Loving my job!

When I started my new career as that of a Licensee nearly 5 years ago, I never thought for one moment that it would involve visiting farms and looking at cattle............!

I thought it would be all pulling pints and making small talk. Wrong!!!

But the more we source our food from local suppliers, and the more successful we find our pub becoming, then the more I find myself doing just that! Visiting Farmers, talking about sustainability and generally learning loads about food!!

We're still getting our local beef from our local Farmer Graham who we started working with last year, but its getting more and more difficult for him to keep up with our ever growing demands for Beef that's been hung for 21 days or more and also we get through 3 or 4 sides of beef a week, so we're looking to widen our choice of suppliers whilst keeping Graham very firmly as our main supplier. Tim & I are very keen to keep on having as much true local produce as possible, so last week we found ourselves having a trip to Greenwell Farm - up on Dartmoor.

Matt Cole, who is the Farmer we met, is part of a group called the Dartmoor Farmers
a collection of farmers who have put themselves together as a co-operative company set up in 2007 with the support of Prince Charles.

The company comprises around 50 hill farmers working together, to promote quality beef and lamb produced on the moor in a move away from commodity-driven supply, to the supply of a unique premium brand.

Hence, our visit last week to Matt and a whistle stop tour up, across and round his land to look at his cattle in an old land rover! Oh my goodness, it was more fun than being on a roller coaster, and I'm sure I sounded like a child who's never seen a cow at close quarters!!! Oooohhing and aahhing like a delighted 5 year old!!
First of all of course, we had to find this farm up on the moors and after the obligatory squabble consisting of - 'why aren't we using the bloody sat nav' and the countless wrong turnings - which resulted in me getting VERY crotchety because we were a little late (my absolute pet hate!!), we did however at last find ourselves driving up to this glorious farm set in Dartmoor and seemingly a million miles away from a very busy Salcombe.

Matt farms South Devon & Galloway cattle as well as Lambs, and showed huge pride and enjoyment in his job - just like we had seen with Graham when we did our initial visit to his farm last year. He talked of the vast amounts of paperwork he has to do and the fact that every single Cow has a 'Passport' to show who, when, what injections etc, etc for each and every animal! He talked about the rising costs of his farm and the loss of subsidies that is making life difficult for Farmers. We talked mutually about how whilst having good business's, costs were rising and life is not easy at times - whatever business you're in!

Me stroking only the 2nd Horse in my entire life!!

But back to the cattle and our visit, I am so much more pragmatic nowadays about life in the country and the natural food chain that exists, but I admit to a little pang in my heart when looking at some of Matt's beautiful calves.......and I also understood a lot better the issues of farming in todays world.

I constantly wonder at how my life has taken me from a suited and booted woman who had a career in Local Government that regularly lead her to meetings with Councillors, MP's etc and who enjoyed browsing round shops on her day off, to this country (ish) person who actually likes tramping round farms and County Shows, and has totally gone off shopping in big cities!!  Matt asked me how I'm enjoying my relatively new life and I have to say that I guess Tim & I are living many peoples dream...??!!

Anyway, all we need to do now is have another meeting to try to agree prices and we could see ourselves doing some business with Dartmoor Farmers. It's all about cost at the end of the day for both parties and I'll let you know how that goes.

The Victoria Inn was heaving with customers this last weekend - the end of Merlin Rocket week saw many of the private schools breaking up and coming down here and lots and lots of lovely customers coming back to say hi and let us know that they're around for a few weeks. It's so lovely welcoming back our friends - some of them come in looking so tired and harassed from their busy (many of them high powered executives) lives and who find it hard to leave their cares in their suitcases, but so lovely to see them unwind and relax as they get more and more into their holidays!

Of course, we've been blessed with stunning weather (in fact, dare I say a little too hot!) so the sun has bought a smile to everyone's face. A lot of fantastic fish on our menu at the moment, and coming on today - Mariners Medley an assortment of fish and scallops - last time we had that on the specials board it flew out the door!


 

MasterChef - Brilliant!

 A quick post just to tell you all about our amazing meal at the Treby Arms - a relatively small and unassuming pub outside of Plymouth in a place called Sparkwell.

What makes this place so special?? The fact that the Chef Patron is Anton Piotrowski who was the (joint) Masterchef Winner 2012!!

We've always been avid watcher's of this programme, with growing admiration as the contestants get further and further into the competition, but for us there was always something about Anton's food that we liked right from the very beginning! I do actually think the Judges were weak to split the title - it should have been only Anton - but that's just my thoughts.

Anyway - cut a long story short we were incredibly lucky to secure a booking for us last week, and what an amazing Dinner we had.

We went for the Masterchef Tasting Menu containing 10 (yes, TEN!) courses and it was the most amazing food I've tasted in ages!!
Its really hard to choose overall favourites from the menu, but suffice to say that the Pidgeon Wellington, Scallops with Vinegar Crumble and the Duck were A-MAZ-ING!!

The puds were out of this world and the Chocolate Soil with Popping Candy was incredible. But the Banana Pud with the Salted Caramel filled Chocolate tube will remain a hard pud to beat!!

It was also nice to see that St Austell Brewery supply the wines to them, and we had a bottle of superb Ermita Reserva Rioja from Bodegas Santalba - you may remember that we met Roberto from the Winery last year when he came over and we did some wine tasting with him. Made it even more special by having that great wine with our meal.  

It was also really interesting to hear from Anton & Clare just what it had been like for them winning something as prestigious as Masterchef - the whole excitement and great things that are happening to their business as well as the new challenges. They were a delightful couple, supported by great staff and we look forward to going back later on this year. Both Tim and I wish them great success for their future.

Well - we do feel rested.............

Thanks to this gorgeous cottage in West Wales and called Murmer y Ceri. We rented the cottage through a firm called http://www.qualitycottages.co.uk/ and we all (we took the dogs) had a fantastic 6 night break. I would recommend the firm to anyone looking to have a break away, they had some great properties in their portfolio and it took us ages to choose - but I'm so glad we settled on this one. It was surrounded by fields and the Teifi river - Archie & Rosie Posie were in heaven!

The owners Alan and Meirion had left us a welcome hospitality tray complete with welsh cakes, and a vase of fresh flowers...... what a nice touch and just what we needed after almost 5 hours on the road. The house itself was absolutely spotless and they had thought of everything - including a blanket and towels for the dogs. What was really interesting, was that although we spend 24 hours a day with each other, we haven't actually had more than a couple of holidays over 3 days together since we met, so to spend 'proper' leisure time together is a new experience - but I'm pleased to report that we still were as much in love at the end of the holiday as we were at the start! Because we don't cook much at our home in Salcombe, it was a real novelty to cook and eat together in the evenings - so I treated us to great food and lovely wine and then SOH cooked breakfast.......... well, I say breakfast - we actually didn't surface much before 10.30 most days!!!

We're used to lovely beaches and scenery here in Devon now, but some of the beaches we visited in Wales were exquisite! Aberporth was gorgeous, Cenarth had a river that roared as it went past you and we looked hard for the Salmon leaping but to no avail! It was at Cenarth that we experienced a meal of Cowl or Cawl - basically a meal of chopped gammon in a stew and served with a roll, butter and a piece of cheese - £9.00 for lunch!! Fabulous and we were full for hours after that! I have to say that except for one lunch in a seaside pub - The Ship Inn, Tresaith - we didn't even venture near a pub. Firstly, I have to say that on the whole (sorry!) they looked decidedly grotty, but we didn't want to go in one on our holidays anyway! We'd only have been comparing and talking business anyway!! We went to St Davids and did lots of walking and just enjoying fresh air and relaxation.

The weather was a bit iffy to start with, but rained mostly at night and we were able to get out and about in the day time. On the way home we took a detour round Cardiff (mmnn, less said about that the better!) but I was delighted to look up at the precise moment we passed the birthplace of the singer Ivor Novello - his Mother gave my Father some singing lessons apparently, so that was quite special for me!!

James our Chef looked after the Victoria admirably, and we have taken a decision to do something like this at least twice a year. Life is just too short not to!! So I think it'll be Cornwall in February after the half term next year! But of course we have our romantic weekend in Jersey to look forward to in November first........

Then this week we had a lovely evening away for a Dinner Dance in Plymouth as guests of our friend Keith de Bruin (and his wife) the Chairman of the BII in the West. Frank Carson (yes, he is still alive!) was the entertainment of the evening and he was really quite funny with a fantastic memory - which for someone knocking on the door of 84 made it even more incredible! We ended up going to a pub open till 4 in the morning and not calling it a day until almost 3a.m - I was a little 'tired' yesterday that's for sure.............. :)

So then - back to work! The White Hart is over and done with - just some remaining bills to pay and that's that! I must confess to a feeling of relief now that we're back to just the 2 business's, and talking of which they are doing ok! The fire is lit at the Victoria in the fantastic fireplace and already with the weather turned a lot cooler its a huge draw for customers - this photo was taken this afternoon. The new Autumn / Winter menu is selling well and James has put a fantastic Lamb Hot Pot and Chicken Chausseur on the specials........... good rib sticking food for this time of year. The accommodation is doing reasonably well - weekends in particular, but again tonight both rooms are booked - hoorah!!

Captain Morgans is quieter than I'd like it to be, but still ticking over and I'm looking forward to planning a bit of a make over for December! I think the main part of the Cafe needs a whole new look - and we have plans...???? But not telling you what they are for now - you'll have to wait and see.

We are already looking to the future for the Victoria - work is starting in the garden this week to brighten it up a bit, do a little landscaping and also sort out some of the grassed area where the intense rain we had in the summer combined with hundreds of pairs of feet walking up and down has rendered a particular area of the garden into a mud bath. We're also going to be doing some work with WaterAid - a charity that is dedicated to providing safe domestic water to the poorest parts of the world. We are just waiting for the pack but I think it will be a great way to make some contribution to people who don't have access to the thing we take most for granted!

Lastly, we are having a gala night here at the Victoria on the 13th November for my favourite local charity - Salcombe First Responders, and we're going to donate every single penny of the tickets and raffle money to the charity. Think that'll do for now - I really need to get down down to a bit of tidying up in the office!

Till later my dear friends......................... X