Raspberry Ripple

Just back from Thanet South, or to be more precise, from a cottage called Raspberry Ripple. Or to be more precise still, a cottage called Raspberry in a village called Ripple in the county of Kent. A small but old village, sporting a pub (not visited despite being just 50 yards away. Times have changed), a church, a regular school, a special school and at least two special houses. That is to say, the sort of house that would once have been used to house gentry.

I did not think to check that the local farm shop, attached to a dairy which made ice cream, sold the stuff; we might have been able to complete the picture. I suppose the reason was that while this particular sort of ice cream used to be my favourite when I was small, bricks of the stuff from either Walls or Lyons Maid (the more exotic Italian flavoured ice cream having barely reached the provinces at that time), I hardly eat ice cream at all these days, so just did not think. And while their web site (see reference 1) might talk about Kentish Ice Cream and their neighbour's Jersey cows, that is not where their drinking milk came from, with the samples that we bought coming from either Southampton or Acton. Furthermore, while there was a giant multi-part cow shed on the other side of the village, there were not many cows to be seen. Mostly just hundreds of acres of rolling wheat fields, with the odd field of Bertolli's Olive Spread (the rape seed oil part thereof) for variety.

While their eating apples, or at least the one that I have just eaten, were called Marlene from the Alto Adige. Not bad, but not as good as the Sainsbury's Cox which I had at the same time and which had been purchased rather before we purchased Marlene. Perhaps the chaps down in the Alto Adige don't know about the cunning cold stores needed to prolong the life of apples so far beyond their natural (not to say organic) term.

The main purpose of the visit was to go to see the Roman fort at Rutupiae, known to me from my days as a reader of Rosemary Sutcliff, so that and Sandwich occupied day 2. Walmer on day 1, Ramsgate on day 3, Deal on day 4, St Margaret's at Cliffe on day 5 and back to the pier at Deal for day 6, the first day when the weather was cold & wet. On all of which, more in due course.

Reference 1: http://www.solleysicecream.co.uk/.