Frying up for a traditional feast on a farm with all the trimmings

Full English please! Many of us say just that when staying in a hotel or a B&B eagerly awaiting that treat we’d like to eat more often but that somehow always evades us.

It’s a meal that has become uniquely synonymous with our island even though the Scots have their own version. You don’t get a full German or a full French. Our mainland European colleagues have to be content with being bracketed as continental.

The full English breakfast’s origins can be traced back to the early 1800s when it was taken as the epitome of fine dining in the morning with several courses from cereals to fruit juice, tea and toast, and of course what is now known as the fry-up.

Next week the annual Farmhouse Breakfast Week, January 26 to February 1, once again takes centre stage to promote what many mothers used to refer to as the meal that set you up for the day. Back in the 1950s it is estimated that around half the population ate a full English every day, yet today’s figures show that 47 per cent of us now regularly skip breakfast of any kind. This could have a worrying impact on cereal growers particularly if the figure increased further.

The Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) instigated the special week back in 2000 to raise awareness of the benefits of eating a healthy breakfast and increase knowledge of the range of produce associated with a breakfast meal.

In much the same way that some school children today don’t know that milk comes from cows there were concerns that the public did not know where the produce came from or that it was from UK farms.

Christine Ryder of Scaife Hall Farm near Blubberhouses, where she farms with husband Chris and has run an award-winning B&B establishment for the past 24 years, has been involved with the Farmhouse Breakfast initiative since it started. Their B&B won Best Yorkshire Breakfast for 2011/12 in the Deliciously Yorkshire awards and was listed as one of the 50 best B&Bs in the UK in The Independent. Their free-range hens provide a daily source for part of the cooked breakfast.

“We started the B&B business after having been married a couple of years. The farmhouse leant itself to being split into two with us living at one side and our guests staying on the other.

“We tested the water to see whether we liked running it and we did. We then made each bedroom en suite and today we offer three rooms in all – two doubles and one twin. It works well for us and means I can work at home, and that I’m here if Chris needs me to help on the farm whether that is with either our free range hens, the sheep or the cattle. We have Mule and Swaledale sheep as well as a Belted Galloway herd that Chris started recently and that fits in with our Higher Level Stewardship scheme involvement.

“The B&B gets a lot of repeat bookings and most of the ones we’ve taken so far are people who have stayed before. We’ve been running the business so long that we now even get the children who have since married, who used to come with their parents. We get to know our visitors so well that they have become friends as much as paying guests – and we’ve been invited to a wedding or two.”

Originally Christine’s involvement in Breakfast Week was through the Farmstay UK organisation that promotes farmhouse B&Bs. The organisation and the HGCA formed an alliance that brought about even wider promotion of farms and food. This led to Christine running previous events in 2006 and 2010 and this year she is organising her third, once again over three consecutive days, and in aid of charity. She’s looking forward to it and the following will be more than enough to set a few mouths watering.

“During a normal week I always cook whatever breakfasts our guests want. My full English breakfast starts with a buffet of fruit juices, fruit salad, yogurts and cereals followed by eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans and fried bread. I also offer smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, kippers, porridge and cheese on toast.

“I think people expect a cooked breakfast to be available, particularly when they are staying on a farm, and it’s a very good way of promoting the quality of British produce at the same time.”

Christine won’t be cooking during her three-day breakfast fest. She has enlisted a team of friends, including Christine Clarkson of Carleton and her daughter Liz Gudgeon who also runs a B&B at Embsay.

“An event like this takes quite a bit of organising and I will be firmly front of house for the three days that we are managing two sittings a day, with one at 10am until noon and the other from 1pm to 3pm.

“I’m very fortunate in having some great friends to help me including Rachel Gate from Cheshire. Rachel runs an outside catering company and will be bringing her van full of stuff that we will need. I’ve only got a little grill, which is fine when I’m making breakfasts for six guests at a time but not 30 at each sitting as we are anticipating.”

Grub’s up for a good cause

Christine Ryder’s Three Day Farmhouse Breakfast Week event at Scaife Hall Farm runs from January 28-30 and is all in aid of the Addington Fund.

It provides houses for farming families who have to leave the agricultural industry and in so doing lose their homes. It also supports farming families that are going through tough times.

Barclays has agreed to match-fund whatever the event raises. Tickets are £15. Call 01943 880354.