The Lemon Grove's Exclusive Christmas Gift Guide
Last minute ideas for the family cook, armchair chef or would be traveller
There is still time to get your Christmas gifts ordered, delivered or bought from a bricks and mortar shop. Here are some last minute ideas for you to chew over, and if you'd rather buy them for yourself, well, please do.
Parterre Fragrances
Set in the beautiful Dorset countryside, Parterre is both botanical wonderland and fragrance distillery. Founders David and Julia Bridger took on the former fruit farm in 2016, creating a successful, sweet-smelling seed-to-perfume company. This natural approach to making the distilled oils gives authenticity and provenance to the perfume. The garden and greenhouses are full of citrus trees and David and Julia use a range of lemons, oranges and more exotic citrus fruits for their perfume making.
Using the blossoms, rose gardens, herbs and an inspiring collection of citrus trees, the couple make distinct, fragrant and limited edition perfumes. Petals and other botanticals are distilled into oils at the couple's home and garden at Keynestone Mill, Dorset, England before being sent to Grasse, southern France-based Master Perfumer Jacques Chabert, for the final creation. We’ll be doing more about Parterre in the New Year. Learn more about Parterre here.
Blackwoods Cheese Company
Using organic cows' milk from a herd grazing just yards from their dairy in west Kent, Dave Holton and his team produce a delicious range of cheeses, including Graceburn and Edmund Tew. Graceburn comes steeped in a blend of extra virgin olive and rapeseed oils rather than brine and is based on a Persian feta recipe that Dave learned in Australia. They also offer Edmund Tew (a small, brainy-looking, brine-washed cow's cheese), William Heaps (a fresh lactic cheese), whey and cow's curd,
I worked on the packing line in the busy run-up to Christmas a couple of winters ago and witnessed Dave's passion and skills as a cheese maker and monger. Get Blackwoods cheese from their stall at Borough Market, or from their base at Commonwork Organic Farm in Chiddingstone, Kent. Click here for other stockists.
Ben's Kitchen
Get 20% off orders before 23:59 on Sunday, December 17, from Tonbridge Kent-based Ben's Kitchen using code XMAS20. Popular products include work oil, an Asian fusion rub, roasting infused with garlic and a tasty Asian finishing glaze. Ben says orders over £30 will receive a free jar of smoked salt. I use this salt on my monthly cooking demos at Tonbridge and Aylesford farmers' markets, where I host the cooking. Ben is a popular chef at these farmers market and food festivals cooking up seasonal dishes with foods he's bought at the market. www.bens-kitchen.co.uk
Top Notch Boards
By day Barry works in the steel industry and uses any spare time he has in the evenings and weekends to cut, shape, sand and polish an ever-growing range of unique wooden chopping boards, made with off-cut wood sourced from wood mills in Kent, including oak, cherry, apple and chestnut. Other products include charcuterie boards, bottle openers and gonks (think Scandinavian trolls). Contact Barry to discuss bespoke designs, such as seen in the image above, made for The Lemon Grove. Barry sells his boards online and at farmers markets in Kent, England including Tonbridge and Aylesford. Find out more about Top Notch, here.
Books & Magazines
Thousands of food and drink books and magazines are published every year. Many sell handfuls and should be better known. Others take a deep dive into the complex world of food, taste and culture and again should be better known, or sell in the thousands if linked to a TV chef such as Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson. Below you’ll find links to lists of popular book lists, followed buy a few of my own own choices including ones published over the past couple of years and one set to published in early 2024!
Here are a few lists from respected magazine, newspapers and bookshops including - The New York Times, Vice , Good Housekeeping, The Guardian/ Observer Food Monthly, and Waterstones that I can recommend including Daunt Books, the BBC's Food Programme and the UK's edition of Delicious magazine. Click on the links to read their opinions.
As a Guild of Food Writers member, I am always excited to hear which books (published within the previous year) get shortlisted for the group's awards. Click here for the complete list, including drinks books, podcasts and recipe writing.
What follows is a selection of books and magazines I have bought since January and feel you might also like, although not all were published this year. I've also included a couple of non-foodie books for your pleasure. Many are available to buy on my affiliate BookShop site. Click the links on the books to find out more.
Lee Miller, A life with Food, Friends and Recipes.
The book blurb says this is an 'intriguing book about a woman of many lives and mistress of her own re-invention, Lee Miller, model, surrealist and fashion photographer, war correspondent, and gourmet cook, does everything wholeheartedly and with an imaginative flair'. It’s a colourful look at an extraordinary life, including photos, recipes and stories about her life at Farleys, a house in East Sussex that attracted artists and surrealists such as Picasso and Man Ray. The book is available here.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives
The first in a series of food detective novels translated from the original Japanese, featuring a father and daughter running a restaurant who recreate dishes from their customers' pasts – dishes that may well hold the keys to unlocking forgotten memories and future happiness. Buy the book here.
Foam
You are what you eat! Food is not only a basic need, it is deeply intertwined with most aspects of our lives — as individuals and communities. Foam Magazine #63: FOOD! Foam is internationally minded photography museum based in Amsterdam.
Magma Poetry, Food
Magma is a magazine with single issue topics including Islands, Physics and Solitude. The truth is, ‘best’ poetry to us is like the best food, various and multiple, with history, character, excitement and fun all working together to form an entire meal. The poetry featured throughout this issue does this, from different angles and perspectives. Some of it is celebratory, while others look at the darker sides of the food chain. Some of it is tight and formal, others light and loose. What unites them all is excitement, ours, theirs, (even the poem’s… if you believe in magic) as well as a fearless appreciation for the power of food as a way to open doors between things: language, emotion, culture and identity’. Issue #86 is dedicated to food.
Noma in Kyoto
Noma is the über famous, expensive and innovative restaurant that helped put Copenhagen fine dining on the map. Over several weeks in early 2023, chef-proprietor René Redzepi took a team of cooks, chefs, and creators to Kyoto, Japan and created Noma Kyoto, a popup restaurant offered Japanese-inspire dishes. Ahead of the project, Redzepi hoped that he and the team could ‘bring back new perspectives and a clearer vision for how to be noma.’ It’s unusual for a restaurant to create such a publication, but this beautifully written, designed and photographed magazine does justice to the city and it pays just to many aspects fo the city’s life including fine dining, artisan producers and street market. Dishes served included Koika cuttlefish soba, which is served with a pine broth and rose petals, and lotus root served with a cured egg yolk and a koji butter sauce. Buy the limited edition magazine here.
Painting the Plate
A delicious combination pairing artistic masterpieces with effortless recipes tin whichauthor Felicity Souter delved into the lives of artists past and present, uncovering fascinating stories, eating habits, and cultural traditions with recipes and sumptuous photography. But the book here.
Knife Skills for Beginners
Set to be published in early 2024 Knife Skills is written by Orlando Murrin, president of the Guild of Food Writers is an entertaining cozy murder mystery set in the heart of London in a residential cooking school. It’s eagerly awaited by many of my foodie friends and fellow members of the Guild. Buy the book here.
Three Random Ideas
So many lemon, orange and citrusy-themed presents are available that the list would stretch beyond comfort. So here are three of my top suggestions.
Lemon squeezer, known as a Mexican Elbow, is a colourful and fun addition to the kitchen. This one is available from the online shop, Sous Chef. Search 'lemon' on the site, and you'll find many great citrusy ideas for gifts or treats.
https://www.souschef.co.uk/pages/search-results?q=lemon
Tuscan Wine Adventure with Grappolo Food & Wine School
Run by Paula and Scott Thomas from Colorado, USA, Grappolo Food & Wine School teaches nutritious food and wine with a particular interest in fermentation, and Italy. Full disclosure: the couple were fellow Master's students of mine at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. Grappolo is running two trips to Tuscany and Piedmont in 2024 to, as the guys say, 'focus on the cultural, historical and geographical connection of the food and wine of each region we visit'. Having enjoyed listening to them both sharing their knowledge of food and wine whilst in Italy, I can recommend these trips. For more information on the Tuscany and Piedmont trips, click here.
PS. If you fancy some fantasy of a taste of life on the vine, Netflix has just added the schmaltzy romance Holiday in the Vineyards. Filming took place primarily in and around Greater Los Angeles, including Reyes Winery in Santa Clarita and Pulchella Winery in Valencia. The film stars Charley DeBenedetti, Eileen Davidson and Paul Witten. Wine Spectator magazine recommends watching this movie paired with a glass of Schioppettino, Alicante Bouschet, Falanghina, or Assyrtiko wine.
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BRUCE & THE LEMON GROVE'S EVENTS DIARY
Hosting & Cooking on the Demonstration Stage at:
Tonbridge Farmers Market (every second Sunday of the month, 9.30am - 1.30pm)
Next market in Tonbridge, Kent is on Sunday, January 14, 2024.
Aylesford Farmers Market (every third Sunday of the month, 9.30am - 1.30pm)
Next market in Aylesford, Kent is on Sunday, January 21.
I'll be sharing recipe ideas using food from the farmers market and interviewing many great local growers and producers making wine, bread, jams, marmalade, and much more. Follow Tonbridge Farmers Market for updates.
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