Friday 6 July 2012

Going... going...scone!

There has just been a booksale at Orkney Auction Mart and our assistant archivist has made her usual visit both to obtain new stock for the Archive and, more importantly, to wink at farmers over a mince roll in the cafe.

The bidding process is quite stressful and so she is always rolled and tied into an old duvet beforehand to soak up all the sweat and we tuck several twixes beneath the twine so that she can keep up her strength. This means that some chocolate always gets onto her David Dickinson-esque pin-striped suit but there's usually a bit of fake tan on there already. There is always quite a lot of competition over the best stuff and A.A. had to punch three other bidders to the ground, but we ended up with three boxes of haul.

 These include Stromness Shopping Week programmes, an admiralty map and this brilliant 1952 book of recipes which was made to raise money for the St Andrews Church repair fund:



Mmmmmmmmm oatmeal buns...

Recipes include those for various cakes, mmmmmm... cakes..., a fruity filling for pies, mmmmmm...pies..., Magic macaroons,Treacles Scones, Creamed Potatoes and Lemonade. It also contains a little rhyme telling how to brew the perfect cup of tea:

That Cup Of Tea.

Be sure to heat the earthen pot
And have your water boiling hot.
Put in a teaspoonful per cup
That each of you intend to sup.
Allow to stand for minutes four,
Then off the leaves be sure to pour.
When serving put the milk in first,
Add sugar and allay your thirst.
With this delightful, fragrant brew
You'll be refreshed and live anew.

There are also some useful household hints at the back as well as a pressed plant:



There is no indication as to the contributors of the recipes. Can anybody enlighten us?

2 comments:

  1. Ah, I wish I lived in Orkney instead of boring old Surrey. Your Library and Archive blogs & tweets alone would make it worth the migration; and your summers can't be any worse than what we're having here at the moment!

    Your AA might try Marathons instead of Twixes - I personally find them more sustaining, as the name implies. I refuse to call them "Snickers" which sounds like a horrible amalgam of snigger and knickers (amalgam being what your dentist will use if you eat too many of them, by-the-way).

    Your 'Pressed plant' looks like violets to me, how sweet!

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  2. Thank you indeed Surrey-dweller! We shall buy some Marathons or Sniggerknickers forthwith.

    AA was horrified to learn about the rogue plant as hideous, archive eating bugs can linger in untreated flora samples. Whoops.

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