Fantasy Veggie Dinner Guest - A E Housman

Alfred Edward Housman was a scholar and classicist, best known now for his poem A Shropshire Lad, which evokes a bygone England at the start of the Twentieth Century.

It includes this beautifully poignant, ironic section (XVII):

“Is my team ploughing, 

   That I was used to drive 

And hear the harness jingle 

   When I was man alive?” 

Ay, the horses trample, 

   The harness jingles now; 

No change though you lie under 

   The land you used to plough. 

“Is football playing 

   Along the river shore, 

With lads to chase the leather, 

   Now I stand up no more?” 

Ay the ball is flying, 

   The lads play heart and soul; 

The goal stands up, the keeper 

   Stands up to keep the goal. 

“Is my girl happy, 

   That I thought hard to leave, 

And has she tired of weeping 

   As she lies down at eve?” 

Ay, she lies down lightly, 

   She lies not down to weep: 

Your girl is well contented. 

   Be still, my lad, and sleep. 

“Is my friend hearty, 

   Now I am thin and pine, 

And has he found to sleep in 

   A better bed than mine?” 

Yes, lad, I lie easy, 

   I lie as lads would choose; 

I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart, 

   Never ask me whose.

So, for Alfred, who might be too busy to come to dinner, but who might like to join me for a ramble through the fields, I have devised these.

PLOUGHMAN’S WRAPS

Serves 2

2 wraps

1 dessert apples, peeled, cored and chopped (keep in water with a touch of lemon juice if you don’t assemble the wraps immediately).

4-6 tbsp chutney or pickle of choice

2 spring onions, chopped on the diagonal
100g cheddar cheese, cut into small chunks
small amount of cucumber in chunks
salt and pepper
spread (butter or cheese)

Spread each wrap with a thin layer of cheese or butter spread.







Spread the pickle/ chutney over the top.

Mix the apple, cheese, spring onion and cucumber in a bowl and season.

Then share the ingredients between each wrap, placing it down the middle.

Roll up and serve.