Yorkshire plot!

As in gunpowder, Treason and Plot (more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot).

It is not until Monday the 5th of course but many people will be celebrating this weekend. One of the main protagonists was of course a Yorkshire man - Guy Fawkes and this event used to be one of the highlights of my year as a child.

Obviously I loved the fireworks and the bonfire but a big feature was the food.

I was recently trying to track down Parkin pigs which we always had as children and I am sure I bought for my children. They seem to be a Yorkshire thing and perhaps only a very limited part of Yorkshire. Looking them up on the internet I found a chat going on about what had happened to them. One thing it established was that they were available at a nearby Farm Food shop.
A few years ago making a trip to see my daughter in the South West I complained that I had been unable to get any Parkin pigs to bring down with me and my son in law to be doubted that they existed as he had never seen them in the rarified atmosphere of Bath.

Well here they are manufactured by a local bakery. They are a bit of an anomaly as they are biscuits like gingerbread men rather than Yorkshire Parkin which is the heavy cake in the photo made with spices and oatmeal.

Other foods we would have would be jacket potatoes and pie and peas. I remember my mother making a huge meat and potato pie for everybody for when they returned from the bonfire (which being on a farm was some distance away down the fields to distance the fireworks from the animals) and everyone was too full to eat any!.

At the farm food shop they were giving samples of hot slab (like a flat Cornish pasty) and hot pork pie (another wonderful Yorkshire aberration served with mushy peas). So that is what we are having for tea. Ooops - forgot the plot toffee - well that will save my fillings and thankfully I don't have to go out in the cold to 'enjoy' a bonfire!