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Fork Fest – a festival with heart |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Sunday, September 05, 2010 10:36 AM
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OK, so let's hear it for "celebrity chefs" (I do hate that phrase) who come to Cumbria to take part in our food festivals because they actually care and love the produce here, not because they're getting a load of money. Like Simon Rimmer, the resident chef at BBC2's Sunday morning magazine show Something for the Weekend. Simon runs two NW restaurants; Greens in Manchester and Earle in Cheshire, and he's a real northern lad. We got an interview with Simon before he was off to open the Kirkby Lonsdale Fork Fest, and he told us he's old friends with John Natlacen at Churchmouse Cheeses in Kirkby Lonsdale, who is one of the people behind this new festival. "When John called and asked if I'd consider coming up – adding that they had no money – I didn't hesitate. I love ...
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Luca's reopens after flood refurbishment |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Friday, September 03, 2010 3:48 PM
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An Italian restaurant by Greta Bridge in Keswick was one of the business hardest hit by the floods last November. Well, they have now finished their refurbishment, and are re-opening today (Sep 3). I must confess, I have not been, but the menu is mouthwatering, so we'll give it a try asap. Genuine Italian fare is promised, looking forward to Paul Protano's take on that.
This is from their press release:
Luca’s Ristorante by Greta Bridge in Keswick was badly affected by last November’s floods and Head Chef and owner, Paul Protano, and his family have been working hard to re-open as soon as possible.
Luca’s has room for up to 70 diners and has always had a reputation for the best of Italian food but Paul is keen to stress an aspec ...
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Farm walk at Deer'n'Dexter |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 11:44 AM
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Are you interested in learning more about farming, food production and how farming affects the landscape and natural environment? Join Jane Emerson & Peter Stoeken on a farm walk, Sunday August 22 at 2 pm, around their landholding in the northern fells where they rear red deer and Dexter cattle on herb rich pasture to produce grass fed meat of high quality.
Find out about the challenges they face farming in this tough Lake District environment, how they manage their land to conserve and encourage wildlife and how their animals benefit from the Five Freedoms.
Finish off by taking the opportunity to buy some local produce from the farm – food preparation takes place on site and Deer ‘n Dexter have a small butchery on the farm and retail all the meat ...
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Recipe for Skarpsås to go with marinated mackerel |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Sunday, August 15, 2010 7:29 AM
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This is the recipe for the Skarpsås ("sharp sauce") which should be served with traditional Swedish marinated mackerel (the recipe for the mackerel is at the end of this blog).
Ingredients for the sauce:
1 hard boiled egg yolk
1 raw egg yolk
1 tbs vinegar
1 tsp French mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch of ground white pepper
2 tbs finely chopped dill
200 ml whipping cream, whipped
Method:
Mash the boiled, cooled egg yolk in a bowl and add the raw egg yolk.
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L'Enclume country's 4th best restaurant |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Saturday, August 14, 2010 2:02 PM
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Congratulations to Simon Rogan, whose Michelin star restaurant L'Enclume, in Cartmel, has just been awarded as the fourth best restaurant in the country in The Good Food Guide 2010! No doubt his relatively new alliance with Julia Sayburn at organic Howbarrow Farm has helped - she now grows herbs and veg exclusively for Simon. Read our feature article, including video interview, in the Aug-Sep issue of the Artisan-food e-magazine.
From The Good Food Guide PR:
"Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay remain the cream of the culinary
crop - but there’s a change in the air as restaurants outside of London
climb up the ladder, according t ...
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Fork Fest in Kirkby Lonsdale |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Thursday, August 12, 2010 8:44 AM
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John Natlacen (above), owner of the excellent speciality shop Churchmouse Cheeses, is one of the organisers behind the brand new Fork Fest 2010, a celebration of local food, ale and gardening taking place in Kirkby Lonsdale on September 4–5. The weekend festival will include music, demos, food sampling, an ale trail and plenty of entertainment, according to the organisers. Focus is on buying local, and with children’s food related workshops going throughout the weekend, we’re definitely in!
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Promising new food festival based in Cockermouth |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Monday, August 02, 2010 10:11 AM
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The weekend of September 25-26 sees the first ever Taste Cumbria Food Festival take place in Cockermouth. We have to say this event looks like it's going to be a bit out of the ordinary with the entire town, as well as the region's top restaurants, pubs and, of course, food producers, joining forces to create a real foodie happening.
The showpiece of the festival will be Saturday’s Open Dining event, where for one day Cockermouth becomes a huge, open-air food court, allowing people the chance to try a number of portions of speciality dishes across the entire town rather than in one single venue. A wide variety of different restaurants will be preparing a special festival menu of dishes, using local produce as much as possible, which the public can purchase. Guests will then move around the town centre sampling a variety of courses, and enjoying live music and entertainment.
In Cockermouth for the weekend will also be Antony Worrall Thompson and Aldo Zilli, d ...
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Rheged opens new Food & Drink TIC |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:48 PM
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Yesterday (June 23) Rheged opened the doors to two of its new Tourist Information Stations, Food & Drink and Outdoor Adventure. What they, with Head of Marketing Claire Logan-Stephens at the helm, have done, is to create a completely new concept for Tourist Information Centres. It's brilliant, instead of huge walls of leaflets about anything and everything, you decide what topic you're interested in – Food & Drink in my case – and the information station is appropriately located in the Taste shop/café. The information on display, and the websites which can be accessed through a touch screen, have been selected to reflect the best food experiences on offer in Cumbria, rather than all food experiences. Oh, and we at Artisan-food supply the monthly updated food news pages displayed on screens – so there's always something current.
Julia Bradbury was on hand yesterday to do the honours, here with Alex Evans, Westmorland's farm shop ...
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Martin Gott sets up Cheese shop |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Monday, June 21, 2010 12:20 PM
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Martin Gott, who runs Holker Farm Dairy, where he makes fantastic ewe's milk cheese with his partner Nicola, has just opened Cartmel Cheeses, in the village's brand new Unsworth Yard development (other establishments will apparently include a bakery and a wine seller).
(this is not Martin, it's Nicola's Dad)
The shop has a serious temperature control unit, which makes sure the temperature is perfect for maturing cheeses, so all the cheese can be displayed on this beautiful counter instead of behind glass (the soft cheeses are put in a fridge over-night).
The shop will sell cheeses from all over the UK, as well as some from further afield. Martin has personally been to visit every single cheese maker represented in his shop to date, and he hope ...
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Great beer festival at Boot |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Monday, June 14, 2010 10:15 AM
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A plea went out last week from the organisers of the Boot Beer Festival (one of whom was the landlord of the Woolpack Inn, currently in hospital with gun shot wounds, according to the Times & Star), for people to support the stricken community by attending the beer festival this past weekend. So – we went over, and had a wonderful afternoon in the Boot Inn garden, listening to folk music courtesy of Emma & The Professor, and drinking the ales on tap
The village is only very small, but has three pubs, who all co-organise the festival. The other two are the Woolpack and the Brook House Inn. This is such a fantastic corner of Cumbria, and the event will be a yearly one for us from now on.
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