Series 3, Episode VI

A piece of rolled pork on Sunday, near 4lbs of it. After lengthy conference, and consulting the most recent pork that I could find (at reference 2, more months ago than I had thought), we decided on 2.5 hours at 160°C followed by a 15 minute rest. In at 1045, inspection at 1300 when it seemed just about done, and just about spot on when we broke into it at 1330.

Taken with boiled rice, cabbage and runner beans. These last, being a little elderly, were simmered for a bit in a butter and water mixture. Not exactly fresh young beans, but entirely edible.

Probably did something more than half the pork at this first sitting, rather more than half of what was left yesterday. Both meat and crackling very good, both hot and cold.

Also taken with a bottle of Pierre Précieuse, the cidery taste of which BH got on with better than last time. I still like the stuff well enough. Might even get some more when we have got through the current consignment.

Dessert took the form of plum crumble. Crumbled as the Victoria plums with which it was made were a little past their best, perhaps not best suited to the older digestion. I forget now, but maybe a spot of Calvados. Scrabble to follow. I forget now who won.

While Polly & Co. wanted a bit of privacy and carried their share of pork off to some den of theirs, perhaps under the leylandii at the back of the extension. Perhaps they were playing at being Victorian explorers, tramping with their bearers across the veldt. A word I remember partly because it crops up in Agatha on ITV3, partly because when I was young I was given a pair of expensive veldtshoen for walking. Shoes which were rather splendid when new but which did not last very long. I also recall their having copper or brass nailed leather soles, unusual in those days. While at reference 3, Wikipedia spells the word with a 'k' and talks of rubber soles without nails. Don't know where they got that from. Unusual for me to catch them out.

PS 1: the pork was said to come from Orchard Farm, stencilled across the skin. The people at reference 4, which talks of the great life that some of their pigs have in fields overlooking the estuary of the River Alde. The river which belongs to Brittens' Aldeborough, but which does not have an estuary as it turns into the River Ore first, the Ore of Orford Ness. A web site which is a bit coy about the address of the farm, but with a telephone number with a Brentford area code. Google then runs the place down at Companies House, giving 'Orchard Farm, Little Warley, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 3EN' as the address. Off to gmaps, which suggests that the business is better known as 'Cheale Meats', the people at reference 5, perfectly respectable, but without the cuddly porcine pictures offered at reference 4 - although we do get a picture of a field full of solar panels. They look to be a serious player in the wholesale pig business. So perhaps 'Orchard Farm' should be thought of as a brand, although it is also a place, a place which, as it happens, is quite a long way from the River Alde. So in the snap above, taken from the Ordnance Survey, the red dot bottom left is roughly here at Epsom, the purple pin to the right of Basildon is roughly Brentwood and the River Alde is top right, just below Southwold. As we found out at the time of the foot and mouth disease in 2001, animals destined for our tables get to move around quite a bit. An epidemic caused by pigs but which, according to Wikipedia, mainly affected sheep and cows.

PS 2: diligent search suggests that it was likely that we had roast pork in early June, but with no record that I can find of the event itself. In any event, the times at reference 2 provided a useful starting point for the present pork.

PS 3: the next morning: I have learned that searching for rivers in Ordnance Survey Online is a bit unpredictable, and quite often fails completely. Gmaps not great, but rather better, sometimes going so far as to give you a choice when there are several rivers of the same name, which is often the case. One supposes that the more clued up digital mappers have given some quality thought to how to present a river online. Perhaps by setting zoom so that you get all of it onto the screen and then highlighting the course of the river in some way. Perhaps lowlighting all the other rivers which are part of the same system, part of the same watershed. Mountains rather easier as they have peaks which do have coordinates.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/series-3-episode-v.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/02/radio-resumed.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veldskoen.

Reference 4: http://www.orchardfarmpork.co.uk/.

Reference 5: http://www.chealemeats.com/Welcome.html.

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