BEDM 8: A day in my life: Jam Jam

Epic fail on the Day in my life post for today. I cannot fathom the taking of photos and tracking of my day on a school day. Last BEDN I did a post of a typical day at school sans l'image so this time I'm going off piste.  Sufficed to say my day involved:
a) rushing for the train due to watering of plants.
b) Doctor Who themed outfit
c) Year 2 Maths investigation based on Symmetry.
d) Year 2 composing bird song compositions.
e) Year 5 learning to play the Blue Danube
f) Music Makers club doing an election-linked drumming composing activity (bet you're wondering about that one!)
g) Dash to town to buy a late birthday present for my Step-dad!


Anyway, so last Sunday, when I was frolicking by Oil Seed Rape fields (horrid name!) there was SO much more to my day than that.  After church, avec headache, CBC and I climbed into the car and drove towards Tiptree in Essex, not so far Chelmsford to visit the famous Wilkins and Sons, makers of the Tiptree jams to visit their tea-room.

It was obviously a popular choice as we had to queue for a little while to get served.

The place is really light and clean and there are some interesting exhibits suspended from the ceiling from their early days of trading- bicycles and lawnmowers with the Wilkins and Sons logo on.  The ceilings are high-beamed.

The menu had traditional afternoon tea for £14 per person or you can get two scones, jam, cream and tea for £6.50. There are various cake options too. On the savoury side, which is more my cup of tea (ho, ho ho), there are homemade quiches, sandwiches, salads and more.  Ice-creams and a variety of drinks are also available.
I chose a sliced turkey salad which comes with hot gooseberry chutney, potatoes and obviously salad.
CBC went for the cheese and onion quiche, also with salad and coleslaw.


When they arrived, CBC berated me for taking my camera out to take a picture and so I had to take this hasty one, so not so good.  More on this later.

It was delicious and very filling. I really liked the gooseberry chutney. Turkey can be a little bland and so this perked it up a treat. I had a chocolate milkshake which was adequate, but as a chocolate milkshake coinesseur, I was not impressed- it was fairly thin and artificial tasting.  CBC enjoyed his quiche too.

I knew my limits so didn't opt for anything sweet although we ordered some Earl Grey tea.



When CBC's scone arrived, he instantly got out his phone.  Took aim carefully. Carefully rearranged the items on his plate.  Zoomed in. Faffed for a good few minutes.  In which time I'd taken  6 pictures of his scone.

One word that starts with Hy and ends in Pocrite!

You pay at the counter which I really do think is a better system than awkwardly trying to get the attention of a busy waitress.

As we paid, I commented that CBC hadn't got his 'Little Scarlet' special strawberry jam and the lady at the counter gave us a jar to take home! As we left, we suddenly realised that they had charged us for the Double scone and tea AND a single scone- a miscommunication between waitresses, so they refunded us the tea without any hassle.


We had a quick glance into the museum which gives some history of the company and life in Essex but we decided we would go onto Mersea island for a walk on the beach, the next part of the adventure, rather than explore it too closely.

After that, we went into the shop which has an excellent selection of Wilkins and Sons products- they have a good selection of chutneys and jams and other treats including cordials, juices, ice-creams and others made with Essex fruits.

I recommend the tea-room as a nice place to visit and eat.  Prices for a salad or main are about £6-6.50 and drinks just under £2.  It was a very pleasant experience despite headaches.  Read for a little info about the Tiptree Wilkins and Sons tearooms


xxx