Barn conversion

Once upon a time, Brading had a wax works and a museum of toys. Nearby there used to be a fun fair on the pier and halls of mirrors. Maybe even pubs intended for drinking and smoking. Now, peoples' tastes have moved on a bit and farmers have found out that there are easier ways of making a crust out of a farm than farming, with the result illustrated, the elaborate barn conversion called the 'Garlic Farm'. Brown signs on the roads for miles around. See reference 1.

After parking up, we followed a couple of very smartly turned out ladies, complete with summer frocks and executive briefcases, whom we suspected of being leaders for some course or other, Was one of them a celebrity chef?

Then there was the large and rather fancy café, offering a range of garlic inspired light lunches. We settled for tea and cake, which last was, I am happy to say, rather good.

Then out onto to the farm to inspect a trial bed for various exotic garlics collected from Central Asia, the ancestral homelands of the garlic plant. Handy to the silk road. We then set out to find the expected fields of garlic, but despite walking around a good chunk of the farm, a pleasant enough walk in the country, we failed to find any. Where did they grow the stuff? Did they actually buy it in, rather than grow it, rather in the way of the Yeo Valley people who sell dairy products to Sainsbury's? On the other hand, there were swallows, swifts and the odd skylark, the first proper sighting of same this year. Also a handsome fishing pond with a good line in water lilies. But faux naturelle. See reference 2.

Wound up the visit with a visit to the shop, from which we did not escape unscathed. Our purchases included a very organic and seedy brown loaf which was not bad at all, in a pumpernickel sort of way. Not bad once in a while, but a bit rich for every day consumption.

From garlic to Yaverland for a quick swim. From there home, where we found, rather to our surprise, that the newly reopened & rather fancily kitted out Yarbridge Arms was fully booked for the evening and we had to resort to the Brading chipper, where I took one of their rather fine steak and kidney puddings. The first for five years. See reference 3.

Reference 1: http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/.

Reference 2: http://fauxnaturelle.blogspot.co.uk/.

Reference 3: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=brading+chips.