There is input but it's me who has last say. The pub is just opening after being refurbished after a nasty flood a couple of winters ago and then being hit by covid. It was up for auction and likely to be bought by developers so the local community clubbed together to buy it. It was actually the largest community buyout ever in the UK as they raised £650,000 in donations.
Interesting. Our local bar/cafe tried that once. It had opened and closed numerous times with various owners. At one point a few local farmers bought it and hired a manager. The families all took a day of the week to be responsible for staffing the joint. I don’t know what sunk it but it didn’t last any longer that time than any other owner. It opened a couple times since but is closed permanently now I believe. A local teenage girl used the building this year to market plants from her greenhouse. She’s doing a great job and we’ve already done more business with her than I’ve done with all of the cafe operators put together in the last 20 years. LOL How is the ownership set up? Do investors get profit sharing or something was it just charitable donations with no strings attached?
There are shareholders who bought £50 shares, over 1,400 of them, but they get no returns. My sister, my mum and Farmer Paul had all bought shares in the place. This was before I was even involved. Then there are larger investors such as a local independent brewery who used to own it and put in £50,000 which I presume has to be repaid. There were also a few government grants etc. The management committee is 9 strong an headed by the guy who used to run the bar at the Greenpeace festival we used to have here on the farm. I used to run my food stall beside his bar over 25 years ago. The guy I do the TV and film catering used to own the pub back in the early 2000s which is when I worked there before. He's been helping us out with equipment this week. It's one of those places that everyone has a connection to. I used to go there for a pint after school sometimes (which I mentioned at my interview). It's about 5 miles from where I grew up. Being so isolated (it's not even connected to the power grid) it has always had a history of local bands playing there and even used to put on its own little festival ''Lockstock''.
Wow. What an interesting story and interesting place. How does that road even work? It's barely even one lane and has zero room for turning aside with opposed traffic. However, it somehow made it onto Google street view! What do you do there for power if you aren't connected to the grid? Petrol generators or hydro generators? There's a black dog in the road and it looks like a spot that Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin may have been stealing mushrooms from and barely escaping black riders from Mordor! Note this street view seems to be about a decade old.... Will there not be any meat on the menu? Looks like an excellent spot for fish and chips and a Guinness on one of those picnic tables.
Funny you should say black dog. There's a very famous black dog ghost in the area. Currently we run a large diesel generator with a massive battery pack so it can last overnight with the generator off. Plans for the future include solar panels and a wind generator. The quote to put it on mains supply was half a million pounds because of its remoteness. However the Broads Authority are slowly encouraging all the leisure boats to go electric so they might have to get electrics to the moorings and we can then get a supply from them. Yes, there will be lots of meat on the menu. Just because I don't eat dead animals it doesn't mean I don't like cooking them. Cod and chips will definitely be on the menu along with steak and ale pie, venison sausage and mash, burgers, full Sunday roasts etc. Once we get the chargrill we're waiting for I'll add a range of steaks, gammon etc. Might even do a full English breakfast during the school holidays to feed the holidaymakers on boats. During peak season, which is about 3 weeks away, there can be up to 30 boats on the moorings with 8-10 people aboard each one. For about 34 years it was one building and run by the same woman. A Mrs Susan Ellis who only sold beer, no food. A formidable woman, a spinster from Ulster who didn't suffer fools. In those days the bar was lit by gaslights and candles at night. She lived until the 60s. The first extension and kitchen was built in the 70s and they first started using a generator. Even then though the generator would often go off at night and the candles would come out. I can remember occasions when I sat in there drinking ale by gaslight even in the 80s and 90s. I'd like to bring the tradition back but there are just too many fridges and freezers to keep running these days.
This is what it would have looked like in the 18th and 19th centuries when the lock was in use and the Broads were used for commerce. Taking hay to feed London's horses and reeds for thatching the nation's houses. Miss Ellis and some customers in candlelight. The original lock keeper's inn before the extensions.
That’s my kind of “socialism”! LOL Does this mean the juggling convention is off? The more you post the more excited I am for you. The location, the architecture, the history, the clientele all sound like what you would choose in a perfect scenario. And I think it’s great so many people are willing to support it. If half of those funding the purchase support you with their patronage you should do well. It’s highly unlikely I’ll find myself on that side of the Atlantic any time soon but if I did I’d drive a long ways to experience the place.
The juggling convention is still undecided. It may become just a get together for us with a bit of socially distanced camping rather than a full convention. We're waiting to see how things progress before making a decision at the end of the month. The convention is a group effort so can go on without me helping out. The last two were spoilt for me by clashing with some TV catering so I missed half of the 11 days. There is one downside to being an isolated pub on the marshes. This photo is from 2003 when I was working there before and we had some particularly bad weather. 2019 was a bad one too and even without the covid it would have been shut for renovations. It was about 18'' deep inside the buildings. The pub is higher than the surrounding land so it's always the last thing to flood. The lane can be 2' under water so you can't drive in or out but the pub is still dry with customers arriving by boat. There were days when I would have to leave my truck at the end of the lane and use my kayak to get to work. Then it's like an island in a huge lake and even more beautiful.
It's proper olde worlde in the original bar. That long handled tool mounted above the fireplace is a traditional eel fork for catching eels out of the river.
Everybody eats, but how many people like to cook? Since I planted my pumpkins last weekend I thought I'd share this recipe with everyone. I make this dish with either one of the Blue Doll or Musquee de Provence (aka Fairytale) pumpkins we grow - it looks like the cook in this video used a Blue Doll. Since they're both great eating/cooking pumpkins either one will do. If you're a meat lover, sage pork sausage makes a very nice addition to this recipe. So, yes kids - pumpkins aren't just for pie! They're great for dishes such as this and savory soups/stews.
Would a homebrew post be out of line here? I recently cracked open some Märzenbier I brewed last October.... This is an all-grain brew. I went a little heavy on the Munich and Cara Munich malts which is why it came out a bit dark and tastes a little on the malty side, which is okay by me. From brew day to drinking day this batch was aged 6 months. Original gravity was 1.054 and final gravity was 1.010. ABV is 5.7% which is nice. Primary fermentation was 3 1/2 weeks and secondary 15 weeks. Bottle conditioned for a month. Batch sparged Here's the grain bill: First batch grains: 6.25 lbs Munich Malt 4.5 lbs German Pilsner Malt .5 lbs Cara Munich Malt .5 lbs Cara Vienne Malt (11.75 lbs) 2nd batch additional grains: 2 lbs Munich Malt 1 lb German Pilsner Malt 1 lb Cara Munich Malt TOTAL GRAIN BILL: 15.75 lbs. 8.25 lbs Munich Malt 5.5 lbs German Pilsner Malt 1.5 lbs Cara Munich Malt .5 lbs Cara Vienne Malt HOPS: .25 ozs 5 HBU bittering hops, 1 hour - 15.9% Alpha Acid .5 ozs Hallertau Mittelfruh hops flavoring, 15 mins. - 5.3% AA .5 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh hops aroma, 5 mins. - 5.3% AA YEAST: 1 pkg Wyeast 2633 Oktoberfest Lager Blend (liquid yeast, smack pack)
Hi, thanks for adding to the thread! I don’t cook as much as I used to but still enjoy it. Between my wife and I cooking it’s rare we eat anything out of a box or boughten can. I have yet to try pumpkin in soups or savory dishes. We only use it in pie, cookies, and bread. I make a lot of pumpkin bread in the winter out of home canned pumpkin from the garden. Yes, I know you aren’t supposed to home-can pumpkin. But botulism is irrelevant anyway if you are using it for baking LOL
"Danger" is your middle name. We’ve got a pressure cooker so we could can them if we wanted to, but since they'll store for months in a cool place why bother? If we're up to our eyeballs in pumpkins we'll just give the surplus away to our friends and neighbors. Believe it or not you can make a great pumpkin soup using the same ingredients in the gnocchi bake, but instead of using big chunks of pumpkin it's better to cube or puree it in a food processor (I've done it both ways). Then you just add as much water and/or chicken stock you want to the recipe to get the desired thickness. I've also poured a little Sam Adams Boston Lager or some home-brewed brown ale into the mix to add a little extra flavor and that worked out real nice. I always throw some sage sausage in there, too - I am not a vegetarian. Meaty soups and stews are one of my specialties (hello, chili!).
Finished, about 4 1/2 gallons - I think it came to eighteen 22 oz. bottles (I don't keg). I've added another 1/2 gallon of water to previous batches and they came out more balanced like a Märzenbier/Oktoberfest should, but I brew this style not only for myself but for my wife, too, and she likes her Märzen on the malty side. That was also the first time I got a stuck sparge (argh!) so I bought a brew bag after that fiasco. Tomorrow I'm going to be popping open the first bottle of a Maibock I brewed last November (I'll report back on that later), which was the first time I used the brew bag - I'll never mash without one again. This Maibock's gonna be a real butt-kicker - the ABV came to something like 8.3%. It's a dangerous beer because it's so good but if you keep knocking them back you'll get hammered before you know it. It's definitely not a session beer. It's my favorite style of golden ale, and not because of the higher ABV. It's got a lot more flavor than most golden ales and lagers.
You are so right! But please spare as recipes! We like to eat! But not everybody likes to cook! And yes - one can enjoy eating - without having to cook every bloody meal onself first!
I absolutely hate recipes! I enjoy eating! But I hate cooking! Is that unheard of in the US that people may enjoy eating - witthout cooking every bloody thing on earth first?
Sure, you don’t have to cook everything yourself. But someone has to cook for you if you aren’t cooking and they might better serve you with a supplied recipe! For the record, I don’t use recipes when I cook. I know what ingredients are needed and just wing the measurements etc.
