River Cottage - working lunch

Last week, as part of my work, I was lucky enough to be invited to River Cottage to see what they were all about and to see if there was the possibly to work more closely together in the future... I was in for a treat!

The closest hotel I could find was over 20 miles away and the drive in, in the morning was through little English villages and miles upon miles of hedgerow. We had our obligatory meeting and then went on a tour of the farm. Next time I will not wear a shirt and trousers... it was stinking hot, over 30C and shorts and sandals were called for but in short supply.

First stop was the herb and vegetable garden. Well, one of them anyway. There must have been about 5 or 6 different areas for growing various bits of greenery. We also walked past loads of pigs, sheep and cows that will either provide for the farm or will eventually end up in the pot. I was loving it...

The kitchen used in the show...

A superb demonstration/training kitchen that we will hopefully make use of in the future.

The view from said training kitchen...

Following our tour, we were offered a quick, 'thrown together' lunch using only ingredients sourced from their farm or local producers. The soup was pea, basil and lettuce and was wonderfully fresh and cold, very summery and I could have polished of a pint of it. A potato, celery and Dorset Blue Vinny frittata just screamed to be eaten and who could refuse such an offer. The egg was wonderfully light and the blue vinny cheese was mild in flavour and oh so creamy. Sometimes a blue cheese can overpower a dish, but not here... very very nice!

Accompanying the soup and frittata were two salads. A quite pretty Nistertion, pea shot and red chard salad pouted at us asking for attention...

...but my favourite was the chestnut mushroom, broad bean, mint and ebley wheat salad. Meaty mushrooms with earthy ebley, fresh broad bean and subtle mint... yum! I had seconds...

And who can have a working lunch without bread? In this case it was it was a fresh focaccia  with garlic and herbs, all fresh from the garden.

Thank you River Cottage for an exceptional day out in the country.  I will definitely be back on a Friday or Saturday evening to sample one of their taster menus.