On the Sauce

Not everyone can enjoy the unique taste of local Northamptonshire cider and perry. For reasons best known to themselves, some people have a strong aversion to alcohol, and yet they'd still like to try our Rockingham Forest Cider. We can understand that, and that's why we've delivered a box of our cider to the Church Bar & Restaurant in Northampton Town.

It won't be available over the bar though, rather in the de-alcoholised form of a cider sauce to accompany Pork Belly on the new Summer menu. Yes, even abstainers and tee-totallers can now go 'on the sauce' as it were. Just don't order it by the pint...

Hen Time

This is our 300th blog post. Thanks for your patience, What better way to celebrate this milestone than with a bit of 'Hen TV' live and direct from our little garden orchard on a balmy May evening. Enjoy...

Get with the Programme

Programmes for this year's Welland Valley Beer Festival (11th-13th June) are now available from the 11 pubs taking part.

I picked mine up for the bargain price of £1.50 from the Red Lion, Middleton. There it is on the right, and that's all I can show you I'm afraid. What I can say is that it's full of lots of interesting 'stuff', and the all important Saturday bus timetable. As usual, the cider list is incomplete, a major omission being ciders and perrys from Rockingham Forest, Ross-on-Wye Cider & Perry, and the Hucknall Cider Co.

More details just as soon as we have them....

Cakes and Ale (and Cider)

We went for Tea & Cakes at Wing Hall this weekend. And if that sounds like a grand day out, well it was. Very grand!

Wing Hall is an impressive Victorian country house located in the lovely rolling Rutlandshire countryside between Oakham and Uppingham. It's a proper peaceful stretch of countryside too, and the family have exploited this by offering a range of holiday accommodation, most obviously through camping and caravanning in the grounds close to the hall. There's fishing for those that want it, and most importantly from our perspective, a terrific Farm & Village Shop and associated Veranda Cafe.

The shop specialises in a wide range of locally sourced produce, including one of our own favourites, the yummy breads from nearby Hambelton Bakery. It's one of those really useful 'little-bit-of-everything' shops, providing a genuine service to villagers as well as those using the campsite.

Then there's the terrific homemade cakes, generous slices of which can be enjoyed in the shop itself, or on the lovely garden terrace accompanied by the gentle cluck-cluck of free-range hens. We had Chocolate, and very moreish Carrot & Walnut. The Veranda Cafe opens at the weekend from Friday evening, and is fully licenced to serve local ales, wines, and our own Rockingham Forest Cider*. We'd obviously recommend the cider as a perfect accompaniment to the home cooking, and fully intend to try the experience for ourselves in the near future.

*The cider is also available for takeaway from the farmshop.

A Homage to Fromage

Once a year, regular as clockwork, the Swan & Rushes pub in Leicester comes over all cheesy. Big deal I hear you cry, since when did cheese become a big story? Well this is no ordinary collection of cheeses, and here's the clever bit. For every rare and delicious cheese available at this years festival, there's an equally distinctive cider or perry to help wash it down. Ha! Now I've got your attention.

Cheese will be cut, and Cider will flow from 5pm on Friday the 21st May. Note: no unaccompanied Mice admitted.

Cider & Perry

Brain Stormer (Dry)
Brain Drain (Dry)
Chucklehead Farmhouse
Gray’s Med Dry
Green Valley Devon Farmhouse (Med)
Greggs Pit (Perries TBD)
Gwatkins Stoke Red (Sweet)
Gwnt Y Draig Perry
Gwnt Y Draig Pyder
Hartlands Perry
Hecks Kingston Black
Hecks Port Wine of Glastonbury
Hecks Medium
Hecks Blakeney Red Perry
Riches Medium Cider
Ross-on-Wye (various TBD)
Shiny Barrel (Dry)
Westcroft Janet’s Jungle Juice
Westcroft Dry
Wilkins Dry
Winkleigh Sam’s Dry Cider

Cheese

Anstey Double Worcester
Anstey Smoked Old Worcester
Anstey Old Worcester White
Anstey Snodsbury
Appleby Cheshire
Andrahan
Ashes Wensleydale
Black Crowdie
Blacksticks Blue
Celtic Promise
Cerney Pyramid
Dunsyre Blue
Lincolnshire Poacher
Montgomery Cheddar
Quickes Red Leicester
Simon Weaver Cotswold Blue
Simon Weaver Cotswold Brie
Simon Weaver Herb Brie
Simon Weaver Smoked Brie
Smoked Tain
Stinking Bishop
Tornegus
Webster’s Stilton