Southern Appalachian low-elevation pine forest

The Southern Appalachian low-elevation pine forest is a forest system that occurs in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. It is found in the lower elevations of the southern Appalachian Mountains and adjacent Piedmont and Cumberland Plateau, extending into part of the Interior Low Plateaus.
Flora.
These forests are dominated by shortleaf pine ("Pinus echinata") and Virginia pine ("Pinus virginiana"). They can occur on a variety of topographic and landscape positions, including ridgetops, upper and midslopes, and lower elevations (generally below ) in the Southern Appalachians. Examples occur on a variety of acidic bedrock types.
Pitch pine ("Pinus rigida") may sometimes be present. Hardwoods are sometimes abundant, especially dry-site oaks such as southern red oak ("Quercus falcata"), chestnut oak ("Quercus prinus"), and scarlet oak ("Quercus coccinea"), but also pignut hickory ("Carya glabra"), red maple ("Acer rubrum"), and others. The shrub layer may be well-developed, with hillside blueberry ("Vaccinium pallidum"), black huckleberry ("Gaylussacia baccata"), or other acid-tolerant species most characteristic. Herbs are usually sparse but may include narrowleaf silkgrass ("Pityopsis graminifolia") and goat-rue ("Tephrosia virginiana").
This system is distinguished from Southern Appalachian montane pine forest and woodland by its occurrence over larger areas of less extreme terrain. The vegetation is similar, but pitch pine ("Pinus rigida") and table mountain pine ("Pinus pungens") are more typical in the montane pine forests and woodlands.


San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum

The San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum is located at Micke Grove Regional Park, between Lodi, California and Stockton, California. It was established in 1966 by San Joaquin County and the San Joaquin County Historical Society.
The museum has over of exhibit and work space. Their collections have grown from a few hundred items from the estate of William G. and Julia Harrison Micke to over 75,000 artifacts and over 500,000 documents and photos representative of the development of San Joaquin County. The museum was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums in 1973.
Education.
The Museum operates a Docent Program, where adults take a one-year course in local history and education. Upon graduation, docents are expected to work as volunteer educators for various museum programs.
Living History.
The museum docents operate several living history programs for elementary school students throughout San Joaquin County. These programs help students learn about everyday life in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and provide context to the state history content that they learn in school.
The three primary living history programs are Valley Days, where students learn 19th century skills such as gold panning, blacksmithing, and corn grinding, Pioneer School, where students take a day of class in the Calaveras School House using the official California State Curriculum of 1884, and Farm to Fork, where students simulate the farming industry.
Tours and Trunks.
The museum docents give tours to visitors. The docents also operate the celebrated Grandmother's/Grandfather's Trunk program, where docents visit schools in pioneer clothing with trunks full of artifacts, which through interpretive explanation can help students learn about 19th century life.
Archive.
The museum also hosts the archives of San Joaquin County, with over 500,000 documents and photos available to the public for research. The archive includes:


Minister for Food and Agriculture (Ghana)

The Minister for Food and Agriculture is the Ghanaian government official responsible for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The Minister is responsible to government and the Parliament of Ghana for the development of Ghana's agriculture and maintaining food security in Ghana. This minister has in the past been also responsible for a Ministry of Cocoa Affairs which has now been absorbed back into the Ministry of Agriculture.
List of ministers.
The first Ghanaian to head this ministry was Boahene Yeboah-Afari. The current minister is Owusu Afriyie Akoto (MP).


Mahindra Gujarat Tractors Limited

Mahindra Gujarat Tractors Limited, is a Farm Tractor manufacturer now part of Mahindra & Mahindra from the Government of Gujarat in 1999. It the oldest running tractor unit in India. The Mahindra Group has a 60% stake, the remaining 40% being held by the Government of Gujarat. Its best selling models is Hindustan 60. The tractors are now sold under Sakthimaan and Trakstar brand names. It was renamed as Gromax Agri Equipment Ltd. in 2017.
History.
Originally founded in 1964 in cooperation with Motokov-Praha (Zetor) of Czechoslovakia. The company is based in the state of Gujarat.The company had several ownership changes since its inception.
Tractor & Bulldozer Pvt. Ltd.
Since 1912, Bombay based Pashabhai Patel used to import tractors, through M/s Pashabhai Patel & Co. After independence, he was asked to procure 500 tractors by the Prime Minister Sri Jawaharlal Nehru. Licence was issued to the company, which entered into collaboration with Motokov Praha (Zetor) Czechoslovakia, and the name of the company was changed to Tractor & Bulldozer Pvt. Ltd. in 1964. Due to unavoidable problems, the company was handed over to Gujarat Agro in 1967.
Hindustan Tractors Ltd.
In 1967 the company name was changed to Hindustan Tractor Ltd. Since demand for 60 hp tractors were much less than the small capacity the tractor was mostly favoured by heavy haulage users.
Gujarat Tractor Corporation Ltd..
The company changed hands again in 1978, when the Gujarat State Government took it in its own hands and renamed it as Gujarat Tractor Corporation Ltd. (GTCL).After the disinvestment in 1999, it was renamed as Mahindra Gujarat Tractor Ltd. (MGTL)
Mahindra Gujarat Tractor Ltd.
Mahindra Gujarat Tractor Limited (MGTL) has its head office at Vadodara (formerly Baroda), Gujarat. Sri S.O. Tyagi is the head of MGTL, and Sri Pavan Deolia is the General Manager of Marketing. Mahindra Gujarat Tractor Limited (MGTL) has been a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) since 1999.
The company operated as Gujarat Tractor Corporation Limited, promoted by the Government of Gujarat (GoG) in 1978, and manufactured and marketed tractors under "Hindustan" brand name. The company presently manufactures powerful and fuel efficient tractors in a range from 30–60hp marketed under the "Shaktimaan" and "Farmplus" brands. MGTL is an ISO 9001:2008 and OHSAS18001:2007 certified company. The company has a very good marketing network across India having 13 area offices and around 225 dealers.
Gromax Agri Equipment Limited.
Recently in 2017 Mahindra group renamed the company as Gromax Agri Equipment Limited, as part of new brand strategy and the models continue to be sold as Trakstar. The long time best seller Hindustan 60 was relaunched recently and is now sold as Mahindra Hindustan 60/ Sakthimaan 60 ELX.
Models.
Today, the tractors are sold under the "Shaktimaan" and "Farmplus" brands in the 30–60hp range.
Mahindra & Mahindra has now incorporated the "Shaktimaan" and "Farmplus" brands of tractors of Mahindra Gujarat Tractor Limited (MGTL) as its subsidiary, and is manufacturing its 30 hp and 35 hp models at its own plant at Nagpur, which are marketed by MGTL. For the other models, only the Engines are manufactured at MGTL plant, and the Transmissions are manufactured by M&M itself. Strict quality control is maintained by M&M. The Vadodara plant has also been renovated and modern assembly systems have been installed there.


Sveinung Valle

Sveinung Valle (1959 – 20 March 2016) was a Norwegian farmer and politician for the Labour Party.
He was a cattle farmer in Lindås, and joined the Labour Party in 1997. He was an elected member of Lindås municipal council and Hordaland county council, chaired Hordaland Labour Party from 2009 to 2014 and Lindås Labour Party. He also chaired Hordaland Agrarian Association, and from 2000 to 2001 he served in Stoltenberg's First Cabinet as State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture.
Valle died suddenly in his home in March 2016.


Danbury Fair

The Danbury Fair (also known as The Great Danbury State Fair) was a yearly exhibition in Danbury, Connecticut. It was begun in 1821 as an agricultural fair, but did not have a regular schedule until 1869 when hat manufacturers Rundle and White helped form the Danbury Farmers and Manufacturers Society. From then until its closing, the fair was open for ten days every October.
The fair took up 142 acres (0.57 km²) of what Rundle and White had hoped would be a Danbury Pleasure Park. Admission was 25 cents for adults and 15 cents for children. The fair offered everything from tobacco, pears, and home-brewed wines to hats, boots, saddles, carriages, wagons, churns, and stoves. In 1895, more than 1000 people were employed by the fair.
In 1932, a race track was built on the fairgrounds for the midget car and stock car races that had replaced the earlier harness races.
When the fair's owner John Leahy died in 1974, the organization fell into disarray. The last day of the fair was October 12, 1981, with an estimated 400,000 people having attended that year. All of the rides, attractions, and holdings were auctioned off. The Danbury Fair Mall was built on the fairgrounds by the Wilmorite Corporation. Photos of the fair and original signs used to be found in the mall's food court.
The fair featured large fiberglass sculptures of characters such as Uncle Sam and Paul Bunyan. Many of these were purchased after the fair was closed, and continue to exist (Photo of Uncle Sam at Magic Forest in Lake George, New York). The sculpture of Uncle Sam is 38 feet tall and is claimed to be the tallest Uncle Sam in the world. The Uncle Sam statue was recently returned to its home in Danbury Connecticut in 2019 and is located at the Railway Museum. The sculpture of Paul Bunyan was manufactured by International Fiberglass, which mass-produced identical sculptures to sell to stores such as tire or muffler shops (thus the sculptures are generally referred to as Muffler Men). The Danbury Fair Paul Bunyan was eventually painted like a "hippy" and moved to Max Yasgur's Farm in Bethel, New York (home of annual Woodstock reunions). It has since returned to Danbury.


Lincolnshire School of Agriculture


Joseph Hughes (politician)

Joseph Hughes (18 September 1905 – 20 January 1960) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency from 1948 to 1960.
Hughes worked as a farmer in County Kilkenny before entering politics. He was first elected as a Fine Gael TD at the 1948 general election for Carlow–Kilkenny, and held the seat until his death in 1960, aged 54. The resulting by-election for his seat was held on 23 June 1960 won by the Fianna Fáil candidate Patrick Teehan.


Al Este

Al Este Bodega y Viñedos is a winery in Médanos, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It consists of vineyards (in owned lands that exceed ) and an adjacent winery, located south of the city of Buenos Aires on the southern tip of the Buenos Aires province. The project has been developed under the direction of the Italian wine maker Alberto Antonini.
In its first submission to a wine contest, Al Este was awarded a silver medal in the White Wine category in the 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards, the world's largest wine contest, celebrated in London. Al Este's award-winning wine is recommended by Decanter in sixth position as one of the top chardonnays in 2009.
History.
In the early 20th century several European immigrants arrived to Médanos and brought the wine making tradition with them. Although at some point a multitude of small growers planted a combined surface of approximately 200 hectares of vineyards, they were unable to successfully complete the wine making process given lack of scale, inadequate technology and the country's ups and downs which led to their disappearance.
The Médanos terroir, that had traditionally been dedicated to garlic and pastures, has striking similarities to Bordeaux, France in terms of its soil, weather conditions and proximity to the sea. More recently, the idea of starting a wine project in Médanos got reignited as a result of a trip to France which provided renewed confidence in the terroir's potential.
In 2000, a hectare and a half was planted on an experimental basis with nine grape varietals. In a second stage, after analyzing the obtained quality standards for each grape variety at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), 25 additional hectares were planted mainly with six varietals.
Grape varieties.
Al Este produces several varietals.
Red: Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tannat, Cabernet Franc
White: Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc
Vineyards and winery.
The vineyards are located at 39 degrees latitude south, where the Patagonia and Pampa converge, approximately 40 km from the Atlantic Ocean. Windy springs help develop thicker skins that contribute to the intense color of these wines.
The geological foundation of the Médanos region is limestone, leading to a soil structure that is heavy in calcium. The soil has high sand content, which doesn't retain as much humidity, and as a consequence this terroir absorbs and liberates heat faster creating a large temperature range which favors the development and growth of grapes.
Topography: Flatland with meadows (médanos)
Soil type: Sandy over a calcareous plate
Irrigation system: Dripping
Frost protection: Water spraying by aspersion
Harvesting and grape selection: Manual
Plant support system: Espalier
The winery produces red and white wines, which are aged in French and American oak and in bottles in its underground cellars. It is the first company to grow, produce and sell premium wines in the Buenos Aires Province.
Domaine Al Este.
Domaine Al Este is a 290 hectares terroir located in Médanos, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Developed by Al Este, it was the result of a careful analysis and screening of land in this new terroir that was particularly apt for the growth of vineyards dedicated to the production of premium wines.
The vineyards are located at 39 degrees latitude south, where the Patagonia and Pampa converge, approximately 40 km from the Atlantic Ocean.
Topography: Flatland with meadows (médanos)
Soil type: Sandy over a calcareous plate
Weather: Oceanic influence, with a windy Spring
Rainfall: 500mm per year


Winnowie

Winnowie Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a sheep station in South Australia.
It is situated approximately south west of Leigh Creek and north west of Blinman.
Brothers Samuel and Robert Stuckey in partnership with E. C. Randall acquired Winnowie in 1857. By 1859 the Stuckeys owned the property outright. Drought struck the area in 1864 and the stock was removed from the property and taken to Manuwalkaninna Station.
At some time later the property was acquired by G. W. Luxmoore who in turn sold it in 1872 to Thomas Elder for £1,125. At this time it occupied an area of and adjoined Beltana Station.


UPM (company)

UPM-Kymmene Oyj is a Finnish forest industry company. UPM-Kymmene was formed by the merger of Kymmene Corporation with Repola Oy and its subsidiary United Paper Mills Ltd in 1996.
UPM consists of six business areas: UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Communication Papers and UPM Plywood. The Group employs around 18,700 people and it has production plants in 12 countries. UPM shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki stock exchange. UPM is the only paper company which is listed in the global Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the only forest industry company invited to the United Nations Global Compact LEAD sustainability leadership platform.
UPM is the owner and maintainer of the Verla mill, which has been a museum since 1972 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
History.
The company's oldest mill was Papeteries de Docelles located in northeastern France, which produced traditional handpaper at the end of 15th century. The mill got its first paper making machine in the 1830s. UPM Docelles was disbanded in 2014.
The company has a long tradition of forest industries in Finland. There the company's first paper mills and sawmills were put into operation in the beginning of the 1870s. Pulp manufacturing began in the 1880s and paper converting in the 1920s. The company started manufacturing plywood in the 1930s. Several Finnish forest industry companies have merged with the forerunner companies of UPM, such as: Walkiakoski, Jämsänkoski, Kaukas, Halla, Kajaani, Toppila, Kymmene, Kuusankoski, Kymi, Voikkaa, Lohjan Paperi Oy, Wilh. Schauman, W. Rosenlew, Raf. Haarla and Myllykoski.
The company logo, the griffin, was designed by Hugo Simberg in 1899. It is probable that the griffin was chosen as the company logo because it represents a guardian of the northern forests. The griffin logo is the oldest continuous company logo in Finland.
2000 - 2010.
Due to worldwide overproduction of paper UPM announced a cost reduction program in 2006. Voikkaa paper mill in Kuusankoski was closed. Nearly 3,000 employees in Finland were laid off. After the closure the area has been transformed into Voikkaa business area.
The Miramichi paper mill in New Brunswick, which UPM acquired in 2000, was closed in 2007. Also a number of plywood mills and sawmills were closed during the years. In December 2008 UPM closed Kajaani paper mill and Tervasaari pulp mill. 1,100 employees were laid off. The former premises of the Kajaani mill were turned into a business park called Renforsin Ranta.
During the decade, UPM also sold many businesses such as Walki Can, Walki Sack, Loparex Group, Walki Wisa, Rosenlew and Puukeskus.
At the same time, UPM invested in other businesses and acquired Fray Bentos pulp mill and Forestal Oriental in Uruguay (2007), Chudovo plywood mill in Russia (2002) and Otepää plywood mill in Estonia (2003). The production of label materials expanded to Poland, Brazil, China and the USA.  UPM Biocomposites business was established in 2007.
2011 - 2020.
The overcapacity continued in graphic paper business and in 2011, UPM acquired Myllykoski Corporation and Rhein Papier GmbH, which consists of seven publication paper mills in Germany, Finland and the United States. In France, UPM closed Stracel paper mill in 2013 and Docelles paper mill in 2014. Madison paper mill in the USA was closed in 2016.The Schwedt paper mill in Germany was sold in 2017. Specialty paper production expanded to China and Germany in 2015 and 2019, respectively. Kaipola paper mill in Finland was closed in 2020.
In 2015, the production of wood-based biofuels started at the biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland.
In July 2019, UPM announced that it will invest USD 2.7 billion in a eucalyptus pulp mill near Paso de los Toros in central Uruguay. The production capacity will be 2.1 million tonnes of eucalyptus pulp. The new pulp mill is scheduled to start up in the second half of 2022.
In January 2020, UPM announced that it will invest EUR 550 million in an industrial scale biorefinery to convert solid wood into next-generation biochemicals: bio-monoethylene glycol (BioMEG) and lignin-based renewable functional fillers. The biorefinery will also produce bio-monopropyleneglycol (BioMPG) and industrial sugars. The total annual capacity of the biorefinery will be 220,000 tonnes. The facility is scheduled to start up by the end of 2022.
Businesses.
Business areas.
UPM manufactures fibre products, wood products, molecular bioproducts and low-emission energy in six business areas. These business areas are connected with a common idea: to create value from renewable and recyclable raw materials by synthesizing them with know-how and technology.
UPM Biorefining.
UPM Biorefining consists of pulp, timber and biofuel businesses. UPM has four modern pulp mills: three in Finland and one in Uruguay, and also four sawmills in Finland. The biorefinery producing renewable diesel and naphtha started operating in Lappeenranta in 2015. The pulp mills produce 3,7 million tons of high quality pulp annually. 39% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Biorefining in 2019.
In July UPM announced that it will invest USD 2.7 billion in a eucalyptus pulp mill near Paso de los Toros in central Uruguay. The new pulp mill is scheduled to start up in the second half of 2022. (Updated based on UPM Annual Report 2019).
UPM Energy.
UPM Energy’s power generation capacity consists of hydropower, nuclear power and condensing power. UPM Energy is the second largest electricity producer in Finland. UPM owns 47.69%% of Pohjolan Voima Oyj, which is a majority shareholder (58.5%) in Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO). UPM also owns 9 hydropower plants in Finland. 13% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Energy in 2019.
UPM Raflatac.
UPM Raflatac manufactures labelling materials for branding and promotion and information labelling in the food, beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical and retail segments, for example.
UPM Specialty Papers and UPM Communication Papers.
UPM has 16 paper mills in Finland, Germany, Great Britain, France, Austria, China and the United States. Several of the mills work simultaneously as recycling centres and as producers of bioenergy. In terms of revenue, paper production is still the largest business group of the company.
UPM Plywood.
UPM is the largest plywood manufacturer in Europe. The plywood operations consists of nine plywood mills in Finland, Estonia and Russia.
Other businesses.
UPM offers a wide selection of different services for forest owners. UPM owns 510,000 hectares of forest in Finland. All of the company's forests are certified.
Most of the wood needed for the UPM factories is acquired from private forests of Finland. UPM is acquiring all kinds of wood and uses it to produce pulp, paper, plywood, sawn timber and energy. UPM is the biggest private landowner in Finland. UPM refines UPM Bonvesta properties from its real estates.
UPM Biochemicals, UPM Biomedicals and UPM Biocomposites business units are also included in other operations. UPM Biochemicals offers and develops wood-based biochemicals. The product segments are glycols and lignin products. UPM Biomedicals develops biomedical products and applications. UPM Biocomposites offers composite products in outdoor building material and consumer products. (Updated based on UPM Annual Report 2019).
Biofore.
In 2009, UPM created the term "Biofore" to describe new forest industry. The Biofore term is also used in the company's slogan: "UPM - The Biofore Company". In 2018, UPM launched brand promise 'UPM Biofore – Beyond fossils'.
Global operations.
UPM's products are manufactured in 12 countries and the company has a worldwide sales network. UPM's production plants are located in Austria, China, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, UK, Uruguay and USA.
China.
UPM has two production units in China: UPM Changshu paper mill and UPM Raflatac, Changshu Labelstock factory. Changshu is located in the Province of Jiangsu by the Yangtze River, some 100 km from Shanghai.
France.
UPM has two production units in France. The UPM Chapelle Darblay paper mill, located near Rouen, France's major port for wood and paper products, and the UPM Raflatac labelstock factory located in Pompey, 10 km north of Nancy and 40 km south of Metz.
Germany.
UPM has seven production units in Germany.
There is also a wood plastic composite factory in Germany: UPM ProFi, Bruchsal wood plastic composite factory, located in Bruchsal approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Distance to Frankfurt is some 120 km and to Stuttgart some 80 km.
UK.
UPM owns three production units in the United Kingdom.
Paper mills:
There is also a labelstock factory in the UK: UPM Raflatac, Scarborough
Uruguay.
UPM has a pulp plant in Fray Bentos, Uruguay. The productions located in Uruguay consist of bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP) from eucalyptus. UPM's pulp mills produce renewable energy in their recovery boilers and provide CO2-neutral biomass-based electricity for the Uruguayan markets. In 2011 UPM expanded plantation grounds in Uruguay. In February 2011, UPM announced a plan to build a second nursery in Uruguay to secure the availability of high-quality seedlings and seed material. Argentine and Uruguay had conflict of UPM emissions in 2013.
Metsä Botnia, a part of Metsä Group, opened Fray Bentos factory in Uruguay in 2007. It produce annually a million tonnes of cellulose. Until the end of 2009 the owners of Metsä-Botnia were M-real 30%, Metsä Group (ex Metsäliitto = Finn Forest) 23% and UPM-Kymmene (UPM) 47%, and since the end of 2009, UPM 91% and Metsä Group 9%.
Biofuels.
UPM aims to become a major player in advanced biofuels. The company is developing new business on wood based biofuels for transport. The brand name for the future biofuels of UPM is UPM BioVerno. The production concepts are based on non-food raw materials and they result in a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The UPM Biofuels surpass both the EU and Finnish requirements for sustainable biofuels. One of the goals in the long run is to expand the production of biofuels with new processes and raw-materials like pyrolysis oil and solid biomass.
Biorefinery.
UPM has invested in a biorefinery producing biofuels from crude tall oil in Lappeenranta, Finland. The biorefinery produces annually approximately 100,000 tonnes of advanced second generation biodiesel for transport. Construction of the biorefinery began in the summer of 2012 at UPM’s Kaukas mill site and was completed in 2014. UPM’s total investment amounted to approximately EUR 150 million. The construction of the biorefinery offered work for nearly 200 people for approximately two years. The biorefinery directly employs nearly 50 people and indirectly about 150 people.
Biodiesel.
UPM is planning to produce biodiesel from forest energy wood. The raw material to be used in the production of UPM's biodiesel would mainly consist of sustainably sourced wood: logging residues, woodchips, stumps and bark. UPM has been developing gasification technology for biodiesel production with Andritz/Carbona. The initial testing programme was completed in the United States as planned. UPM's biodiesel is well suited for the current diesel motor technology and fuel distribution infrastructure.
Research and development.
UPM Grada.
UPM Plywood has developed a new way to manufacture layered composites and the new form of plywood is called UPM Grada. At the core of the new technology is a special adhesive film, which allows the plywood to be formed after manufacturing. UPM Grada Plywood can be safely recycled or burned at the end of its lifecycle. UPM Grada Plywood can be used e.g. in furniture. The Finnish furniture manufacturer Isku has introduced the new Kaava chair which demonstrates the capabilities of UPM Grada Plywood.
UPM ProFi.
UPM ProFi composite is a Biofore material that combines the characteristics of cellulose fibres and plastic. Manufactured mainly from recycled raw material, the composite is suitable for use in patios, terraces, piers and playgrounds. The material does not require polishing, lacquer finishing or other surface finishing. The material was a result of UPM's own research and product development.
UPM ProFi has been used in the manufacture of a pedestrian walkway in the previously-historic city of Ghent, Belgium.
UPM Formi.
UPM Formi is a recyclable and odorless composite which can be used to replace plastic in many instances. UPM Formi composite granulates are manufactured from clean polymers and pulp. UPM offers the granulates in three grades for injection molding – Formi GP for general use, Formi SP for special surface, and Formi TP for technical applications. The UPM Formi -material has already been used in the manufacture of a mobile phone microscope, launched by KeepLoop Oy.


Food and drink in Birmingham

As with any large town or city, food and drink has played an important role in the commerce and culture of Birmingham, England.
Food.
Local dishes.
Birmingham soup - In the late 18th century poor harvests in England resulted in high food prices and the resultant opening of soup kitchens to provide cheap, nourishing food for the poor. In 1793 the inventor and industrialist, Matthew Boulton, noted a recipe in one of his notebooks for a soup was which intended to be sold for a penny a quart. This was a hearty broth made up of stewed beef and vegetables served with a slice of bread. In 2014, Glynn Purnell recreated the dish as a fine dining course and served it at his restaurant, "Purnell's".
A dish titled "Brummie bacon cakes" is said to also be a dish local to Birmingham it consists of a mixture of flour, salt, and butter or margarine, with chopped bacon and cheese added to it. With the addition of Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and milk, the mixture is made into a dough and sliced into wedges which are then baked with cheese sprinkled over them.
Dishes identified with the neighbouring Black Country are also traditionally popular in Birmingham, including faggots and peas and, in the past, groaty pudding made with beef, leeks, onions and oat groats.
The dish which originated in Kashmiri restaurants in Birmingham in the 1970s the Balti should also be considered as a local dish (see below).
Tea.
During the 1830s, Thomas Ridgway began trading in the Bull Ring, selling tea. Ridgway later went bankrupt. Setting up business in London, he paid back all of his creditors and continued his tea trade, becoming one of the first English tea companies to hygienically pre-pack tea so as to avoid adulteration. In 1876, Queen Victoria commanded House of Ridgways to create a blend for her own personal use. In 1863, William Sumner (founder of Typhoo) published "A Popular Treatise on Tea". In 1870, Sumner started a pharmacy and grocery business in High Street in Birmingham city centre. This grew and forced Sumner to move to new premises on Castle Street and then on to Bordesley Street at the canalside. Typhoo was bought by Indian conglomerate company Apeejay Surrendra Group on 31 October 2005.
Limes.
Birmingham's earliest food trade connections with the West Indies involved the importation of limes and cocoa during the mid-to-late 19th century.
The Montserrat Co. Ltd. was formed in Edgbaston by J.& E. Sturge. Lime juice was produced in the city and then exported for use in the manufacture of citric acid. The failure of Sicily's lemon crop at that time resulted in an opening in the market which Sturge took great advantage of, utilizing their extensive chemical works based in Edgbaston. The company was set up by the Sturge and Albright families who funded the development of Montserrat estates in 1867. Joseph Sturge bought the Elberton Sugar Estate in 1857 and converted it into a lime production plant. He also wanted to prove that free labour could be made profitable. Members of the Sturge family were instrumental in the British anti-slavery movement.
Brands.
Famous food brands that originated in Birmingham include Typhoo tea, Bird's Custard, Bournville cocoa, Cadbury chocolate, and HP Sauce.
Restaurants.
"The Old Crown" public house, a black and white timber-framed building, is said to be the oldest secular building in Birmingham, dating back to 1450 to 1500. It is situated in Deritend and is documented as serving as an inn from 1626. Birmingham Corporation proposed its demolition in 1851, 1856 and 1862 but it was saved by the efforts of Joshua Toulman Smith. It is still used as a public house which serves food. "The Saracen's Head" in Kings Norton dates from the same period as The Old Crown and is now a visitor's centre with a snack bar. The work to restore The Saracen's Head came as a result of it being chosen for financial assistance by a vote of the viewers of the BBC television programme "Restoration" in 2004.
The Leicester Arms, which became known as Freeth's Coffee House, situated at the corner of Bell Street and Lease Lane, served as a tavern and coffee house from 1736 to 1832. It served as a meeting place for small businessmen and lawyers and, when bought by John Freeth, a topical ballad writer, in the second half of the 18th century, it became a place for groups which supported radical politics, including the Birmingham Book Club, which held dinners at the coffee house. Freeth sent out rhyming invitations to dinner to club members. The club was recorded as having 24 members in 1775.
Mrs. Ann Allday, the wife of Joseph Allday who was a leading Birmingham Councillor from 1849 to 1859, ran a "celebrated" tripe restaurant and tripe shop in Union Street and other councillors often met there. At that time the "Woodman Tavern" in Easy Row was also a favoured meeting place for Allday and his colleagues.
A more recent hostelry of note is "The Garrison" in Dale End which served as a model for the public house by that name featured in the BBC television drama series "Peaky Blinders". The real public house was sold at auction for £183,000 in May 2014.
A fish restaurant was opened in Warwick Passage in 1883.
In 1896 a new building in the Arts and Crafts style was erected in Corporation Street to house James Henry Cook's vegetarian restaurant, one of the first in England. In 1898, 'The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel', named after the famous vegetarian Sir Isaac Pitman, was opened on the same site, and the proprietors subsequently opened a long-running health food store. It is said that Mahatma Gandhi dined at the restaurant when he visited Birmingham on 18 October 1931.
In the latter years of the Victorian era, a number of Italians migrated to Birmingham and occupied a small number of streets off Digbeth and by 1914 they numbered about 700 people, mostly originating from villages around Rome. Many were street-traders and sold the first ice cream in the city using broken eggs from the egg market in Moor Street and ice from Fazeley Street. Camillo Biglio opened a confectioner's shop in Cannon Street in 1878 and, afterwards, is thought to have opened the first Italian restaurant in Birmingham, "".
An edition of the ‘Michelin Guide’ for the British Isles was first published in 1911 and stars were first awarded for restaurants in the mid-1920s. The edition published in 1925 recommended a single restaurant in Birmingham - ‘The Exchange’ in Stephenson Place - which was awarded 3 stars which were interpreted as signifying that the establishment was a “luxurious, well appointed restaurant”. Subsequently no Michelin Guides were published for Great Britain from 1931 to 1974.
Birmingham is home to a wide variety of Asian eateries which have served the people of Birmingham since the 1940s. The first Chinese restaurant was the Tong Kung on Holloway Head, which opened in 1956. In the late 1950s there were also Kam Ling in Livery Street and Tung Hing at 15 Snow Hill. Notable also were The Slow Boat, opened in 1961 under St. Martin's car park (this business failed after a public health action for the use of illegal meat in its dishes), Heaven Bridge in Smallbrook Queensway, and, by 1968, The Old Happy Gathering in Pershore Street, which offered more authentic Cantonese cuisine, the earliest restaurants being more in the style of "chop suey houses".
In the early 1970s Chinese businesses and community associations were gathered around Hurst Street and Digbeth and Wing Yip opened the first Chinese supermarket in Bromsgrove Street, establishing a food empire in Birmingham which now has its headquarters in the Chinese Quarter, along with other fine oriental restaurants.
In 1945 Abdul Aziz, one of the first East Bengali (later known as Bangladeshi) immigrants to live in Birmingham, opened a cafe shop selling curry and rice in Steelhouse Lane with many policemen from the local police station as customers as well as lawyers and barristers who worked at the nearby law courts. This later became The Darjeeling and was the first Asian restaurant in Birmingham, owned by Afrose Miah. The second Asian restaurant in Birmingham was The Shah Bagh on Bristol Street. In 1957 Mozamel and Rachel Kazi changed the nature of their cafe, 'Rae's Cafe' in Bristol Street, from a 'greasy spoon' to a shop where curry was served and its resulting popularity necessitated that it be moved to larger premises in Moseley Road where it was called 'Jinnah's'. John Bonham who became the drummer in the group Led Zeppelin dined there regularly. The Kazis' son, John, came up with the novel idea of home delivery of food to regular customers as well as a 'takeaway' service whereby customers took their own pots to the restaurant to have them filled with curry and rice for 25p. Also noteworthy was The Curry House opened by Abdul Motin Choudhury and Abdul Jabbar on Bristol Street in 1965 which was later to become the Aloka in 1981. There was also the Banu restaurant on Hagley Road, which was opened in 1969.
The dish known as balti was invented in Birmingham in the 1970s in restaurants owned by members of the Pakistani community in Sparkbrook, many of whom had migrated to the city from the Mirpur area of Pakistan in the 1960s. When non-Pakistani customers began to visit their restaurants, they required curries to be cooked more quickly than occurred in traditional Mirpuri cuisine and the restaurateurs consequently developed dishes in which meat was cooked off the bone at higher temperatures in steel dishes with fresh dried spices rather than curry pastes and vegetable oil in place of the traditional ghee. The steel dishes in which the food was cooked were called "baltis" (said to derive from the Hindi word "balty" meaning a bucket) and then the food was served in the steel dishes with naan bread.
The geographical area in which the balti serving restaurants were concentrated became known as the Balti Triangle and is defined as having a northern apex at the junction of the A41 and A453 Camp Hill roundabout, an eastern boundary of the A41 going south to Stratford Road, a western boundary of the A453 and a southern edge just north of Wake Green Road and College Road. A visit to a restaurant in the Balti Triangle is often promoted as an important activity for tourists visiting Birmingham.
The first recorded written reference to balti dishes was made in a 1984 edition of "Curry Magazine" and it is said that as of 2016 there are about balti 50 restaurants located in The Balti Triangle. In 1998, the balti restaurateurs formed themselves into the Birmingham Balti Association.
In the city centre, among current notable south Asian restaurants are the "Rajdoot" in George Street in the Jewellery Quarter, which serves North Indian cuisine and which was opened in 1966, and which lists among its former notable customers The Beatles, The Princess Margaret and, more recently, the television personality Simon Cowell. In Hurst Street is The Maharajah, which also serves North Indian cuisine, having opened there in 1971. It was the Egon Ronay "Indian Restaurant of the Year" in 1999 and among its former notable customers were John Major, Cliff Richard, and Take That.
Off St. Paul's Square in James Street is located Lasan, which opened in 2002 and which won "Gordon Ramsay's F Word Best Local Restaurant" award on Channel 4 television. The then chef-director, Aktar Islam, has appeared in BBC's "Great British Menu" three times: in 2013 and 2014, as well as in 2011 when his dish of sea bass with battered soft shell crab won the fish course category. Islam left his role at Lasan in late 2017 and opened two new restaurants in Summer Row in May 2018 and December 2018 respectively – Opheem, which serves progressive Indian cuisine, and the neighbouring Legna, which has since closed.
Outside the city centre and Balti Triangle, the many suburbs of Birmingham are home to numerous South Asian-style restaurants, some of which are award-winning, an example being Thania Spice, situated in the small suburb of West Heath, whose chef, Abdul Subhan, was awarded the "Curry Life" award of 2013 as one of the 42 best curry chefs in the United Kingdom.
After World War II, the Berni brothers (Frank and Aldo), two Welshmen of Italian ancestry, established what became known as a "Berni Inn" in Bristol in 1955. European-style food was served there and a classic menu of prawn cocktail starter, steak or chicken in a basket main course and Black Forest gateau dessert became familiar to British diners. Branches of Berni Inns gradually extended throughout the West Country and the English Midlands and further afield but it was not until 1967–8 that Berni Inns were opened in Birmingham – the Wagon and Horses and the White Swan.
During the late 1980s, the restaurant of The Plough And Harrow Hotel in Hagley Road in Edgbaston was considered to be one of Birmingham's finest dining venues. Andreas Antona was head chef at The Plough And Harrow from 1987 for three years before opening Simpson's in Kenilworth in 1993 (see below). The Plough And Harrow is situated in a building dating back to 1704.
In 2005, Opus was opened by entrepreneur Ann Tonks and Chef Director David Colcombe in Cornwall Street and the restaurant subsequently won several awards as a modern British restaurant. David Colcombe left his post there in 2015. In his training he had studied at Solihull College and afterward under Anton Mosimann at the Dorchester Hotel in London and then the Lygon Arms in Broadway, Worcestershire. He later worked at the former Swallow Hotel in Birmingham (now The Marriott Hotel). After Colcombe's departure, Birmingham-born Ben Ternent was promoted in May 2015 from Head Chef to Executive Chef at Opus. The restaurant put a particular emphasis on "sustainability" of foods. Prior to restaurants being allowed by the British government to reopen on 17 May 2021 after the third ‘lockdown’ as the COVID-19 pandemic receded, it was announced on 12 May 2021 that Opus would not reopen and was closed permanently.
In "The Good Food Guide" list of the Top 50 British restaurants for 2017, Simpson's was placed in the number 35 position and Adam's was placed at number 41 in the table. This was the first time that Simpson's had appeared in the Top 50 list but it was not included in the 2019 list. Adam's had occupied the number 29 place in the list in 2016 with no other Birmingham restaurants being included in the list in that year. The position of Adam's in the list was reduced to number 47 in the 2019 list. Purnell's was placed in the number 38 place in the 2014 list, at number 37 in the 2013 list and at number 47 in the 2010 list.
Nine Birmingham restaurants (Adam's, Carter's of Moseley, Folium, Harborne Kitchen, Lasan, Opus, Purnell's, Purnell's Bistro and Simpsons) were included in the 2019 Good Food Guide listings compared with 11 the previous year (Two Cats Kitchen, Edmund's and Turner's at No. 69 having closed and only Folium having been added to the list).
"The Good Food Guide 2020" increased the number of listed Birmingham restaurants back to 11 (‘cooking scores’ in brackets): Adam's (7) Carter's Of Moseley (6), Folium (4), Harborne Kitchen (6), Lasan (3), Opheem (4), Opus (2), The Oyster Club (4), Purnell's (6), Purnell's Bistro (2) and Simpsons (6), with Adam's being the only Birmingham restaurant to appear in its ‘The Top 50, The UK’s best restaurants’, being placed at number 49 (a fall of 2 places since 2019).
The dining scene in Birmingham continues to evolve and notable restaurants included Two Cats Kitchen, which opened in Warstone Lane in the Jewellery Quarter in July 2015 after a period of operating as a pop-up restaurant called Two Cats Roaming. Its Midlands-born chef and owner, Niki Astley, who established the restaurant with his Latvian partner Diana Fjordorova, had previously worked at White Horse in Fulham and The Church in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Two Cats Kitchen specialised in "New Baltic Cuisine" and intended to "shed light on Baltic-Russian cuisine by recognising traditional dishes and attempting new ones". Notable dishes were "Beetroot and buttermilk Gazpacho" and a dessert of celeriac ice cream pears, birch biscuit and verbena. The 2017 edition of the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland included "Two Cats" in its listing of Birmingham restaurants. In March 2017 Astley announced that the food presented at Two Cats would have less emphasis on "New Baltic" food and would be given a "wider culinary exploration" but the restaurant closed on 30 September 2017.
The Wilderness, founded by Alex Claridge, began life as Nomad in April 2015, a pop-up restaurant initially situated at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in Kings Heath. Prior to founding Nomad, Claridge had worked at the Warehouse Cafe in Digbeth and Bistro 1847 in Great Western Arcade. The restaurant opened in the Birmingham Open Media building in Dudley Street in November 2015, with Brian Smith working as head chef. The restaurant aimed to serve British food with ingredients taken from the restaurant's own allotments as well as from foraging, but it closed on 7 May 2016, after being threatened with legal action by the NoMad Hotel in New York, and reopened as The Wilderness on 25 May 2016 with new internal decorations. Claridge closed The Wilderness on 29 December 2017, intending to reopen in February 2018 in the building in Bennett's Hill which was formerly occupied by Adam's, but work was delayed and the restaurant reopened in March 2018 in a temporary location in Warstone Lane in the building which had formerly housed Two Cats Kitchen and before that, La Toque D'Or.
Stu Deeley, who won the BBC One television series "MasterChef: The Professionals" 2019, was head chef at The Wilderness until December 2019, when he left to open his own restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter and was succeeded by Marius Gedminas who had been a sous chef at the restaurant. Deeley had studied at Halesowen College and previously worked at Simpsons.
Claridge opened a new restaurant in Bennett's Hill in November 2018 with the name of Nocturnal Animals. The head chef of Nocturnal Animals (named after the 2016 movie, and inspired by the film's 1980s-inspired soundtrack) was Brett Connor, a former competitor on BBC's "Masterchef The Professionals". The food was influenced by Japanese and Far Eastern cuisine, but customers were confused by the restaurant's theme and so its name was changed on 20 March 2019 to Kisama. Pedro Miranda, who had previously worked at Rofuto in the Park Regis Hotel in Broad Street, was appointed head chef and the theme of Japanese/Far Eastern cuisine was emphasised. Miranda left the post in July 2019 and Claridge ended his involvement with Kisama on 9 August, resulting in the restaurant's closure on 13 August 2019.
In the mid-2010s there was a growing trend to the establishment of "pop-up" restaurants in Birmingham whereby a chef would establish a temporary restaurant for varying periods of time in non-permanent and different locations. For the period that Adam's Restaurant existed in Bennett's Hill, it termed itself a pop-up restaurant. As mentioned above, both Niki Astley and Alex Claridge used the device of serving their food in pop-up restaurants before opening their own more permanent establishments. The Kitchen Garden Cafe in Kings Heath has often hosted pop-up restaurants. The chef, Ben Tesh, worked from a pop-up restaurant at the Kitchen Garden. He had initially trained at Colin McGurran's Michelin-starred Winteringham Fields restaurant in north-east Lincolnshire and then been head chef at Anthony's Restaurant in Leeds, as well as gaining experience at Noma in Denmark under René Redzepi. In 2013 he worked under Alex Bond at Turner's restaurant in Harborne. He later ran his pop-up restaurant in Birmingham from 2016 until 8 April 2017 for nine months at the Urban Coffee Company in Church Street and eventually opened his first permanent restaurant, Folium, in Caroline Street in the Jewellery Quarter in late November 2017.
Andrew Sheridan heads up the kitchen at Craft Dining Rooms, which was opened in the International Conference Centre on 15 July 2019 by Sam and Emma Morgan. Sheridan collaborated with Kray Treadwell, who had worked at Michael O’Hare's The Man Behind The Curtain in Leeds for three and half years in serving dinners in which each cooked alternate courses in late 2019. Treadwell began his career in a junior role at Simpsons, moving to Glynn Purnell's The Asquith, The Blind Swine in York and thence to Leeds. In early 2020 Tredwell hosted several pop-up dinners at the Selina Hotel in Livery Street in the Jewellery Quarter whilst working on plans to open his own restaurant named 670 Grams after the birth weight of his daughter in the Custard Factory in Digbeth but the restaurant’s opening was delayed because of the shutdown of restaurants necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic of spring 2020.
Digbeth Dining Club, a weekly street food market, opened in August 2012 by former cameraman Jack Brabant. On 17 and 18 September 2016 the British Street Food Annual Awards was held at the site. From January 2017 the Digbeth Dining Club was held two evenings per week, Fridays and Saturdays, with the emphasis on Saturdays being on music and street entertainment.
Birmingham has numerous restaurants which are parts of nationwide chains. In April 2018 The Ivy Temple Row opened in a location close to Birmingham Cathedral. This restaurant is part of the chain based on the original Ivy restaurant opened in Covent Garden in 1917.. On 1 February 2019 the Smith Brothers opened the third branch of their contemporary Chinese restaurant, Tattu, in the refurbished old boiler room of The Grand Hotel in Barwick Street, the original restaurant having been opened in Manchester in 2015.
Michelin starred restaurants.
The Birmingham dining scene in the 1970s is highlighted by the 1974 edition of the "Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland" which was the first edition of the British guide to have been published since 1931. The Guide mentioned the following restaurants in Birmingham and its surroundings: "Lorenzo" in Park Street (Italian), "La Capanna" in Hurst Street (Italian), "Lambert Court" on Hagley Road, "Burlington" off New Street, "Danish Food Centre" in Stephenson Place, the "Royal" in Sutton Coldfield and "Manor House" in West Bromwich. There were no starred restaurants at that time in Birmingham.
By the mid 1980s Italian restaurants were still prominent in the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland and the 1983 edition listed "Rajdoot" (see above, then located in Albert Street), "Jonathan's" (English cuisine) on Wolverhampton Road, "Pinocchio" (Italian) off Harborne Road, and "Giovanni's" (Italian) in Kings Heath, along with the previously mentioned Italian restaurants, "Lorenzo's" and "La Capanna". The list also included "La Gondola" (Italian) and "Le Bon Viveur", both in Sutton Coldfield, and "Franzi's", an Austrian-style restaurant located in Bearwood. No restaurants in Birmingham then held a star rating.
A decade later, the 1993 Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland was dramatically changed in the style of cuisine featured in its listing with the most highly rated restaurant being "Sir Edward Elgar's" at the Swallow Hotel in Hagley Road, followed by "Sloan's" in Edgbaston. The other listed restaurants were South Asian or Chinese in style:- "Maharaja" in Hurst Street, "Purple Rooms" (Indian) in Hall Green, Henry's (Chinese) in St. Paul's Square, "Henry Wong" (Chinese) in Harborne, "Days of the Raj" in Dale End and "Dynasty" (Chinese) in Hurst Street. "Franzl's" (Austrian) in Bearwood continued to appear in the list and "Lombard Room" in Kings Norton was also listed.
By the turn of the millennium, European-style restaurants had become far more prominent in Michelin's Birmingham lists and the 2001 "Michelin The Red Guide Great Britain and Ireland" recommended "Sir Edward Elgar's" at the Marriot Hotel, formerly the Swallow Hotel, "Number 282" at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, "Gilmore" situated in a former rolling mill in the Jewellery Quarter, the "Metro Bar and Grill" in Cornwall Street, "Leftbank" in Broad Street and "Le Petit Blanc" in Brindleyplace. Only two non-European restaurants then appeared in the list:- "Henry's" in St. Paul's Square and "Mizan" in Hall Green.
By the time of the publication of the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland 2005 edition, British and French style-restaurants dominated the lists and set the scene for the next decade or so. The edition listed Birmingham's first two restaurants with single stars, "Simpson's" and "Jessica's" (see below), along with "Paris" in The Mailbox, "Bank" in Brindleyplace, "La Toque D'or" in the Jewellery Quarter, the "Metro Bar and Grill", the "Zinc Bar and Grill" in Gas Street Basin, "Liaison " in Hall Green and "Le Petit Blanc". The Indian-style restaurants listed were "Cafe Lazeez" (north Indian) in The Mailbox and "Shimla Pinks" in Broad Street with "Henry's" Chinese-style restaurant continuing to appear in the list along with "Buonissimo" (Italian) in Harborne.
By the time of the publication of the 2017 Michelin Guide the city had five starred restaurants with two more in the city's close vicinity: "Simpson's" in Edgbaston, which retained its 1 star grading which had been awarded to it in 2005; "Purnell's" in Cornwall Street in the city centre and "Turner's at 69" in Harborne, both of which had been awarded 1 star in 2009; "Adam's", which relocated to Waterloo Street in 2016, and had been awarded 1 star in 2013; and "Carter's of Moseley" which was awarded 1 star in the 2016 Michelin Guide. "Peel's Restaurant at Hampton Manor" in Hampton-in-Arden, under its Head Chef, Robert Palmer, was awarded its star for the first time in the 2017 Guide and "The Cross At Kenilworth" had achieved its first star in 2014. Birmingham has more Michelin-starred restaurants in Great Britain than any other city apart from London
Apart from the starred restaurants mentioned above, "Opus at Cornwall Street", "Andy Waters", "Two Cats" and the two Asian-style restaurants "Lasan" and "Asha's" in Newhall Street were mentioned in the 2017 edition of the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland. In the 2018 edition, these restaurants were all awarded the newly introduced "Michelin Plate" ("Good cooking. Fresh ingredients, carefully prepared: simply a good meal") apart from "Two Cats" which had closed. "Turner's at 69" which had lost its Michelin star and "The Wilderness" also received the new award. In 2019 the 'Michelin Plate' was awarded again to all of those which received the 2018 award apart from 'Lasan' after Aktar Islam had moved from the restaurant and 'Turner's at 69' which had closed while Ben Tesh's 'Folium', 'Harborne Kitchen' and Aktar Islam's new restaurant 'Opheem' all received the award, therefore increasing the number of Michelin Plate restaurants in Birmingham to seven.
There were no changes to Birmingham's star status in the 2019 Michelin awards but Paul Foster's 'Salt', opened in 2017, was awarded a single star in nearby Stratford upon Avon. In the 2020 Michelin star awards ceremony on 7 October 2019, Aktar Islam's ‘Opheem’ was awarded one star and the city therefore returned to the status of being home to 5 Michelin stars. In 2021 at an online ceremony held on 25 January, all five starred restaurants retained their stars and no new starred restaurants were added. However Kray Tredwell was awarded the Young Chef of Great Britain and Ireland 2021 title.
Adam's.
Adam Stokes, originally from Northampton, opened "Adam’s" with his wife Natasha as a "2 year pop-up" restaurant in Bennett's Hill in 2013. He had previously worked up to Sous Chef under Aaron Patterson at Hambleton Hall in Leicestershire and then in 2008, at the age of 26, became Head Chef at Glenapp Castle in the Scottish Lowlands and achieved his first Michelin star there a few days before his 30th birthday. He relocated "Adam's" to Waterloo Street in January 2016 having been awarded a Michelin star for "Adam's" in 2014. In 2017 the restaurant was awarded the title "Best Fine Dining Restaurant" at the Midlands Food Drinks And Hospitality awards. Tom Shepherd who had worked previously at Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham was appointed Head Chef in July 2017.
Stokes opened a second restaurant in Temple Street in the city centre on 1 April 2019. Specialising in fish and seafood dishes it is named ‘The Oyster Club’ and the Head Chef is Rosanne Moseley who worked for Stokes at ‘Adam’s’ from February 2014 until she took up her post at the new restaurant. Moseley was a participant in the BBC television ‘Masterchef - The Professionals’ during the time she worked at ‘Adam’s’.
Carters of Moseley.
Carters of Moseley was opened in November 2010 by chef Brad Carter and his partner, Holly Jackson, to serve British cuisine. Brad Carter had studied at University College, Birmingham (previously the Birmingham College of Food) and then worked in Marseilles and Menorca and Michelin-starred restaurants in southern England and London. His restaurant was given the Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year award in 2015 and achieved 1 star in the 2016 Michelin Guide. In the Birmingham Food, Drink and Hospitality Awards of June 2016, Holly Jackson was named Best Restaurant Manager. In the renamed Midlands Food, Drink and Hospitality Awards of 2017, Brad Carter was named Best Chef. In 2018 the restaurant was placed in the number 66 position of the Estrella National Restaurant Awards having occupied the number 91 position in 2016 and having been unplaced in 2017.
Jessica's.
Purnell's Chef-Proprietor, Glynn Purnell, was formerly chef at "Jessica's" on Portland Road in Edgbaston, which opened in July 2003 by Keith and Diane Stevenson and was awarded AA Restaurant of the Year within one year of opening. Jessica's was awarded 1 Michelin star in 2005 and retained it until the restaurant closed in 2007, when Glynn Purnell and his wife and partner, Kerry O'Carroll, decided to open their own restaurant in Cornwall Street. The former Jessica's was reopened by the former Maitre D', Pascal Cluny, as Pascal's and it was awarded a Michelin Bib in 2008. Subsequently, Glynn Purnell acquired the building to open a restaurant called "The Asquith" but this was relocated to Newhall Street and later renamed "Purnell's Bistro". The building which had housed Jessica's was eventually converted into luxury apartments.
Purnell's.
Glynn Purnell, who had once worked as a Chef de Partie and then Sous Chef at Simpson's in Kenilworth, is a familiar face on British television food programmes and won The Great British Menu competition for 2 consecutive years (2008, with strawberries with tarragon and black pepper honeycomb with burnt English cream surprise and, in 2009, with masala spiced monkfish with red lentils, pickled carrots, and coconut). Purnell's first book, "Cracking Yolks And Pig Tales", was published in 2014. In 2016, Purnell became one of the regular guest hosts on the BBC television programme "Saturday Kitchen". In the Birmingham Food, Drink and Hospitality Awards of June 2016 Glynn Purnell was chosen Best Chef and Purnell's Restaurant was named Best Michelin Star Restaurant. Purnell's second book, "Rib-ticklers & Choux-ins", containing 110 recipes, was published on 15 September 2016.
Before opening Purnell's in July 2007, Glynn Purnell was quoted by the Birmingham Mail as saying that he hoped that the new restaurant would achieve the award of 2 Michelin stars in 5 to 7 years but that hope remains unfulfilled. The restaurant was awarded 1 Michelin star in 2009. The first Maitre D' at Purnell's was Jean Benoit Burloux who had previously worked in a more junior role at Jessica's. He was succeeded by Sonal Clare in 2014 who began work at Purnell's in 2008 as a waiter and was awarded the Best Sommelier Award at the GQ Food and Drink Awards 2018 in May 2018. Sonal Clare left Purnell's on 21 December 2019 to work as General Manager and Head Sommelier at The Wilderness from January 2020. He was succeeded at Purnell's by Jared Samborski in January 2020.
In June 2018 Purnell was asked to create a dish to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of work to construct 'Spaghetti Junction', the Gravelley Hill roadway interchange, and he received considerable publicity for his dish of potato and celeriac 'spaghetti' with a cream and ginger sauce finished off with truffle.
Simpsons.
In 2004, Andreas Antona opened Simpson's Restaurant in Edgbaston Birmingham, within a Grade II-listed building. Antona founded the original Simpson's in Kenilworth in 1993, which was awarded a Michelin star in the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland 2000. Chef Director Luke Tipping had previously been Chef at Simpson's in Kenilworth. Andreas Antona was later to establish a restaurant at "The Cross" in Kenilworth where the Head Chef is Adam Bennett, who had worked for Antona at Simpson's in Kenilworth and subsequently, has been Head Chef in the Edgbaston restaurant. The name "Simpson's" was taken from the chemist's shop, belonging to Antona's father-in-law, which occupied the site in Kenilworth before Antona opened his restaurant there. After the Edgbaston restaurant had been closed for a short period for redecoration towards the end of 2015, Nathan Eades, who previously had had his own restaurant for a short while in nearby Bromsgrove, took over as Head Chef from Matt Cheal who left to open his own restaurant, "Cheal's of Henley" in the village of Henley in Arden, between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon. Nathan Eades left Simpson's in December 2017 to work at the 'Wild Rabbit Inn' in Kingham. Previously, Andy Waters, another former Head Chef of Simpsons, had had a restaurant, "Edmund's", in Henley in Arden before moving it to Birmingham and then going on to open "Waters In The Square" at Five Ways and then the restaurant "Andy Waters" at Resorts World at the National Exhibition Centre. In November 2018 Waters announced that he was giving up his role at the Resorts World restaurant and Aaron Darnley became Head Chef there with the restaurant's name being changed to 'Sky By Waters'. Andy Waters became Head Chef at ‘Pebble Beach’ restaurant in Barton-on-Sea in Hampshire in October 2019. Cheal's of Henley received the Judges Choice Award in the Birmingham Food, Drink And Hospitality Awards in June 2016. Corin Ireland of Simpsons was named Best Sommelier in the same awards. In 2018 PETA (The People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation) included Simpsons in a list of the 10 best restaurants to serve vegan food in Britain. Luke Tipping was appointed Honorary Professor of Culinary Arts at University College Birmingham in 2010. At one time Simpson's had three winners of the 'British Culinary Federation Chef Of The Year' award - Luke Tipping, Adam Bennett and Matt Cheal - all working there at the same time.
Turners at 69.
Turner's Restaurant (later known as "Turner's at 69") on the High Street in Harborne was opened by Midlands-born Richard Turner in 2007 and was awarded 1 Michelin star in January 2009. Turner's work had previously included some years at Thrales Restaurant in Lichfield which was closed in 2011. Alex Bond later worked at Turner's as Head Chef while Richard Turner was Executive Chef. The restaurant specialised in French and British cuisine. On 9 June 2016, Richard Turner announced that he was intending to change the style of the restaurant to make the atmosphere more relaxed and to replace the serving of expensive multi-course "tasting menus" with an a la carte menu from August 2016. Following these changes Turner's at 69 lost its Michelin star in the 2018 Michelin Guide but was awarded a Michelin Plate. The restaurant closed on 15 January 2018. In May 2018 Richard Turner took on the post of Head Chef in the newly opened "Maribel" in Brindley Place in the location which had previously housed "Edmund's" but ceased to work there one year later in May 2019 and was replaced as Head Chef by Harvey Perttola who had worked previously at ‘Opus’, ‘Hampton Manor’ and Swinfen Hall in Lichfield.
Opheem.
Aktar Islam's Opheem was awarded a single star on 7 October 2019 as part of the 2020 Michelin star awards. The restaurant's history is described above in more detail.
Peel's Restaurant.
Peel's Restaurant was opened in 2008 by the Hill family. On 3 October 2016 they were awarded a Michelin-star and Michelin's Welcome and service award. Two weeks prior they won their fourth AA-rosette.
Events.
Fairs and festivals dedicated to food were held in the Bullring during the 18th and 19th centuries though William de Birmingham had gained permission for a three-day-long Ascensiontide fair in 1250 with an additional Michaelmas fair taking place by 1400. The most popular fair was the (Michaelmas) Onion Fair which celebrated the harvest of onions. It was held on the last Thursday of September in front of St. Martin's Church. In an article in The Illustrated London News published in October 1872 it was noted that dealers and customers of the fair were mainly "the country folk of Warwickshire with a few tradesmen of the town and some of the work men's wives for the onion gives a palatable relish to a poor man's dinner or supper". The sale of onions was accompanied by stalls, sideshows and amusements and special excursion trains were run to the event from all over the area but the sale of onions was separated from the amusements in 1875 with the latter moving to Aston to later become a large funfair.
The BBC Good Food Show takes place at The National Exhibition Centre and is Britain's biggest and most extensive food event.
The Colmore Food Festival has been held for 2 days in early July annually since 2011 in Victoria Square. It is organised by the Colmore Business District and highlights food and drink establishments in the area, offering members of the public the opportunity to sample food and drink and to attend cookery demonstrations by local chefs, including in the past, Glynn Purnell.
In recent years, a resurgent interest in local food has led to the growth of farmers markets. In line with other UK cities including London and Bristol, street food events have also gained in popularity, leading to national recognition.
In 2014, Birmingham Independent Food Fair at Millennium Point showcased local food businesses, with restaurants, producers, local brewing and distillery companies represented.
Coronavirus Pandemic.
On 20 March 2020 all restaurants, public houses and bars in Birmingham and throughout England were closed on the orders of the government as a response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which had taken hold in the country as part of the effort to reduce social contact which might otherwise have increased the spread of the virus. Establishments were allowed to reopen on 4 July 2020 and during the month of August the government operated a scheme called ‘Eat out to help out’ to encourage people to dine out in restaurants by providing a government funded discount scheme. Subsequently with rising rates of COVID-19 the government introduced a system of Tiers across England which regulated the activity of restaurants and their availability to the public with Birmingham being placed in the middle tier, Tier 2.
A second lockdown began on 5 November 2020 when all restaurants in England were made to close again and this ended on 3 December 2020 with Birmingham emerging in a stricter Tier 3 which resulted in all restaurants remaining closed except for the sale of takeaway meals. Many restaurants, including a number of the Michelin-starred restaurants - Purnell’s, Simpsons, Opheem and Carter’s of Moseley - offered a takeaway service during this period, a number having done so for weeks before. Another national lockdown came into law on the night of 5 to 6 January 2021 when all restaurants were once more closed though allowed to continue with takeaway services. The government allowed restaurants to reopen to indoor diners in groups of not more than six on 17 May 2021. However prior to that date, Michelin-Plated Opus in Cornwall Street announced on 12 May 2021 that it would not reopen and would remain permanently closed.
Notable meals in Birmingham.
In May 1998, the G8 Summit was held in Birmingham and the Summit banquet was held in Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The menu was constructed by Jonathan Harrison, Chef de Cuisine of The Swallow Hotel (see above), for the world leaders, including President Bill Clinton of The United States and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany, and it was necessary to take note of foods which the leaders could not eat (Chancellor Kohl did not eat shellfish or lamb and President Clinton would not eat chocolate) and food eaten at other meals by the leaders beef and asparagus were being served elsewhere and so could not appear on Harrison's menu. The final menu was made up of pan-fried Dover sole served with baby leeks and seasonal mushrooms and a Mediterranean sauce; Basque-style pork wrapped in Parma ham, roasted and braised served with quenelles of polenta and braised artichoke base filled with roasted peppers, aubergines, fennel and courgettes; and, for dessert, glazed lemon and mascarpone tart. The menu reflected Jonathan Harrison's previous experience of working under Alain Ducasse at Hotel de France and his wish to combine British food with Mediterranean-style cuisine. Harrison provided the banquet for 56 guests; the 18 VIP guests being seated in the Pavilion of the Botanical Gardens. Jonathan Harrison left Birmingham in 1999 to become Chef Patron of The Sandpiper Inn in Leyburn in North Yorkshire.
Birmingham Food Competition Winners.
Birmingham chefs have won some notable competitions in recent years including those featured in popular television programmes.
Glynn Purnell - (Purnell's) - Great British Menu", Series 3, 2008 (BBC 1). Winner of dessert course (beat Sat Bains) - Strawberries with tarragon and black pepper honeycomb with burnt English cream surprise. "Great British Menu", Series 4, 2009 (BBC 1). Winner of fish course (beat Daniel Clifford) - Masala spiced monkfish with red lentils, pickled carrots and coconut.
Aktar Islam - (Lasan, Opheem) - "The F Word", 2009 (Channel 4). His then restaurant, "Lasan" beat "The Pheasant", Keystone in the final. "Great British Menu", Series 6, 2011 (BBC 1). Winner of fish course (beat Richard Bainbridge and Sue Ellis) - Sea bass with battered soft shell crab".
Stu Deeley - (The Wilderness) - "Masterchef The Professionals", Series 12, 2019 (BBC 1). Won the Finals with the following dishes - Starter, Soy and mirin soaked salmon ballotine with crispy salmon skin and cherry tomatoes marinated in dashi vinegar; Main course, Lovage and rosemary-brined guinea fowl topped with a yeast hazelnut crumb and a spiced guinea fowl sauce; Dessert, Cep mushroom and milk chocolate cookie, dusted in coffee cep powder with a milk chocolate and yogurt cream.
Andrew Sheridan - (Craft Dining Rooms and 8) - “Great British Menu”, Series 13, 2018 (BBC 1), Runner up in the Wales heats. “Great British Menu”, Series 14, 2019, Finalist.
Alex Claridge - (The Wilderness) - “Great British Menu”, Series 15, 2020 (BBC 1). Chosen to be one of four chefs participating in the 2020 Central region heats. He was the only chef in this heat who actually worked in Birmingham and The West Midlands. Screening of the series began in mid-March 2020. His showcased dishes were an amuse bouche of steak tartare, a starter titled ‘Nah ...You’re revolting’ (which included a locust bharji with wood ants and mealworms) and a fish course titled ‘Goth apple’ centred on a scallop and apple. He was eliminated after the fish course.


James M. Garnett

James Mercer Garnett (June 8, 1770 – April 23, 1843) was a nineteenth-century politician and planter from Virginia, who served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1805 to 1809, and separate terms in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Essex County, Virginia.
Early and family life.
Born at "Elmwood" near Loretto, Essex County, Virginia, Garnett could trace his descent from the First Families of Virginia on both sides of his family. He was named for his paternal grandfather, James Garnett, who served in the Virginia House of Burgesses as well as operated plantations in Essex County using enslaved labor. His father Muscoe Garnett also served in the House of Burgesses and operated plantations using enslaved labor. His mother Grace Fenton Mercer was the daughter of prominent Stafford County planter and attorney John Mercer, and his cousin through her brother James Mercer, Charles F. Mercer, would also become a Congressman and prominent abolitionist. His younger brother Robert S. Garnett (1789-1840) also became a Congressman, and his brother William Garnett (1786-1866) moved to North Carolina where he operated plantations as well as survived the American Civil War. Meanwhile, James Mercer Garnett received a private education suitable to his class.
In 1793, he married his cousin (James Mercer's daughter) Mary Eleanor Dick Mercer (1774-1837) and they had nine children, including James M. Garnett Jr. (1794-1824) and five daughters who reached adulthood: Ann Garnett (1797-1835), Mary Garnett Waring (1802-1822), Grace Fenton Garnett (1805-1826), Mary Mercer Garnett McGuire (1808-1841) and Eliza Garnett (1815-1847). His grandson Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett (1821-1864) would become a prominent lawyer, Virginia politician and Confederate congressman long after this man's death. Several other grandsons would serve the Confederacy, including Dr. J.G.M. McGuire,
Career.
Garnet inherited plantations in Essex County (including Elmwood) and continued the family tradition of farming using enslaved labor, although as discussed below, he would become a leading advocate of scientific agriculture and education. He owned 115 enslaved people in Essex County in 1820, 109 enslaved people there in 1830, and 63 enslaved people in the last census in his lifetime,
Essex County voters first elected Garnett as one of their representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1799 and re-elected him in 1800. However, he refused to campaign for votes, which he considered degrading.
In 1804, voters in Virginia's 11th congressional district elected him as a Democratic-Republican to the United States House of Representatives, and re-elected him in 1806, so he served from 1805 to 1809. During this time, he in effect was a member of the grand jury that indicted former Vice President Aaron Burr for treason in 1807. Mercer did not seek reelection in 1808, and John Roane succeeded him.
Despite his dislike for political campaigning, Garnett became a leading advocate for applying scientific techniques to farming, and strove to educate fellow farmers. In 1817 he helped found the Fredericksburg Agricultural Society, and served as its president for two decades. In 1820 Garnett led his fellow Fredericksburg area famers in a protest against recent protective tariffs, then attended several national anti-tariff conventions between 1821 and 1831. Some criticized Garnett's advocacy, and thought he should emulate the wealth orientation of Robert Payne Waring (who never served in the legislature). Nonetheless, Essex County grew to have considerable power (Richmond politics being supposedly governed by the "Essex Junto" led by Judge Spencer Roane for several decades). In 1837 Garnett's lobbying in Richmond for creation of a state agricultural board led to creation of the Virginia Board of Agriculture, with himself as the first president. Garnett also worked with Edmund Ruffin, another vociferous agricultural advocate, and in 1842 established the Agricultural Society of Essex. Garnett often voiced admiration for Jeffersonian agricultural ideals, especially the "yeoman farmer" who owned fewer than 300 acres and only a few slaves. He also became known for his tirades against farmers becoming lawyers and doctors, for he claimed that weakened the pride farmers should take in their profession.
In 1816 Garnett hosted Henry Knight of Massachusetts, who had been educated at Andover, Harvard and Brown and planned to spend a year in Virginia, then tour the South to complete his education. He had visited Richmond (where people recommended he visit Garnett's Essex County plantation), and would later travel westward to Kentucky and New Orleans.
Garnett also established a school for boys on his Elmwood plantation, as well as in 1824 published "Lectures on Female Education: Comprising the First and Second Series of a Course Delivered to Mrs. Garnett's Pupils, at Elm-wood, Essex County, Virginia".
Unlike Ruffin, who vehemently defended slavery, Garnett became a member of the American Colonization Society and later vice-president of the Virginia Colonization Society. His cousin (and also Congressman from Loudoun County to the west) Charles Fenton Mercer would become the American Colonization Society's president. In 1821, Garnett also invited his orphaned cousin Margaret Mercer to Virginia, and she worked with his daughters at the Elmwood school, as well as established a school for educating Blacks at Loretto, before returning to Maryland to establish a girl's school at her family plantation in Anne Arundel County, and later moving her school to Loudoun County, Virginia.
Essex County voters thwarted Garnett's attempted return to politics in 1815, but returned Garnett as one of their representatives in the House of Delegates in 1824. He, John Roane, William P. Taylor and Richard Morris, became the delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829–1830 from the Virginia Tidewater counties of King William, King and Queen, Essex, Caroline and Hanover. The convention's main issues were increased representation for western Virginia (which passed although attenuated), as well as a proposal for the gradual abolition of slavery (which did not pass, the convention occuring shortly after crushing of Nat Turner's slave rebellion). Garnett had foreseen the convention's importance and published "Constitutional Charts, or Comparative Views of the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary Departments in all the states in the Union, Including the United States" before the convention began, and on the floor advocated restricting suffrage to landowners.
Death and legacy.
Garnett died at his Elmwood estate on April 23, 1843, and was interred in the family cemetery on the estate. He had survived his wife, only son the reach adulthood, and most of his daughters. After his death, his widowed former son-in-law Rev. John Peyton McGuire (1800-1869, who had remarried to Judith Brockenbrough) established a school in Essex County and promoted his innovation of report cards.


Tyagi

Tyagi or Taga is a surname which historically belonged to the Brahmin caste.The landholding community is confined to Western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan. They are often considered the highest of the agricultural castes As of a 1990 report by the Backward Classes Commission, Government of Haryana, they were mostly engaged in farming.
The name Tyagi is prevalent in both Hindu and Muslim communities. Community members who converted to Islam are known as Muslim Tyagis, Mulla Brahmin, Musalman Taga, Mahesra and Moolay Taga.