Dragon FruitTUESDAY 8 JANUARY 2008
DRAGON FRUIT
I mentioned this weird fruit on the programme a few days back. Helpfully (as always) truckshunter Maureen has sent me a picture of it so that you know exactly how weird they are.
'ONE PIT’S AS BAD AS THE NEXT AND A DAMNED SIGHT WORSE...'
I was reminded of this well-known miner’s witticism when I was listening to a discussion on Mike Parr’s programme last week about the possible return of deep coalmining to the north-east. An NUM spokesman was saying how wonderful it would be to see the return of this traditional macho industry to one of its old heartlands. And with it, presumably, a return to the old ways of mutual self-sufficiency and self-help, community spirit, fabled north-east friendliness and reliable, dogged hard work.
I remember, when I first started at the BBC (- I used to do a ‘local history’ hour with Paul Wappat on his Saturday show -), asking on-air what ex-miners thought of the demise of their industry, and how strikingly at odds with each other they seemed to be in their responses. The last pit in County Durham hadn’t been defunct for that long, and mining wasn’t the fading, almost sepia-tinted memory it is now. There was much talk of the characteristics I mention above - a good day’s work for a good day’s pay, a real ‘man’s job’, the camaraderie, the mutual dependency, the Durham ‘Big Meeting’, the sense of belonging felt by everyone, pit by pit, village by village....
Other callers, though, had different ideas. They remembered the work as back-breakingly hard and fearsomely dangerous - not just in terms of accident and injury but also of disease and disability. The industry, they thought, scarred the countryside and the coast and was held in appallingly low esteem by those who ought to have known better. Memories of undervalued - indeed almost disregarded - menfolk suffering the horrors of pneumoconiosis (of which my granda died at the age of 56) or death and injury underground came flooding back. ‘Good riddance to a bloody AWFUL industry with a tarnished and exploitative history....’
You will have gathered that I incline to this latter view. The ex-miners of the north-east can indeed look back with very great pride at a good job well done - if not properly appreciated by the wider world. Although they did a brutal job with grace and dignity, you have only to look at the website of the Durham Mining Museum (dmm.org.uk) to see what a pernicious and damaging industry it was. Or you could try visiting one of the (shamefully few) stark memorials to it, like the one recently erected at Easington Colliery or the heartbreaking Engine House Monument at nearby Haswell Plough pit. Perhaps the most moving of them all is the memorial in Durham Cathedral...
...Remember before God the Durham Miners who have given their lives in the pits of this County and those who work in darkness and danger in those pits today.....
God forbid.
It ends by pointing out - quite correctly - that ‘they are forgotten of the foot that passeth by’.
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
DRAGON FRUIT
I mentioned this weird fruit on the programme a few days back. Helpfully (as always) truckshunter Maureen has sent me a picture of it so that you know exactly how weird they are.
'ONE PIT’S AS BAD AS THE NEXT AND A DAMNED SIGHT WORSE...'
I was reminded of this well-known miner’s witticism when I was listening to a discussion on Mike Parr’s programme last week about the possible return of deep coalmining to the north-east. An NUM spokesman was saying how wonderful it would be to see the return of this traditional macho industry to one of its old heartlands. And with it, presumably, a return to the old ways of mutual self-sufficiency and self-help, community spirit, fabled north-east friendliness and reliable, dogged hard work.
I remember, when I first started at the BBC (- I used to do a ‘local history’ hour with Paul Wappat on his Saturday show -), asking on-air what ex-miners thought of the demise of their industry, and how strikingly at odds with each other they seemed to be in their responses. The last pit in County Durham hadn’t been defunct for that long, and mining wasn’t the fading, almost sepia-tinted memory it is now. There was much talk of the characteristics I mention above - a good day’s work for a good day’s pay, a real ‘man’s job’, the camaraderie, the mutual dependency, the Durham ‘Big Meeting’, the sense of belonging felt by everyone, pit by pit, village by village....
Other callers, though, had different ideas. They remembered the work as back-breakingly hard and fearsomely dangerous - not just in terms of accident and injury but also of disease and disability. The industry, they thought, scarred the countryside and the coast and was held in appallingly low esteem by those who ought to have known better. Memories of undervalued - indeed almost disregarded - menfolk suffering the horrors of pneumoconiosis (of which my granda died at the age of 56) or death and injury underground came flooding back. ‘Good riddance to a bloody AWFUL industry with a tarnished and exploitative history....’
You will have gathered that I incline to this latter view. The ex-miners of the north-east can indeed look back with very great pride at a good job well done - if not properly appreciated by the wider world. Although they did a brutal job with grace and dignity, you have only to look at the website of the Durham Mining Museum (dmm.org.uk) to see what a pernicious and damaging industry it was. Or you could try visiting one of the (shamefully few) stark memorials to it, like the one recently erected at Easington Colliery or the heartbreaking Engine House Monument at nearby Haswell Plough pit. Perhaps the most moving of them all is the memorial in Durham Cathedral...
...Remember before God the Durham Miners who have given their lives in the pits of this County and those who work in darkness and danger in those pits today.....
God forbid.
It ends by pointing out - quite correctly - that ‘they are forgotten of the foot that passeth by’.
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
8 comments:
ian its just to say i found your piece about mining in durham very poignant,very moving... lots of memories..
yes, there were very strong bonds and a special closeness between the people in "pit" villages, everyone seemed to be "there" for each other,they clubbed together,which meant they helped each other, lending and borrowing from each other was the norm, nowadays we hardly know who lives next door, camerarderie..?
its something lost now in the mists of time...
i think the miners should all have medals just for venturing down the pits in the dark, working on their bellies..while the rich got richer.. sorry to vent my spleen there ian..
i can still remember the hooter blasting out from brandon pit,sounding like an air raid siren.
both my granda,s worked down the pit, one died early age 50, the other was caught in the eye with the rope from the pony, (those poor aniamls) so was pensioned out,on a pittance i,d imagine. everyone seemed to have a greyhound or a whippet,us included, some nights we got no sleep if the new dog was a cryer, dad rigged up a rope from the bedroom tied to a tin of nails in the shed up the garden, ready to yank if he or she started making a ruckus, and they always got the best grub in the house too,some folk even fed them a weird concoction of sherry n eggs,secret formula in the hope of a win at spenny dog track.. but these dogs were loved above all else..part of the family and well looked after..
the colliery houses at brandon are gone now, although 2 streets do still remain in browney and the pit deputy,s house is still standing just across the way from me they built them to last.
also durham big meeting!! well such great times, the whole extended family went to durham every year, the psychedelic era. much of it passed me by being a child of the 60,s, a flower child, so mam said.. cowbells hung around our necks,
mam and gran baked especially for the occasion for 3 days before hand,in a coal oven..we sat along the sands by the river, it was the big day out,everyone seemed to be there,and the crowds, well there must have been thousands..
i remember hazily the politicians waving from the county hotel balcony..good memories...i enjoyed reading it ian and all the pics you,ve put on the blog too..
ive got carried away but "durham" being such a fantastic place, a place i love dearly, deserves nothing less...
just for the record no dog was hurt in the making of this blog..
the tin of nails just made a rattling noise which, it was hoped would give a little scare and shut rusty up..never worked, more often than not he ended up next to the hearth, pride of place by the kitchen fire..
Could someone give me a clue as to what the Dragon Fruit tastes like...and do you have custard with it?
I've never had Dragon Fruit, but apparently you don’t eat the skin of the fruit, just the flesh from inside.
You scoop out the flesh with a spoon (it scoops straight out just like scooping out sorbet) and it tasted a bit like melon or kiwi ... actually the taste is very bland considering how exciting it looks so I'm told.
If you’re thinking of eating dragon fruit it’s best eaten chilled and if you don’t want to eat it on its own have it as a desert with a sorbet.
Other recommended ways of eating dragon fruit are within ice cream, or turn it into a drink by putting the flesh through a juicer or it can be fermented into a wine.
I would have thought custard a perfectly acceptable companion.
Unless you know different... Esther.
Lawrence
dragon fruit looks lovely, i,m going to give it a try.
think i might put the flesh through the juicer, i,m into juicing at the minute. its a quick easy way of getting the 3 rec. portions of fruit down... pomegranate is a fave too, but they are very expensive out of season.
That's a lovely comment, Gilly. I enjoyed reading it and it brought back many memories for me too.
Thanks for the information regarding the taste of the Dragon Fruit. With a name like that I thought it might at least have been hot and spicey!
thankyou ian very kindly.
i enjoyed remembering it all..thats the beauty of precious memories they never fade..
i forgot to mention one of the most important, very special, parts of "durham big meetings", ..
the proud carrying of the treasured banners, the bands from each pit marching through durham followed by the "skipping girls" in cowboy hats.. and not least the miners themselves...
i also thought what were the politicians having for tea in the county..strange the things that flit through the mind..bet it was,nt ham n pease pudding sarnies..they,d have missed a treat..
i saw the picture of you with the lovely floral bouquet in your blog profile today,it left me very curious...
maybe we could guess... a special birthday? an award? ...
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