South Lakeland’s first community radio station, INDIGO 106.6fm has received it’s first national award. . . for a pie!

INDIGO teamed up with local award winning butchers Dale’s of Kirkby Lonsdale, to enter the National Pie Awards. There were over 700 entries to this years competition sponsored by Colman’s (visit www.britishpieawards.co.uk)

The partnership came about when Mark from Dales approached Indigo106.6FM to see if they would be interested in submitting an entry to the British Pie Awards.

The winning entry was a recipe dreamed up by Vicky of Dales Butchers, which was a traditional pork pie with a twist. Locally sourced Damsons, for which the South Lakes is renowned, were included in the recipe to give the pie a purple theme.

“Using our knowledge of the local area we knew that damsons are a speciality in Westmorland” said Mark from Dales, “they are also purple so we made the suggestion to Indigo who went along with the idea but they were unconvinced of the Pork & Damson combination.”

Judges including, Phil Vickery, Julia Bradbury and Rosemary Shrager were impressed with the quality and imagination

INDIGO itself has previously been praised by OFCOM, the radio authority, for the “close connection with its community, and ..some innovative content ideas”. Station Director Paul Broadbent commented: “this is taking innovative content to its extreme, but we all have to earn a crust”

INDIGO’s team are now looking to attract a range of business sponsors, who recognise the benefits of associating their business name, with this increasingly professional and trusted local brand.

For more information visit: www.indigofm.co.uk.

We found some old photos of our shop just after we took over from the Dale Brothers in 1999. These photos were taken just before and after our first refurbishment of the premises.

Shop front 1999	Mark at work in side window
Mark at work in front window	The walk-in fridge at the back of the shop and the formica counter
The formica counter and scales	Lamb carcasses hanging in the window

The new counter fridges and the shop with a fresh lick of paint

The shop was originally half the size it was now as the other half was still living quarters at the time. As you can see there was considerable lack of refrigeration with only a walk-in fridge at the back of the shop. The lamb carcasses hung in the windows and large cuts of beef were displayed in the window on a marble slab sausages were presented in metal trays on an old formica counter top.

Mark recalls that even then he felt like he had gone back in time about 50 years!

The addition of the counter fridges were a marked improvement and more recognisable of recent years until we upgraded again last year.

The Christmas decorations were the efforts of the local playgroup and marked our first Christmas in Kirkby Lonsdale.

Our first Chirstmas in Kirkby Lonsdale

At the moment plaintains are available in the shop. These are fruit which look like bananas but they cannot be eaten raw and so need to be cooked first. Plaintains are quite starchy and so can be cooked in much the same way as a potato i.e. boiled, mashed, fryed etc.

Here is what we did with them:

Peeled and sliced 2 plaintain.

Heated oil in a fryer and fried the plaintain in small batches so they didn’t stick together.

Drained the plaintain on kitchen paper and sprinkled with Cornish Sea Salt.

Delicious on its own, as a snack at BBQs, to accompany a juicy steak or for kids with a burger!

Yes, Mark has won another award for his sausages!

Mark accepts his trophy from Douglas Scott for his Pork & Caramel sausage

Below is the press release from the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders

Sausage Sticks out in Competition

The unlikely combination of Pork and Caramel has proven to be a great success when filled into a sausage skin. What’s more the idea has won a Cumbria butcher a handsome cheque in a Scottish contest to come up with the winning suggestion.

The producer of the Pork and Caramel Sausage, Mark Duckworth of Dales Traditional Butchers in Kirkby Lonsdale - one of four Scottish Craft Butchers in England - receives a prize of £500 for his recipe which has now been distributed to every Scottish Craft Butcher.

Mark Duckworth said:

“I was stunned to find out that I had won the top prize in a Scottish competition but knew that the blend would probably go down well. I have won the National Beef Sausage Championship in the past so we know that we make good sausages.”

Scotland’s craft butchers will launch the new sausage in National Butchers Week which runs from Monday 15^th March. 450 craft butchers shops throughout Scotland have received the winning the recipe and they will all be able to make this latest invention.

In November last year consumers were invited to suggest a sausage that Scottish Craft Butchers might develop into a saleable product. Entry forms were filled in butchers shops up and down the country and many zany ideas were dreamt up. From those 20 were selected as ideas that were original and could possibly make an interesting sausage.

Butchers tried out the ideas and those who thought they had struck on a winning recipe submitted their ‘inventions’ for judgment on Friday 12^th February. A panel of sausage lovers evaluated fourteen different varieties represented by 30 separate entries on the way to selecting the best.

The winning idea turned out to be the most unlikely combination of pork and caramel. Many of the judges doubted the product would be in contention but every one of them when they tasted it, was impressed with the submission.

Craft Butchers Chief Executive Douglas Scott said:

“The addition of caramel in the pork sausages is certainly intriguing and the desire to taste will attract sales. When the customers taste the product we are convinced that they will be as pleasantly surprised as all our judges were.”

As well as the four Scottish Craft Butchers in England there are 450 Scottish Craft Butchers shops throughout Scotland where these Pork and Caramel Sausages can be purchased. Your nearest can be located at www.craftbutchers.co.uk/butchers

The suggestion for the Pork and Caramel Sausage came from 12 year old Naomi Morris from Crieff who will also receive a cheque. After school on Tuesday 9^th March Naomi will be presented with her cheque for £250 (and some Pork and Caramel Sausages) by John McCallum at the shop where her father picked up an entry form: John McCallum, 201 High Street, Auchterarder.

For British Pie week we have some new flavours, Lamb Balti, Hunters Chicken & Creamy Pork & Pepper.

We are selling these hot and cold through the shop only during British Pie week.

During Farmhouse Breakfast Week we raised £100 for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal from the purchase of 100kg of sausage from our shop.

Thanks to all for making this happen.

Celebrate Farmhouse Breakfast Week with Dales Butchers.

We supply Brades Farm Dairy milk, free range eggs form South Lakeland, home cured bacon, home made sausages and home baked black pudding amongst other things.

We will also be sampling our sausages and will have a limited number of Farmhouse Breakfast Week recipe booklets available instore.

£1 for every kilo of sausage sold in the shop during Farmhouse Breakfast Week going to the Haiti Earthquake Appeal

Meat Management Industry Awards 2010

We need your help to vote for us.

The categories we would like to be nominated for are:

No 5: Best Website Based Meat Business
No 7: Britain’s Best Butchers Shop

If you think we fit the bill then visit this website to register your nomination: http://www.yandellmedia.com/forms/Y1025_MM_Awards_2010_Online_Voting/Y1025_voting.html

Closing date for entries is 5th March 2010.

Thanks

We would like to thank all customers who shopped with us over the festive period and we hope your meat met with satisfaction. If it didn’t then please let us know what we could do to improve our service to you.

This New Year we have decide to have a special promotion for online customers offering free shipping on orders of £60 and over during January and February.

We have also added Haggis to our product list for those who like to celebrate Burns Night on 25th January. Serve it with mash and swede or turnips and don’t forget the dash of whiskey to tickle your taste buds! Good wholesome food on a cold winter’s evening never goes a miss.

This weekend has seen a dramatic change at Dales Butchers with a refurbishment of the shop. A completely different layout with one long counter across the width of the shop to allow more space for customers and for easier working conditions behind the scenes without having lost any space for displaying our goods.

We hope the new layout will make for a cleaner and more satisfying shopping experience with us.

With christmas hot on our heels we are now taking orders. Download a form here or visit the website for more information. http://www.dalesbutchers.co.uk