From farms to the fork: A food-lover’s cycle tour in Herefordshire| Cycling holidays

Our small group cycled along a two hour route that was so pastorally beautiful, it would have made Old MacDonald smile. We’ve been zipping through purple-hued fields of borage, past rows of apple trees, over patches of camomile and into woodland. We’ve also learned about how the poo of White Heron’s hens is burned in biomass boilers for heat. Jo Hilditch, our guide, says, “Producing food is as important as providing habitats for animals.” She swapped her PR career for farming after inheriting the family estate thirty years ago.

The tours are a great way to see British agriculture in action. Jo offers us bottles of Ribena chilled from a bucket to drink in the estate’s blackcurrant field. White Heron supplies 5% to Ribena’s blackcurrant supply.

After I’ve arrived at the Field Cottage on the estate, my home for the evening, a punnet of blackcurrants is delivered to the door. The punnet is added to the guest hamper of the Field Cottage, which also contains local raspberries, Worcester Hop cheese and apple juice from the estate.

It’s not my problem to work it off. I then get back on the ebike and embark on a new, self-guided trip around north Herefordshire. The estate has created a few routes that revolve around farm shops, cider makers, cheese producers, and farm-to fork restaurants. These trails connect some delicious pit stops at different corners of Herefordshire, including some featured on Visit Herefordshire’s new food tours.

As the mist still hovers over the orchards of the estate, I set out, and then ride along the quiet lane between fields of hay to the pretty town of Pembridge with its rows on black-and white buildings that are angled at an odd angle. The bells of the church’s standalone belfry start to ring as I pass. This gives the impression that a medieval rocket is about to take off. I stop in the village stores to pick up a loaf from Peter Cooks Bread and a coffee at Bloom & Grind before pedalling on to Eardisland.

As I approach, the mist clears, revealing a charming swirl of half-timbered houses, a 17th century dovecote, and an elegant bridge across the River Arrow. But there’s no time for dithering. It’s already mid-morning when I’m just a part of the way through my 29-mile journey.

Kaz Hindle, an ex-teacher, and her husband Mark opened Monkland Dairy in the early 1980s. Kaz Hindle tells me that she bought a cheese store after “a drunken dinner” when one of her employees shared the 1917 recipe of her grandmother. Ellen Yeld was the grandmother, and she had been “chief dairy instructor” in Herefordshire. The recipe turned out to be a good one. The Hindles improved it to create Little Hereford – a cheddar cheese similar to the one that is now the dairy’s flagship product.

Dean Storey is the ex-chef who was a customer and took over Kaz’s cheesemaking duties when Kaz semi-retired. Storey shows me the vintage cast-iron press and cheese cave of the dairy. He tells me that he makes up to 30-40 Little Herefords and 300 of the creamy blue monks.

Refusing to order the ploughman, the cafe’s speciality, I get back on my bicycle. A few fields away, lunch is calling. The Riverside in Aymestrey, a black-and white inn by the River Lugg is very pretty. The hillside that is above the inn serves as a semiwild kitchen garden. Pigs and chickens live among the abundance of apples, gooseberries, kale and gooseberries, as well as cobnuts. Andy Link, the chef-patron who shows me around, says that “the garden began as a lockdown and we now have 2.5 acres (1. hectare)”. It means we can work with food metres instead of food miles.

I’m transported back to the garden when I bite into an appetiser of summer veg croustade – a mouthful of crunchy peas, beans and mint enveloped with crushed seeds. Then, a local beef cheek and fillet from an 11-mile farm, cured with gin, lemon verbena and gooseberries, is served. The savarin, a cloud-like dessert, is what keeps me thinking of this hyper-Herefordshire dinner as I wiggle back onto my bike to ride back to White Heron. It’s soaked with a delicate pine-tip syrup.

The next morning, I go foraging myself, driving to Longtown, to meet Liz Knight of Forage Fine Foods. Her local patch. Liz shows me how to see the landscape as more than just a view. As we walk along the old drovers road, past her barn converted into a field, she teaches me not to only look at it as a picture but also as a foodscape. The Cat’s Back Hill across the valley may look spectacular, but Liz teaches me to focus on the landscape as a foodscape. We walk along an old drovers’ road to the fields past her converted barn.

We come across a linden, which has a colossal, gnarled, trunk. Its flowers are cucumber-scented and delicious, but they also help to calm your nervous system. In the distance, there is a patch yarrow. The yarrow is a forager’s best friend. It has many medicinal properties, including calming bites, soothing sore throats, and balancing hormones. After picking a few flowers, we walk back to Liz’s house to steep them in vodka with honeysuckle to make a tincture.

The following evening, I prepare a salad with radishes and runner beans from the Oakchurch Farm Shop. This is another pin on Herefordshire’s food safari map. As I cut the veg I remember everyone I met in the past few days. As I slice the veg, I think of everyone I’ve met over the last few days.

White Heron arranged the trip.; Its two to three-hour eBike farm tour and tasting You can learn more about it here. £50pp; Slow-paced full-day cycle rides £80pp; self-catering accommodation sleeps four, from £509 for three nights. Half-day foraging courses Liz Knight The following is a list of the most recent and relevant articles. £55pp. Click here for more information See also: visitherefordshire.co.uk