Wyken Vineyard and the Carlisle Family

 I went to the farmers market at Wyken Vineyard because I'd been re-reading this book below. I picked it up at one of the small book sales . I knew I'd read it before but a long time ago - probably when it was first out in 2001.

Carla Carlisle was born in Mississippi and married Sir Kenneth Carlisle a  British farmer, Tory M.P and owner of Wyken Hall a 600 acre estate which had been in his family for four generations. She moved into rural Suffolk and set about planting a vineyard and establishing the restaurant.

The book is collected writings from her articles from Country Life Magazine where she wrote about her farming life and  compared life here to life in the USA.

I knew there was a vineyard, restaurant and one of the only weekly farmers markets at the Hall but despite it only being about 12 miles away across country I had never been.

I didn't realise that they also had a Country Store and that the gardens were sometimes open too

There were already a lot of cars on the car park there when I arrived but I was surprised to find not really many stalls selling. Just 1 cheese stall, a couple of meat stalls,  bread and a vegetable stall both with very long queues.

There were also jams and chutneys. People selling gin and beer and fruit juices. And everything was, as usual, VERY expensive.

I had a wander round and bought a cheese to try, a pack of 2 pork and apple burgers and 2 Lamb and mint burgers. I looked at the restaurant but didn't stop for a coffee there as I'd spent a fortune already!

But one of the most interesting bits was the Country Store where I discovered they had the Little Toller Country Classic Books on the shelves as well as many other country books including a second book of Carla Carlisle's magazine pieces and a book written about the history of Wyken Hall by Sir Kenneth.

I may well go back nearer to Christmas as they also had lots of eco-friendly household products.

Back Tomorrow

Sue