‘Now I will tell you something you don’t know.”

“Before she sold off The Cottage, Rachel Leigh-White she owned The Butter House as well and they were all one property and the orchard across the road that was more part of The Butter House and not The Cottage. The man Gould he managed to persuade her to sell him the the orachard as well and that gave him the garage and a woodshed and somewhere to park your cars.’

‘It was Rachel Leigh-White who planted the apple trees there. She had one of the gardeners come over from the big house in Bantry. They were started off there and he brought them over and the five trees were laid out in a neat row.’

‘But it was the man Gould and his wife who loved those trees. I don’t know maybe they didn’t have apples when he worked at his bank in India but he would make sure they were back here every year in September so they could have the best of them. Some of the apples they are good enough to eat as they are and others yoo can cook with them.’

‘Gould’s wife, she was a great baker and if you were working on the pier and she was in the kitchen the smell would be there coming out of that corner window. They would send their children up the road to where the church and the school is with bowls from the kitchen to pick blackberries. The children would come back with their faces and hands all black with the juice but they would have enough left over in the bowl for her to cook with.’

‘Mary can you rember her name. He was called Terry but I can’t remember her name.’

‘Now this is what I was going to tell you. You remember Curly O’Brian. Of course you do. He died a few years back but he used to work around the garden and mow the lawn. You gave him a lift home sometimes in the evening when it got too far for him to walk back into the hills from here.’

‘Before Gould sold the place he would say that one of the things he would miss most would be the eating the apples come autum. So for a few yeasrs after you bought it Curly O’Brien would be asked to pick some of those apples and wrap then in paper and send them to him back in England. Curly would get a letter and some notes to pay for the postage and his time. But then one year there was no letter and that was the end of the arrangement.’

Back in The Cottage I went to the shelves by the cupboard under the stairs and took down The Cottage Log that Terry Gould had left behind after we bought it. In it he had made a note of useful telephone numbers, guidance on the intricacies of the plumbing and the pump. On one of the pages he had made a note of the apple trees in the orchard.

 1st nearest road Bramly late Oct on. Hard cooker. Very good flavour- good keeper.                                                                                                                                                                                 

2^nd furthest from road Grenadier August. Soft golden yellow cooker. Almond flavour.

3^rd furthest from road Worcester Pearmain (?) heavey cropper September. Good eater especially eaten straight from the tree.

4^th furthest:  Elstan, younger tree. September/Oct very crisp eater.

5^th furthest: Cox’s Grange Pippin October – fine eater

I cooked supper for myself this evening. The rest of the family voted against anything more exotic than fish and chips. So I did that for them and for myself bought a hake steak from Wards.

I can’t remember where the recipe comes from and if I had it first in The Good Thing’s Cafe but it is one that always goes well. It works best with an old battered terracotta dish – ideally from Spain.

Peel and boil a couple of medium sized potatoes. While they are cooking quarter three good tomatoes, slice a red onion, squash a couple of cloves of garlic and slice up some chilli. Put all this in a bowl together with a quartered lemon. When the potatoes are just cooked drain and quarter them and put them with everything else. Pour over a good few glugs of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and some ground cumin and coriander. Stir well together.

The oven now needs to be hot. Put in the dish to warm up. When it is hot take out to pour in the potato and tomato mix. Put in the oven to cook for about 8 minutes. Season your hake steak and put this on top of the dish and put it back in the oven. It should done in about ten minutes. Sprinkle over some finely chopped parsley and eat.

In the greengrocers this morning Kazim asked me how was my work. I muttered an uncommitted reply.

‘I have the best job’, he said, ‘and one of the oldest. I’m here all all day and I talk to to everybody. There are so many people and they come here and they buy their food. Always  there are people and they have to buy food and when you buy food you will have something to say. Mostly it is something simple. Something about the weather or where they have parked the car. And you know that is good. I will say something back and over a  few minutes we will talk. And then sometimes there will be someone here who wants to talk. And you know then I will listen.’

‘I stand here behind the till and I am in charge. I have been out in the morning to the market and I buy all this and over the day it has to be sold. But I can sell it.’

‘And you know tomorrow I have to play football. There is a team that plays down by Arrowe Park and I play for them. I go out on a Sunday but I can’t move for a few days after.’

‘You must be too old for that’

‘No I have to do it.’

As he talked I could see a Chinese woman outside. She was pulling the leaves off a green vegetable on one of the trays. Kazim saw her as well and said “Excuse me’ and he went out to talk to her.

He was back a few minutes later with a wooden tray full of the green leaves.

‘I told her you can eat the leaves’ he said, ‘ but she didn’t want them. Look.’ He tore a corner of leaves and put it in mouth.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘Koulabrai,’ he said ‘It’s a bit like a salad. You try some.’ He tore off another piece, about an inch square. It tasted fresh and green with a hint of mustard.

‘I cooked some of it last week with a stuffing. It was rice and hard yellow peas partially cooked, mixed with some herbs, parsley and dill, and a spice mix and some tumeric. I rolled them up like this.’ He rolled one of the large leaves around his finger.’ And then I put them in a pan with some water. I boiled the water until they were done. You had to be careful the pan did not boil dry so put some more water in if you need to then leave some in the pan when they are done. They are good.’

‘Here you take some of the leaves and try them at home.’ He took a large hand full of the leaves and put them in bag which he put in my basket. “You have them’ he said.

The Chinese woman was in the shop now. She walked up to us holding what looked like a knobly cucumber. “How much is this?’

Kazim went off to serve her. Once she was done he took me over to the fridge. “You should try these’ he said picking up one of the knobly cucumbers from a tray. ‘They are bitter gourds. I know that you like to experiment with your food. So you should try one of these. they are bitter but not too bad. I have them in a stir fry or I chop up some and put iit in a salad. You should try it.’

So I took one and I’ll try it this evening.

There is I suspect some schizophrenia about this blog as it veers from the cooking of an ox’s heart, to trying to keep children happy with food, to the slaughter of mackerel and lobster all the way to slightly wayward conversations with dodgy men with black beards in Arundel’s Pub and onto the odd digression into the music I like listening to whilst slicing my onions.

Maybe I should be writing at a number of different blogs keeping the music and food separate with there being one special blog for the man with a black beard but that slightly defeats the point. It is all part of what I want to write about and if my list of favourite gigs is not that interesting well…

So this evening the ox heart has been cooked and sliced and is now in the fridge ready for my sandwiches tomorrow. It tastes as good as last time, like slightly liverish full flavoured roast beef.

The list of gigs got some response so I thought I would follow it up with the songs at some of those gigs (and one or two others). So here goes:-

Tom Waits at The Dominion Theatre singing Burma Shave

REM in the Mandela Room at Leicester University coming on stage for their encore and singing Moon River and then crashing into Pretty Persuasion

Van Morrison and the Chieftens doing Carrikfergus

Ella Guru in the strange club in Liverpool singing This is my Rock’nroll – the album is still out there on Amazon. Get it now. if you have not heard it you are in for treat.

Mark Eitzel singing Patriot Heart with someone playing a piano in Liverpool in November 2011

Richmond Fontaine singing Western Sky at any time

Flaming Lips doing Screen Test in Liverpool and I had no idea what was going on or what to expect. Along with Ella Guru the best gig I have been too were I knew none of the music and was blown away.

Dexy’s and This is What She’s Like with Kevin Rowland going round the back of the Phil and then climbing up on to the balconies still singing ‘this is my story this is my story..’

Anytime Mark Eitzel sings Western Sky

…that will do. I will be back in the pub next time.