Come and enjoy a feast of breakfasts at the Ledbury Big Breakfast

You can enjoy breakfasts from the lightest to the fullest at the Ledbury Big Breakfast 2015 taking place on Friday and Saturday 30th and 31st January.   This event is run by Ledbury Food Group in conjunction with Breakfast Week 2015 to celebrate breakfast and local food.

Paul Gurney of Gurney Butchers with ingredients for a good breakfast
Paul Gurney of Gurney Butchers with ingredients for a good breakfast

Specials new this year for you to enjoy include a takeaway Breakfast Bagel Bar, together with Poached Herefordshire Pear with Bara Brith, Cheese and crispy bacon muffins, Eggs baked in Portobello Mushrooms, Sausages made with Cider, Apple Brioche with bacon and a cider syrup, a Breakfast Stack and a novel Rock and Roll Bingo Brunch. If you fancy Eggs Benedict, pancakes with bacon, omelettes of all kinds, or traditional home cured bacon and eggs then Ledbury is the place for you.  See full details on our events listing page.

A full range of local produced breakfast produce will be on sale at our butchers and food shops to build and enjoy a good breakfast at home.

Several cafes are opening specially from 8am on Friday to provide for those who would like a breakfast before work – or just an early breakfast.   The Country Market will offer a stop and go café/takeaway service for those in rush on Friday.

For a second year Trumpet Corner Café and Llandinabo Farm Shop are running a competition for a new sausage which they will sell during the Big Breakfast.  Get you entry in by 26th January!

Alongside the Big Breakfast, John Masefield High School are celebrating Breakfast Week with a special programme of lessons focusing on breakfast, and promotion of breakfasts in the school dining room for pupils and staff.

We are pleased to have such a range of local food on offer again, and to join in Breakfast Week 2015 with its key message of the importance of a good breakfast to start the day.

Bromsberrow Big Brunch

There is a chance to enjoy more delicious breakfast dishes featuring locally sourced ingredients later in February. On Saturday 21st February, The Shop at Bromsberrow will be holding the Bromsberrow Big Brunch from 11am – 1pm with traditional, cooked and continental breakfast items on offer. Come and visit our friendly community shop for this special event which will see the launch of the new café at The Shop and the announcement of the winner of the competition to name the café.
The Shop is in Bromsberrow Heath, just off the A417 before the motorway junction. (Postcode for Sat Nav: HR8 1PG)

The Big Breakfast is coming …

Market House Cafe - Breakfast BruschettaP1000687

What could be better than a super breakfast on a cold winter’s day?  Come and join us in the 3rd Ledbury Big Breakfast taking place in and around Ledbury, Herefordshire on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st January.

All kinds of breakfasts will be on offer from the lightest fruit and cereals to the heartiest Herefordshire breakfast.  You can eat in the warmth of one of our cafés or hotels, or visit our butchers or food shops to take something tasty home.  Expect special breakfast offerings – in previous years we have enjoyed Eggs Benedict, Eggy Bread, Devilled Kidneys, the “Full Monty” Sausage, and even Breakfast Ice Cream.  This year we also hope to have “early-bird” breakfasts for workers in the town to enjoy.

Venues and menus are now listed here.

The event is being organised by Ledbury Food Group in association with Farmhouse Breakfast week to remind us of the importance of enjoying a good breakfast, and to celebrate our wonderful local food.

Last year 20 food outlets of all kinds took part.

Muse - Breakfast Buffet P1000636

Cafe Supper Success!

If you were ever in any doubt about the quality and range of home-grown produce in and around Ledbury then last night’s Café Supper at the Market House Café would have changed all that!  With glasses of Sixteen Ridges wine (locally made from Worcestershire grapes) in our hands, Norman Stanier from Dragon Orchard and Once Upon a Tree told us all about the wine and their exciting new venture.  We then ate our way through a delicious menu of local food (see below).  The only problem being whether to choose the Artisan Bread & Butter Pudding or the Herefordshire Apple Dumpling, but my neighbour and I sorted that by swapping halfway through – a tactic followed by a few others, I believe!

A big thank you to Heather and Alan Tookey and all their staff at the Market House Café for hosting our inaugural supper.  Not only did the café look superb but everything ran like clockwork and there was a real buzz about the place.  Like all good parties, it’s success was shown by the fact that it was quite hard to persuade people to leave at the end of the evening – we were all having too good a time!

And, of course, an equally big thanks to chef John Devine for not only cooking such a scrumptious meal but being prepared to talk to us about it too.  I know several of us diners wanted to know just how you made potatoes quite so tasty, which he readily explained, although I am not sure I have the skill to make them quite so melt in the mouth…  He explained why he had chosen that particular cut of beef, those particular vegetables and how he had cooked it all – plus how he made the thin, crisp and utterly delicious pastry around the apple dumplings.

We hope this will be just the start, and that other cafes will want to host similar evenings.  Your feedback on the evening would be much appreciated.  Contact any of the Food Group with your thoughts and ideas, or scroll down to “Leave a reply” and add your comments – and any photographs –  to this post.  We look forward to hearing from you.

MENU

Market House Café & Deli

1 The Homend, Ledbury HR8 1BN

Friday November 14th 2014

Slow Cooked Herefordshire Beef

served with a rich Wye Valley Ale Sauce

Roasted Root Vegetables

Buttered Cavolo Nero

Sliced Potatoes, baked with cream & cheese

~ : ~

Artisan Bread & Butter Pudding

with our homemade whisky orange marmalade

served with Herefordshire clotted cream

Or

Herefordshire Apple Dumpling

with a cider syrup & double cream

~ : ~

Tea or Coffee

 £20.00 per person

 List of our Suppliers

Herefordshire beef – D T Wallers, Ledbury

Apples & Cider – Once Upon A Tree & Dragon Orchard

Dairy – Cream & Milk – Bartonsham Farm, Hereford

Vegetables & Potatoes – Carey Organics, How Caple

Eggs – Chacely Vicarage Farm, Glos

Butter – Netherend Farm

Mineral Water – Holywell Malvern Spring Water

Coffee – Hunters Coffee, Worcester

Ale – Wye Valley Brewery

Cheese – Taynton Farm, Glos

Bread – Peter Cook, Hop Pocket

Harvestime – an apple journey – 11th & 12th October 2014

pressingThe Herefordshire parishes of the Marcle Ridge are once again celebrating harvestime in the orchards, with a collection of events, walks and talks with many opportunities to taste and purchase apples, juice and cider. Local farms, cider-mills and cottage venues will be opening their doors to visitors over the weekend. Many events are within walking distance of each other, but Westons Cider have also kindly offered their tractor-&-trailer to carry visitors between some of the venues.

An amazing range of dessert, cooking and cider apples will be available to taste and admire at the Feast of Apples in the beautiful surroundings of the Great Barn at Hellens. Over 20 varieties of local apples will be on sale. On Saturday, those seeking advice on the planting and care of fruit trees will be able to join one of three talk/tours of Hellens fruit tree collection, led by visiting expert Tom Adams.

Visitors to Hellens will also be able to select their favourite apple name and then create a simple textile hanging with Jeanette McCulloch.  These hangings will be used the following day to create a backdrop for Herefordshire Poet in Residence, Paul Henry, who will be sharing his online Poetry Orchard.  In this ‘virtual’ orchard, developed with Ledbury Poetry Festival, each poem takes its title from a named Herefordshire apple variety. Paul will be joined by some of the contributors who will read their poems at 2.30pm on Sunday at Hellens.

Cider and perry making at differing scales will be on show at Gregg’s Pit, Woodredding Farm, Avenue Cottage, Hellens and Westons.  On Sunday morning at Woodredding, Brian Robbins will be offering a ‘Taste of History’, sharing the story of cidermaking over 200 years on the family farm.

With organised walks and cycle rides, apple-inspired lunches and teas, this is an excellent opportunity to enjoy Herefordshire countryside.  The full programme is available at www.bigapple.org.uk.

The Future of Local Food – a talk by Christine Hope & Russ Carrington for the Ledbury Food Group

A big subject, but one that we can all influence according to Christine Hope, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable entrepreneur behind Hopes of Longtown, the village shop with big ambitions on the edge of the Black Mountains.  Christine, like the members of the Ledbury Food Group, is passionate about our local produce and sees the diversity of delicious food in the area as a real asset when we consider the prosperity of our region.

But how do we make sure that everyone understands what threatens our rural economy and how important our farms, orchards and local companies are?  Christine & Russ’s way was to hold a “transition dinner”.  Inviting a mix of guests, all with an interest in the future of local farming, they wined and dined them with delicious local fare, directed the conversation towards the issues they felt needed airing (there were rules, number one being that only positive talk was allowed!).  But this wasn’t just a talking shop.  At the end of the evening, everyone was invited to make a pledge to do something that would have a positive effect – however small – on the future of local food.

Invited to make a similar pledge at the meeting held on Monday evening in the Burgage Hall in Ledbury and open to all, the audience thought hard about what they could do to spread the word, or encourage others to shop locally, or support local producers.  One brave member decided she would hold our own transition dinner – so watch this space!

The talk was lively and entertaining, but also full of interesting ideas and a depth of knowledge that impressed us all.  There were plenty of questions asked, including one about what would attract and keep young people into local food production.  Given the energy and enthusiasm from the two young speakers, that would not seem to be such a problem.  With the help of social media they are getting their message out, and finding a responsive audience – the future of local food may just be looking up.

LIFE IS…

cherries

We asked you at the Ledbury Celebration to complete this phrase – here are your responses

Life is…best, good juicy

Life is…fantastical

Life is…full of surprises

Life is…not being dead!

Life is…quite a ride!

Life is…the joy of juice

Life is…unknown

Life is…a delicious plum

Life is…a box of Lego

Life is…a wonderful journey

Life is…to take the moment when it comes

Life is…horses – I had a horse all black and white. I rode here in the day and wished I could ride her in the night

Life is…made in Bosbury

Life is…70 years plus injury time

Life is…sometimes red with anger and sometimes red with love

Life is…a pain in the g..e

Life is…like the Malvern Hills

Life is…what you make of it

Life is…cherries – a bowlful – just see how many they will eat

Life is…another bit of the cherry

Life is…like a lilac

Life is…a walk in the park with Frodo

Life is…an amazing thing

Life is…a gift

Life is…precious – squander it at your peril

Life is…full of plums and cherries and the juice thereof

Life is…fun around the corner and can make you laugh

Life is…scented

Life is…simple

Life is…racing round the Nurburgring

Life is…full of discoveries

Life is…unpredictable

Life is…what happens when you are busy making plans

Life is…a scrumptious bacon butty

Life is…making loom bands

Life is…learning to dance in the rain

Life is…moving back to Ledbury after 20 years away

Life is…a box of chocolates

Life is…travelling

Life is…wonderful in lovely Ledbury

Life is…for living

Life is…sitting at a computer drinking coke

Life is…smelling a grandchild                  which end?

Life is…an open door; through it are infinite possibilities, waiting just for you

Life is…being nearly 80

Life is…sharing horse breath

Life is…all about family and friends

Life is…cart-wheels

Life is…Ledbury

Life is…Love

Life is…appreciating every moment

Life is…too complicated for one line

Life is…what you make of it and lots begins at 60!

Life is…hard being a teenager

Life is…too short – enjoy it!

Life is…a dream

Life is…a bar of chocolate

Life is…knowing who you are and why you are here

Life is…66 and finding love again

Life is…a completed staircase?

 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this magnificent statement!

Thanks to Chrissie Bentley and her team for organising this – to them we give the last word

Life is…a bowl of Bentley’s best cherries

A Ledbury Celebration, food, drink, music, poetry – 13th July 2014

Many thanks to all who visited or took part in this special event run in partnership with the Ledbury Poetry Festival.   The weather cleared, the displays on the food stalls were fabulous, and once the music and poetry started so the beer, cider, perry and Derek’s special elderflower and lemon liqueur Proseccos started to be appreciated.

Derek of 3 Counties Liquers P1010424

Many thanks especially to our stallholders who worked a long day to make this all possible for us to enjoy.  It was a true celebration of our local food and drink blended with good music and poetry.

Irina and her bread P1010402

Please let us know what you thought of the day and ways in which we could make a future event even better by email to ask@ledburyfoodgroup.org or via our Twitter feed. More photos appear at the end of this article.

Some thoughts on cherries and plums.

Chrissie Bentley asked for poetic contributions on cherries and plums.  Here are some of them together with some more authentic ones:

Stalks

Two cherries on the cherry-tree hung there quite enchantingly

And anyone who looked could see that cherries would blush so easily

When tickled pink to think of pies and twinkles in each other’s eyes.

Two cherries on a cherry tree tasted very good to me.

John Edward Smallshaw

Cherry Ripe

Cherry-ripe, ripe, I cry

Full and fair ones; come and buy

If so be you ask me where they do grow, I answer, There

Where my Julia’s lips do smile;

There’s the land or cherry-isle, whose plantations fully show

All the years where cherries grow

Robert Herrick

Cherries

Handed to me in soft paper sack,

I transferred them

straight to a bowl.

Life can be a paper sack

of cherries,

but why live in Solihull

when you can live in Barbados?

They were EXQUISITE.

I ate them as quickly as I could

without taking in too much air,

squeezing the stones finger and thumb

over the vicarage wall.

I felt life

coursing through me

several hours later.

Poetforhire.net

 

Some thoughts on plums…

my head looks like a mouldy plum

I think that’s why I look so glum

 

I am going to sit on my bum

And eat a plum

 

My love is like a plum

  • Plump
  • Lustrous
  • Unusual
  • Moist

Eat them slowly and enjoy their goodness

While the summer warmth lives in my heart

 

Cherries are red,

Plums are blue

That makes purple

Just like you!!!

 

Life is what you make it…

Plum pie is how you bake it.

 

Ode to Herman the Plum

Intense, round, plum coloured, ball of plumpness…with a stone

This is just to say…

I have eaten the plums that were in the ice-box

and which you were probably saving for breakfast

Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

William Carlos Williams

This is just to say

I have eaten the plums that were in the ice-box

then wrote a poem that was anthologised and read by millions

You were so understanding in the divorce court so sweet and cold

Barry Lane