Valentines Day saw us sampling one of last year’s top five pies, large pork pies from Pickerings, last sampled on the
1st February. The Walk Master again being unavailable, the Führer dictated that we find a walk that did not cross ploughed fields. The weather forecast was not good and a 4.8 mile walk around St. Faiths was devised. Only five pie munchers set off, three munchers being unable to walk due to ailments, including the Fuhrer suffering from gout. Starting from Newton St. Faiths we headed south towards Horsham St. Faiths, down a track. We had followed orders, there were no ploughed fields, but something we hadn’t planned on was that the track at one point, was liquid mud, some 3” deep.
As we headed south, we could see rain in the distance, but we were lucky - only getting a couple of spots, missing the heavy sleet that fell on Norwich. We successfully navigated our way to Horsham St. Faiths, and the interesting church of
St. Mary & St. Andrew
that boasted a large scratch dial on a buttress. Here we had lunch at 2.8 miles, before a third of a mile walk to the
Black Swan and pints of Adnams, IPA and Guinness, all in good order. The walk back to the start point was pretty straightforward. We returned to the cars for tea, but no Canapés this week. The good looking, hand raised pies were releasing a wonderful aroma even before they were cut. Slicing the pies, the aroma intensified, revealing a marbled filling without jelly. This well spiced pie with its good tasting, crisp pastry found favour with the pie munchers, with the exception of one. Producing a score of 8.25 with a high standard deviation of 1.12916. We ended with the customary Shortcake. So Pickerings get a normalised score of 8.5, equalling their score of last year.
As we headed south, we could see rain in the distance, but we were lucky - only getting a couple of spots, missing the heavy sleet that fell on Norwich. We successfully navigated our way to Horsham St. Faiths, and the interesting church of St. Mary & St. Andrew
that boasted a large scratch dial on a buttress. Here we had lunch at 2.8 miles, before a third of a mile walk to the Black Swan and pints of Adnams, IPA and Guinness, all in good order. The walk back to the start point was pretty straightforward. We returned to the cars for tea, but no Canapés this week. The good looking, hand raised pies were releasing a wonderful aroma even before they were cut. Slicing the pies, the aroma intensified, revealing a marbled filling without jelly. This well spiced pie with its good tasting, crisp pastry found favour with the pie munchers, with the exception of one. Producing a score of 8.25 with a high standard deviation of 1.12916. We ended with the customary Shortcake. So Pickerings get a normalised score of 8.5, equalling their score of last year.
