Well what a busy time it has been recently – lots of lovely visitors at the holiday cottage taking a well- earned break from the madness of Christmas.  We were delighted to be invited to the Farm-shop at Doddington Hall in January to do food tastings of our rapeseed oil and recipes and had a fantastic time.  What a lovely, well stocked farm-shop with lots of gifts and foods you rarely find anywhere else.   Customers sampled our pastry tarts (pastry made using our rapeseed oil) flapjacks, bread and cakes and we found the feedback was very positive.  We were lucky to meet celebrity chefs Amy Claridge and Rachel Green, who both enjoyed our samples.

So back in my kitchen working on new recipes for the Spring "Ownsworth’s Rapeseed Oil Recipe Club”.  I am passionate about using local and seasonal produce – it has less miles to travel, it’s full of taste, packed with vitamins and minerals and often with a "glut” of produce, it is the cheapest way to feed a family.  We all have to watch the pennies these days, so a good way I feed my family is to make use of surpluses of seasonal produce, by making soups, baking and preserving fruit and vegetables as either jams or chutneys.  My chest freezer is one thing I can’t manage without.  I know what I put into my family’s food and I can just freeze the surpluses knowing that it is not full of lots of saturated fat, salt and sugar and that’s important to me.  I am in control of feeding my family well.

If there isn’t a local farm-shop, deli, butchers or bakers near you stocking our oil for you, why not ask them to give us a ring, or email us and we can contact them for you. 

On 2nd February 2012, Fulbeck Gardens Cottage was awarded "Highly Commended” by Select Lincolnshire & Tastes of Lincolnshire at an awards ceremony in Lincoln for The Self Catering category and our use of  Tastes of Lincolnshire Products in the cottage (including our own!) and for promoting visiting Lincolnshire.  It is always lovely to know people really like what we do.

Andrew and the team have just finished pruning the vines down at the vineyard and we are looking forward to tasting our first rose.  More details to follow.

Best Wishes

Ronnie x