Deliciouslyorkshire Awards

Well its been some time since I last landed on here. I didnt realise it had been so long really.!!
Well Happy New Year to all who read this.

This now is old news really, I should have done this long ago.
Last summer I entered the Deliciouslyorkshire Food Awards competition in the category Best Yorkshire Breakfast.
We were delighted to be shortlisted to the final 4 and then one one morning, with a full house of guests to feed and only a days notice, the judge arrived! Talk about heart pounding. I was so relieved when everyone was fed and watered and I could breathe again. Funny thing is I do this every day. The breakfast that is, not the heart pounding!! But this one was different.
Anyway off Chris and I went to the Awards Dinner at the Pavillions in Harrogate with our friends Richard and Denise.
There was a fabulous reception of Canapes and drinks and then a meal which started with Smoked Salmon Parcels with a sea trout mousse (divine) followed by Pan fried Chicken in a cider and cream sauce with Yorkshire veg and a wonderful dessert of Chocolate and Amaretto Torte with Ice cream (wicked)
Then the Awards began covering categories for everything from Bakery, Meats, Drinks, Cheese, icecream and so it goes on.
Eventually it got to our category (much more heart pounding) as the shortlist was announced along with the judges comments. then the moment ..the winner is....Scaife Hall Farm. Totally blown away by that.

So now you will have to come along and try it for yourself!!

Nigel Barden and I

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

 Rachel and I have just had a girls day out at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Nr Doncaster. We were really lucky because the sun shone all day and we had a great time.
The wildlife park is only 5 years old and theres still some development going on in the form of a new area being built for Polar Bears. We decided we would have to go back and see them.
It was really good to wander round and see the animals, none of which are in cages.
The Lion Country area is a large area, you can walk round the perimeter and see the Lions, all of which were rescued from Oradea Zoo in Romania where saldy they had been kept in very bad conditions. How relieved they must be to now be in Yorkshire!
There were lots of opportunities to meet the Rangers and they did talks about the animals and there was a meet the animals area where children got to interact with birds of prey, rabbits etc and even a skunk.
The giraffes have a pretty  fantastic house to live in which was recently constructed to the tune of £350,00 and you can actually go right in and see where and how they live.
All round there were opportunites to get up really close, particularly with the smaller animals and Rachel even got to stroke a Wallaby. And no its not dead in case you wondered!!
All in all a great place to visit.

Charity Breakfast Suppliers

 We are extremely grateful to all the following for their generosity in Sponsoring this event and supporting the great work of The Addington Fund

Barclays Bank - John Pinches Yorkshire & NE England Agriculture Area Manager. Ian Robson (Our Account Manager)

Craven Cattle Marts.

Hollings ,Crowe, Storr Accountants Otley

Mackenzies Yorkshire Smokehouse – Kippers

Weegmans Butchers, Otley – Bacon

Highside Butchers, Kirkby Malzeard – Black Pudding

Arthur Haighs, Thirsk – Doreens Black Pudding

Trever Fothergill, Park Lodge, Topcliffe - Mushrooms

Booths Supermarket, Settle – Juice, Baked Beans

Blue Pig Company, Rathmell – Bacon

Fewston Farm Shop, Fewston – Sausages

Gold Top – Milk, Butter

John Oliver Butchers – Sausages

Mandeville Bakery – Bread

Littlers Butchers - Bacon

St Helens Farm, Seaton Ross – Yogurt

Yorkshire Dales Real Food – Porridge, Granola

Mad Hatter Tea Company, Richmond – Tea

Haighs Bakery, Guiseley – Bread

Harrogate Preserves – Jam

Bracken Hill Fine Foods – Jam, Marmalade

Ann Roe, River House Malham -  Marmalade

Shortridge Laundry – Table Linen

John Gate, Longford Farm – Eggs

Thirsty Planet UK – Harrogate Spa Water

Philip Harsley

Mole Valley farmers

Also very special thanks go to great friends for all their help during the event -  Rachael Gate, Jean Kennelly, Lindsey Hitchen, Christine Clarkson, Daphne Wilson, Denise Eagland, Jill Pennock, Liz, Gudgeon, Maggie Johnson, Clive & Sally Robinson,

Addington Charity Breakfast

Back in January we held our third Charity Big Breakfast, once again for the Addington Fund, a charity which helps farming families.
Initially I had contacted local food producers to see if they would donate some food and I was overwhelmed with the responses, everyone was amazingly generous.
In all we did 3 days of breakfasts with 2 sittings per day of anywhere between 26 -35 people and on the first day a third sitting when the local shoot came in at 4.30 for a 3 course meal.
Over the 2 days we served 193 meals and I have to say  we were shattered at the end of it all.
We had tremendous support from Barclays Bank and in particular John Pinches who at the time was the bank’s Darlington-based agricultural area manager.

John kindly donated the services of some of his Agriculture managers, including our bank manager Ian Robson, and they were all brilliant and spent hours making toast, selling raffle tickets and running up and down stairs with everyones coats!!
During the event we had 2 guests who were celebrating birthdays  We presented them with chocolate cake, with a candle in and the whole household sang Happy Birthday!

Another guest who caused some excitement for bank manager Anthony Worth was the arrival of a local chap who just happened to be the best goal Keeper Leeds United have ever had, Nigel Martyn. Looking at the picture of Jean she quite enjoyed meeting him too!!

All in all a fabulous 3 days, none of which I could have done without the help of some amazing friends who worked tirelessly. With the match funding from Barclays we raised £7720 so its a HUGE THANK YOU to Barclays Bank, to wonderful friends and all the lovely people who bought tickets and came along to support us.

The Kaiser Chiefs

Back in February we had a very exciting day when the Kaiser Chiefs came to the farm to film the video to accompany their forthcoming new single called Coming Home, which has now been released.( Album - Education Education Education and War)
A chap called Harvey had turned up a few days earlier to say he was looking for a location for a music video and thought the road over our moor would be perfect. He said 'its for a band called the Kaiser Chiefs, have you heard of them??' WOW thought I, indeed I have. So I asked if my sister, niece and I could go up and watch for a while.
It had to be probably one of the coldest days of the winter!! They were there from about 5am setting it all up and didnt leave until about 9pm. We only stayed about half an hour because it was so cold!! So I felt a bit sorry for them, but only a bit! I have to work out in it too sometimes.
Anyway they all come across to say Hello and have some photos taken and they were lovely! They can come back and film again anytime!!

Deirdre Hen has a traumatic time!!

Poor Dierdre has had a tough time. Back in lambing time for some reason the other hens all started picking on her. They pecked all her head and there was lots of blood etc and she was terrified of them. So I brought her away from them and she has been living in thelambing shed quite happily. However a friend said to me that one of her hens had this probem and a poultry breeder told her to rub the hen with curry powder and all would be well!! Something to do with the change of smell I guess. Anyway I did this and put her back. I think I must have used the wrong strength powder though because it didnt work!
So back out she came and has been living once again quite happily by herself.
She comes to the house everyday and waits by the door for some bread. Shes a bit fussy though and doesnt seem to like the crusts!!

Le Grand Depart, Tour de France

This last weekend the eyes of the world were on Yorkshire as the first 2 stages of this years Tour de France cycle race were staged here.
There was a massive build up to the weekend and although lots of people were looking forward to it there were also lots of moans because of the disruption that would be caused by lengthy road closure on both days.
Day one the race set off from Leeds and traveled through Otley to Skipton,on into the Yorkshire Dales and ended up back in Harrogate for the first sprint finish.
The crowds in Harrogate were amazing and im told there was a fantastic atmosphere. Its estimated that around 2.5million people lined the route to watch.
On sunday the race came through Blubberhouses , along the A59, having set off earlier in York. We went down to the road to watch. The caravan of sponsor vehicles came through about 10.30 and then just before 12.30 we were aware of helicopters getting near and we knew the cyclists werent far away. There was a real buzz if excitment and all of a sudden the leading group of 3 came wizzing by. By the time you said 'they're here' they were gone!! Then the main peleton sped through and once again it took just seconds and that was that.
The race was covered on TV and I know Im biased but I have to say that Yorkshire looked stunning, the sun shone all weekend and if this really is Gods own County I would say he was definitely
looking after us this weekend!

How frustrating!

Well I'm a bit  miffed now! Its been ages since we had a chat, Ive just done a long missive to you and then the phone rang. It made me jump and somehow i clicked on the delete button and my Blog post disappeared. Forever!
So here we go again..... Long time no see. Since I became a Harrogate Borough Councillor 2 years ago my life, which was busy before, has become even busier. I dont think I could ever have imagined so many meetings to attend. Even  meetings about meetings!! But hey ho, its interesting,  and if i can help a few people along the way then its worth it.
Having said that its not always interesting, sometimes  a bit boring, monotonous and v frustrating! However Ive just come off the Planning Committee, which was a huge undertaking so things may be a bit quieter but Ive been made a Member of the Board of Visit Harrogate and tourism being something very dear to me I look forward to that.
I had a call this morning from Ronnie Mullin, my web man and colleague from Farm Stay UK days, and he said Christine you must get back on your Blog otherwise theres no point in having it!!!
I was telling him that I run out of ideas for content and then went on to say the Kaiser Chiefs had been here and he said 'just get it on your website and Blog!!'. so Im doing as I was told( which doesnt happen often!!).
The website has been amended and heres the first blog post. Over the coming days and weeks I will get cracking again with this. I think theres a bit of news. Kaiser Chiefs, new Herdwick sheep, Dierdre Hen having a bad time, the barn renovations now completed, a marathon Charity Breakfast event, Tour de France passing by this sunday and our granary classroom all ready for use.
And it will be as we are having a Tour de France party in there on sunday afternoon!!
So watch this space.......

Coldstones Cut, Greenhow

A couple of weeks ago we headed for Pateley Bridge for dinner with some friends. We decided to stop off at Coldstones Cut because although I tell all my guests to call in there if passing we had never managed to get there!

Coldstones Quarry is situated on Greenhow Hill at 1400 feet above sea level and is one of the highest quarries in Britain.  Several small limestone quarries operated around Greenhow over the last two centuries and in the early 1900s the surrounding hills were dominated by stone quarries.
Gradually these closed until Coldstones became the last working quarry in the area. Operated by Hanson,it provides aggregates and asphalt for
major construction projects across the U.K.

 Despite its huge size, the quarry is hidden from view by its location and by a protective earth bund.
 In 2006, following changes to the quarry boundaries, it was decided to replace a simple existing viewing platform with something more lasting and to provide a significant piece of public art  so Hanson Aggregates offered a design commission to Andrew Sabin.

The bottom picture shows a view over Nidderdale. Nidderdale is on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales and is part of the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Definately worth a visit!

Our new addition.....

 This is one of our latest additions to the Scaife Hall Family.
This is Meg, a Border Collie aged 10 wks, not the best of pctures but they were taken with my phone.
Meg is an absolute bundle of fun, who loves to try and cuddle Bess, who isnt really amused but is extremely patient with her, she must think Meg is ok because if we set off down the yard she runs on ahead and waits by Megs door.
The only thing Bess isn't too keen about is that Meg will insist on pinching her ball!

Newest addition at Tatton Park Farm

During our visit to Tatton we went to see the old home farm, which in January 2007was awarded Rare Breeds Accreditation by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST).
 Its a great place to take families and theres lots of animals which can be touched and theres various activities throughout the year.
We were extremely fortunate in that we got chatting to the chap who runs the farm, as you do, and he took us to see the latest addition to the farm which was a Clydesdale colt, son of Blossom, and as yet to be named. The first visitors to do so!
He was born on the 8th June and as with all foals was a gaggly long legs but looked very happy and content with his Mum. Anyday now he will go with her into the farm yard and prepare to meet the public.
A couple of the cows had already calved, the jersey had a calf called Lou lou with the biggest brown eyes ever, an Ayrshire was about to do so any day, she was looking very matronly!

Tatton Park

 After what seemed like the longest lambing time in years, largely due to the horrendous weather, it was finally time to take a few days off and this week we went down to stay with friends John and Rachael in Cheshire. We took our friends Kevin and Daphne with us.
Tuesday we spent at Cheshire Show, a large 2 day agricultural show which John is very involved with so whilst he had to work also on the 2nd day we took Rachael out and did some sightseeing.
We went to Tatton Park which is home to a Tudor Old Hall, a Neo-Classical Mansion, 50 acres of landscaped gardens, a rare-breed farm and 1,000 acres of deer park.

 The 50 acres of gardens at Tatton have been developing for over 200 years with each successive owner of the Tatton Park estate playing their part in its evolution. Lewis William Wyatt and Joseph Paxton ( I was a Paxton before getting married so I wonder if he was a relative, his gardening skills didnt pass on if thats the case!!) architect of Crystal Palace, designed various elements including the Conservatory.
The middle picture shows the biggest rhubarb Ive ever seen and the bottom picture is a Davidia involucrata (dove tree, handkerchief tree). It was really beautiful. The Estate belongs to the National Trust and its well worth a visit if you are ever in the area

Return of the native breeds pays off - Farming - Yorkshire Post

Return of the native breeds pays off - Farming - Yorkshire Post