Fearnan Village Association

Julia Lane writes:

Tuesday’s coffee morning was a lively affair with another record turnout.  People have learned to come hungry and/or have a take out – which was evidenced by the tiny amount of food left at the end!

There was Sue’s homemade blackcurrant jam on sale, as well as some jars of marmalade kindly donated by ladies from Glen Lyon.

Thanks also to Jane from the Big Shed who arrived with spiced cookies to add to the spread (dee-lish-ush!).  In the absence of Fraser, we have Peter McKenzie and Laurie to thank for doing all the washing up!

Don’t forget, there is no coffee morning in August, but we do have the BBQ and the judging of the photos for the Fearnan Calendar.  Next Coffee Morning is on Tuesday 20^th September.

This month’s recipe is Almond Bakewell Tart

This makes a delicious tart and, although it contains only almond essence, it tastes very almondy.  If you prefer, make the mixture in small individual tarts but this will, of course, take longer. Serves 8. Making time – about 30 minutes. Baking time – about 35 minutes.

Shortcrust pastry:

6oz plain flour                                                    1.5 lard

1.5 oz butter (cold)                                          2 tablespoons water (approx.)

Measure the flour into a large bowl, sifted.  Add the fats, cut into small pieces, and rub in until the mixture looks like crumble – the sort that you sprinkle over apples.  Mix to a stiff dough with the water; add the water all at once and mix with a round bladed knife and then gather the lump of pastry together

Ideally rest the pastry, wrapped in cling film, in the fridge for 30 mins. Alternatively, buy a pack of ready-made shortcrust pastry!  Even easier and quicker.

Heat the oven to 400°F/ 200°C / gas 6 and put a baking sheet in the oven on the shelf just above the centre.

 Almond Filling:

4oz butter                                                             1 egg beaten

4oz caster sugar                                                  2 tablespoons raspberry jam

4oz ground rice or semolina                             a few flaked almonds

1/2 tspn almond essence

Roll out the pastry on a floured board and use to line an 8″ to 9″ flan tin.  Prick the base well.

To make the filling:  Melt the butter in a pan and add the sugar, ground rice or semolina and almond essence and egg.  Spread the base of the flan with jam and then pour the filling over.  Sprinkle the top with flaked almonds.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is pale golden brown at the edges and the filling golden brown, too.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the flan tin.

Serve cut into wedges.

Keith & Hazel Brockie write:

‘Our garden was host to a special visitor for 2 days last weekend, a 75-day old male Golden Eagle chick. We had taken the eagle chick (under special license) from an eyrie with 2 chicks – they can only be taken from an eyrie with two, so the adults have one to bring up.

The eaglet was collected and taken to Co Donegal in Eire as donor stock for a reintroduction project to bring back golden eagles to the Irish landscape after they had been exterminated by man. This project has been going on for a decade and, so far, two introduced pairs have been breeding in the wild for the last few years.

Success still depends on more birds being released, so hopefully our Perthshire chick will contribute to this exciting scheme.

The chick will be confined in a large aviary for up to 2 months then released into the wild once he knows where food dumps are. Gradually our eaglet will venture further afield when he can fend for himself and, hopefully, will survive to breeding age of five to six years old.’

Don’t forget that it’s BBQ time again, and the Fearnan Village Association BBQ is on 1^st August this year, starting at 6 pm.  Lots of tasty food is planned, from beef burgers and sausages, to fish and vegetarian options.  Not to mention the selection of sweets and puddings.

Another date to remember is the closing date for the Photo Competition for the 2012 calendar.  All entries need to be with Sue Gardener at Cala Sona by Monday 25^th July. Photos can be of any subject as long as they fit into the categories of Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter, and must have been taken within 5 miles of Fearnan.  They need to be submitted in A4 size and accompanied by an entry form.  Entry forms are available from Keith or Peter (and attached to Fiona’s email alerting you to this posting on the web site).

Good Luck!

Julia Lane writes:

Despite the heavy rain on the 21st June, brave people from all round the village, and beyond, descended on the village hall in record numbers to enjoy each others’ company, exchange gossip and tuck in to a mouthwatering array of cakes, biscuits, savoury pies, scones and the like, washed down with a gallon of fresh brewed Costa Rica filter coffee and an ever-changing variety of fruit/herbal teas.

Probably the noisiest, hungriest and thirstiest coffee morning this year!

Ian McGregor gave a talk on highlights from the records of the old Fearnan School. It seems that truancy amongst our school children began when schools started and probably will continue until schools no longer exist.  Only the reasons for truancy change. (Read Ian’s talk Fearnan School Log Books in a separate entry on the web site below)

So, folks, to all those who attended, many thanks for making the morning fly by, and for anyone drooling at the marvellous assortment of home baking that they missed, don’t forget the next coffee morning will be on Tuesday 19th July from 10.30, so come peckish and thirsty!!

Here is the recipe for Sue’s Smiddy Cake, along with a picture of Sue wielding a large knife – not sure if she’s Addressing the Haggis or just cutting the cake!

Smiddy Loaf

Melt the following slowly in a pan, and simmer for 7 minutes:

1 cup water                                  1 cup sugar

1.5 cups sultanas                       4oz margarine

1 teaspoonful mixed spice      1 teaspoonful baking soda

Allow to cool. Beat in 2eggs. Stir in 8oz S R Flour and put in 2lb loaf tin.

Bake at 350F/180C/gas mark 4, for 1 hour.

(How easy is that!)

Ian McGregor writes:

The log books of the school, which was closed in March 1968, were thought to have been lost. However, after a search at Kenmore school, they were found at the bottom of a cupboard.

The school room, which is attached to the school house, had originally been built in 1786, but it wasn’t until the Education Act of 1872 that it became necessary for the schoolmistress to keep a log book recording weekly events of importance. We are presently reading these books and scanning pages which are worth retaining.

The following are some pages of the first book:

October 24^th 1873 – School opened on Monday morning. Mr A Sinclair visited us on Wednesday. Attendance very low.

July 14^th 1876 – Attendance regular this week. Weather very warm. Object lesson, or rather oral lesson, given on Friday on “Winnowing of Corn”.  Children answered fairly well. The chief deficiency is their inability to express their ideas well and easily in English. They can think intelligently but find it difficult to express their thoughts in English. Hence the great need for frequent practice in simple composition.

December 27^th 1871 – On Tuesday the Countess of Breadalbane kindly invited the children to Taymouth Castle to a Christmas treat. Consequently the school was not opened in the afternoon.

October 31^st 1874 – Attendance fair. This week a letter from the School Board was received intimating a change in the fees charged, as follows:

Infants          1/6 per quarter      Standard 2    2/6 per quarter

Standard 3    3/- per quarter       Standard 4   3/6 per quarter

Standard  5   4/- per quarter

This week we were honoured with a visit from Lady Breadalbane and Mrs Grahame.

August 4^th  1885 – School closed for summer holidays             

October 9^th 1885 – On Monday the school was opened after the holidays with a fair number. During the week we were visited by the Rev Mr Sinclair and the Rev Mr & Mrs McKenzie. Mrs McKenzie kindly brought a treat of fruit for the children which they enjoyed immensely.

June 24^th 1887 – Tuesday was a holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. The children were each presented with a medal from Lady Breadalbane in commemoration of the event.

October 12^th 1894 – Attendance fair, rather more than usual after the holidays. Weather beautiful. No rain has fallen to any extent since the middle of August, consequently the Loch is lower than it has been for many years. None in the village remembers it being so low.

October 19^th 1894 – Attendance not so good this week. All the villagers have been busy potato lifting. On Monday we put a mark on the west side of the Black Craig to show the lowness of the water. The mark is a groove in the rock about a foot long, but it may be mentioned that last week the water was an inch or so below the marking line.

October 26^th 1894 – Attendance higher this week. In the beginning of the week the mark on the Black Craig was rectified and now marks the lowest point the loch has reached in living memory.

February 8^th 1895 – Attendance lower this still this week owing to a fresh storm of snow. Wednesday being one of the stormiest days ever experienced by any in this neighbourhood. It was followed by the most intense frost, the thermometer frequently going as low as zero, the ink in the school all frozen and the milk and the water in the houses in the village turned into solid blocks of ice. The children able to come to school are unable to stay from the fire.

February 15^th 1895 – Attendance no better this week and the weather of the severest nature. The steamers on Loch Tay were unable to get past Ardeonaig with ice this week. The oldest inhabitant never saw Loch Tay frozen before. In this immediate neighbourhood there is no ice on the loch.

You may remember that, back in April, a number of people reported having seen a pair of partridges in and around Fearnan.  It seems that lately the partridges have been doing a bit more than just feeding off garden bird tables, as Sue Gardener discovered when she went to collect her hens’ eggs last week.  She found a small brown egg in the nest!

Sue checked with Keith, who confirmed that it’s a partridge egg, seen here alongside a domestic hen’s egg.

Keith also tells us that the birds are, in fact, Red Legged Partridges.  They are released in huge numbers on Glen Lyon estate and elsewhere to be shot on driven shoots. The ones we have in Fearnan are the lucky ones who have moved off the estate and survived the guns. Like pheasants, they have been introduced into this country by man purely for shooting.

They could easily breed in the Fearnan area, so let us know if you see any evidence of this, after their false start in Sue’s garden.

Julia Lane writes:

Despite only 12 people being present at the May coffee morning, it was a really good event – much hilarity and a wonderful atmosphere.  Everyone was chatting merrily, and we all sat together in a huddle so as not to miss any of the conversations.

Unfortunately there is no picture of the event this time as Sue forgot her camera.  Julia took hers but the battery was flat!

However, we do have a recipe for the Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake that was so popular (only one slice left at the end!).  This cake is light and moist and keeps for up to a week in a tin.

175g/6oz light muscovado sugar                      175ml/6fl oz sunflower oil

3 large eggs, lightly beaten                                140g/5oz grated carrot

Grated zest of 1 large orange                             175g/6oz self-raising flour

100g/4oz raisins                                                  1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda                                   1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

 Frosting:

175g/6oz sifted icing sugar                               1.5 – 2 tbsp orange juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4 / fan 160 C.  Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm/7″ square cake tin.

 2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs.  Lightly mix, then stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.

3. Mix the flour, soda and spices, then sift into the bowl.  Lightly mix all the ingredients.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre.

 5. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack.

6. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.  Set the cake on a serving plate and drizzle the icing over the top, then cut into slices.

Enjoy! 

Laurie Lane has raised an interesting idea.  An FVA buying group would let us not only bulk buy products but also identify services where the provider can be reluctant to travel to a rural location for a single job. There may also be products where the cost of a delivery for one household is the same as for several households in the village.  The web site could help us to let each other know what products or services are needed.

For example, it seems that trying to get a chimney sweep to come to our village at a decent speed and price for 1 client is not that easy. So the idea would be for members of the group to go on a visible list of people who need their chimney swept, and when we have 3 or 4 requests, we can ask for quotes and have a bit of buying muscle.  We would also be able to exchange recommendations for different types of tradesmen and tap local knowledge.

The first step is to identify products or services that FVA members are interested in buying or getting delivered jointly. We also need to know who would be interested in joining a buying group.

If you are interested, please click the Comment link at the bottom of this article and tell us what sort of products/services you are interested in.  By clicking the link at any time, you can see what things other people are interested in.

Julia Lane writes:

If you have a favourite cake that you would like to bring to share at the coffee morning on 24th May, please let Sue Gardener know by Saturday 21st May.

The coffee this month will be Costa Rica, a distinctive tangy real coffee to complement our tasty cake and savoury range.

The tea has improved and is now Punjani Scottish Blend.  There will also be a selection of fruit/herbal teas – is there a special one you would like to try?  Or you may bring your own and we will add hot water at no extra cost! For those people trying to avoid sugar in all its forms, there will be a couple of savoury treats.

Please feel free to bring friends / family / visitors along.  The more the merrier.

And talking of friends, here’s a picture taken at Bob and Barbara’s farewell ‘do’……..

Hazel Brockie has sent this wonderful photo of Debbie’s new foal, born on 3rd May.  Mother and son are doing well!

Debbie and Foal