Beans

Back at reference 1, I noticed some fake runner beans; beans which tasted well enough but which were not proper runner beans, the sort of thing that I might have grown on my allotment.

As luck would have it, when we visited the butcher at Yelverton to get our holiday supply of white pudding, he also had some runner beans for sale. Not from north Africa, rather from east Cornwall, not far from Yelverton at all. The real thing, which looked as if they had been carefully picked, excluding both the too young and the too old. As it turned out, virtually no strings at all. We also learned that the white pudding, a partly porcine product, had been cooked in casings of bovine origin. A matter I think that we can overlook, but it was good that the butcher saw fit to come clean about it.

They turned out very well for lunch today, with the pudding neither too firm nor too spicy, two faults which the factory product is prone too. Followed by a spot of mandarin orange jelly, the taste and texture of which provided a fine complement to that of the pudding.

Then at teatime - that is to say around 18:00 when it is our custom to take a light meal - I thought I would polish the beans off. Best to eat them while they are still fresh. Taken on this occasion with a spot of grated Poacher and a little chopped ham. Bought by self and boiled by BH respectively.

Very good they were too. Followed up by a couple of mouth-cleaning carrots from a small Waitrose: trimmed and sliced (at the table), but neither peeled nor boiled. And very good they were too. BH contented herself with a simple salad.

It was good to have some real food, holidays being a time when we are apt to eat out and have to make do with that. I was reminded, once again, that it is a very long time since I have been offered jelly for dessert in a restaurant: and even if that were to happen, I would have to spend quality time with the server explaining that I did not want the jelly to be covered in custard, cream, ice cream, sprinkles, brown drizzles (from a large toothpaste tube) or anything else. Television chefs with their focus on fancies have got a lot to answer for.

PS: we had been amused earlier in the day by this example of west country plumbing arrangements. Available to our customers for a supplementary charge, naturally. My father was rather fond of this sort of thing and would, no doubt, have been very tickled to have come across it. I have been told that, in this regard, he was very much a child of his time.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/fake-181.html.