Summer Produce

It’s that time of year when all is lush, the hedgerows are that bit wider with the abundance of foxgloves and one thing that Cornwall is well-known for – strawberries- are coming on in abundance.  Our planters are overflowing and all our guests get to enjoy them, seasonal, completely natural, locally grown with no food miles.  With this week set to be another scorcher down here they just keep ripening…so whatever you choose to go with, clotted cream, Kelly’s ice cream, homemade strawberry, gooseberry or elderflower sorbet, wherever you are enjoy our great British  produce at it’s best.   

In memory of Tabby - everyone's friend

Cornwall’s Basking sharks

Basking sharks have started to arrive off the coast of Cornwall.  An amazing sight to see from many a boat in cornish waters as they stay with us until September.  We have been lucky enough to see them close up from a fishing boat in the waters off Padstow and Rock. This gentle giant is the largest fish to be found in the coastal waters of the British Isles. Measuring anything up to 12 metres long, and weighing up to 7 tonnes, it feeds on animal plankton, filtering 1,000 to 2,000 cubic metres of seawater per hour to extract its tiny prey. During the summer months, it favours Cornish, Devon, Manx, Irish and Scottish waters as its regular feeding grounds. The basking shark is an internationally recognised endangered species with legal protection. Its main attraction now lies in its highly valued enormous fins, which are a delicacy in the Far East, and hunting remains the single biggest threat to its future.

 

Remember….

Cornwall is a county of great beauty that has/does inspire many well-known artists , Barbara Hepworth  and poets.  Poets such as Poet Laureatte Sir John Betjeman.  Betjamin’s poems and verse of Cornwall truly conjure up the magic of the county and a lot is inspired by our surrounding area here at Tredarrup as he lived not far away at Trebetherick where he is buried.  Another poet with connections to Cornwall is Robert Laurence Binyon best known for his poem For The Fallen which is remembered on the nearby cliff tops of Polzeath where it was written.

So on a day such as today, the eve of the 65th anniversary of D-Day, when 65 years ago Cornwall was a county transformed as hundreds of thousands of US servicemen were based all over Cornwall training for that day – in all 7,500 men left Cornwall’s Trebah Beach for the assault at Omaha beach.  A day when many men’s courage on the beaches of Normandy changed the course of World War II, a place of beauty full of such sadness, when wars stills exist, we should remember them.

Remember....

The Royal Cornwall Show

Tomorrow sees the start of our greatly anticipated annual event The Royal Cornwall Show. A fantastic agricultural show where you can see cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, poultry and much more . You’ll see some of the English countryside’s fineness animals up close .  A chance for all to meet and catch up with old friends as they tour the ground and see all that is new in farm machinery and much more to do with our countryside.  So if you are in Cornwall on 4th, 5th, 6th June check it out…      

And just on the subject of land today is the launch of the Landshare campaign. The site has been up for some time collecting interest, possible matches, offers of help and great tips.

Hardly a cloud in the sky….

What a day and a weekend of more hot weather……

Hardly a cloud in the sky

Nature on Holiday

Following on with Tredarrup’s nature theme…..and with holidays in the UK being even more popular this year and North Cornwall being one of the UK’s favourite holiday spots,  if any of you are watching the new series of Spring Watch then why not follow their advice and enjoy nature on your holiday with so many great things to experience, rock pools, wildlife, birds, woodlands, coastal walks and much much more.

Tredarrup’s Bees – Nature is a wonderful thing

Tredarrup's friendly swarm of bees

Nature provided this weekends entertainment here at Tredarrup with the arrival on Saturday of a swarm of 15000 bees on the back of Mill Barn.  As the sun warmed up so did they… as the swarm got busy.  But the bees were totally focused on finding a new place to live before their food reserve in their stomach ran out and did not have the energy for much else – so no need to worry. One of our big attractions for the bees was a nearby Sycamore tree which in flower provides them with up to 40% of their nectar. The characteristic loud hum from a swirling swarm of bees is one of nature’s striking phenomena.   A swarm contains the queen bee and about 20, 000 worker bees from the old colony left behind in the hive. A new queen is raised within the hive. A swarm collected in May is useful to beekeepers because the colony of bees is more likely to produce honey in the summer and has longer to get established before the winter.  Left alone, the swarm is harmless, and should move on. Sending out a swarm is the natural way in which honey bee colonies increase their numbers, they are looking for new homes. So without delay I called our local bee centre  and a nearby bee collector came and took them away to put them back into a bee hive where they will be turned into a productive colony.   As honey bees can no longer survive in the wild, it is important to collect swarms and return them to the care of beekeepers. This year it is even more important to save swarms as there is a shortage of honey bees following the disastrous winter losses in 2007-8. Many new beekeepers, and over 2,500 people have taken up beekeeping this year. We need all the bees we can get.

Bees inside the bird hole

 

Our bees collected and ready to be taken away

Bees need gardeners to help them stay alive

Honey bees (Apis melifera) are essential to our way of life. They are the most effective pollinator of many fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants and trees.  To stay alive, bees need forage from February to October, beekeepers to look after them, space for hives and a vigilant public which will tell the experts when a swarm of bees needs collecting.  June is a crucial month when many bees can go hungry with a lack of much in flower and with the effects of climate change we have to be careful they don’t starve to death.  With the prospect of a glorious summer, now is the crucial time to help honey bees replace the huge number of colonies they have lost over the last two years.  The love flowereing vegetables, fuit, flowers and trees and the BBKA’s bee friendly flowering trees are:

• February Acacia dealbata
• March Alnus cordata
• April Amelanchier lamarckii
• May Sorbus x arnoldiana
• June Sorbus aria .Tilia tomentosa
• July Castanea sativa
• August Koelreuteria paniculata
• September Tetradium daniellii

Bee Facts and Figures
In the UK there are approximately 44,000 beekeepers managing around 274,000 hives.
They produce 6000 tones of honey per year.
Pollination contributes £200 million annually to the economy making each hive’s contribution about £700.
In the UK, we produce only 20% of the honey we consume – the rest is imported.
To collect a pound of honey a bee might have to fly a distance equivalent to twice round the world. This is likely to involve more than 10,000 flower visits on perhaps 500 foraging trips.
A queen bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day.
In the summer, there are about 50,000 bees in a colony, this reduces to about 20,000 over winter.
The varroa mite reached the UK in 1992 and now infests 95% of hives. Untreated colonies die in 3-4 years. Even low populations of mites reduce vitality and increases the spread of viruses.
Download Ten Things To Do To Help Honey Bees [35KB PDF]

North Cornwall’s great beaches

North Cornwall is Britain’s most popular surfing coast, with waves for all levels and weather! Near Tredarrup we have so many great beaches to enjoy during your stay and with the forecast predicting a better summer what a way to spend a Cornish holiday.   Polzeath  in the Camel Estuary is well used by bathers and surfers and is regularly cleaned. It’s broad sweep of Hayle Bay at low tide makes the sand perfect for castles and beach games and you can find  many fish and seashore animals in the rock pools. Popular. Daymer Bay, beautiful family beach at all stages of the tide.  Good walks along cliff tops. Trebarwith Strand, dramatic sandy beach only accessible at low tide. Excellent cliff walks. Crackington Haven (one-time haunt of smugglers), small sandy beach (recently damaged in flash floods). Harbour Cove, short walk from Polzeath, fine sand and sheltered waters. Constantine Bay, massive sand dunes, rare wildlife and rock pools. Portcothan,long narrow beach, good sand at low tide.  Good walks.  A great swimming cove is Port Quinn, on your way to Polzeath.
Also, Sandymouth, Duckpool, Nothcott Mouth, Trevone, Harlyn, Bobby’s Bay, Constantine Bay, Treyarnon, Bude-Crooklets, Bude – Summerleaze and Whipsiderry  (have a sea water pool and good lifeguards), Widemouth Bay has good easy access with a mile of flat sand. Porth nr Newquay.  And recommended Porthpean nr St Austell, Porthmear St Ives and Mawgan Porth nr Newquay. It is advisable to check the tide times when visiting some beaches.  Aslo try Bude’s Sea Pool at Summerleaze beach – open for the season with lifeguards present each day.

One of our many beaches

North Cornwall – England’s Gourmet coast…

We love good food at Tredarrup - local, seasonal and organic if possible.  We produce our own eggs, beef, frut/veg and are fortunate to have a huge range of fantastic local suppliers, seasonal produce (asparagus at the moment) and more great restaurants than you could imagine. 
So whilst staying with us I could suggest many but there are more than you could hope to eat in during one stay….so here is just a taster.
Chef Paul Ripley, recently took over one of our locals, the St Kew Inn.  An old pub in a great location, with fantastic pub grub.  Local and seasonal – we ate there last night and it was superb – so highly recommended and a good price at aprx £25 per head for 3 courses.  Paul Ripley was head chef at Rick Stein’s seafood Restaurant for 10 years and then went on to gain a Michelin star after opening his own restaurant.    
So next up is Rick Stein’s choice of restaurants.  The Seafood Restaurant, St Petrocs, the Cafe, Fish & Chips and now The Cornish Arms, all are great but the Seafood Restaurant  are currently doing a pre-summer lunch  running until Sunday 28th June, it’s built around prime Cornish seafood like lobster, crab, scallops, sole, bass and turbot and priced at £35 for three courses.
And finally a great location and good food at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall .  Enjoy lunch whilst looking out over the sea have a good lunch and go for a walk along Watergate Bay.  For lunch they do a 3 course menu for £25.45 or make your own choice.

ENJOY……………..

More great ideas from The Eden Project – THE BIG LUNCH

I know July is a way off but in our monthly newsletter from the Eden Project I thought this was a great idea…so remembering those days when we did all come together maybe you might want to get involved…

Imagine on one day of the year, in every home across the nation, we all got up with a single purpose in mind. We are going to have lunch outside, on the street, with our neighbours. We will have prepared it ourselves. We will be doing our thing: a bring-your-own, open-air party for 61 million people.
We are calling it simply The Big Lunch: a day – Sunday, July 19 – when, for four glorious hours, cars will stop, wardens will stop, egos will stop and Britain will come together in the street to meet, greet, share, sing, dance, play and laugh for no reason other than we all well need to.
The Big Lunch is the latest ambitious idea from the Eden Project, in partnership with MasterCard, EDF Energy and the Royal Mail Group and we’re inviting everyone in the UK to come together to have lunch in their streets on one day.
Most of us are shy, many of us lead single lives and even when we are together often go our own way. Ninety-seven per cent of neighbourhoods are more fragmented than they were 30 years ago. We just don’t gel the way we used to. Isn’t it crazy that 10 million of us are networking regularly online yet we barely know who lives next-door? Yet, inside almost everyone there is a notion that despite our differences, the ties that bind us are important. The Big Lunch is your excuse to cut loose. You’re all invited. Every man, woman, child, cat, dog and bird from every type of community, from best-kept hamlets to inner city estates to prisons and hospitals, all are welcome. All we ask is that you come as you, open-minded and up-for-it.
There are lots of ways for people to get involved, from growing their own food and flowers to forming a band or creating a piece of pavement art. Discover common ground across age, class, faith, race and the garden fence. Remind yourself charity begins at home, or at most, a couple of doors away. Reclaim your street as a place to share stories and balloon blowing when you run out of puff. Rediscover the things you once knew but forgot, from baking bread to breaking the ice with neighbours, so the familiar feels new and the new feels familiar.
It may be tricky, it may feel slightly uncomfortable to start with. It takes a bit of courage to stop being a stranger. But think of the prize – to be able to walk down the street and into the wider neighbourhood and realise how many good people there are who, acting together can create a real sense of community – a word that in Latin means; “together – in gift”’.

Why has the Eden Project launched the Big Lunch? A short word from Tim Smit, CEO and co-founder

The Eden Project is an attitude to life, the first expression of which was the creation of the greatest conservatories in the world in a crater in Cornwall. Its mission is to point out our total dependence on the natural world in ways which don’t feel preachy and to demonstrate aspects of behaviour and thinking that encourage us all to explore the boundaries of what is presently called Sustainable Living. the Big Lunch website.