Supporting local produce.

This weekend the annual city food festival will be featuring everything that's best in the food industry in our county and the adjoining counties.  I enjoyed last year's event which supports local small businesses and look forward to this year's programme.

After my walk on Saturday I rounded off the morning by visiting a family-owned dairy farm.  As well as producing milk, the owners have diversified into ice cream production. It's a popular place as there's a shop with a parlour selling ice cream and other locally-made produce, a garden where children can play safely and a viewing barn where the calves are reared.

                                                                   'Orla' born in August
         

                                           Delicious!  I wonder which one you would choose?

                           
                     

Heritage Open Days Weekend Walk

Last weekend was the annual Heritage Open Days event which celebrates England's heritage and culture by offering free access to places that are usually closed to the public or charge for admission.

I joined a group walk in one of our local dales to visit old farmhouses,  some of which are still working farms, led by an historian who has written about the area.

The meeting point was at a distinctive landmark monument, which, in fact, is a water tank for a farm. (The farmhouse is in the wooded area). It was then embellished by one owner to include a roof and obelisk.  Made of local stone, the structure doesn't look out of place in the rural landscape. The date carved on it is AD 1856.

It was a lovely day for a walk.  As usual I'm bringing up the rear with one or two others who were taking photographs.

This is one of the farms we visited with solid stone walls and interesting doors, windows and ventilation openings in the barns and outhouses.

                                                                           The farmyard

                                               The farmhouse with a date plaque for 1697

We appreciated the fact that the owners enabled us to visit farms that are not usually open to the general public who walk in this beautiful area.

Wood and Stone

Main entrance through North-West Tower, Haddon Hall,
 Derbyshire

North-West Tower 15th century entrance

Remains of the brewhouse steps to the right of
 the West Tower forecourt

                     

Cake baking: Victoria Sponge Cake

We had some special people come for tea yesterday afternoon so I made a Victoria Sandwich Sponge Cake.  The recipe is a simple one as there are equal amounts of self-raising flour, caster sugar and  butter and three eggs.  Usually I add cocoa powder to make a chocolate cake, but as I didn't have this ingredient to hand I used drinking chocolate powder.  The topping was vanilla butter icing with a few swirls of chocolate and then I sandwiched the two pieces of sponge cake together with layers of vanilla and chocolate butter icing.  A traditional Victoria Sandwich Cake is a plain cake with a cream and home made jam filling and a dusting of icing sugar on the top.

My guests enjoyed the cake and there wasn't much left - just enough for a slice at a mid-morning break or a teatime treat this week and a last minute photo opportunity!

Back to Haddon Hall

                                  Walking through the countryside of the River Wye
                                  Valley a visitor can almost feel as if they are
                                  stepping back in time on the approach to Haddon Hall.
                                 
                             

Crossing the bridge over the River Wye

there are glimpses of the Hall

through the trees.

There are meadows and a 16th century dovecote

can be seen in the distance.

The Elizabethan stables.

Next to the stables is a Tudor cottage. 

            

The topiary yew hedges have been clipped

into the shapes of a peacock and boar's head,

the arms of the Manners and Vernon families

of Haddon Hall.

The entrance to the Hall through the north west

tower is reached by way of a flight of steps.

Apparently there's a tunnel that leads from the stables

to the Tudor kitchen area. 

Today there's a restaurant serving refreshments

in the stable block and an outside seating area 

in the courtyard by the old cottage.