Last week I was beyond excited to spend a day at River Cottage, doing some of the things I love best. Cooking, eating and blogging. I am sure that you have all seen River Cottage on the TV and know about their passion for organic food and less waste.
First up, my group went to the cookery school with head chef Gill Meller. River Cottage have a wide range of cookery courses from butchery to gluten free. If this taster is anything to go by then you are in for a treat. We were shown how to make butter and a soda bread.
I had never even thought of making butter before. All we did was whisk 500ml of double cream until the buttermilk came out. We did this by hand, but I would use an electric whisk in the future. We then squeezed the buttermilk out and washed the butter before adding some herbs of our choice.
Now I know what to do with any old cream in my fridge! Infact I have bought some so that I can do it with the boys later this week!
We then used the leftover buttermilk to make some amazing soad bread filled with goats cheese apples and freshly picked blackberries. I will be making this again this week so watch out for the recipe on the blog soon.
Next up was a photography styling session by the lovely Capture by Lucy. This session was full of helpful tips, such as colour wheels, props and camera angles. Photography is something I am really keen to work on so you will see these tips being put into practice.
Our last session was a tour of the farm my head gardener Nick. His passion shone through.
There were beautiful wild flowers to attract the bees, and golden raspberries which the birds don't eat yet taste delicious.
There were a variety of herbs I had never even heard of before. Nick talked us through the principles of crop rotation. He also explained that instead of pesticides, they planted companion plants like nasturtiums to attract the pests away from the vegetables.
We also met some lovely pigs and chickens.
I can't finish my post about River Cottage without mentioning our lunch. It was fantastic. It wasn't fussy food, but it was good wholesome rustic food with flavours that packed a punch. The raviolli with ratatouille was full of flavour. I can safely say it was the best ratatouille I have ever tasted.
Dessert didn't disappoint either. Fennel meringue served with coffee ice cream with salted caramel pieces, damsons and crumble. If you are ever near Axminster, I would certainly recommend checking out their dining calendar.
I had an absolutely fantastic day at River Cottage and would recommend the place to any food lover. In addition it really got me thinking about my food. Maybe eating less meat, but better quality. Trying new flavour combinations and growing more of my own produce.
Have you ever been to River Cottage? What part of the day would you have liked most?
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