News about local cookery demonstrations

Bored of cooking the same old meals? Desperately seeking inspiration that doesn’t involve a very long list of ingredients? Then the Aylton Cookery Demonstrations could be for you.

Local cook Helen Creese (formerly of Salvation Cafe) will be hosting a series of demos to inspire bored chefs and to entice curious cooks in to the kitchen. Helen champions the use of fresh, local and seasonal produce wherever possible and focuses on creating interesting, wholesome meals that can be enjoyed by all.

Using Ledbury’s finest butchers, Max the fishmonger and local growers and suppliers, Helen will demonstrate a series of meals that can easily be recreated at home.

Fabulous Family Suppers on 10^th February will feature – Sausage and Cider Stew (sausages and cider supplied by Court Farm, Aylton), Poached Chicken Ramen (featuring a range of locally grown veg) and Salmon and Puy lentils with Watercress Mayonnaise.

The demonstrations are running from 10.30am to 2.30pm in Aylton on:

– Tuesday 10th Feb – Fabulous Family Suppers
– Tuesday 24th Feb – Marvellous Mains and Sensational Sides
– Monday 2nd March – Sublime Starters and Sweet Treats
– Tuesday 10th March – Lovely Lunches

The demonstrations are a fund raising event for Aylton Church and The Music Pool a local community music charity. The cost is £35 per session to include refreshments and lunch.

Full more details and to book call Rebecca Jones on 01531 670 250 or email
“rebeccacourtfarm” “@” “gmail.com”.

February 2, 2015February 5, 2015

Big Breakfast 2015 – photos

Many thanks to everyone who made the Ledbury Big Breakfast such a great success over the weekend. We hope you enjoyed a good local breakfast from the wide range on offer.

As well as breakfasts hot, cold, eat in or takeaway for you to enjoy, this year for the first time the weekend included a breakfast for Ledbury businesses early on Friday morning and a staff breakfast at John Masefield School. Bill Wiggin MP and Mayor Bob Barnes made an early visit on Friday to a number of participants to celebrate the start of the event.

James Bodenham of Llandinabo Farm Shop and Bill the Bell celebrate the winning prize sausage

“Bill the Bell” Turberfield was on hand to hail the winning sausage in this year’s competition run by Trumpet Corner Tearoom and Llandinabo Farm Shop – a delicious pork, bacon, liver and onion creation suggested by customer Alan Brown who won a free breakfast for idea.

Special dishes enjoyed this weekend included Hereford Hop rarebit with chutney at the Market House Café, poached Herefordshire pear with bara brith at the Feathers, cheese and crispy bacon muffins at the Muse Café, eggs in Portobello mushrooms at Cameron and Swann, Eggs Benedict at Chez Pascal., and a special takeaway Bagel Bar at Four Oaks Delicatessen. Mrs Muffins and the Café at Nice Things tempted those with a taste for the traditional with their hearty English breakfast.

Dave Waller and Bill Wiggin MP admire a salver of local breakfast produce

Outside Ledbury town, the Scrumpy House Restaurant at Weston’s Cider, Trumpet Corner Tea Room and the Nest, Hereford Road all joined in the fun of the event. In town, first timers Caffè 21 were cooking American pancakes and Delilah’s Café special breakfast omelettes. Handley Organics offered a tempting choice of breakfast bakery, and at lunchtime the Talbot celebrated with its Rock and Roll Bingo brunch hosted by Andy Ward. Our butchers Wallers, Gurneys and Llandinabo Farm Shop all had tempting offers to take home for breakfast. Well done to all who took part this year!

Please let us know if you have ideas for making this event even better in the future.

[Show slideshow]

January 19, 2015February 5, 2015

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

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 26^th 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)

December 4, 2014August 14, 2020

Don’t forget Small Business Saturday…this Saturday

If you are Christmas Shopping this weekend, see what your local independent shops and traders have to offer.

Saturday 6^th December is Small Business Saturday – a day to support, inspire and promote small businesses. Recent research by American Express on the economic impact of small independent businesses indicates that High Streets with a majority of independent businesses create a friendlier neighbourhood and plough 60p of every £1 spent back into the local economy.

Just by Christmas shopping you can bring real benefit to our local economy.

Our independent shops and traders in Ledbury and District have all kinds of local food and drink gifts – why not make up a gift of several local products?

…and we have a whole range of local independent shops in Ledbury for wider gift shopping.

So celebrate Small Business Saturday.

P.S. Get ideas for presents by browsing through the Producers Directory on this Website – this includes an Activities Offered section with all kinds of ideas for presents.

December 2, 2014February 5, 2015

The Big Breakfast is coming …

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

November 15, 2014

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 14^th 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

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

October 30, 2014August 14, 2020

Chickens, Chickens and More Chickens

More information about this planning application can be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Broiler-Sheds-Colwall/1498630197087820. The deadline for comments about the application is 14 November.

A planning application has been made to Herefordshire Council to develop a new poultry rearing site at Chance’s Pitch, Colwall. The proposal is for four rearing sheds each housing 50,000 birds, with a turnover of stock about every 7 weeks.

The site is close to the Ledbury to Malvern road (A449) neighbouring an existing potato store.
There is much local concern about this application which some see as industrialisation of our landscape.

What do you think?

Should we accept the principle of intensive farming as a means of providing affordable food?
Should we be pleased that local land and facilities are being employed to produce chicken products for the UK market?
Should we make a stand against intensive farming of this kind wherever it takes place?
Should we focus on where these facilities go to minimise impact on the environment and local landscape?