Hello
Welcome to another week. I hope you managed to enjoy some of the last summer rays over the weekend, wasn't it beautiful? It seems this week it's going to be all change. Is it too early to put the heating on?! Although now I look again at the forecast, after tomorrow's storms it seems reasonable enough, and Friday and Saturday might hit 18 degrees and sunny so we can't really complain about that for the end of September can we?
I wanted to highlight our new gift vouchers that are now available to buy from 2a Church Street, being shown off perfectly in the above picture on the beautiful MMB floor! They're available in multiples of £5, are valid for a year and can be used on any food, drink or MMB products at 2a. The perfect foodie solution to any birthday dilemmas you may have (I daren't mention the festive C word just yet...).
In other news I am pleased to announce a collaboration with our new fishmonger in town, Saffron Fish Co. For those of you that haven't yet visited, do head to their shop on George Street, a couple of doors down from Humphrey's Butchers. Owner Matt Gurnett was Head Chef at The Cricketers in Clavering before starting on this new venture. And what a venture it is. He has the most beautiful and fresh display of fish on offer from Tuesdays - Saturdays (sourced from Billingsgate market in the wee hours of the morning) including some harder to source produce such as razor clams and spider crab. And the highlight for me so far? Matt's handmade cured fish including, what I'm sure is soon to become a Walden cult product, his Saffron Cured Salmon. We sampled it last week along with his Treacle Cured Trout and Beetroot Cured Halibut and it was such a treat. Which is why I'm so happy to tell you about an offering they are introducing at the end of this week.
On Friday and Saturday you'll be able to buy a bundle at Saffron Fish Co. of their cured fish, including the Saffron Salmon, plus half an MMB Rugbrød for £10. If you're yet to try some of our Rugbrød it is a nordic inspired, dense rye loaf made with our sourdough starter and crammed full of pumpkin seeds, linseed, sunflower seeds, cranberries, black coffee and molasses - think of it as a grown up Malt Loaf. I can't tell you how well the cured fish and the Rugbrød go together. So complementary, they were made for each other. I was thinking earlier that they could even be upgraded with a squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of crème fraîche, but to be honest I don't know if it's necessary. Delicious indeed, but sometimes it's best to let the natural flavours do the talking don't you think? So if this appeals do go along and see Matt on Friday or Saturday and give the combination a try. I doubt you'll regret it. It's pretty special.
And talking of trying new things, we were pleased that so many of you gave our Super Sour loaves a try last week as we introduced them on Thursdays and Fridays as well as our usual Saturday. So popular, in fact, we sold out of them early on both days and so we will do extra this week on all three days. As one customer commented, although they're described as Super Sour they are certainly not overly sour and are far from the sourdough flavour that you so often get in shop bought sourdough (did you know that is often a flavouring that is added to yeast produced bread to make it taste like sourdough? Sourfaux). So give one a try if you haven't already and let us know what you think.
Also on offer this week we will have our Potato & Rosemary Sourdough on special on Friday and Saturday. This is quite a special loaf made with chunks of roasted potatoes, a generous slug of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of rosemary, all combining to create an unusual flavour and texture. We love it. In addition we will be doing a granary version of our Wholewheat & Rye in both large and small sizes on all three days along with our Walden Whites and Super Sours. And because we like to spoil you we will also throw in a few Chocolate Sourdoughs on Friday and Saturday, to keep you sweet. Rugbrøds will be available from 2a on Saturday as well as in limited quantity at Saffron Fish Co. And you won't get our Sourdough Cookies anywhere at all but from 2a! I'm going to try and have them on offer all three days this week if I can.
Right, I've rambled on for long enough.
We look forward to seeing you in the shop later on in the week.
Megan