Again no pies this week – the Pie Master had done his back in, preventing pie procurement. Fortunately something slipped back into place on Saturday afternoon, enabling the Pie Master to march & munch this w/e. A dozen of us headed to Swanton Morley.
Parking in the church car park, we headed east to the river Wensum, but before the party had done half a mile,
Giant Puffballs were spotted and had to be harvested and packed in bags.
After passing Castle Farm, we continued the very
picturesque River Walk, following the Wensum for over a mile. The group came to a standstill as a large brown dragonfly landed on a gate with a wasp.
It then proceeded to chew its head off and then devoured the rest of the wasp. The Pie Master was at the rear of the group and was not aware of the activity – so no pictures or video for the web site. Leaving the Wensum, we headed south, along by Penny Spot Beck awhile, then leaving it on our right as we made our way uphill to our lunch spot, in the shade of some trees. From here we headed along tracks to Woodgate and then following footpaths to Swanton Morley and
Darby’s Free House. This welcoming pub with a good selection of beers provided us with pints of “Reedcutter” from the
Humpty Dumpty Brewery, delicious “Afternoon Delight” from the local
Beeston Brewery and “Wherry”.
In addition two friendly dogs in the bar: Dylan and Boots – of course they wanted a
fuss.... The beers slowly supped as we mardled in the garden, we then returned to
All Saints, where the Walk Master spotted half a
scratch dial high on a buttress. The church being locked, it was out with the tea and this week’s starter course: Adriatic Anchovy fillets and Lemon & coriander Houmous accompanied by nairn’s oatcake and Rick Stein Savoury Oat Biscuits. The Pie Master had brought a lump of Spanish cheese, believed to be a sheep’s milk cheese from the Basque county, in lieu of a pie. This was good and soon got devoured, almost before it could be photographed for the record. Shortbread completed the courses.
On the way home, some of us headed to
St. Mary’s church, Bylaugh, seen on the walk on the other side of the Wensum. It too was locked and although having a Norman tower, the church was more recent and so no scratch dials.
After a hiatus of two weeks, quality pies for the munchers return. Van Pelt of King’s Lynn “Quality Pork Butchers Established 1935” once holders of a Royal warrant, were this weeks suppliers. To ensure that our palates were in prime pie tasting condition for this new pie for the munchers, the Walk Master had devised a route to take in a beer festival. We parked at Reedham railway station and caught the train to Berney Arms. From here we walked to the river and followed the Wherryman's Way towards Reedham.
We took lunch at about three miles on the raised path where Don donned a plastic bag for a hat, why - no one knows, but he had a vague likeness of Father Christmas. Bellies filled, we resumed our trek to Reedham via the Wherryman's Way. Just before Reedham, we headed to the Humpty Dumpy brewery to purchase fine ales from the brewery shop. Heading back to the river and the Lord Nelson, only to find that the beer festival was being held in the village hall!
Never mind, the Lord Nelson had an excellent range of beers for us to consume. However, their dispensing skills didn't match the excellent beer range. Eventually we had our much-anticipated beverages that we consumed by the river. The ladies were treated to a viewing of a group of men posing in their mankinis, standing on the top of their boat, as they passed by. We wandered off back to the cars, some following the Walk Master's route, utilising footpaths, while the breakaway group took a shorter route along the road. Back at the railway station, the first offering was carrot sticks and Waitrose supreme houmous. Then the irregular shaped pies with their domed tops and filling. Cutting was an effort as the crust was quite hard. Not a great deal of aroma but a very good looking filling with jelly. I thought this was a very good pie, though it was let down by having a quite salt aftertaste. The pie munchers judged this pie at 7.57692 out of ten - a good score as two returned a score of just 5! So a high standard deviation of 1.38212 was recorded. Ginger & Lemon Cookies supplemented the traditional shortbreads. After grazing, the pie munchers just stood around mardling for ages. Eventually we got into cars and raced back to the Pie Master's where cars and passengers were swapped about. So Van Pelt ends up with a normalised score of 7.5.
