Culture

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Since the beginning as a family business, Dream Cottages has strived to provide an honest, reliable and friendly service to all, and with these values underpinning its services, the company (now part of Sykes Holiday Cottages) has gone from strength to strength.

With now over 400 properties, ranging from seaside beach houses, chocolate box thatched cottages, stylish apartments and historic townhouses, Dream Cottages are proud to be deemed one of Dorset’s leading holiday letting agencies.

Most of all, Dream Cottages is local! If you’re looking for far more than simply a marketing service, the local teams are here to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Situated just a stone’s throw from many of the company’s represented properties, Dream can quickly and efficiently help customers and owners.

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Vittles (food & drink)

Lizzie Crow – AKA Lizzie Baking Bird – is a self taught baker, who has a stall outside her home in Upwey each Saturday. See her scrumptious eats at lizziebakingbird.co.uk or find lizzibakingbird on Instagram.

Join the courgette set with veggie cake

Courgette, pistachio & white chocolate cake

My lovely neighbour appeared at my kitchen window this week waving a marrow, only it turned out to be a courgette: Huge. I wondered what could I create? I grated half for fritters, roasted a further portion and I thought I would make a veggie cake. If you have a glut of courgettes, as it appears many do,why don’t you have a go at this ridiculously simple sponge? The courgette will add little flavour but will make a lovely moist cake that will keep for several days.

Makes six portions

110g courgette 100g pistachio 110ml sunflower oil 2 free range eggs 175g caster sugar 175g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 vanilla pod, scraped of seeds or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping 125ml double cream 175 white chocolate 10-12 pistachios

Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking parchment. Grate the courgette into a mixing bowl. Blitz the pistachios so they resemble fine breadcrumbs and leave until needed. Add to the courgette, sunflower oil, eggs, sugar and the pistachios. Beat with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are combined. Add in flour, baking powder and vanilla and mix together. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 45-55 minutes. The cake is cooked when a skewer comes out clean if inserted into the middle. Leave to cool before turning out. Finely chop the white chocolate and put into a basin. Pop double cream into a bowl and microwave for 1 minute (or in a pan on the hob) until very hot. Pour the cream over chocolate and combine until blended completely. Leave for 15 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken and pour over the top of the cake encasing it completely. Take a rolling pin and crush the pistachios and

THE SIZE OF IT! I thought it was marrow at first but it was a neighbour’s courgette which helped make this lovely cake

place on top. Leave to set. Store in an airtight container. You may need to refrigerate when the weather is very warm. n Lizzie is to be found, selling her bread, bakes and cakes in The Old Ship Inn, Upwey DT3 5QQ on a Saturday morning from 9.30 - 12.30. Check out how to make the cake on on Instagram lizzibakingbird or lizziebakingbird.com to see where else she is this summer.

Too many cooks? Certainly not the

By Miranda Robertson

miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

A delicious feast of fishiness is due to be served up in Weymouth over two days in September. Seafeast, which will be held on the Pavilion peninsula on Saturday and Sunday, September 10 and 11, will feature a bevy of brilliant chefs, showing you how to prepare and cook the sea’s bounty in a variety of ways. The festival also aims to encourage youngsters to eat fish, with a special School of Fish pop-up cookery school for children – places can be pre-booked for free. There will be eight sessions per day (children under eight must be accompanied by an adult). Organiser Simon Gray said: “The programme is designed to help children learn how to cook and enjoy fish as part of a balanced diet. “Depending on age, participants will learn how to prepare anything from mussels to mackerel. Thanks to the Food Teachers Centre supported by the Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust for this wonderful opportunity.” The festival is highlighting The Burnt Chef Project, a registered non-profit set up with the sole intention of eradicating the mental health stigma within hospitality sectors. The Burnt Chef Project was set up in 2019, specifically to support the hospitality trade. Long, antisocial hours, tough environmental conditions and pressures to perform are just some of the issues that hospitality professionals are fighting against on a daily basis. James Burger and Matt Budden from The Burnt Chef will be putting on a Ready Steady Cook style show. Mitch Tonks, who opened his seafood restaurant, Rockfish in Weymouth a few years ago, will be joined on stage by Mark

n Matt Budden

n Christian Ølner n James Burger n Nigel Bloxham

Hix, celebrated chef, restaurateur and food writer, Nigel Bloxham from the award-winning The Crab House Café, Mike Naidoo of Catch at the Old Fish Market, Harriet Mansell of Robin Wylde in Lyme Regis and Mark Woodhouse, family

case at the upcoming Seafeast event

n Duncan Lucas n Mark Woodhouse n Mike Naidoo

n Mark Hix and Mitch Tonks n Caroline Drever of Dorset Shellfish

n Richard Stokes n Susy Atkins n Harriet Mansell

director of Hall & Woodhouse, who will be hosting a Badger Beer and cheese pairing tutorial. Susy Atkins, an awardwinning drinks columnist for The Sunday Telegraph and Stella magazine will be hosting a wine tasting session with Dorset English Sparkling Wines, Bride Valley, Furleigh Estate and Langham. And Miraval Wines will host a seafood pairing master class and tasting session. The festival helps to raise money for The Fishermen’s Mission; the only fishermen’s charity that provides emergency support alongside practical and emotional care.

n Tickets are limited, booking in advance is advisable. Saturday: adult £10. Sunday: adult £7 Children under 16 are free of charge. Book at dorsetseafood.co. uk/book Once you have booked your adult tickets for the Festival, you can book your child’s place on the ‘School of Fish’ cookery workshop at dorsetseafood.co.uk/school

BEACHCOMBING with JO BELASCO BA Hons History of Architecture and Design

One hot beachy day I stuck my toes in the mushiest, gooiest sand I could find and just wallowed. Turns out it wasn’t sand, it was mostly clay – soothing, slippery clay. I only know this as a man rounded the rocky corner and told me. When he was a child they used to scoop some up and make bowls from it. I was entranced! And rather worryingly, he told me they would shin up the railway embankment to the old line. There, they would wait until a train passed and then use the heat from the speed on the lines to dry their creations. I followed his gaze, looking up to the now defunct Rodwell trail and imagining the scene. He smiled and continued his journey and I attempted to make a pot. Honestly, my pot was more of a photography success of textures than practical as it cracked and crumbled but it was a gateway make to all sorts of pottery. It was just liberating to think I could just pick up some earth and make something. For a long time one of my dream finds has been a clay pipe. Long have I ogled the posts on Facebook’s London Mudlarks pages, but I still haven’t found a puff of one. I decided to try and make one and you can see my finished attempt in the photo. Another beachcombing trip in Weymouth and I was amazed to find a rather wonderful clay oven. Its architect was a tutor I believe at Portland Sailing Academy. I believe he tried to bake a cake in it for someone’s birthday. Not sure of the outcome but the very fact that it was there I found wonderful. He made it with his bare hands out of the landscape – true vernacular design. I decided to try to make some clay beads. Rolling the clay into a ball and then picking out any hard bits. While it was still wet, poking it with a found stick all the way through to make a hole – they looked like kebabs! I left the beads drying on the stick and took them home to finish hardening on the windowsill. Yes, they are crude and raw, but that’s what I love about them. That and that they are made by me from the land where we live and are wonderfully compostable.

CLAY-PRESTO! An impromptu spa treatment, clay beads made into a necklace with beads of hematite, an attempted clay pipe and, right, kebab-style clay beads

ALL GONE TO POT: My attempt at a clay pot and, right, the clay oven I’m enjoying my feat of clay

The West Dorset Magazine, August 26, 2022 49 Down to earth Autumn’s night sky is so full of treats

Kevin Quinn is a Dark Sky Custodian for the Cranborne Chase Dark Sky Reserve who lives in Piddletrenthide. Read his blog at theastroguy.wordpress.com

Spring and autumn are the two ideal periods of the astro-year: the nights are warm and astronomical darkness falls reasonably early, meaning there’s plenty of time to take in and enjoy the sights. And boy does the autumn night sky have treats aplenty… I’ve mentioned the planets a lot in recent pieces, but I have to do so again here as they’ll be around for a few more months. Saturn, although just past opposition, is a stunning sight in a decent scope, as is Jupiter (at opposition September 26) and Neptune (at opposition on September 16). Being ‘at opposition’ means that they’re at their closest points in their orbits to the earth. Uranus and Mars reach opposition in November and December, respectively. A good thing about TREE SURGERY & observing planets is that it can be done anytime even while the moon’s up GARDEN MAINTENANCE(incidentally, September’s moon is at first quarter on 07826 030706 the September 3, full on September 10, last quarter on September 17, and stevettg@hotmail.comnew on September 25). As amazing as the planets and the moon are, it’s the deep sky that’s where it’s at this autumn. Starting at the northeast, there are dazzling open star clusters in Auriga, Perseus and Cassiopeia (the Double Cluster in Perseus is a must see). Then there are galaxies in Andromeda and Triangulum; Cygnus the swan is directly overhead; and the Milky Way arcs from overhead down to Sagittarius in the south. There are planetary nebulae like the Dumbbell (M27) and the Ring (M57); and stunning globular clusters in Hercules and Ophiuchus. To the northwest there are many, many galaxies and planetary nebulae in Ursa Major and Draco. I heartily recommend spending at least a couple of hours outside during September, looking up, with just the naked eye or with a pair of binoculars (10x50 are ideal) … there are a couple of really nice binocular asterisms that are ideally placed for viewing: the Coathanger cluster in Vulpecula, and Kemble’s Cascade in Camelopardalis. The latter is a lovely ‘string’ of coloured stars that ends in the small open cluster NGC 1502. Check ‘em out, they’re well worth a look. I’d be very happy to offer guidance/advice on choosing binoculars or a telescope.

COLOURFUL: Kemble's Cascade. Courtesy NASA/APOD. Photo by Noel Carboni and Greg Parker You can get in touch via the magazine editor. But wait, what’s this about two seasons in a single month? Well, as this edition goes to press, I’ll be jetting off to springtime in Namibia to explore the astro-delights of the southern hemisphere – the large and small Magellanic Clouds, Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae, the jewel box cluster, the Carina nebula (the subject of a recent JWST image) … It’s been a long-held ambition, and something of a bucket list thing, and I can’t wait. I’ll be staying at an Astrofarm out in the bush, and will no doubt post regular updates on Twitter and on my blog.