Food at Castle Farm
Mar 5th, 2010 by Sarah Maliphant
There’s more to meals at Castle Farm….
At Castle Farm your mouth-watering home cooked meals are created from food purchased within miles of the farm, using the best ingredients from local suppliers. Nearly everything you eat at Castle Farm will have been cooked from fresh local ingredients.
There are some exceptions, like the Seville oranges for the home made marmalade. And marshmallows. We haven’t found these growing in Wales yet (and do let us know if you do).
Home baked bread fresh from the Aga
Your morning toast, most likely from the bread we’ve baked that morning, is toasted on the Aga – which does things to bread which are way beyond the comprehension of the faithful toaster.
All of our bread is hand baked, so there’s no additives in there. Sometimes we’ll do a sourdough mix which is just flour, water and natural yeasts from the air. Many people with intolerances find they can eat sourdough bread, as there’s no weird stuff added. It also tastes rather yummy.
Sourdough Bread
Fancy learning how to bake a loaf of bread yourself? Just ask Gwyn or Sarah!
And if you’ve never experienced an Aga cooked breakfast… local smoked bacon, fresh mushrooms, tomatoes, maybe a bit of black pudding, and the sheer novelty of fried eggs done in the oven… well, your tastebuds will be grateful to you.
OK, so we’ve made it through breakfast. Time for a bit of a breather outside before reaching a retro lunch which is the one time some old favourites might make an appearance… and there’s always space for a bit of flapjack too, home made, of course 
This is a weekend for relaxing so next stop is afternoon tea – home made cake and plenty of tea to tide you over till the evening.
Nana's Bread Pudding
As you enjoy a sip of something nice whilst you sit looking at the amazing views or tucked up round the log fire, your dinner will be doing its thing in the Aga… roasted lamb on a bed of garlic and aubergine, duck with mango salsa, chestnut and mushroom burgers, rum baked bananas are just a few of the regulars on the menu, and part of the developing Castle Farm Cookbook.
Finally, tastebuds and body happy and very relaxed, the only thing left to do is tuck yourself up in bed to recharge your batteries before doing it all again the next day.
Bliss.
Suppliers we love in Hay-on-Wye: Geraldine, Wayne and L’il Will at Chris Gibbons butcher, purveyor of gorgeous smoked bacon, black pudding, and every other meaty goody. Stuart and Kieran at Castle Green Grocers with local grown autumn apples, spring purple sprouting and all other veggies. The girls at Hay Wholefoods, we can not function without those Carob Coated Raisins, and those gorgeous Old House Farm eggs!!! Plus everyone at the Hay-on-Wye Spar and Londis who provide our milk, cream and other basics -like Marshmallows to dunk in melted rum chocolate sauce. Thank you all!
