The hot Bank holiday Monday

Well what an absolutely fantastic start to the week. We spent a very wet Sunday indeed, planting and tidying on the farm. We were so wet we ate our lunch outside, with a roaring hot wood fire to dry us off a little. It wasn’t worth getting dry to go in for lunch just to get wet when we went back out. “ The show must go on “ and we were starting to get our knickers in a twist about sowing dates and harvest intervals.

Monday morning arrived, as it does, and what a day! Clear blue skies and hot, hot, hot. We had arranged to go out for the bank holiday Monday, with the kids. I have to admit half of me was just itching to get back to planting, but luckily guilty mummy syndrome was far stronger. I truly believe that all working mums suffer from the disease.

Off we went to the little train at Heatherslaw. ( http://www.ford-and-etal.co.uk/) The boys had a terrific day with only a few “can I haves and awh!“ We took the train to Etal and had a picnic of fruit, cold cured roast beef (from the slow roast joint that I stuck in a brine cure a couple of weeks ago) cheese and cake by the river as the boys splashed around. Then we had rather a well earned ice cream and pint ( work that one out for yourselves) in the Black Bull at Etal. Taking the little steam train winding its way back to the water mill at Heatherslaw, a lovely day out with only two obligatory parental torture chambers ( child high, plastic, toy, gift shops).
Thank you Heatherslaw for a great family day out. My tip is to get there early and miss the rush, or make a whole day of it, which you easily can.
Tuesday dawned and sun again. What luck. We spent the whole day on the farm planting, sheeting the poly tunnel , fencing and this time a rather leisurely lunch in the sun. Great root veg slaw and spicy chicken wings and garlic croutons made from last weeks loaf and far too many chocolate beetroot muffins (recipe on the web site) and cowboy style coffee from the fire. Ye hah!

Have a lovely week. Please email me and let me know what you are up to.
Look at the website to check out the dates of our cookery demo/courses in June. “Plain and fancy “is the theme and we hope you will join Lucy and I at The Estate House at Chillingham for these cookery days.
Cured Beef
This is a long , but easy process. Well worth the effort and free from any nasty preservatives and colour.
One joint of slow roast beef, you can use bone and rolled shoulder of lamb or pork to make an equally nice and useful cold cut meat for picnics and sandwiches.

The brine or cure
2 litres of water
350g sea salt
150g dark brown sugar
1 bay leaf, 10 crushed juniper berries, 10 peppercorns, 1 sprig of thyme. ( use rosemary or mint if you are curing lamb) all tied up together in a muslin bag
Bring the water, salt and sugar to the boil in a large sauce pan. Then add the herbs and spices and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
Place the meat in a sterilised stone ware or plastic jar and cover with the cold brine, weigh down the meat with a sterilised plate to keep it below the surface. Soak for about one week, I leave it to soak in a cold larder or you could put it in the fridge if there is space.
When you come to remove the meat rinse it under the tap and simmer it in a large pan of water for several hours. Strain it, then take the still hot meat and press it under a weight. I use a cake tin and plate with about 900g -1.8kg of weight on the top. Any liquid that can be poured off can be boiled and reduced and poured over to set , like jelly. ( you can just pour off and discard if you feel you have done quite enough )Leave to cool.

This could keep in the fridge for up to one week