Well, what a knackering and exciting weekend!
I drove down to Hampshire on Thursday night to stay at Cybershot David's, making good time. I also stopped on the way to see my miss and say farewell for the weekend.
We made out way down to East Devon/Dorset at roughly 8am, but after a short phone call from home, David had been told he'd left his suitcase at home, which contained everything he needed for t'weekend. LOL so we went back
to pick it up. We continued on our way 'daan saaf' and made it down in good time.
We arrived at River Cottage at about 11 to find out that David had left his CF card for the camera at home LOL
so we went to Lyme Regis and Axminster to see if we could find a shop that sold them, but that didn't work.
We met John at HQ at 12pm and he presented a brown bag with 6 of the finest pork pies, some water, crisps and some River Cottage apples for lunch. I was surprised at the foray that John led- it comprised of walking up and down the sides of busy roads, being unsuccessful in finding anything, cramming ourselves back in the little 4x4 and heading to a new roadside. I don't know why Dorset was so bad for fungi! So after we'd pigged pork pies and found a couple of little
Clitocybe and
Tricholoma, we headed back to HQ with John. We sat in a giant dome tenty-thing
and talked about mushrooms and stuff
This was by far the best part of the day so far- I got my RC Mushroom Book signed by John which I was pleased about. We sat chatting about mushies and had a nice cuppa, followed by a couple of bottles of Hugh's Stinger Beer- very nice it was too. As the meeting came to an end, John's statement summed it up for me. He was saying how he's used to 'foodies' and just discussing what people can eat, and he said "This was more a meeting of three mycologists".
I was chuffed.
Fast forward to about 6.45pm and we'd got a taxi from the B&B to River Cottage. They take you down the valley and to the Cottage on the back of a tractor on a rickety trailor! It was great fun
We we given a little 'speech' by an events co-ordinator and then asked to check the seating plan out to find our seats.
Our meal was amazing.
Starter - Pork cheek with two different types of beetroot and dressing
First course - Fish soup (bass, pollock and dogfish) with a giant crouton and spicy mustard mayonnaise.
Main course - Shoulder of pork, cooked for 20 hours in t'oven and loin of pork cooked in the traditional way. Alongside the meat, we had beetroot leaf salad, chard and horseradish mash potato.
Dessert - Plum and almond tart with homemade RC custard ice cream.
It was absolutely delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The waitresses and waiters brought round little treats such as scallops with sweetcorn puree, fish and pickled cucumber on a small biscuit and the last treat was by far the best. A proper chocolate truffle which must've been at least 85% cacao. I nearly slid under the table
All in all, it was an excellent weekend, and I'd like to thank David for his company and hospitality. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it as much as I did
Here's a pic of myself, David and John Wright. I don't know why I look so menacing
Nick
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