Friday, 2 December 2011
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Local Butchers help cut the cost of Christmas
Festive food on a budget doesn’t mean scrimping on the cut of meat or doing away with the trimmings. For Yorkshire farmer and meat wholesaler, John Penny and Sons it’s about going back to your local butcher.
Saving money at Christmas could be as simple speaking to your local butcher to find the best quality meat to suit your needs, suggests John Penny, a partner of the family run business. By planning ahead, knowing how many mouths you will have to feed and by involving a butcher in the process, families could make significant savings this Christmas.
According to the national ‘Love food hate waste campaign’ we waste on average 30% of the food we buy week on week and at Christmas that figure increases to 80%. John Penny & Sons offers a few suggestions as to how you can reduce food waste this Christmas:
• Order your meat in advance from your butcher to avoid impulse purchase, and to avoid the rush.
• Take a break from tradition – choose an alternative cut of meat to the traditional turkey. Your butcher can talk to you about how best to cook alternative roasts and which cuts of meat will best suit your taste
• Tell your butcher how many people you are feeding so that they can give you a joint specific to your needs
• If there are any leftovers, freeze them on Christmas day to avoid waste
• Turn any leftovers into tasty treats such as bubble and squeak or shepherds pie or for the more adventurous into beef samosas or pulled pork sandwiches for boxing day lunch.
For John Penny, it doesn’t stop there. It’s also about getting value for money and about the quality of meat.
Says John, “The majority of meat sold through quality butchers is raised in a farm environment where the animals mainly graze on fresh pastures. This method of rearing, as opposed to mass meat production, significantly improves the flavour and quality of the meat. So if customers are looking for value pound for pound then the answer is often right on your doorstop at your local butcher.”
To help encourage more consumers to buy from their local butcher, John Penny & Sons has launched the Quest for Best: the Meat Crusade campaign. John Penny explains, “Consumers aren’t encouraged to think about where their meat has come from as it is often bought in faceless plastic packets. The Meat Crusade aims to educate consumers about how ethical meat operations work and encourage them to buy meat from their local butcher.”
Saving money at Christmas could be as simple speaking to your local butcher to find the best quality meat to suit your needs, suggests John Penny, a partner of the family run business. By planning ahead, knowing how many mouths you will have to feed and by involving a butcher in the process, families could make significant savings this Christmas.
According to the national ‘Love food hate waste campaign’ we waste on average 30% of the food we buy week on week and at Christmas that figure increases to 80%. John Penny & Sons offers a few suggestions as to how you can reduce food waste this Christmas:
• Order your meat in advance from your butcher to avoid impulse purchase, and to avoid the rush.
• Take a break from tradition – choose an alternative cut of meat to the traditional turkey. Your butcher can talk to you about how best to cook alternative roasts and which cuts of meat will best suit your taste
• Tell your butcher how many people you are feeding so that they can give you a joint specific to your needs
• If there are any leftovers, freeze them on Christmas day to avoid waste
• Turn any leftovers into tasty treats such as bubble and squeak or shepherds pie or for the more adventurous into beef samosas or pulled pork sandwiches for boxing day lunch.
For John Penny, it doesn’t stop there. It’s also about getting value for money and about the quality of meat.
Says John, “The majority of meat sold through quality butchers is raised in a farm environment where the animals mainly graze on fresh pastures. This method of rearing, as opposed to mass meat production, significantly improves the flavour and quality of the meat. So if customers are looking for value pound for pound then the answer is often right on your doorstop at your local butcher.”
To help encourage more consumers to buy from their local butcher, John Penny & Sons has launched the Quest for Best: the Meat Crusade campaign. John Penny explains, “Consumers aren’t encouraged to think about where their meat has come from as it is often bought in faceless plastic packets. The Meat Crusade aims to educate consumers about how ethical meat operations work and encourage them to buy meat from their local butcher.”
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
British Butcher's meat voted best
Visitors to the John Penny and Sons stand at Harrogate’s Countryside Live let their taste buds do the talking this weekend. In a blind taste test over 1500 consumers were offered cold cuts of beef topside from John Penny and meat which had been reared using mass production techniques.
The tasting was a huge victory for quality meat with over 80% preferring the taste of John Penny meat which is produced in a natural farming environment and is sold in butchers’ shops.
The taste test was part of John Penny and Sons campaign The Meat Crusade which aims to put quality butchers meat back on the dinner table by raising awareness in quality and taste. The Meat Crusade also encourages consumers to buy quality meat from local butchers, and to offer a greater understanding of how ethical meat operations work.
Says John Penny, company partner, “We wanted to demonstrate to consumers that there is a distinct difference between the flavour of intensively reared meat and that fed on a natural diet and raised in a calm farm environment. We are delighted that the majority of people could taste the difference.
“A number of people from the meat and farming industry who visited our stand could tell the difference by just looking at the two plates. We also had a vegetarian visit our stand who has converted back to meat after learning more about the Meat Crusade and talking to us about our humane approach. It was also good to hear that a lot of visitors either already went to their local butcher or would consider going more frequently after to speaking to us about the Quest for Best campaign.”
The tasting was a huge victory for quality meat with over 80% preferring the taste of John Penny meat which is produced in a natural farming environment and is sold in butchers’ shops.
The taste test was part of John Penny and Sons campaign The Meat Crusade which aims to put quality butchers meat back on the dinner table by raising awareness in quality and taste. The Meat Crusade also encourages consumers to buy quality meat from local butchers, and to offer a greater understanding of how ethical meat operations work.
Says John Penny, company partner, “We wanted to demonstrate to consumers that there is a distinct difference between the flavour of intensively reared meat and that fed on a natural diet and raised in a calm farm environment. We are delighted that the majority of people could taste the difference.
“A number of people from the meat and farming industry who visited our stand could tell the difference by just looking at the two plates. We also had a vegetarian visit our stand who has converted back to meat after learning more about the Meat Crusade and talking to us about our humane approach. It was also good to hear that a lot of visitors either already went to their local butcher or would consider going more frequently after to speaking to us about the Quest for Best campaign.”
Friday, 21 October 2011
Yorkshire meat eaters to take the taste challenge
Think that you have to pay more for fuller flavoured meat? Think that the meat’s flavour can only be improved by way it is cooked? Think again says one Yorkshire meat wholesaler which will give this year’s Countryside Live visitors the tastebud test.
For Rawdon-based John Penny and Sons, meat’s flavour is all down to how it is produced, which they will demonstrate to visitors at Countryside Live on 22-23 October.
Members of the public will be asked to taste the difference between like-for-like cuts of meat - one of which has been mass produced and one that is produced by the family business and sold through butchers. With the taste test, John Penny aims to raise awareness of the difference between mass produced meat and meat reared and produced in a natural farming environment.
John Penny and Son’s presence at the show is to raise awareness of its Quest for Best: The Meat Crusade campaign, which aims to change consumer buying habits and get the public to think differently about the meat they buy and where they buy it.
The family-run company has been supplying top-quality beef, lamb and pork to butchers’ shops all over the country for the last 50 years and believes it’s a very exciting time for the quality meat industry in Britain. The campaign aims to encourage more consumers to visit their local quality butchers and get the most out of the meat they buy.
Says John Penny, joint owner of the business, “Consumers are presented with an ever increasing amount of meat that is pre-packed and sold for convenience and not necessarily for taste. What the public might not know is that the mass meat production techniques can impair the flavour and quality of the meat.
“Through our Quest for Best campaign and our presence at Countryside Live, we want people to think about the meat they buy and question whether they are getting quality meat that is also flavoursome.
“We’re confident that visitors to our stand will be able to taste a clear difference between the mass produced meat and our quality meat, which in turn will help drive our Quest for Best message home.”
See John Penny & Sons at stand 043 Hall 1 at Countryside Live, 22-23 October at Yorkshire Showground. Follow them through the weekend via Twitter @johnpennyltd or ‘like’ John Penny & Sons’ Facebook page to get their latest views and updates. Visit www.johnpenny.co.uk for more information about the company and its Quest for Best: the Meat Crusade campaign.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Send us your recipes and you could win a gift bag!
Do you have a pork, beef or lamb recipe that you just love to cook over and over again? Maybe you have a family favourite dish that has been passed down to you by your grandmother that you want to share with the world? Well now is your chance! Email your beef, pork or lamb recipe to kate@johnpenny.co.uk and the first five entries we receive will get a John Penny bag of goodies!
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Good Morning Meat Crusaders!
We are working busily away on the Meat Crusade cookbook which will be ready in 2012 and there are some tasty galore. In the meantime you can support the campaign by visiting your local butcher. Your local butcher is not only able to offer you ethically reared meat but advice on cooking your meat to perfection, to find your nearest John Penny butcher click here.
We are working busily away on the Meat Crusade cookbook which will be ready in 2012 and there are some tasty galore. In the meantime you can support the campaign by visiting your local butcher. Your local butcher is not only able to offer you ethically reared meat but advice on cooking your meat to perfection, to find your nearest John Penny butcher click here.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Q Guild members enjoy an action packed day at Low Green Farm!
All visitors were treated to a factory tour as well as the option to view the slaughter process either live or virtually. Presentations from Steve Powdrill and Mike Whittermore from EBLEX gave the visiting butchers an insight what farmers look for in livestock they are breeding for the meat industry as well as advice on how to maximise profits from various cuts of meat.
A delicious breakfast and lunch menu was put on which including some tasty bacon provided by Lishmans butchers of Ilkley.
The event was a great opportunity for the Penny’s team to explain – The Meat Crusade – to members. The campaign aims to get the great British public cooking meat from quality butchers by educating them about where their meat comes from and how it is reared. Work has already begun on the campaign’s cook book which is due to be published in 2012.
To find out more about Q Guild click here
To find out more about EBLEX click here
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