Honestly, any connection between this and our previous post from Stirling Bull Sales is purely coincidental. We’re away for a few days to recuperate from the frantic days of retirement. In the depths of the Trossachs and Loch Lomond Country Park there is the little village of Gartmore and the Black Bull Inn where we’re hoping our Trossachs correspondents will join us.
A few years back the community bought the Inn in a bid to keep it open. They have done a great job so we like to support them whenever we can. Before we got to the Black Bull, however, we stopped off at the Benview Garden Centre. The cafe is called Macmillan’s Kitchen.
It was a beautiful day so we spent a wee while going round the plant area but soon it was scone time. The restaurant is a big friendly place with an eclectic mix of stuff for sale. However, having pre-booked dinner at the Black Bull we didn’t want to spoil our appetite. It was just a toasted sandwich and a scone … sharing both.
Stop off
We thoroughly enjoyed the sandwich and then it was on to the scone. 
No cream but it did come with Danish butter and some absolutely delicious jam. The scone was good as well. Quite big but with lots of fruit, just like a fruit scone should be. All in all MacMillans Kitchen was good but not quite good enough for a topscone award. Unfortunate, but a super place for a stop off. It was only a short distance to the Black Bull, our home for the next few days
Salad days
When we arrived at the Black Bull we were greeted with this notice board advising us to have cocktails rather than a salad.
It’s ironic that nowadays it is almost impossible to make a salad because there’s hardly any of the ingredients in the shops. Where there once was supermarket shelves groaning with tomatoes, lettuce and fruit, now there are mostly empty shelves. Sometimes there are signs informing you that customers are limited to one or two tomatos. All sorts of things are blamed for this. As usual,Putin is the main culprit though just how he managed to steal all our fruit and veg is beyond our comprehension. Sometimes bad weather in Morocco is blamed?
One thing that’s never blamed is Brexit. Never mentioned by the government or the media in spite of there being no similar shortages in the EU. Very odd! Rather than mention the word, Brexit is now referred to as “pre referendum” or “post referendum”. Could it be that the current delicate UK/EU negotiations over the N.Ireland Protocol mean that the word “Brexit” has been outlawed?
“Stories never start with a salad” sounds like an absolute truism. Given we may not even be able to get a salad we will just have to do with cocktails. It’s Putin’s fault! Just as well our Trossachs correspondents have joined us!
G63 0QZ tel: 01360 850222 Macmillans Kitchen FB
///suiting.realm.trustees
The Ben View and McMillan’s Kitchen was a lovely place to stop and we did enjoy our toastie and scone but it was all thanks to the lovely lady in the Farmers Rest, Buchlyvie who recommended that we stop there for a scone, unfortunately she didn’t have any. Another time maybe, but it was lovely of her to recommend another place to us. As for the Black Bull in Gartmore we had a lovely couple of days with your friends. We managed to squeeze lots into our wee trip.
Glad you are getting plenty of scone savouring while the weather is so good! Watch out if this long forecast beast arrives in March….. are we going to be snowed in?
And as for the salad crisis……. Carrots can be very versatile….. no fruit? What an excuse for a deep fried MARS BAR!
Great to hear from you Charl, as ever! Thanks for the tips however think we’ll stick with cocktails! Regards to all in the Port!