Cakes & Bakes for Comic Relief

The Showstopper Challenge

Our mighty cake & bake sale raised a whopping £345 for Comic Relief. Thank you to everyone who came to drink day and donate their delicious home made treats for sale. Huge thanks to the International Quilting Day ladies who donated £40 of raffle takings to the pot. “Guess the weight of the Showstopper” was a popular activity on the day and was won by a very deserving villager who was spot on at 6lbs – pink sparkly marshmellows and all.

Latest Arrival

Kit Elvis Collis – check out the side burns.

Well it’s spring time and everything seems to be having babies at the moment but I have taken the controversial decision to deviate from farm animals and show off our most exciting new arrival.  Maybe this one will like tractors…

BBC Homes & Antiques’ Christmas spread

Courtesy of Homes & Antiques Magazine

We are thrilled to be featured in Homes & Antiques Christmas magazine, with a beautiful 8-page spread dedicated to showing off Launceston Farm in all its festive glory.  This is one of the photos from their December issue which is on sale until 15th December. The article is full of hints and suggestions of how to achieve the stylish look Sarah has got going on at the farmhouse including where she sourced her most interesting antiques.  If you would like to see more of the photos which have kindly been provided courtesy of Homes & Antiques, have a look at our Facebook page.

Out and About in Autumn

There’s still plenty of sunlight left for a proper walk or cycle through the farm and the surrounding Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as Tia and I discovered yesterday. 

We were given a heads up from a couple of keen cyclists who stayed with us recently that we don’t mention on our website that we are niftily positioned on National Cycle Route 25 linking the Tarrant Valley with Poole, Bournemouth and the Dorset Coast.  Best get peddling Tia!

River Tarrant Fish Cakes

We are finding a lot of satisfaction in harvesting the bounty from our normally purely winter-borne River Tarrant which has run through the summer for the first time since Merve was a tiddler.

(We can’t take any credit for catching brown trout used in this recipe!)

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as main course

• 1lb potatoes mashed
• 1 large trout
• 1 lemon – zest and juice
• 1 glass white wine
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
• bread crumbs

Pour the white wine and lemon juice over the trout and bake at 170 degrees for 20 minutes.  When the trout is cool, gently remove the bones and skin and separate the fish into chunks.

Mix the mashed potato, trout, 1 egg, parsley, lemon zest, cayenne in a bowl and season well. Mix everything gently so as not to break up the chunks of fish too much.

Shape into round, flatish cakes. Roll in flour, then whisked egg and then coat in breadcrumbs.  Chill the fish cakes – or freeze them – until you need them.

Place cakes on a greased tray and bake for 20 minutes at 190 degrees.  Turn them over after 10 minutes.

Delicious served with home-made hollandaise sauce and a green salad.

Stay tuned for Tarrant River Watercress Soup!

Fresh field mushrooms with Crème Fraîche and Mustard

Stumbled upon these beauties on my walk this afternoon so this is what’s on for tea.

2 thick slices of white bread – sourdough is my favourite but don’t often have it knocking around

5 nice big fat fresh field mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 clove of garlic

2 dollops of  crème fraîche

1tsp of whole grain mustard

knob of butter

Toast the bread – mine ends up so thick, it has to go on the grill.  Add the butter to a frying pan followed by the mushrooms. Cook for 2 mins, then add the garlic and crème fraîche. Cook for 3-5 mins more until the mushrooms are soft and lightly coated in the crème fraîche. Stir through the mustard and a sprinkling of parsley if you fancy. Pile up on the toasts until almost toppling.

Sunday Times Travel Magazine: B&Bs with brilliant breakfasts

Sarah’s breakfasts have hit the big time with this fabulous write up from Susan D’arcy in the Sunday Times Travel Magazine this month.

Launceston Farm, Dorset: For a full-on fry-up

Cordon Bleu-trained Sarah cooks on the Aga and specialises in ‘the works’: traditional sausages and bacon from their own pigs, black pudding from a neighbour’s farm, and eggs from chickens that scratch in the orchard you can see from the Old Cart Shed – now adorned with fancy Indian rugs and doubling as the dining room. It’s The Archers meets Aquascutum.  Sunday Times Travel, September 2012.

If you would like to know more our breakfasts check out our Love Food page.