Its all very exciting

Life is all very exciting at the moment as we concentrate on the future of the Victoria Inn and the route with which we're going to take with her. SOH and I are convinced that whilst we may indeed be very good at what we doing in Salcombe, we have to keep working very hard to stay at the top of our game - so we had our meeting with a business consultant, we've drawn up our aims and goals for the next seven years and we are now on track to make that happen.

When we first came to Salcombe SOH always had the fact in his head that living in such a glorious place he wanted to use only local produce and whilst we try to do that now as much as possible - we both know that we can do so much more. So yesterday saw us and James our Chef going to meet Graham from Holsome Farm (not far from Salcombe) and talking to him about his cattle and what he can do to supply us with meat. Turns out our Chef James is a whizz at boning meat and turning out perfect cuts of meat ............. what a little star! Anyway - I get ahead of myself, after having met his butchers and seen (and bought) some of the meat, Graham took us to the actual farm to see where the cattle graze and how well looked after they are.  The cattle he uses are pedigree British White and they get fed a splendid diet of grass, turnips, hay, home-grown cereals (wheat and barley), this in turn leads to the meat having a succulent full flavoured taste.  Their meat is hung for up to three weeks to mature so that it is succulent, full of flavour and very tender. Graham said that they are inspected by the Meat Hygiene service on a regular basis, so therefore all their meat has traceability and quality is  assured.  Now then, at heart, I am still a City girl and walking in a field looking at cows is not really my thing - but after having been cajoled by the men to walk and have a look at these fine beasts I found myself looking at very fine cows and calves, but one cow immediately sniffed out the fact that I was slightly fearful and made it her mission to reduce me to a nervous wreck by making moves to chase me out of the field....... not once but several times!! In the end Graham had to shoo her away from us, but the men folk seemed to enjoy my discomfort!!! James was quick to tell the staff back at the pub about my sprint!!

So then, we bought some meat which James has already butchered into joint and steaks and once we've tasted we'll decide whether we'll be able to work with Graham on a regular basis.   We also this week got our Licence to Buy Fish from the Marine Management Organisation - so we have a couple of meetings lined up for next week with fish / lobster fishermen and our plan is to really major on fish in the summer and  this wonderful local produce, so, I'll keep you updated as to our progress.   Apart from that we have also been working on a new sandwich menu and from Tuesday we are introducing 'Victoria's Main Brace Butties'..............going back to a local produce theme we are going to be using great bread from a local baker - Jerome - the Frenchmans Bakery! The sandwichs are going to be lovely thick doorstops of bread but presented in a semi open manner - when we start doing them, I'll take some photo's for you to see how good they look...... Watch out for the new Fish Finger one!!

I love bringing all our ideas together and coming up with things to keep us fresh, current and inviting and I hope you do to?!?