The Great Tram Hunt

Word has reached us that an interesting story has recently appeared in ' British Trams - Online news.'

 

It appears that somewhere in Milford on Sea village, in a garden, is the remains of a Tram that used to pass through Bournemouth?

Hmm, intriguing, can anyone throw any light on the subject?

Click here to read full article
 

La Perle in Fizzing!

If you have a taste for champagne, then a visit to La Perle, French Bistro in Milford on Sea High Street will tickle your taste buds.  Not only is there a rather nice selection of champagnes, even more fascinating are the stories that go with each.

Many of you will know that La Perle was opened two years ago by chef/proprietor Lionel Sene, who was originally from Hautvillers, Epernay in the beautiful Champagne area of France and the capital of Champagne.  Today, Lionel serves champagnes that he has carefully selected from in and around the village of Hautvillers, where his family still have vineyards.

Champagne Lombard et Cie

Lombard & Cie House of Champagne was founded in 1925 and situated in Epernay, the capital of Champagne. Lionel's father worked for many years for Monsieur Lombard, and the Champagne house is highly regarded. All the grapes come from the selected areas of the highest quality due to the soil, area & exposure.

Billecart-Salmon Champagne House

Still under the ownership of the original family, Billecart-Salmon also has close ties to Lionel's family. Lionel's brother-in-law is the Maitre Chai, looking after the vineyards & creating new blends & variations. The blend varieties used in the non-vintage wine has not differed in over 50 years & is a classic mix of varieties in the region.

Champagne Pessenet-Legendre

Pessenet-Legendre is owned by Sylvie et Cyrille Pessenet. Sylvie grew up in Hautvillers with Lionel as a child and is a close family friend. The grapes are harvested from the vineyards in Hautvillers where the family have lived & owned vineyards for generations. A young family with two small children, the Champagne is named after their eldest daughter Cléo.

Charles Heston Champagne.

The Cooperative Les Six Coteaux is based in the village of Pouillon, 6 km to the North of Reims. Using only grapes from their vineyard, they launched their own brand, Champagne Charles Heston, in 2010 and have already won many rewards from prestigious wine competitions. La Perle are pleased to offer a selection of these fantastic champagnes at our restaurant.

 

So there you have it, quite a unique selection, and certainly worth a try on the next visit, or special occassion.

 

Keeping to a more modest budget, some of the dining offers La Perle are currently running look worth a try; 1/2 Lymington Lobster & Frites on Wednesday nights for £19.95 (with 1/2 corn fed Roast Chicken for meat preferers - £13.95). Both include any glass of wine from the pouring list. The Lymington Lobster is from our local Fisherman who docks & fishes from Lymington Quay.

 

The 'Grillade' is now available every day. = Lio buys 28 day aged Hampshire Rib Eye, Bavette & Sirloin 'the entire loin' and steaks are cut and tempered to order, and prices start from £12.95.

 

Feeling hungry yet?!

(PS: Did you know, in France they say Bistrot rather than Bistro.  The 'T' was dropped in the UK to make the word look more attractive.)

 

www.laperlemilford.co.uk

 

 

Good Food Guide Again

The Marine on Milford on Sea seafront has once again gained an entry in the prestigious 2013 edition of The Good Food Guide. Entries are awarded based on restaurant nominations from customers, and susequent inspections by The Good Food Guide inspectors.

 

This is the second consecutive year that The Marine been featured in The Good Food Guide, since opening their doors for business in August 2010.

 

www.themarinemos.co.uk

 

Love our village conservation

A merry bands of locals do sterling work as Milford Conservation Volunteers. The group is made up of people of all ages, and  they get up to many various projects to ensure our village environment, habitats and wildlife are well cared for.

If you appreciate what they do, would like to know more, our fancy joining in, why not pop along to their AGM

MILFORD CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS

Annual General Meeting

Friday, 8th March

Community Centre, Sea Road 7.00pm

 

Tea/coffee and biscuits will be available.

MCV are also taking this opportunity to publicise information about their new project - a Biodiversity Action Plan for Milford-on-Sea. Ian Barker from the National Parks Authority will be giving a short talk about Biodiversity Plans from other areas and from the County. If you are interested in finding out more do come along.

Non-members are very welcome.

The evening is open to all, and the more the merrier!

 

 

Recall Milford of Old Over Tea

The young people of MiCO (Milford Community Organisation) would like to meet anyone who spent much of their childhood growing up in Milford during the 70’s and 80’s, and who would like to share any memories and experiences of what it was like in Milford then!

 

If you have any photos or items documenting village life at that time that would be also be great……….

 

The MiCO Team are holding a Tea Party in the café area of the Community Centre on Thursday the 7th March at 3:30pm until 5pm, and invite you along to sample their home made cakes, warming tea and hopefully get talking and comparing the Milford of today to the Milford decades gone by……..

 

Please let us know if you would like to come along, and we look forward to seeing you!

 

RSVP: 15 Lawn Road, Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, SO41 0QZ. Telephone: 01590 644961 | 07557 658495 Email: hellomico@yahoo.co.uk

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MiCO (Milford Community Organisation) is run by young people who are living in Milford-on-Sea, Keyhaven and Everton. Currently they are involved in a Lottery Heritage Project called “All our Stories” discovering more about the cultural heritage of our village.

 

In May they will be displaying exhibitions and performing at small events in locations including Milford School, St Barbe Museum, St George’s Nursing Home and the Community Centre in order to pass on what they have learned about the history of our village and what it is to be part of Milford’s community today.

 

 

 

A Five Star Stay

Milford Croft Self Catering bungalow has for the 4th year running achieved the Five Star Gold Award status as assessed by VisitBritain.

 

Just off the seafront in Hurst Road, Milford on Sea, Milford Croft was described as being: 'exceptional with a degree of luxury’. The owners, Tricia and Colin, are understandably delighted. www.milfordcroft.co.uk

 

Mulbery Barn at Old Walls is another five star self catering option in the village. Click here for more information.

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A New B&B

We have heard that the village has another new bed & breakfast, Juniper House B&B, to welcome visitors to the village. It looks pretty cosy, so why not check it out by clicking here.

 

Milford on Sea is naturally a great destination for visitors all year round, and to look after our guests comfortably there are many options on places stay. Indeed, there issomething to suit all styles and budgets.  If you know anyone coming to stay, why not get them to check out what is available by clicking here.

 

 

Thinking of Getting Married, or Divorced?

As it has just been Valentine’s Day it is probably a good time to give mention to people planning on getting married.

 

photographs by
helen rushton
photography

On Sunday 24th February from 10am to 5pm the New Forest Showcase takes place at many of the New Forest hotels, including our own South Lawns Hotel. The hotels will be dressed up to show potential brides and grooms how the venue handles weddings, they can also meet various local wedding suppliers, including Mandy Black of Elmsleigh Cakes from the village.

There are also a series of Wedding Showcases taking place every Tuesday evening, from 5pm to 8pm at The MacDonald Elmers Court Hotel in Lymington. Each evening the ballroom is decorated in differing chosen theme/colour, from chairs, sashes, table plans, place settings, cake and flowers. The lovely ladies responsible for the displays and also the photographer who captures the impressive displays, will be there for you to discuss your own ideas and requirements for your big day.

On Sunday March 17th there is an even bigger Grand Wedding Fair at Elmers Court Hotel in South Baddesley Road, Lymington, from 11am until 3.30pm ,where a number of wedding suppliers and services will come together for one large show.

Sounds a busy month for brides and grooms. 

Thankfully, I do not have a wedding to research, arrange, or pay for. Having done it twice already, I know exactly how much it can be, and that a divorce is about ten times the cost of any wedding!

I am thinking of taking a stand at the shows to gently point out to the potential grooms the exact risks he is taking. It is only fair that the poor chap should know both sides I feel. Yes, I am sure my delicate counselling skills would be really appreciated, but perhaps not by the brides and their mothers! The other wedding service suppliers also might not appreciate my presence, and the risk is quite high that I might get dunked in a chocolate fountain, (which wouldn’t be a bad thing), however, it is more of a concern where a wedding umbrella might end up!

 

www.elmsleighcakes.co.uk
www.helenrushtonphotography.co.uk
www.fundooweddings.co.uk

www.laureldesignstationery.com
www.thenewforest.co.uk

 

Verveine is 'Smoking!'

Our local award winning fish restaurant, Verveine in Milford on Sea High Street, was featured in an article in The Independent today.  Looks like David Wykes, Chef/proprietor and Hampshire Chef of the Year, is now making a mark for Milford on Sea on a national scale with his imaginative and flavour full cooking. All sounds very tasty to me!

No wonder they have won five major awards in the past two years.

Here is how Verveine was featured in the article:

"Although there's plenty of smoking going on in London – on the roofs of Mayfair, where Mark Hix and Richard Corrigan smoke their salmon, on the balconies of bistros and in the bars of speakeasies elsewhere in the capital – nowhere can it be more prevalent than the New Forest, where both Lime Wood and The Pig, the area's most-acclaimed restaurants, have their own smokehouses.

However, they can't hold a candle in variety to the fumes generated by David Wykes, chef-proprietor of nearby Verveine, tucked behind a fishmonger's in Milford on Sea. He smokes flour, eggs, butter, lobster shells, parsnips, celeriac, potatoes, vanilla – and chocolate, which is a huge trend among the artisan chocolatiers of New York and Chicago, but not generally available here.

"I'm working on smoked chocolate and cep-powder truffles at the moment," says Wykes, who believes smoking his lobster shells gives a deeper flavour to bisques, and favours smoked butter to wrap into mash. "We also have a smoking gun for infusing food under glass cloches," he adds, reporting that rapidly infusing herbs, flowers and spices with this latest culinary tool results in "wonderfully aromatic" dishes such as elderflower-smoked scallops and rosemary-scented spinach.

The gun comes out again at Verveine with a siphon charger to infuse alcohol. "Smoke is fed in, the top is screwed on and charged with nitrous oxide. This displaces the oxygen in the container and forces the smoke into the alcohol. Brandy smoked with elderflower is truly beautiful, as is red wine with oak smoke.

"We're also putting a screw-top Kilner jar on the table 10 minutes before the customer arrives; the jar is filled with smoke and pork skin transformed into smoked bacon crisps. The customer opens the jar as the first amuse-bouche, to enjoy with an apple-and-sage espuma."

Wykes is also burning hay to make smoked-hay ice cream and infusing brandy with cigar smoke for the ultimate digestif, perhaps cognisant that smoked spirits are a major feature of the London cocktail scene. The British vodka-distiller Chase reports that it has had to double its production of smoked vodka to cope with the increased demand for smoked Bloody Marys, and there are plenty of London bars that wield a smoking gun to inject instant fumes into bourbon or rye.

Wykes believes we've missed a beat by turning our backs on our culinary heritage for the past 60 years: "We never picked up our cultural identity after the Second World War, when smoking food was massive, although in those days it was mainly used as a preservative. It wasn't realised there's more to it than that – smoked food tastes so much more alive, less one-dimensional. It has more edge."

click here to read full article

 

Super Heroes in Milford

Chris and Jocelyn would like to say a big thank you to the 107 people who attended the Love Library celebrations at Milford on Sea Library last Saturday.

 

Also grateful thanks must go to all of the volunteers, the Knit and natter group, Alison for the fascinating felt making demonstration, Nicky for the delicious cakes, the ladies who lent their super art work for the display, the 40 children who took part in the Library's Super Heroes Trail and the 18 shops who displayed the Super Heroes!

You can see more photos from the day here:

www.facebook.com/MilfordonSea.Library

 

A Tower for Cheese Lovers!

Local cake maker, Mandy Black of Elmsleigh Cakes, has launched a new idea for parties, weddings and just about any celebration.

As just about everyone loves cheese, Mandy is now building 'Cheese Towers' as both a tasty and attractive centrepiece from people's events. The towers can be various sizes to fit various budgets.

 

Mandy's Cheese Towers are not simply a  stack of cheeses. Because she has a cake decorating background, all of the cheeses are arranged using cake separators, which means she can then decorate them with fresh fruit and flowers etc in the same way as you would do a cake.

 

To ensure Mandy can supply the whole package, she also supplies pickles in personalised jars decorated in the same theme as the wedding/function and baskets of crackers and fresh baked breads.

 

The pickles are from Spice n Easy, which are also made in the village and available on the shelves of Hollands of Milford.

 

The Cheese Towers not only look stunning, but they can also feed so many people. A stack of 5 cheeses, bread and pickles will easily feed over 100 peoples, so as part of a evening buffet they really go along way.

Mandy said: "At my last wedding fair at Rhinefield House I spent as mush time talking cheese as I did cake ,and I can talk for England but even I was exhausted by the end of the day!!"

 

The cheeses are supplied by Hollands of Milford in the High Street. Paul, Maureen and their team have a very impressive deli-counter laden with local, national and international cheeses, not to forgot a lot of cold meats and other goodies. Always worth a look to find a tempting treat!

 

www.elmsleighcakes.co.uk
www.milfordonseaweddings.co.uk