It's Farmhouse Breakfast Week next week, a campaign in its 13th year. Farmer's wife Enid Nelless, of award-winning Thistleyhaugh B&B extols the benefits of the most important meal of the day. KATHARINE CAPOCCI finds out more
BREAKFAST is said to be the most important meal of the day and next week marks the return of Farmhouse Breakfast Week, a campaign which extols the benefits of a hearty set-yourself-up-for-the- day breakfast.
Now in its 13th year, the annual campaign run by HGCA, a division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, also celebrates the array of breakfast produce available across the country and champions local flavours.
Running from January 22-28, the theme for this year’s campaign is ‘Shake Up Your Wake Up’ to encourage people to make time to start the day with breakfast.
Someone who knows just how important the first meal of the day is, is farmer’s wife Enid Nelless of the award-winning Thistleyhaugh bed and breakfast near Longhorsley in Northumberland.
Thistleyhaugh is run very much as a family affair. Enid and her daughter-in-law Zoe run the B & B and evening catering side of the business, helped by Enid’s nephew Robert Tait, while their husbands Henry and Duncan, along with Enid’s other son, Angus, take care of the business of farming.
The guesthouse, with its five bedrooms, won the Good Hotel Guide Farm Guest House of the Year in 2011 and also features in Alastair Sawday’s Special Places to Stay.
In the traditional farmhouse kitchen with its Aga and stone-flagged floor, Enid and Robert prepare breakfast for paying guests, the family – the third generation of working farmers at Thistleyhaugh – and the staff who help them work the 700-acre organic farm which produces organic beef and lamb and which is also home to the Northumberland Poultry business.
“Breakfast is really important,” says Enid. “A good feed at breakfast sees you through until the afternoon. After having breakfast guests will say they can never eat another thing, but they always can by dinner time though!”
And breakfasts have always played a role in Enid’s life.
“I was brought up with good, home-cooked breakfasts. I used to stay with my grandparents at Seaton Point in Northumberland and I can remember my grandmother cooking breakfast on a great big black open fire range.”
Dinners include traditional roasts, soups and puddings and wherever possible, the produce is locally sourced and seasonal, and always home-made.
Thistleyhaugh are members of the food and drink organisation Taste North East, the region’s one-stop resource for all businesses that grow, make, serve or sell food and drink in the North East.
Chairman Tim Pain says: “Breakfast involves every stage of the food chain, from farmers to food producers and retailers to consumers. The ‘Wake Up Your Shake Up’ campaign provides an excellent opportunity for businesses like Thistleyhaugh to promote the wealth of wonderful breakfast produce that is available throughout the region.
