Food and Drink in Legend and Tradition,

3–4 September 2016 at St. Nick’s Environment Centre in York

Raise your glasses, please, to the importance of old traditions! Mine’s a Hobgoblin. Has the King of the Bean put out a mince pie for Santa? Four and twenty blackbirds burst out of a fortune cookie as the custard pie went splat! Who ate puppy pie under Painswick Bridge? Probably the witch who stole the milk. Come, butter, come – without a charm in the churn there will be nothing on the hot cross buns. The roast beef of old England is no substitute for Hallaton hare pie and dumb cake at Sweeny Todd’s gingerbread house. Cheese gives you nightmares, so don’t go nutting; Snow White’s apple will lead to funeral biscuits not wedding cake. With a potato in your pocket, who could fail to win at egg shackling, black pudding throwing and the pancake race? There’s no risk of having to eat humble pie at an oyster feast. Oranges and lemons, say the Maids of Biddenden biscuits; I’ll grind his bones to make my bread, for the cake at the end of the furrow may be a simnel beside the liquorice well. Take it with a pinch of salt, but I’m the gingerbread man. As sure as eggs is eggs.

This two-day conference on Food and Drink in Legend and Tradition will be held on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th September 2016 as the eleventh Legendary Weekend of the Folklore Society, at St. Nicks Environment Centre, Rawdon Avenue, York YO10 3ST. We’d like to hear from anyone who can contribute – folklorists, nutritionists, storytellers, cooks, social historians, brewers, butchers and bakers.

Presentations, which should be 20 minutes long, can take the form of talks, performances, or DVD.

If you would like to attend or to present a paper or performance, please contact:

Jeremy Harte
Bourne Hall
Spring Street
Ewell
Surrey KT17 1UF
020 8394 1734
bhallmuseum@gmail.com