Hedgerow Cottage

26/10/2024

Busy Saturday with Afternoon Tea on vintage china. Changed it up this week with a selection of wraps as well as sandwiches. Tried out a couple of new petit fours - mini fruit tartlet and lemon meringue tartlet. I think Ady regretting being chief taster before going out on a bike ride with his mates!!

Finished picking all our green tomatoes from the greenhouse and fallen apples in the orchard ready for a weekend chutney extravaganza! Today was Spicy Chutney with chilli. The secret is all in the preparation, chopping about 3 kgs of tomatoes, onions, apples and courgettes into tiny pieces. Then 3 hours of patiently watching over it whilst the magic and alchemy happens. Finally the satisfaction of putting lids on jars! Probably my favourite job of the year.

25/10/2024

Having just passed home check, we are looking forward to welcoming mini pony 'Pebbles' to her new home next week. She is coming from Munchkins Miniature Shetland rescue in Devon. There's a fund-raising event on 30 November in Weston Super Mare for this amazing charity - if you are interested, please do go along and join in the fun and entertainment, it's all for a great cause! Piccies of Pebbles to come soon!

Munchkins Miniature Shetland Rescue

21/07/2024

Super proud of Adrian. He did a great job being interviewed on Radio Bristol today by Steve Yabsley. Amongst other things they discussed Adrian's book 'Wild Food & Mushroom Foraging, an essential guide for the UK', currently has a 5 star rating on Amazon. Participants in our forays (and the wild food & cookery days Adrian runs at award-winning cookery school ValeHouseKitchen) can get the book at a discounted price of just £10. Here's a link to the interview https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0j7lhvq - starts at time stamp 1:22

08/07/2024

Almost there! Solar PV to be fitted tomorrow! We've been amazed at how our solar thermal panels on the garage have reduced our use of oil for hot water, so we're hoping this will take things a step further! Being on top of a hill means wind & rain, BUT when there's sun, we get it all day! Not to mention amazing sunsets!

21/05/2024

Proud wife moment - in addition to the raving reviews for our forays, Adrian's new book "Wild Food & Mushroom Foraging" has just received another 5 star review on Amazon.

Wild Food & Mushroom Foraging: An Essential Guide for the UK

01/05/2024

Wow, what incredibly history, mystery and magic we have here, right on our doorstep!

Aveline’s Hole has been recognised as the largest Mesolithic burial cemetery in Northern Europe, dating from 10,200 and 10,400 B.C. It is estimated that the cave served as the final resting place for around sixty individuals.

The site was meticulously sealed between burials and utilised repeatedly as a cemetery for approximately a century. A number of perforated animal teeth, red ochre and seven pieces of fossil ammonite, suggest that some of the bodies were adorned. Can be found at Burrington Combe in Somerset, England, and watch out for the goats......

https://ruralhistoria.com/2024/04/03/peoples-have-been-roaming-our-countryside-for-900000-years/

18/04/2024

A great opportunity for a last minute space on a masterclass with the amazing Steve Lamb at Vale House Kitchen near Bath (Adrian teaches the foraging courses at VHK, it's a fantastic venue). Highly recommended!

1 space left on Sundays Smoking and Curing Masterclass with the amazing Steven Lamb - link below - come and join us for an incredible hands on day and learn some incredible new culinary skills (along with some new butchery ones as well….)

https://valehousekitchen.co.uk/course/smoking-and-curing-masterclas-s-21042024/

18/04/2024

🌿 What a great Spring Wild Food Foray we enjoyed last weekend with outstanding feedback from our lovely guests including four who also came last year! 🌿

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Brilliant teaching”, “Lovely relaxed natural style”
“Excellent, will book again”, “Look forward to the next time”
“Even better than anticipated”
“Wonderfully funny and knowledgeable”

🌿 Wild garlic and nettles were key features of our spring foragers lunch - nettle soup with wild garlic oil and cream, wild garlic focaccia and a very special dessert with sorrel… secret recipe! Lots of other yummy food including a fabulously moist and delicious home-made Somerset Apple Dappy cake with tea/coffee to end the day! 🌿

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Delicious!”, “Perfect”, “Amazing”
“Really excellent, just the right amount of everything”
“Renee - excellent chef” (feedback from a chef on the foray!)

📖 If you can’t make it to a foray with us, you can still find abundance in every season with Adrian’s new book "Wild Food & Mushroom Foraging: An Essential Guide for the UK" available on Amazon in paperback at £10.99 or Kindle £2.99 or pick up a signed copy from us at Blagdon for £10, just send a message to arrange collection. 📖

Our next forays are in the autumn. Sign up to our newsletter if you’d like to be the first to find out about event dates and news. Places are limited http://eepurl.com/hd0dPH

We also arrange private and corporate forays, just drop us a line to find out more.

Lastly, we are delighted to receive a 5-star food hygiene assessment today!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Food-Mushroom-Foraging-Essential/dp/B0CZTXT35C/




https://www.hedgerowcottage.co.uk/home/activities/adrian-boots/

Adrian Boots Adrian Boots is a landscape ecologist, researcher, tutor and adviser with a passionate interest in wild food, nature conservation and the history of the landscape. With a degree in Geography & Environmental Management and a Masters in Research, he was previously a university lecturer &....

09/02/2024

🌿 Spring Wild Food Foray - Sun 14 April 2024! 🌿
Spring Flowers, Leafy Greens (and possibly some fungi too!)

👉 Book your place by calling 07787 446615 or email [email protected].

🌿 From luscious wild garlic in the spring to fabulous fungi in the autumn, learn how to find abundance in every season with expert landscape ecologist and forager, Adrian Boots 🌿

🌿 Itinerary:
Arrival, tea/coffee & biscuits. Introduction & H&S.
Foray across fields, picking, discussing and tasting as we go.
Back to base – Light foragers lunch
Short wild food cookery demo. Q&A.
finishing with tea/coffee & biscuits. 🌿
£65 per person; £5 discount for previous attendees.
Location: Blagdon, Mendips
Link to Adrian's bio https://www.hedgerowcottage.co.uk/home/activities/adrian-boots/

26/10/2023

What a fabulous day in Dorset with our lovely friends John Wright (Adrian's fungi Yoda) and his wife Diane.

After a catch up over tea & cake we had the most amazing foray around an outstandingly beautiful nature reserve. Lots of fabulous fungi were found, identified and discussed, along with the ecology & natural history of the site. The sun even came out!

We exchanged lots of foray stories, thoughts, recipes and much more, over a lovely dinner (thank you Diane). There's always so much to talk about and never enough time!

P.S. John's latest book 'The Observant Walker' is out now and we are looking forward to another great read!


https://www.instagram.com/johnwrightmushrooms/

02/10/2023

02/10/2023

☺️ Wow, we've just reviewed the feedback from our first 2023 autumn Fungi, Fruits & Nuts foray yesterday and we're delighted that all our guests absolutely loved the experience. Not one suggestion for improvement and lots keen to come again! ☺️

🌿Adrian was on top form, as always, and many commented on how much more there was to discover behind the foraging due to his extensive knowledge of landscape ecology. His story-telling helps people connect to the landscape and our hunter-gatherer ancestors as well as understanding much more about how the landscape indicates what wild food can be found and where! 🌿

🤩 "Adrian is brilliant, charismatic, informative, knowledgeable but also easy to understand and relatable."

🍲 Our autumnal forager's lunch of Renee's secret recipe sweet chestnut and squash soup dressed with boletes (ceps), crispy sage leaves and cream and fresh 🥖, followed by home-baked Somerset apple dappy cake with apples from our orchard, went down a storm!



Thanks to Sara for photos!

28/09/2023

Just had a cancellation for this Sunday 1 October!

So, we are offering 2 places at the discounted price of just £59 each if you would like to come along!

After this foray event we are going to have an optional apple picking session in our orchard and ... yes you can take some home!

Get in touch asap if you'd like to take up the 2 discounted places!!

07787 446615

25/09/2023

🌿 We are so looking forward to our first autumn wild food foray this Sunday! 🌿

🍄 The theme is fruit, nuts and fungi! A truly authentic and immersive wild food experience with Adrian Boots. One of the most experienced foraging experts in the country, he's a landscape ecologist, ex University lecturer, wild food forager, and elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. But most of all, Adrian makes wild food fascinating, fun and accessible to all.

🤩 Adrian has been to the arctic with Ray Mears, he taught Mary Berry to forage on Countryfile, and cooked wild Mendip 'wallfish' (aka snails) for the late, great Terry Wogan on his last TV series.

🍲 Our new autumnal 'forager's lunch' menu, cooked over an open fire, showcases sweet chestnuts, blackberries and traditional old Somerset variety apples from our orchard. We'll taste a few other wild things, and we'll demo and sample some bannocks and breads. The day will finish with a good mug of tea/coffee and our home made Somerset Orchard Apple Cake.

🍎 Our autumn forays are now fully booked other than October 15th where we have a few spaces left, just give us a call 07787 446615 if you'd like to book. Or please enquire for private forays and corporate events.

Alternatively, check out Adrian's foraging and wild food cookery courses with the brilliant Bod at ValeHouseKitchen near Bath.



Photos by our lovely friend Seb Rogers

10/09/2023

⭐ A busy day! ⭐

🍎 Inspired by just the fallen apples in our orchard, we made a test batch of fresh single variety apple juice which was bright pink (due to the red skins of the apples) and totally delicious. We are experimenting with single variety and mixed combinations in preparation for lots of juice making. We have a pasteurising machine which means the juice will keep for at least a year once we start making larger quantities. 🍎

🍏We also picked and prepared all the veg and fruit for our annual batch of spicy chutney. Apples from the orchard, oversized courgettes from the garden and green tomatoes from the greenhouse. Leaving it for 24 hours to mature just seems to give everything time to develop a better flavour. Tomorrow we will cook it for about 2.5-3 hrs then pot it up. 🍏

⭐ Knocked up a bit of sourdough while we were at it using the no-knead recipe from Bread Ahead! Happy days... ⭐

⭐ If you need a bit of countryside inspiration, visit our web site and check out our autumn wild food forays, courses and holiday accommodation. We also run sustainable corporate team days and events... from dry stone walling to wild food foraging to orchard management... www.hedgerowcottage.co.uk

09/09/2023

We're not surprised that Wells, Avebury and Corfe Castle have been voted as the top 3 tourist attractions in the UK. Wells is probably our favourite place in the UK - and we are so lucky it's just 15 minutes from us, with a fabulous Weds & Sat market, lots of lovely independent shops, tons of great eateries, and of course, the most stunning Wells Cathedral & Bishop's Palace & Gardens. Avebury and Corfe Castle are an easy day trip. There's much more to visit as well, on the doorstep and nearby!

Somerset city scores five stars for attractiveness and tourist attractions as it tops Which? survey of inland towns and villages

08/09/2023

⭐ AUTUMN FORAYS UPDATE - Fungi, Fruits & Nuts Foray ⭐
👉 DATES: Sunday the 1st of October (NOW FULLY BOOKED), Sunday the 15th of October (limited places left, please enquire), Sunday the 29th of October, Saturday the 4th of November and Saturday the 11th of November.
👉 Book your place by calling 07787 446615 or email [email protected].
🍄 From luscious wild garlic in the spring to fabulous fungi in the autumn, learn how to find abundance in every season with expert landscape ecologist and forager, Adrian Boots.
🌿 Itinerary includes:
Arrival, tea/coffee & biscuits. Introduction & H&S.
Foray across fields, picking, discussing and tasting as we go.
Back to base – making tea with your foraged ingredients; wild food cookery discussion & demo. Q&A.
Light foragers lunch finishing with tea/coffee & cake.
Ends approximately 2pm or so.

07/09/2023

🎉 We're very excited to announce the winner of our competition with The Tourist Trail!
🌿 Congratulations to 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗝, the lucky winner of two places on one of our fantastic wild food foray days with a foragers lunch! 🌿 Will Kath choose an autumn fungi, fruits and nuts foray 🍄🌰 or a spring flowers and leafy greens foray?!

🎉 We Have A Winner! 🎉
🌿 Congratulations to 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗝! 🌿
​
You've won a Wild Food Experience for 2 at 𝗛𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗖𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲! 🍄🌰 Explore nature's pantry and savour a wild lunch for two.
​

https://www.thetouristtrail.org/business/bristol/hedgerow-cottage/
Hedgerow Cottage