May 2014: Fodder

Our May meeting was held at Fodder, the fantastic shop, deli and cafe run by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society just behind Sainsbury’s in Harrogate which will mark its fifth birthday next month.

On arrival, we were all given a glass of chilled elderflower cordial, before the canapes were brought out. We enjoyed everything from local sausages, mini jacket potatoes filled with Yorkshire Blue cheese, and palmiers, to macaroons and chocolate cups filled with whiskey flavoured foam, which went down very well (even with our teetotal president!).

Our speaker was Jane Thornber, who described the ecological features of the building as well as the business’s organisational structure, which puts the customer at the top as the most important person. We found out how they use the shop as a larder to prepare food for the cafe, while 85% of the produce on sale is sourced in Yorkshire.

As its fifth anniversary approaches, the team at Fodder has plans for the future including mail order hampers, a click-and-collect service, and outdoor catering via a new van which has just been acquired.

After an interesting talk, everyone spent some time browsing the shelves and displays to get some fantastic Yorkshire produce – complete with an exclusive Spa Sweethearts discount on the night. We’re very grateful to Fodder for an evening which was both interesting and delicious.

March 2014: Beer

For some reason, monthly meetings involving alcohol* always seem to attract a crowd, and our March meeting was no exception.

Almost 60 ladies – and a handful of brave men! – gathered to find out more about the craft beer revolution from local specialists Ake & Humphris. We learned about the origins of the craft beer trend and its popularity in different parts of the world, as well as the way the beers are brewed.

Of course, it’s important to learn by doing, so there were eight beers for all of us to try. Sampling them in pairs, we first tasted and made our own notes before finding out what the experts, Des Tinline and Barry Leal, thought of each and what we ought to have been tasting. Often, we found that our notes did link in with what they said afterwards, such as tasting fruity or light. However, that wasn’t always the case – putting “blue cheese” down as one of the things you could taste in the beer is a sure-fire way to single yourself out as an amateur!

The evening was a great mix of learning and tasting, giving us a chance to try everything ourselves before we found out more of the facts behind the beers. Des and Barry certainly know their stuff and it was also a reminder of the experts we have in our community – in this case, just a few hundred metres away from our meeting venue, at the bottom of St George’s Road. They rounded off the evening by asking everyone to vote for their favourite beer of the eight we had tasted. Although there was a clear winner, there was a good spread of votes across most of the options and, as we found out, there’s no right or wrong answer – it all comes down to taste.

 

*We did a wine tasting session a couple of years ago. I was getting a lift home so I managed to sample all of them thoroughly. I then lost all my notes and forgot most of the second half of the wines on offer. The resulting blog post was so useless that I decided it might be better to exercise some restraint for future drinks-based meetings.

September 2013: Cheese

One thing you can say about the ladies of Spa Sweethearts is that they like their food and drink.

Our cocktails session last month was one of our most popular evenings yet, and when we were told we could bring some wine along to enjoy with our cheese this evening – well, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Rather than just shoveling food and drink into our mouths, Merritt’s of York had added an element of challenge to proceedings. We were invited to try six cheeses and match them to the descriptions we were given.

As well as the cheeses, there were breads and biscuits to try, as well as some grapes on the side of the plates. More than one visit to the top table was needed to ensure we were sure of the flavours we were tasting, and to find a favourite.

It was interesting to see that, when Julian from Merritt’s asked us which cheese was our favourite, there was a fairly even spread of hands going up for each cheese. There were only a few crumbs of cheese left of each plate by the end!

We had a great evening and enjoyed trying all the different cheeses, competing to see who was best at recognising the different flavours and textures.