Orkney Rovers’ Recipes – Page 2 – Moonshine Mohair at Keldaby Farm

Warbeth in the Sun

Thur, May 29 Well, here we find ourselves on our penultimate day and at last a sunny warm one. For the first time we take the Outertown Road to Warbeth just north up the coast.. We park near the water and several cemeteries and walk along the beaches. Here we are in our Moonshine Design mohair socks–and not for the first time to be sure! .

In the distance we can just see the ruins of the palace built by the last bishop of Orkney at Breckness and right on the beach we come across a beautifully constructed cairn (modern). Here we sit for some time watching the birds and boats and soaking in the sun. The views out toward the cliffs of Hoy are spectacular.

We walk back to the cemetery (or cemeteries?) and I and a Glaswegian couple with the help of a groundskeeper who had attended the funeral spend quite some time trying to find the gravestone for the author Geogre Mackay Brown. We expect something larger and more showy so it takes a while for us to start focusing on the smaller stones. Success at last. I love the quote on it: Carve the runes then be content with silence

I suggest that we pay a final visit to the Ring of Brodgar and on the way, in Stromness we go to Julia’s, a cafe that has been recommended to us. The cappucino is excellent as are the pastries. Michael makes a quick trip to the Harray Potter to try to discover more about the knife maker or his knives but no further light in shed on their provenance .

The Ring is far less forbidding in the sun and of course the warmth has brought out a swarm of tourists. We try to keep the mystery but it’s a bit difficult with people off a couple of tour buses everywhere shooting pictures. I preferred the brooding and dark, cold day with scudding clouds. Not far outside the Ring we notice very distinct mounds which turn out on inspection to be a couple of rabbit warrens–shades of Watership Down! The bunnies scamper about but I never seem to have my camera ready at the right time.

From Brodgar we head once again into Kirkwall. and finally visit the Earl’s Palace and the Bishop’s Palace next door…and just across the street from the cathedral. The Earl’s Palace, begun in 1601 by Earl Patrick Stewart, was to be the Renaissance showpiece of Orkney and all Scotland but Patrick was a shady character (he didn’t pay for the sandstone brought in from the island of Eday, for example, and the builders were to all intents and purposes enslaved and unpaid as well. Within five years Patrick was deep in debt and nine years after, both he and his son were executed for treason. The palace complex was joined with the older Bishop’s residence and today is still a most imposing set of buildings.

We next pick up Lynn’s new ring from Alison Moore and around the corner Lynn and I each buy a small model of an Orkney chair. It’s an impulse buy and we both have slight buyer’s remorse though now I am happy I did buy it. It brings back many memories.

Back in Stromness I make dinner trying to use up as much as I can of the remaining food, all built around the wonderfully thick Dounby Butcher’s lamb chops:

Cynthia’s Last Supper

Prepare rice using chicken broth in place of half the water

Add cardamom pods, raisins and the remaining salad dressing Lynn had made

Chop and saute on large griddle

3 small sweet peppers

1 large onion

6 oz mushrooms

1/2 head of garlic

6 to 8 oz frozen lima beans

Push vegetables to the side and grill

5 lamb chops until they are just barely done…so tender!

There is no wine left so Michael makes himself and me a vodka plus sweet syrup in soda water drink.

We watch the sailboats out on Scapa Bay and Jill puts the bones from the lamb chops out on the back deck. Instantly a dozen gulls swoop in and we race to get our cameras. We try to entice them back using soggy water biscuits but they are not impressed. At least we have gotten a few photos.

Corrigall to Waulkmill Bay

Wed, May 28 We’re off this morning to one of the farm museums on Mainland, Corrigall, about a mile and a half east of Dounby. Corrigall is a traditional Orcadian longhouse built on a very ancient site…there is an Iron Age broch near by and evidence of neolithic settlement my guide book says. From Norse times until quite recently the people of these islands lived in stone longhouses roofed with thatch or sod very similar to this one.Today many of these houses are falling into ruins–the very ones we’ve been imagining we might buy and renovate and which our friends Liz and John have done on Papa Westray. Many others have been redone as more up-to-date homes. Here are some we’ve seen. Some are real handyman specials, others have been beautifully restored and moderised. The blue house is the only house we saw with any color…

And here is the farm museum of Corrigall…

Traditionally the animals lived at one end, the people at the other, they shared the doorway. The higher end where the people lived was divided into two sections, the but was nearest the door and served as the sleeping area and kitchen and as a spot for weak, young or ailing animals. This part of the house was divided by the fire back, a large stone against which the fire burned. Smoke from the peat fire escaped through a hole in the roof called the lum. Whatever light came into the house came in through the lum. Only the well-to-do had windows. The ben at the far end of the house was the private bedroom for the farmer and his wife. Below is a counter with storage beneath and a detail of the roof–slabs of stones on which sod grows.

Virtually everything built in the house is stone: cupboards, shelves, even the beds until a couple of hundred years ago were the same neuk beds set into the thick walls as in neolithic settlement houses like Skara Brae.Again, only the wealthy could afford to import wood. In the byre at the other end of the longhouse stalls for the family’s cows or horses were sectioned off using flat slabs of stone. Whatever animals the family could afford were stabled indoors all winter. Having experienced the winds of May we can imagine all too well what the winds of January and February must be like! Corrigall has been restored a great deal and there is a fair amount of wooden furniture and windows. The first picture below shows the ben where the husband and wife slept in the enclosed bed and where the local parson might have been invited to sit and take his tea–with the doors of the “bedroom” discreetly closed of course. .

The byre and its stalls and the drainage trough that flowed to the piggery Our guide is excellent. He talks pretty much non-stop for over an hour, explaining farm and family life, peat cutting, stacking and curing, animal husbandry, grain milling. He demonstrates threshing and explains the basis of the word threshold (a step up at the door which allowed the chaff to blow away but retain the grain) At the far end there is an oast or kiln where the barley was dried before milling. The fire would have been built at the bottom (left) and the grain spread across a stone plate above the fire after threshing. He speaks with a lovely Orcadian accent and I videotape him several times so I will have his voice as a memory.

We were greeted by Puss, a very friendly 16 year old black and white cat who rolled over demanding to be petted. In the first photo Puss is sitting on the wall of the piggery which was directly outside the byre.

Our guide also shows us a very cleverly made mouse trap…it is clear that it would work very quickly and effectively!…and an oil lamp which uses the core of a sedge-like grass (junctus?) as a wick.

From Corrigall we head down to Houton which our guide has told us is the town where one books passage on the ferry that goes to Hoy. We only have a couple of days remaining and want to see the high hills, a closer look at the Churchill Barriers, the Dwarvie Stane (Dwarf”s Stone), the stack on the western coast–“The Old Man of Hoy”–and perhaps the Martello Tower from the early 19th c. Jill goes into the ticket office to book our ride and is told to hurry, there is just one space left for our car at 8 o’clock Friday morning. She comes back out to check with us–yes! yes! we say–and get money from the “kitty” but when she goes back two minutes later she is told “Sorry, there is no more space.” We are very, very disappointed…and a bit angry as the woman in the office clearly knew we would be buying the ticket. So we begin to head back toward Stromness when we happen upon a beautiful inlet called Waulkmill Bay.

We park the car and walk down to the beach and there we find the most amazingly beautiful stones I have ever seen. Lynn and I are completely mesmerized. The ones I love seem to me to resemble contemporary Japanese-inspired ceramic art. Lynn takes 35 photos and picks out a few to bring back. I find several irreplaceable ones which are heavy but cannot be left behind!

How could someone leave this stone behind? Here with my new Allison Moore stacked rings

A kind of madness has gripped us. We want to fill a container, load it on a container ship and bring them back, tons of them! Michael and Jill look at us with a degree of disbelief and pity, perhaps, though they do admit the stones are special.

And another with my Mark Lattanzi ring from western Massachusetts

This was one of my favourites too but way to large to carry back

Finally we are unwillingly pried away from the stones and once back in our cottage we eat Lynn’s excellent Guinness Beef Stew

Guinness Beef Stew

3 1/2 lb chuck roast seasoned with salt & pepper

1 onion and

3 stalks of leeks, chopped fine and browned in

2 Tbl olive oil and salt

1 tsp tomato paste

2-4 cloves garlic, crushed

Brown and sprinkle with

1/4 c flour to make a roux

Add 3 c chicken broth

1/2 c Guinness or any dark, flavorful beer

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp fresh thyme

Add the beef and bake in a 325 oven at least 2 1/2 hrs. (We had to simmer it on the stove as the oven has not been repaired.)

Add carrots, potatoes, celery or any vegetable that appeals

Add 3/4 c Guinness (Ahh, knew there had to be more beer)

2 Tbl Italian parsley and the

juice of one lemon Salt & pepper if needed Served with Lindemann’s Carbarnet /Shiraz…..So good!

Michael makes his own very credible version of the juncus core lamp we saw earlier today. The perfect stone of course came from Waulkmill Bay…

After dinner we played a couple of hands of Spite & Malice and although first I am way ahead and then Lynn is, Michael wins each time…and we knitted and I again tried to stay focused and not screw up the netzpatent. Finally in desperation Michael has me try it with just four stitches (and two of them were end stitches to boot.) Clearly this is doomed to failure, and once again we are in hysterics. Thus ends our antepenultimate day…

Jill can't stop laughing — Jill can’t stop laughing

The Rovers Head East

Mon, May 26

Now that we’ve been in our cozy cottage through two weekends and explored so many of the Mainland byways we are feeling both very settled in, almost native Orcadian, and at the same time there is a touch of wistfulness, a hint of premature nostalgia. Journeys once they have dipped past the midpoint tumble down to their conclusion. We are checking our guidebooks more making sure we find the places we have missed so far.

And so today, suited again in our waterproof pants and our matching Slogger rubber shoes and with headlamps, we set out for Cuween Hill and its chambered cairn. Like the Tomb of the Eagles, which we decided last week not to visit, Cuween Hill’s cairn offered up what is surmised to be totemic animal remains, in this case 24 dog skulls, along with human remains and other animal bones. It is 4500 years old.

We are alone when we park and walk up the slope to the mound. The “torch” (flashlight for you non-Brits) has been left on no doubt and the battery is dead. We slither through a very tight entrance with at least two of us wearing our headlamps which though bright do not really illuminate the space well and the chamber is small, only large enough for the four of us sitting there. We can see the four cells off the chamber and we poke our heads into them. If there are any Norse graffiti runes here we can’t see them.

Again…this stone construction is 4500 years old, and being in here with no guide, no other tourists, the sense of history, of prehistory is very strong. One wonders what sorts of ritual, what acts were performed here and by whom. Priests or priestesses? This is just one of over 76 discovered chambered cairns scattered across the Orkney islands Like children, however, we make silly sounds to check the resonance and Michael even sings an aria, which opera?, but the sound is muffled. This is a tomb.

Cuween Hill...entrance to the cairn — Cuween Hill…entrance to the cairn

Back outside Jill finds rhubarb growing wild and picks some. We’ll have rhubarb and apple compote later.

We head further east, and as usual we still comment on every adorable lamb and its mother, every calf with his mom and point out every abandoned farmstead and discuss buying, renovating and how we would live there for weeks or months at a time.

We ask Jill to stop so we can photograph another wonder but she generally says, with a stern glare but a sly smile, “No! You haven’t given me three minutes warning!” and then, once in a while, if she can, she stops. We also pull over to pick the more enticing bits of wool off the barbed wire that is used to fence off most of the fields.

The roads are mostly single lane with lay-bys for encountering oncoming cars and lorries. Farming is a big business here but as far as we can tell, it’s just livestock. We don’t see much except the occasional kitchen garden in the way of vegetables being grown. And the wool, unless it is from one of the special breeds, North Ronaldsay is one, is all sent to a wool pool.

We head out to the peninsula and the brough of Deerness where we have read that many varieties of seabirds can be found. We find seagulls, not even the ubiquitous oystercatcher shows up and we seem to have missed reading about the remains of a small Celtic or Pictish chapel there so we don’t look for it! We don’t see any seals either.

The Gloup...or is it a geo, pronounced gew? — The Gloup…or is it a geo, pronounced gew?

DSCN3699

Heading back toward Kirkwall we try to find an iron age site, Mine Howe, with its 29 treacherous steps leading down into the subterranean chamber. We can’t find it. We drive the stretch of road three times, we ask directions…nothing. Besides being a place where considerable amount of metal work was done–there are kilns set into the interior–it was also a place of burial. We give up and later back in Kirkwall at the Orkney Museum we learn that the site is not always open which may explain the lack of signs. Jill buys the book on Mine Howe and we will have to make do with that.

We have excellent coffee and cake again at Judith Glue’s (and note the sign outside that says “Real” Food which we suspect is a slight poke at The Reel just across the street.

Michael buys the final ingredients for his specialty tonight. We force him to modify the recipe by using the linguine we already have instead of buying the correct penne!

Linguine/Penne with Vodka Sauce

1/4 c olive oil

10 cloves garlic, crushed

salt

35 oz crushed plum tomatoes (or fresh)

crushed hot red pepper

1/2 c heavy cream

2 Tbl butter

1/4 c vodka

1 lb pasta

Process tomatoes to aerate. Heat the oil, add the garlic to brown. Carefully add the tomatoes and simmer about 3 minutes.

Add salt and red pepper, vodka, the cream and butter (olive oil can be substituted)

Add the al dente pasta to the sauce and bring back to a boil.

Add 2 to 3 Tbl Italian parsley and 3/4 c grated Parmesan. Stir together

Serve with a salad…and here’s Lynn’s dressing

1 1/2 lemons, juiced

1 tsp hot Colman’s mustard

Salt, pepper, olive oil, chopped parsley. (Anchovies should be added but in deference to Michael we leave these out!)

It is delicious!!! We have Hereford Red, a tempranillo/malbec with it and then watch Death at a Funeral.

The Stones at Last!

Thur, May 22

We wake this morning to bright sun, a milder temperature and we’re in great spirits. Today we are going to visit two of the three most important west Mainland neolithic sites, the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar, and reserve a place for ourselves tomorrow at the third, Maes Howe. The two stone circles occupy important sites on the narrow neck of land that separates the salty Loch of Stenness and the freshwater Loch of Harray, lakes that account for a large area of central Mainland.

Off we go, first to the Stones of Stenness, probably the oldest of the many archaeological sites on the Brodgar peninsula, having been carbon-dated to about 3100 BCE. It was built as a henge, which is to say, a level, circular platform surrounded by a ditch with an external bank. The henge here was more than six feet deep and about 22 feet wide. It was later that holes were dug for the placement of 12 standing stones, the largest being 18 feet high. Only four stones remain upright today.

The weather in the meantime has made a most remarkable reversal; it is now much colder, the lowering sky promises rain–or sleet maybe?–the wind is biting. But these massive stones with their angled tops convey such a foreboding, mysterious presence that the cold is almost forgotten.

A brief word about the high hills of Hoy. Generally speaking the Orkney islands are not hilly, but Hoy which lies just south of Mainland has two moderately high hills at its northern end, Ward and Cuilags. Seen from Mainland the slopes of these two hills form a V and it is the orientation of the sunset between the hills in the weeks around the winter solstice, the placement of the stones at Stenness and Brodgar and the entrance of Maes Howe that suggests the sophistication of these stone-age people. We will probably never know what their religious beliefs were but it is fascinating to theorize the possible uses for which these structures were built. The Stones of Stenness are a very popular motif for Island artists.

When we leave the stones we try to locate the Ness of Brodgar which we know is nearby and which we have been told is either open and accessible for anyone wishing to see it or, conversely, will not be open at all until later in the summer when excavations will again begin. It was only discovered 12 years ago. In any case, the only possible site we find is a large mound totally encircled by fencing and covered with turf and some sort of mesh visible in spots. Can this be the Ness? Or a part of it? How tantalizing! It seems to be in the right location, somewhere midway between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. The guide book makes this 5000 plus year old site a cogent argument for a return trip!

We push on to the Ring of Brodgar, probably the most familiar landscape in all of Orkney. The Ring is about 310 feet in diameter and the circle is perfect. It too is a henge with a ditch and outer bank. Of the original 60 stones, 27 stand today.

It is nearly impossible to photograph in its entirety except from the air. It sits atop a slight knoll in a huge field of heather, just barely beginning to green up a bit, with a long view down over the Loch of Stenness toward Hoy. In the photo you can just make out the V of those two hills.

Again the sense of endless time pervades the site: people mined, transported and dressed these massive stones and placed them around this henge in a perfect circle. What did they know of geometry? Wasn’t that Euclid, a long time later? How did they do it?

I haven’t felt this touched by the enormity of time since my first visit to Stonehenge more than 50 years ago–before all the fences and gates, the tunnels and parking lots, the swarms of tourists milling around the visitor centre and once, horribly, graffiti. It was midnight then and a nearly full moon and just my mother and me.

. . . . . . . .

Michael, Lynn and Jill suited up for a spring day in Orkney

We eat our sandwiches, surely a different riff on the BLT theme by now, and then drive northeast to the Broch of Gurness. This is also a very impressive site, though practically modern by comparison, a scant 2000 years old or so. This site with its ditches, walls, broch tower and ruins of the community’s buildings, perhaps about 30 families, arrayed around the broch was occupied from the Iron Age to Pictish times to the Norse era about 800 CE. At the same site there is a rebuilt Pictish settlement.It is in the shape of a shamrock with rounded rooms radiating off from the main hearth area. Here’s a shot from one of my guide books showing the site from the air.

In the visitor centre I buy a new copy of Orkneyinga Saga and a book of short stories by the best known Orcadian author George Mackay Brown.

We make another foray into Kirkwall for another round of shopping–Michael buys a beautiful North Ronaldsay sheep fleece, Lynn a ring, T shirts and a biking jersey and Jill found several items for Nicky, Fayley and Gussy. I’m sure I bought something too. Perhaps my second ring from Alison Moore!

Back at the cottage it’s Michael’s turn to make dinner and here it is:

Michael’s Cozy Chicken

Ingredients

2 Tbl olive oil

1 or 2 onions, diced

1 or 2 bell peppers, diced

1 1/2 lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs

6 plum tomatoes, diced

2 Tbl tomato paste

1/4 c worcestershire sauce

2 tsp fresh thyme, salt, pepper

1 1/2 c water

10 oz fresh or frozen corn

10 oz baby lima beans

1 lemon

Heat oil in a heavy pot or dutch oven. Add onions, peppers, salt and cook until onions are translucent

Place chicken on top and add tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, thyme, worcestershire sauce and water and bring to a boil.

Simmer 15 minutes, covered. Remove chicken to a plate and add to the pot the beans and corn and continue to cook, about 15 minutes.

While the above is cooking, shred the chicken, then return it to the pot, add the juice of 1 lemon and serve.

Note: other vegetables may be substituted and fresh basil is good sprinkled at the end.

We had this wonderfully moist and delicious chicken with Tesco’s version of Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck. This one was Vino Rosso Italiano, bottled by CVSC of Ortona, Italia.

Do we let what we eat dictate the color of the wine? Of course not! What a tired canard that is!

When Jill, Lynn and I cook we try to limit the number of utensils dirtied in the meal’s preparation. Not so with our Michael!!

A Day in Stromness

Monday, May 19

The day begins very slowly. Jill doesn’t want to drive and no one else feels competent on these very narrow streets, my toe throbs and Michael wants to knit. When the rain finally stops however we venture out to explore the shops, many of them listed in the Crafts Trail booklet. Jill as usual wanders off and is soon lost to me and Lynn. Michael is where? We have no idea. We look at sweaters at Quernstone–beautiful but machine knit so we stroll out. We find a very nice North Ronaldsay sheep pelt (these are the sheep that live on seaweed and kelp mainly, at least on North Ronaldsay) and chat with the storekeeper and we find our way to the Harray Potter (not Harry or Hairy for that matter) which we have heard a lot about. We’re holding off on buying anything yet, just sizing up the many crafts. Lynn is yearning for an Orkney chair.

The wind is brisk and after a quick trip to the pier where I can get my email we head back to the cottage and after cooking up some of the Scottish bacon ( a far cry from our over salted version) we make BLTs for lunch. In the afternoon I beg Michael to attempt to teach me how to do the netzpatent knit pattern which I have watched other folks in our spinning group try to do without mistakes…or barring that level of perfection, learn how to unknit correctly. It’s not that difficult but it is incredibly hard for me to remember which row I am on. Here is the pattern. The yarn is North Ronaldsay wool from the Woolshed.

NETZPATENT

After casting on an even number of stitches, knit the foundation row on the wrong side: K 1 (YO sl 1, K 1) repeat to final stitch YO sl 1. Now the pattern begins:

Row 1 K 1 (K 2, sl 1) repeat to end YO sl 1

Row 2: K 1 (K 2 tog, YO sl 1) to last stitch, YO sl 1 This row requires a full counterclockwise wrap (a full circle) on the final stitch

Row 3: K 1 (K 1, sl 1, K 1) to final stitch YO sl 1 Be sure to K knit stitches & Sl slipped stitches!

Row 4: K 1 (YO sl 1, K 2 tog) to last stitch YO sl 1

Easy enough…and so easy to switch pattern in the middle of a row when distracted!!

After an hour of this we decide to go out and explore the town leaving Michael behind in the peace and quiet. He is still trying to figure out why we can’t get WiFi. The password has been written on three separate stones left conveniently around the sitting room. We walk off the main street we live on–it is actually six streets more or less end to end, Ferry Rd, Victoria St, Dundas St, Alfred St, South End (we’re at #4) and Ness Rd–and walk up the hill.

Here is a view of the harbor looking off toward Hoy (the name means High Island)

Jill asks a couple of young mothers with their babies in prams what people do for work here in Stromness. There isn’t a lot. The fishing industry has collapsed as it has everywhere, there’s farming and tourism

There aren't a lot of trees on Orkney so the rooks make use of those there are! — There aren’t a lot of trees on Orkney so the rooks make use of those there are! Here’s one nest

Stromness loves its cats and they are all very friendly. This one looks like my Muizza

Jill and I make dinner. It hasn’t been a very exciting day and dinner isn’t very exciting either:

Frittata Stromness

2 large potatoes, sliced and parboiled, layered with

a large onion, sliced very thin

3 mildly hot peppers

a crumbled slice of bacon left over from lunch

1/2 a head of garlic sliced…all sauteed for about 10 minutes

6 eggs, well beaten poured over the vegetables, a bit of chili powder, herbes de Provence, salt & pepper

Cook covered an additional 5 minutes

Serve with a good bottle of Beringer’s 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon

After dinner it’s more Spite & Malice and this time Lynn is really on a roll. She wins all three games: in all three games I draw exactly four wild cards, not exactly winnable hands. Michael is stoic in defeat

Skara Brae and Kirkwall

Sunday, May 18

We are all feeling a bit dopey and lazy this morning so for a while we curl up on the sofas and knit. We’ve brought our various projects and, as if she had read our collective mind, the owner has provided us with a wicker basket by the fireplace filled with balls of yarns, needles and half-finished knitted swatches. I can’t sit still long though–much too expensive a trip to do what we do at home!–and despite the cool, grey weather we set off for Skara Brae, the 5000 year old neolithic community about ten miles north of Stromness right on the Bay of Skaill. It’s a World Heritage site and quite full of tourists on this Sunday morning but not so many as to spoil the illusion of stone-age life. The weather is perfect for transporting us back through, as people love to say, the mists of time.

The area of the excavations (begun with the discovery of stone walls in 1850 when a particularly bad storm unearthed some) is small, much smaller than I had imagined. We pace off the perimeter and figure it is no more than about a quarter acre but archaeologists think that 50 to 100 people once lived in these eight dwellings.

Looking out over the Bay of Skaill which would have been much farther away 5000 year ago

One of houses which once could be seen by the public is particularly complete but being judged “very fragile” has been resealed and a replica built.

A stone-age home with hearth, beds , shelves and room dividers. This is the replica

The stonework is amazingly complex and beautifully fashioned. Stone slabs divide rooms, form shelves and enclose beds; the original ceilings were elegantly corbelled with a hole at the top to allow smoke to leave from the hearth. Having read several Icelandic and Scandinavian novels over the years I suspect that life did not change much from 3000 BCE until about 1900! How very dark, smokey, crowded and smelly the homes must have been!

Our tickets also let us into 17th c (and more recently) Skaill House, home of the local laird. It was the seventh laird, William Graham Watt, who on being shown the exposed ruins undertook the first excavations of Skara Brae. The furnishings are mainly Victorian.

Hard to see, but the Queen has signed the book

As all roads on Mainland lead to Kirkwall, the capital, we head there next. We eat at The Reel where I can finally get my email–WiFi at the cottage does not seem to work–and Michael for some reason does not have to pay for his lunch (he argues with them but they prevail and he is about 8 pounds ahead of the game) and we go across the street to Judith Glue’s (both these places have been recommended) and I decide that Michael should treat us to cones of Orkney ice cream. Later he claims he was about to offer anyway. St Magnus Cathedral is just across the street. Jill and Lynn head over and sit on a bench while Michael and I stay and get the cones. Michael takes his and Lynn’s, I follow shortly with mine–yumm, it is good–and Jill’s. I’m sure you can guess there is a story coming….

So, I start up the steps toward the cathedral, a cone in each hand…and trip. I crash down, bang my left big toe sharply on the edge of the step, and yell out a very blasphemous phrase, especially given the location, which I will simply refer to as the J…F…C incident.This is bad enough one would think but no, I top even this. My cone has broken and I am clutching its various pieces in my left hand. Jill’s cone has lost about half its ice cream but following every mother’s three-second rule, I scoop it back onto her cone, then getting up limp over to the bench and give it to her. Jill hasn’t seen what I have done, the others have. She begins to eat it and Lynn, aghast, says “Why did you give her that cone!?” Still in shock–honestly–I respond “Because I had already licked mine.” Now we are truly in hysterics. Everyone who has witnessed this debacle politely looks elsewhere. We are totally beside ourselves; we cannot, are physically unable to stop laughing.

At last we regain some dignity and sobriety and visit the church which is truly lovely, Romanesque in style, begun in 1137 to atone for the murder of Earl Magnus. The story can be found in the Orkneyinga Saga which is a must-read for everyone visiting Orkney. (Unfortunately and inexplicably it is not in the newish Penguin collection Sagas of the Icelanders but can be found as a separate Penguin book.)

Spite & Malice again in the evening…Michael loses a game and tsk, tsk, tsk, he is one sore loser! The sides of his mouth went right down…very grim!

Michael’s Exceptionally Tasty

Crock Pot Pot Roast (on low all day long)

Potatoes peeled and quartered

Carrots ditto

Onions ditto…how much simpler can it get?

1 small rump pot roast rubbed with salt and pepper

1 small can of tomato sauce

1/2 c water

Put the vegetables in the bottom of the pot, cover with the meat, pour the tomato sauce and extra water over the top, sprinkle with oregano, basil. This oh so simple recipe is delicious and we served it was a Spanish rioja wine and a small green salad.

Maeshowe…or Maes Howe if you prefer

Fri, May 23 First a couple of catch-up things: number one, I want to thank Liz Sorenson for getting us all on the Orkney trail. She and her partner John Nove own an old farmstead on the furthest out Orkney island, Papa Westray, and they rent this now totally renovated farmhouse as a self-catering B&B when they are not in residence. Liz owns Sheep & Shawl (www.sheepandshawl.com) a small yarn (and much more) shop in South Deerfield MA. We had planned to rent their place (www.papawestray.co.uk/papay/peatwell.html) until Michael joined us and we needed larger accommodations. In hindsight I am glad we are staying on Mainland which makes access to many sites a whole lot easier. Papa Westray is really out there and scheduling around ferry times is not easy! Second, I mentioned the “loving bowl” I am giving my son and his fiancee. The official word for this type of bowl is quaich which is pronounced–and I was given much instruction on this–as if you were preparing to expectorate mightily while saying quake.

We have reserved our place for an 11 o’clock tour at Maeshowe so we are all prepared to leave Stromness, dressed for the cold, by 10:15. We get a really good guide Aneka who is from Poland (each group going in is limited to about 15 people) and we are inside the mound for over an hour.

This 4700 year old structure is truly impressive. Four massive standing stones form the corners of the chamber and probably predate the chamber itself. The walls of the chamber are perfectly built with cells off the main room which are assumed to be burials sites. The entrance, which is aligned to the winter solstice sunset as the sun sets between the Hoy hills as aforementioned, is narrow and low (a little over a yard high and about 20 feet long.)

Photography is not allowed within the chamber. This is a postcard showing the winter solstice sunset rays. The bright spot is from my camera...sorry. — Photography is not allowed within the chamber. This is a postcard showing the winter solstice sunset rays. The bright spot is from my camera.

A stone slab, which is positioned to be pivoted, marks and can close off the opening. The roof was originally corbelled stone but is now a concrete dome. This site was certainly noted by the Norsemen who spent time in this chamber and probably lived in or were visiting this region and there are several examples of runic writing, graffiti actually, inside the chamber. Although some of the runes describe great treasures found here, nothing has ever come to light since the Norsemen returning from the crusades carved their comments here: “Ingibiorg, the fair widow….” and “Thorfinn carved these runes….” about 1150 CE

Among the various Norse inscriptions there is the well-known dragon (or lion) which we had expected to be bigger but is only about 4 inches high.

From Maeshowe we drive to Orphir where there is the ruin of the Norse round church modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Only the apse remains, built by Earl Hakon after the slaying of Earl Magnus and upon his return from pilgrimage. Like Maeshowe, it and the adjoining earls’ bu (drinking hall) are mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga.

We watch a short film in the Orkneyinga Saga Centre on this murder and atonement tale.

From there we drive south down through Burray (skipping the Fossil Museum and its dreadful coffee!) to South Ronaldsay, intending to explore the Tomb of the Eagles. By the time we get there, however, the wind has picked up and the temperature has dropped even more (it is just a micro-degree away from sleet I am convinced) and we learn at the visitor centre that the walk in is more than a mile and the entrance fee of 7 pounds (wish I could find the symbol on my keyboard!) per person seems high plus the description of the site itself seems underwhelming so we give this spot the slip and head up to St Margarets Hope so Michael can see if the people in The Loft still have the cabling needle which had inadvertently been left there when he exchanged the yarn earlier. (They replaced it.) Back in Stromness Jill made dinner.

Jillian’s Really, It’s Very Simple Lamb Chops (from the Dounby Butcher)

Mint Sauce: 2 handfuls fresh mint (right from our cottage’s courtyard) finely-chopped

2 tsp sugar Almost cover with boiling water.

Add 1/2 tsp salt and

1/3 c malt vinegar. Let sit.

Grill lamb chops on top of stove (we have definitely decided the oven does not work) with

sliced mushrooms.

Serve with boiled new potatoes and steamed broccoli.

At the same time (and for lunch, etc) Lynn has made:

The Great Everything Is It Soup? Stew? Casserole?

In a crock pot put onions, parsnips, garlic, leeks, carrots, celery, savoy cabbage, hot peppers, mixed Italian herbs, all sliced or diced.

Add chicken broth and

about 1 1/2 c soup mix (a dried mixture we had bought at the co-op of barley, red lentils and green and yellow split peas.)

Slow cooked over 4 slices of the wonderful Orkney bacon for 8 to 10 hours on the “low” setting of the crock pot.

Serve with plain Greek yogurt and

sprinkle with fresh cilantro.

More Spite & Malice, more knitting and more of the Chelsea Flower Show. Having given up temporarily on the netzpatent, I am reading the George Mackay Brown Island of the Women.

The Orkney Folk Festival

Weekend, May 24 & 25

When we planned our trip it seemed we were going to take in much of the folk festival yet as this weekend has approached, we have become very laid back about it. We are so laid back in fact that we don’t buy any tickets, we don’t drive out of town. Still, although the festival takes place on nine different islands, much of it happens right here in Stromness.

We pick up a program flier and are rather alarmed at the prices of admission to many of the events, 10 to 20 pounds a person ($18 to $36) which wouldn’t be daunting if it were dollars instead of pounds or if we had any idea which events might be most worthwhile. Meantime the town does begin to fill up in a moderate sort of way. This is more like the Newport Folk Festival circa 1964, when I sat right at the feet of Pete Seeger, Theodore Bickel, Joan Baez. We hear strains of music drifting from pubs and there are groups forming outside a couple of cafes down near the pier for impromptu pick-up sessions. No one is willing to say “Let’s go here…let’s go there….” We are all waiting for the other person to take the initiative. It doesn’t happen; we haven’t done our research and we are unsure of each other’s musical tastes and don’t want to impose. (At least, that is what I think.)

On Saturday there is a pipe band in Sinclair tartan that takes shape and eventually marches down Ferry Road to Victoria Street and plays for quite a while near the Stomness Hotel. We wander toward the pier and sitting around a table, ales in hand, is an informal group playing fiddles, clarinet, bodhran, guitars, squeezebox, flute and penny whistles.

There is a fiddlers’ rally scheduled for Sunday afternoon in the Stromness Academy Lecture Theatre and we decide that will be our big commitment, pound-wise. Meanwhile the caretaker for the cottage has shown up–the first actual contact we have had with someone connected to our spot–and he fixes the Wi-Fi connection (we have no idea what magic he has wrought but now Michael can get email and although I can get on line, I can’t get email) and sets the TV so we will be able to watch some of the DVDs that have been left there.

We see two young fiddlers and Michael asks them how long they have been playing. “Since I was four” says one.

Sunday morning Lynn and I go for a walk along streets not previously visited and shortly after lunch we four head over to the Academy (high school) so to be sure to get tickets. It’s lucky we do because by 2 o’clock the auditorium is packed and the concert begins. There are three different groups participating in various configurations, both the West Mainland and Orkney Strathspey & Reel Societies and the Orkney Accordion & Fiddle Club plus four of the five members of Feis Rois Ceilidh Trail. I know I have never seen so many accordions in one spot! They fill the stage. We recognize the young fiddlers sitting on the wall (above) in the youth group.

The director is a woman who with a minimum of fuss manages to get the groups on and off and reconfigured. During the intermission and after a particularly beautiful piece has been played Michael goes down to speak with her about it. It is a wedding piece written by a young violinist and the director pulls a copy of the music from one of the music stands and gives it to him. (He will upon returning home take the theme, embellish and enlarge it and compose variations on it for piano and play it for all of us on a recent Monday afternoon. We are misty-eyed when he finishes.)

One of the members of Feis Rois is the young–and very handsome–Eric Linklater, originally from Stromness (and not a relative of the writer Eric Linklater), whose playing we wish we could hear more of. Jill manages to buy the last copy, possibly in all Mainland, of his CD at the Reel in Kirkwall. The two sopranos have clear, sweet voices and they sing several traditional Gaelic songs, a guitarist accompanies.

Upon reflection I do wish we had bought tickets to one of the closing concerts that evening but instead we head to the cottage and another evening of knitting and a very strange and dark episode of Dr Quirk, I think it’s called.

And here are our weekend meals.

Chicken Tikka Masala, a classic Cynthia non-recipe concoction making use of the strange vegetables lurking in the crisper drawer.

In a wok cook over a fairly hot flame, in olive oil

1 lg onion, sliced

6 to 8 cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 a bell pepper julienned

1 hot pepper

1/4 head savoy cabbage

2 sliced and parboiled parsnips

Add 1/2 bottle dark beer, salt, pepper, cumin, herbes de provence

In a separate pan cook 6 chicken thighs, cut into manageable pieces and 1 c sliced mushrooms

Combine and add 6 to 8 oz tikka masala sauce (jars of all these Indian sauces are widely available there) and a Tbl chopped cilantro. Squeeze a lemon over the top. Serve with herbed rice and a dash of chili powder.

A bottle of Tesco’s Chilean shiraz went well with it. Like all my “recipes” there is a great deal of latitude here!

Sunday night Jill prepares Tabouli for 4

2 c bulgur

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 c boiling water

1/2 c olive oil

juice of 2 lemons

2 cloves garlic chopped fine

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 cucumber, diced

1 tomato, diced

1 Tbl finely chopped fresh peppermint or spearmint

1/2 c finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

1/2 tsp black pepper

In a large bowl mix bulgur with salt and boiling water. Cover for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the oil and lemon juice and let sit for another 10 minutes. Toss in chopped vegetables, mint, parsley and pepper and refrigerate for several hours, stirring from time to time. Serve with pita, black olives and feta.

Along the Crafts Trail

Tues, May 20

A bright, sunshiny day, windy and no rain in the forecast. We head out early, north toward Birsay, watching our map which has all the studios and shops selling local crafts noted. Then we see a sign for the Barony Mill and we decide to check this out first.

It’s a lovely collection of farm buildings and the man who greets us is clearly happy to tell us all about grains and the milling process. We learn about the various grains in Orkney, especially the primitive form of barley called bere.. There are paper bags filled with barley, wheat, oats, bere and he asks us to identify each (we do fairly well) and then he takes us on a tour of the mill itself.

By the way the lower left bag contains the bere. Bere isn’t grown much now but had been the staple of Orcadian baked goods up through the 19th c. Jill buys a booklet of bere recipes and a bag of ground bere to bring back. The mill is about 150 years old–the building of it, especially the amount of wood which needed to be brought in, cost the family three generations to pay off–and is water powered. I get to open the sluice gate that starts the belts and then the various grindstones turning. Our guide explains the different gear ratios for each step of the process.

After we leave Barony Mill we head up to the village of Birsay, a rather rag-taggle place, wind-swept and very remote feeling. The ruins of Earl Robert’s mid 16th century palace (half-brother to Mary Queen of Scots and not a pleasant fellow) is here, much of it surrounded with scaffolding and some desultory reconstruction going on. His son Earl Patrick found the palace insufficient, abandoned it and built the more elaborate, more Renaissance palace in Kirkwall.

The kirk From there we drive out to the headland of Birsay and although we can look across to the Brough of Birsay on an island just a few hundred feet away, we can’t get there because the tide is high and the causeway is under water. We walk along the beach but it’s very windy so we sit in our Focus, eat our BLTs and Michael and I share an Orkney Dark Island beer. We will be back another day after we’ve checked the tide times.

At the Yellowbird Gallery, where following my own tenet that if you take up someone’s time in a shop you should then buy something, I acquire several cards, reproductions of larger prints. They (husband and wife) also make small ceramic “rocking robins”, lovely little birdlike forms that do indeed rock back and forth. Then we’re on to Fluke Jewellery (www.flukejewellery.com) where Jill buys a couple of silver charms for her granddaughter Fayley’s charm bracelet. Michael, who has previously found a tiny cowrie shell, learns from the artist that such shells are tokens of good luck. But what we are most interested in finding is The Woolshed where we meet Denise Dupres and where we know we will find yarns, roving and finished goods made from the North Ronaldsay seaweed-eating sheep.

The fleece is not particularly soft and there is a fair amount of kemp but nonetheless it makes very handsome sweaters. Jill buys a vest, Lynn and I each buy a sweater and a skein of rainbow-dyed yarn. (I know I’m going to need my sweater as the weather continues cool and windy even with all the layers I’ve brought with me.) Michael buys a kit with yarn and a pattern for a scarf and hat. We cut across the West Mainland and drive into Dounby where we find a cafe in the small local hotel and although we have had our BLTs , we stop in for a pick me upper.

Afternoon snack in Dounby where we find good coffee

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The coffee is good and the teenage boy who serves us bobs a little curtsy as he sets down the cups. Then we go across the street to the Dounby Butcher where we buy lamb chops and pork sausages from the owner’s farm. The farm turns out to be one we saw when we were at Skara Brae and we learn from a passerby who happens in that the shop has just been named “Best in Scotland” …the owner proudly shows her plaque to prove it.

We think this may be the herd belonging to the Dounby Butcher

Nearby is the Harray Potter studio where we meet up with the potter himself, Andrew Appleby, and see a much greater range of his work. Among his several styles he has studied the neolithic art very closely and incorporates many of these motifs into his pots, mugs, buttons. (www.applepot.co.uk) We also admire his chickens…

Back in Kirkwall we park again near the main shopping street and spend a lot of time in the Sheila Fleet Gallery (Jill orders a ring) and other shops. And finally on a more practical level we shop at the Tesco supermarket, finding everything we will need for the coming week. As guardian of the kitty (we had each put in 200 pounds) I find that after this foray into Tesco we have about half our joint account left. I must mention that although all of us are certainly familiar with sheep and cows and by now have seen thousands of ewes with their babies and cows with their calves we continue to ooh and aah every time we see more (which is all the time!). They are dotted everywhere in the landscape, often grazing around abandoned farmsteads.

Back in Stromness Michael and I go to the library because there are signs saying “Free WiFi” and a “Open 2 to 7 PM” the window…but inexplicably it has closed early.

Barony Mill Supreme

4 fresh pork sausages, sliced and fried in the wok, then set aside

1 chopped onion

2 sliced parsnips

3 large cloves garlic….sauteed together

1/2 head of savoy cabbage

2 Bramley apples (Granny Smiths would do) sliced

Combine all with rosemary, salt and pepper and cook until the cabbage and apples are slightly carmelised.

Serve with mashed potatoes and healthy dollops of butter and yogurt.

We had a very nice Chilano tempranillo and, while playing our usual Spite & Malice, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce (50:50 ratio of dark chocolate and yogurt).

Lynn continues to win. Then we knit….

Category: Orkney Rovers’ Recipes