News
YEW TREE FARM TEA ROOM CLOSURE
Individual visitors to the area around Coniston this summer will no longer be able to pop into Yew Tree Farm, owned by Beatrix Potter in the 1930s, to have tea, coffee or lunch. The tea room closed before Christmas although groups of 15 or more, booked in advance for lunch or cream teas, are still welcome.
One of the reasons for the closure was the increased popularity of the tea room after the 2006 film of Miss Potter, for which the farm doubled as the writer’s home of Hill Top at Near Sawrey.
Yew Tree Farm (5 star, gold award) still offers guest accommodation while its Heritage Meats business specialises in naturally reared, traditional breeds of animals. It offers meat from both Herdwick sheep and Belted Galloway cattle.
Yew Tree Farm is on the A593 between Ambleside and Coniston, about 2 miles north of Coniston. Tel: 015394 41433. Website: www.yewtree-farm.com Website for Heritage Meats: www.heritagemeats.co.uk Story posted July 8, 2010
PROTECTED STATUS FOR TRADITIONAL CUMBERLAND SAUSAGE
After almost six years of campaigning, the traditional Cumberland sausage looks set to join the likes of Cornish clotted cream, Parma ham and the Melton Mowbray pork pie in the ranks of foods protected by the European Union.
What’s called Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status is expected in early 2011 which means that there will then be strict criteria for the product in terms of meat content, ingredients, production process and place of origin.
Recipes for the traditional Cumberland sausage, distinguished by its one continuous coil, coarse texture and distinctive seasoning, are often passed down from one generation of butchers to another, so there’s a proud tradition wrapped up with the making of this regional speciality.
Cranstons in Penrith, Cumbria, for instance, uses a recipe dating back to 1914. The sausage is the firm’s best selling line, much loved by locals and visitors alike, says managing director and member of the Cumberland Sausage Association, Philip Cranston. Story posted July 8, 2010.
EXTRA DAY OPENING AT KITRIDDING FARM SHOP
It may be in the middle of the countryside between Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale but such has been the popularity of the Kitridding farm shop and tea room since owners Christine and Stewart Lambert extended the premises in 2007, that the couple have now added Thursday opening to Friday, Saturday and Sunday (10-17, last tea room orders 16.30).
The shop sells a wide range of meat (beef and lamb from animals born and reared at Kitridding), its own varieties of sausage, free range chickens, cheese, jams and jellies made by former North West Producer of the Year Sue Prickett and a lot more.
Next door in the oak-floored tea room, the menu makes it quite clear that the ethos here is to use as much of its own farm produce, plus other selected, locally produced food and drink as possible. The Kitridding breakfast - served all day on Fridays and Saturdays - is one of the highlights of the menu.
Kitridding Farm is on the B6254 about one mile Kendal side of Old Town, on the road from Oxenholme near Kendal to Kirkby Lonsdale. Tel: 015395 67484. www.kitridding.co.uk Story posted October 9, 2009
KENDAL’S FIRST FOOD FESTIVAL
Kendal - ‘Gateway to the Lakes’ - is holding its first ever food festival during the last week of October (24-31), a major celebration of producers, food shops and restaurants in the town and the area around. More than 50 places are laying on a wide range of enticing events: food and wine tastings, special offers, special menus, farm visits, cookery demonstrations, a beer festival, sausage making demonstrations and food workshops.
One of the best known names taking part in the festival, organised by Kendal Futures and South Lakeland District Council, is Low Sizergh Barn (see pic below) which won Cumbria Tourism’s 2009 Taste of Cumbria Award. Other participants include Artisan at Booths, the Brewery Arts Centre, Castle Green Hotel, Waterside Wholefood, Staff of Life Bakery, the Tapestry Tearooms, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal College and Burgundy’s Wine Bar, all in Kendal.
Outside the town are places like the Strickland Arms (see pic below), Watermill Inn, Wilf’s Cafe, Organico, Friendly Food and Co, Kitridding Farm, Hawkshead Brewery, Lucy Cooks, Gilpin Lodge and Sillfield Farm. Sillfield Farm’s Peter Gott, one of Cumbria’s best known producers, also pops up, as after dinner speaker, during a celebration of Slow Food at Kendal’s Riverside Hotel on the last night of the festival, Saturday, October 31.
For more information about the Kendal Festival of Food contact Kendal’s tourist information centre on 01539 797516 or visit www.southlakeland.gov.uk/tourism Story posted October 9, 2009.
LOCAL FOOD SHOPS OFFER NEW ONLINE SERVICE
A great new service has started this week in south Lakeland for those who want to buy food on the internet from independent local shops and then have it delivered the next day to their homes.
beelocal has a supplier list of about 20 shops and producers who between them sell bread, meat, fish, vegetables, wine, cheese, ice cream, general groceries and more. Names include Grange Bakery, Higginsons butchers of Grange (see pic below), Low Sizergh Barn near Kendal, Organico (organic wine merchants at Staveley and Ambleside), and Dales Traditional Butchers and Churchmouse Cheeses in Kirkby Lonsdale.
There's also the Hawkshead Brewery in Staveley (see pic below), Mansergh Hall Organic Farm near Kirkby Lonsdale, Howbarrow Organic Farm near Cartmel, Furness Fish, Poultry and Game Supplies at Flookburgh and Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Company. All places are in the food and drink guide.
Customers visit the beelocal website (address below) and pick what they want from the local shop/s of their choice. Their orders are picked up by the beelocal team the following morning, taken to a central depot, sorted into communal shopping baskets and then delivered later that day. A free collection service is offered as well.
Prices online are the same as they are in store and you can shop at as many shops as you like. The single delivery fee of £6 will book a two hour delivery slot of your choice.
Please note that until October 31, 2009 you can get 10% off your order by using the following discount code - DYMOND10 - on checkout.
beelocal's website is www.beelocal.co.uk Phone number: 0845 520 1000. Story posted October 8, 2009
SHEPHERDS’ DELIGHT
An unusual tie-up between one of Cumbria’s best known small breweries and a national pub company has resulted in the Shepherds Inn at Melmerby, near Penrith, re-opening after several months of closure. Enterprise Inns has leased the pub to the co-operatively run Hesket Newmarket Brewery, producers of ten ales that include Doris’s 90th Birthday Ale, Scafell Blonde, Blencathra Bitter and Great Cockup Porter. Apart from Doris all beers are named after Lakeland fells.
“The big thing is that the Shepherds Inn is free of cask ale tie which means we don’t have to buy beer through Enterprise Inns and can showcase our own range of ales,” says brewery manager Andy Webster whose wife, Ceri, manages the pub. Six Hesket Newmarket beers will be on handpump at any one time and they’ll be used in the cooking too. The pub itself (www.shepherdsmelmerby.co.uk) is open seven days a week.
Read more about the Hesket Newmarket Brewery (www.hesketbrewery.co.uk) on page 102 of the food and drink guide. Next door to the brewery is the Old Crown pub (page 60, www.theoldcrownpub.co.uk). Story posted July 7, 2009.
CLASSIC TOUCH TO COUNTRY PUDDINGS
Country Puddings has added a new range of desserts to its business by taking over the Taylors Classics brand. Four sponge-based puddings - sticky toffee, chocolate fudge, sticky ginger and tangy lemon - have been the staples of Lynne Mallinson’s business since she started in 2000. But having acquired Taylors Classics, the farmer’s wife and former bank manager is now producing the likes of bread and butter pudding, ginger parkin, Eves pudding and summer fruit pudding with Pimms as well.
And just in time for summer, Country Puddings has launched a creamy vanilla custard, a bit like liquid crème brûlée and made with fresh double cream and vanilla. “It’s fabulous cold, as an accompaniment to strawberries,” says Lynne whose puddings are sold in delicatessens, food halls, farm shops and garden centres all over the country.
Read more about Country Puddings (www.countrypuddings.co.uk) on page 91 of the food and drink guide. Story posted July 3, 2009.
TEA ROOM/RESTAURANT AT IDYLLICALLY LOCATED PRIORY
Just over 700 years ago Edward I spent the last few months of his reign governing England from an Augustinian priory in north Cumbria. Lanercost Priory did not survive the Reformation under Henry VIII but its church did and now welcomes thousands of visitors every year to a delightful location near Hadrian’s Wall and Brampton. Just as well then that a tea room/restaurant opened here at Easter, part of a top quality re-development of the Abbey Farm site by Philip Howard of nearby Naworth Castle.
As well as the tea room/restaurant, there’s a farm shop, a gift shop, function room and two studio apartments, all leased and run by Mike Farley whose previous life saw him in senior managerial posts with the likes of Allders department stores, Ikea and Primark. Now he’s busily promoting Cumbrian produce - either for people to eat, or buy in the shop - such as Geltsdale Brewery, Lizzie’s Home Made (‘puddings in a jar’), Hallsford Farm (bacon, sausages and other meat products), Hawkshead Relish and Wild and Fruitful (jams and chutneys) and Taste of Eden (ice cream).
Lanercost phone number is 016977 41267. Website: www.lanercost.co.uk Read more about the producers mentioned above in the food and drink guide. Story posted June 24, 2009.
NEW LEGEND BREWS IN CUMBRIA
Loweswater Brewery, the small brewery once based at the Kirkstile Inn at Loweswater, has taken over Cumbrian Legendary Ales, just outside Hawkshead. It means that the much liked Loweswater beers - Loweswater Gold (formerly Kirkstile Gold), Melbreak, Grasmoor Dark and Loweswater Pale Ale - will be available in many more pubs around the county. Loweswater Gold will also be bottled. Roger Humphreys, owner of the Kirkstile Inn, has closed production at his own pub and shifted everything to the considerably larger premises at the Old Hall Brewery, overlooking Esthwaite Water. “It’s a great space, a superb facility and right beside the lake, so we’re absolutely delighted,” he says.
As well as the Loweswater beers, Roger and his brewer Hayley Barton will continue to produce two Cumbrian Legendary ales called Dickie Doodle and Buttermere Beauty. The latter is a pilsner made in memory of Mary Robinson, the 18th century Maid of Buttermere.
Read more about the Kirkstile Inn at Loweswater on page 63 of the food and drink guide. Story posted May 28, 2009.