BBQ Season

As you can imagine, the Long Barn BBQ gets a lot of use. It’s set up ready to go all year round; we’ve had guests using it in February.

When renovating the barn, we wanted to have a space outside that was easy to cater in. We were inspired by the wonderful outside table at the Star in Harome. Ian sourced two huge pieces of oak locally in 2015. Installing them practically broke Stan our carpenter.

The south facing courtyard garden is planted up with lots of perennial grasses so it’s a really private space.

Whilst we prefer old fashioned charcoal to bbq on, we chose the easier gas option for guests. The massive Weber gas BBQ comes with plenty of gas and BBQ tools. It gets thoroughly cleaned between guests. We have experienced using a bbq with someone’s burnt on food in a self-catering cottage, and it wasn’t pleasant.

For supplies we recommend Beadlam Grange farm shop where they have an excellent butcher along with a deli counter/shop for veggie options. Wainds, another local butchers in Kirkbymoorside is also excellent. Both sell marinated meats for BBQs. Moorside Stores also sell good vegan/vegetarian options.

Our BBQ tips are:

• Plan your menu ahead and make sure you have enough choices for everyone including options for vegans and vegetarians.
• Cook in batches to avoid over or undercooking the food. Keep food warm on the BBQ high rack or in the kitchen oven.
• Use a meat thermometer to check meat is cooked (you’ll find one in the kitchen)
• Have a back up plan for cooking indoors just in case the weather doesn’t co-operate. We also provide several large golf umbrellas just in case the BBQ chef is made of stern stuff.

There is plenty of space in the kitchen to chill bottles and cans, but we also provide a purple trug to fill with ice for outside.

We deliberately didn’t install garden lights in the courtyard. Being in the North York Moors means we are in a Dark Sky area. On clear moonless nights, you can sometimes see the Milky Way from the courtyard.

There are plenty of tea light holders and candles in the Long Barn if you want to bring some light outside.

You’ll find binoculars in the dining room for star gazing along with an app on the Ipad to identify constellations.

We hope we’ve thought of most things to make your BBQ a success. We’re afraid that the one thing we can’t predict is the weather.