Christmas Tea At London Farms in Richmond, British Columbia

After coordinating the general hub-bub of activity surrounding Broadmoor Baptist Church's Ladies Christmas Tea for close to 200 guests, I was exhausted and in need of some intensive TLC.  Among the little grace notes of the remaining holiday season was a blissful time of just a meagre 60 minutes that I spent at London Farms to enjoy their annual Christmas Tea with two of the ladies from my tea committee: Ruth and Janet.  Unfortunately, dear reader, I was so busy living my experiences that I took no care to record them on digital film, so thus, I have no pictures to share of OUR time there, but believe me when I tell you that it was lovely to the enth degree! Thanks to Google images, I have found some stock photos to share of this wonderful place. As you can see to the left, London Farms is a nineteenth century farm house that has been made a heritage sight for our growing community of Richmond, BC. ( This is lovely shot of the farm taken after a rare snowfall here in Richmond.)  It was at one time, a working farm and the London's were wealthy farm owners who lived in a rather sumptuous home given the times.  The picture to the right is of the formal parlour. The farm house has been made into a museum and  in the area that was once the very large dinning room, the London Farm society serves tea in the summer time and at special occassions during the year like Easter, Valentine's Day, Father's and Mother's Day, and of  course Christmas.  We had the dubious distinction of being the very last party to be served tea this year at Christmas, a pleasure that came with certain perks, as we were each presented with a lovely Christmas cactus when we were leaving, as the farm was closing down until well after the holidays.  How lovely for them to think to give us these delightful tokens before we left.  The other wonderful thing about London Farms is their gift shop which boasts lots of tea related items, as well as homemade soaps, candles, fruit preserves, and handcrafted sewing.  I was able to purchase two very distinctive beaswax moulded candles for a very reasonable price.  They adorned my Christmas table this year and I am sure will give me pleasure for hour and hours to come; all for the priceo f just $4.00 per candle.  What an incredible find.

The tea itself was lovely and consisted of a selection of three home-baked sweets' a chocolate shortbread cookie, a plain shortbread and a delicious square of some sort that I am not able to identify but which tasted heavely!  Also there was an absolutely delicious scones served with butter and jam.  My!   I absolutely COVET that recipe, but alas, they are not about to give it to me; and I suppose I would hardly blame them!   The tea that accompanied the sweets is a blend made especially for London Farms entitiled London Lady.  It is an Earl Grey concoction especially blended by Murchies Tea of Victoria, BC, at least that is who I think makes it.  It is flavourful and delicious and the perfect match to the over-all experience.  If you are ever in our "neck of the woods", I do so hope that London Farms is accepting visitors at that time so you can have the London Farms Tea Experience.  It is truly lovely!