Harvest Hotpot

Whilst talking to a farmer from the Moretonhampstead area he related the tradition of the Harvest Hotpot that was once carried out on his Dartmoor farm. Hotpots were often served throughout the year but the one dished up after harvest was always a special one. The farm grew some acres of corn and it was tradition to harvest the largest field last. A the men cut around the field in an ever decreasing circle it any wildlife hiding amongst the corn were driven deeper into the fast diminishing crop. Eventually the area of standing corn grew so small that the wildlife would explode in an effort to gain some new-found sanctuary in the hedgerows. It was at this point that the men would be ready with guns, sticks, dogs or whatever was capable of bagging a meal. Occasionally there would be a man that was expert in using the dreshel or flail and that would be sent spinning after a fleeing rabbit much like a boomerang except it would never return to the thrower. The game bag would then be returned to the farm kitchen and usually consisted of a number of rabbits which were promptly skinned and gutted.

At one time rabbit was a common component of the moorman's diet but these 'harvest' rabbits were held in some strange kind a reverence, apparently they tasted much "better". Another important ingredient of the Harvest Hotpot was the salted belly pork and smoked bacon. As the house pig was never usually slaughtered until the autumn this meant keeping the required cuts back from the previous year as was a flagon of cider.

The following day the hotpot would be prepared and cooked very slowly in the stewpot over a peat fuelled fire. That evening the farmhouse was full of family, neighbours and harvesters all eagerly awaiting their steaming bowls full of Harvest Hotpot. To accompany the hearty meal were mounds of freshly baked bread and enough cider and ale to quench the driest of thirsts.

Before the meal was started the farmer would with great reverence recite the last verse of the old traditional folk song, "God Speed the Plough", which went:

"But as for old Adam how he work with the spade

And how he planted vineyards and neatly he made.

But as for the farmer with his love exposed

With beef and good bacon they could keep a good house.

With a firkin in each corner from his own barley mow

He'd welcome in a friend and may God speed the plough.

With a firkin in each corner from his own barley mow

He'd welcome in a friend and may God speed the plough

And may God speed the plough".

The corn dolly made from the last scythe of corn was then presented to the head of the table who ironically then said grace, a fine mix of pagan and Christian beliefs. This signalled the end of ceremony on the beginning of celebration and everyone then tucked into the Harvest Hotpot.

As agricultural methods became more mechanised less and less people were required to gather the harvest which meant fewer people attended the end of harvest celebrations. No longer could the gangs of harvesters be heard 'Crying the Neck' and the barns no longer held the 'Harvest Homes' of yesteryear. However, on this particular farm the tradition of the Harvest Hotpot lingered on albeit in a much, much smaller stewpot. The recipe for the much reduced Harvest Hotpot is as follows:

INGREDIENTS

2 - tablespoons of flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

1 - handful of chopped parsley.

6 ozs - salted belly pork.

8 ozs - streaky bacon.

2 - rabbits - jointed.

¼ pint - dry cider.

1 - small swede.

2 - large onions.

¼ pint - stock.

2 - carrots.

Trim the rabbit joints and soak in lightly salted water for 24 hours.

Rinse the joints well, dry and coat with half the flour flour.

Dice the pork and gently fry until the fat begins to run.

Slice the onion and add to the pork and fry until golden, remove from pan when done.

Wrap each rabbit joint in a rasher of bacon and brown in pan.

Place rabbit joints, pork and onion in a crock pot along with the sliced carrots and diced swede

Mix the remaining flour with the stock and add to crock along with cider.

Place in low oven, 190ºC for two hours, checking regularly.

Serve in bowls and sprinkle with parsley alongside some crusty bread and accompany with bucket loads of cider.