TO the uninitiated, the field in does not T northern Cambridgeshire look very promising. I think, for a moment, it is full of weeds-3ft high, brown and raggedy. However, this plot in Thorney represents a minor miracle of British farming. The crop is Sinapis alba or white mustard and the 10 hectares (just under 25 acres) are in the process of being turned into about 25 tons of mustard seeds, which will be ground into a very fine powder before ending up in a pot of Colman's.
James Burgess, who has been driving the vast Claas 780 Lexion combine harvester down the field, is on a break. He pops open one of the inch-long dried seed pods and six tiny seeds roll into his hand. We try them: at first, you get no more than a mild pepperiness, but then, the distinctive kick hits the back of your tongue. It is unmistakably mustard and pretty much the only spice that Britain grows commercially.
Mr Burgess insists he is a fan. 'Oh, yes! I love it on a ham sandwich and if I'm having roast beef, it's got to be on the side of the plate.' I'm tempted to think his endorsement is because Colman indirectly pays his wages, yet his fondness for the yellow stuff is reflected across the country. Last year, 9.7 million jars and 1.5 million tins of Colman's were sold: it is estimated that two out of every five households have the distinctive packaging in their pantry or fridge.
Colman's is one of the very oldest brands in Britain, older than rival store-cupboard staples Cadbury's drinking chocolate, Tiptree jam, or Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. Founded in 1814, the year before the Battle of Waterloo, it seems as British as the Duke of Wellington himself. Yet only a few years ago, there was a strong possibility that Colman's of Norwich -as the company proudly brands itself might no longer have been made using any English mustard seeds.
Esta historia es de la edición August 17, 2022 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 17, 2022 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
