A Kinrowan Estate story: Autumn is Here (A Letter to Anna)

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Dear Anna,

I thought you’d appreciate this copy of Ciaran Carson’s Last Night’s Fun: In and Out of Time with Irish Music, which is the best book ever done on Irish traditional music. I particularly like the chapter on what to have for breakfast after an all-night session!

The cooler weather that autumn brings here is very similar to the weather there is in Stockholm. The Steward has ordered the usual check of the fireplaces and he went one step more with having all of them cleaned even though they weren’t due until next autumn. Everyone’s taking the prediction of a much colder, more snowy winter seriously. We’ve even prepped a heated space for the Irish Wolfhounds as it might be too cold even for them.

Tamsin was pleased with the prep work Gus did for the owls so that they might have warm homes this Winter. I still don’t know why she attracts a larger than normal number of owls, but she once jokingly, at least I hope it was meant that way, suggested reading Alan Garner’s The Owl Service.

As you know, we don’t raise beef here but trade for it with the Riverrun folk. And Mrs. Ware made a lovely dish from some of this year’s beef last night — a brisket braised in apple cider with baked butternut squash and very tender carrots. She made use of the second harvest of pumpkins (the first are a variety grown only for use in Bjorn’s spiced pumpkin ale) to make pumpkin tarts. And she says she’ll have pumpkin muffins in the morning as well! Ymmm!

Plans are being made for the usual winter activities here — I see notes up for Curling teams, Old Norse and French reading groups, and the chess group is reserving space in the Reading Room twice a week. Someone, I think it’s most likely Finch, is offering lessons in border pipes.

Your sister has yet another group up and running — Solstice, which has her on violin, Finch on border pipes, and Astrid on cello. It’s got a very sweet sound, more Nordic in sound than Leaf & Tree. They’re more interested in doing a recording than touring, so I suspect we’ll be treated to concerts here as they fine tune this group.

Lastly I should note The Steward approved your request to be a Scholar-in-Residence in Nordic Languages for next year. You’ll be selecting the person who holds the position for Winter ’19. The usual stipend plus expenses and quarters applies. Ingrid only  requested only that a background in Beowulfian studies would be nice.

Affectionately, Iain

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What’s New for the 29th of September: Louisiana’s Lost Bayou Ramblers, live music by Kathryn Tickell, Ottawa based urban fantasies by Charles de Lint, Norwegian saxophonist Karl Seglem, Gus on the Estate Kitchen garden and other Autumnal matters

Every good fiddler has a distinctive sound. No matter how many play the same tune, each can’t help but play it differently. Some might use an up stroke where another would a down. One might bow a series of quick single notes where another would play them all with one long draw of the bow. Some might play a double stop where others would a single string. If the listener’s ear was good enough, she could tell the difference. But you had to know the tunes, and the players, for the differences were minute. — Fiaina in Charles de Lint’s Drink Down the Moon

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The end of Summer is nigh upon us as the Autumnal Equinox is gone and we here on this Scottish Estate have begun the only partly conscious shift into Autumn as a given thing. Everything — from the behaviour of the lynxes as they hunt their prey to the food served up by Mrs. Ware who’s our Head Cook and her staff — starts the shift to serving the heartier foods what the increasingly cold, too frequently wet weather causes us to crave.

By October, even the Neverending Session starts folding in on itself as the ancient boon of food, drink and a place to sleep is outweighed by our remoteness. So that group is almost entirely comprised of the musicians here, a number somewhere around a third of the Estate staff such as myself (violin),  my wife Catherine (voice and wire strung Welsh violin), Béla (violin), Finch (smallpipes) and Reynard (concertina). It’s always interesting to see who’s playing in it at any given moment. Nor is it by any means always present, a myth started by the musicians a long time ago.

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Early in his career, Charles de Lint did a number of novels set in the real city of Ottawa where he and his wife, the late artist MaryAnn Harris, lived and had made their home for many decades. We’ve reviewed these works so we decided to  feature some of  those reviews and some other works as well in this edition.

She also says of Medicine Road that ‘I suppose it’s fitting, for a story about twos, that the creators are two Charleses. Charles Vess’s illustrations make this not-so-simple fable deeper and richer. Vess combines line drawing and painting in a way that makes his pictures simultaneously vividly life-like and fairy tale-remote.’

His Yarrow: An Autumn Tale gets a loving look by Grey: ‘Cat Midhir has stopped dreaming. People assure her that it isn’t possible, that she just doesn’t remember her dreams, but Cat knows they’re wrong. Where her dreams have been, there is only heaviness and loss. For Cat, this loss means more than it would to most of us, because she is that rarest of all dreamers, a person who returns to the same dream every time she sleeps. In her dream world live her truest friends and her only source of inspiration for the books and stories that have won her acclaim in her waking life…’

Richard looks at a novel I’ve enjoyed reading several times:’Seven Wild Sisters, a collaboration between Charles de Lint and Charles Vess, holds no surprises, and that’s a very good thing. The companion-cum-sequel to their earlier collaboration The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, the book delivers exactly what it promises: Gorgeous illustration and an encounter with the otherworld that’s ultimately more about wonder than it is about peril.

Robert has two Autumnal fantasies by de Lint: ‘Charles de Lint is known as “the godfather of urban fantasy,” and indeed, it’s in that genre that he’s made his mark – he’s never been a writer of heroic fantasy: in a better than thirty year career, very few buckles get swashed, although the two short novels included in Jack of KinrowanJack the Giant Killer and Drink Down the Moon — come close, something of a romp a la Dumas pere — by way of Harold Lloyd, perhaps. Both concern the adventures of Jacky Rowan and Kate Hazel, best friends who find themselves enmeshed in the doings of the land of Faerie that coexists with modern-day Ottawa.’

He also looks at Moonheart, perhaps de Lint’s best loved novel: ‘Moonheart may very well be the first novel by Charles de Lint that I ever read. I can’t really say for sure — it’s been awhile. It certainly is one that I reread periodically, a fixture on my “reread often” list. It contains, in an early form, all the magic that keeps us coming back to de Lint. (And be reminded that Charles de Lint may very well be the creator of what we call “urban fantasy” — he was certainly one of the first to combine contemporary life and the stuff of myth.)’

Spritwalk  our reviewer says ‘is a loose sequel to Moonheart, a series of related tales, again centering around Tamson House and including many of the same characters. In fact, the House is even more important as a Place in this group of stories. It begins with a brief discussion of Tamson House from a book by Christy Riddell, whom we will meet again in The Onion Girl and Widdershins, followed by a delightful vignette, “Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood,” of Sarah Kendell, age seventeen, remembering her childhood “imaginary” playmate, a red-haired boy named Merlin who lived in the oak tree at the center of the garden. It’s a sweet, sad tale of the price of love.’

Robert starts off a review I think is perfect for Summer reading this way: ‘I’ve long followed Charles de Lint’s writing, starting with, if I remember correctly, Moonheart way back when, and I’ve been as close as I ever come to being a fan for years. (I even got my hands on some early stories, somehow.) So when I was asked to do a review of The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, I said, “Yes. I haven’t had a chance to read de Lint in a while.”’

 

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In another vein entirely, Robert has some thoughts on Joe R. Lansdale’s Pigeons from Hell: ‘Pigeons from Hell is an adaptation by Joe R. Lansdale of a story by Robert E. Howard, with art by Nathan Fox and color by Dave Stewart. Lansdale is at pains to point out, in his “Notes from the Writer,” that it is really an “adaptation” — updated, exploring some new facets of Howard’s story, and not to be confused with the original, all of which leads me to treat it as its own creature.’ Just click on the link to see how this creature fared in Robert’s opinion.

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Speaking of cooler weather, Gary brings a review of a recording by the jazz quartet helmed by Norwegian saxophonist Karl Seglem. ‘Don’t fear that Nordic Balm is an album of smooth jazz destined to become aural wallpaper. Far from it. Even in those places where it’s obviously intended to sooth, it always maintains its integrity, and there’s always something quite interesting going on, if you’re paying attention.’

‘Portland’s Anna Tivel is that rare songwriter who can put together a song like an award-winning short story writer,’ Gary says. He finds plenty of that kind of song on Tivel’s new album Small Believer.

Gary says you should check out Turmoil & Tinfoil, the new album from Billy Strings, a hot young bluegrass player and singer. He says ‘the Michigan native is making a name for himself as one of the most incendiary bluegrass guitarists on the scene.’

Louisiana’s Lost Bayou Ramblers haven’t released a new record since 2012, but they have a new one due out any day now called Kalenda. Gary says they ‘still sound like nothing else you’ve ever heard. Those vocals by founding member Louis Michot could’ve been recorded in somebody’s backyard by Alan Lomax 50 years ago, but they’re backed by what sounds like an ensemble auditioning for a gig as house band in the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tattooine!’

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Gus, who many of you already know is our longstanding Estate Head Gardener, is one of our excellent storytellers. He has an Autumnal gardening tale for our What Not this time as we approach that season. He leads off his story in this manner: ‘Oh, hello. It’s you again. How is it that every time we meet up, I’m clomping around in muddy boots? Come out to get some fresh air, have you? Give me your name again? I’m Gus, if you remember, the gardener around these parts. Here, I need to head out to the kitchen gardens, come walk with me a bit. They’re behind that wall over there.’

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Autumn for me is when I start craving the sound of certain performers, one of which is Kathryn Tickell. She to me is one of the more interesting sounding of the Northumberland performers that risen up in the past thirty years in the years since Billy Pigg was active. So let’s listen in to her performing ‘The Magpie’, ‘Rothbury Road’ and ‘The Cold Shoulder’ which is from an outstanding soundboard recording of a performance at the Washington D.C. Irish Folk Fest from the 2nd of September, fifteen years ago.

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What’s New for the 15th of September: Autumn on the Estate is here

bury my bones in the midnight soil / plant them shallow and water them deep / and in my place will grow a feral rose / soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth —V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

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Autumn here with its promise of bonfires, pumpkins, cider on tap in the Pub, of blackberries fat and tart on their prickly bushes  and pumpkins ripening on the vine, but it’s also the time of year that we get serious about getting ready for Winter. If you visit us on this Scottish Estate, someone will no doubt ask you to pitch in on some task that needs doing. So dress appropriately, have a good attitude, sturdy footware and you’ll be appreciated here quite nicely. And your first cider will be on me.

Now why don’t you give me a few minutes to finish up this Edition and we’ll head off to the Kitchen as the season’s upon  us when the staff’s making babka, that exquisitely chocolate rich Eastern European sweet, leavened bread along with just as tasty rugelach, both a good treat as the weather cools…

Raspberry divider.Cat kicks off our China Miéville retrospective with a review of a limited hardcover edition of Miéville’s debut novel King Rat. ‘Call it magic realism. (It is.) Call it an urban fantasy. (Also correct.) Call it dark fantasy if you like. (It is definitely that.) Or call it horror, as it most certainly is that as well. It is, in some senses, a nastier version of the London created by Gaiman in Neverwhere.’

Jason gave the  highest of marks to Miéville’s breakout novel Perdido Street Station, though not without some caveats. ‘I won’t lie to you, the book isn’t easy to read. It’s dense and complex and has a circuitous plot that sometimes seems completely irrelevant, until you keep reading and find that it is essential. And at 700 pages plus, it requires patience.’

Next Jason reviewed The Scar, a follow-up of sorts to Perdido Street Station and the second of Miéville’s Bas-Lag trilogy. ‘A new menagerie of creatures is presented here, including mosquito-people, vampir, llorgis and grindylow, in addition to his established khepri, cactacae, and Remade. He has added to the already lush environment created in Perdido, expanding the scope of Bas-Lag to the far reaches of the world.’

Finally, Jason took a quick romp through one of Miéville’s’s novellas. ‘It’s amazing to see Miéville’s prodigious talent and range increase with each successive publication. The Tain is a remarkable story of survival and coping, of making the best of a horrible situation. It shows the adaptivity of humanity, that we can survive almost anything, and the ending is so unexpected and so fitting that you may feel the top of your head lifting off as you read it.’

J.J.S. Boyce delved deep into the mystery that is Miéville’s The City & The City, set in two intertwined but strictly segregated urban enclaves. ‘The unique geopolitical landscape of the city & the city complicates what would indeed be a simple murder investigation elsewhere in the world. Because here the victim appears to have been killed in one city but dumped in another, suggesting a forbidden passage over one of the invisible borders, an action much worse than the murder itself.’

Kathleen had high praise for Miéville’s first young readers’ book. ‘Un Lun Dun is his first actual novel for young readers, and — marvelous paradox — it is a wonderfully mature work. The writer’s voice is focused through the child’s vision like light through a ruby, becoming coherent energy, light with a sword’s edge. His previous hints of childishness become instead a clear-eyed look at fantasy, heroism, tragedy and redemption from the viewpoint of a 12 year old girl.’

Kestrel found Kraken to be a good introduction to Miéville’s writing. ‘On the whole — and this is something which I never thought I would find myself saying about a China Miéville novel — this is an incredibly fun read. Also, at five hundred pages, it makes a pretty good beach book (although probably not if you are the nervous over-imaginative sort as, see above, ominous giant squid god).’

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We naturally raise our own pigs here and if can Gus, our Estate Head Gardener reviews this book, he’ll tell way more than you need to know about them. So yes, Jennifer L.S. Pearsal’s Big Book of Bacon gets reviewed by him: ‘Yes bacon. We use a lot of bacon at this Scottish Estate. Bacon in cheddar and bacon rolls, bacon and tomatoes in eggs, bacon in beef stew for a little extra flavour. Even one enterprising Kitchen staffer even created ice cream with smoky bacon and chocolate as its flavour. It actually tasted rather good. Well you get the idea. So when I discovered this book in a pile of galleys sent to us, I decided to give it a review.’

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We can’t recommend this series off abd it feels Autumnal to me, so here it is once again. If ever there was a series that felt like it was British to the core and autumnal in its setting, it is the one Kathleen and her sister Kage wrote up, Two Fat Ladieswhose series documented that they were brilliant British cooks who rode a motorcycle with a sidecar, drank excessively, smoked whenever they pleased and cooked using bloody great hunks of meat, butter and anything else that isn’t ‘tall good for you. And funny as all Hell, which indeed the review is as well.

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In new music, Gary admires jazz saxophonist Miguel Zénon’s latest offering. ‘Golden City is Zénon’s exploration of and tribute to the history and evolution of the West Coast’s cultural mecca, San Francisco, where he has been a member of the SFJAZZ Collective since the early 2000s. In these 11 pieces, he and his formidable ensemble dig deep into Zénon’s compositions that reflect that history, from the Bay Area’s occupation by Indigenous Ohlone people, through the Gold Rush, the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the loss of community due to gentrification, and other historical and cultural tides and trends.’

Gary also gives a thumbs up to the latest from rootsy Americana singer Melissa Carper. ‘Melissa Carper gives a graduate level seminar in classic country music style on her third solo release Borned In Ya. Carper is the real thing when it comes to Americana music, as I’ve been preaching since covering her previous albums Daddy’s Country Gold and Ramblin’ Soul.’

He also enjoyed New Moon by a New York trio that blends Carnatic music and American jazz. ‘Arun Ramamurthy Trio’s debut Jazz Carnatica was one of my favorite releases of 2014 (indeed, of the entire decade of the Teens), and I’m delighted to report that their follow-up, although a decade in the making, is even better.’

 

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Speaking of Autumnal, Our What Not is a matter of a very special pumpkin as Denise tells about the Folkmanis’ Mouse in a Pumpkin puppet: ‘All hail the spice! Pumpkin everything is the rule of the day this time of year, and I’m all for it. Give me my pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pies, spicy roasted pumpkin, and pumpkin crumble. And okay, a PSL or two while we’re at it, though I’m more a Chestnut Praline Latte gal myself. So when Folkmanis decided to indulge my love of the orange squash, my grabby hands eagerly shot out. And I’ve been snuggling with this adorable puppet ever since.’

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So I’ve got some Autumnal music for you that I think fits pretty much any season. It’s Michele Walther and Irina Behrendt playing Aaron Copland’s ‘Hoe Down’from Rodeo. I sourced it off a Smithsonian Institution music archive which has no details where or when it was recorded (which surprised me given how good they usually are at such things), but it may have been around fifteen years ago.

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A Kinrowan Estate story: A Pudding Contest

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Her name was Bronwyn ap Tewdwr and she was our guest judge for the annual pudding contest. ‘A pudding contest?’ you ask. And I say, ‘Why not?’ Real pudding, like real ale, is a long way from the packaged puddings that litter grocery stores. And watching a group of talented folk making tasty food is something I always appreciate!

The contest, which covers both sweet and savoury puddings, is held annually in the Fall as a break from the getting-ready-for-Winter tasks all of us are doing. So Mrs. Ware and her Kitchen staff start planning for this by finding interesting ingredients and picking the judge from among the culinarily inclined people that she knows. That person gets a week here gratis and a generous stipend as well.

(You cannot pitch yourself as a judge, as that gets you disqualified. And Mrs. Ware is quite above being bribed even if she has a weakness for Turkish Delight ever since she was a wee girl and read the Narnia books for the first time.)

Now I’ll admit that my only pudding of interest is a dark chocolate one made with bittersweet chocolate. But then I like a dark chocolate bread pudding as well. Maybe even better. The only thing I’ve ever tasted better than that pudding was a dark chocolate bread pudding infused with Madagascar vanilla and a hint of cardamom. Ymmm!

We Swedes have a long tradition of making puddings from scratch. My momor, my maternal grandmother, every Autumn made an apple and almond pudding using a tart apple variety with just vanilla and cinnamon for spicing. Served with warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it was quite wonderful.

Bronwyn decided that though she officially is the arbiter for this contest, anyone interested should have a say. The actual contest took place in what’s called the canning and drying kitchen, as it’s set up exclusively for that purpose. It’s in a building that’s strictly two-season use only as we drain the water before the first real freeze takes place. It’s got two Viking gas stoves, each with eight burners, two sinks for water and cleaning up, and lots of work space.

We started in late morning with sets of four pudding makers, each given ample time to create their pudding from scratch. That group created a pudding using our pear cider; a blackberry and graham cracker pudding, as those bushes were still bearing; a breakfast pudding with bacon, cheddar cheese and mushrooms; and what the Yanks call an Indian pudding which is made with cornmeal and molasses.

Before we wrapped it up many hours later, we’d seen made and had sampled puddings such as black pudding and haggis pudding, groaty pudding (soaked groats, beef, leeks, onion and beef stock), kugel, a Yorkshire pudding, steak and kidney pudding, and several spotted dick and a suet and fruit based concoction. There was even a stellar Christmas pudding that Mrs. Ware said she’d be making for our Christmas eventide meal.

There was a three-way tie for best pudding between the breakfast pudding, the pudding using pear cider and the kugel, which was the work of Rebekah, a Several Annie, one of Iain’s Library Apprentices, from Israel.

All in all everyone was happy with both the food and the comfortable companionship in a contest no one took too seriously. Most of us went for a long walk afterwards to work off the feeling of needing a good nap this engendered.

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What’s New for the 1st of September: A grab bag of books, music, and film that touch on the theme of work

Remember, pain is not a test. Knowledge is not enough.
Catherynne M. Valente’s The Orphans Tale: In the Night Garden

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The piper at gates of dawn has resumed his or her ritual after taking most of the summer off. Now from just before the first light hits the high meadow with its benediction of the new day ’til several minutes later  when it’s reached Kinrowan Hall which the sunrise glistens on the moss covered slate roofing tiles up there, the piper plays on. Some say the instrument is great medievelipes but I doubt that as I’ve never seen them here; more likely is that they border pipes or uilleann pipes.

I’m now inside our Kitchen this morning as it’s bone numbing cold this morning. No not just chilling but rather a brutally cold damp with the promise of rain and strong winds later today. Autumn’s not even here but the weather’s giving us an early taste of eatlu September can be like when the weather turns nasty. Even the Estate felines and canines who like going outside are sticking close to the fireplaces and other warm spots inside Kinrowan Hall today.

In between lots of coffee and setting up my ‘office’ which is  myself, a large mug of Blue Mountain coffee and my iPad, in the sitting corner of the Kitchen, I’ve been editing this Edition which what Gary put together which is say most everything.

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Donna got quite wrapped up in Tasha Alexander’s A Poisoned Season. ‘It’s a decent mystery, sufficiently challenging, with just enough red herrings tossed about to keep the reader wondering until the last few pages who did what and why. At just over three hundred pages, it’s also a bit longer than is typical of this genre. Of course it ends happily, but there was never any serious doubt about that.’

Richard took on an interesting challenge in reviewing Bull City Summer: A Season At the Ballpark and Beyond, about the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. ‘A gorgeously crafted coffee table book, it’s a collaborative effort between a series of photographers and writers, many of them with ties to the Durham area. Together, they document a single Bulls season – 2013, the 25th anniversary of the film that made the franchise famous – from multiple angles.’

Rebecca took an in-depth look at Ursula K. LeGuin’s classic Earthsea Trilogy for  young readers. ‘LeGuin’s simple, unostentatious writing style is perfect for these novels. It conveys triumphant serenity and a sense of balance shaken but never destroyed. Earthsea is a place to be visited again and again to find hope for our real world.’

Robert found Ursula K. LeGuin’s YA novel Gifts a little grim. It’s a tale, he says, of people known as Highlanders who live in mutual suspicion, wary of each other and their somewhat supernatural gifts. ‘I’m not going to tell you what I think of this book because I don’t know what I think of this book. LeGuin is a subtle and powerful writer, and that, to be sure, comes through in full measure. Her own gift for storytelling is here, and after a rocky start I did find myself drawn into the story. I just don’t know if I liked it.’

Stephen kept an open mind while reading Marie Brennan’s The Other Side Of The Rainbow, about the Clannad vocalist’s journey of music and faith. ‘How Brennan managed to personally resolve her newfound faith with that of her ancestors, and her vision of a modern “Celtic Christianity,” surprisingly make for some of the most satisfying parts of the book. She recounts her feelings of apprehension and fear before one of her first large-scale “Christian” gigs, in a church in a Belfast “Loyalist” stronghold.’

Steven shared some insights from his reading of Tony Hillerman’s Hunting Badger. ‘Hillerman’s stories tend to be less about the mechanics of mystery story-telling than about the atmosphere and character — if the Navajo elements were stripped away from the novel, not much would remain. This is far from a negative aspect — Hillerman’s Navajo mysteries really should be read for the characters and the settings, rather than the plots, moving beyond the mechanics of things into the spiritual and emotional interconnections.’

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Gus the Estate Gardener chimed in with a rare write-up, reviewing The Mushroom Hunters, a book about professional fungus finders. ‘Along the way we learn both the natural history and lore of fungi, in a narrative that reads like all written fiction. Without elaborating further as you should enjoy this book for yourself as it’s a really great read.’

Raspberry dividerDavid delived into Terry Zwigoff’s biographical documentary of Robert Crumb, called simply Crumb. ‘Zwigoff is a friend of Crumb’s and had known him for 25 years, played in Crumb’s band the Cheap Suit Serenaders, and worked together on a screenplay. That intimacy paid off in spades! OK, it may have cost Zwigoff his health, and a substantial amount of money, and even his friendship with his subject, but you will never see a documentary that lays its subject as open as Crumb does.’

Gary watched Lost in La Mancha, a movie about the disaster that befell Terry Gilliam when he tried to shoot a Johnny Depp movie that was to be called “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” ‘Documentarians Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe were filming the action for a “making-of” feature that would eventually be included in the DVD. So they were there, from the early production meetings until the end, as the project disintegrated in slow-motion agony.’

Robert had slightly mixed feelings about the first four seasons of the TV series Haven. ‘While the characters are well developed and the interpersonal relationships develop along with them, the series doesn’t devolve into melodrama/soap opera, at last on that level, and manages to sail along for most of three seasons as an interesting and engaging mystery/thriller with supernatural elements.’

Raspberry dividerDavid enjoyed a graphic treatment of the life of Franz Kafka, by Robert Crumb and David Mairowitz. ‘Kafka is a concise look at the Czech writer’s life and work. Robert Crumb provides the illustrations while David Mairowitz tells the story in text. The text is well-informed and blends biography with Kafka’s literary work, placed in context. This is a clever and eminently workable format. Especially if you believe, as these collaborators do, that Kafka’s fictions were images of his own life.’

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David delivered a review of One Voice, a tribute to a Canadian singer songwriter. ‘Norm Hacking is a big man with a big heart and a lot of friends. Many of them gathered in the last year to put together this collection of some of Hacking’s best songs, performed with affection and skill.’

Deborah tells us about two related releases by Danny Carnahan and friends, one a Grateful Dead tribute, one an extended CD single of singer-songwriter material. See what she has to say about Wake The Dead’s Blue Light Cheap Hotel and Camogie’s Celtic Americana.

Gary enjoyed the cumbia and vallenato music on Very Be Careful’s album Daisy’s Beauty Shop. ‘The song titles, lyrics and simple melodies all speak to this music’s origins as a working class dance music. The Daisy of the album’s title is the Guzmans’ mother, who owned the eponymous beauty shop and who also wrote a lot of these songs.’

Kathleen praised a folk song collection that surprised her with its depth. ‘Old Wine, New Skins is the sort of almost anonymous album we all listened to when we were young, memorizing every nuance of the performances, so we could go out and wreck them at Renaissance Faires. (Most of us weren’t very good, but that’s not the music’s fault.) It remains the best way to hear music, especially folk music — sitting down and letting the voices and the music just cascade over one and fill one up.’

Kim was highly impressed by the work that went into three Nordic Roots collections from NorthSide. ‘Not only are the artists working here a great representation of some of the most creative artists in any traditional folk genre today, but the production values are extremely high, with sophisticated arrangements and judicious use of what the studio has to offer.’

Richard gives us an in-depth review of the careers of the various members of the Waterson and Carthy clans in his review of Waterson:Carthy’s Broken Ground. ‘I would not want to give the impression that there is anything banal or predictable about this recording, but anyone who is familiar with Martin Carthy’s work will expect some token of his political engagement. On this CD, it comes, somewhat unexpectedly, with Norma on lead vocals, in the form of “We Poor Labouring Men,” a defiant assertion of the importance of the working masses.’

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Our What Not is a conversation with Charles de Lint held at the FaerieWorld Convention in 2013. You can hear the entire delightful affair here. We’re busy reworking and updating our last edition on him and his work for publication sometime this coming Autumn. Right now he, his lovely wife MaryAnn and their canine companion Johnny Cash are summering for a few months at their lake cottage. May they all have a wonderful time!

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Speaking of the piper…

Autumn for me is when I start craving the sound of certain performers, one of which is Kathryn Tickell. She to me is one of the more interesting sounding of the Northumberland performers that risen up in the past almost sicty years in the years since Billy Pigg was active.

So let’s listen in to her performing ‘The Magpie’, ‘Rothbury Road’ and ‘The Cold Shoulder’ which is from an outstanding soundboard recording of a performance at the Washington D.C. Irish Folk Fest from the 2nd of September, twenty  years ago.

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A Kinrowan Estate story: A Ghostly Librarian

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I haven’t seen him despite having The Sight but several persons down the years have said that a man dressed in Victorian Era clothes and looking apparently quite solid. He looked to in his late fifties or early sixties, tall and skinny, wearing sliver rimmed glasses. He was putting away books on the shelves well after midnight according to one person and a Several Annie some sixty years ago was unable to sleep, as the Estate Journal of that time notes, and decided to get something and was surprised to see a person in the Library at three in the morning.

That’s when it got weird. She said what she called The Librarian turned to her and asked her what book she was looking for. She didn’t think anything of it beyond the oddness of the hour — no Librarian ever works that late not even the very much unlamented and hopefully quite dead Grubb — and so she said she was looking for the latest Christie and he said it was on the desk waiting to be put away.

She said thanks, started to turn away, and remembered that she was also looking for any Sayers she hadn’t read, so she turned back and watched him fading away to nothing within a few moments. She decided that getting back to her bed was a very good idea and go out of there was fast as she could.

The last time that he was seen was by another Several Annie only twenty years back that saw him in the early even when Iain and Catherine were off on a trip to the Nordic region for a much deserved vacation. It appeared to her that he had simply decided to fill as Librarian while Iain was elsewhere. Now that’s what I call a dedicated professional!

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What’s New for the 18th of August:

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Intro riff

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Book reviews

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Culinary reviews

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Film reviews

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Graphic review

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Music reviews

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What Not

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Coda

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A Kinrowan Estate story: Breakfast, Korean Style

FoxNow that was tasty!

I was grumbling yesterday morning to Mrs. Ware, our Head Cook here at the Estate that houses us, that porridge is often boring even if many here like it as Winter breakfast fare. She smiled and said to stop by the Kitchen ‘morrow morning as she had an idea.

So I came to the Kitchen the next morning early before it got too busy and discovered that I was being served thick soup made from rice and minced pork with interesting spicing, served along with green tea and a deep fried cruller. She said it was called canjii in Korean and a visitor showed her how to prepare this hearty meal years ago.

Now I knew that Korea has a millennia old cuisine with food traditions from a number of sources but I hadn’t actually had this traditional breakfast staple from there, as I spent my time overseas in India and Sri Lanka, which have a decidedly different cuisine with a flat griddle cake called a roti which was made of shredded coconut and cooking oil being common where I was.

Indeed the staple food for Koreans is rice, and specifically a particular type of Korean short grain rice called sticky rice, because its grains stick together rather than falling apart. Mrs. Ware decided to use well-cooked brown rice as she likes the flavour better than the white rice used in Asia. It was a wonderfully tasty and quite filling breakfast.

Now I’m off to find her a copy of The Pooh Cook Book as she’s catering an all-day event for younger children from the School of The Imagination and she wants to do their meals as Pooh and company did them. I will of course review the book as well so you, our dear readers, can see how good the recipes are!

Fox

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What’s New for the 4th of August: A raft of Cuban music reviews; Trader Joe’s chocolate peanut butter cookies; Looking at J.R.R. Tolkien; And a Cuban band documentary

Music is so essential to the Cuban character that you can’t disentangle it from the history of the nation. the history of Cuban music is one of cultural collisions, of voluntary and forced migrations, of religions and revolutions. – Ned Sublette’s Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo

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I smelled something nicely enticing in the hallway out of our Kitchen. So I handed Pub duties over to Finch and got myself down there for the eventide meal, which was lamb kebabs seasoned with fennel, cumin, garlic and chili. According to Gus, our Groundskeeper who does oh so much more than that essential work, It turned out that we just slaughtered several lambs. The kebabs were served up with basmanti rice, steamed veggies and the best yeasted whole wheat rolls I’ve had.

We had ice cream for desert: a cardamom and ginger one, another intensely dark chocolate and peanut in nature and a strawberry one with some berries of the summer season. I sampled all three and can say that Mrs. Ware and her ever so talented Kitchen staff outdid themselves!

So let’s head over to my work table where my iPad is and see what we’ve got for you this evening.

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Gary offers us up a fine selection of J.R.R. Tolkien non-fiction material this time.

Asher took an in-depth tour of Tolkien’s The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book. The author, he says, spoke of Bombadil in two ways: ‘On the one hand, he has called Bombadil both the spirit of the dwindling English countryside and the spirit of natural science: “the spirit that desires knowledge of other things, their history and nature, because they are ‘other’.” On the other hand, he has suggested that the reason he couldn’t bring himself to keep Bombadil out of The Lord of the Rings is that he represents something larger, something best not left out, though he hesitated to look too closely at what that was. One can surmise that this is true both of Tom as he appears in the Ring saga and also as he appears in the Adventures.’

‘Every Christmas between the years 1920 and 1943, the ever-so-blessed children of J.R.R. Tolkien received some of the most unique mail that a child could ever hope for: letters from Father Christmas himself!’ says Cat in his splendid review of Letters From Father Christmas — both the book itself and a readers theater style performance of them at his local bookstore. ‘Beautifully illustrated and delivered in various ways, they told of all kinds of things that happened at the North Pole, and about the folk who lived there with Santa.’

And Craig reviewed the audio version of Tolkien’s Letters from Father Christmas audio, read by Derek Jacobi. ‘For those who may not be familiar with his work, I’ll simply say that you are in for a treat. Jacobi was the perfect choice for this reading. Not only has he read other Tolkien works but his voice resembles that of a kindly grandfather, ideal for the character of Father Christmas.’

Grey wrote an admiring review of J.E.A. Tyler’s The Complete Tolkien Companion, which she said is an invaluable reference. ‘Tyler is an author and journalist who is, in my opinion, one of the best authors of general “Tolkien guides” available today. While his scholarship may not be as extensive as that of some other authors, he has the ability to see the entire legendarium and its interlinking components, and to lay out and cross-reference those components with an understanding and clearness of text that makes his work easily accessible to readers, from the Tolkien neophyte to the Tolkien scholar. If you only have one reference book on Tolkien on your shelf, it ought to be this one.

Jack bestirred himself to read and review J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf and the Critics, a collection of different versions of a lecture by Tolkien on the ancient Anglo-Saxon epic. He recommends it, with a caveat. ‘Just keep in mind that our dear don was writing a treatise on Beowulf that takes into account the entire thousand-year history of that ballad as a cultural object. Bloody Hell! He does a rather neat job in some forty-five or so pages of giving you everything, and I mean everything, you’ll ever need to know ’bout Beowulf. Just drink lots of very strong coffee before reading it – you’ll need the caffeine!’

‘Tolkien lived in that long-vanished era when letter writing was an intrinsic part of daily social and business activity,’ Jack says in his review of, what else, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. ‘There were few phones, obviously no e-mail, and telegrams were used only for very urgent business. (He did use airgraphs, a special postal service to reduce the mail volume, for letters to Christopher and the like.) But the proper gentleman or gentlewoman wrote letters — lots of letters! And Tolkien was, like the hobbits he created, a perfect English gentleman.’

He also reviewed and contrasted a couple of reference books aimed more at a general audience, Robert Foster and the Brothers Hildebrandt’s Tolkien’s World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth, and J.E.A. Tyler and Kevin Really’s The Tolkien Companion. He definitely prefers the latter. ‘ Tyler rightfully assumes that one has either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings in hand and is simply seeking more information. And information is what you get in The Tolkien Companion — a generous serving of lovingly detailed material that will enhance your understanding of these books every bit as much as The Annotated Hobbit will do. Tolkien’s World from A to Z just can’t compare to it!

Kathleen reviewed her copy of Tolkien’s Smith of Wooten Major & Farmer Giles of Ham that she first read when she was 13, a time when many readers of her generation were disappointed by them. ‘They aren’t epic, or sweeping, and there are no elves, hobbits or dwarves in them. That’s been a problem with a lot of Tolkien’s non-LOTR over the years, and not even the elf-centric The Silmarillion pleased most of his audience. But dismissing Smith and Farmer Giles is as much a loss to a reader as is ignoring the appendices of LOTR itself.’

Lisa reviewed a fairly obscure Tolkien text, Narn I Chîn Húrin, or The Tale of the Children of Húrin, which takes place many thousands of years before the bits we’re all more familiar with. ‘There are the usual things one expects in Tolkien’s mythic prose; it’s archaic but less like the King James Bible than some of his work, and a bit more like Norse saga. That said, there are influence and motifs from Siegfried and Norse saga, and the Finnish tale of Kullervo in the Kalevala. There’s a bit of medieval Irish too, in terms of the effects of the curse; it’s reminiscent of geasa like the one Macha put on the men of Ulster. But for all its archaism and tragic mythos, The Children of Húrinis extremely readable, and a very well made book.’

Liz wrote a monster review of the 2003 HarperCollins five-volume edition of Tolkien’s The History of Middle-Earth. The history was an immense undertaking for all involved, and the review was likewise. ‘At his death, J.R.R. Tolkien left a huge body of unfinished and often unorganized writings on the mythology and history of Middle-earth. In The History of Middle Earth (HoME), his son, Christopher, has sought to organize this huge collection of drafts, revisions and reworkings into an organized and intelligible whole.’

Liz also reviewed some collected essays and lectures of Tolkien’s, published as The Monsters and the Critics, which Jack also touched on at some length in his review of Beowulf and the Critics (see above). ‘These seven essays provide a glimpse into Tolkien’s intent as a scholar, translator of texts, and novelist. Just as Sir Gawain’s shield device, the pentangle, gave graphic evidence of how Gawain’s virtues were inextricably linked, this book shows how Tolkien’s interests in philology (i.e., historical linguistics) and the art of fantastic fiction were bound together, each giving life to the other.’

Matthew was impressed all around by the audiobook of Tolkien’s translation of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” as read by Terry Jones (yes, that Terry Jones). ‘One of Tolkien’s first scholarly works was a modern English translation of the 14th century alliterative poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Although there have been a handful of translations since, Tolkien’s stands out as accomplishing a two-fold mission that few others have achieved. He brings the poem into the modern idiom in a way that is readable, but he also retains the alliterative metric structure that the anonymous Gawain poet was trying to revive.’

Matthew also reviewed a helpful reference book, Christopher Tolkien’s The History of Middle-earth Index, which gathers the indexes from all 12 volumes of The History of Middle Earth into one volume. ‘The Index contains every entry from the separate indexes of the History, as well as Christopher Tolkien’s explanatory text that prefaces each separate index. However, instead of gathering all the references to a particular name under one heading, Tolkien has chosen to keep the entries separate. Thus, we have a separate heading for Beren’s appearances in the first volume, followed by an entry for Beren’s appearances in the second volume, etc.’

Warner reviewed the award winning book by academic Holly Ordway, Tolkien’s Modern Readings, in which Ordway lays to rest the notion that all Tolkien read was medieval literature. ‘It is a fascinating volume at times, veering from works still known to current readers all the way to quiet, esoteric works that have largely passed into oblivion. The book focuses on works likely to have influenced the creation of middle earth related works (specifically The Hobbit, Lord of The Rings, and the Silmarillion) and proving Tolkien read them.’

 

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Gary loves cookies, so he was eager to try Trader Joe’s Chocolate & Peanut Butter Joe-Joe’s sandwich cookies. His verdict? ‘They’re tasty and definitely satisfy your sweet tooth. I don’t think they need to be as sugary as they are, but then I’m not the one making gazillions of dollars selling high-end snacks to the bougies, so what do I know?

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Big Earl kicks off our special Cuban jazz archival edition with the Cuban-adjacent Sangre Negra by Orlando Poleo. ‘Hailing from Venezuela, Orlando Poleo is one of the artists at the forefront of World Jazz in Europe. This is not the type of Afro-Jazz of Tito Puente, nor that of Hugh Masakela, but a super smooth, very modern blast of South American rhythms mixing with a medium-sized horn ensemble and piano. It’s a very cool blend, sounding Caribbean enough to sate the current Cuban Jazz craze, and yet poppy enough to appeal to both the “cocktail” jazz and world music novice.’

Next he reviewed Viva Mindelo’s Fantcha. ‘Fantcha is very much in the “torch” mode of Cuban music: the sort of musical style designed to appeal to gringo tourists. Very influenced by the big band style of the 1940s American scene, this disc is heavy on orchestrations, aching melodies, and soft samba tempos. Mindello has a decent voice, not very broad in range, but perfect for this type of music. Her voice is drenched with emotion, like on the slow “Amiga,” where you can hear her on the edge of tears.’

He was less than blown away by Vieja Trova Santiaguera’s Pura Trova. ‘More or less a put-together group, VTS features artists in their sixties and seventies playing the traditional folk forms from Cuba. Assembled in the early 1990s to perform in Spain, the group has carried on intermittently, producing some fine renditions of some of the greatest music forms the Caribbean has to offer.’

David, who was the longtime editor of Rylander, a newsletter dedicated to the music of Ry Cooder, wrote evocatively about Ry’s outing with Manuel Galban, Mambo Sinuendo. ‘What’s it sound like? It’s the kind of music you might hear on Mars! At the beach! It evokes images of girls in bikinis drinking exotic concoctions with umbrellas and straws, men in straw hats, bright colors, the sun, the heat, but no sweat. It sounds like it was recorded in a big empty room. There is a spacey yet rich sonic quality about the whole record.’

David liked a couple of releases from Switzerland’s RealRhythm Records, Conjunto Casino’s Montuno en Neptuno #960, and Julio Padron Y Los Amigos De Sta. Amalia’s Descarga Santa. Of the former, he said, ‘Unlike the Buena Vista bands which are heavily guitar based, Conjunto Casino is a brass band, with no strings. Trumpets, trombones and a strong piano, with loads of percussion is the sound of the day here. If you can keep your feet still while this album is playing … you’d better check your pulse.’

Gary reviewed three discs — Ay, Candela, A la Casa de la Trova, and Sentimiento — by three BVSC stars. ‘Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa and Omara Portuondo were three of the main participants in 1996’s groundbreaking, multi-platinum Buena Vista Social Club recording that returned Cuban jazz to the world stage. The Cuban state recording company EGREM, through its New York-based Escondida label, has begun re-releasing tracks by these three and other Cuban artists, which laid the groundwork for the explosion that followed Buena Vista.’

Santeros y Salseros is the perfect primer for anyone interested in the various threads that make up modern Cuban music,’ Gary said of one of the four discs he reviewed in another Cuban music omni. Read the review to see what he thought of the whole batch.

‘Does the world really need yet another “various artists” collection of Cuban music?’ That’s what Gary wondered when he picked up the Rough Guide to the Cuban Music Story. He answered in the affirmative. ‘The Cuban Music Story sings, it swings, it sways and it even rocks.’

He also liked The Rough Guide to Cuban Son. ‘The documentation and artwork are professional and well written, adding greatly to the listener’s appreciation. The music lasts a full 71 minutes, giving great value for the money and a wide range of acts.’

He also reviews Guajira mas Guajira, an album of genre-skipping music by two of the top names in Cuban music, Eliades and Maria Ochoa. Eliades was a key player in the world-famous Buena Vista Social Club and has been a member of Cuarteto Patria for many years. Maria is a member of Alma Latina (“Latin soul”) and has sung with a host of Cuban acts. Together, Gary says, they make beautiful music.

‘With superb music recorded from 1955 to 1990, Guantanamera is a thoroughly enjoyable overview of 20th Century Cuban music,’ Gary says of one of the five additional releases from Escondida that he reviewed in an omni, which also includes career overviews of the music of Benny Moré, Juan Formell y los Van Van, Irakere, and Chucho Valdes.

Of another disc, he said, ‘I can’t speak highly enough of Pancho Amat’s De San Antonio a Maisí, an absolutely delightful collection of traditional and contemporary son by today’s living master of the tres.’

He also enjoyed Absolutely Live II by Juan de Marcos’ Afro-Cuban All Stars. ‘Juan de Marcos founded the Afro-Cuban All Stars to tour North America and Europe with the music of the Buena Vista Social Club in 1997. It has continued as one of the world’s top purveyors of the Cuban music known as son, a catchy, folk-based music that combines Afro-Cuban clave with American jazz idioms.’

‘Alex Chadsey, Farko Dosumov and Jeff Busch live in Seattle, where they make music. Solid, groove-filled Cuban jazz, to be precise,’ he said of the trio Duende Libre. He reviewed both their self-titled debut and their sophomore release Drift.

Daymé Arocena makes an infectious blend of danceable Latin music on her sophomore release Cubafonía, Gary noted. ‘The whole album pulls from Cuba’s rich musical legacy. Daymé sings mostly in Spanish, but drops effortlessly into a fluent English and even occasionally into a bit of French.’

Mike found the whole package of Puentes Brothers’ Morumba Cubana very appealing. ‘Morumba Cubana derives its heart and soul from the Puentes brothers, but the back-up talent really gets the numbers down, whether they’re playing something from a street corner in Havana to a bewitching passage straight from a village in the hills to a commercial airplay-ready tune. The liner-notes guide the listener through the various Latin forms (samba, rumba, etc.), and the English translations of the lyrics are quite imaginative.’

Richard Condon did a deep dive into three discs of Cuban jazz: Paquito d’Rivera’s Big Band Time, Elio Villafranca’s Encantaciones, and various artists’ The Rough Guide To Latin Jazz. He particularly enjoyed the former. ‘The classically trained Paquito d’Rivera, who hails from Havana, has played with Dizzy Gillespie and numerous other eminences of the U.S. modern jazz scene. Although he doubles on saxophone, he is a virtuoso of the clarinet, not a very common instrument in Latin jazz, and his style sometimes echoes the clarinettists of the swing era such as Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, in whose music he is unquestionably steeped.’

Richard Dansky gave a positive review to the Scottish Cuban band La Sonera Calaveras’ Numero Uno! ‘Fans of the genre will be pleased by the straightforward and unpretentious production values on the album, which spares us any attempts at fusion or electronic experimentation in favour of a classic and sincere expression of (mostly) pure son.’

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To close things out, here’s a sample from the sadly out of print various artists’ compilation Guantanamera that Gary reviews above. Enjoy the charming big band conjunto of Beny Moré and his orchestra’s Santa Isabel De Las Lajas.

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A Kinrowan Estate story: Kedgeree

Fox

I had an exemplary kedgeree for my breakfast this morning along with a lovely lapsang souchong tea. Now if you’re reading this in the States, you might be puzzled as to what I ate. And when you hear what it is, you might well say that kedgeree doesn’t sound like a breakfast dish ‘tall!

Kedgeree, as prepared by Mrs. Ware and her kitchen staff here at Kinrowan, is a dish comprised of curried rice, smoked salmon and chopped eggs with a splash of cream as well.  On a cold, blustery morning such as we’re having here in the middle of November, since I promised Gus that I’d be part of the crew cleaning up the nearby grounds, it is bloody fine comfort food.

It’s considered a traditional British breakfast dish but its roots are in East Indian, cooking having started its life as khichari, a simple dish of rice and lentils. Due to the British Raj and the colonization of the sub-continent the, dish was adapted and turned into something more suited to those Brits serving in India, and it returned to Britain with them during the Victorian era.

Notice that I said we make it here using smoked salmon, specifically applewood smoked salmon. The salmon comes from the river that runs through our Estate and it works just fine. I Should note that our Kitchen doesn’t use sultanas, though some cooks do. Ours is also quite a bit more spicy than the somewhat milder version most Brits prefer.

Fox

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