Just some of the delights that come out of the Riverford Kitchen
pasties, turnovers & tarts
a wide variety of cakes, muffins, biscuits & pastries
scotch eggs, cooked sausages, & chicken wings
a great selection of our own jams, marmalades and chutneys
fishcakes
cooked hams, paté and parfait
porchetta, cooked meats and smoked chicken
ready-made meals and soups
dips, hummus & sauces
What we like most is to produce foods ourselves from start to finish - from farm to table, the Riverford way. Food should tell a story and, because we know what it is, we can tell you.
Mass production of food has meant adulteration, in the form of additives, chemicals, techniques and processes. Favourable publicity for organics and farming in general has highlighted some of the health, environmental and welfare problems associated with modern agriculture. Between farm and retailer, in the form of transport and food processing there are vast areas, virtually unknown to the public. Adding air, water and emulsifiers was unheard of fifty years ago. Now they are normal practice. By making so many products ourselves we are able to avoid this abuse.
Riverford Farm Shop Kitchen & Bakery
Meet the team
Front row, from the left; Paul, Gareth, Tomatz, Sean & Mark 2nd row, from the left; Linda, Jackie & Emma Back row, from left; Solomon, Fiona & Karen
and here are just a few of the things they make for you
NEW From The Riverford Kitchen
After a summer of R&D we now have lots more condiments, jams and the like on our shelves including
Riverford Ketchup@£1.99, and smoky chipotle chilli ketchup/BBQ sauce @ £2.35. I liked it, especially with our new smoked Frankfurter hot dogs. They are also good dunked in a pot of our, also new, Strong Beer Mustard @ £2.95. The ever popular Captain's Masala Curry Paste @£3.95 has now been jarred and Captain's Nibbles @ £2.25, as well as Captain's Nuts @ £2.25 are proving to be popular too.
We also have a very seasonal Organic Plum Jam in the shops at £2.95 – very yummy – made from Riverford Plums of course – and Hot Pear & Ginger Chutney in the shops too @ £2.95 ….and our Organic Riverford Picalilli is about to hit the shops too - £2.95
A typical day in the kitchen starts early... Mark or Jackie will fire up the ovens at 6am and begin making the fresh cakes, pastries and sweet indulgences ordered by the shops, it always smells good when Paul and the rest of the team arrives to start production at 7am. The first task each morning is to pack away the previous days frozen production of pasties, pies, and meals ready for the shops to order.
Each day can be very different in the kitchen, the production list changes daily, weekly, monthly and seasonally as we make the most of the time available and the great local produce in season.
Recently, Riverford Organic vegetables have had an abundance of sweet plums, crisp fresh chillies, and cucumbers, so we have been making large quantities of delicious jams, pickles and chutneys ready for the Christmas store cupboard, but today we will be making Organic Vegetable Pasties and Organic Beef Pasties to start with.
We made the pastry the afternoon before and it has been resting in the fridge, it is ready to be rolled out flat, and discs are hand cut and arranged on the tables. Tomasz prepares the vegetables and the team begins production. Whilst the filling is being measured out onto the pastry discs the rest of us set to work hand crimping the pasties, we all have a different style so as you might expect they do not all look the same. The pasties are carefully placed on trays and frozen within minutes so they will be ready to be packed away in freezer boxes tomorrow, we made nearly a thousand of the Organic Vegetable Pasties and Organic Beef Pasties before tea break at 10am.
When we get back from our tea break, we must up the pace, as there are still Cheese & Tomato Turnovers and Organic Cottage Pie Meals to make before lunch. Paul cooks the filling for the cottage pie and makes the mashed potato topping, the team prepares the foil trays for filling and Jackie makes another batch of pastry for tomorrow’s production of Quiches. Squares of puff pastry are prepared and tomatoes are hand sliced and placed on the pastry, we add cheese on top, the opposite corners folded to the centre and before we know it, we have made nearly 700 turnovers.
After our lunch, we collate all the shops frozen orders and ready them for dispatch. When all the cakes and pastries have cooled, we divided them as per the order sheets, ready for delivery to the shops first thing the next morning, the day ends with a good clean, and the weary but satisfied team is finished for another day at about 3.30pm.
