There's no avoiding it now I'm afraid, the festive season is upon us!
If you don't want to read about Christmas you should look away now as
this newsletter is packed with details of our Christmas events calendar
and also news on our Christmas Order Form from the butchers!
First though, thank you to everyone who came up to the farm for our
Apple Day in October. Plenty of apples were crushed and pressed and I
don't think I've ever seen so many children around the farm shop with
their mouths full of British Apples! Thankyou also to Bob from Midford
Cider (pictured talking all things apples on the right) and Chris from
Norcott's cider for keeping our thirsts quenched with their cider
tasting!
Sausage Week - 5th to 11th November
Our
butchers have been busy creating lots of different sausage recipes in
recent months and the best will be on offer throughout the week. Don't
forget our
3 packs for £10 offer
too on our pre packed sausages! Our butcher's sausages will also be
served up in the cafe through the week as well as for our Supper Club
Quiz night on the 8th November (pre-book only I'm afraid!).
Hartley Farm's Taste of Christmas - 24th & 25th November 10-4pm
Our
annual Christmas Fayre will take place on the last weekend of November.
The day is a great way to taste the wonderful local produce, discuss
Christmas recipes and be inspired for the festive season! A full list of
our producers is on our events page on our website.
Christmas Craft Fair - 1st December 10-4pm
Our first ever Craft
Fair will take place the following weekend with some wonderful local
craft makers on show to help with your Christmas shopping needs. We have
greetings cards, soft furnishings, glassware, woodwork design,
florists, and much more! We still have a couple of stalls free so if you
create the perfect pressies and you're interested in exhibiting at our
Fair or know someone who does please contact Tom through
tom@hartley-farm.co.uk.
As part of Sausage Week we will have our Tracklements Onion Marmalade Parfait Jars on special offer...
If you buy any 6 of our homemade sausages our large Onion Marmalade Jars
are only £6.45 saving you £1!
Our festive range of Christmas gifts is now available from special jam
and chutney gift packs to special gifts from Culinary Concepts and many
more. Let's not forget all the lovely chocolates available, including
Montezuma's Christmas range & Lick the Spoon's fantastic local
chocolates.
Also, Fred the Wiltshire beekeeper has been busy crafting his beeswax
and we have a range of beeswax candles, handcreams and soap, a lovely
gift for anytime of the year.
We also have a limited stock of Wiltshire Honeycomb at £7.49, perfect for spreading on toast!
The stars of sausage week will be our Venison, Pork & Leek and
Toulouse sausages among a few other wonderful flavours, all made in
house by the team.
We will also have a few sausage-themed recipe cards available to make the most of this sausage bounty!
Christmas started back in January for Ed and the team. Provisional
orders had to be made to our poultry farmer, Robert Caldecott (pictured)
as well as the most demanding of the farmers, Richard Bowles, Tom's
Dad! Our own farming calendar has to tie in with our butcher's demands
to make sure our counter will be offering our own beef and pork over the
Christmas period. As of
next week our Christmas Order forms will be available to pick up from the farm shop with all our own and local produce available.
This year we are giving away a wonderful Christmas Hamper to one lucky person!
All you have to do is hand your order form back to us before the 1st of December to be in with a chance of winning.
The lucky winner will be picked out at the beginning of December.
In light of the cold weather we now have plenty of game in stock as well as our
traditional faggots back in the counter, perfect with a bit of onion gravy. Along with this our
ready made beef burgundy is going down a storm - available from the butchery counter, all you have to do is throw it in the oven and supper is sorted!
The cafe team have turned all wintery too and recent specials like our
sausage casserole, cottage pie and vegetable pies have been a great hit.
Our new, fresh ready meals created in our kitchen are also available through our deli counter and help take the hassle out of feeding the family!
Our
new menu will also be out in the next week
which will feature even more of our homemade range and plenty to warm
the soul on those cold, blustery afternoons. By popular demand we have
also
expanded our vegetarian breakfast options as well as
serving gluten free bread for our sandwiches.
Lastly we are looking for someone who will help us source some locally
foraged mushrooms. This time of year is perfect for mushroom hunting but
it's a dangerous game if you don't know your fungi! If you're a local
expert or know someone let us know!
Young Blooms are going to do the ever popular Christmas wreath making workshops in our fantastic new workroom on
Saturday 1st December and
Saturday 8th December 11-1pm £45
per wreath to include mulled wine, hot chocolate, mince pies. All
equipment provided. Families welcome together (not suitable for under
8s).
Call Laura and Grace to book on 01225 580271 or email us on info@youngblooms.co.uk
The enormous leeks have done very well this year – at least something
has enjoyed the wet summer! Try them roasted in oil with some cheese and
black pepper grated on top, yum. The tomatoes and cucumbers are coming
to an end now in the polytunnels, and will make way in the next week or
so for more salad leaves. The early frosts have meant the end for the
coloured French beans and some of the lettuce in the field; but
fortunately the mixed leaf salad bags are cheering us up: a mixture of
lettuce, red, green and fronded mustards, rocket, French sorrel, plus a
few extra leaves to come soon: radicchio, endive, pak choi, winter
purslane, land cress… It's great to have salad at this time of year: not
only do you feel healthy having some fresh greens, the spicy leaves are
full of flavour, colour and vitamins. We'll be holding a salad leaf
tasting at the Christmas Market at the end of November (no more boring
iceberg lettuce!) so come along and surprise yourself.
Lastly our Christmas opening hours are as below and will be on our website too.
Sunday 23rd December - 0900-1930
Monday 24th December - 0900-1200
25th-27th December - CLOSED
28th-31st December - 1000-1600
1st January - CLOSED
2nd January - OPEN AS USUAL
We look forward to seeing you all soon,
Tom
but we now have a fully restored counter full of delicious local cheese and homemade goodies! We have a few new cheeses too...
From the Butchers
morning,
just as I was relaying the news to the team I received a letter through
the post congratulating us on reaching the final of another award. This
time it was the national 
