So way back in December, we had a gift giving holiday and after much deliberation Joe decided I needed cooking lessons. So he got me a day of cooking at River Cottage and I booked it for 4 July (today) and we built a holiday around it. And this is why we’re pootling about the coast.<\/p>\n
I had to be there at 9.30, so I had a small breakfast (or tried to, I got more than I thought I would!) Then headed out – we’d driven the route several times so I knew where to be. We had to wait a bit while everyone turned up – I was thinking it was a huge group, but turns out it was two groups, the cooking group and the beekeeping group. We went down in two tractor trips (tractor pulling a seating car). It’s a steep trip down to the farmhouse and the morning was quite cloudy and chilly.<\/p>\n
So we get coffee and scones, which I skipped (breakfast!) and then we started our bread. We’d get a demonstration, then sent off to our work station to do. The space was very nice – all newly rebuilt and I think we were one of the first classes back in! The bread we made was malted wholewheat which I don’t work with (Joe doesn’t much like it) so that was fun. I made mine a bit wet and haven’t tried it yet, so we’ll see how it turned out! I can’t remember the order we cooked everything – some things we’d make a bit of and put to one side, like the panna cotta, others we just did and ate. So we had around lunchtime a loin of pork wrapped in home cured bacon, with sage. We also fried gem lettuce in the same pan which gave it a lovely flavour, with a squeeze of lemon. Very nice. Then for our three course meal around 5pm we had chorizo (which we made from scratch) with broad beans and poached egg; plaice baked oriental style with noodles; and elderflower panna cotta with strawberry syrup. All very good.<\/p>\n
All the food was either from the farm (the strawberries were picked that morning, the broad beans were picked just before we used them) or from local producers (the plaice had come in either that morning or the day before and the pork had been butchered over the weekend). \u00a0It was a good group though a bit large (close to 20 of us), with four people per work station, and we all worked together (so one of us would get the food, another would get cutting boards, etc.).<\/p>\n
We even got into the farmhouse and saw the famous farmhouse kitchen (very tiny, wonder where they put the cameras and lights!) and the dining room and the gardens. So got the tour and a cooking day!<\/p>\n
So I’ve eaten my full today and am now in the pub with Joe having a drink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So way back in December, we had a gift giving holiday and after much deliberation Joe decided I needed cooking lessons. So he got me a day of cooking at River Cottage and I booked it for 4 July (today) and we built a holiday around it. And this is why we’re pootling about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-8E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/07\/rotorua\/","url_meta":{"origin":536,"position":0},"title":"Rotorua","date":"Wednesday, 7 December 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"So, the dive on the Rainbow Warrior was cancelled. Not enough people on the boat apparently. There we were first thing in the morning and our main dive is cancelled. Gutted doesn't even begin to describe it. However, the nice woman in the dive shop rings her mate who runs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/17\/one-wedding-and-a-holiday\/","url_meta":{"origin":536,"position":1},"title":"One Wedding and a Holiday","date":"Thursday, 17 May 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Joe: The start of another trip. Kathleen: Sitting in the airport. Bored. Done shopping. That was boring. Joe: No waistcoats. Kathleen: Up far too early, at 4am, but the taxi came very early. We scheduled for 5am but he showed up at about 25 to 5! So we were off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":397,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/11\/york\/","url_meta":{"origin":536,"position":2},"title":"Playing Robin Hood","date":"Wednesday, 11 August 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"With breakfast in Oxford and dinner in York. But no walking along Hadrian's wall on the way to Nottingham! Woke up normal work time, but instead got ready to go away on holiday! First off to Oxford so left early to avoid the worst of the traffic. The drive wasn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4156,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/16\/byron-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":536,"position":3},"title":"Byron Bay","date":"Monday, 16 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Slept in a bit (K: we are on holiday!), then up and breakfast before cycling to the little solar powered train to take us into town. The whole trip is about five minutes but real cool to see the old train redone with solar panels (K: and a nice view\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4236,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/07\/cetaceans\/","url_meta":{"origin":536,"position":4},"title":"Cetaceans","date":"Thursday, 7 December 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"So we're being so lazy I'm not sure what day of the week it is! Hooray for a relaxing holiday. 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