Sunday 14 December 2008

R T Harvey Ltd

Our first pie of the month was from R T Harvey Ltd, last sampled at Ormesby St. Michael on the 25th February 2007. The highlight of our pre-pie walk from North Tuddenham, was the return of Giada, who last walked with us on the 28th September after being diagnosed with Kidney failure on the 26th June. We headed north in the mist to Elsing, observing a hare hossing across a field at break-neck speed and three deer. It was not all plain sailing, as a dike crossed our path; a detour to where it was not quite so deep provided a very muddy and slippery crossing. Arriving at the church of St. Mary for lunch, a note on the door requested that we did not enter as it was awaiting police inspection. It appears that this was one of the churches that were ransacked this weekend – several windows had been broken. A short walk over the road took us to the warm and welcoming Mermaid Inn, where a good pint of Golden Jackal or Wherry was served. We returned to the cars via footpaths that took us over fields of heavy clay soil that even stuck to Giada’s paws! We arrived at Poppy’s Wood to be reunited with the cars in failing light at just past 4 O’clock, for Sweet potato and Coriander & lemon Houmous, to be sampled on nairn’s mini oatcakes. Then on to the pies that could be barely seen – the fine looking pies released no aroma when cut and revealed a dark filling with a hint of jelly around the edges. These pies hit the spot, even more so with the addition with a dab of mustard. The pastry was good and crisp, the filling having a good meaty texture, lightly seasoned with a gamey flavour. They scored a very respectable 7.57143 with a high standard deviation of 1.17 gives Harvey’s their third normalised score of 7.5. Shortcake appeared to completed proceedings before we headed home in the dark.