99 Park Street, Salisbury
Harrison Bros butchers are the best butchers in town. Hidden away from the main run of shops in the city centre, you will find Harrisons on the corner of College Street and Park Street (where the entrance is). As you jingle through the chain door curtain you are not greeted by a clinical high glass or perspex counter and unsure looks from teenagers doing their first job, but a proper butcher’s block, well hewn from the daily shave it gets to ensure its clean and level for the next day. You are face to face with either of the Harrison brothers and their polite countenance and attentive manner make shopping here a joy. Their meat is well-provenanced and the butchers are knowledgeable about the proper cuts needed for your recipes.
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Salisbury’s Farmers’ Market takes place every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month, from 9am-2pm in the Market Square. This isn’t the most convenient of times to have a farmers’ market if the whole household are usually at work. However, I managed to catch it yesterday. A few farmers’ market stalls do make an appearance at the bi-weekly Charter Market with one stall each of trout (smoked and fresh, brown and rainbow), vegetables, home-made pies, English wine, bread, cheese, and meat (usually bacon and sausages). The Wednesday farmers’ market is a completely different affair. There are a wide variety of meat stalls proffering free range rare breed British Saddlebacks from the Pigman, handsome organically reared chickens (and their bones for stock for just 50p!), and even English bison, locally grown fresh-out-the-ground vegetables that smell amazing - yes, it’s amazing, vegetables have a wonderful scent if they’re grown properly and haven’t travelled hundreds of miles, garlic from specialist Isle of Wight growers the Garlic Farm, and cheese! Continue reading ‘Salisbury Farmers’ Market’
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Whilst looking around the blogosphere for blogs that talk about Salisbury, I came across an enthusiastic review on daggle.com of Reeve the Baker, a small bakery chain that operates in Wiltshire and Hampshire.
Danny Sullivan, the author of daggle.com, discusses the merits of their shops, best times to visit them, and the wonders of the Wiltshire Pasty:
If you’re struggling among the many great things Reeve’s sells, go for the Wiltshire Pasty. It’s a great blend of potatoes and meat and carrots all baked within a bread crust. Served warm, it also stays warm if you take it to go for a picnic elsewhere. Hands-down, it’s the best thing Reeve’s has, in my view.
He’s an ex-pat American living near Salisbury, and I’m sure he’ll be writing more about the area in between his commentary on technology related issues.
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The walk from Salisbury to Odstock via the beautiful footpaths through fields of oil seed rape and wheat is thoroughly recommended. It doesn’t take long to be on your own as you leave Harnham. At Harnham, stop off for picnic supplies at the excellent East Harnham Deli (the shop’s hoarding says A. Hand and Sons Grocers, 1 Harnham Road). We armed ourselves with a home-made scotch egg (one of the best I’ve had), a broccoli and cheese pasty, two slices of lemon drizzle cake and two bottles of proper Dandelion and Burdock. In a very civilised way they are open from 10 - 3.30 on Sundays, ideal for anyone wanting to take a Sunday lunchtime walk. The round trip is about 8 miles. The highlight is meeting the River Ebble (and its cows). Odstock is nice ok though our impression was slightly marred by our hopes of getting a nice cool pint dashed. When we arrived at the village pub, the Yew Tree (about 2.30pm) it was closing and we were turned away. Not very good for hot and thirsty walkers!
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St Thomas Square, opp. St Thomas’s and St Edmund’s church
Monday - Friday - 8.30 - 5.00, Saturday - 8.00 - 5.00
Last Saturday afternoon, after a hard day’s wandering, we finally managed to go into Polly Tearooms rather than walk past wistfully. I ordered a traditional cream tea, consisting of a pot of tea (enough for at least two cups), a sizeable fruit scone (choice of fruit or plain), strawberry jam (choice of strawberry, raspberry, apricot) and clotted cream (or whipped if preferred but why would you?), while my partner-in-tea went for a cream slice (slice is far too diminuative for what it was). As you enter, you can’t stop coveting the array of beautiful cakes and confectionery to choose from: gateaux, meringues, eclairs like you’ve never seen such things. Which one? Which one shall I have?? Continue reading ‘Polly Tearooms’
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30 Salt Lane
Open Monday to Saturday - 8am - 7pm
There is so much to say about Abbey Stores that I can hardly contain myself to write properly. This has been my fourth attempt to write a review and every time it makes me so desirous to just dash down there to see what new things they might have in, that I never finish what I want to say. Abbey Stores deserves more than one review anyway so for now I shall be content in just saying a fraction of the amazing things I wanted to.
Abbey Stores is everything a good shop should be. In fact, it’s not just a good shop, it’s a magnificent emporium of first-rate food and drink and other useful household things. How is it possible that we can go in and take so long choosing which cider we want to drink and whether to go for bottled or draught take-out (choices in both) with our free-range local sausages and craft cheeses? Is it possible that we will ever get through the range of condiments, sauces and chutneys called (as it should be) Tracklements (made locally in Sherston, Wilts), or ever do without them again? Continue reading ‘Abbey Stores’
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