I blame the advertising!
If this butcher in Dundee did not insist on sending emails offering 20% off, or a pack of square sausage with every order FREE, then I would not have been tempted. I confess that I gave in quickly and obtained Rowies and Scotch pies, with FREE square sausage, just to keep the freezer filled, that's all.
Anyway, the cost works out reasonable considering the meals this provides. So I ordered and here they are today.
Rowies are a type of bread roll, invented they say, for the fishermen who might be way for a week or two, and this bread would keep well. They would not require a freezer in the North Sea so the temperature would hold up for the rolls. Also a colossal amount of lard goes into them, though they call it Palm Oil today, and this was good for the energy requirements aboard.
Whether this is true, or just a story invented by the Aberdeen fishwives i know not, but what I do know is that these are good and worth risking another day lost to life after eating them. The pies will await me in the freezer.
These boats are found off Peterhead, in Rowie country. They appear to be leaving en masse which might make fishing easier. Somewhere aboard, in one of those boxes, are rowies awaiting lunchtime. The ide of sailing out on a light tide appears to me to be delightful, however, once far from shore and the waves trying to get above your head my opinion might change somewhat. A few days out there, cold winds, ice on the water, snow, hail, freezing rain, and winter meant it got worse, would not be for me a pleasing day out.
These men however, did this for years and years. Their life was spent chasing the Herring down the North Sea, reaching Yarmouth and the likes before heading back home again. The women would go with them, filleting fish and filling barrels with them.
I suspect these women would be somewhat noticeable in the streets.
All gone now. Factory ships, probably Russian, steal everything from the seas. Vast numbers to feed, vast ships scraping the bottom to get them, and of course anything else lying about.
Are you hungry for fish and rowies yet?
