- 5 June 2009, 13:37
- Permalink
Delighted with our latest news - Harrop Fold Farm has won the Barclays Bank Family Business of the Year award, the family enjoyed the most amazing day in London, visiting the bank's HQ and we met Levi Roots - of Reggae Reggae Sauce fame on the 30th floor. The weather was incredible and the views of London sublime. Following on from this we continued our culinary trail of London - well, visiting London three times this year is a real treat for us and we are enjoying choosing carefully where we eat! This time we chose Scotts and savoured our oysters before devouring our fish & chips, all washed down with some tasty sauvignon blanc...but then reality dawned and we were home in under 2 hours on the much improved Virgin rail service.
Busy, busy here with guests and I have just finished making a pan of Cheshire Asparagus soup for dinner, this always feels very extravagant. However, our friends at Northern Harvest grade their asparagus so we can order it to enjoy steamed with butter or of soup quality and it is simply divine!
Time to dash to make a bed and vac a room.
Catch up soon & fingers tightly crossed for tonights Visit Chester & Cheshire Tourism Awards. Harrop Fold Farm has been shortlisted for 2 - Bed & Breakfast of the Year and Taste of Cheshire - let's cross our toes as well.
Love, Sue xx
By Sue Stevenson
Tagged: visit, chester, and, cheshire, asparagus, barclays, bank, levi, roots, reggae, reggae, sauce
- 21 May 2009, 11:54
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An early breakfast this morning for a guest travelling a very long way away set me forward in the day's activities! Lovely to wake to that beautiful chattering sound above the bedroom window, the swallows I think have hatched since occasionally I see a broken egg shell being pushed out of the nest and landing on our bedroom window sill. Their displays over the farmyard this morning are easily seen as I am sitting at the kitchen table, since the weather is once again so damp they are diving low over the courtyard catching the flies.
However, the welcome is not damp on arriving here, in fact it is quite positively spring like with yesterday's guests seeing Leah's beautiful, now legendary cupcakes with little pink piglets on top! If you haven't been tempted to join her Cupcakes Galore day - take a quick peek at Leah's website - www.leahspantry.co.uk and I think you may be then!
The Bluebells have finally blossomed in the woods, and yesterday our guests walked down to Bollington to explore the Bollington Festival, they arrived back at Harrop Fold so excited to tell us all about the beauty of the woods. Their photographs certainly showed the intensity of the beautiful colours. I love seeing these flowers as they always remind me of when the children were small and we used to sit on the seat by the stream looking for the fairies, the boys could be a little unkind to the girls who always, without fail, saw the fairies dancing through the Bluebells!
Last week Northern Harvest brought us the first Cheshire Asparagus - is that a sign of warmer weather? So delicious it was that we bought two grades, one for soup which was divine and another for steaming. Northern Harvest deliver here on a Thursday and so it was Cheshire Asparagus for supper again last night! Perhaps you might like to try some and cook it just as we love it.
Take a bunch of Cheshire Asparagus, steam until it is to your liking. In the water below, poach an egg and in a frying pan toast some breadcrumbs with fresh chopped herbs from your garden. (Here we have parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme growing in the kitchen garden along with some oregano, we chop whichever we fancy).
When it is cooked lay the asparagus on the plate with the poached egg to the side and sprinkle with herb breadcrumbs...um...yummy! This is surely a different take on the poached egg and soldiers!
Last week saw the launch of Taste Cheshire - the Cheshire Foodtrail - another wonderful idea from Visit Chester and Cheshire. What a great evening everyone enjoyed at Spitting Feathers in Chester - who could fail to enjoy an evening in a brewery?! lovely beers and Cheshire Cider along with delicious titbits of cheese and very tasty canapes. The food trail suggests a trail of delicious places all over Cheshire and yes, Harrop Fold is featured in one of the trails. The gorgeous books are available here at the farm and I know the guests who have been here this week have all taken one and visited more than one of the suggested places.
Looking forward to our next evening out with our lovely, lovely friends from Visit Chester and Cheshire which will be the Annual Cheshire Tourism Awards to be held at Chester Racecourse two weeks tonight. Once again Harrop Fold Farm has been shortlisted in a couple of categories: Bed & Breakfast of the Year (which we won in 2006) and A Taste of Cheshire. Our judging felt as though it went well, the judges were so interesting and they put us at ease, so it is down to their decisions...fingers crossed though! We do try so hard to go the extra mile for our guests, but that is so easy due to the welcome encouragement we receive from them.
Time to put the next lot of breakfasts on...I think this morning I will tempted to join in. Who can resist Harrop Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Cheshire Tomatoes and Mushrooms and some of Jeremy's handmade Blackpudding? Certainly not me this morning! Finished off with some homemade Lemon Curd and Cheshire Rhubarb and Ginger Jam. Yum yum! Oh no! I do have to try to squeeze into my evening dress soon though!
Catch up again shortly,
Love,
Sue xx
- 23 February 2009, 19:00
- Permalink
We are the 2008 Countryside Alliance Local Food Award winners for North West England Yippee! And we are going to the House of Lords for the presentation ceremony which will be a great treat I am sure. Regional Director and Head Regional Judge Richard Dodd commented: “Harrop Fold is a business run with passion. A B&B set on a 20-acre farm, at Harrop Fold Farm you can take a tailored foodie break weekend and watch your supper being cooked, which is an approach I had never heard of before. Leah Stevenson is passionate about cooking and local produce and encourages guests to take part in her demonstrations. I don’t think I have ever heard of this approach and think it will do wonders for food education as well as enjoyment of local, seasonal produce in a beautiful rural setting. A real one-off, and I hope the national judging panel is as enthused as I am!”
We are really proud as we have always championed local produce, David being the son of a farmer and me being the daughter of a butcher it has been second nature and something we have always shared with our guests and now to receive this credit is fantastic!
Leah is having a fabulous time; this month saw a wonderful article in the BBC Good Food Magazine, along with a lovely photo of Leah in action teaching Caroline her tricks of the trade! Today Leah has been nominated for the Cheshire Woman of the Year Award 2009, which means another lunch, this time at Eaton Park, Chester. Oh...how enjoyable food is!
Snow has been the topic of conversation here at Harrop Fold...lots of it. Fortunately the good folk at the Highwayman offered their car park to our guests and we ferried from pub to farm in the Landrover. We were so glad when the thaw came and found poking up through the garden were the first pretty little snowdrops, I love that little promise of spring.
My friend Brenda, from Red Oaks Farm, delivered to us half a lamb which was delicious and again made me think about spring and the tasty, tasty spring lamb which will be around quite soon, can you imagine anything tastier than Cheshire lamb and Cheshire Asparagus? We are coming to the end of our Cheshire fruit jams, but we do have one kilner jar of Tayberry left and then I will be making a fresh supply of English Rhubarb and another pan of gorgeous Amalfi Lemon Curd, yummy! David’s Mum makes the best marmalade, but unfortunately David is very possessive over this!
Fortunately, the hens have started to lay again and this evening we are having a practice run of pancake making...and the first are on the table...so must go and feast again!
Speak again soon,
Sue x
By ADOmedia
Tagged: BBC, award, awards, Eaton, Park, Sue, David, Leah, Caroline, Highwayman, Brenda, Red, Oaks, Farm, marmalade, Asparagus, Spring, Lamb, snowdrops, thaw, snow, car, paking, park, Cheshire, Harrop, Fold, Farm, Butcher, local, produce
