Easter 2013

After the worst March since 1962 we are all glad that the hard work of lambing is over and that the first daffodils are beginning to emerge. 

The promise of Spring's arrival and a table full of Easter eggs today has put a smile on all our faces! This is what you missed for our Easter breakfast this morning. Greedily we are all looking forward to the homemade hot cross buns that my daughter and I had fun making yesterday.

Don't forget that Easter heralds the opening of most National Trust properties. Check out the National Trust's website for more details http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ and book now to come and stay with us.

Chester Food festival

Visitors to The Chester Food Festival (29th-30th September 2012) will not be disappointed by our breakie at Cotton Farm…

As foodies and farmers, we have sourced local or home grown produce where we can. Our Sausages and bacon are from the local family run Rose Farm Shop whilst our organic tomatoes and free-range eggs are home grown (when in season of course).

The flour for our bread is milled at Walk Mill - the beautifully restored water mill across the fields from Cotton Farm. All the bread is freshly made at Cotton Farm by Clare, who trained at Prue Leith’s cookery school.

When the orchards and veggie patch are ripe for the picking, you’ll find rhubarb, plums, strawberries and warming spiced apple porridge on the table, too.

Our haloes are shining at Cotton Farm as we do ‘our bit’ for the local community and minimise our carbon footprint, whilst producing a scrumptious breakfast for our guests.

February 2011

The days are slowly getting longer and warmer and new arrivals at Cotton Farm are putting smiles on everyone’s faces. The first snowdrops are peeping through the grass in great carpets of delicate white, bringing a splash of colour to the previously drab winter garden and even the daffodils are showing signs of life. However, the most exciting new arrivals, without a doubt, are the lambs.  Watching them bounce around the fields makes the bleak cold winter feel miles away.  Here are a couple of photos of our favourite additions to farm life…

Don’t forget that to take advantage of our Springtime Offer; three nights for the price of two, your arrival must be on either a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. But hurry as this fantastic offer ends on 12^th April 2011.

To make your stay at Cotton Farm more comfortable and relaxing we now provide our guests with luxury bath robes and a decanter of sherry in the bedrooms. Our homemade marmalade has just been potted up and it tastes delicious with our freshly made Cotton Farm bread, baked with flour grown and milled from the adjacent farm.  If this isn’t enough we now accept credit cards and, within the next week, we will be offering a facility for online bookings to make life easier and more efficient.

November

Well November is upon us already and luckily the weather is remaining very mild giving us all a chance to enjoy the beautiful autumn colours in Cheshire. A walk in Delamere forest is beautiful at this time of year. The Chester Christmas lights will be turned on on 11th November so why not plan a visit to Cotton Farm to coincide with that? Our special autumn offer giving 3 nights for the price of 2 for a midweek stay is still running. On the farm things are quite quiet at the moment. The ewes will all be brought in and scanned later on this week to ascertain how many lambs they are carrying and when the 1st one will be born.

Looking ahead

October seems to be well under way already. Here in Chester we have the Chester Literature festival to look forward to from 18th-31st October which has a great range of speakers coming to entertain us (and promote their books). Take a look at www.chesterfestivals.co.uk  Why not combine a 3 day special autumn offer at Cotton Farm with listening to Justine Picardie talk about Coco Chanel or Andrew Grahma-Dixon speak on the subject of Caravaggio.

On a sadder note, and one closer to the heart of Cotton Farm's daily life, the fox has managed to steal one of my much loved ducks this week (see duck photo in previous entry). Now we only have 3 left.