Courses at Pool Cottage.

We deliver 3 different one day courses at Pool Cottage. Each course is limited to a maximum of 4 people in order to personalise your day with us and is practical in its delivery as we believe that we all learn from doing. We provide lunch and home made refreshments throughout the day. All courses are £115 per person, though we offer a £15 discount if you book 2 courses over the same weekend.

We offer a voucher service if you would like to give a Pool cottage Smallholding course as a gift for someone special and all attendees will receive a certificate at the end of the day.

Introduction to Smoking and Curing.

This is a full day course and we take you through the basics and practicalities of both hot and cold smoking, including hints and tips on building your own smokers. When it comes to curing, we look at the wet and dry cures and give you the chance to make your own bacon and salumi to take home. The course comes with a set of printed notes for you to take away, complete with a number of charcuterie recipes and useful contact addresses for equipment and charcuterie supplies.

Introduction to Sausage Making.

In this course we start with the humble British sausage, we discuss the main ingredients that make a good sausage and the many and various seasonings that can be used. Once the theory is out of the way, it's time to make your own sausages and we take you through the whole process, from mixing, to stuffing and finally linking your sausages in the traditional manner. We then move onto the practical aspects of producing a fine black pudding, once again you have the chance to get stuck in and make your own black pudding to take home. Finally, we will introduce you to the art of cured sausage in the guise of that Italian classic the chorizo, which, of course, you will be making yourself before you end the day. As with the smoking and curing course, you go away with a set of notes, complete with a number of sausage recipes and useful contact addresses for equipment and sausage making supplies.

Cider Making.

The third course is all about cider. We host this course early in October and once again we find plenty to talk about, but the emphasisis is on experiential learning. We take you through the complete cider making process, where you will have the chance to pick the apples and pears straight from our small orchard, crush the fruit into a pulp using a hand turned crusher and finally, press the apples using a traditional hand press. You can do as much or as little of the work as you like and we take regular breaks to sample the cider, along with an apple based treat or two. We also discuss aspects of the cider making process as we enjoy the fruits of our labour. At a convienient point we stop for lunch, usually Ruth produces a home made pork casserole steeped in cider, with apple cake for pudding.  With lunch over we continue the practical cider making, adding the yeasts to the pressed juice for fermentation process to begin. We also discuss the various ways to blend and condition your cider and back this discussion with extensive sampling of different ciders. We do suggest you have either somewhere to stay before driving home or have a nominated driver, as our cider is often around 6.5 - 7.5% proof!