Fun In The Kitchen

 

The Pumpkin Patch cookery and gardening classes have been 'back to normal' for the past couple of weeks. We are now in our third week of regular classes and we're all getting back into the routine!

As expected, the children went back to school and the weather improved, but at least it meant that we could get some gardening done, as well as go blackberry picking!   We've had fun walking and running through fields, climbing over gates and stiles, and shooing away the cows as we pick our hedgerow treats!

The children made some lovely blackberry, plum and apple crunch which was berry nice indeed! It didn't last long in our house, especially served with thick golden custard :) Mmm!

 

 

This week at The Pumpkin Patch we have the regular Junior and Secondary age classes held at Allt y Gôg Farm. This week, these classes are available:

         Saturday Morning    10am - 12noon Pumpkin Patch Juniors £10

         Monday Evening 6pm - 8pm    Pumpkin Patch Teens £14

If you'd like some inspiration about what to cook for supper or what to do with a butternut squash..... I'll be cooking a great squash and coconut stew on

 S4C's Prynhawn Da this Friday 21^st September at 2pm. 

Dessert will be the best ever chocolate brownies (and we really have tried a few!!)

Next Tuesday 25^th I will be presenting a cookery course in Broad Haven, Pembrokeshire. This is day designed to inspire and enthuse anyone catering for visitors and guests on a regular basis. 

The focus will be on “light bites” which could be used and modified to suit any meal time, including packed lunches, which can be a bit of a bother! 

Hope to see you soon,  Lisa x 

Back In Full Swing!

 

The summer holidays are now over and The Pumpkin Patch workshops are now back in full swing! All classes started back this week!

 

This weeks classes are as follows;

                      

Saturday        10am ~ 12 noon      Junior class for age 8+

Saturday          2pm ~ 5pm            Monthly Juniors age 8+

Monday           6pm ~ 8pm            Teens class for age 12+

Thursday         6pm ~ 9pm            Student SOS (18+!)

Friday              4pm ~6pm              Party Night

 

 

The web site is currently being improved, if you need any additional information please call me on  (Lisa) 01267 290312 or email me at lisa@thepumpkinpatch.org.uk

Due to the number of children and parents interested in the monthly cookery classes we are in the process of setting up additional classes for the children aged 8+ and 12+ years. Please get in touch soon to reserve a place if these classes are of interest to you. 

 Hope to see you soon, Lisa x

Yummy Honey!

 Today was the day.....we received the field rent for the two bee hives situated in the fruit garden. They paid us well in jars full of wonderfully golden, sweet runny honey! I can't tell you how many jars we have because, as I write, the honey is still dripping through the sieve. Soon it will be ready to be bottled or potted, sealed and labelled. It's a sticky job, but rewarding!

 Today, it was a family affair, both boys, Sam and Josh collected  the honey laden frames from the hives, whilst the girls Aimee, Ailsa and Anya decapped the honeycombs and spun the frames to reveal and collect the honey! What a day!

Tomorrow......well it's definitely toast for breakfast, and definitely a generous drizzle of honey!! Yum! 

Today, it was a familly affair, both boys, Sam and Josh collected  the honey laden frames from the hives, whilst the girls Aimee, Ailsa amd Anya decaped the honeycooms and spun the frames to reveal and collect the honey! What a day!

Tomorrow......well it's definately toast for breakfast, and definately a generous drizzle of honey!! Yum! 

Wat..er Summer

Wat..er Summer!!

 I love summer, but I have to confess that this summer has been rather disappointing :( 

I hate to complain, but there are good summers, poor summers and then there was this summer! I haven't seen the statistics, but surely they must confirm that the number of sunshine hours for the past three months has been low, whilst the volume of rainfall must surely have been high. 

It's not that I wish to sit on the beach for hours, or on a lounger in the garden, though that does sound appealing right now, as I listen to yet more of the wet stuff landing on the roof window.  I love to spend hours in the garden, digging, weeding, planting and pruning, cutting back, rearranging and harvesting summer fruit and vegetables. Treating myself occasionally, to a five minute sit - down to enjoy an ice cold lemonade. I love it when the children loose me behind the runner beans and resort to phoning my mobile to relocate me in my jungle! Not this year though! 

This year, despite no shortage of water, the runner beans and the French climbing beans  have not long managed to reached their lofty destination. They almost lost in their battle to ascend the six foot canes. Almost...nearly...but, finally, somehow they managed it, but I'm yet to be delighted by a summer feed of wonderful beans, drenched in butter and plenty of  black pepper with crusty white bread! 

 

As always, I love to meet other gardeners, to chat and compare progress.. or lack of!  For a short while in June, I started to doubt my veg growing skills, maybe I'd just been lucky for the past twenty years! A touch of  beginners luck maybe? Until I met up with some other keen vegetable growers, and all had the same sorry tale to tell. Vegetables rotting in the ground, failed crops, slugs galore, rain and cool temperatures, a desperate combination :(

I'm now dreaming of a warm and pleasant Autumn. I may have to buy  pumpkins this year, but I can still enjoy making comforting winter soups, chutney and jams.   Maybe I can even sit, wrapped up in a comfy blanket, and enjoy a very late feed of runner beans under a cool autumn sun!  Better late than never! :)

The West Wales Food Festival 2012

 

May usually means just one thing to both Aimee my eldest daughter and I....The West Wales Food Festival! Other months conjure up images of other events and locations, but May has to be the glorious setting of the National Botanic Gardens of Wales, home and birth place of one of West Wales' great food events.  I was sure of a dry and humid time at the West Wales Food Festival........I was cooking in the Great Glasshouse! What a place to cook! Apart from being warm and dry, it has to be the most beautiful place in the country to run children's cookery workshops.

The  two days were jam packed with cookery demonstrations and workshops by the best of Welsh chefs. Plenty of top quality local produce to taste and take home. The Pumpkin Patch made several batches of bread with groups of children and their interested parents. Some dough to take home and some we shallow fried with black onion seeds to create flat breads, perfect for summer barbecues!

 On the Saturday morning we had the final of the Junior Chef competition in the chef's marquee. What a morning! Lara and Martha the two fourteen year old young finalists cooked with such confidence in front of an audience and several accomplished and well known chefs. They did well, and Angela Gray, Dudley and myself did our very best to ease their nerves as we interviewed and judged the menus and cookery skills. There were no losers, just winners and a lot of very tasty food to enjoy, well done girls!

Where next?
Well, having cooked at Carmarthen Barbecue Week I'll soon be at the River Festival and then I'm off further afield... but not too far! I still need to regularly tend to The Pumpkin Patch gardens and make the most of the summer harvests. The Holiday Club is in full swing during August and that should keep me busy! The regular Pumpkin Patch Junior and Teen workshops will start back as soon as school resumes it's normal hours, but for now I'm going to enjoy the summer...well once the rain stops!! 

To check where we'll be and what we'll be doing over the summer please check
the web site thepumpkinpatch.org.uk  for up to date details.