Hello fellow cook,

Welcome to our April newsletter. Wickedfood Earth Country Cooking School has some great food events planned leading into autumn, especially for those of you who are planning to stay in Gauteng over the Easter public holiday season.

Space for our ever popular winter charcuterie workshops is almost full, first class is on 14 May, so if you are keen to attend, don’t delay booking. If the demand is there, we will add additional classes. Alternatively if you have a group of 8 or more people, we can structure a private workshop just for you.

At the end of March we were visited by two members of Slow Food Italy. They are keen to work with us to preserve the indigenous Pedi sheep that we farm with, to save it from extinction, for future generations. Each year we slaughter limited quantities of rams. Over the last 2 weeks we have been butchering lamb for our regular clients as well as making lamb sausage. We have a few selected lamb cuts, as well as sosati, and lamb and fetta sausage for sale through our online store.

On the vegetable side we have a delicious new chunky Roast tomato and pepper relish. Great with our other dips and relishes for no fuss Easter entertaining – Roasted Red pepper & aubergine relish, Spicy Curried Aubergine Relish, and Sweet & Sour Peppers (great in salads).

We are slaughtering oxen on an on-going basis. For meat lovers this is a unique opportunity to purchase true veld raised and finished beef  that has been well hung to dry age. We are offering you the chance to a buy fore- and/or hind-quarters that we will age for you, cut up, vacuum pack and label – click here for more details.

Country Lunch Programme for April and May

Wickedfood Earth Farm prepares 4- to 15-course banquets and tasting menus, with all the trimmings, using the very best local, seasonal ingredients. Each meal is built around a theme.

Monday 17th April – Easter Monday Country Lunch (R250pp). Wickedfood Earth is part of a group of Gauteng Pedi Sheep farmers who got together to form the Magalies Pedi Group with the objective “… to preserve and promote the Pedi sheep breed and ensure its survival for future generations as a viable commercial breed….” We are preparing a special a feast featuring the meat from this fantastic ethically produced, indigenous, veld-raised sheep breed as the centre piece. The 3-course meal will have a strong North African/Middle eastern flavour, with some interesting twists, and give you some of the secrets on how we at Wickedfood Earth Farm get the best out of cooking with it. More …

Monday 1st May – 12-course Autumn tasting menu, the best of veld-raised beef  (R350pp or R550pp to spend the morning in the kitchen, followed by lunch). Lunch from 12:00pm to ±3pm

At Wickedfood Earth, we believe strongly in the concept of natural farming. We have made a conscious healthier lifestyle choice. When eating meat, we opt for free range. And for beef it means veld-raised, grass-fed and finished. We run a small herd of Dexter cattle, which we slaughter, and process in-house to ensure that we have complete traceability of our meat. We then Dry-age the carcasses in a controlled environment for up to 4 weeks. This further improves the flavour of meat, by allowing the natural enzymes in the meat to break down the tissue and concentrating the flavour. This 12-course meal will showcase real nose-to-tail eating, including hot and cold starters,  a selection of our in-house cured beef products, a bone broth consommé, grilled, roasted and braised beef with seasonal vegetables, and of course, farm made dessert.

Charcuterie workshops

Wickedfood Earth Farm has become synonymous with free-range pork and top quality charcuterie, including our range of sausage, coppa, pancetta, bacon and ham. At our Country cooking school we offer hands-on charcuterie workshops where we share the knowledge we have accumulated over the years on processing pork and other meats. Our first class is on whole muscle curing on Sunday 14 May – Bacon, coppa, ham, etc.  More ….

Happy cooking, look forward to welcoming you to one of our classes in the not-too-distant future.

To book contact Cilla on 076 236-2345 or  cilla@wickedfood.co.za