Vote for your favourite autumnal images for our charity calendarHelp create the best 2024 charity calendar featuring beautiful reader images from across the Harrogate district!
The Stray Ferret will be showcasing the best photo of the week entries – posted every Sunday on our channels – in our calendar, but we need your help to decide the lucky winners.
The winning photographs will be included in the autumn months of the calendar, so whether you love the flaming orange leaves or a twinkling starry night, take a look at our shortlist below and vote for your favourite images via our competition page.
You never know…perhaps your own picture could be the winner!
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Bill Shaw
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John Chadwick
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Paul Bunton
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Michael White
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(Image: Mike Smith)
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Mark Dimmock
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Peter Howard
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Paul Bunton
The Stray Ferret has launched our new Photo of the Week feature to highlight the beauty of the Harrogate district captured by talented local photographers.
Send your photos to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to feature here. We are interested in amateur and professional pictures.
This week we have a fantastic photograph taken by Paul Bunton, who has excellently captured an autumnal tree breaking through the mist at Brimham Rocks.
Harrogate commuters set for fewer ‘leaves on the line’ delays?Rail operator Northern is fitting new technology to its trains to combat leaves on the line, which can cause autumn frustration for commuters.
Leaves stick to damp rails and are compressed into a smooth, slippery layer, reducing the trains’ grip.
This can delay services so Northern is fitting what it describes as ‘leaf-busting’ technology to 16 of its 170 passenger trains operating between Leeds, Harrogate, and York.
Routes between Sheffield, Doncaster, Hull and Scarborough will also be upgraded. The locations were chosen because they are some of those most affected by leaves.
The technology – Water-Trak – creates rainy-day conditions on the rail surface by spraying a small amount of water from the train onto the track when a slippery rail is detected.
While this might appear counter-intuitive, researchers discovered that leaf-coated rails only become slippery when damp, and that trains stop safely in heavy rain.
Rob Cummings, seasonal improvement manager at Northern, said:
“This is the next step in finding a solution to tricky autumn conditions. One of the biggest risks to our performance during October and November is leaves on the line, but by helping to develop new innovative technology we aim to deliver the very best service for our passengers.”
Two of Northern’s Class 319s fitted with Water-Trak have been successfully operating in passenger service since late October 2021. The trials with Northern are being run thanks to funding from Network Rail’s performance innovation fund.
John Cooke, co-founder at Water-Trak, said:
“We are really excited to be working with Northern to show how Water-Trak can help to solve the age-old problem of leaves on the line.”
Three local gin cocktail recipes to get you in an Autumnal moodAs the leaves start to turn and the cool crisp Autumn air sets in, we tend to seek out more earthy autumnal flavours when it comes to our tipples.
Yep, seasonal drinks are totally a thing.
And there’s nothing like a good gin to warm the cockles when it starts getting cold outside and the nights begin to draw in.
In the Harrogate district, we are fortunate enough to have some of the best distilleries in the country.
Bar manager at Harrogate’s West Park Hotel Jordan Davis said there was a huge gin scene in Harrogate – unlike anywhere he had seen before.
He said:
“With the beautiful distilleries we have that’s no surprise. Our Masons range and Slingsby Rhubarb Gin are the clear favourites amongst them all.
“Our best selling gin cocktail would have to be either the Yorkshire Tea Negroni, or our Rhubarb and Wild Berry Sour.”
The Yorkshire Tea Negroni, a signature West Park cocktail, featuring Masons Yorkshire gin, Campari Martini Rosso and cranberry bitters.
Three Harrogate gin producers share their favourite Autumn cocktails
Slingsby Harrogate – Blackberry Sour
Slingby’s Blackberry Sour
Starting out as a flavour exclusively enjoyed by visitors to The Spirit of Harrogate store, Slinsgby decided to launch its Blackberry Gin last month after receiving rave reviews. The new gin was released to coincide with the traditional blackberry picking season and has been designed encompass an array of autumnal flavour
With floral hints of violet, followed by notes of rich blackberry jam and a beautifully sweet finish, it makes for the ideal base for this delicious Blackberry Sour recipe, a personal favourite of Slingsby senior marketing executive, Rebekha White.
INGREDIENTS
35ml Slingsby Blackberry Gin
15ml Slingsby Rhubarb Gin
25ml Lemon juice
10ml Hibiscus syrup
Egg white (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Shake all of the ingredients together and then double strain into a coupe glass. To finish, garnish the glass with an edible flower or a lemon twist.
Whittaker’s 007 Martini
There’s no escaping the huge fanfare surrounding the long-awaited Autumn release of the latest James Bond movie, No Time To Die.
So as we say goodbye to the summer – and Daniel Craig – Whittaker’s has come up with this tasty little number, that is guaranteed to make you feel shaken and not stirred.
Toby Whittaker, co-founder of Whittaker’s, which is based in Dacre Banks, said:
“We have chosen this recipe incorporating our Navy Strength Gin as a nod to Commander Bond’s Royal Navy Heritage and obviously the Martini ‘shaken not stirred’, as this is his tipple of choice.”
INGREDIENTS
50ml Whittaker’s Barley Mow Vodka
15ml Whittaker’s Navy Strength Gin
15ml Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
10ml Olive brine
INSTRUCTIONS
Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: It’s Apple Time
Stray Kitchen is our monthly column all about food written by renowned local produce expert, food writer and chef, Stephanie Moon. Stephanie studied at Craven College, Skipton. She then did a work placement at London’s five-star hotel/restaurant, The Dorchester. Stephanie was offered a full-time job, where she worked for world-famous chef, Anton Mosimann.
In the spirit of Autumn and Halloween, Stephanie’s first column will be talking about the delicious ways of using apples in various dishes.
I love this time of year. Our region has a real history with the Great British Apple. Did you know the Ribston Pippin was grown back in 1708 from apple pips which were sent to Henry Goodricke of Ribston Hall? This was the runner up of the Cox’s Orange Pippin.
In Little Ribston, there is still a Ribston Pippin tree growing in the grounds. Nick Smith, the Director of the Harrogate Flower Show, took me along to cook the apples under the tree years ago. This was filmed for Look North. I created my version of an 18th Century recipe ‘A Fraze of Pippins’ (basically a batter-like pancake, heavy on the spices with lots of apples). It was great fun.
Do you have an Apple glut?
My advice is to invest in an ‘apfelschaler’; a plastic contraption (you can get metal ones too) that peels an apple in seconds whilst you wind the handle. When you literally have kilos to peel it really helps.
The apfelschaler peeling an apple.
My Dad gets given boxes of apples and I help him to cook through an apple mountain (not even an exaggeration). We peel, cook the apples and place them in take away pots, lots of apple sauce, and freeze them. I now have a whole shelf of apple sauce in my freezer that is not mine.
Chutney made with apples is mind-blowingly good and great for Christmas gifts. If you make batches it becomes easy (just watch out for apple volcanos), then you cook the chutney as a hit with some boiling hot apple chutney will smart.
But perhaps you have no apples?
If you are lucky enough to look around villages surrounding Harrogate, they give them away for free by the side of the road. Local farm shops and fruit and vegetable shops have fruit racks that are groaning under the strain with every variety – much better than the supermarket fruits that can sometimes be months old.
Stephanie cooking.
There is always the plan to let someone else do the work. Nothing beats an Elite Meat pork and apple burger, a Taylor’s apple cinnamon tea or a Rosebud Preserves wild crab apple jelly.
Can you Adam and Eve it?
Till next time!
For more information on Stephanie Moon’s career in food click here.
Read More:
Image Gallery: Brackenfield School pupils create art with 100 leavesA collaboration with a local artist has seen Harrogate pupils challenged to create works of art from 100 leaves.
The autumnal project asked Brackenfield School students and their families to use fallen leaves to produce an artistic piece, pattern or design.
Open to all year groups, the competition saw year 6 pupil Harry crowned the winner by artist James Brunt.
A lion’s mane of leaves
An autumnal hedgehog
The winning entry, by Harry
Read more:
A cheery sunflower
A seasonal heart
