Busmans Holiday on Islay

Last week I visited Islay on a busmans holiday courtesy of Dunlossit Estate, so who am I and what do I do for a living?

I arrived by ferry to the island on Saturday 31st October and got settled into my accommodation for the week, Braer Cottage at Port Askaig which overlooks the sea and the magnificent Paps of Jura. Could I be a Fisherman, Ferryman or a Mountaineer?

To help you guess, I live and work in the seaside town of Dawlish, Devon.

Sunday I am introduced to the Estate Manager, Chloe Randall who sets out my agenda for the week having first explained how the estate is run and given me a who’s who around the whole estate, including clerical staff, cooks, cleaners, farmers, slaughtermen, butchers, shepherds, farmers and gamekeepers and more. Am I an I.T.Consultant or Website Developer?

Monday is an extension of Sunday, but with a tour of the estate, taking in a visit to Dunlossit House and it’s walled vegetable garden. Other sites included the landscape with it’s inhabitants such as Highland and Galloway cattle, sheep and more traditional rare breed pigs than I’ve ever seen before in one place. These pigs have many a purpose, they are used to clear the Bracken in places where it is discouraged to grow, they are also an important pool of genes reared on the island to help in any mainland livestock disaster and more importantly they help to keep the island self sufficient. Am I an Horticulturist? Continue reading......

Tuesday is spent greeting visitors from the mainland who had arrived on the island the previous day. These visitors had heard of my arrival and arranged with Dunlossit to visit the estate and to meet me with a view to sharing knowledge and do some key networking. These visitors I can tell you were all Farmers, some from the Isle of Bute and others were from Ayrshire, why would these visitors be prepared to leave their farms for several days and then pay to reach and stay on Islay? Could I be a Farmer?

Before I tell you more about Tuesday, I just need to point out that amongst this very busy week I did find time to take my family around the island to visit many of the interesting places and shops excluding the chocolate shop which happened to be closed the day we visited (Wednesday).

Back to Tuesday, myself and Dunlossits Manager Chloe met with these visitors and for the morning we discussed such things as Crepinettes, Ballontines, Boudin, Saucisse Fumee and Rillettes etc. These words are not Gaelic! Have you worked out what I do yet?

From here we went to visit one of the islands main attractions, one which is being enquired about from all over the UK, No! it’s not a Distillery, it is indeed the islands Abottoir. This abottoir or should I say your abottoir, is one of the finest and most animal friendly abottoirs I have ever been to, I’ve been to many in Germany, France & U.K. The staff are unique in that they afford each animal as much time as is necessary in order that they are dispatched and processed professionally, the animals are treated with respect from their arrival to their departure. This old fashioned approach to slaughter must be the best in the whole of the UK and if I could give it and it’s staff an award I would.

To finish the day we set about cooking some recipes, we made Pate en Croute, Jambon de Paque, Merguez Sausage, Pea & Ham Verrines and Crepinettes with prunes and more. If you haven’t guessed what I do by now, I can tell you my name is Marc-Frederic and I am Boucher-Charcutier-Traiteur. You were never going to guess it correctly were you?

For those who need a translation I am a Boucher/Butcher, Charcutier is someone who preserves meat using the art of curing, smoking and cooking or a combination of all three and Traiteur translates as Outside Caterer. I run a small business in Dawlish called www.moorishfoods.com and I want to say, what you have on the Island is unique and I hope you will adopt charcuterie as part of your growing food heritage.

I spent the remainder of my time on the island meeting various people and sharing charcuterie techniques with them. The next time you fancy a ham sandwich or a bacon butty, ask your butcher for home cured ham or bacon and by doing so you will be supporting Islay meat.

Bon Courage, Marc-Frederic - www.moorishfoods.com