pumpkinstrokemarrow

Now had a second sighting of the interesting companion-way stepped lorry. It seems that one use of the steps is to provide a sort of pulpit for the driver to stand in while working the grab.

Stopped by an interesting farm shop on the way back from Ely, the Rectory farm shop. Now I remember the dim and distant days when farm shops were bits of barn where the otherwise unoccupied farmer's wife whacked out a few oddments of vegetables which had missed market. A convenience and gossip shop for the sturdy villages. Things have moved on now and apart from one cabbage, the contents of this shop were largely exotic. Of particular interest was the large range of bulk frozen foods. I never knew how small frozen croissants were and I had never seen frozen lumps of bubble and sqeak before. Outside, presumably partly as a pull, there was a field containing some black sheep, some white sheep, some lambs (not mixed race) and some large long legged birds, maybe emus or ostriches. I guess the business model is that one has a good bit of land mysteriously exempt from planning regulations so what better to do with it than turn it into a attraction shop with a large car park? Same path as trodden by so many nurseries en-route to becoming shops for garden furniture and Christmas decorations. But I am a little unfair, having been reminded of all this when constructing the second E-number pie (every bit as successful as the first), and using some of their potatoes. Actually packed in a bag called Rectory farm and which had not been through one of those industrial washers (see June 27 2007 or http://www.wymaengineering.co.nz/default.asp) and so had a tasteful sprinkling of the local black earth on them. Good potatoes too - a far cry from the value whites to be had from Mr S.