The Green, Green Grass of Harrop Fold & Peter Jones' Watercress Soup

What a lovely few weeks we have enjoyed here at Harrop Fold, we escaped for a family 3 nights away last week, closing the doors and leaving our kind Helen to look after the home and feed the animals.

On our return we were surprised to see the hawthorn had blossomed in the bottom field and how green the fields are looking. The farm animals are becoming broody, one of the doves sitting up in the dovecote on her nest, and one of the bantams has become broody and she is sitting guard over a clutch of her eggs. Mr Peacock is looking to do some courting but cannot find a peahen so he spends alot of time following the hens!

Today George and David have borrowed Rachel's huge tractor and muck spreader to spread the fields before turning the cows out for the summer. I think they are ready for a good run round - the cows not the boys! - but the grass is always greener...as they seem to plot escape routes from the field when they are actually turned out!

I spent a very happy birthday having dinner with the nearest and dearest and was given the most imaginative present from George...two tiny piglets! We have named them George and Pudding since one of them is so cute and cuddly. They are growing at the most astounding rate, and yes they will be enjoyed by us all! They really enjoy living in the cow barns, in their own sty but securely next to the cows who were so interested when they arrived. It is great too to see them enjoy all the cupcakes and various bits and pieces which are actually left...occasionally! The other new temporary residents are 8 Aylesbury ducklings, but they have almost grown into ducks now, their quacking sounds brilliant and certainly confused the dogs!

The Visit Chester and Cheshire Annual Awards for 2009 have been announced and for the 4th year we have been shortlisted in 2 categories: Bed & Breakfast of the Year and A Taste of Cheshire. We are, of course, delighted! Delighted once again that we have successfully reached their standards and delighted too to be going along to their fantastic night of celebrations at Chester Racecourse in June. We must now organise our tickets! And as everyone knows, we just love Chester.

The family all visited the Chester Food & Drink Festival over the Easter weekend which was a brilliant couple of hours spent in the sunshine tasting lots of yummy food! I loved the Menai Oysters - umm just thinking of that lovely salty seaside flavour! however, my favourite treat from the day was Peter Jones' Wirral Watercress. We took home a couple of packets and made the best ever Wirral Watercress Soup - so maybe you would like to try this yourself:

Harrop Fold Wirral Watercress Soup from Peter Jones' farm

1. Take an onion and a small potato (to use as the thickening agent) chop and sweat in a heavy bottomed pan (putting on the lid) with some Westry Roberts farm churned butter to stop any sticking.
2. When completely soft - but not coloured, cover with stock - obviously depending on the amount of watercress, I usually use around 2 pints.
3. When the stock has reached boiling point continue simmering until the potatoes are tender and then add the couple of packs of watercress, cook for around 2 minutes and then using a hand held 'whizzer' whiz until the watercress has blended with the veg and stock. I think the secret is to drop the watercress in at the end for a short time as then you keep the wonderful bright green colour.
4. Ladle into soup dishes and for an extra treat, drop a dollop of Delamere Dairy of Knutsford creamed Goat's Cheese into the centre of each bowl...yummy!

Whilst for this tasty soup I confess to using Swiss Bouillon stock, (but let's keep that a secret!) when making our delicious Cheshire Onion Soup we do then always make our own stock, tonight we are eating a rib of Harrop Fold beef, and I will keep the rib bone, roast and then boil up in the stock pan with some of our lovely Cheshire root veg from Northern Harvest and this will make the most delicious stock.

So whilst on this food note, I must go and make our lunch - well I say make! Leah has made us a delicious Smoked Salmon tart with some beautiful smoked salmon from the Cheshire Smokehouse and we are being used as an experiment as she has used Cheshire potatoes as the base for a potato pastry case. So mouth watering, I will assemble a salad as the family will be in soon.

Speak soon,

Love, Sue x