Summers Night in the River Cottage Garden
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Wednesday 23rd July 2008
When we were planning our Summer's Night event last winter, we knew we might be taking a bit of a gamble with the English 'summer' weather. But, ever optimistic as us Brits are, we went for it and last night it paid off. Capturing that perfect summer's night, when the warmth of the evening sun isn’t set to disappear behind an ominous cloud, our guests relaxed, dining outside in our Kitchen Garden.
The idea of the event was to capture that perfect summer's night, when it’s warm enough to sit in our garden, throwing open the doors and our kitchen to spit roasting and barbequing in the bread ovens. Often when I'm at home, it's a case of whatever I have managed to scrabble together, not expecting it to be such good weather, raking in to the back of my over iced freezer, for a pack of sausages left over from last year.
For Gillon Meller, our Head Chef, he hasn't got that luxury with his menus - planning them at least 24 hours in advance, sometimes a few days, sometimes a week, depending on the best of what he has seaonally available. Whether it be fish caught on our Catch & Cook or a shoulder of pork butchered on our Pig in a Day.
Yesterday morning, Gill was on the phone to me asking what the weather would be like for Wednesday (the night of the event)? Are we dining inside or out? We plumped for a yes, outside, and he had a Sydling Brook lamb delivered ready for the spit. Gill doesn’t usually provide a choice on his menus – the idea is to get you to try something different, whilst picking the freshest and best of what he has available – but last night he relinquished slightly, so our guests could choose from Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder or Spit Roasted Lamb. Most clever couples ordered one of each so they could try each others.
Menu del Dia
Beetroot and Blue Vinney Salad with nasturium flowers
Bay cured pollack and roasted tomatoes
Spit Roast Lamb or Slow Roasted shoulder of Pork with Salsa Verde
Wholemeal Honey and Almond cake with gooseberry sorbet and cream
Before dinner our guests were taken on a tour of the gardens and farm. Mark Diacono, our climate change expert and Steven, our inimitable event hosts, were in their element.
With two of the three amigo’s, Steven and Mark, our guests were well looked after. The three amigo’s by the way are Steven, Gillon and Mark, who cover all bases - looking after the farm and Gardens (Mark), looking after the guests (Steve) and cooking the most delicious food (Gill).
Please, members of River Cottage, feel free to comment, we would love to hear your thoughts. And if our guests on the evening would like to send us in their photographs to
events@rivercottage.net
we would be delighted to post them up here.
Blogged by Liz Murray
The last available
Summers Night at River Cottage
is Thursday 4th September 2008.