1 Comber earlies
The botanist William Coles wrote in 1657 that ‘the soyle of Ireland doth so well agree with them [potatoes], that they grow there so plentifully that there be whole fields overrun with them’. These small potatoes, earthy, sweet and nutty, are planted in January—two months earlier than other types in Northern Ireland—and harvested in July. The spuds are specific to an area once known as the Hamilton Montgomery Lands (after two Ulster-Scots families) in the temperate climes around Strangford Lough. (EU Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status)
2 Spoot
The spoot—or razorfish—is big in the Orkneys, where it’s as prized as a truffle, although most people buy it from the fishmonger these days, rather than scrabble around in freezing, wet sand. The time for gathering the long, thin shellfish is in March, when they’re exposed by receding spring tides, but you’ve got to move fastas the cunning little critters quickly sink without trace. Eat fresh, tossed in a pan—frozen ones are as bland as string, apparently.
3 Islay whisky
3 During Feis Ile (the Islay Festival of Whisky and Music, May 22–30, www.islayfestival. com), Islay’s eight distilleries —quite a lot for a 25-milelong island—are open for tastings. It was Irish monks who first twigged that it’s the brown, peaty, salty water that gives these Hebridean whiskies their particular edge: Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroag are considered the strongest, Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain lighter.
4 Arbroath smokies
Denne historien er fra February 12, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 12, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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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.
