perfect pie, part two

Our first stop after arriving in North Norfolk was Samphire, my all-time favorite food shop:

As you may remember from our previous visit, the shop is set in the grounds of a National Trust estate. All the products are sourced locally from small producers, and all the meat is from ethically reared rare and traditional breeds.

After lunch at the picnic tables outside--there's a choice of three deliciously simple filled rolls--we shopped for the week ahead. Here's Roberta packing up two of their justly famous pork pies:

Before our first visit to Samphire, I was convinced I didn't like pork pies. But these completely won me over. The texture, the taste, everything about them is just perfect:

This time we branched out and tried several more products over the week, including pork and wild mushroom sausages, a wonderful goat cheese and onion quiche,

Fairfields Farm Crisps, and shortbread and florentines baked in Samphire's own kitchen. G later declared the gloriously large florentines the best he'd ever tasted!

And on our way out, bulging grocery sack in hand, I picked up two more Samphire booklets--one on keeping ducks and the other on keeping pigs--because you never know...