of organic vineyard addresses, a somewhat battered Citroen 2CV and a tent, we set off for France and researched our first wine list which consisted of just twelve wines and was published on a single sheet of A4 paper.
Working from our front room in a terraced house in east Reading with no experience and an empty order book, meant that the early years (about eight!) were very tough and financially very unexciting! However we stuck to our beliefs that organic wines were the way forward and continued to be inspired by the from quality-oriented, passionate growers we met and other committed people in the organic industry.
Vintage Roots today
Our values, our energy and our passion for good wine and for organic produce remain as strong as ever.
These days, however, the team has grown somewhat to cope with your demand and our list consists of some three hundred organic wines, dozens of beers along with numerous organic ciders, spirits, liqueurs, juices and even chocolate (well how could we resist?). We moved recently to a farm near Heckfield with an organic shop out front (do come and visit!) with more warehouse space to allow us to do what we do best and where the curious cows look in through the window at our busy office – beats corporate life!
We were also thrilled to win the Decanter accolade last year for Best Specialist Independent Wine Merchant – testament to your faith in us and our continued hard work (pic of Neil & Lance in tuxes collecting award) sourcing great organic wines and other drinks (do try the chocolate too!).
To have a wide range is one thing, but to have a wide range of quality goods is quite another. Every item that appears on our list is tasted at one of our many tastings throughout the year and constantly reviewed for quality. They are tasted 'blind', amongst many others of their type. In this way, we are not influenced by price, or the 'reputation' of a particular producer. We are simply focused on choosing what we find to be the best for you in terms of flavour, interest, quality and value for money.
Our organic credentials and our ethical beliefs
It's also very important to us that every product is accompanied by appropriate organic certification. In this way you can be absolutely confident that anything you buy from us meets the necessary legal requirement to be called 'organic'. All Vintage Roots products are certified as Organic to the standards of the UK's Organic Food Federation
The environment, how we trade and who we trade with are all very important to us. Have a look at how we conduct our business here.
Thank you
Thank you for choosing us – we aim to repay your faith in us in full by offering you the best organic wines we can find for the money, a value-driven business you can feel comfortable with and an attentive, personalized service to help you whenever you need it. We also welcome any feedback, so do call us on our freephone number 0800 980 4992 or contact us with any comments.
Best wishes,
Jo
Chase Distillery
Chase Distillery is a family run business located on owner William Chase’s farm in the heart of Herefordshire countryside,
approximately 30 miles North West of Cheltenham. The distillery is housed in a converted hop kiln barn amongst 400 acres of
rolling fields of potatoes, apple orchards and Herefordshire cattle.
William Chase set up a successful potato supply business growing, trading, storing, haulage and supplying premium
potatoes to multiples. In 1990s he established the Tyrrells brand from growing, processing and distributing Tyrrells potato and
vegetable chips and turned it into a £40m premium brand which he then sold the majority of to build Williams Chase Distillery
in 2008 producing super premium Gin and Vodka.
The genuine quality of Chase Distillery’s products comes from the home grown ingredients and artisan methods used to
make them.
William Chase’s journey into making vodka began in 2004 when he discovered potato vodka and how different it is from the
usual grain variety and he was convinced he could do better because he could grow, mash and distil his potatoes on his farm
to create a genuine quality product with true pedigree and provenance. After selling his multinational crisp business, Tyrrells,
he sourced the very best handcrafted equipment consisting of a large copper pot still and a one of a kind 70 foot rectification
column (the tallest one in Europe) and built his own distillery by converting an old hop kiln barn located on his farm about
30miles north west of Cheltenham.
The distillation process Chase uses is very traditional in its approach and one which early 1900s vodka distillers would be
familiar with. The process is rather laborious but allows for total control of the quality of the products. All products are bottled
& labelled by hand at the distillery.
The first bottle of Chase English Potato Vodka was launched on April Fools’ Day 2008 and took two years in the making. It
was the first and still remains the only English potato vodka in the world. It’s made from potatoes grown on William’s farm
in Herefordshire - varieties Lady Claire and Lady Rosetta. It takes 16 tonnes of potatoes to make 1000 litres of pure spirit
(96%ABV). The distillery can even tell you which potato field your bottle of vodka comes from. They also encourage a sense
of eco-spirit by using the waste potatoes and peelings to help feed their Herefordshire cattle and the stillage to help irrigate
the fields. Each bottle has less than one drink mile because the potatoes and grown, mashed and distilled on site. The
distillery has the capacity to make 3,500 bottles a week.
Chase vodka has a smooth and creamy taste. It is designed to be drunk neat, usually straight from the freezer, but it can be
drunk at room temperature to enable you to taste all of the subtle aromas. The Chase Fruit Liqueurs are made with the Chase
Vodka giving them a genuine luxury and velvety finish. Williams Chase Apple Gin is elegant and crisp with juniper and green
fruits upfront, followed by warm spices and earthy undertones & Chase have produced a Limited Edition Seville Orange
Marmalade Vodka of 1000 bottles which would make the most luxurious of gifts for Christmas.
For more information about Chase Vodka, the Distillery and William Chase please visit www.chasedistillery.co.uk | Become
a fan on Facebook: search for ‘Chase Vodka’ to find their page: www.facebook.com | And follow Chase Vodka on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/chasevodka
Suma
Suma is an IPS, a workers’ cooperative collectively owned and managed by its workers. Since first becoming established in the 1970s, the cooperative has founded its operations on a commitment to ethical trading and environmentally sound practice.
As the cooperative and its business have grown, so has the demand for resources and energy but Suma has never lost sight of its original principles.
Their aim for their brand range is that:
Suma Brand Products should:
1. Have spotless ethical credentials
2. Be healthy and wholesome
3. Be competitive on price with the whole grocery market
4. Be vegetarian
5. Be ethical alternatives to mainstream market products
Packaging for Suma Brand Products should where possible:
1. Be minimal
2. Be recycled, biodegradable or recyclable
3. Be familiar to UK consumers
4. Be robust and applicable to the product
A recent repackaging exercise led to developments that could fundamentally change recycling in flexible food packaging. “We discovered, through one of our commercial partners, that the same technology that can recycle plastic bottles into more plastic bottles could conceivably be applied to flexible food packaging2 like bags of fruit or nuts” says Andrew Mackintosh Suma’s PR manager “not only is the carbon footprint of the process lower than any other packaging medium, but it also means that the packaging itself is 100% recyclable”.
Britain creates over 3 million tonnes of plastic waste each year with an estimated 56% of all plastics waste being used packaging, three-quarters of which is from households. It is estimated that only 7% of total plastic waste is currently being recycled.
From April 2010 the full range of Sumas packaged dried fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, pulses and snacks are in this recycled and fully recyclable packaging, representing over 250 product lines.
“Our customers trust us to make ethical decisions on their behalf” said Mackintosh “and we are confident that this form of packaging has the potential to make a great deal of difference environmentally”
How Pollen Organics true taste came to be...
It all started in the family kitchen with an aga and Christianne’s dream of making food that would help other busy people to prepare delicious, easy meals with true tasting products they can trust.
Some years later the dream came true and Richard Pollen soon became fully involved in running the business with Christianne as it expanded beyond the confines of the kitchen. Having built up his own successful marketing and public relations agency, his sales and marketing skills, in particular, came into force.
From that point on, the Pollen business grew and grew – starting with a stall at local farmers markets and then into farm shops, delis and good food stores, online sites and selected supermarkets across the entire UK.
At the beginning of 2009, a new branding was launched under the banner ‘dedicated to true taste’ which has helped the business achieve further growth and provide the impetus to expand into export markets.
Pollen now holds 27 national food awards for quality and taste across its current range and is constantly developing new recipes to excite and entice the palates of those who enjoy the true taste of real food.
View there products on our site:
Visit their website: http://www.pollenorganics.com
Kitchen Garden Foods
At KITCHEN GARDEN FOODS we have been making top quality jams, chutneys, marmalades and condiments under the KITCHEN GARDEN label since 1989 when Barbara Moinet cooked up her firs tbatch of Blackberry and Apple Jam in the kitchen of her Gloucestershire cottage.
The small town of Stroud on the edge of the Cotswold Hills, where the company is now based, has a long and honourable tradition of artisan manufacturing – cloth, beer, 
walking sticks – to name but a few. The old stone-built mills which cluster around the canal, railway, the river Frome and its tributaries, are a reminder of the hard work and determination which helped to build this part of Gloucestershire (known as the Five Valleys) and give it the character which is still in evidence today.
In the building that was formerly the Stroud Brewery, where Kitchen Garden is now based, you will find a hive of activity. You will know when you’ve arrived – not from the heady mix of malt and hops from the old days, but equally tantalising – the delicious aroma of soft fruit and spices.
Still true to our founding principles, we have never felt the need to change our production methods nor compromise on quality. Everything sold under the Kitchen Garden label is made in the Cotswolds by our team of talented and enthusiastic cooks and they do it just the way it always has been done.
View there products on our site:
Visit their website: http://www.kitchengardenpreserves.co.uk