Backpacking in Alderney: My Feast Over Fire With The Blonde Hedgehog at La Frette Farm 🟡🦔

Alderney was my sixth Channel Island to visit and I lined up some magical adventures here when I finally arrived in Saint Anne in July 2022. On the Saturday night, I headed from the capital city Saint Anne out to the countryside where I attended the intriguing Feast Over Fire experience with quirky, cleverly named The Blonde Hedgehog 🟡🦔.

Firstly, blonde hedgehogs do exist, you can see them here…in Alderney, now that’s already cool…

Secondly, The Blonde Hedgehog is a stylish bar, restaurant and hotel located in downtown Saint Anne. On arrival at The Blonde Hedgehog, I was greeted by assistant manager, April Woodcock, who walked myself and a brace of other guests to the venue at a rural Barn at La Frette Farm.

The Barn at La Frette Farm

The farm is relaxed, chilled out, natural and fresh. It’s at La Frette Farm, just a short countryside walk up from the capital, Saint Anne. The air feels good here. The vibe is fine. The distance from the busybody worlds of Hong Kong, London and New York are worlds apart here. This is the barn and countryside at La Frette Farm and I’m immediately relaxed…the walk here was wonderful. It was just after 7 p.m. and the sun was ready to set…

The Welcome Drink

On arrival, all guests are presented with a welcome drink. On this occasion it is a delightful glass of Summer Pimms served by perky Events Co-Ordinator Sophie. A well selected summer choice to start the evening.

The Starter

The cold starter choice offers some true treats. Some of these were even hard to decipher what they were, I had to ask a few people exactly what I was choosing, but it was all fresh and delightful! Most of the starter options had hand written notes on what they were. I tried my hand at all of the starter options, from hummus to radish to carrot to lettuce to beetroot to various salads and breads. It was all natural, it felt like I was eating from a farmer’s day of work. Well, actually, I was…

The Main Course

Then for the real treat – the main course, and what a selection of barbecued meat! You can watch and admire the chefs preparing the selection of fish, lamb, oysters, pulled pork and fresh beef steak! The main chef was Stephen, with a lovely lady from Chile serving and cooking too.

A delicious hot oyster is served as an accompaniment. Simply exquisite, as a Northern Irishman seafood and oysters in particular are always a welcome part of the diet. I even cast my mind back to my days living in Hong Kong where I tried cheese oysters in the seaside town of Tai O.

As you can see below, the selection of fruit, vegetables and sauce to go with the meat is also huge. Everything is fresh and organic. It feels like my healthiest meal in years!!

Although I’ve never been a big eater, I tried a bit of everything, at least I think I did! Here is my plate below. Apart from the oyster, my highlight was the beef steak. I feel it was rare, though perhaps it was more medium rare. At any rate, this is the way I prefer my steak done these days. Below is what my main course looked like.

I chose a Peroni beer and some water to gulp it down with. Admittedly I do prefer local Alderney Ales, but here in the farm the idea is to mostly choose wine. I had a small glass of white wine too, shared by a gentleman at the event who is a wine expert and recommended I try his wine preference.

Dessert Time

After that huge starter and main course (at least for me!), it was sweet tooth dessert time and another treat was served up here in this remote, idyllic farm in Alderney. A raspberry, raisin, walnut dessert with a soft ice cream-like base and despite being full already, I managed to finish my dessert (just about). It was a fantastic three course meal in great company and pretty, tranquil surroundings!

This was one of many of my exciting experiences in Alderney. While backpacking in Alderney, I based myself in the capital city which is Saint Anne. In Saint Anne, I toured the sights and bars, including “the secret Biker’s bar”, I rode on the famous Alderney Railway line, I watched sunset at Platte Saline, and slept at the superb La Ville Hotel. I also did a mini pubcrawl, visited two forts, toured the football stadium and relaxed at Braye Bay. In short, Alderney is a beautiful place – please visit it!!

Here are the details for booking the Feast Over Fire experience with The Blonde Hedgehog 🟡🦔 in Alderney:

Here are some videos of my Feast Over Fire experience with The Blonde Hedgehog 🟡🦔 in Alderney: