Researching a book can sometimes be a lonely affair. I was saved from an evening on my own in my hotel room when a wonderful local lady, Ann Dunne from St. Helier, whom I met on a Jersey Facebook page, took pity on an English author and invited her into her home.
Ann’s warmth and hospitality blew me away. She served up a delicious Jersey bean crock stew and while the rain and wind battered the windows, she shared with me the delightful story of how her parents met.
Her mother, Edna Loftus Channing, was one of the thousands of people who welcomed the British Liberation Army, Force 135, as they landed in St. Helier to liberate the island after the long years of Occupation. And a few days after the liberation Edna met one of the soldiers, Silas Martin, and found lifelong love.
After the British soldiers’ job was done, Silas did not go home like his comrades. Instead, he stayed, married Edna and had two children: William, born in 1947, and Ann in 1949. Ann told me:
My mother had come through all those harsh years of German rule. She walked past my father at his sentry post, he smiled and said hello. The spark must have been strong, because he never went home. He came to liberate and found love.
They loved each other desperately and were together for 32 years. I am a product of the Liberation, so today I remember it with enormous pride.
After an evening with Ann I left with my heart and belly full.
Bean crock is a Jersey staple. It’s a traditional casserole of dried beans with meat, either pork or beef, cooked in a large clay casserole dish. This is how Ann makes hers if you want to give it a go yourself.
“There are many variations of the Jersey bean crock, I only use my Mum’s recipe,” says Ann. “There’s not many ingredients as money was scarce in the 1950s. She did use a clay bean crock pot, but a large saucepan will do.”
Ingredients:
• A good handful of belly pork, cut into chunks
• Mixed beans, haricots or dried butter beans. My mum would soak them in a saucepan of water overnight and rinse them the next day. (You can of course use a tin of beans if you want to avoid soaking overnight)
• Two chopped onions
• A bouillon cube
Method:
If Mum had a few bob, she’d buy a small piece of shin of beef to add to the mix. Put it all into the crock, season with salt and pepper, cover with water, put it in the oven and cook for hours and hours on a slow heat, checking every few hours to see how it’s thickening. The longer it cooks, the tastier it becomes, and better the next day. Bean crock was originally a breakfast and people would take their crocks to the baker’s to put in the big ovens overnight.