O'er moorland and brae: Under the Bramley apple trees

We are into the last weeks of our trip and this is the time, every year, we seem to eat out more frequently. This year is no different, tho' we still seem to be finding different and interesting things to do enroute, that capture our attention.

We'd been heading for a visit with family just past the Avalon Marshes in Somerset when we saw peat being pulled from the earth by heavy machinery, so we stopped to investigate. We had only ever seen it dug out in small fire bricks with a hand shovel prior to this. Then, in Ireland, transported as wet bricks in woven basket panniers slung on both sides of a donkey. But that was way back.

These ancient peat fields on the Somerset levels, we discovered, have revealed stunning oxygen-deprived Iron Age finds: including a wooden walking track that the long ago Celts lay down just to cross these marshes. The traces that survive tell that tale, which is quite amazing after all these thousands of years.

My relatives moved to the UK from Australia several years ago, and bought a home barely five miles from where our ancestors left in the 1800s, to migrate to Australia. Without having a clue. That sort of coincidence happens again and again in family history. Some inexplicable family pull, just out of the blue, seems to act as a catalyst, a tie.

My lovely nephew, who shows serious signs of being a complete foodie, cooked us a superb Sunday roast lunch: his home-grown, rare breed pork, along with a haunch of lamb, piles of veg, including crispy baked potatoes with soft centres, and sweet onion halves charred in their skin, finished off with a golden-crisp Brambly apple crumble, dense with tart apples picked from the tree in his front yard. How can a Sunday lunch get any better?

While visiting his delightful brood we stayed in the grounds of the Mason's Arms in Lower Odcombe, just a mile or two from many of the picturesque hamstone Somerset villages where our ancestors long ago lived and worked. In fact, many of them quarried the very hamstone we admire so much today, and one of the family leased an apple orchard in one of the fields near here.

We keep coming back to this pub time and again as the food and service is always so good, and this time is no exception. People who think pub food is the same all over the country really need to visit The Mason's Arms for a rethink. To start with, they have their own well kept organic herb and vege garden out the back: always a good sign. And while we were there a van touting its Hunter Gatherer foraging credentials delivered fresh supplies to the kitchen door. This pride and care in the sourcing of their food translates to what is put on the table: in my case a mouthwatering caramelised onion, fig and goat's cheese tart for entree; a main of crispy skinned salmon on a bed of prawn and crab linguine, followed by a decadent pot au chocolate with biscotti for dessert.

My dessert was topped with what must be one of the signature touches of the house: a fresh gooseberry in a pretty circlet of leaves. There has to be an easily accessible gooseberry tree in one of the nearby orchards as I remember this garnish on one of our deserts from last visit, too. Such a lovely and unusual touch. All for very little more than regular pub meal prices. No wonder the dining room in this tiny pub in this charming hamlet is always chockers. Added to which the front of the house service is delightful, relaxed and jovial, making the meal feel really special. Even romantic. We really love this place!