Part two of the BBC Oxford wine tasting challenge. Andrew is aiming to teach BBC Oxford mid-morning presenters Danny Cox and Louisa Hannan everything about wine in just three days - a lost cause some would say, especially as, until now, Danny doesn't drink!

The general idea, aprt form to have a bit of fun, is to see if some rapid fire wine tasting can teach Danny Lou the basics of wine, and then test which has become the better wine taster.

Today is red wines, and like yesterday, it is set-up in two parts.

BBC Oxford wine challenge, red wines. Part 1

We have out up a list of the red wines tasted today if you would like more information.

BBC Oxford wine challenge, red wines, part 2

Up with the lark today as I wanted to speak to Kelvin our web-designer who lives in the USA. Opened up Thunderbird (free and excellent email browser in case you are wondering! Highly recommend it - but I digress...) and the first thing I saw was the weekly email from Wine Spectator.

It features what sounds like a very tasty pasta dish using bacon, pine nuts, raisins and two cheeses, designed by Shea Gallante, the chef at New York's Cru restaurant and partnered with a Colombia Crest 'Grand Cru' Chardonnay.

And it set me thinking about a wine I drank just before the bank holiday, Vergelegen Reserve Chardonnay 2006.

Beautifully poised, elegant and rich, this buttery/toasty Chardonnay would, I think, do as good a job with this pasta dish as the Columbia Crest that The Spectator are featuring. Plenty of lip-smacking fruit and well-judged oak to work with the richness of the dish, but enough acidity not to make the whole combination too over-powering.

In fact, if I had been tasting the Vergelegen blind I would possibly have put it into Burgundy, perhaps from Meursault. And in that context not only is is a lovely wine, but a bit of a bargain too!

This is the first part of our wine tasting challenge for BBC Oxford mid-morning presenters Danny Cox and Louisa Hannan. Today we are focusing on how to taste wine , and putting that into practice with white wines.

BBC Oxford wine challenge, white wines. Part 1

Each of segments is split into two pieces of audio (yes, Andrew just can't stop talking about wine!) The audio here went live straight after broadcast - thanks Danny for a very easy way to grab the audio. It then got uploaded straight away to our new podcast system here on surf4wine, where it will have a permanent home!

BBC Oxford wine challenge, white wines. Part 2

If you would like to see a list of the wines tasted in today's session, please go here.

We will blog/podacst each of the three days wine tasting training here, and then the taste off on Friday 30th May to see who is the best wine taster - good luck Danny and Lou!

It's a Bank Holiday in the UK, so having a slightly leisurely morning; although thinking I ought to be up and out as I've some errands to run, and even an emergency delivery to make. It's an awful day weather-wise, so not much chance on geting the Bar-B later out either.

Alison is doing a shift at JackFM, so just me and the kids until she gets home - maybe it's the perfect weather for a trip to the cinema? Or just some films on the TV...

With some extra time to hand I've been catching up on some of my favourite wine blogs. In fact, I just saw the Vouvray Sec 1995, Gaston Huet that we have on our list mentioned by Jamie Goode over at The Wine Anorak. Vouvray, made from that chameleon grape variety Chenin Blanc, is a lovely wine - produced, as Jamie points out in his blog post, in a variety of styles from bone-dry to lusciously sweet and everything in between. Vouvray can be, perhaps, a bit tricky for the novice wine drinker. Vouvray can be fiercely acidic in it's youth, and the sweeter styles often have their higher sugar content masked by their acidity or alcohol/ripeness, so can be difficult to asses when young. Vouvray's, both dry and swet styles, can age brilliantly with this natural acidity helping to keep hem fresh and lively - for decades in the right year. I have been lucky enough to try some pretty old vintages in a former life while Butler at The Queen's College in Oxford (now that was a job I enjoyed - almost as much as being a wine merchant!), and I have always been a bit of a Vouvray fan ever since (check out Surf4Wine's current Vouvray selection) - so it was nice to see them mentioned on Jamie's Blog.

Actually, having a bit of extra time to take look and delve deeper and think about wine blogging (normally it is a quick zoom through headlines/latest posts while having my first cup of coffee!), it struck me how lucky we are in the UK with the variety of wine blogs we have, blogging on everything from Best Buys to latest tasting notes and news. In fact, it's set me to thinking about an idea mentioned to me recently by Spanish wine blogger Ryan Opaz over at Catavino; a feature on the Best of British Wine Blogs. I think that could be an interesting idea to explore further on our blog here in coming weeks ... so, do you have any favourite UK wine blogs?

Who was it who said there's no rest for the wicked?! Andrew didn't get a bank holiday lie-in today - he was up getting ready for an appearance on Louisa Hannan's Sunday radio show on BBC Radio Oxford.

Lou invited a local chef Graham Ameson of Hackett's in Witney to come up with a summer dish. (Although in typical bank holiday fashion, summer had gone for a lie-down and thunder storms were the order of the day.) Which meant Andrew spent some time wracking his brains trying to figure out which wine to match with "sweet pea risotto". Is that a risotto made with sweet peas? Or a sweetened risotto with peas?? Whatever the answer, the dish called for something subtle. (Don't know why they asked Andrew then - hah.) Andrew finally plumped for Paul Cluver Sauvignon Blanc - a vibrant white wine that should enhance the taste of a creamy risotto. He also took in Berton Estate Reserve Botrytis Semillon.

Click below to listen to Andrew, Graham and Lou talking about Charles Melton's Rose of Virginia, Chocalan Syrah Petit Verdot Rosé and courgette flowers!

Andrew on BBC Radio Oxford

And so to the last of Andrew's interviews with winemakers at the London International Wine Fair. He's someone who's no stranger to Surf4Wine, as we've held a couple of tastings of his stunning wines in Oxford. He got a very warm reception too! He's who makes wines for Jean-Claude Boisset, which is a smaller part of the huge Boisset empire. He's one Frenchman who's wholeheartedly embraced the Stelvin closure, and while Andrew was doing the interview with him at the Boisset stand, he noticed that the firm's branching out into wine in tetrapaks and plastic bottles. Every winemaker Andrew spoke to endorses screw caps (although the great British public is rather less keen), but wines not in glass bottles?? Watch this space, because Boisset's convinced that it's the future for wines.

Click here to listen to Andrew talking to Gregory Patriat.

S4W talks to Gregory Patriat

Andrew's still buzzing about the London International Wine Fair. And one of the most interesting winemakers there was Mark Shannon, who makes A Mano wines in Puglia.

He's a Californian who visited Puglia in Italy and fell in love with their wine, and way of life. He moved over there a few years ago, and now makes A Mano wines ("A Mano" meaning "handmade") with passion and old-fashioned know-how.

We've always loved A Mano here at Surf4Wine, and if you've ever tasted any of Mark's wines you'll know why. Click below to hear Andrew talking to him about everything from cleanliness to George Clooney!

S4W talks to Mark Shannon

Andrew's back hotfoot from the London International Wine Fair with more interviews from some of the world's finest winemakers. He caught up with Matt Thomson, an incredible man who not only manages to produce some just stunning wines for Delta Vineyards, St Clair, Alpha Zeta and Ca del Matt - as well as being involved witb the increasingly pipular Tinpot Hut wines, among others, but is also a keen kayaker, (ironic for a flying winemaker!), and was New Zealand's K2 marathon kayaking champion. Phew!

Andrew managed to get him to stand still for just a couple of minutes! Click below to hear their chat.

S4W talks to Matt Thompson

Having arrived at the fair much later then planned on day one, I really only had time for two 'meet-the-winemaker' interviews for our Blog (hear my chat with Charlie Melton), and get the latest gossip from the Liberty stand.

But, I did manage to taste a few wines - more to do today - and I couldn't resist blogging about this one in particular as it is both from an old favourite in terms of producers from our list, and made from a grape variety I hadn't herd of until yesterday.

A. Mano Aleatico Passito 2007 is a red sweet wine made form the Aleatico grape variety. Lovely dark chocolate notes, ripe plums and hints of dark berry fruits. Really interesting bitter-sweet finish that, I think would make this wine a great partner to that most difficult of food-stuff, chocolate.

Nice to taste something new, and a very good reminder of one of the reasons that Italy is so interesting as a wine producing country. Namely, it has a whole host of native grape varieties to tempt and intrigue us with. More like this please...

Apologies for photo quality. I didn't want to be bothered lugging a camera to London as well as an MP3 recorder and laptop, so this is taken with my iPhone. I love my iPhone, and I was happy to see it could handle the odd photo situation too.

Now I'm off on a train again for the hard slog back to London Excel and day two of the fair. It's a pretty torturous experience getting to the fair - Wantage to London is the easy bit with Paddington only a 45 minute train ride away. It's the bit from Paddington to Tower Gateway, and especially the DLR train ride to London Excel that is the real killer. At least I have 'Spooks' on the iPod part of the phone to keep me company - oh, and a few more blogs to get up too!

It's a busy couple of days for Mr Chapman (and I don't just mean the list of jobs I have waiting for him at home) as he's at the London International Wine Trade Fair.

1200 exhibitors, 180,000 bottles from every wine-producing corner of the globe, 14,000 visitors - and one man wandering around with a microphone. Andrew's doing interviews with as many winemakers as possible to bring you a flavour of the wine trade's biggest show in the UK. Watch this space for more interviews, but for now sit back and enjoy his chat with the legendary Charles Melton.

S4W talks to Charlie Melton

Nice comment on Jamie Goode's wine blog for one of our favourite Aussie Shiraz: Shaw and Smith Shiraz 2006.

Read Jamie's comments on Shaw and Smith Shiraz...

Every Friday at about 5.30am the alarm goes off and Andrew crawls out of bed - all in the name of business. And a good breakfast, because he's off to Oxygen Business Forum . It's a collective of like-minded business owners who were so fed up of the formulaic business clubs with their emphasis on how much business you could get from everyone who came, that they decided to form their own club. Aleady the members have run a mini-marathon to raise funds for Helen and Douglas House, a local children's hospice and have just adopted a school with the aim of giving something back to the community.

One of the members there is Hilary Farmer who practices Human Givens Therapy and teaches dyslexic students. She's got a master’s degree in education and firmly believes that we're all born needing essential things like love, security, fun and friendship. It's when those needs aren't met that things go awry. Hilary uses storytelling to gently get to the heart of a problem, and to help her client explore it.

Every week she comes up with a new story for the members of Oxygen. We thought you might like to listen in. We're hoping to bring you one of these a week. But for now, as the news of human tragedies in Burma and China comes in, and we worry about the credit crunch at home, please enjoy Hilary's take on the tale of the widow's mite - with a modern twist.

'Story of the Week' 12.05.08, by Hilary Farmer

I was just surfing the web and came across this story about Welsh Whisky on the BBC news web site.

It certainly looks interesting - anyone tasted it yet?

We shall be investigating further and hope to report back soon.

Today, being the first Wednesday of the month, is Wine Blogging Wednesday. This month's theme is Riesling, but only if it comes from Europe - no New Worlds allowed!

After a quick bit of head-scratching while at the warehouse earlier on in the day I decided on Germany, largely because the only other contender was our sole Alsace Riesling, and I wasn't really in the mood somehow. I think it was mood plus the burst of beautiful Summer-like weather (hottest day of the year so far here in Oxfordshire) that made me think of German Riesling. Summer and Riesling wines, and especially those light, beautifully poised, elegant German Rieslings seem to go togther.

So, the next decision was 'which German Riesling?' It wasn't until I got to the warehouse that I remembered we had quite a few. Steve, my warehouse manager, calls this Andrew's shelves as I'm the only one that seems to go there (not strictly true, but I see where he's coming from!)

In the end, I realised that there was an obvious plan forming in my Riesling-starved brain. (Haven't had any Riesling, and especially German Riesling, in quite a while as it happens). We had four Spätlese from four different regions staring at me from the shelves, all from the excellent and highly rated 2002 vintage. Why not a vertical tasting to celebrate Riesling and Wine Blogging Wednesday?

I get my Riesling fix AND get to see how this much acclaimed vintage is holding up. Oh, and before I left I spied a lone half bottle of Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese from Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff, so I decided 'in for a penny...'

Alison will be thrilled at the choice of wine tonight. She's a red wine drinker at heart and loves Riesling nearly as much as Andrew Barrow over at Spittoon in his Riesling blog post earlier today!

Anyway, onto to the mini-marathon German Riesling tasting...

Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberger Riesling Spätlese 2002. Mosel 8% alc
Beautiful bright, green-gold colour. Very classic Mosel-styled floral notes on the nose. Surprising weight on the palate for a wine at only 8% alcohol. Peristant length; poise; elegance. The merest whiff of that oft-quoted Riesling aromatic of petrol - not the most attractive aroma in the world, but classic for aged German Riesling. Definitely NOT petroly in an over the top way... just a kind of wee hint. Funnily enough, a lot of tasters over here in the UK quote Petrol/Kerosene as being classic for Riesling, whatever their age. A very good German wine merchant friend of mine is adamant that any idea of petrol aromatics in young German wine is considered a wine fault on his side of the Mosel.

Schloss Saarstein Riesling Spätlese 2002. Saar 8% alc
Paler than the Eitelsbacher. More muted aromatics. No petroly tones here; bright floral elements. Grapey (an odd word for a beverage made from grapes, but I hope you get what I mean - Muscaty. Almost). More weight than the Eitelsbacher so I'm guessing riper/higher must-weight . Alcohol is the same. But also a kind of steelyness and directness. Crisp, refreshing acidity. Clean, crisp finish with good weight. Quite foodie really.

Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck Riesling Spätlese 2002, Weingut Leitz. Rheingau 8.5% alc
Pale green-yellow. Floral and touches of spice on nose. Weighty and concentrated on palate. More noticeable sweetness than previous two wines. Very concentrated. Touches of apricot, Spring blossom, even exotic fruit. Lick of spice (ginger perhaps?) Nicely balanced weight, fruit and acidity - touch of crisp green apples on finish. Will continue to age well over next 1-3 years.

Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling Spätlese 2002 , Emrich-Schönleber. Nahe 9.5% alc
Pale, pale yellow with hints of green. Stone-fruits, floral tones, some citrus (orange/grapefruit) and spice. Definite spice. But still very typical Riesling and not deviating into Gewurz-like territory. Rich palate, with spiciness following through. Weight, concentration. Immaculate balance of fruit, weight, concentration and complexity with a lick of refreshing acidity. My favourite wine of the four. I like the extra dimension the weight and concentration brings, while still retaining Germanic Riesling purity and elegance. It's warmer in the Nahe than some of the other classic wine regions of Germany. And the extra weight, ripeness and alcohol this gives the wine make it slightly fatter then the other three. Veering it ever so slightly towards the new world style of Riesling. Food friendly? Certainly. Drink by itself? Well, that too... I am now. And enjoying it massively!

All in all a fun exercise and a look at a classic vintage from some highly regarded producers. Thank you Wine Blogging Wednesday for giving me a chance to open these bottles and remind myself of the flavours and diversity of Riesling.

Oops, I almost forgot. What about that 1998 Auslese Riesling from one of Germany's star winemakers, Dönnhoff?

Niederhauser Hermannshöhle Riesling Auslese 1998, Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff. Nahe 8.5% alc. Nahe 8.5% alc
Pale gold. Nose of apricots, honey, peaches. Taste is apricoty, with hints of citrus, even marmalade. But not super rich. Still quite light. Lighter than I imagined it would be to be honest. Refreshing acidity. I think this is a bit disappointing to be honest. Some of the Spätlese above had more weight and concentration. Maybe I'm Riesling-ed out. But I don't think so. Maybe 10 years is a bit too long? Good, but not great.

All that acidity and primary Riesling fruit... I need chocolate now!

I've been thinking for a while now that I'd like to open up the conversation on Surf4Wine...

Meaning what I hear you ask?

Well, getting more of you involved. Making it easier for visitors and customers to talk to us - and each other. To give their comments and ask questions. Even to start their own conversations… power to the people!

To make talking about, thinking about and drinking wine easier and more fun.

We can even roll this idea out to wine buying too. You can get involved, if you want, in helping to chose wines we stock by voting on favourite grape varieties, countries and regions. Even producers.

You can help us tailor offers and promotions to what YOU want, not what we think you want.

Sure, we have our opinions, and we like to think we are experts. But we are always happy to learn ... and find out what our visitors and customers want

So, I've made a new page on Surf4Wine that hopes to start the conversation... funnily enough (ha ha) it's called 'Andrew's page..'

What do you think?

We had my sister and family over last night - lovely, relaxing evening. She's vegetarian, vegan in fact, and I had tried to make something vaguely interesting for her to eat - knowing that she also like fresh, local ingredients/producers.

In the end I settled on a tart. Using shop-bought pastry (who makes puff pastry anymore when the bought stuff is this good?), I started with a layer of sliced deep red tomatoes (these were the real deal - they smelt just like the ones my granddad used to pick out of his greenhouse), and then added some toasted pine nuts that I had mixed with some finely chopped garlic. A sprinkle of olive oil finished it off, and the tart was then baked in the oven for ten minutes to soften the tomato base. I then popped the tart out to add the finishing touches - a layer of fresh purple sprouting some vegan parmesan cheese substitute. A grind of pepper, some Maldon sea salt, a sprinkle of olive oil and back in the oven for five minutes. As Gordon Ramsay might say - Vegan supper DONE! (In fact, it apparently tasted quite good too... but when I went to rush for the camera for a Blog photo I'd forgotten to charge the camera battery - doh!)

Making something so different from what I normally create had me in the the mood to try something new. Mmmm - it's a bank holiday w/end so why not go the whole hog and experiment with some wines not from our own list? Yes, shock, horror, Andrew doesn't always drink his own wines. As the day had been very spring-like, and in fact quite warm, my thoughts were turning towards glasses of chilled white. I've also determined to explore some other retailers' wines in the next few months....comparing and contrasting what we stock against what else is out there.

In the end I settled on two wines from Waitrose - I've always really rated them for food if I have to supermarket shop, and their wine selection is always interesting. Went for a Vinho Verde from Portugal and a Gruner Veltliner from Austria. Both were exactly what I was looking for. The Quinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde was bone dry; almost squeakily so. Almost took your breath away. The non-veggie food was a salad Niçoise made with fresh tuna and this wine went brilliantly both with the fresh fish and with the olive oil I'd used in the dressing. And, I tried it with a slice of the tart. It worked OK with that too.

We had some fresh asparagus too (can't get fresher than just out of the soil at Q Gardens Farm shop!), instead of the more traditional green beans in the salad, and I was intrigued to see how the second wine, the Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner would fare with the asparagus. It has always been one of my favourite food and wine combinations. Worked great - I love the mineralty in the wine and the way it plays with 'greenness' of the asparagus. Plus, the Gruner Veltliner had enough weight to work with the fresh tuna. Very well made, and pushed me just that little bit nearer to re-inventing part of our white wine listing at Surf4Wine - we used to have a very interesting Austrian selection, but it was a bit like Alsace - fab wines but not a lot of people got behind them. Maybe time to try with Austria again...!

A long, good Friday... It started with breakfast in Oxford at 7am, paper-work and customer stuff at warehouse in middle, called in to see friends Shelley and Richard at The Radnor Arms in Coleshill late afternoon (we are possibly organising a wine supper there with Saint Clair estate coming to visit later this month - watch this space for more info), and was rounded off by a lovely supper at the Eyston Arms in nearby East Hendred.

Eyston Arms's is one of Alison and my favourite places to eat locally. The food is modern, using good ingredients well prepared, with just the right dash of imagination to help things along the way. Unstuffy, friendly service by an all female team that combines cheerfulness and professionalism. Relaxing end to a long day. Didn't drink much, just a glass of the house Languedoc Rosé that was nice and refreshing. We weren't in a wine mood as we had to do Friday night taxi ferrying of teenagers... except that when we got back the one that was going out later had, by then, decided not to, and the one that was out already decided to walk back with friends. Oh well, such is life with kids!

Tonight’s wine...
Anyway, by then we thought we deserved a glass of something, so I opened a bottle of Bonarda, Colonia las Liebres 2006 from Argentina that I'd brought home from warehouse with me. To be honest, I hadn't tasted/drunk this wine in quite a while, so was interested how it was doing. I know I thought it was excellent value when we started listing it again last Summer.

Nice punchy, damsony red fruit flavours. Good acidity/tannin grip (Bonarda can be, I sometimes think, a bit too acidic if not fully ripe. Which is why I like mine from South America, where there's a bit more sunshine, and not its native home of northern Italy) . As is typical for the grape, this red and was happily full-bodied (Alison is not a fan of light wines, and she had done the driving earlier, I figured we'd best stay in safe territory!).

On the back-label it proudly boasts unfiltered and unoaked. I'm delighted about the latter in particular as too many commercial wines use oak to add 'interest' and 'flavour', when all this actually does is mask the fruit flavour of the wine and add too much artificial tasting vanilla and other unattractive aromas and flavours. Happily more and more pubs and restaurants are starting to think more about their wines and put more thought into their lists, especially their house wines. Over-oaked reds are not food food-friendly people!

The lack of oak in this wine really lets the plummy, ripe fruit scream out. Nice weight, good grip. Well put together, interesting wine. Would work well with Pasta and rich sauces as the acidity would balance things and there's masses of good fruit. And, I think, still good value at £6.99.

Incidentally, the Bonarda Colonia las Liebres is made by Altos los Hormigas, and I have brought their Malbec home this week-end to try too. Look out for a note here... It's May Bank Holiday week-end in UK, so, HOPEFULLY, sun will shine and we'll get to drink some nice wines too. Have my sister Debbie and her family coming for Supper, so off shopping now... Wells Stores first stop.

Everyday on my way to Surf4Wine HQ, AKA our warehouse, I pass the Q Gardens Farm Shop.

As the name suggests, it is a farm shop, and it sells fruit and vegetables from its own farm that surrounds the shop. (It does great Pick Your Own as well.)

But it doesn't end there, and that is what makes it such a great place to stop off and buy local foods.Yes, they sell their own local veggies and fruits - the surrounding area once teemed with numerous apple and pear orchards until they gradually disappeared as the supermarket cult took over and the great British public dashed headlong for convenience over flavour and local produce. Although thankfully that is beginning to reverse as more and more of us think about where our food comes from, how it gets to us and what goes in it and on it (and just for the record, I'm not anti-supermarkets or anything, they have their place... I just prefer to buy food local wherever possible). The area is still justly famous for its Harwell cherries.

One of Q Gardens Farm Shop's biggest draws, and possibly its best-kept local secret, is its in-house butchers. Well, I've jusy blown their cover! It's a proper butchers with skilled staff, selling locally-reared meat. There'll be a separate post on this in near future, with, hopefully, an interview with the butcher. I want to become good friends with him so I get the lowdown on the very best local meat. Definitely a carnivore me! We bought local rib of beef from them two Sundays back when we had the children's grandparents for lunch - utterly amazing, and I have to say, some of the best beef I have ever eaten. And that includes in some VERY expensive restaurants . It really proved the adage that good ingredients simply cooked really does take some beating. But it's not enough that the butchers has knowledgeable staff and fantastic produce. Best of all? They are open 7 days a week. Supermarket style convenience AND local food. Come on south Oxfordshire, what are you waiting for - buy local and support you local butcher! Indeed, our much-loved and admired Nigel Slater is espousing the virtues of supporting your local butcher on his latest podcast I'm listening to as I write this. I dare you to try Q's butchers and then go back to a supermarket. Yes, it's not as cheap, but you really do get what you pay for with fresh meat these days. (I have, in the dim and distant past when I used to buy meat at the 'meccas of convenience', had to, on more than one occasion, take back supermarket 'fresh' meat as it has gone off WITHIN ITS SELL-BY DATE. Quite scary really - but a very good reason to buy from your local butcher). And with quality comes economy. On Sunday we spent £11 on a free-range chicken. All 4 of us ate it roast on Sunday evening. Alison boiled the bones with carrots, onions, the neck of the bird, two bayleaves and a handful of fresh marjoram to create a stunning stock that made soup (stuffed with local vegetables) on Monday night and a chicken and asparagus risotto on the Tuesday. £11 for 3 meals suddenly doesn't look quite so expensive!

Q Gardens farm shop doesn't just sell your standard meat and veg. They sell local beers too. (We are looking at stocking some of them online too - but hey, I'm happy for competition and like to be transparent about such things!), And local wines (we don't stock any - yet...), local pickles, chutney's, condiments and preserves. You really must try Well Preserved's Award-winning (Great Taste Awards Silver) Seville orange marmalade. Thickly spread on top of some of Upper Norton Dairy's Jersey butter, that in turn is smeared over some of the fresh bread that the Q farm shop sells and you have a perfect accompaniment to your tea or coffee for breakfast.

Talking of breakfast... I stopped to 'Q-shop' (a new phrase in my vocab now for popping into Q Gardens shop as a pass by... funny how I seem to do that quite a lot these days...) last Sunday after unexpectedly appearing on Radio Oxford to review the Sunday papers (Alison was due to do it but a last minute migraine meant she needed an emergency sub, and as Phil Mercer and I have exchanged the odd word over the airwaves I was deemed an acceptable last minute sub.. it was FUN! And quite amazingly, they asked me back. Was it the quip about Ann Diamond becoming President of the National Obesity Society?). Anyway, I bought local bacon and sausages, as well as eggs from nearby Brook Farm (who have fab self-catering cottages), and trotted home with food and papers. Dashing into your local filling station for some long life OJ and Thick Sliced loaf just doesn't have the same allure for a proper Sunday breakfast!

I could go on and on about this foodie heaven, but I think I've whetted your appetite enough to tempt you to pop in next time you are nearby. And to help you find them, here's a map via the Oxford Farmers Market web site above. You won't be disappointed.

Update...
Q Gardens Farm Shop doesn't have a website it seems, but they do deserve a web presence so more people can find out about the wonderful goodies they have in store. And they have lots going on as we move from Spring into Summer with new season fruits, veggies and other tasty offerings. So I've made them a little page here on Surf4Wine. Hope it helps guys :)

Q Gardens Farm Shop page on Surf4Wine - click here

Q-Gardens Farm Shop photo's...Looking at adding some more photos here... the whole photo-taking think is very new to me. What do you think of first efforts above? Anyone any ideas on how i could set up a photo-stream of photo's on this page, as i add new ones. Is Flickr good for that?