Letters to the Editor - March 2010

At last! I was beginning to fear that the fire in Robin Page’s belly had been doused by his fairly recent domesticity. Then he hits with his blindingly obvious ‘population’ (and more) article in the November issue.

This, together with Shaun Spiers’ piece earlier in 2009 about world economics in which he states “The current crisis is not just economic,
it is one of values — we need as a society to think more about what really matters and give value to life”, must surely have been the two most common-sense articles of 2009 (and indeed rank amongst the best I have read in any of the broadsheets during that year).

Go to it, Robin and Shaun, let’s have more — and maybe soon it will dawn on us all that the only answer to the crises that we constantly meet is for humanity to develop a new system of moral living based on fairness and truth.
Trevor L Smith, Harwood

One of our regular bird-feeding stations is on a paved patch with an overhanging cotoneaster bush near the back door, and from the kitchen window we can enjoy a close-up view of the birds. The shelter afforded by the cotoneaster gives protection to the birds from sparrowhawks which regularly snatch birds from more open feeding sites in the garden.

However, during the recent severe wintry weather a lone fieldfare has taken possession of the feeding station and aggressively chases off any other birds attempting to feed there.

In previous winters we have occasionally had mistle thrushes taking over rowan trees and chasing off other birds trying to eat the berries, but this ‘bully boy’ fieldfare is a first.
E Baldwin, Dumfries

Being born, brought up and schooled in the Sussex village of Plumpton Green during and after World War Two, I have good memories of suet or Sussex pudding (Letters, Dec).

Large slices soaked in Bovril gravy with home-grown vegetables helped the meat ration along; it was a staple diet in my home. My grandmother always made this suet pudding, boiling it over the range fire. Half was eaten with the main meal and the other half with jam for dessert.

Basic Recipe:

1) Half weight of suet to flour (I use self-raising).
2) Mix to a firm dough with water.
3) For sweet dough, add sugar and mixed dried fruit, thus making spotted dick (or dog).
4) Place in a cloth and steam for two hours.
5) For savoury, add mixed herbs, form into balls and drop into a stew to boil for the last 20-30 minutes. I know of no better meal than an oxtail stew with herby dumplings.

This is a really delicious pudding.
I can remember being sent up to Gallops the butcher for six pennyworth of suet for these puddings but of course nowadays it comes in packets already chopped.
Having left Sussex many years ago and becoming a farmer’s wife in Devon, I have fed all our farm staff during our fifty years in farming and the puddings were all very well received — the boys never went hungry.

Sussex pond pudding:

1) Line a greased basin with thickly rolled dough, leaving enough for a lid.
2) Drop in a good sized lemon, pack round with Demerara sugar, and butter. add a little brandy if liked, and put on the lid.
3) Cover with greaseproof paper and a cloth, and steam for 2 to 3 hours.
4) Discard the lemon, as the juices will have melted with the crust.

This is a really delicious pudding.

I can remember being sent up to Gallops the butcher for six pennyworth of suet for these puddings but of course nowadays it comes in packets already chopped.

Having left Sussex many years ago and becoming a farmer’s wife in Devon, I have fed all our farm staff during our fifty years in farming and the puddings were all very well received — the boys never went hungry.
Mrs Dawn Carter, Honiton, Devon

Thank you to all the readers who supplied recipes - Ed.

The article ‘Faith and Community’ (Dec), shows how places change.

In 1953 I worked on Church Farm, Shelsley Beauchamp. It adjoined the church. The vicarage was on the opposite side of the road and there was a full-time vicar. He may have had responsibilities for Shelsley Walsh as well, I do not know.

Part of the time, I lodged in Clifton on Teme in Forge House which was opposite the church. which had its own vicar. Some of the people with whom I worked knew of the forge being in use at Forge House.
Mrs O G Aburrow, Reading

The photograph printed alongside the poem ‘Charcoal Burners’ (Dec) is far from self-explanatory.

Why would four Victorian rural workers set up a meal on a white cloth on a wooden box and eat it from apparently white plates, yet have a couple of metal basins on the table, and why do they have the deep lidded basin that is on the ground?

The headgear of one of the party suggests a Scottish scene, or perhaps a Scotsman wearing it. It is a tasselled woollen beret familiarly known as a Tam o’Shanter because of its association with Robert Burns’ character of that name; the tassel is often called the toory on the tammy.

And what is there in the photo to show they are charcoal burners? There is no oven.
G Kirkpatrick, Tavistock, Devon

The author of the poem, Shirley Elmokadem, says the photo is of her charcoal-burning ancestors and was taken at Balcombe in Sussex, in the early 1900s.

The man second from left, with the tasselled beret, is her great-great-grandfather Thomas Harber (born in 1856 at Worth, Sussex) who was a charcoal burner, as indeed were all the Harbers. Shirley has traced the line back to the 1500s. Thomas wasn’t Scottish, so no particular reason for the hat.

Shirley adds: “The original photo was a postcard and along the bottom it read ‘A hearty meal, charcoal burners Balcombe Forest’.

“They were having their meal outside, as most charcoal burners did, and the ‘oven’ would have been not far away I am sure, as they had to keep a constant eye on it so that the fire did not go out. There is, in fact, a ladder at the back and perhaps this was where the ‘oven’ was located.

“I guess they put on a bit of a show for the photographer, with the white table cloth etc. The pots, well I assume they held hot water or maybe a hearty rabbit stew.”

Why is it illegal to drop litter in our streets, but perfectly fine fo fill a garish imported balloon with gas and send it on its way to drop on our land and in the sea? I find one a month in my fields and hanging in the trees.

Today I noticed a scarlet slash in the middle of a thirteen-acre (5ha) snowy field — it was a balloon emblazoned with chipmunks celebrating a fast food meal. How many do I not find?

The balloons — even one from Ikea — get into hay and silage, endangering farm and wild animals, and probably doing no good to marine life either.
Geoffrey Sheard, High Hurstwood, East Sussex

Editor’s note: thank you to all those who wrote in about their Countryman roses (Dec) which seem to be thriving around the country. Joyce Storey, writing in early January, tells us that her Countryman rosebush is showing eight bright pink blooms through about eight inches of snow.