Spring is coming and the wild garlic is on its way.
We deliberately chose one of our favourite woodland walks today to see if we could spot the first signs of spring. We weren’t disappointed. This circular walk is about 5 miles long; the route snakes down through woodland at the back of the village, across the valley...
Winter Wonderland
We have to admit that we love it when it snows here. It feels quite magical and gives a different perspective on our favourite walks. The snow this week was the most we’ve had for some time and combined with bright blue skies and sunshine, it reminded us of skiing...
Making Marmalade
Apparently, marmalade is the new “thing” to make as part of lockdown 3.0, succeeding sourdough and the infamous banana bread. We’ve been making marmalade every year since we opened the Long Barn. Jackie loves marmalade whilst it’s Ian’s nemesis. So, this annual task...
Christmas traditions
This year more than ever, making Christmas feel as special as we can, given the restrictions of meeting up with family and friends, feels important. Apparently, sales of Christmas trees are up 30% at the moment along with fairy lights and baubles, so clearly many of...
What makes The North York Moors special?
This week was the 68th birthday of the North York Moors National Park – and since lockdown, we’ve never appreciated living in a national park more. Now we have to be honest here. Before we moved from Harrogate to Appleton Le Moors, the national park we spent most time...
Stir up Sunday
Today is “Stir up Sunday” and is apparently the traditional day to make your Christmas Pudding. It was started in Victorian times as a tradition when families would get together to get their fruit puddings stirred up, steamed and stored ahead of Christmas. It’s not...
Roost Coffee
We passionately believe in supporting local businesses as much as we can from using their produce/services to promoting them to Long Barn guests. We love great coffee, and part of the Long Barn offer was to have a Sage Bean to Cup coffee machine in the kitchen....
Lastingham circular walk
Lockdown has made us appreciate even more the walks that are on our doorstep. This week, whilst the USA was in turmoil, and our next 4 weeks of lockdown were imminent, we escaped to another great walk we’ve recently reacquainted ourselves with. It starts from...
The Rollercoaster Continues
As we all head into another lockdown, looking ahead to the next few months is challenging to say the least. The Long Barn has effectively been closed since the introduction of the rule of 6 and is now formally closed until the national lock down is eased. The positive...
The Florist North Yorkshire
We like to support local businesses and this has become even more of a focus since COVID 19 hit. We believe we are so lucky that we have fantastic producers and small businesses close by and we want to support as many as we can to make sure they are all here for...
Eta, our biomass boiler
One of our favourite parts of Autumn is a bracing walk and then returning home to a toasty house to warm up, lighting a fire, and hunkering down. And with everything that’s happening in the world at the moment, we suspect that similar nesting instincts will be keeping...
Bramble Foraging
Autumn is the time for foraging, and we’ve recently turned our attention to the brambles which are appearing in all the hedgerows near the Long Barn. They will keep ripening for some time yet, so it’s worth picking them if you find them, and keep an eye open for when...
New Long Barn Welcome Guide
One of the small positives of lock down earlier this year, was that it gave us time to get around to the jobs we’ve been meaning to do for ages but haven’t had time to do. We re-pointed the cobble path, decorated inside the barn and even replaced a couple of windows....
Top 5 Coast Trips
We are just 25 miles from the beautiful heritage coastline, and we love visiting it. From picturesque fishing villages, cliff top walks to sandy beaches, there is so much to do and explore. Here are our top 5 things to do (which could so easily have been our top...
North York Moors Dark Skies
When we first moved here, we couldn’t believe the night skies especially on a moonless night. One summers night just after we’d moved in, Jackie saw 2 shooting stars from our bathroom window at 3am. A few minutes later, she’d woken Ian up and bundled him down to the...
Sloe gin and other treats
Sloe Gin and other treats We’ve been staking out where the best sloes are for several weeks; luckily some of the best ones have been in the hedgerows surrounding the chicken run. When the berries have a bloom on them (in bright sunshine they look almost metallic...
Castle Howard
We’ve decided to be local tourists during these strange times and check out places we can then recommend (or not!) to guests. This week we visited Castle Howard, a stately home which is 15 miles south of us. We’ve been there many times before, from visiting the...
Autumn at the Long Barn
We can feel the arrival of autumn everywhere. There are hints of the colours to come in the countryside, greens turning to golds, oranges and russet browns. The heather on the moors has already turned purple, and the bracken will soon start to change. ...
Kala King
In this week’s blog, we’d like to recommend another catering option for your stay in the Long Barn. Kala King lives in a nearby Hutton Le Hole and is a woman of many talents. We first met Kala when she was selling her delicious chocolates at a local farmers...
The Long Barn Kitchen
When we renovated the Long Barn, one of the many things we wanted to get right was the kitchen. We appreciated that many guests may not want to do a lot of cooking when away, but we also wanted to make sure that if they did, it would have everything they needed...
The Moors Inn
The Moors Inn is our local pub and is less than 5 minutes’ walk from the Long Barn. When we bought Town End Farm, being in a village location which had a pub was a definite plus. Every other place we’d looked at was far more remote with any pub or restaurant a good...
Cycling
Even before the Tour de France came to Yorkshire in 2014, the Brits have been keen cyclists. Since then, the number of cyclists on the road has grown and grown, helped by subsequent Tour de Yorkshires and the general interest in cycling. We have cycled off and on for...
Rosedale Abbey Walk
Rosedale Abbey village is just 7 miles drive from Appleton and is the starting point for a lovely walk that we’ve done in every season since we moved here. We love it because it is a circular walk of just under 8 miles through a real variety of countryside and some...
A taste of Appleton le Moors history
A taste of Appleton Le Moors history Appleton le Moors has a thriving history group; thanks to them as well as several other people, there is an impressive record of village history going back to the 12th century. In the Long Barn, you’ll find a copy of “A Baker’s...
The Appleton poultry partnership
The Appleton Poultry Partnership When we moved to Town End Farm, one of the things on our bucket list was to have chickens. We quickly realised that this was going to be impossible on the land that came with the house; the idea of chickens wandering around the...
Favourite walk
We feel very luck to have such a choice of lovely walks straight from the door in Appleton. When we lived in Harrogate, we used to have to drive for over an hour to find the best walks; now that we live here, they are on our doorstep. During lockdown, many of us in...
The best kept secret
The best kept secret We think the West Barn is one of the best kept secrets of the Long Barn. We are convinced that this grade 2 listed barn was one of the main reasons that Town End Farm was on the market for such a long time. As you can see from the photos, it was...
Planning for the perfect stay
Ten tips for planning the perfect stay away with friends and family We want your stay at the Long Barn to be perfect for everyone in your group. And we appreciate that if you are the person who’s doing the organising, it can be stressful. Many guests tend to book many...
A Special Celebration
We want your stay with us to be just perfect, and that includes what you eat! Many guests come to the Long Barn to celebrate a special occasion from an annual reunion with friends to a big birthday. We love cooking and one of our personal hates is going away and...
Welcome treats
Welcome treats We spent ages deciding what should go into the Long Barn welcome hamper when setting up the barn. In fact, our builders Mike and Stan along with Ian all benefited from many of the baking tests that Jackie did to help us short list the baking entries. We...
Spring Watch
Spring Watch Appleton le Moors It sounds as if many of us have gained a greater appreciation of nature during lockdown. From listening to bird song in the city or spotting more wildlife for those of us lucky enough to live in the countryside. We thought our knowledge...
Village Life
When we escaped to the country and bought Town End Farm, we knew very little about Appleton le Moors other than how beautiful it looked, and that it had a pub, two churches and a village hall. Plus, an odd little green and white building called the Reading Room. We...
Our Story
The Long Barn is the result of what we like to call our midlife crisis (although at the time, a good friend of Ian’s told him that he was way too old for one of those!) In 2013, we made the decision to escape from the corporate world and set up our own business in the...
News Letter
We are starting a newsletter to keep you up to date with what is happening in the area, and in our mad village. Due to changes in the data protection laws we have to have your consent to receive these ( you can cancel at any time). We won't share this with anyone...
The beast from the east
Since we moved here we haven't really had what we would call a proper winter....until this year. We had snow early on in the season and now the beast from the east has arrived.The snow is amazing it's just like the stuff you get skiing, it's powdery, crunchy under...
Autumn Colours
We had a beautiful walk at The Yorkshire Arboretum over the weekend, which is part of Castle Howard, the colours were just fantastic There were loads of twitchers as apparently some rare Hawfinches had arrived, one of the bird guides we saw described these as...
Two year anniversary
In October the Long Barn has been open to guests for two years, we have been amazingly lucky with almost all the weekends booked since we opened and in the busier months we have been full all week as well. The line from the film Field of Dreams "If you build it they...
Doorstep Delivery
Many of our friends thought we were cutting ourselves off by moving to a village, how wrong they were not only do we get milk delivered... collect our own eggs..... you try and get this type of doorstep service where you live.
Chicks on the way
This is one of our fertilised eggs in the incubator You can clearly see some blood vessels developing in the egg, which is due to hatch on Sunday 17th of May...can't wait. We have done OK, out of the 20 Buff Sussex eggs 13 appear to be developing and 7 out of the 12...
Poultry Partnership
Jackie has always wanted chickens, but we felt that the courtyard was not the place to keep them. Step in our neighbours Meg and Simon, they have chickens and in November last year we first helped out on feeding duty. Subsequent conversations over supper brought in...
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This is our favourite when it's blue skies and sunshine...
Happy Friday. 😊
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