[Bakewell] Modern day hunter gathering at the farmers market.

It’s not exactly local for us - over an hours drive - but we just fancied an outing this morning. There’s great views as you drive over the high peaks around Buxton. Well, there’s great views in better weather - we quickly got into the clouds and visibility was down to less than 50 yards.

It’s well over 12 months since we were last here. There’s fewer stalls. And fewer customers. I’ve noticed that at other farmers markets. My take on it is that business has contracted as folk find their budgets tighten and they can no longer afford premium prices for food. The market is held at the agricultural centre - on weekdays it’s where the livestock auctions are held. As always , the cafe was the first stop. Actually, the loo was the first stop – but enough of my prostate problems. OK, the coffee is instant and insipid - but the bacon cob was good, as always. The humble bread roll has become a cob in that hour’s drive. It started out, where I live, as a barm (cake). I’d almost certainly driven through areas where the locals would know it as a bap or batch.

We did quite well with the shopping. It’s hard to avoid the Port of Lancaster Smokehouse. They tend to appear at every farmers market. We bought four pigeons from them – for a bargain £10. The breasts are off and in the freezer – they make a belting starter quickly fried and dumped on salad leaves or toast. Another stall sold us a couple of organic steaks (Dexter cattle I think). Oh, yes, the mushroom people – they grow and sell all sorts. We bought a mixed bag – sliced and fried with garlic and parsley, they’re tonight’s starter. Another stall was run by market gardeners who sell what they grow – in this case, chard and carrots, which will go with tonight’s main course – braised Jacobs Ladder (highly appropriate as the hill with that name is not far away from Bakewell). And there’s a kabocha squash for another night. We stocked up on sausages, as well – there’s a guy who keeps Gloucester Old Spot pigs and turns them into well flavoured bangers. And, last but not least, the Scotch egg stall . Great variety here – although not all to my taste. I tried the “Thai flavours” and “sweet chilli” ones but they were just wrong. The black pudding was outstandingly good. They’ve used a high quality, very peppery, pudding which works so well.

And then it was off through the clouds again

3 Likes

I love that area! We used to spend a fair amount of time at a self-catering property in Earl Sterndale, so have spent many happy hours wandering round Bakewell during the summer fair.

I have been to Bakewell. Took the bus from Sheffield there to visit Thornbridge brewery. So many hills and turns I felt so sick. The partner did have Bakewell tart with warm custard before we headed to Thornbridge which was just a short walk from the town centre.

I have asked Brits in my travels what they call a bread roll they all told me different names. They are surprised to learn different names for a simple bread roll around the country. A lovely English I met on my Namibian safari/tour calls it “batch”, if I remember it correctly.

“Oven bottom” is listed. Was going to post this to the “breads of the world” thread.

bread-roll01

1 Like

According to that map, a “batch” is what we call it here in Cheshire. Only not this part of Cheshire, maybe in the south of the county.

I’ve mostly heard it called a bap or a butty in my travels oop norf.

A bacon butty is still a guilty pleasure.

A butty is slang for any sandwich. You can have a cheese butty.

I think it’s generally northern and, dahn sarf, you have a sarnie. Another north/south divide on this small, cold, island.

1 Like

When I was working on an own-brand product offering, it took us three weeks to decide whether to use 'brush or ‘broom’ in the instructions we rewrote for the UK market. Marketing director was from the south, product director from the north.

We ended up using ‘brush or broom’ as it was the only way to settle it.

1 Like

Well, I never knew that was a difference.

I’ve always used a brush. Does that recognise my northernness or has something southern crept in to the Harters gene base?

Your heritage is safe…brush is the northern term!

Phew. A relief!

For the rest…we were talking about what to call the long handled object with bristles with which one sweeps the debris from a dirty floor.

In general, Harters, in the colonies at least, a brush has a short handle (toothbrush, hairbrush, paintbrush)

1 Like

Only just spotted this. The “oven bottom” - or oven bottom muffin to give its full title - is unusual. Whilst the bread rolls are pretty much the same light product everywhere, regardless of regional name, the “OB” is different. Rounder, flatter, more dense. Holds the ketchup better on your bacon butty. Very much a Lancashire product - the baker whose product you see in the supermarket is from Ashton under Lyne (the town where I worked before I retired)

http://www.ovenbottommuffins.co.uk/

2 Likes

Don’t you brush the floor with a broom…?

I always thought “broom” was the term for a large type of floor floor brush, whilst brush tended to be used for a version like a tooth brush or hair brush.

Lived down scarf for a few years and none of my pals used tooth brooms or hair brooms…

Always thought a “lardy cake” had fruit in it…?

I explained it all upthread.

Thanks for pointing it out. I looked up lardy cake and yes, it’s clearly not a “simple bread roll” I have in mind.

Sounds nicer than the typical bread roll. I might give the recipe a go.

Got a kick out of the dialect section, too.

A couple I recognise. Most I’ve never heard of.

But then I’m Cestrian, not Lancastrian.

Sorry missed that.

Although thinking about it I wonder if there is more to it than a north/south divide. Brooms are technically the old fashioned witches brooms whilst floor brushes are a different design. I wonder if a broom is the old fashioned tool (I know in Australia we only have one old fashioned millet broom manufacturer left) whilst a floor brush is far more modern.

I also wonder is there an element of class in it. Big houses would have “broom cupboards” (obviously the place to keep the Dyson) but more humble houses wouldn’t. So wealthier people retained the work broom for a floor brush and others evolved into using the work brush.

Nope. Oddly, I ran into a lady in Target here at home whose accent told me she was from the north of England…by sheer quirk, she had what is called a broom in the US in her cart (red O’Cedar). I quickly explained my dilemma, and asked what she called it…It was a brush in her eyes.

Thus “brush or broom” it was.

When we remodelled the kitchen, we created a space that we also call the “broom cupboard”. It’s where we keep the brushes.