So Stir Up Sunday has been and gone. The puddings are not only stirred but steamed and put aside to cure for a couple of weeks before Christmas – preparations are truly underway!
Here at the farm we are feverishly working to prepare everything for online sales, the shop and the restaurant. More on the online sales next week but we have lots of ideas for presents either for yourselves or to gift to others …. no need to worry, we will have a whole range of gifts to post out for those last minute present requirements!
For the moment, we are shifting the menu to full winter mode. Lots of favourites returning and a few new items to tantalise. First up, we have mulled wine and mulled apple juice back on the drinks menu for the next few months – warming, sweet and spiced, these are the perfect pick-me up for cold wet days!
For starters in the restaurant, we have new season’s pickles – kimchi, kraut and sweet pickled turnip are the current selection – delicious, zingy palette cleansing starters highlighting some of our fantastic autumn bounty. We also have perhaps the most delicious soup in the world returning – Jerusalem Artichoke Soup served with Roasted Hazelnuts really is good. Also on the starter roster again are Globe Artichokes from Brittany – not many on the market at this time of year but we have secured a supply for the next few weeks and are looking forward to their arrival tomorrow.
For mains, we are excited to have the first of a good harvest of Celeriac so our delicious Sri Lankan Curry is back. Also returning for December is Oven-Roast Fish with Rosemary, Bayonne Ham and Beluga Lentils – this will be served with Monkfish for Christmas but at the moment the Cornish Hake we are getting is so good we are going to stick with that. New this week are 8 brace of pheasants from our friendly poacher, Roy. Pheasant Coq au Vin will be on the menu from tomorrow.
This is, of course, the traditional time to harvest animals. Throughout the centuries, small-holders and mixed farmers would have harvested their animals in late autumn as fresh greens stopped growing and the winter stores needed to be rationed. Animals would have been harvested and the meat cured, salted or pickled to sustain the family through the dark months. Here at Worton, we follow this pattern so there is Confit Duck on the menu and a range of delicious pork dishes – bacon and sausages abound! Fresh Tuscan Fennel Sausages in the the restaurant and in the shop together with frozen Chorizo and Venison Sausages. We are also salting hams, hocks and flitches of bacon so there will be plenty of produce for sale in the shop over the next few weeks to fill your Christmas tables!
