We started with a nice breakfast at the B&B. Joy, the owner, couldn't be nice and she made some delicious Muesli. She even sent me with a bag of it. We had smoked kippers and homemade bread. Then we jumped in the car and headed off for River Cottage cooking school. It was great checking out the cooking school -- it is in a breathtaking location. The founder, Huge Fernley-Whittingstall is a celebrity chef in England and a pioneer of local food. The cooking school location is even kept hush hush because they'd have so many visitors. Well, we figured it out and had a look. We then went to the River Cottage shop and I bought one of his books that is about keeping hens, having pigs, and generally just cooking seasonally all year long.
www.rivercottage.net
After that we headed about an hour and a half west. It was a nice drive and we went to check out a farm shop called Rivershop Organics. It was a nice place and they have several businesses that we looked at. We had lunch nearby at a place called the Cider Press. I had a cheese sandwich. There was no cider to be found, it was kind of touristy too but oh well.
www.riverford.co.uk
After lunch we went to the house of Tom who is a publisher. He is well respected in the food scholar scene and used to hang out with Elizabeth David. Nathalie had been in contact with him because he wanted her to translate a book that only exists in French. So we decided to stop in and meet him. He was hilarious and we had a nice chat. We left his house and stopped on the road to buy some pots of jam for 1 pound each.
We then high tailed it to Christchurch for dinner. It was about a 2 hour drive. Not exactly the highlight of the day but at least the car is fuel efficient. We had a decent dinner at a new Gary Rhodes restaurant (another British celebrity chef) but not good enough for Nathalie to actually write a review. Everything was salty and it just wasn't great. So in that case Conde Nast still pays for the dinner but she doesn't get paid to write a review -- bummer.
www.garyrhodes.com
We are now staying at the Christchurch Harbor Hotel and I am about to hit the hay since we are getting up early tomorrow (6:30 yikes!) and heading to Bristol for the Soil Association conference.
www.christchurch-harbor-hotel.co.uk
www.soilassociation.org
Goodnight!
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