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First, let me apologise for the lack of scones, or even baked goods. once again. It was always my intention to concentrate on scones. I like scones. But somehow they have taken a back seat. In Spring I promise to return to scones.

Second, please accept my apologies for the complex timeline. This report goes back to the time, a couple of weeks ago, when I couldn’t get onto WordPress.It should really be number 29 but two others slid into place – the dry Lemon Drizzle Cake and the Biscuits with Sparrows. Chronologically this post comes just after the coffee at Springfields.

And having explained all that, I have just noticed there are two Scone Chronicles XXVII. I’m not going to go back and correct the errors this causes, and I’m not going to get upset. A mild tutting sound is all that you will hear, as I am a reformed character.

Sadly I won’t be able to take you through it in detail, but I thought a few points were worth making.

While we were at Springfields we decided to eat before we left and then have soup in the evening. We like Frankie and Benny’s though we do tend to question the value for money. This is based on cost, portion size and the fact we can still remember when you could get a decent plateful for under a pound. Yes, the curse of the old age grumblers has caught up with us.

The thing about Springfields is that the staff are always top class, and it’s a pleasure to be served by them. (If anyone from Frankie and Benny’s reads this, I am available to write reviews and other stuff in return for free food and cash – just thought it might be worth mentioning).

We had the standard burger, because it’s a decent meal and reasonably cheap. They were doing a few Vegan things, but I can’t really remember the menu, apart from the Beetroot Burgers (known as the Smoky Beet Burger). My lifelong loathing of beetroot will ensure that the thought stays with me for a long time.

There was a time, several years ago, when F&B used to do a delicious sticky red sauce, a bit like sweet chilli. Then they dropped it for a cheap imitation, then went to something pink and toe-curling. Look at the two pictures. One is of the burger and fries when we had it about a year ago. The other is now. Can you see a difference?

Last year’s burger and chips and sauce

Disregard the chips. They came in the same size container but I turned them out before I took the photo.

Burger and Chips. Tasted nice but didn’t exactly fill the plate.

That’s right, there is no sauce at all. And come to think of it, there are several other differences. This is known as shrinkflation. They rely on customers with bad memories, but I took photos which, by accident, show it in action. But lots of people do it, so let’s not blame F&B.

On the other hand, they are still responsible for depriving me of that delicious red sauce…

We went to Harlow Carr garden today – the northern garden of the Royal Horticultural Society. It was a lovely spring day and the gardens were quite crowded as every pensioner in Yorkshire seemed to be having a trip out.

I’ll cover the gardens in more detail later. For now I will talk about the first scone of our day.

The queue for scones at Bettys Tea House (which is a shed in the garden rather than the posh cafe at the entrance) contained around 30 people when we joined it. Well, when Julia joined it. I have a bad knee – I can’t queue.

(Note – Bettys was originally Betty’s but they have now become Bettys. The increasingly cavalier disregard for apostrophes seems to be mirrored by a general decline in standards and I wonder if the two may be linked.)

Despite the decline in standards and the deficiency in apostophes the staff were absolutely top class. They were quick and accurate and kept smiling as they coped with a constant queue, which averaged 20 people long for at least half an hour. My research method was to count the queue three times while I was sitting there. I can be scientifically rigorous when the occasion demands.

They served Julia with two cups of tea and two scones in boxes (with the jam and cream already applied), and only took £10 off her.

The tea was excellent, despite being a teabag in a vending cup. It probably tasted better because I was drinking it outside on a sunny spring day as a robin sang from a neighbouring tree.

Tea, scones and sunshine. Bettys, Harlow Carr

The boxed scones were convenient, though they were still rather chilly from storage. They were also, and I’m sorry I can’t come up with another description, a bit tight in texture. Fresh home made scones have a nice open, crumbly texture. Well, mostly. I have had one or two disasters in my time. Commercial scones tend to be closer in texture and come with neat, even air holes.

So, staff, tea and surroundings – excellent. Scones were good, but not as good as the rest of the meal. I felt they weren’t quite as good as some of the other scones we’ve had this year, either. They must be doing something right because they have been going for 100 years this year.

Bettys – 100 years this year

This is not a criticism of the scones, just an observation. You can’t serve thousands of scones without making some compromises.

Tea, scones and sunshine. Bettys, Harlow Carr

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