Fungus Foray 2009

This week, King Canape took off his crown and donned the Harris Tweed jacket of the Mushroom Master... Three of us braved the inclement weather and headed to the Plough Inn, where the mushroom munchers were to muster. Here we sampled the Carvery while we waited for the rest to arrive. There were no takers, so just the three of us headed onto the Heath in search of edible fungus. The weather had improved but there was little for the mycologist. We did find a few examples, mainly inedible fungi growing on dead wood. None of the Chanterelles or Amethyst Deceivers – the staples of previous forays. We did find a couple of small Boletus that may have been edible.

The weekend was not completely pie-less – the Pie Master took a quality, lightly spiced pork pie from Martins Farm to Cambridge to sample as lunch, while attending the sparktacular Teslathon at the Museum of Technology. Unfortunately he did not have any Colman’s mustard to enhance the experience...

G. F. White

Pies from G. F. Whites in Aylsham – “Butcher of the Year” in the Eastern Daily Press, Norfolk Food Awards 2008. We had tasted their pies on the 18^th February 2007, when they didn’t fair particularly well. After 6 miles of walking up an appetite around Worsted, we would find out if they had improved. Parking at the Weavers’ Way car park near Briggate Bridge, we headed east for about a mile, following the Weavers' Way along a former railway cutting, passing under the attractive iron bridge. Then going south, we crossed the disused lock on the Dilham canal. The “boys” Bert & Harris were walking with us and soon found a new friend: Max - a black Labrador who then decided to join us on our walk! After a little way, Max would not leave us and return home, so he was put on a lead and returned to the house from where he originated. We regrouped and the boys had now made another friend Bertie: a Border Terrier – thankfully this one was attached to his owner. Dilham church of St. Nicolas was visited at just over 2 miles – no scratch dials here as it was completely rebuilt in 1931. Now heading west, with Don trailing, attacking brambles with his secateurs, we sampled the last Blackberries of the season. Lunch was taken in the large porch of the church of St. Mary the Virgin in Worstead. This large church has two scratch dials, already in our collection, and after perusing the interior; we headed for the comfort of the New Inn. Here we where all made welcome and served pints of Adnams and Wherry. Even “Bisto” the pub dog came down to welcome us, but Bert and Harris were not that impressed. From Worsted, we headed north to once again join the Weavers’ Way path along the railway cutting that we followed east back to the cars. Prawns with mayonnaise were again the starter course, prior to the pies. The pies, unique in appearance with lose fitting tops, looked promising. Cutting revealed a pink filling with good texture. Aroma and jelly were both lacking, but the real disappointment was the munching. The crust was soft and bland and the filling not really tasting of anything. The pie did score 5.83333 with a standard deviation of 0.93095 so normalised to 6 – just below the 6.5 on the previous outing. Yummy Chocolate slab cake was slipped in before Shortbread that concluded our post walk munching.

Aberdeen Angus & Stilton pie!

With the anticipated absence of the Walk Master, King Canape had dug out a Boldero walk and the Pie Master had plotted it on a map. No pie had been purchased due to lack of munchers. At the eleventh hour, the Walk Master declared his availability, so four pie munchers set off for Sisland – the forth being King Can. On arriving at the small car park and finding it full, it was decided to head into Loddon and park in the larger car park in front of the church. The Walk Master deemed that starting from here, it would be preferable to do the walk the reverse direction. Following his lead, we followed and not having gone 100 yards, we came to “Select Meats” - a butcher’s shop that was open. Don popped in to see if they had any pork pies – they had sold out, so one to try in the future. An Aberdeen Angus and Stilton pie was purchased and a jar of horseradish sauce. After returning the pie to the cool bag in the car, we continued our journey through Loddon and crossed the A146 to Stubbs Green, noting three abandoned footballs in as many locations.Heading south west we crossed Stubbs Green, continued down a short length of road and then by footpath towards Loddon Ingloss water tower in the distance. We spotted the first of many hares that we would see during this walk, as we approached Manor farm. We then met a group of walkers doing the same walk, anti-clockwise, having their sandwiches – they had taken the last space in the car park! Crossing Ingloss Lane, we went through an enclosure containing two friendly horses and then made our way north to Mundham, meeting another two groups doing the same walk. Then heading east, to the walk’s start point, the church of St. Mary the virgin, Sisland. Here we had our sandwiches. The church was too new to have a scratch dial, being rebuilt in 1761 after the original church was struck by lighting during a service! From here we headed back to Loddon following the route we had previously driven, with the exception of a footpath across the corner of a field. Returning to Loddon High Street, we ventured up Bridge Street to see what refreshment the Kings Head could offer. Beers from Timothy Taylor were on offer: Landlord and Golden Best - a golden mild. Refreshed we walked the short distance to the car. The Pie Master served the tea while King Canape dished up prawns with mayonnaise. The Aberdeen Angus and Stilton pie was next on the menu with an accompaniment of either horseradish sauce or English mustard. Not being proficient at scoring beef pies, we estimated that this very good pie, with tender beef chunks, would come in at about 8 out of 10. Sausage, bacon and cheese wraps, purchased as a substitute for pork pie, were next consumed before the Shortbread finale.

 
  Don Warman then made a presentation of Bystanders Foundation Material to Charles – sand excavated from beneath the beer cellar at 5, Thorpe Road!

 

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"Naked" pork pie from Bray’s Cottage

A new pie for us this week, from Bray’s Cottage, their “Naked pork pie”, first tasted in small format by the Pie Master at Norfolk Dog Day. The Walk Master had chosen Clippesby as the tasting location and had devised a 6-mile walk to work up an appetite. On arrival at the car park, the walk master spotted a concessionary footpath and a map detailing the route. In his masterly way, he produced a more interesting 6-mile walk in a couple of minutes! So the pie munchers set off south, down the concessionary path seeing both a Marsh Harrier and a Kestrel. The path then swung west and took us to the River Bure. Here we joined Weavers’ Way, walking north by river, we observed a couple of swans landing then, passing Upton Dyke, a pair of Cormorants flew west above us. We passed Wiseman’s Oby Drainage Mill in poor condition, and came by a field with a fine mix of beautiful bovine examples - especially a woolly white bullock. We headed further north and then northeast by Oby South Dyke, after getting great views of the river with the low sun reflecting on the water. We followed Weavers’ Way to Thurne Church of St. Edmund the King Martyr. Here we consumed our sandwiches and found a scratch dial. From here we headed to the Lion Inn and were supplied with Old Speckled Hen and Wherry. On the return leg, our route back along the river was diverted due to vegetation clearage. The diversion took us by a house with grotesques on the wall, and a concrete porker in the garden. We eventually returned to the waters edge before heading east back to the cars. Prawns with mayonnaise were this week’s starter course. The Naked pie, obviously baked in a foil container, looked good with a glossy top. Cutting the pie released a little aroma, not much, but boy did it smell good! The filling was pink and nicely textured though not much evidence of jelly. The taste was very good prompting the comments "Hit the spot" and "Best pie for a long while”. This pie was much better than the small naked previously tried. The recent small recipe amendment, helped this pie to romp home with a score of 8.875 with a standard deviation of 0.64087 – so a normalised score of 9 for Bray’s Cottage “Naked”. Shortbread returned as the final course this week.

P. B. George Quality Meats.

Yet another new pie for the pie munchers to sample on the 51^st anniversary of ‘Smoot day’. First we had to negotiate 5,674 Smoots of Boldero walk, over the boarder in Suffolk, around Syleham and Wingfield. We had to do this without the skills of the Walk Master. Parking at Syleham village hall, a dozen of us, including new Sunday walkers Bert and Harris, headed east along a short length of road. Then heading north for almost a mile, along a footpath to Syleham House, we passed beautiful cattlebeautiful cattle. Another short length of road, east and a half-mile of footpath south east. Here Bert and Harris had great fun chasing anything that moved and rummaging under bushes. Now at two miles, or 1,891 Smoots, we again headed east along the road to a long footpath south to Wingfield. Here we had our lunch in the grounds of St. Andrew’s church. Finding no scratch dial we made our way across the road to the delightful De La Pole Arms. Here we were refreshed with good local beers as we enjoyed the good weather outside. A huge friendly dog came to greet our new walkers, but Bert and Harris were not interested in making a new friend and let her know very vocally! Our route then took us west through an equestrian centre, before we came to Syleham Road. We had to walk north along this very quiet road for about a mile, passing cows grazing on the green. From here we could see Woodlands water tower above the trees at Fressingfield. Further along the road we were greeted by an elderly Spaniel, Bert and Harris were quite happy to make friends this time. Before we turned left down Windmill Lane, we passed farm buildings and the squeals of indoor reared porkers - the like, we hoped, had not found their way into our pies. On reaching the stump of the former post mill, severely damaged in Great Storm of 1987, we headed north across a field back towards the cars. The sting in the tail (or the sting in the legs, in my case) was we could not initially find the final footpath, as it was the heavily overgrown with stinging nettles! Back at the cars we started with Spanish canapés – Tapas: Octopus Chunks, Squid Pieces and Anchovies with Manchego cheese. Then onto small pies from P. B. George Quality Meats of Norwich. The pies had no aroma when cut and only a hint of jelly as visible. The crust was good, sweet and crisp, the filling having a reasonable texture but lacking any punch. Scoring 7.2857 with a high standard deviation of 1.0746, normalising the score rounds it up to 7.5 for P. B. George. No Shortbread or even Hobnobs this week. On the way home, we stopped at Park Farm to purchase Jumbo free range eggs at just £1 for six - a bargain!

Wombat Pie

Sixteen Privileged pie munchers were in for a treat this Sunday; there was the highly praised Wombat pork pie - specially baked for the pie munchers. But Wombat's hospitality did not end there... Together with Flounder, her other half, having obtained permissions from all relevant parties, they took us on a guided four mile tour of the private grounds of Gunton Park. We met at the Sawmill at 10:30 and walked clockwise through the beautiful grounds with sheep around Saw Mill Pond to the bridge that takes you over the stream coming from Great Water. Here we took in the views and saw that Canadian pondweed had established itself, and was causing a major problem. Passing the magnificent south wing of the hall, we then headed north to St. Andrew's church - all magnificently decked out for the Harvest Festival service. After inspecting the church and noting the Lead ties holding blocks of stone together, forming the entrance steps, we retraced our path south a short distance. Continuing east, passing friendly horses and a Melon House in the distance, then into a vast area with many deer. On the horizon was the splendid north gatehouse complete with lookout. Continuing east to Elderton Lodge where our hosts had ensured was stocked with real ale for our visit! Originally built as a shooting lodge, where Lillie Langtry was a regular guest, when the Prince of Wales - the future King Edward VII, stayed at the hall. Here, we were refreshed with pints of Wherry in good condition. Eventually we extricated ourselves from the pub and headed south, down a wooded track that then turned west after half a mile. Then we left the main path to go round a pond, through the woods to a metalled road through Suffield Wood and back into the park. We headed west with more stunning views complete with many deer, passing the south end of Saw Mill Pond,pausing by an old oak tree to admire a bright yellow caterpillar, believed to be that of the Pale Tussock moth. We returned to the Sawmill where we had our sandwiches and were given a short history of the Sawmill's restoration by Barré Funnel of NIAS. The Sawmill was celebrating it's 21^st Re-Birthday - the mill made its first cut after it's restoration on the 18th October 1988 and there was Re-Birthday cake for all visitors to the mill.After sampling the cake and viewing the mill in operation we gathered outside for the Main event: the sampling of the pie. Now in fairness, this wasn't a blind tasting - the large round pie had the Wombat insignia prominently crafted in pastry. Slicing the pie released a little aroma and revealed the crust was a bit crumbly. Although slightly let down by the crust, the contents were seen to be substantial and marvellously meaty with some jelly. Munching was a delight, the real meat filling finding favour with the munchers, resulting in a score of 8.28125 with a standard deviation of 0.81586 meaning the Wombat pie scores a high normalised 8.5. Chocolate & vanilla thins supplemented the Shortbread that followed.

The pie munchers and the Pork Pie News thank Wombat & Flounder for their hospitality and the owners of the park for granting permission for our visit.

Cumpstey’s large pies

The Walk Master being poorly, the Führer and other regulars unable to walk, seven of us went to South Walsham to sample a pie previously sampled this year, from Cumpstey’s of Acle. Parking at the car park by South Walsham Broad, we followed Fleet Dike north until it met the River Bure, whose south bank we followed east, passing St. Benet’s Abbey drainage mill, then the remains of St. Benet’s Abbey on the other side of the river. Fortunately we had planned to turn south, to walk to Upton over the Marshes, as the footpath that continued along the riverbank was Closed. Just before we left the river, a Norfolk Trading Wherry, the Albion, sailed by. Following the concrete track across the marshes, we were afforded good views of three windmills and saw our second Harnser fly in. Half way along this track we came to free fruit – masses of Blackberries and Bullace growing together, begging to be harvested. We obliged, eating quite a lot and taking home even more. At the end of the track, we deviated onto another footpath where we reclined to take lunch at 3.85 miles. We then headed into Upton and to the White Horse. Arriving at this establishment with horses tethered out the front, we retired to the back garden with Sundew and Nelson’s Revenge from Woodforde’s brewery, just along the river. Rejuvenated, we headed south then west a short distance, along roads before following a pleasant footpath through Upton Fen Nature Reserve. Short stretches of alternating road then footpath reunited us with the car after 6.42 miles. After some changed footwear, the tea and feast were carried to our munching location by the broad. Here we first sampled Smoked Salmon Crescents, then Cumpstey’s large pie, last sampled on the 13^th February. The pie had a good appearance and when sliced revealed a well-jellied dark interior, low on aroma. The pastry was good and the filling flavoursome, attracting criticism from some, for lack of texture, resulting in the high standard deviation of 1.06849 and a score of 7.58333, so another normalised score of 7.5 for Cumpstey’s. Hobnobs once again replaced the usual Shortbread.