Tag Archives: gluten free

Coeliac UK Plymouth Group AGM and Food Fair

28 Feb

The Coeliac UK Plymouth Group are holding their AGM at the Elm Community Centre on Saturday March 15th from 1pm.  The Elm Centre is situated next to ASDA in Estover, Plymouth.  Following the formalities of the AGM (apologies in advance to anyone who has to listen to me speak!) there will be a gluten free food fair with eight fantastic local gluten free suppliers/producers in attendance, as well as a couple of craft stalls.  This will be another great opportunity to meet and talk to these great businesses as well as stocking up on some fantastic food.  There will also be tea and coffee served, free samples and of course a raffle with some great prizes.

Non-members are more than welcome to come to the event and I hope to see lots of Gluten Free by the See readers there.  For full information, please see the details that have been sent out to Coeliac UK Plymouth Group members below.

For updates please join the Facebook page for the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/363380737133221/

Regards,

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

Plymouth

The Coeliac UK Plymouth Voluntary Support Group invite you to join us at the ELM Centre, ASDA Plymouth, for a short meeting in which we can update you on progress and complete the formalities of the Annual General Meeting.  For new members we will be available to give help with such things as prescriptions and best places to purchase gluten free products.  Committee member Suzanne Stephenson will be available to give advice to parents of coeliac children.

After the short meeting a Gluten Free Food Fair will be held.  This will be a great opportunity to stock up on gluten free products from some of the finest local suppliers.  Present will be Traditional Puddings, Clare’s Gluten Free Catering and Love Free From who sold at our previous Elm Centre meeting in November.  They will be joined by Let Them Eat Cake, St Maurice Bakery, Soupy Do, Alison Carter from Tavistock Country Market and Cupcake Universe.  We are organising a raffle with some excellent prizes such as some gluten free beer from CELIA Lager, a prize from JDs Grill and many more.  There will also be a range of free samples available.

In the Elm Centre we will again have use of the excellent kitchen facilities, were teas, coffees, biscuits and cakes will be available.  For all the bakers out there, we welcome you to bake and share with other members.  There will be a £1 voluntary entrance fee to the meeting and members are also encouraged to bring unwanted prescription items for new members.

We are looking forward to seeing you on the 15th March 2014. Doors will open at 1pm with the meeting starting at 1:30pm. The food fair will then run until 4pm.  We sincerely hope you can attend, and trust you will have a great time.

Programme:

  • Group Organisers Report/future events
  • Treasurers Report
  • Election and re-election of group officers
  • Tea/coffee break with cakes and biscuits
  • Raffle draw
  • Opening of the food fair

Directions/Parking:

The ELM Centre is located in Estover, Plymouth, adjacent to the ASDA Store.  If stood at the ASDA main entrance, turn right down the steps and the centre is at the far end of the courtyard.  Full address is Leypark Court, Leypark Walk, Plymouth PL6 8UE.

There is some community centre parking available, otherwise you can park in the overflow ASDA car park for 3 hours.  Drive straight on rather than turning right into the main car park.

The number 50 City Bus runs regularly to the ASDA store.  You can catch the 27 or 27a if travelling from the City Centre.

For location and directions via Google maps please see link below. To get directions, click the link, press “Get Directions” on the left, enter your start point in the box marked A and then click the blue “Get Directions” button:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.4094,-4.095402&hl=en&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=10.853098,19.753418&t=m&z=16

Post-Christmas Meal

After some discussion at committee meetings we have decided to hold our meal out during this year’s Coeliac UK Awareness Week which runs from May 12th to May 18th.  This allows us more time to properly plan the event and also gives the opportunity to attract some publicity during Awareness Week.  The meal will be held May 12th at JDs Grill in the city centre. We are finalising plans now and will give an update shortly.

Yours faithfully,

The Coeliac UK Plymouth Voluntary Support Group Committee

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Tideford Organics Giveaway!

31 Jan

600Soup_group
I first came across Tideford Organics at the Allergy and Free From Show in 2013.  When eating so many sweet things at the show, I often find that it’s a savoury item that sticks in the memory, and Tideford’s minestrone soup was definitely one of my highlights.  The fact Tideford Organics are based in my home county of Devon meant I definitely needed to find out more about this company.  Tideford have been making their products since 1996, using only organic ingredients, and are produced in their kitchen in Totnes.

samplesAfter contacting Tideford to introduce myself and try to find a local supplier, I was lucky enough to be sent a great range of samples.  All of the Tideford products are gluten free with the exception of the porridges.  The rest of the range includes soups, sauces, pestos and puddings.  My sample box included a variety of soups, some salsa and some pesto.

stmauricenbreadAs luck would have it, the arrival of these soups coincided with St Maurice Bakery starting to bake fresh gluten free bread in their bakery in Plympton, Plymouth.  This made a fantastic partner to the soups and is now available to buy fresh every Saturday.  As for the soups themselves both my wife and I really enjoyed these.  They were packed with flavour and contained nice chunky vegetables.  My personal favourites were the minestrone and the farmhouse chicken, closely followed by the pea and mint which was Abby’s favourite.

beetrootminestrone

salsaThe salsa was tasty and went well with some beef tacos (and of course a side of Abby’s famous refried beans).  The pesto was our least favourite product.  We used it as a pasta sauce and I found it a little too oily, but it also tasted quite dry.  The flavour was good though and overall it was OK, just not something that was up there with the quality of the soups.  Abby was really not keen on this one, mainly as she found it too oily.  I’ve since spoken to Tideford about this and they’ve suggested the pesto needs stirring well before use, as it can separate due them not using any potato or corn starch to prevent this as other pestos do, preferring to keep more natural ingredients.

ricepudding

I was lucky enough to run into Tideford Organics at the Flavour Fest that took place in Plymouth during August.  It was a good chance to stock up on some more soup, and I also grabbed some of their rice pudding which I’d not tried before.  Rice pudding is one of those things that never sounds appealing, but every time I eat it I really enjoy it.  What I’d never tried before was flavoured rice pudding, and I have to say I really enjoyed the Tideford puddings.  I tried chocolate which was really nice, but my favourite was the butterscotch which was absolutely delicious and I would definitely buy again.

I have seen some of the soups and sauces available to buy in both Tesco and Waitrose, but please let me know if you know of any other Plymouth stockists.  The good news is that Gluten Free by the Sea has teamed up with Tideford Organics to bring you a chance to win some of these delicious goodies!  One lucky winner will win two 600g soups, two 300g soups, 2 sauces and two rice puddings.  All you have to do is visit the Gluten Free by the Sea Facebook page and enter via the Tideford Giveway app or by following this link: https://www.facebook.com/gfreebythesea/app_228910107186452 To enter you must either like the Tideford Organics Facebook page or follow them on Twitter, and confirm this via the app.

600g 300g and sauceSAD 600g Chowder_HiRes

The competition will run until midnight on 28th February and the lucky winner will be chosen at random by Rafflecopter which I am using to host the giveaway.  Your details will then by passed to Tideford Organics who will send the prize to the winner directly.  Please note this competition is open to UK residents only.  This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.  We hereby release Facebook of any liability.  Winner will be contacted by email after the giveaway ends.  Good luck!

UPDATE 01/03/2014: The competition has now closed. Congratulations to winner Emma Louise Hutchinson!

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Clare’s Gluten Free Cafe/Shop

20 Jan

Update 14/07: I’m very sad to bring you this announcement from Clare. Happy to report she will still be selling online, but her cafe is closing: “Hi, our shop will be closed until further notice. We are still taking orders via e-mail, telephone or website order form, for either collection (from our St. Budeaux address), or for local delivery (from £3.00). Any businesses who feel that providing homemade gluten free options in their outlet will benefit/increase their customer turnover, please feel free to e-mail/phone for more information. We will provide individually packaged gluten free items, so as to avoid any cross contamination risks. Apologies to all our customers and friends for any inconvenience.“

Earlier this year, as part of my work for the Coeliac UK Plymouth group, I’d heard from Clare Jones to say she was starting a gluten free catering company in Plymouth.  The thought of an exclusively gluten free company, run by a coeliac of 40 years and based in my home town was extremely exciting.   The list of proposed products included pies, pasties, sausage rolls, quiche, scotch eggs, various cakes and more.

During the coming months Clare launched a website and amongst the listed products were chocolate eclairs, doughnuts and many other amazing looking treats.  After drooling over more pictures of her food on her Facebook and Twitter accounts, I invited Clare to come and sell her products at the Coeliac UK Plymouth group pre-Christmas food and craft fair.  Thankfully she accepted and it was great to meet her and her family for the first time, not to mention sample her delicious chocolate Yule log!

clareSubsequently Clare and husband Jon exhibited at the Christmas ‘Free From’ Food Fair at Ivybridge Community Market that I helped to organise.  I am very grateful to Clare for coming along to support these events.  At Ivybridge I purchased some of her millionaires shortbread.  I used to love millionaires shortbread before my coeliac diagnosis, and I have to say this is the nicest gluten free one I have tried by some distance, and probably better than most of the gluten filled ones I’ve had too. The shortbread is great, the soft caramel delicious and all topped off with chocolate.

clares

So impressed was I with Clare’s products I decided to get in an order for Christmas.  I treated myself with a full version of that Yule log, a couple of steak pasties, some mini ring doughnuts, a couple of scotch eggs, a few more slices of millionaires shortbread and even a couple of chocolate eclairs!  A truly great selection of my favourites in gluten free form from one company, and based in Plymouth too.

eclairsFirst I tried the scotch eggs.  A whole egg, wrapped in sausage-meat and gluten free breadcrumbs.  This was well seasoned and extremely tasty, nice enough that I ate both in one sitting!  I was perhaps most excited by the eclairs, as I’d not eaten one in over three years.  The pastry was perhaps not quite what I remembered but they were delicious nonetheless.  Of course I also had to sample a pasty and again these were great.  The pastry was very good and the filling was made with steak as a good pasty should be.  There was plenty of veg too and again this was very well seasoned.  Clare advised to warm the doughnuts briefly in the microwave, and they were great too.

2014-01-17 13.35.22

All of the above products are available to order for delivery in the Plymouth area, but there is even better news for the gluten free folk in Plymouth.  Clare’s Gluten Free have now opened a cafe/shop in Bretonside, Plymouth.  The cafe is to my knowledge the only exclusively gluten free eatery in Plymouth, and I don’t think there can be that many in the UK.

2014-01-18 11.34.25Food is available to eat in or take away.  There is a great range of food available, including warm pasties, pies and sausage rolls in the warmer ready for a quick takeaway.  Jacket potatoes, quiche, freshly made sandwiches, toasties and pancakes are also included in the range, along with a soup of the day and a special of the day.  Saturday’s opening day special was lasagne, chips and a side salad for a very reasonable £4.80.  You can also grab a cream tea and of course choose from a range of sweet treats.   One of the things that really caught my eye was the cooked breakfast, which is currently only available at weekends.  A safe gluten free fry-up can be very hard to find, and I can see me being a regular visitor with my dad for this alone.  I went for this on Saturday and it was lovely.  You may be surprised to hear I bought another piece of millionaires shortbread to takeaway with me, along with some chocolate brownie for my wife.  I tried this too and it had great consistency.  For the full menu see here.

Opening times are: Tuesday to Friday 10am – 3.00pm and Saturdays 10.00am – 5.00pm, though these may be subject to change as things settle down.  This will be a very convenient lunch stop for visitors to the Hoe and Barbican, gluten free or otherwise.  You can find the shop at: 43 Bretonside, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 0BB.  You can also order products for collection at the shop, see website for further information: http://www.claresglutenfreecatering.co.uk/

cheese sconesbrownies_millionairesTreacle Tart

I am unbelievably lucky to have this only a 15 minute walk from home, and also a 15 minute walk from my office. I am very much looking forward to being able to enjoy a walk on The Hoe with a warm gluten free pasty during my lunch break!  For those requiring dairy free, they have soy milk for tea/coffee, dairy free spread for freshly made sandwiches/toast, dairy free custard, and several of the savoury items were naturally dairy free. They also had a diary free fruit flan as a dessert choice, and Clare says she is working on getting more dairy free options going forward.

Also look out for special event evenings at Clare’s.  Bookings are currently being taken for this Friday evening, 24th January for beer battered fish, chips and mushy peas, available from 7.00pm until 10.00pm.  This is for eat in at the Bretonside cafe only with booking required in advance, the price is £8.50 per person.  To book call 07511064351.

I hope you all stop in and check this place out, we are lucky to have this in Plymouth and I hope the business is a great success. For more photos of the cafe, please see this photoset on the Gluten Free by the Sea Facebook page.  I’d like to wish Clare every success with her new venture.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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