Hunting gall bladders and other odd activities

Someone said to me recently "I did not know you were a blogger". Well having not posted for over 3 months "blogger" is probably too strong a word for my occasional utterings.  I thought It was about time I gave it another go, after all it can be added to the list of odd activities that I get involved in. Now for instance I am writing this, nursing a tender back from splitting logs a few days ago, but this morning I was chasing chickens round in circles, something I find I do quite often.
Lesley, Emma and I have moved out of room one at Brook House to a cottage up the road, which had some resident hens and some newly hatched chicks. We are really enjoying the sense of space and the partial outdoor life with the hens and the wood burning heating system.
At Brook House the year is quietening down rapidly, Dad and I have started work on room one bathroom, we were quite surprised to find it had a cast iron bath, we left it in the bedroom only to find that when we came back after lunch it had miraculously found its way outside -thanks to Owain and Phil!
We have had a bit of a change around with the beers on the bar, after 12 years on the bar, Tim Taylor's Landlord has been replaced, this was a hard decision but with prices increasing we decided it would be better to offer a cheaper local brew in these troubled financial times.  "Cumbria Legendary Ales - Langdale" is now a permanent fixture, cheaper it maybe but the quality is excellent and at 4% it provides a good step up from  "Hawkshead bitter", allowing us to have some stronger guests such as "Yates IPA".
In the kitchen we have a new supplier for butchery which has proven to be a good addition. The butcher has introduced some new cuts of meat including a "lamb cradle" which is cut from the leg, we pan fry then roast it and serve very pink with a minted port berry sauce. Also they supply Cumbrian pork which we have been curing and turning into our own bacon. Chicken livers are now also sourced from Cumbria but you do have to look out for those little green gall bladders, they can ruin a lovely batch of Pate!

The valley is looking lush and vibrant. We have had about 40cm of rain since the beginning of August, which has made it difficult for campers and maybe put a few people off coming, hopefully the coming month will see a bit less water and a little more sun as the trees put on their autumnal cloak. All the pubs in the valley are in good shape now and with the ratty still running October is an excellent time to visit Eskdale. We have rooms available for some weekends and during the week.

Off back to my proper job now - time to do a bit of cooking.

Beer Festival and Beyond

Another Beer Festival has come and gone, once more in fine style with good weather and fine folk drinking lots of Britains' finest ales, over 130 real ales in fact!.

This is quite some achievement for a small rural valley like ours. All 3 pubs had a good festival, although we thought that there may have been slightly less people about than last year, but the ones here made up for that by drinking a bit more - well done all of you and thank you for coming.
I would like to thank everyone for their kind messages of support after the terrible events of June 2nd. A few people have suggested they would stay away to give the valley time to settle down and us all time to recover, this is a lovely thought, but I hope I can speak for all the pubs, B+B's,  campsites and cottages in the area and urge everyone to come and visit Eskdale. What we want is to see happy smiling faces back in the valley.
July is looking quiet at Brook House with some weekend vacancies available and plenty of space during the week, to book give us a ring on 01946723288 or go to our online booking page.

Wednesday 2nd June 2010

A day that will be hard to forget for so many people from West Cumbria.
As I am sure everyone is aware a man killed and injured many people on this day. He terminated his journey near Doctor Bridge finally taking his own life.
Just past Brook House  on  the way to the campsite he fired shots at several people, injuring at least two, we brought one lady into the pub and looked after her as best we could until the poilce finally took her off for medical treatment. We brought everyone inside and locked the doors, this was a tense time as we were told by the police that the man was now on foot and armed with a rifle with telescopic sights. Five helicopters were up in the air and at least 15 police vehicles passed by Brook House.
There was a sense of relief when we were given information that the situation had been resolved and everyone could go back to their business, the tourists moved on, staff changed and we continued work. A busy night passed in a blur, avoiding press and helping the police as required.
As the full horror of the day unfolded and the death toll rose a sense of numbness has descended upon many of us as I am sure it has accross the country. When I got up this morning I went outside, the birds were still singing, the cuckoo calling,  nothing has changed but the whole landscape seems softer, almost surreal.
Eskdale has got off lightly, only one death and that being the killer. Harry Berger from the Woolpack Inn has been seriously injured and is in hospital, he was shot whilst in Seascale and has recieved surgery on his arm/hand, as far as I am aware no one else from the Boot was injured.
Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all those killed and injured yesterday, a sad day for everyone.

Beer is Art

The perfect pint, is it displayed in a gallery somewhere? If it was would it have a tight creamy head on top of a bright nutty brown body, or would it be frothy like it had been pulled from the bottom of a mountain waterfall, maybe it would be black as night or pale as a harvest moon. Like art what beer suits one may provoke an adverse reaction in another! Hopfully this years Boot Beer Festival will have something to please everyone.
It is getting towards that time of year when our cellar starts to strain at the seams, jam packed with beer for the festival and a busy week at half term.  But first this weekend sees the Eskdale school turn into an Art Gallery for Eskdale Art, with hundreds of exhibits from local artists and the more famous such as Paul Hopkins. I have just dropped a couple of Photos off (late) and had a quick look at some of the other exhibits and I am glad to say the standard once more looks good.

I like this time of year when we stop worrying about having too much beer and start assessing if we have enough to last the week!
In general only having a small cellar creates an interesting project to mamage the beer, roatating stock, getting it racked etc, at the beer festival this is complicated by the shear volume of beer, this year we have to have 40 different ones on over the festival! so that should be fun!

In the kitchen we are settling back into the routine of being busy, we have some great local suppliers, especially for Cumbrian meat, but one of the best things for me at this time of year is to be able to go outside and pick fresh herbs from the garden. Also Sarah and Shaun now have a garden full of rhubarb so Eskdale rhubarb crumble is back on the menu!
The Boot Beer Festival kicks off on Thursday10th June 2010 at Brook House Inn with a curry night and music from Leather and Lace.

Spring is in the air - my mistake it is just a passing shower!

First off -a bit of breaking news, a few minutes ago I got an email which said simply "congratulations"! After a bit of digging I found out that we have been awarded CAMRA Branch pub of the Year for West Cumbria. It is always good to get an award, but this is a rare honor as the usual recipient is the Kirkstyle Inn at Loweswater - hard to beat such a good pub when it brews some of the best ale in the county! We are finding it hard not to have a beer from Loweswater on the bar, and when they are they dont stay long.


So now back to the title of the post, the daffodils are finally in bloom and the temperature rose above 10 C for the first time since the 20th November 2009, having said that the high fells still have deep snow lying especially on shaded slopes and the summits. The top of Scafell has had snow visible on top from the 20th December - a full 3 months, certainly ther longest period in the 12 years we have been here.

Here is Foxes Tarn just a couple of weeks ago, and below is Owain having fun in the snow

Spring may be just about here but it is still pretty cold on the tops so if you are coming up for Easter,  pack the hats and gloves. I went for a dive in Wastwater yesterday and the water temp was still only 4 C, pretty cold hands after half an hour.

Valley News :-  Congratulations to Clare on the birth of daughter Kimberley.
The Woolpack has now changed hands, Harry Berger The previous landlord of the Boot Inn is the new Owner. The pub is expected to re-open later this week.
The King George remains closed still with a for sale sign outside.
 Snow and Ice is gone from the passes so all routes into the valley are now open.
Boot Beer Festival dates are 10th-13th June 2010

Brook House in the Paper!

Just a quick post, ( two in one month seems a bit extravagant and a little wasteful, would n't want people to think I had nothing better to do.) to highlight an article written about Brook House Inn and the fact that someone persuaded me infront of the camera, which is pretty unusual. Anyway here is the link- Whitehaven News  please have a read whilst the link still works. I would like to say a big thanks to Grainne Jakobson the author and owner of Woodend Cookery near Egremont, and to Mike the photographer for the great pictures.

Cheers
Gareth

Rhinos in the Bar

First of all Happy New Year to everyone.
It is a bright sunny morning with a touch of frost up here in Boot, I was going to write about Hardknott and Birker fell roads both being open again but as it is so cold this morning I will leave that for another day!
We had our busiest night of the year so for on Thursday when the Leeds Rhinos first team came to Eskdale instead of Florida for their pre season training camp! The players were staying at the YHA and the staff were here at Brook House Inn. I hope they had a good  night I know we did, none more so than Phil Baker one of our local chefs who is a serious rugby fan. He got to meet some of his heros like Great Britain captain Jamie Peacock

and a player for whom like Phil size is not an issue - legendary Leeds and GB scrum half Rob Burrow. Rob has played 270 games for Leeds, represented Yorkshire, England and Great Britain and was in the team in 2007 for the series whitewash of  New Zealand.

The Rhinos came to the area not just because it is friendlier than Florida, sells Tim Taylors and Hawkshead Beers, and is several hours closer to Leeds, but to help promote rugby in the local schools, raise the profile of the game in Cumbria and to play Whitehaven on Sunday 24th Jan at the Whitehaven Recreation ground stadium. I am a bit split as to who to cheer for on Sunday, my daughter was born in Leeds when we lived in Otley, I've been in Cumbria for 12 years now but in my heart I'm still a Lancashire lad! maybe I should stay in the kitchen.
Anyway thanks to the Rhinos for entertaining us on Thursday and the safe return of the fox and squirrel! Good luck tommorow.