All aboard for a taste of home cooking

Farmers’ wives who contributed to the publication piled onto a trailer in Pickering yesterday to dine on tea and cake for a travelling tea party.

They were towed for 12 miles to Helmsley in a bid to give early book sales a flying start. Copies of the book were sold along the way.

Recipes from rural families who open up their farms as holiday retreats are brought together 
in the book, priced £5, to celebrate the 30th anniversary 
of farm tourism body Farm Stay UK.

Proceeds will be donated to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and organiser Lorraine Allanson hopes to raise £10,000.

Some of Yorkshire’s tastiest homemade dishes, from traditional roasts and hearty pies to fruit cakes and flapjack, are included in the book.

Mrs Allanson, who runs Rains Farm Holidays in Allerston, Pickering, said: “A static tea party was too tame so we had a travelling tea party instead.

“Lots of ingredients in the recipes are what farmers have grown themselves or are from local producers.”

Among the featured dishes are rarely-revealed family gems that have been passed down the generations, including Mrs Allanson’s boiled fruit cake recipe, passed down from her grandmother.

She said: “We give our guests a slice of cake when they arrive at reception. It’s an old family recipe and people often ask for it so now we are letting it out. I’m sure there are others in the book that are like that too.”

The recipe book doubles up as an accommodation guide to some of the best farm and country stays in Yorkshire. Each featured recipe is accompanied by a page detailing the cook’s accommodation details.

Copies of the book can be ordered by calling Mrs Allanson on 01723 859333.