There’s a lot to think about around the festive season, and sometimes the ‘to-do’ list feels never-ending. One of the biggest things we have to think about is food – who are we catering for, what recipes to cook, what to buy and when to go shopping for it. Here at Plumbs’ Dairy, we want to make things easier for you, so you can avoid the supermarket crowds this year and not worry about having to fight over the last jar of cranberry sauce on the shelves!
We realise that Covid-19 is still out there and lots of us still don’t feel safe going into busy and crowded areas. We want to make sure that you stay safe and don’t miss out this Christmas, so we are delivering our delicious locally sourced products to your door!
Local Christmas specials
If you want the quality of locally sourced meat without having to make a separate order at your butchers, then we can deliver it straight to your door. We are working with local suppliers to make sure you get fresh, high-quality food, without the effort of having to leave your home. If you are cooking for a large group of people this year, Waterhall Farm in Suffolk are offering small, medium and large turkeys that can feed up to 17 people! We are also working with Broadland Hams in Norfolk to bring you a range of gammon, sausages, ham and bacon. Our Christmas Dinner Vegetable Crates are full of the vegetables you need to complete your meal. The crates are available in small and large sizes, so whether you are cooking for 2 or 10 people, we can deliver the right amount of fresh produce to your door.
Let’s not forget the sweet stuff! Lillypuds, who are based in East Anglia, are our suppliers for our Christmas puddings. These delicious desserts are available in a range of flavours to suit all your guests’ preferences. Whether they like a sticky toffee pudding, their saucy lemon puddings, chocolate or even a traditional Christmas pudding, we’ve got you covered. Their puddings are all made from natural ingredients, giving you the taste of homemade without the effort of having to do it yourself! All Lillypuds products are suitable for vegetarians and they even offer some vegan and gluten-free puddings too! And what’s the festival season without mince pies? Barkers Bakery will be bringing us their freshly baked mince pies to get you in the festive spirit – they’re perfect for visitors popping by, or even for you to nibble on yourself!
Everyday essentials
As the shops get busier as we approach Christmas, we want to save you from having to brave the queues just so you can get your milk. So alongside our Christmas specials, we will be offering our usual delivery service so you can still get your essentials delivered straight to your door.
We are taking orders for our Christmas & New Year Delivery Service until Friday 3rd December. To place your order, please click here to download your Christmas & New Year order form, or give us a call on 01223 893033 so we can help you make your order.
The brand-new cookbook, More Taste & Less Waste from the Dairy Diary shares helpful tips on how to lessen food waste. And not only is that the socially responsible thing to do, but it can also save you money too!
Here are a few top tips:
STORING FOOD
Ensure that your fridge is set to below 5°C and the freezer is set to around -18°C. Read the instructions for your fridge: there are usually cooler/warmer sections that lend themselves to particular products.
Check use-by dates and arrange foods in your fridge with the shortest date on the top, so that you use it first. If something has a date before you’re likely to use it, consider freezing it.
Vegetables (except potatoes) keep for longer if they’re stored in the fridge. Also keep fruit (except bananas) in the fridge, with a few in a fruit bowl to ripen, if required.
THE FREEZER
What not to freeze. So many foods can be frozen, raw or cooked, that it’s actually easier to list what to avoid freezing. The following foods do not freeze well: cottage cheese and low-fat cheeses with a fat content less than 40 percent, cucumber, salad leaves, cooked eggs, mayonnaise, egg custard, and jelly. Cooked rice can be frozen, but it may cause food poisoning unless it’s reheated to a very high temperature and so it’s best avoided.
QUICK FREEZER TIPS
Read the label on meat, fish and seafood to check that it’s not been previously frozen. If it has, it should not be re-frozen unless it’s been cooked first.
Don’t freeze milk in glass bottles, as it may expand and shatter the glass.
Fresh herbs can be frozen, chopped, in ice cube trays, as can ginger. And also chop garlic before freezing; don’t freeze whole bulbs.
Freeze whole loaves of bread, or make into breadcrumbs in a food processor before freezing.
Leftovers from cans can be frozen in a freezer-proof container. Convenience foods should say on the label if they are suitable for freezing.
Ideally, freeze cakes and biscuits before they’re filled or iced/decorated.
Leftover wine can be frozen in ice cube trays to add depth of flavour to gravy or sauces.
Apart from ready-frozen ingredients, always pack foods in portions, so that it’s easy to defrost/use just what you need. Label containers with their contents and the date on which they are frozen.
Ensure that the food is well sealed: in foil, in lidded tubs or in Pyrex (or similar) dishes covered with a lid or with tight-fitting foil. Remove as much air as possible by lifting one corner of the lid and then sealing again.
More Taste and Less Waste cookbook shares many more tips on how to avoid food waste as well as 80 amazing recipes, all with a stunning photographs. Available to buy here today.
As we say goodbye to summer and welcome back the beginning of the new school year, we also bring back the early morning routine of breakfast and packed lunches. For many of us, this early morning routine was followed by a day of working from home, which took a little pressure off having to get ourselves organised too. But as we return to the office, we’re all looking for things to make our lives that little bit easier.
At Plumbs’ Dairy, we deliver fresh products to your door, to save you from having to do a midweek dash to the shops when the milk runs out! We’re going to talk you through some of our essential products to help you with your back to school routine.
Fresh milk delivered to your door!
Mornings are best started with coffee, so to make sure you never get caught out with an empty carton, we run our milk delivery service to make sure your fridge is always stocked with essentials. At Plumbs’, we’ve been delivering milk for over 50 years, so we know what our customers like. We offer a glass bottle service where every bottle is recycled, plastic cartons and a range of non-dairy alternatives too. We also know how quickly milk can run out when cereal is on the morning menu, so we can arrange a regular delivery slot to make sure your milk supply is always replenished!
Bread and butter!
Whether it’s toast for breakfast or packing up sandwiches for lunch boxes, bread will somehow find its way into your morning routine. Nothing is better than fresh bread, so we work with Barkers Bakery to ensure you can get a fresh loaf delivered straight to your door. When it comes to bread, we know that people have their favourites, so we stock a range of choices from soft white bread rolls to granary to bloomers, to make sure that everyone is catered for. We also offer other morning treats like breakfast muffins and crumpets to fill up hungry tummies for a big day at school!
Something sweet
One of our favourite things to put on fresh bread is a dollop of good quality jam! Lots of kids seem to love it too, so it’s the perfect sandwich filling for packed lunches. We stock Bay Tree’s award winning jam in a number of delicious fruity flavours, such as raspberry and strawberry. We also love their chutneys, which are a great way to add an extra bit of flavour to a sandwich!
After school treats
Sometimes a little sweet treat is in order after a hard day at school. Barkers Bakery offers a range of fresh cakes, such as chocolate, lemon and battenburg – a perfect way to end the day (and a treat for you too!).
If you want to make your back to school routine a little easier, head over to our homepage to find out more about our delivery service and browse our full range of products that we can deliver straight to your door!
With the sun reaching scorching temperatures in recent weeks, summer has finally arrived! So we thought it would be the perfect time to talk you through our favourite products at Plumbs’ Dairy for your picnic hamper! Whether it’s a family picnic at the park, or a gathering with friends, we want to show you our top picks for you to pack in your cool box.
A classic jam sandwich
What’s a picnic without a classic jam sandwich? Bay Tree offers some award-winning delicious fruity jams such as strawberry, raspberry and cherry, perfect for those with a sweet tooth. They also make tasty chutneys and pickles in classic and less common flavours such as Spiced Apple and Onion, which are also favourites of the Great Taste Awards. We love to add these on to our cheese and crackers, or even to add that little something extra to our sandwiches!
Fresh summer salads
Whether you want to pack a crisp, cooling leafy salad, or some scrumptious pesto pasta, Yare Valley Oils have a range of products to create family-sized picnic dishes. Their Honey and Mustard Dressing is a great way to add some depth to your salad, and their Pesto Sauce added to pasta makes a quick but filling meal to fill hungry tummies (and it still tastes great served cold)! If you’re looking for smaller nibbles, we love to use their oils as a dip for bread – especially their Garlic and Rosemary one!
Keeping hydrated
Keeping your family hydrated on a hot summer’s day is essential, but sometimes you want something a little more flavoursome than just water. James White Juices, which are pressed locally in Suffolk, offer a range of refreshing flavours. From their classic apple juices, to ginger, lemon, beetroot and raspberry and pear, there’s something for everyone. We also stock some of their organic juices, and a variety of apple juices pressed with different apples for those with a particular favourite! Their Big Tom juice also works as a great base for a Bloody Mary, for those wanting to relax with a tasty drink at their picnic.
Sweet treats
After salads and sandwiches, you might be craving something sweet to balance out the savoury snacks. From lemon, ginger, carrot to chocolate cake, Barkers Bakery make a range of locally baked treats to satisfy your sugar craving! (They also sell freshly baked bread that we recommend for your sandwiches!). Check out their full range of products here!
Something fruity
Fresh fruit on a hot day is often what you really want! So why not add in a punnet of local strawberries! We also sell them with fresh local double cream for those looking for even more of a treat.
We offer plenty more delicious options to create your perfect picnic, so why not explore our full range of products here on our website. At Plumbs’ Dairy, we can deliver your order straight to your door, making your summer picnics that little bit easier!
Here at Plumbs’ Dairy, we’re lucky to stock a range of fantastic products from some brilliant suppliers, so we’d like to tell you a little bit more about the people behind them. This month we’re focusing on FieldGoods, who create delicious ready-made meals that we can deliver straight to your door, so you can eat well without having to do the cooking! We chatted to Sam and Elliot Day, the two brothers from Devon who are behind FieldGoods, to find out more about how it all started and their passion for produce and creating sustainable products.
At FieldGoods we create premium, sustainable ready meals in unique and compostable packaging. After three years running a successful restaurant in London, we decided to turn our love of home-cooked food into a business and set up FieldGoods in 2020. The dream? To make amazing comfort food from carefully sourced, sustainable suppliers, sent from our kitchen to your table.
Growing up in a large family where mealtimes and food were considered more important than just about anything else, it’s probably fair to say that FieldGoods has been in the making for a while.
It wasn’t until the spring of 2020 however, while locked down at home on our family farm, that the idea started to come to life.
With an abundance of time and local produce on our hands, we found ourselves making the most of the situation and cooking up comfort food we all love but rarely have the time to cook in our busy lives. Whether it was slow cooking a beef bourguignon, or leaving a chilli to bubble away for hours, we were starting to realise what we were missing out on.
We set out to develop comfort classics, using produce with provenance, so everyone can enjoy those home favourites, made from the best ingredients, without actually having to make them, or even better, wash up!
In time, a menu was created and FieldGoods came to life! We have integrated environmental sustainability throughout the business from the small, native breed farms in north Yorkshire to global packaging aficionados Huhtamaki, we have made sure our business is working with people who, like us are trying to work in a way that improves tomorrow.
We’re Sam and Elliot Day; two food obsessed brothers who left the farm in Devon for the big city. Elliot trained as a chef in London and Tokyo, and Sam studied Sustainable Agriculture at Newcastle University.
All of our meals are produced by Elliot and our head chef Ben. We’re currently producing all of the meals out of our prep kitchen in Battersea, however we’ve outgrown our current space, so we’re moving into a larger kitchen in Wimbledon at the end of July.
We are passionate about our produce and just as importantly, the environment. When launching a consumable product, the environmental impact can be huge. With this at the forefront of our minds, we set out on a mission to create a product that would have as little impact to the environment as possible, and one day achieve the ultimate goal of running a business that is not only carbon neutral, but one that actually has a positive impact on the environment.
The movement towards sustainable fishing and agriculture has become more important than ever in the last ten years. Growing up in Devon, we were lucky enough to be surrounded by beautiful produce, whether we were mucking in on the farm with his dad’s small herd of Ruby Red Devon cattle, or spending the day fishing for mackerel on the coast. We both learnt really early on how important it is to know exactly where your food comes from. So when we launched FieldGoods, we wanted this ethos to feed into everything we did. That’s why we hand pick each and every supplier we use, making sure we only cook with the best possible produce that comes from a good place.
When launching a new business, breaking into the market can be extremely difficult. Luckily for us, Justin Plumb believed in our product and gave us an amazing opportunity to be part of their stock list. I was first drawn to Plumbs’ as I thought our brands aligned really well together, I loved the fact that they were a family run business and like us, they really do care about the environment. Working with Plumbs’ Dairy has provided us with a unique opportunity to deliver our product to your door step, without having to put any more vehicles on the road!
It’s been a really tricky time for most of us over the last year, but especially the elderly and vulnerable, for whom popping out to the shops can be a daunting process. Working with Plumbs’, we hope that we can reach these customers and provide them with a delicious meal delivered straight to their door. It also allows us to deliver our product in rural areas where delivery would be difficult otherwise.
If you’d like to try FieldGoods delicious home-cooked ready meals, you can browse the full range and place your order here! Or if you’d like to find out more about FieldGoods, why not visit their website!