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 16^th 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.

Graves of Briston and Marks and Spencer individual pork pies

Ricky continued his series of extreme walks that he started on the 3rd of February - with his walk through the “dangerous” woods of Blickling Hall, in a gale! This week he had us he walking through fields of angry horses that tried to bite, charge at us and even one tried a back kick! He had prepared us for the experience by organising a stop at the Bull in Little Walsingham for a fortifying drink. A very welcoming and dog friendly pub that served a good beer. The rewards of this walk were two pies for us to sample: First, M&S individual pork pies – a wonderful pie in the mid 1980’s – but have since gone down hill. We last sampled these on the 17th September 2006 in Reedham, where they scored a normalised 7. Today they scored only 6.375 with a standard deviation of 0.64403 so a normalised 6.5. Paul had provided a bonus pie from Graves in Briston, a first for all of us. This pie had a pale crust and a jelly filled steam hole. The filling was very pale, almost white and a little crumbly. The taste – heaven, with or without mustard. This pie scored a handsome 8.95833 with a standard deviation of 0.68948, so that’s a normalised 9 for Graves.