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Guernsey – A Food Lover’s Paradise Island

August 27, 2017 by Fiona Maclean 23 Comments

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Last Updated on December 27, 2018 by Fiona Maclean

Exploring the Guernsey Food Scene – Seafront Sunday and More:

Just 24 square miles of pretty countryside, narrow lanes and small towns and villages, the tiny island of Guernsey packs a punch well above its size where food is concerned.  Spending just a couple of days exploring really didn’t seem long enough, though we were lucky our Sunday was the last of four ‘Seafront Sundays’ this summer run by Taste Guernsey giving us something of a potted food experience.  I’ll be writing more about my trip in later posts though, despite the fact I was there for just three days, there seems to be a lot to share.

St Peters Port Guernsey

It’s a time when many of the local producers and suppliers gather along the seafront of St Peter Port to showcase their products and sell to the public.  St Peter Port seafront is closed to traffic and transformed into a feast of market stalls.  A great overview of the Guernsey Food Scene, for me it was a chance to try all those things I’d heard about on my journey around the island.  Guernsey is a Cruise Ship destination and I learnt that part of the rationale of Seafront Sunday originally was a desire to welcome the cruise passengers onto the Island, even when many of the shops are shut.  It’s grown like topsy and is now a major draw for visitors and locals alike during the summer months.

Apple Trees Guernsey

I start my own food trip around Guernsey at Rocquette cider.  Nestled in the Fauxquets Valley the farm was revived by the Meller family who took it over in 1998 and produced their first commercial cider in 2001.  Starting with 3,000 apple trees (Bramley, Dabinett and Michelin), the estate has now expanded to 5,000 trees and produces a range of quality ciders and apple juices – both sparkling and still.  They are planning to produce apple brandy too!

The Cider Barn Guernsey

It’s a charming place which sets the tone for the rest of the trip.  Chalked up on a blackboard as you approach there’s a notice with dates for their apple swap – where locals can bring their own apples and sell them or swap them for Rocquette cider.  There is a row of new apple trees which Craig tells me are from Madeira – an experiment by the Meller family at the suggestion of one of the team who comes from Madeira.  The cider tastes just like it should – my mother is from Somerset and my great grandfather made his own Somerset scrumpy – so I was brought up on cider made this way – with just apples and time.  Rocquette cider is an award winner – and while not much makes it off the island, it’s definitely worth a visit.

Cider hut guernsey

While Guernsey Cows are famous around the World, their Golden Goats are less well known.  Mandy Girard from Le Douit Beuval Farm explained that when she started to read them, numbers were declining.  She laughed wryly as she told us that she’d sent her husband Peter out to get goats milk for his own mother.  He returned with one goat, who got lonely, and the rest is history.

Guernsey Golden Goat

Of around 1,200 Golden Goats in the world, Mandy currently has 32 adults and 32 kids born this year (of which they will keep two).  She started hand-milking the goats but has now invested in a milking machine. The farm sells home made soft goats cheeses, a cheddar style goats cheese called Girard, yoghurts, milk and at certain times of the year, goats meat.

Golden Guernsey Goats and Hedge Veg

Her hedge veg box has quail eggs and I’m intrigued as we haven’t spotted any quail.  She tells us that it’s actually a shared box with a neighbour who keeps the quail- as her’s is in a better place for people to stop.  We saw these hedge veg boxes all around the island – at this time of year, packed with home produced veg, fruit and jars of jams and pickles (though once with a whole collection of ‘my little pony’ outgrown toys – with a hand written notice asking for a contribution).  Anyone choosing self-catering for an island break certainly wouldn’t lack home grown food to eat!

Golden Guernsey Goats and Hedge Veg

In fact, it’s hard to go hungry at all on Guernsey.  I quickly become a huge fan of island hikes – here you can walk around the coastline or spend time on the beach safe in the knowledge that the next kiosk – small huts selling tea, crab sandwiches Guernsey gâche and more – will not be more than a few miles away.  Open from Easter until October they are an island institution.

Icat Kiosk Guernsey

The island also has two Gin distilleries.  I’m staying at the beautiful Bella Luce hotel where owner Luke Wheadon has just invested in a full size still to produce more of his artisan gin.

Old Nick Still Bella Luce Guernsey

His own background as a chef means he has an excellent palate and he’s clearly passionate about creating gins that epitomise the island’s produce.  He told us he’d started making gin using two table top pot stills.  The new copper still (‘Old Nick’ – named after his father) means that he can experiment more with new ranges and produce larger quantities of his Rock Samphire and Pink Grapefruit gin for sale both in the hotel and, duty-free, on flights with Aurigny!  We taste – both neat and with the addition of a little feverfew tonic and a garnish of pink grapefruit.  It’s refreshing and piquant – a perfect aperitif.  Rock Samphire isn’t the same as the stuff I know from Norfolk – foraged on the island, it’s more citrussy and easier to eat raw than marsh samphire.  It’s also apparently rarer – though perhaps not here, as we spotted it growing on the beach in both Guernsey and Herm.

Wheadons Gin

We next spot Luke at Seafront Sunday, with his team serving up gin and tonic and various nibbles to eat along with Oysters from the Guernsey Oyster Company who are on the next door stall.

Oyster Beds Herm

They grow their oysters just off Herm, the small, car free island which forms part of the Balliwick of Guernsey.  It’s just 20 minutes on the ferry to reach Herm from Guernsey and a popular day trip for locals and visitors to the island alike.   We were lucky enough to be able to visit and out on bear’s beach, to meet Charlotte Dickson and Justin de Carteret who, just like the Meller family at Rocquette bought their business from a family who were retiring, this time as recently as 2016.

Herm Oysters 3

In fact, the Guernsey Oyster business has two bases – the oyster tables on Herm which we visited and Rocquaine Sea Farms just off the coast of Guernsey itself.  All the Oysters are grown from seed, sourced from their own Sea Farm and are grown, tended and harvested on site.  They grow Pacific Oysters (crassostrea gigas) which are plump, soft and tender – and which thanks to their unique provenance, have never been diseased.  Justin told us that if he did take the boat outside their own boundaries, it was bleached on return, along with his boots and anything else that might have become contaminated!

Guernsey Oysters

Here at Seafront Sunday, Charlotte is busy chucking oysters for a keen queue of customers.  Perfect with one of Luke’s Rock Samphire and Pink Grapefruit gins.  Or actually with any one of the other beverages on offer – I’m not a beer drinker but even I enjoyed the three offerings from White Rock brewery, whose founder Ross Gledhill is one of the leading lights of Taste Guernsey.

Guernsey White Rock Brewery

Ross takes us off to try the liqueurs from Haut Maison too, another artisan drinks producer founded in 2012 by Stephen & Katherine Paine and now owned and managed by local entrepreneur, James Le Gallez who also runs Aperitif, a luxury drinks catering company.  James’s involvement in Taste Guernsey and the Food Festival is to set up the Guernsey Cocktail Week – complete with a wristband entitling those wearing one to cocktails at £5 a time.

The Spirit of Guernsey

There are plenty of delicious things to eat too.  We sample some of Lisa’s award winning Bean Jar – a traditional slow cooked Guernsey stew with white beans.

Lisa - Guernsey - Bean Jar

And I’m tempted by the Guernsey chillis – after sampling the ‘medium hot’ sauces I don’t dare try the ‘hot’, but instead buy a jar to take home.

Guernsey Chilli

If lunch wasn’t booked in for me, I’d have eaten a whole slice of the Guernsey gâche, slathered with deep yellow Guernsey butter

Guernsey Gache

and I might just have joined the queue for fish and chips from the Cobo Bay fish shop!

Guernsey cove

By now I am wondering if I can get back to Guernsey in time for the food festival.  It’s a ten-day event running from 15th – 24th September which boasts over 70 dishes and 100 different drinks.  It includes the cocktail week, a street food evening and Guernsey Afternoon Tea Week in addition to an extended version of Seafront Sunday at St Peter Port called Crown Pier Weekend and a whole series of special events, dinners and open days.  What I suspect will make it unique is the enthusiasm of each and every one of the people I met.  This is an island that knows it has something good going on.  And, it’s an island that wants to share.

Fact Box

For more about the Food Festival check the Visit Guernsey website
Or the Guernsey Food Festival website
I was a guest of Visit Guernsey
I stayed at the Bella Luce Hotel
I travelled to Guernsey with Aurigny Airlines who offer regular flights to the island from London, various regional UK airports and from Jersey and France

 

Thinking of going yourself?  Why not pin this post for later!

Food and drink on Guernsey - Seafront Sunday at St Peter's Port Guernsey - a preview of the Guernsey Food Festival

 

Filed Under: Travel, UK Tagged With: Best of British, British Isles, Food Festival, Island

About Fiona Maclean

London based freelance writer and marketing consultant. I edit London-Unattached.com and write for a number of other publications. With a music degree and a background in marketing across many sectors, my passions include all types of music, food, restaurants, wine and travel

Comments

  1. John says

    February 21, 2018 at 12:13 pm

    Nice trip, like it. Enjoyed it. Wanna go myself there

    Reply
  2. John says

    February 21, 2018 at 12:12 pm

    Nice trip, like it. Enjoyed it. Wanna go myself there.

    Reply
  3. Helen says

    September 10, 2017 at 11:28 am

    We live close to the ferry ports so a trip might be on the cards

    Reply
  4. Paige W says

    September 5, 2017 at 10:21 pm

    There are so many awesome delicious things to try in this region it looks like! I’m all about the gin and honey and liquors. It sounds like a great place to go to try all kinds of treats!

    Reply
  5. Claudia says

    September 5, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    What a delightful foodie paradise Guernsey is. I’ve read about the Channel Islands many times, but never had the pleasure of a visit. That delicious bread slathered in butter (and that cider) are calling my name.

    Reply
  6. Frida says

    September 5, 2017 at 11:46 am

    Seem like a nice trip and it looks very nice in the pictures

    Reply
  7. Sandy N Vyjay says

    September 5, 2017 at 6:19 am

    Guernsey indeed looks like a veritable paradise which has some places that still have authentic and traditional food and methods. I was kinda drawn to the Rocquett Cider. It is such a quaint and enchanting place which retains a lot of its old world charm.

    Reply
  8. Rich Tyler says

    September 4, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    I’ve never been, this might of just convinced me :))))

    Reply
  9. sherianne says

    September 3, 2017 at 11:14 pm

    Haven’t heard of this but apple brandy sounds great and I’m all about a cocktail week!

    Reply
  10. Elisa says

    September 3, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    Guernesey is on the top of my wish list for a mini vacation but the journey from Paris (train + ferry) is very long and it never seems to be the right time to take a couple of days off. Good to know that the food scene is also interesting: even if I am not a fan of oysters I could find my way to the fish shop for some fish and chips

    Reply
  11. Danijela WorldGlimpses says

    September 3, 2017 at 3:57 pm

    When you see that landscape, and then you hear about honey, eggs, goats, seafood (let’s not forget cider!), it really sounds like a perfect place to taste some local food. Would like to take a tour around here! 🙂

    Reply
  12. Sara Broers says

    September 3, 2017 at 2:50 am

    This is fascinating to me. I never thought that an oyster could be grown from a seed. This looks like quite the foodie place to visit. This time of year, the words apple cider quickly caught my attention.

    Reply
  13. Nick Wheatley says

    September 2, 2017 at 11:27 pm

    Oysters, Cheese, CIder, Gin… Yum! I had never heard of Guernsey before reading your article but it looks like the food scene is on point! I especially like the name of Luke Wheadon’s new copper still – but I might be a bit biased. Can’t wait to ready your future posts about this spot.

    Reply
  14. Tom says

    September 2, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    It’s quite amazing that this small Island has not only one but two Gin distilleries! I absolutelly love the logo from Wonkey Donkey 😀 I’d really love to try it. The Food Looks so delicious and the golden goats are so cute! A shame that there are only about 1200 left 🙁

    Reply
  15. Jenn and Ed Coleman says

    September 2, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    I love the farm to table scene going on there. Just last night, we were talking with a French couple who were lamenting the food quality in the US. I would love to taste the different apple ciders and goats cheese myself. This looks like a place that is very quiet and enjoyable when the cruise ships aren’t in port.

    Reply
  16. Giulia says

    August 31, 2017 at 9:15 am

    Great post, Fiona. It was lovely to spend a few days in Guernsey with you! 🙂

    Reply
  17. Kavey Favelle says

    August 30, 2017 at 8:00 pm

    This is exactly the way I’d like to visit Guernsey for the first time, on a food and drink tour of the island, and great to learn that there are these four Seafood Sundays that would help me taste even more of the island’s best during a short visit. Bookmarking this for next year!

    Reply
  18. Evelyne CulturEatz says

    August 30, 2017 at 3:44 pm

    Definitely need another post of this place, seems just awesome and love all the new discoveries here. So cool about the apple swap and the goats are adorable. And loved seeing the oyster farm pic.

    Reply
  19. Zoey P says

    August 29, 2017 at 7:25 am

    I’ve yet to visit, but it’s now on my bucket list. Great blog

    Reply
  20. The Girl Next Door says

    August 28, 2017 at 6:39 am

    I fell in love with Guernsey after reading The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society. I’ve never had a chance to visit the place, though. I’m so glad to be able to see the island through your post! 🙂

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      August 28, 2017 at 9:10 am

      It’s funny, my guide was talking about that book and an up and coming film. It’s practically unknown over here in the UK and in Guernsey itself. I need to get hold of a copy!

      Reply
  21. joanne casey says

    August 27, 2017 at 4:19 pm

    I love Guernsey, I lived in the Channel Islands about 20 years ago, I’d love to go to the food festival

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      August 28, 2017 at 9:10 am

      well, you have a month to plan and get there;)

      Reply

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