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British Woman Finishes 10-Year Survey of National Trust Scones


When Sarah Merker sat down one day in 2013 to snack on a scone at one of Britain’s many historic sites, little did she know she was embarking on a quest she would lose. decade to complete and turn her into some kind of person. national celebrity.

She and her husband have just become paid members of the National Trust, a conservation organization that manages historic properties such as castles and country manors across England, Wales and Northern Ireland (of Scotland administered private). The idea is to reward yourself with cupcakes for visiting and learning about the sites, and also to write a blog that reviews the history and baking, each on a five-point scale.

Her blog posts eventually formed the basis of “National trust book on baked goods,” a blend of her irreverent recipes and historical insights, published in 2017 shortly after Mrs. Merker ate about 150 cupcakes baked on the spot. And when Mrs Merker, 49, visited the 244th and final National Trust this month, she made nation title in a country that values ​​both its pies and its history.

But there’s also something worth noting: she lost her husband, Peter Merker, to cancer in 2018, leaving her on a mission without a partner she calls “Scone Sidekick.”

Recently, when she’s been in the spotlight, she says she feels as though he’s back by her side.

“Whoever has lost someone will attest, you just want them back, even if only for a short time, and that is what the media coverage and this project have done for me,” she said. speak. “It’s the most beautiful thing.”

Baking has deep roots in England. Recipes for them were printed as early as 1669, and the word scones appeared in customs papers as early as 1480, according to “British Pastry History,” by historian and archaeologist Emma Kay.

It wasn’t until the early 19th century that the country’s “slightly irrational obsession” with them developed in earnest, Ms. Kay wrote in an email. Finally, they are associated with the custom of drinking “afternoon tea,” a late-afternoon snack that typically includes tea, scones, cakes, and bread.

By the late 19th century, afternoon tea had become “systematized and mythologized” as car travel and holidaying in England became more common, says Annie Gray, a food historian. Modern baked goods, too, are made with baking soda or baking powder, instead of yeast as in early versions.

“They are cheap and cheerful, easy to produce in large quantities, and therefore great for profiting working-class tea rooms and cafes,” said Dr. Gray.

The National Trust is founded in 1895 and still embrace that accessible rural tourism tradition. Many of its stately grounds have tea rooms, and together they serve visitors more than three million pies each year, according to the trust.

Clive Goudercourt, Head Chef for Recipe Development at the National Trust, said: “There is something nice about enjoying jams and ice cream, after a mentally prepared walk or exploring the historic treasures we tended to. squirrel. It’s a quick and simple dish, relatively inexpensive and therefore something that everyone can enjoy.”

Mrs. Merker said her favorite part of blogging, National Trust Pies, did it give her an excuse to visit beautiful places and drive along winding country roads. Many of her wry observations about history, and the people she meets at National Trust facilities, are rather amusing.

In Melford Hall in South East England, she reflected on how National Trust guides interact with the public. At one extreme were those who sat in the dark without speaking (“And none of the guests asked them anything, because we are British,” she wrote). On the other side are the talking guides who can’t catch their breath for fear that an “Expert Traveler” will interrupt:

“We’ve all seen them – the professional architect or historian knows more than the instructor and spends all his time guiding and saying, ‘Wow, that’s not EXACTLY – the horse that threw him in 1532 was actually Archibald, because his other horse, Geoffrey, was lame that day,’ until everyone just wanted to push the Expert Visitor out the door. top floor window.

Ms Kay, a food historian, has described the custom of eating scones and drinking afternoon tea as a “culinary religion for many people across England”.

Like other religions, it has theological disputes. One related to pronunciation: skon or skohn? Another concern is whether it’s acceptable to serve fruit scones at a cream tea or just plain dishes.

But for many people, the most contentious question is whether the indispensable cake topping – jam or custard – should be covered first.

“It was intense,” said Mrs. Merker, laughing about the argument. “People are really very sure about how they eat their cupcakes. In a way, that’s crazy, because at the end of the day, it tastes the same whether you put ice cream or jam first. But it’s important.”

The first place for jam is often associated with Cornwall and the first place for ice cream with Devon, a neighborhood of South West England where clotted cream tends to be easier to spread as a base. “We certainly have no position” in the debate, said Claire Beale, public relations officer for the National Trust.

But trust sometimes takes its toll – with brutal consequences. In 2018, one of their Cornwall properties apologized for the “terrible mistake” of Post a picture of the first ice cream cupcakes. And the trust’s communications director, Celia Richardson, apologized last year for a similar mistake.

“What kind of fool decides to end a rough month at the National Trust by posting a picture of a cream tea?” Miss Richardson wrote on Twitter. “On my timeline, I now need to apologize to Cornwall and maybe half of the UK.”

As for Mrs. Merker, she said that because the debate about jam preceded ice cream was so sensitive, she spent a decade blogging about cupcakes without ever saying how much she liked them. She dodge the question in one post, and posted pictures of “naked” cupcakes in others, so she wouldn’t alienate believers on both sides.

This month, however, Ms. Merker revealed to journalists that she has always been at the forefront – for practical reasons. She says that because the Cornish curd cream she usually eats tends to be lumpy, applying it first creates a “true mess”.

Of course, her husband who works in the construction industry agrees.

“He was a builder,” she said of her Scone Sidekick. He certainly wouldn’t do anything that would cause a mess.

Mrs. Merker chose her final stop, the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, with her husband in mind. The couple visited the site together in 2006, long before the cupcake quest officially began. “So even though I know he can’t be on this last mission,” she wrote last week“I know he’s been there and seen it and loved it.”

She wrote that the cake was so good that she came back the next day to buy another one.

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