Earlier this May, 5 Bolsover Rotarians, and 1 member of Bolsover Inner Wheel, made the long trip to St Ives for a week’s vacation in their Motorhomes.
This trip was planned after our club treasurer had completed a cross stitch of the Sloop Inn, a local hostelry on the sea front at St Ives. It was agreed during a social evening that we should pay a visit to the Town so we could see the Sloop Inn in real life and of course we had to sample some of their beverages during the visit.
Unfortunately, this trip meant we were unable to attend our normal Wednesday club meeting, but undeterred we decided we should still make an effort to host our own meeting.
During a visit into town, we were drawn into one of the local pasty shops, namely Pengenna Pasties. We had seen in their window an oversized pasty, in only a few seconds we had decided as a group that for our rotary meal, taking into consideration our location a pasty would be the ideal main course option. The staff in the shop were most helpful and interested in our plan and requirement and went the extra mile to make our plan happen.
We ordered our pasty on Monday, and were told they would put the pasty in the oven to cook at 4pm on Wednesday, and it would be ready to collect at 5pm, that way it would still be warm for our normal 7pm meeting time. We duly went along at 5pm on Wednesday and collected the pasty. It was impressive, as you can see in the picture
We now needed to get ourselves and our tea safely back to our Motorhomes which were approximately 2 miles away. After making a short detour to buy several tins of mushy peas, we rang a local taxi company and asked to book a taxi for 6 people, 3 dogs and an oversize pasty. The taxi driver was excellent and took it all in good fun, even slowing down to avoid the bump in the road on the entrance to the campsite in order to protect the pasty from damage. Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for the worse, so we were not able to eat outside, but undeterred we met in one of the motorhomes. The pasty was removed from its transport box, and to pay it its due respect we piped it to the table, much like a haggis on Burns night.
Like the smaller pasties we had sampled earlier in the week, this oversized version was excellent, and despite our best efforts the six of us were unable to eat it all, although we did manage to sample some fudge and flapjacks for dessert.
If you are ever in St Ives we can recommend visiting and sampling the produce for sale at Pengenna Pasties. Who knows the Pasty Evening might even become an annual event and fundraiser for our club. Watch this space!