Wednesday 21 August 2013

Lots of 16 year old help!!




Today was the final visit from a group of young people undertaking the National Citizen Service Programme-lots of work was done sowing seeds, clearing paths, pruning strawberry plants and picking courgettes. They were also involved in making a film about their experience which will be shown at Rheged in October when they get their Awards




Tuesday 20 August 2013

Frosted Courgette & Lemon Cake

We are harvesting lots of fabulous courgettes at the moment, which can be bought at our produce stall -try out this BBC Good Food recipe!

Ingredients

  • 3 unwaxed lemons               250g pack unsalted butter, very soft, plus extra for the tin
  • 200g golden caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 medium courgettes, coarsely grated (you'll need 300g/10oz flesh)
  • 1 tsp poppy seed, plus extra to decorate
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 100g plain wholemeal flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 85g icing sugar
  • 200g pack full-fat soft cheese
  • 4 tbsp lemon curd (optional)
  1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter 2 x 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Zest 2 lemons, then squeeze their juice into a separate bowl. Put 200g butter, the caster sugar, eggs, courgettes, poppy seeds, vanilla and lemon zest into a mixing bowl. Beat to a creamy batter. Stir in 1 tbsp lemon juice, the flours, baking powder and ¼ tsp salt. Spoon the mix into the tins, then bake for 25 mins or until risen, golden and springy in the middle.
  2. Make a drizzle by mixing another tbsp lemon juice with 25g icing sugar. Put the remaining icing sugar and butter into a bowl, add the soft cheese, remaining lemon juice (about 2 tbsp) and grate in the final lemon’s zest. Beat to make a creamy, smooth frosting.
  3. When the cakes are ready, cool for 15 mins in their tins, then turn onto a cooling rack. Prick several times with a cocktail stick, spoon over the drizzle and cool completely. Can be frozen at this stage for up to 1 month. Put one cake onto a serving plate and spread with just under half the frosting. Spread over the lemon curd, if using. Top with the second cake, spread the remaining frosting over the top and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Lush, fabulous produce, volunteers and the media!



We had a visit from the Evening Mail today to take photographs for a feature called "From Field to Plate" We had a busy day and harvested baby carrots, white and green courgettes, salads, tomatoes, cabbages, beans, raspberries, herbs, leeks and onions. We potted up lots of strawberry plants and planted out all sorts of beans, tree spinach and lettuce!! Everything in the garden is wonderful!







Thursday 8 August 2013

Family Food Growing Fun!

Simon, our trainee gardener, ran his first solo workshop yesterday as part of our Family Activity Programme for the school holidays. Fourteen people attended and all took part enthusiastically with the whole food growing process-collecting and sowing seeds, planting out and harvesting. It was a great success!!




Wednesday 7 August 2013

Ford Park Visitor Interviews


I took some time last Thursday to interview some visitors to Ford Park to find out their views on what this lovely area has to offer. It was a sunny day and the gardens, cafe & park were very busy.  I managed to chat to some of visitors who were wandering through the park & gardens, some of who were local and some from farther afield.
Here are the views of three of the people I spoke to and I would like to thank them for taking time out of their day to speak to me and for also letting me take their photographs to go on the blog.




The first visitor I spoke to was Will who lives locally and has been visiting Ford Park from about 2012. His favourite place is the Coach House Cafe but he did say the whole area including the park & garden’s are excellent.  His son loves the play park and he also exercises the dog regularly in the park. Very often he will also buy plants that are for sale just outside the kitchen garden.










There seemed to be lots of Spanish visitors wandering round the Kitchen Garden and I spoke to Oriol who told me he was very impressed with Ford Park but especially with the Kitchen Garden as his company Can USTRELL Agriculture (CUA) in Catalunya is a company dedicated to the production and direct sales of vegetables and seasonal fruits, practising traditional agriculture. 
http://www.canustrellagricultura.com/ 



 

 












Later I spoke to Rachel and her 7yr old son Alex who come from Blackpool in Lancashire. They were visiting Ulverston and chanced on the signs for Ford Park in the town centre so popped up to have a look round. They thought it was all fabulous, with Alex saying he loved the swings best and Rachel saying she was looking forward to wandering round the gardens. They also planned to visit the cafe and they were going to come back later in the day to visit the car boot sale. 



I am sure the visitors we get from all over the world enjoy their time at Ford Park. Certainly the people I chatted to today spoke in glowing terms of the whole place, but why not come and see for yourself and enjoy the fresh air and sunny weather in glorious surroundings.