Licks and Scrapes

I have just finished yet another pot of Mr Wainwright's superb....

....Zambian organic honey, produced by a co-operative of farmers - see earlier post here. Each pot holds some 3.2Kg of honey which seems a lot but, since I have some almost every day as an integral part of my lunch, it doesn't last very long.

Yesterday was warm, the pleasant sunshine slightly marred by a busy, gusting westerly which didn't prevent us having lunch in the garden - and at the end of the meal I used a spoon to scrape out the very last of the honey. This reminded me of a strange ritual that used to take place at my prep school, Glengorse.

Parents often gave their children food, such as a cake or a pot of jam or honey, to take back to school perhaps aware that we spent much of our time rather hungry, but any such contribution was taken away by the staff and would appear at the dining table where the owner sat, to be shared out amongst the dozen or so small boys sitting round it. 

The only right the owner retained was, after the pot had been shared out, to allocate 'Licks and Scrapes' of the jam/honey/marmalade to two particular friends at the table. Scrapes came first, and consisted of using a spoon to clear almost all the remaining jam - which is what I did yesterday at lunch time - but licks allowed the final lucky small boy to use his fingers and tongue to finish off the job.

Further words fail me....