Our week that was: Llanerchaeron and National Apple Day

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It’s been a busy old week – one that was full of apples! Firstly, we took a trip to Llanerchaeron, a nearby National Trust property where there’s a walled garden full of different species of ancient apple trees amongst other plants.

As well as admiring them, I spent a fair amount of time picking them, chopping them, shredding them, juicing them and cooking them. After attending an apple event at nearby Hafod, we decided it would be a great idea for our local Women’s institute to hold something similar – so we did!

Llanerchaeron

We booked a day with our dog sitter so that we could get out and do something a little different. We drove to Aberaeron to visit Llanerchaeron, just a few miles inland. It’s a Georgian property, designed by the famous architect, John Nash.

The Trust has decided to leave the house as it was left to them; i.e. with any of the later additions such as furnishings and the art nouveaux/art deco fireplaces. Having said that, much of the ‘bones’ of the house remains remarkably untouched – so there were fabulous 18th century doors & windows, coving and other plasterwork, flooring and so on. This untouched aspect was particularly the case in the service areas – and it was these spaces that we especially loved. The old service kitchen, pantry and cobbled outer courtyard were very atmospheric. There were separate rooms for cheesemaking, brewing, bread proving & baking, butchery, salting, laundry and so on – plus simple bedrooms for some of the staff.

In the grounds were stables, tack rooms, animal pens and the like. Also, lovely, walled kitchen gardens and small ornamental lake that were open to wander around.

We took lots & lots of photos – both inside and out – have a look at some of them below…

Llanerchaeron roof light

Llanerchaeron fireplace

Ceiling in the drawing room of Llanerchaeron

Llanerchaeron service kitchen

Llanerchaeron laundry

Llanerchaeron brewery

Llanerchaeron bakery

Llanerchaeron walled garden

Apple chopping

National Apple Day

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about going along to an apple event at another nearby National Trust property, Hafod. We decided it would be a great idea for our local Women’s institute to hold something similar. The lovely people that we met at the Hafod Walled Garden agreed to allow us to borrow their apple juice making equipment; a shredder and a fruit press.

Apple shredding Apple pressing Apple pomace

Our WI event was planned for Saturday 21st October – which just happened to be designated National Apple Day – completely unintentional on our part! The rain held out for the most part, and we had lots of visitors come to the cottage to enjoy the homemade apple cake, apple cookies, mulled apple juice and other apple-themed delights.

A few of the WI members spent the previous week picking apples in local gardens and orchards… and some of the people who came along brought apples from their own gardens. We had a well-planned and executed conveyor system where we chopped, shredded, pressed and bottled the apple juice… over half a dozen large sackfuls.

Cakes & Bakes: Walnut Scotchies

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Home-made walnut scotchies slice | H is for Home #recipe #scotchie #scotchies

I was browsing a bookshelf in Picture House Antiques last week and my eyes fell upon a book that I just had to have. It’s the Yorkshire W.I. Recipe Book published in the late 1950s.

vintage Yorkshire W.I. recipe book from the late 1950s

According to the foreword by Chairman, Eileen Yewdall:

The present edition now being sold out, the Federation has been asked for another reprint, so a small committee has amended and added to the original, now including subjects that have come into favour since 1957, such as Deep Freeze, Cooking with Wine, Yeast Cookery, etc., etc.

page from a vintage Yorkshire W.I. recipe book from the late 1950s

It contains scores of recipes submitted by Yorkshire Women’s Institute members with, rather tellingly of the era, many oven temperatures given in Regulo and seven separate recipes for salad cream!

The first recipe I’ve attempted is one for walnut scotchies, which was provided by the W.I. in Glasshouses. It’s a cake I’d never heard of previously – a sort of shortbread base with a meringue topping… and very tasty!

There are quite a few recipes in the book that I’d not heard of before – far less tasted. I’ll be testing out lots of them in the near future and sharing the results here with you.

Walnut Scotchies

Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 110 g/4oz butter
  • 170 g/6oz caster sugar
  • 2 egg yolks & 2 egg whites
  • 170 g/6oz flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • ½ tsp vanilla essence
  • 60 g/2oz chopped walnuts
  • 110 g/4oz brown sugar

Instructions
 

  • Beat butter and sugar to a cream
  • Stir in egg yolks one at a time and then add the flour sifted with baking powder and pinch of salt
  • Add vanilla essence and mix well
  • Spread ½cm/¼inch thick on well-greased oblong tin about 25cm/10inch x 22cm/9inch
  • Sprinkle with chopped walnuts
  • Beat the 2 egg whites until stiff
  • Lightly mix in brown sugar and spread over the nuts
  • Bake for half an hour in a moderate oven (180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4)
  • Leave till cold and cut into squares