Pickerings

Sunday 28th October’s walk started wet and we started by searching the church at Chedgrave for scratch dials, of which we found two. Meanwhile Don Warman assumes we’ve started the walk and heads off down the footpath by the side of the church. We realise we’ve lost Don and return to the cars and search around but can’t find him. Don returns to the cars and doesn’t find us… We continue our walk to Hardley for the lunch stop. On returning to the cars, there is no sign of Don so we head to the pub to find him (that’s our excuse) after a pleasant drink we return to the cars to find Don with a big bag of cans! At last we can start the serious business of judging this weeks pie from Pickerings. A very pleasant pie that scored well on all counts and for the first time everyone gave the same score - an 8, even Josie tasting it at home after the walk gave it an 8. We had a Pickerings pie last October, on the 15th, where it scored a normalised 7.5 at Alby. A short Pork Pie News this month, so I’ve space to congratulate Dr. Manola of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for winning the Nobel Peace Prize – well done!

Trafalgar day - Archers (Est. 1929)

Trafalgar day saw us taking the train from Reedham Railway station to Berney Arms and walking back to the Railway Station. We called in for a pint at the Ship – unfortunately, the Lord Nelson wasn’t on the route. The good news was that we did have enough pie munchers to form a quorum and we had two medium pork pies from Archers the butchers (since 1929) recent winners of the best Norfolk Banger competition for the second time in a row. The pies had a good external appearance and released a lovely bouquet when cut. The piecrust was very good, perhaps due to the fact it was fresh – pies were still slightly warm when purchased on Saturday. The filling lacked oomph… and it wasn’t helped as the mustard had disappeared! I think mustard would have helped this pie achieve a higher score than the 7.1 on this occasion; the standard deviation was high at 0.89443. So quite an average normalised score of 7 for Archers

Fungus Foray

October the 14th was the Fungus Foray, so no pies but Risotto and Mushrooms expertly cooked by David Atkinson back at the Volunteer bar in Charles’ basement. So time for another Pie Interlude: Last month A hand-made pork pie made by Walter Smith’s butchers of Staffordshire won the top prize in a competition to find the best food product in Britain, reported the Independent. The 450g (what’s wrong with a pound?) pie made from cuts of belly and shoulder of free-range pork was named the supreme champion of the Great Taste Awards, which judges more than 4,000 food products submitted by artisanal producers from across the United Kingdom. The competition was run by the Guild of Fine Foods.

Bison Jerky

October's first walk around Foxley and Foulsham was without dogs and pies! However thanks to Paul Pac-Soo’s recent visit to Canada, we had Bison Jerky with our pint at the Queen's Head. Then it was 2 miles back to the car with the 60,000-gallon, 12 legged Bintree water tower to guide us. Canapés and tea were taken at just outside Foxley woods.