Of mice and cheese and rainy days...

While Tuesday of this week was awful, (see previous blog post,) Monday had been wonderful.

I opened the curtains first thing to a dreary, rain flooded sky and wondered what I was going to do with the sproglets who were beginning their second week of the school holidays. Usually we would have been off on a camping trip by now; tent loaded in the car, marshmallows close at hand, but this year is just too darn wet. Towards the end of this week I have plans for sproglet entertainment that stretches into August, but this Monday had me flummoxed.

I keep meaning to scribe a blog page with a list of things to do with sproglets on a rainy day... maybe I'll do that later this week, in the meantime we've hosted various playdates and the 9yo has taken to painting watercolours and other crafty activity while the 7yo is excellent at Lego creation and at bombing through the levels of a Wii game, selling it on eBay, buying another and so on....

While making breakfast I had a Eureka! moment. How about a cheap and cheerful outing with educational and gastronomic overtones? Clearly it was time for a visit to Mousetrap Cheese's Monkland Cheese Dairy at Pleck Farm, a few miles to the west of Leominster in Hereford. At an entrance fee of  £3 for adults and £1.75 per child, this cottage industry takes you into the heart of cheese making, up close and personal, (blue cheese smells and all.) Mousetrap Cheese are the producers of the Little Hereford and Monkland Cheese and they also own shops in Leominster, Ludlow and Hereford where they specialise in a range of British farmhouse and continental cheeses mostly made from unpasteurised milk.

By 10:30am we were running from the car to the little coffee and cheese shop, the persistent wet stuff just wouldn't let up! Inside the dairy was all toasty warm with coffee and cheese perfuming the air. We nibbled at taster sized pieces of cheese, loving all of the flavours especially the Little Hereford flavoured with sage.

Our guide and chief cheese maker soon came to collect us. She wore a fetching outfit of white boots, apron, shorts and a T-shirt, along with a retro looking 1970's hat, (probably a heath and safety requirement rather than a nod to The Liver Birds.) We're it not for the text on the back of her t-shirt that read; 'Blessed be the cheese makers,' she could have auditioned for a number of Abba copycat bands.

Our guide was so wonderfully personable that our tour comprising three adults and five children (aged from 7-14)  were soon happy to ask questions and squeal in horror at the origin of French rennet, a bi-product of the French veal industry. Who'd have though cheese making could be so gory - the kids loved it.

We were shown how the cheese was made, stage by stage and stood just a few feet from huge vats of warm, rennet infused milk, gawping at the fact that with 1000 litres of milk, only 100 litres of cheese would be created. This leaves 90% of soluble protein or whey as waste and this needs to be disposed of. This waste is ideally suited to feed pigs, so get in touch with them if you'd like some for your animals.

We were taken into the storage rooms where mold (the good type) encrusted rounds of cheese were sat on shelves maturing. The 7yo was salivating by now and I was surprised to note that he wasn't bothered by the aroma, he was genuinely interested in the process, as was the 9yo.

All in all it was a great adventure and by the time we left, the rain had stopped and the sun was belting hot........ OK, I've gone waaaay too far now... it was still pee-ing down!

For cheese and tasty tours (and to avoid the rain) contact:

Mousetrap Cheese, The Pleck, Monkland, Hereford. HR6 9DB Tel. 01568 720 307

North West of London.......

It is always good when friends come to stay, and lately we have had a lovely array of visitors.

This weekend we hosted a pal from London with her wonderful hubby Fen and her two gorgeous children Cate and X. You must know her she writes the brilliant 'Cross the Pond blog.

She chose a good weekend to come, Ludlow has held street markets since the twelfth century and this weekend was no exception, the Ludlow Medievil Christmas Fayre was on too. We browsed stalls selling fresh produce, cheeses, olives, books and  local crafts while rubbing shoulders with wild, chivalrous knights and courtly ladies, soldiers, jesters and medieval musicians as well as menacing minders of King Stephen. All with the backdrop of the Norman Castle.

It was all pretty bizarre, but good.

We visited the yummy cheese shop too. Sadly I'd forgotten to bring a carrier bag, but thank goodness the weather was so chilly, as Miss 'Cross the Pond offered to store the cheese purchases in her handbag. If it had been warmer, her purse could have smelled remarkably like a french pond, so pungent were our cheese- choices! (Fortunately she was still fragrant by home-time, freezing but fragrant) Although cold, the belting sunshine made Ludlow look so pretty.

Fen and Hubby were in heaven too: Two international rugby matches on the TV on Saturday, beer and a thwacking Thanksgiving turkey - theirs was a marriage made in heaven.

It has been super-cold, a severe frost has covered the fields and frozen the water troughs for the horses. Although it's not snow, after our guests departed, Sledge Field was sufficiently frozen to allow the 8yo and the 6yo to sled for the afternoon, until their hands bottoms and knees could take the pain no longer!. It has been so cold in fact, that locally they recorded temperatires of -18 last night. Sadly, one of our chickens passed away last night. Poor thing, she hadn't looked well. Never fear however, Archie and mum are still doing well.

Well I'm off to cook dinner.

Just 7000 words between now and Tuesday midnight and I should complete the NaNoWriMo challenge. Will I do it? 'COURSE I WILL.......

Food and Will the Shetland pony

Will has come as a guest of The Larches! The children are ecstatic. I was determined not to be happy but he is sooo cute. Clearly my life of poo will be extended to horse poo. I already have a BA Hons in child poo, cow poo, chicken poo and very occasionally cat poo (the worst.)

This morning I drove to Ludlow in Dizzy Disco. Dropped the 7yo to her friend's house so that they could play at being pop stars and apply makeup badly while the 5yo and I went PROPER shopping. Having bribed him first with a handmade pizza from De Grey's the patisserie I bought myself enough time to purchase naughty desserts; creme brule, marzipan treats and fruit tarts. While the 5yo still munched happily we bought bacon at the butcher DW Wall and then we toddled off to the Monkland Cheese Shop to sample and buy local brie, a round of blue and a really delicious hard goat cheese. Interestingly The Telegraph (British National newspaper) had sent a food writer to Ludlow who was loitering with a photographer. She was glamorous and certainly knew her cheeses....as she encouraged us to spill the beans on our fave foods us food-aholics in the shop blossomed while the 5yo repeated over and over 'Can we go yet, can we go yet, can we go yet? Pleeeese..?' Heathen!





Weather's looking good for the weekend. Menu is sorted, just beds to make and then I'm going to have me a glass of something chilled in the garden before guests arrive.... Oh hang on there's someone at the door....

....My neighbour just brought Timmy round to visit. He's a tiny lamb and his mummy died. I seriously thought she was seeing if I wanted him... YES I DO, HE'S GORGEOUS! But it turns out she wants him too and he was only over for a visit....shame, but possibly a lucky escape for this year, as there's rather a lot on at The Larches...Oh well, back to the beds..