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Sally Barnes

A "bad debt" led to Sally Barnes acquiring an Afos mini-kiln in 1981. Until then, she had been experimenting with a tea-chest with a pan set in the bottom of it, to alter the flavours of the fish that her fisherman husband was catching. There was no freezer in the house at that time, and there is a limit to how much of any delicious fresh fish one can eat in a week, so smoking it seemed like a suitable alternative, plus it gave a shelf-life which fresh fish does not have.

After much further experimentation with the mechanical kiln, she settled on a variety of recipes for smoking the fish, to try to preserve the fresh tastes and excellent quality of the raw material that the fisherman provided. The kiln enabled her to smoke both "cold" and "hot" smoked fish. The former means that the temperature during the smoking process is kept under 30�C, and this is a "curing" system. The "hot" smoked products are smoked and cooked at the same time.

In 1991, she studied Food Production Systems with the Open University, to better understand why she was doing what she was doing...how it is that the salting and smoking inhibits bacterial activity and helps preserve the fish, for example. And then the following year, she studied again with the OU, this time Oceanography, in an effort to understand the fish themselves.
In 1996, she attended Slowfood�s Salone del Gusto, in Turin, and became a huge fan of the Slowfood ethos, which seeks to preserve the pleasures of the table from the pressures of mass-production of foods. We live such fast lives these days that we forget to take the time to enjoy our food, preparing it for the table, and the joy of sitting with good company and good food. Slowfood seeks to protect regional foods from the ravages of over-regulation, which too often cause the closure of very small, artisan businesses. The better things in life take time to come to fruition, and this is her ethos. The methodology is that of time-honoured tradition. The products all take time to prepare and finish, and the dedication of her staff to this philosophy manifests in the end products. Working exclusively with wild fish, and without any colourings or artificial preservatives, this is a very Slow way of conducting her business but it is one that she is very proud of. All we add here are salt, smoke, and lots of time...this is still a very small business, employing 3 people full-time, and up to 8 at peak season. All aspects of production are done by hand, with little mechanisation except for vacuum packing of the finished products.
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