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The spring bulbs are flowering, the hens are laying abundantly, the bees are flying and our Easter bakes and activities are getting booked up.

I couldn’t possibly show you all that beautiful bread without celebrating the wonderful bakers that made it, could I?
This was the latest team from Brompton Bikes who came to Hen Corner to celebrate the end of their ‘On Boarding’ programme and are now fully integrated team members.

To those who wait…
Regular readers may recall that last year’s ambition was to grow all the vegetables for our award winning Piccalilli. We sowed all the seeds in good time but, due to the various usual challenges of slow germination/too hot/too cold/too fast/too slow/too wet/too dry/slugs/pigeons/caterpillars/etc. we didn’t quite manage to harvest the full range.

T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house Cocoa and Chanel were chasing a mouse…

We are in the final weeks of the climb up to Christmas and we are here to help you all the way!
Whether it’s baking ahead, homemade decorations, or edible gifting – look no further.
If it’s gift ideas that you are looking for – we’ve got you covered.

Keep reading for our Country Living Christmas Competition…
I am so loving my relationship with cheese, and whilst I’ve been making it for around 13 years, my intrigue and passion was reignited last October when we visited Kerry in Ireland and met a Dutch man who makes Gouda cheese in his converted spare bedroom using milk from his Jersey cows that he keeps down the lane.

September is the perfect month to get pressing!
Be that olives for oil, grapes for wine, apples for cider or experimenting with our new cheese press.

This morning I woke a little twitchy, the day I had been waiting for has eventually arrived.

It was last Christmas that I started to decided which of our specials we should enter into the Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards, I submitted the entries in January and we prepared, packaged and delivered them in March.

Then we waited. Until 10am today.

When I first heard that phrase, in Sunday School as a child, my mind conjured up a very sticky scene akin to ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ with waterfalls of honey and rivers of milk, it sounded rather sickly – not somewhere I wanted to live. Over the years, I’ve realised that milk and honey are simply the evidence, the fruit, of a very fertile, lush land. Bees can only make honey with bountiful flowers around and milk flows strongest when the animals are happy in pasture. This month I’ve milked a sheep and harvested honey, with minimum sticky mess…

Last month, we had our first Full Day Bee Keeping course and, as we went through each of the three colonies in the garden, I explained to our guests that it can take a while for them to build up after winter. Fortunately, this didn’t lead to complacency as within three days, another of our colonies was planning to swarm…