North Norfolk Food and Drink Festival
It's the North Norfolk Food and Drink Festival this weekend: 3rd and 4th September.
The first weekend in September means one thing at HQ: lots and lots and lots of baking for the wonderful North Norfolk Food and Drink Festival at Holkham Hall.
The walled gardens in full glory
Now in it's 8th year, the festival is by far the biggest and best food and drink in Norfolk. It takes place in the spacious and stunning setting of the enormous 6 acre walled gardens; (which in themselves are a worth exploring for a few hours), bringing together all of our fellow producers for a veritable cornucopia of locally made, yummy edibles and drinkables.
We'll be taking our usual selection of award winning small and medium sized pies: the oh so popular onion marmalade, the warming chilli, the smokey chorizo, our summer special 'Wiveton' (lemon, parsley and garlic) and the anything but traditional 'Naked'. Oh, and just a few of our delicious sausage rolls.
The limited edition Piccalilli pie
We're also have with us the rather sensational black pudding pork pie. We've teamed up with Fruit Pig and included a generous slice of their very special, rare, black pudding. But you'll have to be quick, we always sell out fast.
The festival is on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd at Holkham Hall and is open 10am - 4pm. Entry is free and includes the chance to see the beautiful gardens. Car parking (right next to the gardens), is £3. Dogs are welcome too.
If you can't make it, worry not. We're always sending pies out to our many stockists all over the country. You can find them all here and, we also have our very own online pie shop so you can have the quintessential taste of Norfolk delivered to your door.
The tiniest train
Now, I'm not much of a one for steam trains. Somehow the gene that has directed the rest of my family to variously obsess, head to Greece on (full size) ex-UK, engine-buying expeditions, run station sweet shops etc has firmly passed me by. But I've found my exception.
As my half-anthracite brother was staying with me, and because I see a lot of the happy team at the Wells to Walsingham Light Railway on our regular visits to supply their little cafe (there will be a lot of diminutive adjectives coming up) with our sausage rolls , I suggested a trip from Wells to Walsingham. And just utterly LOVED it.
The Wells To Walsingham Light Railway
Now, I'm not much of a one for steam trains. Somehow the gene that has directed the rest of my family to variously obsess, head to Greece on (full size) ex-UK, engine-buying expeditions, run station sweet shops etc has firmly passed me by. But I've found my exception.
As my half-anthracite brother was staying with me, and because I see a lot of the happy team at the Wells to Walsingham Light Railway on our regular visits to keep their little cafe (there will be a lot of diminutive adjectives coming up) stocked with our sausage rolls, I suggested a trip from Wells to Walsingham. And just utterly LOVED it.
The engine and carriages are so tiny they melted even my mechanically indifferent heart a little. I'd tell you the gauge, but neither of us are interested in that, are we dear reader? But what unexpectedly thrilled and excited me was the journey. It was like a long, relaxed ramble through a nature reserve. I'll list the wild flowers I spotted below, and there were plenty more.
Most of the carriages are open, and the little engine is slow enough that you really have time to absorb what's very closely around you. More than anything, it reminded me of a sunny chug on a canal boat. Apart from the flowers, we saw deer, a buzzard, a marsh harrier and a very close (almost beak to nose) encounter with a barn owl, perched in a trackside tree.
The trip took about half an hour. You can time it to catch a later train back and have a good wander around medieval Walsingham village and buy treats at Walsingham Farm Shop. At that end there was a hilarious bold chicken, so big it was near half the size of the engine, which had to be entertainingly scooped off the track (I suspect it's an Equity member and fully trained).
Anyway, it's all delightful. On our homeward trip we even took a detour to have an evening stroll on the Warham Camp bronze age fort (which you can see from the train) and then stopped for a sip of Moongazer ale at the newly re-opened Carpenter's Arms at Wighton.
My WWLR North Norfolk May wild flower list...
All spotted from the carriage. I'd love to know what you spot that I've missed - do add a comment below:
Wild Strawberry
Cowslips
Ox Eye Daisies
Speedwell
Vetch - yellow and purple
Buttercups
Elderflower
Bluebells
Campion (White and Red)
Scabious (Bachelor's Button)
Crane's Bill
Something blue, a bit like Viper's Bugloss but smaller
Cow Parsley
Columbine
Stitchwort