Black Saturday: food and drink
Nov. 25th, 2018 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustIt was a day of shopping: especially if you regard shopping as an activity in its own right, and don't fret overmuch about buying things.
I did buy things - food for the coming week - at the market in the morning. The man who sells Spanish products at his stall was a little anxious: should he give me a paper bag for the tin of smoked paprika I had bought? If any escaped, would it contaminate whatever else was in my carrier bag? I thought it unlikely to escape, but in any case, as I told him, the Cornish pasties in the bag would not suffer from the addition of a little paprika. Oh, no, he agreed, that'd be fine, and he told me about the Cornish pasties of Mexico (blame the tin miners). Evidently the world wants me to know about that connection: Grace Dent's restaurant review, which I read over breakfast this morning, recommends The Mexico Inn in Penzance, reputedly founded by a returning tinner.
We didn't buy anything at all at the Brancepeth Castle craft fair that afternoon. We had every intention of buying some wine from Domaine de Palejay. but for reasons yet to be discovered, they didn't turn up. Instead we tasted the sparkling mead made by the Northumberland Honey Co.. The 'Wildflower' is dry - imagine champagne, but with a strong honey flavour where champagne has that toasty edge. Then in summer they take the bees up to the heather moorland, and make 'Heather' sparkling mead, which is rich and sweet. I like dessert wines, and liked it very much. It isn't cheap, and the vendor (presumably Luke: "My wife's the chemist; I'm the beekeeper,") was philosophical about not making sales - perhaps people were buying his chocolates, or beeswax candles. Their online shop will also sell you a 'nucleus colony', but he hadn't brought one to Brancepeth.
By this time, the sky was dark with low clouds, and the last of the evening sun gilding the top of the courtyard; as we left, the rain started, and a rainbow appeared above the wall (second rainbow of the week).
I did buy things - food for the coming week - at the market in the morning. The man who sells Spanish products at his stall was a little anxious: should he give me a paper bag for the tin of smoked paprika I had bought? If any escaped, would it contaminate whatever else was in my carrier bag? I thought it unlikely to escape, but in any case, as I told him, the Cornish pasties in the bag would not suffer from the addition of a little paprika. Oh, no, he agreed, that'd be fine, and he told me about the Cornish pasties of Mexico (blame the tin miners). Evidently the world wants me to know about that connection: Grace Dent's restaurant review, which I read over breakfast this morning, recommends The Mexico Inn in Penzance, reputedly founded by a returning tinner.
We didn't buy anything at all at the Brancepeth Castle craft fair that afternoon. We had every intention of buying some wine from Domaine de Palejay. but for reasons yet to be discovered, they didn't turn up. Instead we tasted the sparkling mead made by the Northumberland Honey Co.. The 'Wildflower' is dry - imagine champagne, but with a strong honey flavour where champagne has that toasty edge. Then in summer they take the bees up to the heather moorland, and make 'Heather' sparkling mead, which is rich and sweet. I like dessert wines, and liked it very much. It isn't cheap, and the vendor (presumably Luke: "My wife's the chemist; I'm the beekeeper,") was philosophical about not making sales - perhaps people were buying his chocolates, or beeswax candles. Their online shop will also sell you a 'nucleus colony', but he hadn't brought one to Brancepeth.
By this time, the sky was dark with low clouds, and the last of the evening sun gilding the top of the courtyard; as we left, the rain started, and a rainbow appeared above the wall (second rainbow of the week).
