K says k and L says l : kitchen lore,ladies that lunch and tea time tales
Amanda Edmiston, Botanica Fabula: Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:45 AM
It was a varied week, I was immersed in kitchen lore, hidden within the ‘stills books’ of times past, when the ladies of estates , the green fingered ladies with a care for preserves and cooking, ladies who made up their own cosmetics full of the fresh phyto essentials that today command premium rates would keep beautiful notebooks to be passed on or to keep well tested recipes for later use; in the days when hedgerow knowledge was commonplace and so were hedgerows, when everyone had access to the countryside and unpolluted plants and gathering had not been rendered unsustainable by modern farming techniques and profit biased developers. I was reading kitchen lore seeking a few homegrown touches to mix into the session I’ll serve in Edinburgh next monthhttp://issuu.com/edinburghfestivals/docs/edinburgh_international_science_festival_2012_, those tips that hint at a knowledge held before science discovered it.
![]() Back indoors the tale of my Granny picking hawthorn leaves ‘bread and cheese’ to fill her plain bread on her way to school got the group started then as the group swapped food, and tips: an Indian recipe for Kaddu, for digestive trouble, replenishing rice puddings from India to Scotland and back again, homemade hazelnut and chocolate spread (: food to make you clever and happy at the same time!), today was the Indian festival of Holi…a celebration of Spring Easter wasn’t far off : we swapped stories of gardens we’d loved. I was reminded of a group of Aunties….back to my Granny once more…over tea in bone china and layers of biscuits, my Granny and her close friends and distant relatives would gather when I was little and exchange gossip and stories, tips and dramas.
So what else did the week hold…more tea and cakes, more thoughts on the natural way people, women especially, have traditionally shared stories and knowledge, as we celebrated a friends daughters 1st birthday and swapped news and anecdotes.
Then an invite to lunch, a unexpected treat, an email not offering unreliable cheap holidays or unfulfilling last days of sales, but a friend I haven’t seen for a few months, whats more a quick witted funny friend and a free lunch! If I’m occasionally mistaken for a lady that lunches it can be forgiven, self employed impoverished hardworking single parent that I am, I’m also outrageously skilled at being a lunching lady, I can handle lipstick and meringues simultaneously whilst engaging in hilarious conversation and coveting vintage china without even having to stop to reset the mode!
So the text, did I want to meet my friend for lunch at the Hidden Lanes tearooms, she was going to review it for The List magazine
![]() ![]() ![]() I’m thinking I might combine these stories over a tea time setting, I’m thinking tea time meetings with stories: for new parents wanting a relaxed get together, for reminiscence sessions, perfect for working with my mum http://www.jeanstoryteller.co.uk/ especially on intergenerational projects, maybe we just all need tea time tales… I can bring the china, or maybe meet in a tea rooms……I’ll put a proposal session up on the products page this week and see what it brings in….and keep you posted, lets have tea parties and stories about the wonders of teas from around the world ….(comments and feedback would be great. )
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