This week, Hen Corner celebrated it’s 8th Birthday! Looking back we’ve had some great fun, however, we’ve got a sneaky feeling that the best is yet to come…
When guests come and join us for our courses, we tell the story of how Hen Corner began, how as a family we started asking questions about where our food comes from when we began weaning our first child (now nearly 18 years old!). We began to buy organic food for the family and started growing some of our own in the back garden to offset the cost and introduce the children to growing fruit and veg. Tomatoes, courgettes and potatoes grew well as did some herbs and salad crops, but what was missing was the protein. As our London back garden had no space for a children’s trampoline, we couldn’t consider a pig or a cow, but discovering the groovy chicken coops from Omlet demonstrated that we could keep a few chickens to supply us with eggs without the animals dying for our dinner. A year or so later, we were privileged to move down the road to the house on the corner with the bigger garden; more hens, cider making, a kitchen garden and honeybees – the opportunities were endless!
That first autumn in the new house found me making Apple and Chilli Jelly with the plentiful fruit from our five apple trees, this preserve was the perfect gift for Christmas presents, we just needed a nice label for the jar… We have hens and live in the corner of the street, and that’s how it all began…
Top of the Shop with Tom Kerridge, BBC2 Tuesday 17th April
From those humble beginnings, chopping windfall apples in West London, we are now very excited to let you know about a brand new TV show that we are participating in with double Michelin star chef, Tom Kerridge.
The first episode of the series features our Apple & Chilli Jelly and will be on BBC2, 8pm next Tuesday, 17th April… Full Details Here
If you’d like to learn how to make our Apple and Chilli Jelly for yourself, it’s just one of the recipes that we teach on our Pick and Pickle Course.
Country Living Magazine Spring Fair at Alexandra Palace, 26th – 29th April…
It’s that time of year when we pack up some of the hens for a trip to Alexandra Palace for the Country Living Magazine Spring Fair, we will be giving the carefully chosen chickens a quick wash and blow dry to ensure they look their best for the Country Living Smallholding, Sara will be doing a couple of talks each day in the Good Life Theatre and will be pulling on her Chef’s jacket to present some food demonstrations in the Country Living Kitchen using delicious fresh eggs from the hens.
If you’d like to come and join us at the Country Living Spring Fair friends of Hen Corner can get 15% off tickets here or by using the discount code HENCORNER15 at the online box office.
Other News:
- We’ve been busy with local schools recently, teaching bees, cheese and chicken keeping
- Both colonies of bees are flying well on warmer days, let’s hope they can find all that yummy nectar in the spring flowers and blossom
- There’s only a few spaces left for our Spoon Carving Course on Saturday 12th May, why not come and whittle with us?
Jobs for the Week:
- Collect 10 new hens to deliver, along with training workshops, to a London primary school
- Brush off the bee suits for our first Full Day Bee Keeping Course of the season
- Label up the last jars of Apple and Chilli Jelly to sell at our weekly Micro Bakery
Have you checked out our full range of Courses? Which ones would you like to join us for?
Have a great week,
Sara
2 comments
So pleased for you Sara. Will definitely look out for you on Tom Kerridges new tv show this week. V busy with my vet nursing course down in Kent at the moment. But once qualified, would love to do one of your bread making courses. Loved the Camembert, Feta & Mozzarella course I did with you in Spring 2017. Have you ever thought of doing a goats cheese course?
Thanks Caroline, I’d love to run a goat’s cheese course but struggle to find a good milk supply locally. Whilst I’ve been dreaming of keeping our own goat here, I think it’s a bit much to ask neighbours to milk it every time we go away!