Local Produce Evening among the vines at Setley Ridge

Local Produce Evening among the vines at Setley Ridge 

I often pop in to Setley Ridge farm shop as they stock a great selection of local produce from the New Forest, Isle of Wight and Hampshire. Jane and Andy the proprietors are available to talk me through the products giving me often interesting information about what's on sale. The shop has recently won an award as the "Best supporter of Local Produce" which was presented at the New Forest Show by the Earl of Wessex. Whilst in conversation with Jane earlier this year she told me about a series of local produce evenings being held over the summer, I booked four places for Saturday 10th August.

A tour of the Vineyard and talk on wine production at Setley Ridge

The evening began with a tour or the vineyard and an explanation of how the wine is made at Setley Ridge. Paul who is Jane's brother gave us the tour of the vines and explained the wine production. After the tour and talk was an opportunity for tasting the wine, which we all enjoyed enormously.

Mum, Paul and I on tour in vineyard

After the tour and wine tasting was the dinner under the vines with the menu being sourced from either within the New Forest or from its surrounding borders. As you can see from the photo below the setting was magnificent and a really unique place to experience such wonderful produce expertly cooked.

A wonderful setting for dinner

The starter as with all of the food was served on a sharing platter and comprised an interesting take on a New Forest breakfast alongside chicken livers, bruschetta and pigeon breasts.

Crispy Pork Belly with Andy's Piccalilli

Dishes served  for the main course on the night included: Local Roasted Free Range Chicken, Crispy Pork Belly with Andy's Piccalilli, Local Wild Rabbit Thai Style, Tear and Share Lamb Shoulder with Oven Baked Tomatoes and Venison Sausage and Cannellini Bean Cassoulet with Setley Red Wine Jus all served with great locally grown vegetables and freshly baked bread.

A fantastic dinner, the food was delicious and there was plenty of it

The highlight of the food was for me definitely the puddings which came as a Strawberry Meringue Cream Roulade and a Raspberry and Blueberry Bakewell Tart, both were amazing and served with a New Forest Fruits coulis

Bakewell Tarts and Strawberry Meringue made using local fruits

Last on the menu was a Selection of New Forest Marque  cheese from Lyburne and Loosehanger  these were a great compliment to an amazing showcase of the food and wine that is being produced in and around the New Forest.

Delicious cheese and coffee

Everyone I spoke to at the event was wowed by such a fantastic experience, I am going to be booking again for next year and I'm sure most people who attended will be doing the same. I recommend Setley Ridge as a foodie destination to anyone enjoying a New Forest Holiday with Shorefield.

Follow the links in this blog for more information or call Setley Ridge on Tel: 01590 624682 BL

As mentioned what a great place to have dinner!

New Forest Show

The New Forest Show 2013 has now come to a close after three fantastic days of excitement. This is the second year in a row we have attended the show and we definitely went all out with our amazing Regal Symphony unit; which was available to buy at the show for the special price of £97,995 including decking and all interior furnishings. We also took a camping pod along with us, which drew a lot of attention from camping fanatics as well as glampers who saw it as a great alternative to a tent.

We were located opposite the West Ring, which meant we got a great view of all the equestrian events that were going on throughout the three days from show jumping to in hand championships. Our favourite was the pony club mounted games, which saw various pony clubs compete against each other in a range of races such as the three legged sack race. These were fast paced and definitely drew the crowds to the West Ring.

The New Forest Show was a definite highlight in the Shorefield Holidays calender and we'd like to thank everyone who came along to our stand at the show. We hope to see you at our next show which is the Bournemouth Air Festival, which runs from 29th August to the 1st September.

You can take a look at more of our pictures from the New Forest Show on our Facebook page. WI