Saturday, April 08, 2023

"Twelve miles from the nearest lemon"

The clergyman and wit Sidney Smith once said a living of his in Yorkshire had been so remote that he was "twelve miles from the nearest lemon".

I know how he felt. There were no lemons in Sainsbury's, Market Harborough, this afternoon.

Well, it is Brexit Britain. But what are we supposed to use instead? Malt vinegar? The syrup from a tin of fruit cocktail? Sorrel foraged from the fields?

More and more, it feels the Tories are not fighting a culture war so much as a war on culture.

6 comments:

  1. A single lemon or half a dozen? Waxed or unwaxed? Supermarkets have always been useless places to buy lemons [insert many other items].

    Lemon juice, out of a plastic bottle, works pretty well as a substitute for lemon squirted from fruit most of the time. It cannot be reconstituted, using current technology, into a slice. It works all right in cooked food or to protect a pan of peeled veg overnight.

    I don't know how Brexit Britain works, but I doubt that lemons matter much. This weekend, UK citizens wasted their lives in coaches for pointless identity checks.

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    Replies
    1. Not identity checks. Checks to count the days they had spent in the EU, for ensuring they did not have Freedom of Movement, that being entirely what the whole of Britain voted unanimously for.

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  2. What did you need the lemon for? If for G&T then I would recommend investing in a few jars of sliced lemon.

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  3. This Lemon shortage is leaving a sour taste in the mouth.

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  4. I wanted the lemon, or half of it, to put inside a chicken I was roasting in my Habitat chicken brick - call me Seventies wokerati if you must. Made do with a shallot and some tarragon instead.

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  5. The Sorrel on my lawn doesn't seem to have survived the hard frosts of this winter.

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