Happy New Year from Church Farm

The end of 2011 was a very positive month for Martin & I... Basils at Church Farm was busier than ever with small Christmas parties and families coming to dine in a relaxed environment prior to the Christmas madness!
We also discovered that a Shropshire Star reviewer had been in to eat, as our review which was rated at 5 stars (!) was published on Saturday 17th December (read it here) we are over the moon with the 5 stars and the article certainly has encouraged many more people to try the restaurant during January as the restaurant is filling up nicely... maybe time to back it up with some advertising now?...

Martin went snow boarding first week in January to blow away all the over indulgence of Christmas. This left me with the job of walking Basil every day which I have always seen as a chore!  I have a new neighbour from the village, fondly named 'Mad Sue' so walked with her and her dogs everyday.  Since Martin has been back to Martins amazement I have walked everyday with him and Basil which has changed my days significantly giving me loads of energy to get through the day with endorphins in my system! Very positive (although lets wait and see if the weather gets bad and guest house needs more rooms servicing daily!)

The Girls are enjoying life back at school - in fact they are at Stoke Castle today on a field trip so glad the winter sun is shining on them today! They have both become complete techno addicts and spend alot of time at home on their computors - I am amazed how quickly a 5 and 7 year old can surf their way around a computor and find exactly what they need!  Rosie is doing school projects through research on line and producing word documents and Megsy is loving uploading music and putting together artistic impressions with wordart... crazy!

The Bantams which we hatched in the autumn have now developed into 2 hens and 2 cockerels (we think!) albeit have no eggs off them yet - so I'll be looking for those in the next few months otherwise the darling bantams will be gone I'm afraid!  We are planning to add to our livestock this Spring with 2 pigs!  They are going on theleft hand side of the car park (which will be walled off) Martin is very keen to go 'Good Life' this year and start providing alot of our food 'raw materials'! So ... lets see what that brings!

2012 is going to be a very exciting year for us as we have many new ventures ready to try.... including a Basils by the Sea! But you'll have to wait and see which sea... I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime wishing you a very Happy & Prosperous New Year... until we speak again.
Lots of Love
Mel xxx

End of season...beginning of next...

Wow this summer has been our busiest ever! and now is the time to breath,,, list,,, and renew,,,, for the winter season.! 

Thank you to all who have written us online reviews as we have been selected for...

Martin being Martin has taken up a new venture with the onset of Autumn and has opened a new Basil's Kitchen at an old venue!  The Plough at Allscott has seen a few 'dodgy' food years since we left in 2008, Martin has now taken the kitchen back under his wing and with his new team have this week launched 'Basils at The Plough'... The menu is short, sharp and very Shropshire! ... click this link for full menu BASILS AT THE PLOUGH .
The menu started on Friday 9th September and the first weekend has been a huge success so word of mouth should now start to bring customers back to this gorgeous country pub!

The baby poultry - Ducks and Bantam are no longer babies and are cheeping and quacking along with their piers in the relevant runs.  Its been a great experience  incubating and hatching baby hens and ducks and its really gratifying to see the kids all so excited about their development.  We think we have one drake amongst our 3 baby ducks and we are hoping that the Bantams are all hens!

We hope you will try the new menu at Basils Plough - also available on twitter @basilsplough and facebook

Kindest regards
Mel x

July 2011

Finally the last of our eggs have hatched and we have 4 gorgeous little Bantam chicks growing fast in the shed!  They haven't any names yet but sure Rosie & Megs will soon get their naming hats on... Polly, Judy and Emmie are growing fast - they have half their feathers already and are nearing their parents in size!  (I do believe that 'Polly' is in fact a Drake!?) anyone with any 'how to sex a duck' advise please get in touch!!!

July always hosts the infamous Wrockwardine Church Fete and this years was no acception, one of the only gorgeous sunny days of the month to date too!  

Rosie had the honour of standing as Fete Queen this year, with Megan and another little village girl Alicia as her assistants... they all did a grand job and were crowned by the Colonel, as this is his last Fete as he and his family will be moving down to Dorset in December this year.

I think all will agree that the girls all looked rather beautiful!

 

 

We have started visits from JOGLE cyclists and Shropshire Way walkers.  

In fact this week we have fed&bed 4 cyclists some of which came in 2009 on the cycle journey from Lands end TO John O'groats - this year they are travelling downhill!  Much more sensible...

We hope to hear from them in a few days to hear that they have made it down to the Cornish tip Lands End... Good luck Guys!

 and with the schools breaking up tomorrow, I will finish this blog to get on with some 6 week planning!
LOL Mel x

Thursday 21st July 2011

New Poultry Month of June!

Leroy, Maureen & Dotty!

"Flaming June"... Hmmm... not so flaming as yet!  This month we will see the introduction of new poultry here at Church Farm! On 9th June three new residents joined David, Chloe & Dora (our Khaki Campbell ducks) - Leroy with his 2 girls Maureen & Dotty - 3 Cayuga Ducks... they are being introduced slowly to David and his girls and will be fully integrated next week.  Also next week, we are eagerly awaiting the hatching of 3 of Davids offspring which are flapping about in their eggs in an incubator at the moment...

Our incubated Eggs.......

Wednesday 15th June should be 'pipping' day... hopefully!

Our biggest news from the last 4 weeks is that we have had our latest visit from the AA Hotel & Restaurant inspector on 11th May 2011. Aswell and staying at the top of 4 stars (therefore in the Highly Commended percentage) we have been awarded the AA BREAKFAST AWARD and Martin has now achieved AA 1 ROSETTE !  We are really pleased!!  

We have also heard that we have been accepted through nominations into THE GOOD HOTEL GUIDE 2012 which comes out in September this year so all in all a good few weeks!






Rosie & Megan are back at school for their final half term of this academic year.  Megs did get into the Park Wrekin Gymnastics development squad, so shes being pushed to the limit with 2 hours of gymnastics on a Thursday and Friday night after school for the next 4 weeks to see if she makes it into the full development squad for the summer. Good luck little Megsy!


Over half term, we had a great family day out!  We drove to Wolverhampton, took the TRAM into Birmingham and spent a full and action packed day at Birminghams THINK TANK! What a great place (when we eventually found it!) Past Present and Future set on 3 floors of exhibits, hands on investigations, things to do, draw, see - the girls were fully occupied with all ... finshed with a pizza in the city and a weary tram ride and drive home!  A highly recommended day out!

 A FEW PICS FROM BIRMINGHAM THINK TANK...

Here's hoping the 'flame' comes into June soon with some sun (with heat in it!)

Bye for now... Mel xxx

Woman & Home June 2011

Woman & Home June 2011

Woman & Home magazine June 2011

After some fantastic Easter weather, Church Farm gardens are looking gorgeous (albeit a little dusty and crispy on the edges!).  We have an exciting summer to look forward to... loads of entertainment being offered at the wonderful Ironbridge Gorge Museums this summer plus National events such as Shrewsbury Flower Show, Newport Show at Chetwynd Deer Park, Ludlow Festival, amongst many other days out and things to do...
 Rosie (our eldest daughter) is Queen of Wrockwardine Village fete this year on 10th July and this year Megan will be the assistant to the Queen... always a great turn out too!


Our biggest news this month is that we have been nominated and accepted into The Good Hotel Guide 2012 which will be published in October 2011.

We have also featured in the top 10 Great Getaways in Junes Woman & Home magazine under the title of Shropshire's cool for culture ! Cool indeed!!!

One of our long term residents (two and a half years!) is unfortunately leaving us at the end of May.  Her room is the outside annexe room which has always been favoured by the pet lovers amongst us!  The double en suite room has its own front door straight onto the garden which allows canine guests to frolick with Basil as and when they please!  The room provides food and water bowls, dog towel and mat, and we ask that the dogs bed is brought with them.... all details and pics soon to be on our website at www.churchfarm-shropshire.co.uk/pets_welcome

and finally... Shropshire Gold is proving a big hit with tourists to Shropshire!  Our website is receiving some great traffic and the iphone app has a good download rate considering its infancy (download it from the website).  The Blackberry and Android apps will be up and running within the next few weeks so watch this space! www.shropshiregold.co.uk

A Blog from John Higgins...

Hi, I am John Higgins, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity of a life time to attend this cooking school as my wife purchased a cookery school gift voucher. I didn’t know what to expect but it was great opportunity to develop new cooking skills. The course was very relaxed with first class tuition. I didn’t realise how much I would learn in one day, it was brilliant and it exceeded my expectations. 

This course brought a new concept in cooking for me and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the cookery school right from the onset. Like any course, you never know what to expect and I certainly didn’t expect what I experienced on this course. I have never been so inspired or motivated to spend more time in the kitchen cooking up new dishes.   

I was left feeling totally enthused wondering what was next, it was exciting and inspirational, so much that I booked my self on another day’s course which also exceeded my expectations. It’s a truly great experience and like every cooking programme, yes, you get to celebrate your achievements with some wine and return that evening to sit down together with your partner and enjoy your dishes of the day. This was truly a great fun and a great experience. Martin, Mel I hope you find this as inspirational as I have. John April 2010