Afternoon tea and hog roast wedding catering, Fladbury near Evesham and Pershore, Worcestershire

Springhill Barn in Fladbury may look unassuming from the outside
But inside it is transformed into a beautiful wedding venue:
The good thing about church weddings are you know when the wedding is starting and finishing due to the bell ringing, and when you hear them the second time you know it is time to get a shift on.

We served afternoon tea on the terrace as guests arrived back from the church. Here the Party Angels are just finishing the set up.
Scones were topped with Cotswold clotted cream and hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway. Delia collects all the berries from the fields around Broadway to make the fabled jelly which she uses for her B & B guests.
We also served elderflower cordial too - another Dove Cottage 2010 vintage from the elderflowers in the fields on the Broadway hills. And my legendary chocolate brownie - how can you resist?

Hog roast wedding buffet

I had picked up the pig around 8am from Home Farm. I passed Mickey the farmer on the way up as he was off to the Stroud Farmers market driving the opposite way. Just a tad too late for him to help lift it out of their fridge. But as luck would have it there were a couple of cyclists waiting for breakfast as B & B guests at the farm. One of them and Anne the farmer helped lift it on to the roasting tin. I was halfway through sawing the legs off the pig so it fitted in the tin when Mickey rushed back in "QUICK! Get the dogs and get up to the top field!" he said to Anne hurriedly. "130 sheep have broken out of the field, if we leave them they'll be all over the village!". It all happens on Saturdays. Anne rushed off in the car with the dogs, Mickey showed me how you reduce the height of the pig (that's not for here) so it was the 8in high that they need for the height of the bakery oven, and the cyclists were left to their own devices for breakfast as Mickey rushed back off towards the Stroud farmers market - can't afford to miss the stand. Meanwhile I rushed to pig back to the Tewkesbury bakery, picked up the larger hire van and went back to the kitchen to finish preparations for the other 2 parties we had going on that day - so much happens before 9am.Crispy crackling - along with pig tail (along with the cheeks & ears one of the tastiest parts)

Potato salad

Beetroot, fennel and radish mixed leaf salad

Tomato, basil and olive salad

Cous cous salad with grilled vegetables

Dessert was their wedding cake which we served with berries and raspberry coulis. And Adam used their cheese to make a cheese wedding cake which we served after the dessert and guests ate throughout the night.

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Dear James

Apologies that it is quite belated but David and I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your help in making our wedding day so special and unforgettable.
All the guests loved the food, especially the crackling from the hog roast which was claimed to be 'the best - EVER!' by several people. My fussy Dad even ate cous cous for the first time and went back for seconds! We really appreciated that you were so organised and we could trust to leave you to get on with things and not worry about anything on the day, and also that you were able to help us suceed in our ethos of using local produce where possible.

Best wishes and all our thanks
David and Joanna Kelly

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Jerk pork with curried nectarine relish and baps

Sacriliege or serious flavour?
Pig roasts have been so popular this year - more this year than ever before. This corporate party in Stanton, Gloucestershire however was only 16 but still wanted the pig roast experience. As a pig roast will feed 50 - 150 in the end we agreed smaller cuts of pork along with a couple of cajun spiced free range Madgetts Farm chickens. I was keen to try out the jerk pork again, and they liked the sound of it too.

Pork, as always, was Berkshire/ Gloucester Old Spot cross from Home Farm in Bredon's Norton. As it was a last minute booking they didn't have all the pork shoulder I needed - the pigs still needed a bit more hanging in the cold room. So it was a combination of 6 hour slow cooked shoulder and roasted loin. Nice combination!
Ever since Nigella had cooked gammon in coca cola I had meaning to try it. Cooking the jerk pork in coke seems to be quite a thing too. I took this recipe and adapted it, leaving the pork to mariande for a couple of days. And after 6 hours of cooking in pork stock, coke, lemon, ginger, garlic, onion, chilli, lime, herbs etc, I drained the liquid and reduced it to a glaze. This made a nice condiment to serve with the pork & baps or for smearing on the chicken they had brought and were just about to roast as I arrived with their delivery on the way to cooking abother dinner party. The loin roasted in about an hour and a half. I then gave them instructions on removing the skin to make crackling.

Curried nectarine relish

I had liked the look of this recipe when I found it a couple of months ago. I took the idea and just made my own - had lots of chutney making experience when young and one of my first jobs as a chef. Nectarines look better than peaches when I picked them up so I used those instead. Couldn't have been much fresher - barely had time to cool before it was on the road.

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