Healeys Cyder Farm near Truro puts on a pasty masterclass

Crimping a decent Cornish pasty edge looks simple until you actually try it. Healeys Cyder Farm near Truro is opening its kitchen again this week to teach visitors the proper technique, wrapped up in a farm tour and a hot drink on arrival.

What’s happening, and when

The next Pasty Masterclass at Healeys runs on Wednesday 26 August, from 3pm until 5pm. It’s billed as relaxed and family friendly, aimed at anyone who fancies a couple of hours learning a traditional skill rather than a formal cookery course.

Tickets include tea or coffee on arrival, a guided pasty masterclass, a self-guided tour of the farm, and the pasty you make yourself to take home for dinner. Healeys has run the sessions regularly through the summer, and this is the latest date to be added.

What’s included in the ticket

Guests get shown the traditional method step by step, from rolling the pastry to crimping the edge by hand, before their own pasty goes into the oven. While it bakes, there’s time to wander the farm at your own pace. Healeys, at Penhallow near Truro, is home to its cyder-making operation as well as animals, gardens and the wider farm grounds, so the self-guided tour gives visitors plenty to see beyond the kitchen.

By the end of the session everyone walks away with a pasty they made themselves, still warm from the oven.

Booking

Places are booked directly through Healeys’ events page, where the farm also lists its other summer events, including sessions on pressing your own apples running from late August into November.

Cornwall has no shortage of places selling a ready-made pasty. Healeys is betting that plenty of people would rather learn to make their own.