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Our Original Recipe Gingerbread

original gingerbread

Was created from an old Shelley family recipe. 

In 1803 the young boy Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose family lived just outside Horsham, at Field Place, Warnham, wrote to his aunt requesting that she bought some gingerbread for him from one of the fairs at Horsham. He wanted to take it on a picnic.

This year, all around the world, the Bicentenary of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s early death in Italy – 8 July 2022, is being commemorated with many events.

Closer to home, on BBC sounds, Radio 4, Benjamin Zephaniah brings us his personal take on Percy Shelley’s work in two very interesting episodes:

It is interesting to note that these days, it could be argued that the work of Percy’s wife, Mary, is better known than his poetry.

Her book Frankenstein had stood the test of time. Many young fans of her novel would probably be surprised to learn of her eventful life as the wife of a radical poet who wanted to live outside society…

 Spotlight on our lovely Retailers

This month we would like to present:

Knepp Estate Shop

Knepp Wildland Safaris
New Barn Farm
Dial Post
West Sussex
RH13 8NN

We mentioned the Knepp Estate (famous for its very successful rewilding project), in our New Year newsletter because it is very close to The Countryman Pub, which has a farm shop within their pub, and are another one of our retailers.

 

The Knepp Estate run very successful Wildland safaris and nature courses, alongside their glamping and camping area (yoga classes also offered).

 

The arch entrance to the campsite is made from old antlers that the deer have shed.

 

They have a drinks waggon outside the shop with seating, for thirsty walkers to rest their weary legs!
The public is welcome to visit the estate to enjoy its open spaces and see wild animals in their natural habitat.
Knepp is a 3,500 acre estate just south of Horsham, West Sussex.

Since 2001, the land – once intensively farmed – has been devoted to a pioneering rewilding project. Using grazing animals as the drivers of habitat creation, and with the restoration of dynamic, natural water courses, the project has seen extraordinary increases in wildlife. Extremely rare species like turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons and purple emperor butterflies are now breeding there; and populations of more common species are rocketing.

The Estate Shop

We love their rustic shop, which has a cosy wood burner for chilly days.

Campers and visitors can buy everything they need for a BBQ, plus treats like Horsham Gingerbread.

Knepp Wild Range Meat

Can be purchased in the shop or on their website – they produce a range of sausages, steaks and burgers from their free-roaming, pasture-fed, organic Old English longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs, and red and fallow deer.

Because the animals are free to browse and are ‘slow-grown’ – ie not fattened unnaturally fast on grain and protein – the meat is denser and richer, with that characteristic ‘marbling’ of fat which gives fantastic texture and taste.

Their old English longhorns produce exceptional beef. In his ‘Perfection’ series of programmes for TV in 2013 chef Heston Blumenthal chose longhorn above all other traditional beef including Aberdeen Angus and Japanese Kobe as the best tasting steak in the world.

Their Tamworth pigs hoover up a feast of acorns in the autumn which gives their meat a flavour like wild boar. It’s entirely unlike the pale white meat you can buy in supermarkets, but darker – as pork used to be.

Their meat is matured on the bone in the traditional way in their chiller room at Knepp – the beef for 35 days, the venison for 14 days – for extra tenderness and flavour.