Where the tarts come from ?

We decided we needed to get Right Away for our Day Off, and so drove up to Bakewell - where they make the famous PUDDING!

Here's a picture of the shop

BAKEWELL PUDDING

8oz puff pastry

strawberry jam

4 egg yolks

2 egg whites

4oz butter

4 oz sugar

almond essence

Set oven to 200’C / Gas Mark 7. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and line a wide shallow dish or a pie plate. Spread the pastry with a thick layer of strawberry jam. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl, mix in the egg yolks, the beaten egg whites and the almond essence. Spread this egg mixture over thejam in the dish bake for 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 175’C / Gas Mark 4 for 20 minutes. The filling is meant to remain soft and is not intended to set. Serves 4

This recipe first happened by mistake, when the cook at the Rutland Arms, Bakewell put the egg mixture on top of the jam instead of onto the pastry for a special strawberry tart. The Bakewell Pudding Shop claim to be the sole purveyors of the authentic pudding, with the recipe handed down only to members of the family. – although they do sell tea towels and pie dishes printed with the recipe!

It was a fairly dismal,wet day - but the town seemed to be full, and there were lots of coaches in the Car Park. It's the end of the Bakewell Well-Dressing Week, and I imagine a number of people were on tours of the villages. The custom had almost died out in the 1950s, but since then it has been revived with great vigour, primarily for the tourist industry. Some sources attribute the practice to the period of the Black Death in 1348-9, when probably a third of the population of England died of the disease, but some villages were untouched. The local people attributed this to their clean water supply and gave thanks by 'dressing' the village wells. However, it seems very likely that the practice goes back much further than this - probably to pagan times - and the fact that many well dressings have a 'well queen' suggests echoes of ancient spring fertility rites. Many of the dressed wells have a biblical theme, which I think is lovely.

There were lots of ducks on the river this morning. I didn't get many photos [due to flat batteries in the camera!] but we stopped for lunch at Treeline, which is a lovely restaurant and gallery in a beautiful courtyard under vines.

Just down the alley from lunch was a superb florist and I managed to get a picture of the Peace Lilies outside.

The cattle market was in full swing by the Town Car Park, and there was also a regular market with a plethora of fascinating stalls.

We didn't buy much - dull things like batteries and printer cartridges - but we enjoyed looking [which is much cheaper!]

There were some lovely paintings and prints in Treeline - but most were well outside our price range.

An enthusiastic market trader triend to persuade me to buy his perfume - 3 free gift sets if I purchased one bottle of this new fragrance, called "Devil". I told him I couldn't possibly wear a perfume with that name, as I am a supporter of the other side! [realised afterwards that Steph wears "Angel" - but he didn't have any of that]

We drove on up to Eyam, the Plague Village -I am always moved by the story of William Mompesson, the Rector - in 1665 he persuaded the villagers to quarantine themselves so that the Plague would not spread. 260 villagers - including Mompesson's wife - died. It's sometimes very tough being the Pastor and leading the flock in the right direction! The rain was very heavy, and it appears to be one of those places where Everything Shuts On Mondays

So we came home again! I knitted another baby hat in the car - so will have 12 - plus 1 from Ann and 7 from Lesley - a grand total of TWENTY to take to June tonight at Knitting Group.

It has been a lovely day, even if the weather has been awful - which is good as there is another busy week ahead of us.