Balsall Common and Berkswell

Great Taste, the coveted food and drink awards, has announced its stars of 2019. In total 12,772 products are sent in from over 100 different countries, and two local businesses Adlington Ltd and AJ Classic Cakes were awarded Great Taste awards for their products. This means judges dubbed them foods that deliver fantastic flavour.

Adlington were rewarded for the following products:

Adlington Turkey

Label Anglais Free range chicken

Cold smoked whole chicken

While AJ Classic Cakes picked up honours for their gluten-free, vegan offerings :

Mini Christmas Cake

Naked Apple & Apricot Mini Muffin

To join their 2018 star awarded to their Carrot & Orange Cupcake with lemon frosting

Judged by over 500 of the most demanding palates, belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs, buyers, retailers and producers, as well as a whole host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. As well as a badge of honour, the unmistakeable black and gold Great Taste label is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product, which has been discovered through hours and hours of blind tasting by hundreds of judges.       

Rod Adlington, explains: We have been consistent winners of Great Taste Awards for more than ten years and I am delighted and proud to be recognised again in in 2019. It’s testament to the quality of our high-welfare products, our natural ingredients and our passion in producing fantastic products. Thanks must go to our staff and our customers who make Adlington such a success.”

Angela Jones of AJ Classic Cakes added: “I established the business in 2014 and I created the majority of my vegan recipes myself. The ingredients for the vegan cakes are egg free, dairy free and gluten free and all cakes are baked fresh to order. I use fruit and vegetables in the vegan cakes wherever possible as this adds flavour, moisture and texture to the overall bake. I’m delighted that the judges agreed!”

Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with no regard for branding and packaging. There were 12,772 entries into Great Taste this year and of those products, 208 have been awarded a 3-star, 1,326 received a 2-star and 3,409 were awarded a 1-star accolade.

If you are an Instagram user look out for posts from local businesses, including AJ Classic Cakes and Adlington Ltd, using #balsallbusiness to follow what they are up to.

Are you able to help the Jubilee centre continue to offer a high-quality community space to the residents of Balsall Common and Berkswell?

Two years ago, the Jubilee in Balsall Common was facing closure and an open meeting was held to find a new team who were prepared to sit as Trustees to try to revive this Community Centre in the heart of Balsall Common

Several people came forward and set to work to raise funds to completely refurbish the building, put a new structure in place and set the charity on a better footing

This work has been completed and the Jubilee is now a thriving registered charity with a full timetable of activities available to the local community. The building is regularly hired out for events, activities and parties to such an extent that the centre is completely self-sustaining financially

However, the Jubilee cannot afford to stand still – it needs to continue to develop if it is not to decline, particularly as the Balsall Common community will grow over the next few years. The current Committee and volunteers will not carry on indefinitely. If it is to sustain and build upon its achievements to date, the Jubilee needs new people with the time, energy and skills to join as Trustees.

Can you help us? Many volunteers find that their input enables them to

• meet other local people,
• add balance to their working lives
• gives them a positive purpose
• gain recognition in the community and at work

Please take the time to find out about what it means to be Trustee at the Jubilee

Here is some initial information:

Trustees normally meet six times a year for a maximum of two hours. The meetings are arranged flexibly to try to meet the needs of those who wish to attend.

The charity is structured so that Trustees have no financial liability, but they do carry responsibility to ensure that the Jubilee is well run. In addition to this Trustees are expected to read and respond to short, but regular, emails and other communications in between meetings. Trustees can choose to be involved in as much, or as little, of the day to day running of the Jubilee as fits with their other commitments. Trustees are often able to use their particular areas of expertise for the furtherance of the work of the Jubilee (eg IT, marketing, finance, building maintenance)

For more information, with no obligation, please contact Sue White:

Email: sue.white1780@gmail.com Phone: 07759223846

Thank you

The Summer Fete is to be held on 21st September 2019 2pm – 5pm in Lavender Hall Park. Entry is free. There will be plenty of entertainment in the arena starting at 2pm with local Morris Dancers as well as a great selection of stalls from local charities, small businesses and local crafts.

Beer and refreshment tents will keep people fed and watered while a number of games and amusements will keep the kids happy with pony rides from our local riding school, Pool House Farm.

Grand Draw tickets are on sale with the chance to win the following fantastic prizes:

Prize	Donated by
1st Prize – Quooker Tap (worth £1500)	Hampton Homes
2nd Prize – Child’s Bicycle	Harper Fields Care Home
Bottle of Champagne	Albany Meadows
Fish and Chips for two	Balsall Common Fish Bar
Meal Voucher	Bengal Brasserie
Meat Hamper	Bosworths Butchers
Hamper	Ginger Estate Agents
Voucher for a Full English Breakfast for two	La Delicia
Case of Wine	Michaels
Afternoon Tea for Two Voucher + £25 Voucher	Oakes Farm Shop
Dog Treat Hamper	Oscar Pet Foods
30 minutes Sport Massage	Physio and Health Matters Ltd
Gardening Gift Voucher	Rosebournes Garden Centre
Hair Products Package	Shane Collins Hairdressers
2 x Bottles of Mulled Wine	Tesco
File and Paint Manicure Voucher	Two Ten Hairdressers
Prosecco	Vivendi
Golf Day Voucher	West Midlands Golf Club
Wash and Blow-dry Voucher	Westwood Hairdressers
Afternoon Tea for Two Voucher	Windmill Hotel

The money raised will go towards funding both the picnic in July and this year’s fete. Any surplus money will be donated back to the local groups who have supported us this year. We at balsallcom.com were delighted to support the festival, and proud to fund the printing of the raffle tickets for the festival committee.

Other news

The committee sadly say goodbye this year to Linda Dandy who has been our treasurer for several years and we welcome to the committee Christina O’Sullivan, Simon Edwards and Alex Spedding. All three joined us this year and have been full of fresh ideas and enthusiasm. If there is anyone else out there who has some spare time and would like to join the committee or volunteer their help at our events please contact us at balsallcommonfestival@gmail.com. 

Picnic in the Park

The Picnic in the Park in July was amazing – everything the committee hoped it would be and more. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we all did. How lovely it was to see all the families and children playing, relaxing, eating and drinking whilst enjoying great music until late in Lavender Hall Park. We have to say a massive thank you to Martin Pettifor of Pettifor’s Haulage who kindly lent us one of his lorry trailers to act as a stage for the Soundations, Balsall Common Lions for providing generators, the Hornets for the use of their car park and Solihull Council for allowing us to use the Park.

Many thanks also to all of you who bought Grand Draw Tickets at the event and everyone who donated their loose change in the blue buckets at the end of the evening. 

Follow Balsall Common Festival on Facebook for updates.

Local eatery la Delicia has expanded its opening hours. They are now open on Friday and Saturday nights from 6:30 p.m. serving a range of alcoholic drinks and food. Antipasti, vegan, fish, and poultry sharing platters are available. Other options include bread and olives, crab cakes, calamari, Camembert tear and share, and nachos.  Food is served until 9 p.m. and last orders for drinks is 10pm. Alcoholic beverages on offer include wine, gin, Prosecco, craft beers and bottled lager. 

Owner and manager Jamie explained:  “We wanted to offer something extra for the local community in and around Balsall Common. We’ve had a great response to our current breakfast and lunch offerings and we trialled evening opening earlier this year. We would love as many local people as possible to support our evening opening as it’s currently a trial and will only become permanent depending on how much interest we get. So if you’d like us to keep opening up on Friday and Saturday nights serving food and drinks right in the heart of Balsall Common please come along and see what’s on offer!”

La Delicia is on Station Road, in the centre of Balsall Common. You can find out more on their website http://www.ladelicia.co.uk
or via their social media channels Facebook and Instagram