Sunday 4 December 2016

Groan.

How many calories will it use in typing this?   The farmer has just taken friend W and me out for Christmas lunch to The Pantry in Hawes.   Run by farming friends of ours, it serves up the most delicious and wholesome food but has never let the words "sensible helpings" appear on its menus.

We booked a month ago when the first three Christmas dates were announced.   The cafe seats around ninety and all three dates were fully booked within hours.   They are set to serve over five hundred Christmas lunches before the big day - and they serve their own-raised beef, turkey, goose and duck.

I had slices of turkey, goose and duck, along with roast potatoes, red cabbage, carrot batons, roast parsnips, peas, creamed leeks, stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy.   There were also pigs in blankets but I forgot to get one.

A fruit drink was served with the meal, top ups whenever you asked.    The sweet table was heaving.   I have put a photograph of it on but that is after a good three quarters of folk had already chosen their pud (I took it on the way out).   This was followed by unlimited coffee top ups with individual mint chocolates and then everyone was offered a mince pie to take home and warm up for tea!

Now home and very full of food I do not intend to sleep it off but shall get on with my knitting as soon as I have written this.

I have taken a selection of photographs for you to see but do bear in mind with the ones of the journey - the farmer does not slow down for photographs and where it is not sunny it tends to be in deep shade.









i

22 comments:

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

Your food choices sound amazing! No wonder you are stuffed! I love seeing the countryside in your photos. -Jenn

Derek Faulkner said...

I like my food Pat but I would of struggled to put that lot away. How you stay as slim as you appear to be is beyond me. Will you also have tea tonight as well.

Gwil W said...

You've started as you mean to go on . . .

donna baker said...

Love seeing an English holiday table. I wish I could eat like I used to, but the appetite has waned. Of course, I don't lose weight because of it, just can't eat as much. But, I would have liked sampling everything.

Rachel Phillips said...

Carrots are carrots.

angryparsnip said...

I would have left off the carrots, I eat so many of them that I could miss them for once on my plate !
Everything sounds and looks so wonderful, I wish I could be there.

cheers, parsnip

Bovey Belle said...

Oh my word - what a wonderful spread and I can imagine only too well that you felt too big for your skin afterwards! The puddings looked tremendous too.

Lovely out-the-window photos, taken at speed or no. I was going to take some on our way home from the Militaria Fair today, but our car windows were filthy (never been that way before) from all the salty spray from where the gritter had been through on Friday when K was going to Hay, and so you wouldn't have seen much of a view!

Bovey Belle said...

BTW, did the Farmer like his jigsaw? I have been seized by an urge to do one again, but I think cats and jigsaws are not a good combination . . .

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

Nouvelle cuisine has yet to penetrate Wensleydale, I see. Long may it continue to be so!

Virginia said...

What a wonderful place! o 'plastic food' there! I'm so glad it is flourishing - somehow restaurant chains never seem to come close to the quality of food the local restaurant provides. No wonder you headed the blog "Groan" I'm surprised you could move afterwards - and I would've been every bit as bad!

Joanne Noragon said...

Oh, Weave, to be able to eat such a plate full again. And no, restaurants don't understand "just a spoon full." Well, maybe two of that red cabbage. It looks wonderful.

Heather said...

What a wonderful spread. I would have wanted to try everything. Don't worry about the calories, they'll keep you warm! Those trees are so beautiful even without their summer finery, and the village you passed through looks very attractive.

Penny said...

Sounds wonderful, but filling.

Anonymous said...

What a splendid feast, but I feel fat just reading about it.

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Yorkshire restaurants like their hearty portions, so I have found...the fish and chips at the COw and Calf up Ilkley Moor was huge

Mac n' Janet said...

It all sounds and looks heavenly

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Wholesome food. No wonder The Pantry books up so quickly. Can you buy tickets on Ticketmaster?

Bea said...

-food sounds lovely. I'd be keen to participate in something like that here, but I don't think there's anything comparable.

It's hard to find goose 'round these parts nevermind locally raised bird.

Librarian said...

Oh wow - your lunch sounds like it has more different components than what I would manage to eat in about a week; very, very nice!!
The sweet table looks wonderful, even with a lot of people already having had a helping. Speaking of people, I was amazed to see men in short-sleeved shirts there. Was it so warm that day?

The Weaver of Grass said...

It was a cold day Librarian but it is a very informal place - all farmers and everybody knows everybody - and the heating makes the room very warm.
YP - all spread by word of mouth - no fancy frills, but good wholesome food.
The village, Heather, is Wensley - it used the be the 'capital' of Wensleydale until the plague days when I believe it lost most of its in habitants.
BB - he hasn't started the jig saw yet - too involved in other things.
Derek - it is now ten o'clock on Monday morning and all I have had since that lunch is
a banana this morning - shall have no more until todays lunch of poached salmon.
Thanks for calling in, everyone.

Tom Stephenson said...

These days, all drink bottles have the advice, 'Drink Sensibly' on the side. Maybe non-nouvelle cuisine restaurants should do the same.

thelma said...

Tis the time to have feasts and not feeling guilty, all those puddings look absolutely delicious, talk about being tempted by the devil! Of course in real Celtic times, you killed the beasts off had one big feast and then starved until the warmer weather of the next year....