From the farm at Yockenthwaite

2:57pm Thursday 21st August 2008

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The burbling and twittering coming from the housemartins' nest in the office window is constant; it never stops.

Goodness knows what they are discussing. Most likely the weather, maybe the neighbours, but my guess is that they are planning their forthcoming journey to southern climes which is getting nearer as each day passes; time is going on.

The so-called "summer holidays" have slipped by and it will soon be time to return to school. I need to get some clothes sorted out because somehow trousers seem to have shrunk. I wonder if it's something to do with eating food?

No matter how hard I try, the fridge and cake tins always seem to be empty and I hear cries of "there's nothing to eat" and "can you get some food". My store cupboard is full, but it is full of ingredients. The problem is that the one ingredient that is always in short supply is "time" and these days no-one seems to have it. It is very scarce.

I was looking for an old recipe the other day and came across an account of a typical day's work for a farmer's wife in haytime before mechanisation, when Irishmen were hired for the summer to help.

It is mind boggling what was on the menu, but it was physical hard work out in the field. There were a lot of them and they would need plenty of food. It was also much more of a social event, but since the advent of the tractor it is no longer as safe for children to help and play around.

Breakfast was taken out in the field - bacon and egg sandwiches, marmalade sandwiches and a can of hot tea. Drinkings came next at 10am with bread and cheese, pasty, scones, bannocks and biscuits, plus tea and coffee. Twelve o'clock was "dinner time" when everyone came home for a good feed (including the horses) and this was always the main meal of the day - a roast or stew and a pudding.

Four o'clock was tea time when extra helpers often gathered and this was once again taken out in the field - sandwiches made of jam, cheese, tomato, egg, tinned fish or potted meat, scones, teacake, fruit pies, soda cake, fruit cake and buns.

At tea time some men would do the milking whilst work carried on out in the field. At around seven there was another break, often meat sandwiches and meat pies, scones, cakes and coffee. When all the bale leading was finished all the workers came home for "supper", comprising cold meat and salad, pies or perhaps even a "fry-up". All that baking, all that washing up!

In those days it was real food, made from scratch using their own meat and milk and ingredients from the store cupboard. I have come to the conclusion that in those days there must have been a lot more "time" around because they had no modern washing machine or vacuum cleaner and there wasn't a supermarket on the doorstep. What do we do nowadays that we have no time I ask myself? Maybe we are just too busy being busy!