Sunday 28 March 2010

J. & D. Papworth Farms

This week, the clocks went forward, but it didn’t deter the pie munchers from jumping out of their beds an hour early to munch pies. Walsingham was the chosen location to sample pies from J. & D. Papworth Farms, last sampled on the 16th November, 2008. We parked in the large car park of the Chapel of Reconciliation, next to Slipper chapel at Walsingham, where mass was being celebrated outside – it being Palm Sunday. As we walked along the road, we spotted a drove of hares; about a dozen in number, not boxing but leaping about full of March madness. We then headed east, passing the enlarged water treatment works. Lunch was taken at the church of St. Mary the virgin, Great Snoring. No scratch dials were found, so we set off on the two-mile hike to the pub, mostly by road, the grass banks being adorned with white violets. At the end of Water Lane, the stream under the bridge provided the facilities for a game of Pooh sticks. The Pie Master won the challenge by a large margin - as Josie's stick had sunk! A short walk past East Barsham Hall brought us to the White Horse for pints of Adnams in good condition. Passing “Toad Hall”, we made our way up the hill to the parish church of East Barsham of All Saints, a much-mutilated church with a north entrance and no scratch dial. It’s font however reminded the Pie Master of a traditional water tower, with service shaft and supporting legs. On to the church of North Barsham, All Saints with black chickens in the grounds. Returning to the cars for Tortillas with sour cream and chive dip and Moroccan style houmous. A selection of small and large pies from J. & D. Papworth Farms’ North Walsham shop, were supplied by Josie – Josie hadn’t realised it was early closing on Wednesday, when she was working there and these were all that were left. The good looking pies released a little “roast pork” aroma and revealed a nicely textured dark pink filling, with no jelly. These pies were very tasty, the pastry too. However, many thought the crust was too thick. The pies scored a 7.68182 with a standard deviation of 0.56003. Ricky’s Shortbread was then consumed. So a normalised score of 7.5 for J. & D. Papworth Farms.