Living in the past

Is anyone following the new adventures of Ruth, Alex and Peter in the Edwardian Farm, filmed at Morwllham Quay in Devon? I loved the Victorian Farm too, which was filmed at Acton Scott, in Shropshire. If you check back to an April posting this year, you will get the photos from when we visited it on my birthday. Not forgetting Tales from the Green Valley which I have on DVD and could watch over and over again and never tire of it. Everything they did just felt so right to me, so familiar. I have even used a recipe using Elderflowers (where they used leaf buds) for a cream for dry, work-worn hands for many many years. The recipe came from my cherished copy of Farmhouse Fare published in the 1970s, but this recipe obviously has links back hundreds of years.


I think I was born backwards-thinking. I have always loved history, always been drawn to the past. I'm not very good with reality.


I can remember at secondary school, envying the people in the dunces class, as they did wonderful practical things like spinning and weaving. . .


If I was suddenly plonked back in time, I would like to think I could cope: that I would soon learn to use a proper bread oven, to manage by candlelight and oil lamps (I can still remember how to trim a wick from tending the Hurricane Lamp in childhood. . .) Likewise doing the washing in what my mum called the "copper" and putting the clothes through a mangle. I still scrub my kitchen floor with a bucket and scrubbing brush. I can darn and quilt and mend and re-use with the best of them. I think I would struggle with wearing a sit-up-and-beg corset though!!! and the first week or two without a computer would be hard, until the reliance faded.


In the spring, I often put in anything up to 8 hours a day in the garden. I can handle horses from a lifetime with them. I can pluck and dress a chicken and skin a rabbit. We have raised bottle-fed lambs here in the past and still have a small flock on tack. Milking might be a challenge at first, and the ailments of ruminents, but I have made butter and a simple "Crowdie" cheese, and the Still Room has long held a fascination for me.


I can mend leather equipment (as in tack), make simple herbal remedies, recognize any wild flowers as I have loved them since I was in infants school, butcher a lamb carcase, make sausages and faggots. I have cooked from scratch all my life and made my own bread for 30 years now. I have always made my own jams, jellies, chutneys, pickles and preserves. I can spin, knit, crochet and embroider. I would like to think I could step back in time without to many challenges.


Of course, these programmes don't show the dark side of living in the past - the infant mortality, the loss of life from infection and contagion, the days before surgery, the poverty, the starvation, the old folks ending in the Workhouse in Victorian times, the sheer desperation of slum families in the cities, the homeless families travelling from farm to farm begging for a day's work, a meal of fat bacon and taties, and permission to sleep in the barn overnight.

But they inspire me to learn more, to gain more knowledge, more skills, and to have a deeper understanding of how my ancestors lived - my grandparents were Victorians, so that period in time seems so close to me . . .

Remembering our fallen

Today it is apt to remember those in our family who gave up their lives for their country all in WW1. From my husband's family, there is Private Bertie Harrison, 7th loyal North Lancashire Regiment, who died on the Somme on 5th July. He was my husband's mother's father. He left a widow and 4 children under 6 years old . . .

And below, his brother-in-law, Captain George Bird, MC & Bar, 10th Warwicks (and formerly the 17th Lancers) who died on 30th July, in the same bloodbath. He was my husband's great uncle. His body was never recovered and his name is on the Menin Gate . . . He is also remembered on the memorial on Oliver's Mount, Scarborough, as he was a Scarboro' lad.



And not forgetting my great uncle, Ben Bolt, for whom the Armistice came too late - he died in the final months of the war. I didn't even know he existed until a couple of years ago, as his loss was never mentioned in the family. I wish I had a photo of him.

Grave Goods

As I was driving home from Hay-on-Wye yesterday (it being OH's birthday and that having been our destination for the day out), a snippet from a bookI'd browsed that day slipped into my mind - it had been about the status of grave goods and what they said about the person. It occurred to me that my grave goods would be a peculiar mix.

I have always said I would have to be buried with my wooden jam spoon, red-stained from all those blackberries and red fruits over the years, and worn away on one side from many years of use.

A photograph of Fahly, my darling Arab horse, who was the love of my life and with whom I had such a bond, would be essential too.

And a photograph of my family goes without saying . . .

I would have to include a bit, since horse bits are my speciality and I collected the more odd and unusual for years and have quite a depth of knowledge.




One of the children's pony books I have kept since my childhood would also have to be included. Either one by one of the Pullein-Thompson sisters, or Monica Edward's Punchbowl Farm or Westling series would do very well. Perhaps Wish For a Pony, as that was my first proper pony book, along with Pony Club Camp . . .






A photograph of books perhaps, en masse, would sum my life up fairly well. A single book would be much harder to pin down, but perhaps a cookery book or something on the Picts?




Which brings me to adding a copy of my dissertation. I spent a year researching and writing this and it won the biennial Dissertation prize offered by the Society of Antiquaries. I look at it now and think, did I really write this intelligently?!

I would also like to be covered by my first crochet blanket. Once I was shown how to crochet, I worked on this every day until it was finished and it is a reminder that new crafts are always out there to be learned . . .

What would your grave goods say about you?

In Praise of Home Cooking

I blew the dust off this recipe book this week, as I have decided to widen my repertoire and not just cook my usual familiar recipes all the time. I was glad I did as I found a cake recipe which is going to be "a keeper" and I intend to copy straight into my hand-written notebook of family favourites as it tastes SO good. I seem to remember Dorothy Sleightholme being involved with the tv series which this book accompanied. She was a very down-to-earth Yorkshirewoman, and cooked the sort of things I liked to make. Does anyone else remember her?


The recipe for the Somerset Apple cake (above) called for mixed peel, but I had run out, so I decided to use chopped crystalized ginger instead, which proved to be an act of sheer genius as far as flavour was concerned, as it went perfectly with the orange zest which was also part of the recipe. The flavours are DIVINE!

SOMERSET APPLE CAKE

75g/3 oz butter
175g/6 oz caster sugar (I used just 4 oz and it was plenty sweet enough)
1 orange rind, washed and grated
225g/8oz Self Raising flour
450g/1 lb Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cubed
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
25g/1 oz candied peel, chopped (I used chopped preserved stem ginger instead)
About 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Grease and flour a 23cm/9" cake tin. cream butter, sugar and orange rind, and beat until light and creamy. Mix 1 tablespoon of the flour with apples in a dish. Put eggs and milk in a bowl with the creamed butter mix. Add remaining flour, peel and apples to the creamed mixture and blend well with a metal spoon. Turn into prepared tin, and sprinkle with granulated sugar (I omitted the extra sugar). Bake in a moderate oven - Gas 4, 350 deg. F, 180 deg. C, for 40 - 50 mins until golden brown.

Serve cold as a cake or hot as a pudding with cream. It is SCRUMMY either way!



This is a standard white loaf of bread but, suitably inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's bread-making this week, I tried his wetter mix and really stretched the dough when I was kneading it. For the past 30 years I have been making bread the way I was shown at a demonstration at Eling Tide Mill in Southampton. As you can see, this produced a really crusty loaf which I was actually able to slash properly before it went in the oven. I will try again tomorrow using Hugh's recipe, which is slightly different to my normal one.

These are Bacon and Cheese pasties, a frugal recipe from Elizabeth West's "Kitchen in the Hills" which followed her excellent and inspiring "Hovel in the Hills". I shall definitely be making these again too.

BACON AND CHEESE PASTIES

4 oz (120g) boiled (or lightly fried) bacon, chopped
2 oz (60g) cheese, grated
6 oz (180g) onions, grated (I omitted these as only I love onions)
4 oz (120g) boiled potatoes, mashed - I boiled and cubed mine
1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs
pepper
a little milk
plain pastry using 3 oz (90g) fat and 8 oz (240g) flour


Divide pastry into two and roll each piece into a circle (I cut mine out around a side plate and made 3 plus a runt). Mix together all other ingredients except milk. Put half of the mixture n each pastry round. Draw up opposite sides of pastry, moisten edges and press together, fluting with the fingers. brush with milk, prick both sides with a fork and bake in a moderate oven until brown - 20 to 30 mins.



I have never tried making Naan Bread before but as you can see, these turned out really well and I shall make my own in future as they cooked in less than 5 minutes.

NAAN BREAD

225g (8 oz) unbleached white bread flour
2.5 ml (1/2 tsp salt
15g/ 1/2 oz fresh yeast
60ml (4 tblspn lukewarm milk
15ml/ 1 tblspn vegetable oil
30ml/ 2 tblspn natural yogurt
1 egg
30-45ml/ 2-3 tblspn melted ghee or butter, for brushing (oops, I forgot this!)

Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, cream the yeast with the milk. Set aside for 15 mins. Add the yeast mixture, oil, yogurt and egg to the flour and mix to a soft dough.

Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly-oiled bowl and leave to rise, in a warm place, for 45 mins or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to its highest setting - at least 230 deg. C/450 deg F/Gas 8. Place three heavy baking sheets in the oven to heat. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knock back. Divide into 3 equal pieces and shape into balls.

Cover two of the balls of dough with oiled cling film and roll out the third into a teardrop shape about 25cm/10 inches long x 13cm/5 in wide and with a thickness of about 5mm/ 1/4 inch. Preheat the grill to its highest setting. Meanwhile place the naan on the hot baking sheets and bake for 3-4 mins, or until puffed up.

Remove the naan from the oven and place under the hot grill for a few seconds or until the top of the naan browns slightly. Wrap the cooked naan in a dish towel to keep warm while rolling and cooking the remaining naan. Brush with melted ghee or butter and serve warm.


Home made soup never disappoints. This is a Golden Vegetable with lentils and bacon. I buy the packs of Bacon Mis-shapes (also known as Bacon Misfits in this household) and you usually get a mixture of thinly-sliced bacon and also big chunks of cooking bacon or gammon. The latest pack had a big chunk of cooking bacon, so I boiled it up and used half of it chopped up in the soup and half in the pasties. Both meals cost just pennies per head to make.

Recipe was roughly (it was a bung-it);

one onion, chopped
double handful red lentils
about 6 oz of pre-frozen stew pack which included leeks, carrots, parnsip and swede but justt use what you have available
2 smallish potatoes, peeled and chopped
a pint or so of vegetable stock
about 4 oz of pre-cooked cooking bacon, chopped

Fry off onion in a little oil and add the bacon, stock, lentils and vegetables, bring to boil, season, and then simmer until vegetables are cooked.

This is a slightly different take on apple crumble, which I have added some dark cherries and berries to from the freezer. I bought several packs of frozen berries when they were on offer at the supermarket this summer, but the last pack is nearly empty too, so I made up the quantities with some home-grown blackcurrants sprinkled over the top of the stewed apple.

Home Alone . . .

Much as I love my family, it is nice for just my husband and I to have the house to ourselves for a change. T&J are away for the weekend, D off with a friend overnight, and G now up in Edinburgh, doing her Grand Tour. So K and I can have a quick meal tonight (ham and chips I suspect), and sit down and watch Merlin and anything else we fancy. I've just been sat down with my sewing (a tablecloth I am finishing the embroidery on), watching the racing, without any interruption and without having to stop to prepare a decent supper.

I promised some recipes, so they will be the next blog entry.

The photograph was taken this morning, looking out from the window across to the farm buildings beyond.

Saturday's walk

You will be getting fed up with autumn scenery by now, but I thought I would share these photographs from Saturday's walk. I got my husband to drop me off about 2 1/2 miles from home and I walked back along lanes I used to ride Fahly along, the opposite side of the valley to where we live.

You will have to bear with me on postings at the present, as I am having to share the computer with my offspring, as all their computers have gone kaput. I am also finding it hard to motivate the creative side of myself - both with sewing and writing and even cooking on some days - though I did make some toothsome pasties yesterday which I will give the recipe for tomorrow (Ham and Cheese ones). So, for the moment, short on words and long on photos . . .


I started my walk whilst the sun was out, but just around the corner . . .


. . . there were rainclouds behind the farmhouse. Fortunately, I managed to get home before the heavens opened.

The denser part of the hedgerow on the right is where there are cottage ruins, but you have to step inside the copse to actually see them as they are invisible from the lane.

If you look in little copses in field corners, you often find cottage ruins. There were two cottages here originally, in about half an acre each of land. Similar set up to the two on the bottom road I showed yesterday. I will have to try and find them in the 1881 census though I don't know this side of the river so well.

This is looking across the Towy Valley.

A neighbour's Welsh Cob broodmare. He has several mares and some youngstock.

We've not had a great deal of rain yet, but this field is already waterlogged.

Looking up the valley towards Horeb.

This is the last flat bit before a steep downhill - steep enough to KILL the thighs when walked uphill . . .

Plenty of yellow on the side of the valley - looking over my shoulder.

Our house is just tucked in behind the farm in the centre right of the picture.

Some of the young steers (and a young bull, if I'm not mistaken!) on a neighbours farm.


Colour in the hedgerow in the form of Euphorbia (probably the Wood Spurge).

Looking across the valley towards our house.


Back down to the river's edge now, and this splendid oak tree.

Some local autumn colours

Along by the river today. My favourite view (and all the other photographers in our neck of the woods!) However, this was at the end of my walk as I got my husband to drop me off near the A40 so I could walk the 3 miles home along a different set of lanes for a change. It was mizzly but I didn't get very wet - just HOT!



The start of the walk. The A40 runs along in front of the pine trees centre and right. Nearly 2000 years ago the Romans walked this way too and built a Roman road between Llandeilo and Carmarthen. In Victorian times (if my memory serves me well), a hoard of Roman coins was discovered on land nearby.

Behind the piddling sheep (!), you can just about see the outline of Dryslywn Castle in the distance.




A stag-headed oak punctuates a farm trackway.

Here in the valley, the Larches are the colour of Lucozade. Up on the mynydd, last week, they were a bright sulphur yellow.

The lane led invitingly homewards.

Above and below. Broodmares and youngsters at a local stud were interested in the novelty of someone ON FOOT!


Gateway to a neighbour's smallholding.

The scenery looked like it had been spread with a fine gauze veil. In reality, it was drizzle!

This hill may not look too steep, but I can assure you that climbing up it is quite a challenge, and I was glad to do this walk in reverse today!

A Section A Welsh broodmare and her foal, belonging to a neighbour of ours. When we first moved here we bought one of her yearlings - a beautiful palomino colt we called Merlin (as his stable name). Gosh, he would be 22 now . . .

On the "main" road home - leastways, a lane large enough in the most part for two cars to comfortably pass!

Above and below. Once neighbouring cottages on one acre plots, the ruin above might have looked like the cottage below, had it not been abandoned.