10 Comments

Lovely writing. As a Lancashire lass, with family who straddle the border with Yorkshire, I recognised the variety of Graces used by the older people. I suggest that your Eccles cake was a wrong'un however.

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Loved this. (Full disclosure: I’m Lancastrian). I use ta’ra all the time (usually followed by luvvie). My relatives in Durham/Northumberland say it too so I think the word must be used across the north of England. The other words I’m not so familiar with. I moved to the south when I was 18, this article brought back memories of trudging along rivers on school hiking trips. It’s beautiful and wild up thurr on the pikes and dales and piers.

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It’s the second article I’ve read on Vittles, and like the previous by Ruby Tandoh the outstanding quality of the writing made subscribing a no brained. As the wife of a Derbyshire lad and now living on the Yorkshire border the detail in the reported dialect makes me start thinking about how food is described ‘locally’. Excellent writing, thank you

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Beautiful evocation of a place. The pinpoint -localised variations in dialect and tradition that exists in a place as physically small as England never cease to amaze me.

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Thanks this is a bit of a mystery indeed but I agree that the fact that inability to eat is mentioned in more than one grace implies that it’s a physical inability. I really enjoyed the piece thank you 🙏

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What a glorious piece of food writing. I'd love to read more of Ophira's work.

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My grandmother was a baker from Lancashire but I grew up in the south. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away when I was very young, way before she knew I would become a food writer/chef myself. What I'd do to be able to bake Eccles cakes with her...

Thanks for the beautiful words and for bringing me somewhat closer to understanding my roots x

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Fabulous piece on food and graces. I’m a Lanky lass and if we asked questions, what’s that etc?, my uncles always answered layoes to catch medlars/meddlers. As we did harvest medlars for jellies and fruit brandy I was always intrigued what layoes were. Spelling as heard

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I grew up with that phrase, too. So much of my mum's and grandparents' language was peppered with dialect, obscure pop culture references and made-up characters and it's only now, thirty years on and living far, far from home that I'm beginning to question its origins and appreciate the richness of it. Anyway, here's a theory on the "lay o's for meddlers": https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/1735482.mix-of-meddlers-and-lame-ducks/

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Oh thank you, I often wondered. But Preston in the 1950/60s had poems and dialect all its own I thought til now

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