First the serious bit… we have been delighted with the number of people contacting us looking to book in. Your loyalty and enthusiasm means a great deal to us. However, even after the government announcements of fast-paced lock-down easing, we still plan to open on July 7th. This decision was carefully thought through, as it builds in a buffer of a couple of weeks in case restriction easing is at anytime delayed. As you know, our restaurant is small and can only reopen once the conditions are right for our space. However if you can make it to us from July 7th-october 14th, we would be delighted to see you. We urge you to book your accommodation, ferry and table with us ASAP as things are filling up faster than usual.
In Lighter News…Busy Busy on the Croft Our yearly Botanical experimentation is in full swing, this time we have gone for aronia berries, blue sausage plants, dwarf black pomegranates, and rare wasabi. However biting cold and severe winds raged just after planting these newbies out, ‘sods law’ as Jonny would say! So the neighbours caught glimpses of me cavorting in the cabbage patch, running around covering seedlings with old kitchen pots held down with chunks of Caledonian pink granite, in an effort to protect them. Nothing they haven’t seen before.
In between our gardening adventures we been enjoying outdoor coffee on our sunny herbarium patio and new plant information plaques and parking sign have gone up.
After braving the salty sea winds and weather for 12 years, the head finally fell off our old fish sculpture at the entrance to the restaurant. But it was a chance to create a new one complete with dining plate, nothing like making a metal fish skeleton to cheer one up! After which I dutifully filled in a 42 page government risk assessment for the restaurant before drowning my paperwork anxiety in a vat of absinthe and face diving into a tray of chocolate & kumquat brownies.
Jonny-fisherman has finished rotovating the garden. In mid-action the reverse gear band on the Roto-tiller snapped and Jonny sprung into repair mode. He was soon brandishing wall paper paste, gorilla tape, a rubber spatula, and a pair of my panty hose …the paste and tape were for the repair. Use your imagination for the rest.
Forays into the culinary basket of wonder continue in the kitchen. This week’s challenge was to marry the flavours of newly acquired Mull Mangalista pork with the flavours of Peruvian cuisine. Mangalitsa is a variety of curly-haired pig from Hungary. It is renowned for a delectable marbling of fat through the meat which makes it both tender and intensely flavoursome. They are happily reared just outside Tobermory and have the freedom to roam of lots of island land. The Andean countries have some fabulous pork dishes and having taken the time to cultivate South American plants like Pipiche, Huacatay, and oca, I am keen to create a fabulous dish.
Our magical new staff have arrived…Catriona and Mr. George Wimpenny (I just can’t get enough of that Steampunk-like name). They will be repainting the restaurant, outbuildings , fences and almost everything in sight… including 3 stray sheep and random endoplasmic reticulum. They have come to us from the wilds of Gairloch and bring much joy, energy and cosmic kombucha scobies with them.
Life is good.