Eyes widened as dish after dish was brought to the table. Quince pie, jugs of plum'n'apple cider! One giant basin o' mushroom and dandelion petal soup! Wheels of herb-studded cheese, hot loaves of acorn bread! Plum slices with honeymaple preserves!
What time is it? Just past noon, wot. I'd normally be sittin' down to me post-luncheon snack now. Arrowroot wafers, scones with gooseberry jelly an' cornflower butter, with a nice pot o' coltsfoot an' burdock tea.
Coggs Stickle arrived with two pottery beakers of freshly brewed comfrey tea and a platter of warm woodland scones.
Sage and butternut bread, warm and fresh from the ovens, spread with damson jam and washed down with pear cider.
Lunch was a fairly simple one: sliced fruits—apple, pear, greengage, and plum, some fresh-baked biscuits and elderberry jelly, and bilberry an' apple cordial, foamy and cold from Ferdy Stickle's vaults.
The food was good, but not fancy: damsons and russet apples, nuts and berries, hot muffins, soft dandelion bread, cheeses, and comfrey tea, with flagons of cordial for those who wanted it.
From end to end the trestle tables groaned under the array of fresh breads, salads, cheeses, and dumplings at the outer edges. Further in, there were platters of biscuits, tarts, cakes, and pies, each with a different filling, most topped with whipped honey or buttercup cream.
Pea, lentil, and carrot soup provided by the otters; a large flagon of damson cider; Friar Broggle's famous lattice-topped fruit tart; almond shortbread; candied fruits; and cask of bilberry cordial brewed by the hedgehogs.
On the blossom-scented air of soft summer eventide, the tables were laid with clean linen, garlanded by flowers and greenery. Servers stood by bearing jugs of apple cider, rose-petal and plum-flower tea, elderberry an' plum cordial, and the good October Ale for which the Abbey was famed.
On the banquet table, beakers of redcurrant cordial and pennycloud an' violet tea vied for place with cheese and hazelnut rolls, apple, rhubarb, and gooseberry surprise, and preserved plum and apple pie with maple frosting.
I could do a spot o' damage to a latticed redcurrant tart with meadowcream right now. Wouldn't mind if it was hot or jolly well cold...
Tudd Spinney arrived with two pottery beakers of freshly brewed meadowsweet an' sage tea and a platter of warm blackberry scones.
He stuffed himself with toasted coltsfoot and rosehip scones, slices of plum cake, cucumber sandwiches, a leek 'n' lettuce pasty, and a large tankard of dandelion ale.
The most impressive single offering on the table was a golden honey-crusted confection of latticed pastry, with mintcream and candied chestnuts oozing from it onto a bed of purple plums.
Magnificent aromas of gooseberry preserve scones, raspberry cream turnovers, and apple and blackberry crumbles assailed their nostrils from the top shelf of the oven.
I'd have a wedge of meadow cheese, the one with nuts, celery, and herbs in it, and one, no two, of Brother Melilot's fresh rye farls, straight from the oven.
The young hares set food and drink before their guests. 'Enough tuck to kill a duck here.' 'Spring salad an' a beaker of strawberry fizz cordial.' 'How about freshbaked leek, carrot, mushroom, and gravy turnovers?' 'Some scones with honeymaple preserves, very good y'know!'
There was a thick forager’s stew, warm arrowhead bread, a deep dish of turnip'n'carrot bake, and a sweet seed and barley cake with meadowcream. After the meal, they sipped comfrey an' dandelion tea.
See that liddle keg yonder—aye, that un. Well, that's the best peach'n'elderberry brandy ever fermented in these cellars. That big tun barrel at the back now, that's chestnut'n'buttercup beer. Very good of a winter's night with toasted red cheese with radish and onion.
What could be nicer than a foamin’ glass of good sparkling cider? Mmmm, with some wild oat and barley bread an’ speckled nut cheese. Ice cold pennycloud an' violet tea an’ a thick slice of blackberry sponge in arrowroot sauce.
During afternoon tea, platters of acorn scones, wedges of hazelnut and buttercup cheese, blackcurrant tarts with honey, bowls of meadowcream, sweet cider, and borage an' rosehip tea were passed around, their delicious aromas tantalizing.
He cut a large wedge of white cheese, arranging it on a platter with some salad, button mushrooms, and a farl of warm chestnut bread.
A pot of coltsfoot an' burdock tea with honey to go in it, a platter of elderberry muffins, and sage and butternut bread lightly spread with butter.
Wild garlic pasties, celery'n'chestnut bake, or maybe some freshly-baked crusty spice bread? Heat up some of that wild onion and leek soup we had for dinner last night.
Woodland fruit trifles, topped with meadowcream, jostled for position among turnip an' parsley flans, carrot'n'gravy pasties, mushroom and fennel soup, and the favorite of moles, deeper'n'ever turnip'n'tater'n'beetroot pie.
On the blossom-scented air of soft summer eventide, the tables were laid with clean linen, garlanded by flowers and greenery. Servers stood by bearing jugs of pale cider, elder-bark tea, wild fennel an' coltsfoot cordial, and the good October Ale for which the Abbey was famed.
The kitchen fires burned late, heating the ovens as extra cakes, pasties, and pies were baked golden. Bands of moles plundered the orchard, wheeled great cheeses from the storerooms, and lugged forward big barrels of mulled nettle ale and redcurrant an' roseleaf cordial from the cellars.
There was mountain cheese with sage and onion, hefty dumplings, a latticed blueberry tart with whipped cream, golden-crusted bread hot from the ovens, and a choice of blackberry cordial or meadowsweet an' sage tea.
Several bustling hedgehogs served them a breakfast of fresh wild grapes, newly baked bread full of hazelnuts an' almonds, and cool 10-season mead.
The kitchen fires burned late, heating the ovens as extra cakes, puddings, and pies were baked golden. Bands of moles plundered the orchard, wheeled great cheeses from the storerooms, and lugged forward big barrels of spiced nettle ale and redcurrant cordial from the cellars.
