Kellsby and the Tarrow valley, since 2004
Twenty-two years of the valley’s farms, cooked in your kitchen.
Ruth Everard has cooked in the Tarrow valley’s farmhouses, estates and holiday lets since 2004. Each menu is written around what eight local farms have ready that month, and her son Owen runs the table while she cooks.
- per guest, all in
- $145per guest, all in
- guests at the smallest table
- 6guests at the smallest table
- ahead for a summer Saturday
- 8 weeksahead for a summer Saturday
A mother at the stove, a son at the table.
Ruth cooked for six years at the Kellsby Arms. In 2004 a farmer’s wife at Hollin Edge asked her to cook a fortieth birthday in the farmhouse kitchen, and she has cooked in other people’s kitchens ever since. She reckons it is about 2,600 dinners.
Ruth Everard
Chef, since the first dinner
Writes every menu herself, does the farm round herself, and still will not let anyone else make the gravy.
Owen Everard
Service, since 2019
Washed pans at these dinners from the age of twelve, worked front of house in two city restaurants, then came home. He pours, paces and clears.
“I cook what the valley has that week. If the frost gets the chard, you get something better.”
Ruth
What you eat depends on the month you book.
Pick a month to see what is ready in the valley, a four-course dinner Ruth has cooked in it, and the farms each course came from. It opens on this month.
September
Summer and autumn on one plate. The first ceps from Priors Wood, the last of the sweetcorn, and damsons for the crumble.
In season in the valley
- Ceps
- Early apples
- Damsons
- Squash
- Blackberries
- Partridge
September dates: usually 3 to 4 weeks out
A September dinner
To start
Ceps on toast, cultured butter, parsley
Priors Wood Estate, Stonecote Dairy, Fennick Mill
Second
Roast squash, sage, shavings of aged tomme
Marram Lane Garden, Stonecote Dairy
Main
Partridge, blackberries, celeriac purée
Priors Wood Estate, Marram Lane Garden
Pudding
Damson crumble, Fennick oats, custard
Brackwater Orchard, Fennick Mill, Stonecote Dairy
A sample menu. Yours is written with you on the menu call.
5 farms on this menu
Priors Wood Estate
Head keeper Alan Fisk, Priors Cross
Stonecote Dairy
Anna Rudd, Mill Ford
Fennick Mill
Clare Moss, Low Fennick
Marram Lane Garden
Jo and Dan Pryce, Kellsby
Brackwater Orchard
Ewan Tate, Upper Tarrow
Eight farms, none more than 20 miles from Kellsby.
Two of them have supplied Ruth since her first dinner. The newest joined in 2014. She pays them what they ask and collects from each one herself.
Marram Lane Garden
Jo and Dan Pryce, Kellsby
Two acres of vegetables, salad and herbs, and a dark shed for forcing rhubarb in February.
Supplying Ruth since 2006
Hollin Farm
The Garside family, Hollin Edge
Hill lamb and hogget, geese at Christmas, and the duck eggs Ruth uses for every hollandaise.
Supplying Ruth since 2004
Stonecote Dairy
Anna Rudd, Mill Ford
Cultured butter, cream, fresh curd and a hard tomme aged eight months in the old stone barn.
Supplying Ruth since 2009
Brackwater Orchard
Ewan Tate, Upper Tarrow
Forty-one apple varieties, pears, quince, damsons and cherries, and a still cider for cooking.
Supplying Ruth since 2004
Kettle Brook Trout
Sam Hebden, Tarrow Head
Spring-fed trout ponds and an oak smokehouse. Fish for a dinner is taken the same morning.
Supplying Ruth since 2011
Fennick Mill
Clare Moss, Low Fennick
Stone-ground flour from heritage wheat and rolled oats, milled on the Tarrow since the 1800s.
Supplying Ruth since 2012
Coldharbour Farm
Pete and Lorna Ash, Kellsby Moor
Grass-fed beef hung for 35 days, rare-breed pork and dry-cured bacon.
Supplying Ruth since 2007
Priors Wood Estate
Head keeper Alan Fisk, Priors Cross
Venison, pheasant and partridge in season, wild mushrooms, and honey from twelve hives on the heath.
Supplying Ruth since 2014
From the 7am farm round to a clean kitchen at eleven.
You set the table, or let Owen do it. Everything else, from the shopping to the last wiped counter, is ours.
Three weeks before
1.The menu call
Half an hour on the phone with Ruth. She reads you what the farms will have that week, asks who is allergic to what, and how big your oven is.
7am on the day
2.The farm round
Trout from Kettle Brook, curd from Stonecote, whatever Jo has cut at Marram Lane. Nothing on your menu is bought from a supermarket.
3pm
3.Into your kitchen
Ruth and Owen arrive with their own knives, pans and a crate of linen. We use your plates, or bring our own if you would rather.
7:30pm
4.Four courses
Owen serves and paces the table, not the clock. If the toasts run long, the main waits. Ruth comes out before pudding to say what you ate and where it grew.
About 11pm
5.The kitchen as we found it
Washed, dried, wiped down and the bins taken out. Leftovers go into your fridge, labelled, with a note on how to reheat them.
$145 a guest, and the washing up is ours.
One price per guest for the whole evening, with a minimum of six at the table. There is no service charge on top, and no bill for the shopping.
Every dinner includes
- The menu call and a written menu for the table
- Shopping from the valley farms on the morning of your dinner
- Four courses, cooked in your kitchen
- Owen at the table for the whole evening
- The washing up, every pan of it
| Guests | Total |
|---|---|
| 6 guests | $870 |
| 10 guests | $1,450 |
| 14 guests | $2,030 |
Wine is yours to choose. Owen sends a short list of bottles that suit the menu a week before, and opens and pours them on the night.
Ask for a dateNotes left on the kitchen counter.
Sample reviews, for illustration
“We booked Ruth for my father’s eightieth in the farmhouse he was born in. She served lamb from the farm next door, and he told the table which field it had grazed. I have never seen him so pleased.”
“Twelve of us in a holiday cottage with a tiny oven. Ruth did not blink. Owen had the wine open and the candles lit before we were down from our rooms.”
“My daughter is coeliac and usually eats a different dinner from everyone else. At Ruth’s table she ate the same four courses as the rest of us, including the bread.”
Allergies are planned on the menu call, not improvised at the stove.
Diets and allergies
Coeliac, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan guests eat the same courses as the table, adapted, not a separate plate of vegetables. Gluten-free bread is baked at home in its own tins the day before. Tell us on the menu call and we plan for it.
Where Ruth cooks
Anywhere in the Tarrow valley with no travel charge: Kellsby, Hollin Edge, Mill Ford, Upper Tarrow and the holiday lets in between. Further out, up to 40 miles, we add the fuel at cost.
What your kitchen needs
An oven, four rings and a clear counter. Ruth has cooked on a 1950s range in a farmhouse and on a two-ring hob in a shepherd’s hut. If yours is unusual, she will ask about it on the call.
Tell Ruth the date, the house and how many are coming.
Ruth replies herself, usually the same evening once service is done. Summer Saturdays go about eight weeks ahead, so ask early for June to August.
Or call Ruth on (555) 014-2203Best between 9am and noon, before she leaves for the farms.