North Devon Coast and Country Chronicle: What's Slow Cooking at Bulworthy. Barbecue Cafe Evening in a beautiful Devon Woodland

Monday 22 May 2017

What's Slow Cooking at Bulworthy. Barbecue Cafe Evening in a beautiful Devon Woodland

Barbecue Café Evenings, hosted by the Bulworthy Project, are a great social event for all the family held in a beautiful Devon woodland on the last Saturday of the month from May to August. The next event wil be on Saturday 27th May

The menu will include slow roast mutton and barbecued free range chicken both of which are from small family farms within a few miles away. There will be falafel as a vegan option. Bulworthy can cater for gluten free and other dietary requirements, please ask when ordering. They will be serving local cider, ale and wine as well as a selection of soft drinks, hot beverages and a variety of homemade sweet treats for desert. You can also enjoy an interactive blacksmithing demonstration from Bulworthy friends at Longdog Smithy.

You are welcome to explore the woods whilst you are there where you can see sheep and piglets as well as enjoying the woodland environment. Overnight camping is available if you would like to stay in the woods and the café will be open for breakfast.

The Bulworthy Project Barbecue Café evenings really are unique. That's probably because they way that they came about is also quite unique. Anna and Pete Grugeon bought the woods where Bulworthy Project is based 10 years ago and a couple of years later they were living in a caravan in the woods making charcoal for a living. The next obvious step was to run charcoal making courses and they started catering for the courses. Because they were cooking on charcoal every day and they are passionate about locally produced food, they were producing really fantastic meals and people started saying that they'd be up for coming to the woods just for the food.

In May 2015 they got an events licence and put on the first Barbecue Café evening. Despite terrible weather, quite a few people came to shelter in what undercover space there was and eat delicious food. Slow roast shoulder of pork was on the menu, but was gone within minutes. There was no campfire that night due to the rain, but everyone had a fantastic time. That evening had been a real learning curve. By the end of the year, they had a full size marquee, meaning that everyone can stay warm and dry and had streamlined how the café worked so that it looked like a slick operation.

There was entertainment from the start of these evenings, with friends playing music, telling stories and doing craft demonstrations and now each café has it's own individual feel depending on what is going on. Some of it is organised and publicised in advance, some is spontaneous and just happens on the day. The food is locally produced, comes mainly from farms known to Anna and Pete and is of course still cooked on charcoal that they make themselves. This is however no normal barbecued food. The latest menu includes roast chicken, slow roast mutton and they have falafel as a vegan option. It is served as sit down meals and comes with a fine selection of locally produced ale, cider and wine as well as soft drinks and beverages. There's a blacksmithing demo booked and more entertainment expected on the day.