Tuesday 22 July 2014

Laid to make your mouth water

Tamasin Day-Lewis on the egg trail

'THE King" is strutting through the yard, his regal head supporting a shaggy, cream-coloured mane, 1950s-style side-whiskers, a beard and a pair of searching, owl-like eyes. A radio blares nearby to fend off marauding foxes; wearily, the bird picks his way through the dirt to give it a nonchalant clout, and turns away to puff up his considerable chest, a feathered waistcoat streaked with shades of tawny, roan and straw. "He is," says Philip Lee-Woolf, "definitely the king in the pecking order. The others all show respect for him, particularly the cockerels, who keep well clear."

Eggy, steady, cook: Philip Lee-Woolf's birds produce about 4,000 dozen hen's eggs and 6,000 dozen quail's eggs a week on his small farm in Worcestershire

Our subject, the Dom of the poultry world, is an Araucana, originally from South America. This particular gentleman was transported from America in a friend's suitcase - in egg, not feathered, form - and when the chicks hatched out, Philip began crossing them with other rare breeds.

"Somebody had asked for blue eggs, so I got to work. You have to breed your own flock. There are too many problems if you buy in. Rare breeds have less immunity to disease because there are so few of them that the gene stock is really small. That means the stock gets weaker, so you start breeding with as wide a variety of bloodlines as you can."

Arriving at Clarence Court, a small farm just over the Gloucestershire border into Worcestershire, I am introduced to the birds by Philip, who offers me his observations on the temperament and characteristics of each breed as if they were his own offspring. "Philip knows his hens individually," his wife, Janet, says later. "He lives for them."

"It's very important you like the bird, not just the eggs," he insists. "We started off with Marans, and gradually built up a free-range flock of them. They're lovely, placid birds with a personality all of their own, quirky, very laid-back. Nothing flusters them.

"They're a business disaster," he continues. "They come out in the morning, and if they don't feel like laying, they won't." This does not exactly equate with Keynesian economics (as in: aggregate demand determines the level of output and employment).

"But when they do," he says, "the eggs are all the more special. They feel like silk, there's a sheen to the shell and they have a superb flavour, denser and richer than most eggs, with a natural yellow yolk.

"With 200 birds, you're lucky to get 90 eggs a day. But they don't exactly wear themselves out, so they go on laying. That's the difference between the old breeds and the modern hybrids, which are bred to produce like machines, and are worn out after seven or eight months. All these 'special value' supermarket eggs are watery. If you break them on a plate they'll spread out flat. Our eggs stand up on the plate. If they don't, it means they've got no substance to them."

It is nine years since Philip and Janet gave up their furniture-making business in Coventry, determined to be part of the farming world. "The only thing that we could think of that seemed to be a growing market without too much competition was quail's eggs."

Over five years, they built the business up from 50 to 40,000 quails, then branched out into Marans, Araucanas and Cream Leg Bars. "A local estate agent had a flock of rare Leg Bars. They are sophisticated birds, very calm. They strut around, but they're laid-back in a different way to the Marans. They lay a beautiful sky-blue egg.

"The Araucanas are sharper and more flighty, and don't mix with the other chicks. We have 25, so we get 10-15 eggs a day, more subtly flavoured than the Marans, with the richness of a duck egg.

"Altogether, we're selling about 4,000 dozen hen's eggs and 6,000 dozen quail's eggs a week now. We're small-scale compared with the big poultry farmers; we charge more, but our margins are lower and the hens are less prolific layers. There has been a big change in the market, it's getting stronger and stronger. People don't hesitate over the price - they buy."

All Philip's birds are corn-fed, and raised in the best conditions, but he hasn't gone organic yet. "The food is £100 a ton or so more, and the supermarkets don't seem to understand that people will pay more. We got into Tesco four months ago after a year of negotiating because of the price. Tesco didn't think people would pay, but they've been selling like wildfire. The supermarkets have this thing about price-cutting, but getting eggs cheap from us to sell at a good price doesn't make sense, because you lose both the quality and the welfare of the animal."

This month, Philip is launching a new breed, the Old Cotswold Leg Bar. Their eggs range from duck-egg and sky-blue through turquoise, peachy pink and white to olive-green, each box a palette of different colours. "It has taken nearly five years. I was determined to breed in more vigour to create a better layer, but something that has all the qualities of an old breed and isn't a modern hybrid. The eggs are as good as the Marans', all richness and hardness of shell."

After working seven days a week with only one holiday in 10 years, Philip is in an optimistic, end-of-term mood. "The Cotswold is the magical bird that's going to lay the golden egg. By the end of next year, I'll be able to take a holiday."

  • Clarence Court Ltd, PO Box 37, Broadway, Worcs WR12 7BG. For deliveries and stockists, call 01386 858007 (fax: 01386 858009; email Clarence Court eggs are available at larger Tesco stores and most Waitrose stores in London.

    This week's recipes

    Baked eggs with summer vegetables (Serves four)

    A flaming June dish, this is an all-in-one supper, the scarlet and green vegetables flecking the yellow and white eggs like a primary-colour picture.

    • 4 tbsp olive oil
    • 1 large onion, finely chopped
    • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
    • 110g/4oz small chorizo, well spiced sausage or smoked bacon, cubed
    • 2 red peppers, skinned and chopped
    • 340g/12oz tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
    • 1-2 tbsp Fino or Amontillado sherry
    • 110g/4oz small new broad beans
    • 110g/4oz young peas
    • 8 large eggs
    • Salt and cayenne

    Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

    Warm a shallow terracotta baking dish. Heat the oil in a pan, and add the onion, cooking gently until it softens. Add the garlic, cook for a minute, push aside, add the meat and fry until coloured, then remove it. Add the peppers and tomatoes, and cook until reduced and softened, adding the sherry when it starts to look dry. Steam the broad beans and peas until just tender, then add them to the pan. Transfer the mixture to the casserole. Whisk the eggs briefly (you are looking for an egg white and yolk contrast, not something that looks like an omelette), season, and pour over the vegetables. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the eggs are just set.

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    Polenta, almond and lemon cake (Serves 12)

    I have adapted this from the original The River Cafe Cook Book. Janet Lee-Woolf believes their eggs make all the difference to cake baking, adding flavour and lightness to the sponge. This golden crusted cake should ooze a slightly sad, grainy, almondy centre.

    • 340g/12oz unsalted butter, softened
    • 340g/12oz golden caster or icing sugar
    • 34Og/12oz ground almonds
    • 2 tsp vanilla extract
    • 4 large eggs
    • Zest of 3 lemons
    • Juice of 1 lemon
    • 225g/8oz polenta
    • 11/2 tsp baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp sea salt

    Preheat oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3.

    Butter and flour an 8.5in (21.5cm) Springform cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar together in the food mixer, or by hand, until light and fluffy. Stir in the ground almonds and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Fold in the zest and juice, the polenta, baking powder and salt. Spoon into the cake tin and bake. I kept checking mine from 45 minutes, but it wasn't ready until it had cooked for an hour. I served it with the ice cream below.

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    Caramel ice cream (Serves six-eight)

    This is from Simon Hopkinson's wonderful book Roast Chicken and Other Stories. It's wickedly rich, bitter and thoroughly decadent.

    • 255g/9oz caster sugar
    • 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways and chopped into small pieces
    • 200ml/8 fl oz double cream
    • 350ml/14 fl oz milk
    • 8 egg yolks

    Heat the sugar gently in a heavy-bottomed pan until melted. Do not stir during this time, though you might like to tilt the pan from time to time. Once it is completely melted and golden brown, add the vanilla pod and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the caramel is a deep mahogany colour. Wait a moment longer, or until you think the caramel might smell slightly burnt, then take off the heat and add the cream. There will be an instant eruption, so keep stirring. Heat the milk, beat the egg yolks, pour the hot milk over them and whisk together. Add to the caramel mixture and cook gently, as though for custard, stirring with a wooden spoon. I find the mixture thickens almost immediately. When it does, remove from the heat and strain through a sieve into a cold bowl. When cool, freeze in the usual way.

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