This month Tom gets up close and personal with a cleaver and saw, and down to work with a local butcher passionate about all things meat!
In my search for quality local produce this month, I travelled approximately ¼ mile and exactly a four minute walk from The Daffodil! I took a leisurely stroll in some rare late afternoon sunshine, down Great Norwood Street, cutting through the car park and onto the top of busy Bath Road, arriving at what can only be described as a local gem, V W Lane Butchers.
I have known local butcher Dan 'The Man' Watts for many years now and have always been in awe of his total commitment to quality, even hand checking all of The Daffodil’s regular orders! Dan is only the fifth owner/manager of Lane’s since it first opened its doors back in 1896. In those days daily deliveries were made across Cheltenham by a faithful old butchers pony, later replaced by a sturdy bike and in more recent years a trusty little white van. Dan says, ”When I started at Lanes at the age of 16, I can still remember the regular deliveries by bike as far afield as Winstone and Elkstone. It was a common sight to see a butcher with his bike laden with half a pig! This was still happening well into the early 1980’s.”
Dan has maintained all the good things about a local traditional butchers whilst taking a progressive approach, including converting the old pony stable to an onsite sausage room. He now makes all his own sausages including the very popular pork and marjoram variety that people flock to the shop for. He is proud of its traditional methods and now employs seven local people to keep up with the growing demand from shoppers and businesses alike. Community links are really important to Lanes and following recent food scares, the shop has seen meat sales increase as consumers seek valued and trusted local suppliers.
It has been reported that small scale butchers offering locally sourced high quality meat have seen trade jump by as much as 30% amid the recent horse meat scandal, as shoppers turn away from cheaper processed food. Dan commented, “Food scares really focus people's minds and they start to use local suppliers they know they can trust. I know all the farms where our meat has come from, what the animals were fed on and where they grazed. Customers don't need to know the exact details and trust us as we’ve been here for generations serving the local community.”
Dan’s obvious passion and high standards makes Lanes a perfect partner for The Daffodil and his meat is so popular with our diners that his close proximity and many hours spent at the shop are another winner for us, particularly for last minute orders! I know that he is actively involved in every order for The Daffodil, often taking orders…sometimes in the wee small hours, personally preparing the meat and even making the final delivery in person. Now that really is service for you! This is a way of life I can associate with as I live, eat and breathe food.
As we are taken on a tour of the cold store I spy some lovely sides of pork hanging ready for the shop and on closer inspection I recognise the name of a local farmer and realise that the pigs were most recently grazing at the top of Warden Hill. So for one of my signature pork dishes, the pig could just have travelled around the corner. On the reverse Dan tells us how highly prized his cocktail sausages are and how many years ago a regular customer who had emigrated requested an air freighted pack of them which travelled all the way to Hong Kong! VW Lane’s reputation is global.
But down to what I really came for, a Butchery Master Class and a hands on bacon making lesson. Dan dry cures all his own bacon and makes hundreds of rashers a week with a special cure of salt, salt peter and pepper, passed down from generations of master butchers before him. I’m popping back next week to see how mine turned out and in the meantime I’m thinking up lots of new ways to use Lanes premium meat on my new menu ideas for summer 2013!
