Don't give a thought to the fact that the longest day is past and that bit by bit the evenings are drawing in. Instead enjoy the moment in this most prolific and exuberant of months... JULY! After such miserable and chilly weather we have finally been able to enjoy three weeks with hardly a shower and more significantly without a breath of wind! It makes the Brits a different race of people. We see it all the time in the Store. Customers are cheerful, talkative
and happy to hang around.
I mentioned in June that the blossom this year had been amazing and no more so than these elderflower blooms the size of dinner plates! Belvoir Fruit Farms at the foot of our famous Castle makes the Elderflower Presse and Cordial that flies off the shelves in the Store and is a firm favourite in Garden Cafe. They grow a lot of the elderflowers themselves but enough have to be collected to last the year and so they advertise for pickers to scour the hedgrows and bring the blooms to their bottling plant in June and July. So you see, we are still hunter-gatherers, after all. World Service Restaurant includes it in their cocktail Sangria Bianca because its intense flavour and aroma summons up all things summery and Belvoir Fruit have their own Cocktail which we would like to share with you:White Flower Martini
15ml. Elderflower Cordial
35ml. Vodka
15ml. Limoncello
50ml. Lychee juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with floating rose petal
For something simpler : 2 x 25ml shots Bombay Sapphire or Absolut Gin and 2 shots Elderflower Cordial shaken with ice and served in a cocktail glass with a lime and sugar rim and a wedge.
We have been less than enamoured with the quality and type of soft fruit available to us from our fruit wholesalers over the years. The supermarkets dictate the variety that will stand well on their shelves and it is not always the one that has the best texture, flavour and aroma. So this year we have decided to pick our own strawberries for you at Wymeswold (just off the A46) and the best variety they have is Symphony which conjures up all those memories of scent, hot afternoons and red stained cheeks and makes you realise what we have been missing. Our customers with noses in the air like Bisto kids follow the scent around the Store and have been snapping up our fruit punnets like hungry blackbirds! In the Garden Cafe we will be offering a strawberry scone with cream and a pot of tea for £5.95 in the afternoon during July.
To update you on our Evening openings at the Cafe:
Next evening Saturday 10th JULY A few tables left. We'd love to see you. And then Saturday 31st. JULY. Our summer menu is in full swing and the Crab Cocktail is proving a winner!
Can I also remind you that the Cafe on Friday 9th. July is closed for a wedding and that in the middle of the month there will be a couple of days when we will not be offering a full lunch time menu due to staff holidays. Best to ring first and apologies for any inconvenience.
Sophie Allsopp who's Mum is a very supportive customer of ours has set up a new local business making jams, chutneys and Jellies in Flawborough. It is called Sophie & Boo (who is the pet Jack Russell). The packaging is fabulous. And so is the product. We are already getting rave comments like "the marmalade is the best I've tasted apart from my own!" and "so much fruit in the raspberry jam and the colour is so clear". Sophie is adding to the range all the time and is intent on maintaining the quality by producing in small batches. We think this range has a great future.
Finally, we are still keen to buy any good quality surplus fruit and vegetables from you and would like to thank the customer from Owthorpe who brought us blackcurrants and redcurrants today. There must be more of you out there!
Speak to you soon
Jan
