Going to do a little more research on the location and surrounding area but it says well behaved dogs are allowed (Sky is 12 this year and pretty fragile, so she spends most of her time sleeping)
So... couple of questions.
1. Other than the camping costs for the site, what is the cost for attending? Sampling all the amazing food...?
2. What could a newbie bring to chip in with the day? Even if it is just a few slabs of Old Rosie or something similar.
No problem with the dog. They are happy to have well behaved dogs on site. Kiska brought his last year. The main problem for them is they tend to get over fed
Currently there are no additional costs to attend. Although it is not essential, we do hope you will bring something food-wise to share. We all also bring along some wine and beer etc. to help wash down the food.
The whole event is very casual. On the Saturday we encourage anyone who wants to to prepare something for the banquet (usually held at about 4pm) to do so. There are no competitions and nobody is judged. We all go to share ideas and try new things - and if there is something specific that someone wants to learn then there will be people there who can help them.
Because there is usually so much food we do open up the table to the rest of the camp site at around 4:30. We get a lot of people from the site who are very interested to find out more.
Several of us will bring BBQs to cook on and, providing we know in advance, we can usually provide spares. There will be food preparation tables provided and a large walk-in chiller trailer for the storage of food before and after the event - and also to keep the wine and beer cool. We also provide warming dishes ans cutlery. We do advise you to bring folding chairs though.
Food wise it can be anything... brisket, pulled pork, chicken, salmon, burgers (yes I did say burgers), chilli, prawns, coleslaw, salads, potatoes, breads, biscuits, desserts... anything that you can prepare that you think others may like. We were inundated with beans last year and so we try to get people to agree what they intend bringing before the event. If you really want to do something specific then that is fine as a number of us are happy to fill in the gaps as required.
Although there are a few of us BBQ sad cases there, we are usually outnumbered by our other halves and friends. For the ones that can get there on Friday night (most of us try to) we sit and chat and cook snacks on a couple of BBQs. Last year Steve brought along his Tandor and was cooking delicious Pizza for us all using his latest Heath Robinson patented pizza lowering device
.
Do not worry about that yet though. We will be asking people to let us know what they intend to bring in 2 or 3 weeks time.
It would be great to see you there if you can make it. Almost everyone says that they were very nervous before they come the first time however as soon as they arrive it is as if we have all known each others for years. The other halves also enjoy it - probably as much as we do