Pull out a plum

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Debbie Elliott.

You think the real estate market is treacherous today, try England in the late 1530s. That's what the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner" is really all about.

(Soundbite of music)

ELLIOTT: Here to explain is our London librarian Chris Roberts. He's the author of "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme," and he's at our London bureau.

Hello again, Chris.

Mr. CHRIS ROBERTS (Author, "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown"): Hello. Hi, Debbie.

ELLIOTT: So who was Little Jack Horner?

Mr. ROBERTS: Little Jack Horner was actually Thomas Horner. The name Jack comes up in nursery rhymes a lot, usually to reflect a slightly knavish character, a bit of a ne'er-do-well. So I suspect that's why they changed his name to Jack from Thomas.

(Reading) `Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas pie. He stuck in a thumb and pulled out a plum and said, "What a good boy am I."'

Where to begin with this? This is talking about the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII taking property from the Catholic Church. Jack, as we know, is actually called Thomas Horner. Now he was a steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury during the reign of Henry VIII. This is how the story goes: He was entrusted to take some title deeds of properties to Henry VIII as a bribe so the abbot could keep the main monastery, but was prepared to give away some of the lesser properties.

Now the title deeds were held and sealed in a pie, and Jack's off to London. But instead of delivering the bribe to Henry VIII, he helps himself to the pie, puts his hand in, pulls out a plum piece of real estate--in this case, a place called Mells Manor--and thinks he's very clever for doing this. That's one version of it, that Jack is a thief and he's stealing the bribe that's intended for the king. And he...

ELLIOTT: So was this common? Is there historical evidence to support the theory that bribes were often delivered in pies?

Mr. ROBERTS: It comes up bewilderingly often in nursery rhyme. And it's--I think the pie is used as a metaphor. I think it's not necessarily what we would think of as a pie. It's just referring to a means of concealing a document, concealing anything. It could be jewels in some cases. Now the Horner family, who incidentally lived in Mells Manor until the 20th century, are quite outraged at this slander of their ancestor and understandably so.

And there are actually two rhymes that mention Mr. Horner. The first one that mentions him is: `Hopton(ph), Horner, Smith and Finn, when the abbots went out, they came in.' And a much more likely reading of what happened is that Thomas Horner, along with the other people mentioned in the previous rhyme--Hopton and Smith and Finn--were up-and-coming gentry. They were Protestant, they were local merchants doing quite well for themselves in the area around Glastonbury, and that they bought the property. You could see it as an early example of gentrification. They bought the property at the time admittedly at a knockdown rate, and admittedly the land had been stolen from the Catholic Church by Henry VIII. This seems to be what happened after the dissolution of the monasteries. The king didn't keep all the land for himself; he distributed it amongst his supporters so he then could rely on their loyalty should anything occur in the future, should there be a rebellion in the future. I suspect, though I can't prove this, that the popular `Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie' version is actually the Catholic take on proceedings there.

ELLIOTT: Chris Roberts is the author of "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme," and he's a librarian at Lambeth College in South London.

Thank you, Chris.

Mr. ROBERTS: Thank you, Debbie.

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Little Jack Horner/Little Miss Muffet (Medley)

The Nursery Rhymes Collections 1-4 contain a total of 277 children's songs. Each double CD album showcases the highest quality children's music ever recorded with a total playing time in excess of 10 hours!

Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie,
He stuck in his thumb
And pulled out a plum and said
"What a good boy am I
What a good boy am I"

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on her tuffet,
Eating her curd and whey;
Along came a spider,
And sat down beside her,
Frightened Miss Muffet away, oh yeah
Frightened Miss Muffet away

Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie,
He stuck in his thumb
And pulled out a plum and said
"What a good boy
What a good boy
What a good boy am I"

Words: Traditional
Music: Ian J Watts

Origin and background

We have joined together 2 historical nursery rhymes to one song: Little Jack Horner and Little Miss Muffet. Both rhymes sound similar and both rhymes use the same metre. Ian J Watts has set the new songs to music.

The first part of "Little Jack Horner" is about a boy eating Christmas pie. He sticks his fingers into the pie and pulls out a plum which is very naughty of course but the boy seems to be pleased with himself and says: "What a good boy am I." So far so good but the rhyme seems a bit pointless. There must be another meaning because if these lines were pure nonsense they certainly would have disappeared at some time.

This is a possible explanation: Little Jack Horner refers to the secretary of the Bishop of Glastboury, Richard Whiting (1461 - 1539). The bishop was concerned about the expropriation of the monasteries arranged by Henry VIII. We mentioned him before, King Henry VIII, the father of Mary I Tudor, who was kept back from the thrown due to one of the many marriages of her father and became Queen of England later on, trying to restore Roman Catholism in England (see Mary, Mary quite contrary). But back to the bishop and his worries regarding the menacing expropriation of Glastboury. To forestall the threat of expropriation, he sent his secretary (Jack Horner) to King Henry VIII, with a cake, in which the deeds of manors were baked in. The most valuable of these documents, the Manor of Mells, is the plum, which he pulled out of the cake.

However, Richard Whiting failed and was accused of treachery because he did not officially abondan Catholism. Jack Horner was called as a witness when the trial took place and he incriminated the Bishop. At the end of the trial Jack Horner was given the Manor of Mells and his family remained owner of the estate up to the 20th century. There is another Nursery Rhyme dealing with the subject:

Hopton, Horner, Smith and Finn,
when the abbots went out, they came in.

This is another proof that there might be some truth within the legend. Horner stands in a row with a series of commercially successful Protestants: Hopton, Smith and Finn. All of them purchased land at a very low price after it has been taken away from the Catholic Church.

Next Song

Life hack from Radov: how to quickly peel berries and fruits?

Today Radov has prepared for you some simple and quick ways to clean berries and fruits.

How to quickly remove the stone from a cherry?

To remove the pit from a cherry, all you need is a glass bottle and a Chinese stick. The berry should be large enough. We put the berry on the neck of the bottle so that the attachment point of the stem is on top, press the berry with a stick and pierce it. Thus, the cherry remains in your hand, and the stone falls into the bottle.

How to quickly remove the stone from a plum or apricot?

To remove the stone from a plum or apricot, you can use a pencil or any other similar "tool" made of wood up to 5 mm in diameter, for example, the same Chinese stick.

The berry must be ripe, soft to the touch, otherwise the stone will not separate from the pulp.

Take an ordinary pencil, while holding the plum firmly with your hand so that the berry does not slip out. With the blunt end of the pencil, you need to press hard on the wide part of the plum, the stone comes out without any problems. The main thing is to calculate the force of pressure, otherwise the fetus will be deformed, and all efforts will be in vain.

Or use another proven method of removing the pit: cut the fruit in half and remove the pit with a knife. If the berry is completely green, it will take a lot of time and effort, and if it is overripe, things will go quickly.

How to quickly remove stems from strawberries?

To get rid of the tails from strawberries, arm yourself with a regular cocktail straw, and the process will go much faster.

We pierce the strawberry starting from the sharp tip and moving towards the tail. With one light press, the tail is pushed out of the strawberry, remaining in the straw.

This method allows you to remove the sepals very quickly and accurately, and keep the strawberries in their original shape.

How to quickly peel an orange?

It is necessary to cut the orange peel along its "equator" without touching the flesh of the fruit.
Next, using a spoon, carefully separate the peel from the pulp and remove it. As a result, only slices remain in the hand.

The method is good for ripe oranges, from which the peel is well behind. By the way, when you work with a spoon, the fruit can splash juice. So be careful!

How to quickly peel a kiwifruit?

This method is similar to peeling an orange, but it has its own peculiarities.
On a cutting board, cut off the ends of the kiwi fruit on both sides.

Take a teaspoon and gently insert it under the skin of the fruit, go over the contour of the kiwi with a spoon, separating the skin from the pulp. Do the same manipulations on the other side.

With light pressure, the peeled fruit simply slides out of the peel.

If you suddenly get fruit or berry juice on your clothes during the cleaning process, Radov advises you to use the most effective stain removal methods .

1. Steep water. You can remove a fresh stain from the juice of berries with boiling water. To do this, you need to boil the kettle, pull the product with a stain over a deep bowl, basin or pan and pour boiling water over the contaminated area. Fresh traces of berries will immediately disappear. This method is not recommended for cleaning fabrics that are sensitive to high temperatures.
2. Citric acid. To remove the stain, use a solution (a teaspoon of citric acid in a glass of water), soak the contaminated area in it and wait 20 minutes. If the stain does not completely disappear, repeat the procedure. After that, wash the fabric in the usual way.
3. Salt. Mix salt with water until slurry. Then moisten a white cotton cloth in gruel, lay out the “affected” item and start removing dirt gently from the edge to the center. Then wash the traces with soapy water and wash the clothes in warm water.

To make cleaning berries and fruits easier, use the following tools:

what methods are available? Removing the pit from a plum with a pencil

How to remove the pit from a plum

The plum is an excellent fruit. In addition to excellent taste, plum has healing and medicinal properties. It contains vitamin P, which lowers blood pressure and strengthens blood vessels. It is very interesting that vitamin P retains its healing properties even after processing plums.

Plum is also rich in minerals and other beneficial substances that are so necessary for the body to function properly. Therefore, housewives often use plums to prepare various dishes. Jams, preserves, juice, marshmallows, prunes are excellent preparations from plums.

Plums are used in the preparation of pies, sauces, casseroles, and also as a filling for dumplings, rolls, pies. The main thing in all recipes is not to forget to remove the stone from the plums. Someone does not like this uninteresting work, but it turns out that you can remove a stone from a plum in 1 second. To do this, use our advice and the work will go faster and more fun.

After a hard day, everyone wants to quickly relax on their favorite bed and get distracted by exciting videos. Any visitor to our site will be able to find an exciting video to their taste and interest. Even the most sophisticated viewer will find something worthy for himself. Our site allows each visitor to watch videos in the public domain, without any registration, and most importantly, all for free.

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We are very pleased that our site will be able to help you in various life situations. We tried to find suitable content for our viewers. We wish you a pleasant viewing.

You can remove the stone from a plum in a simple and proven way, or you can use ingenuity and ingenuity. The reward will be a tasty and healthy winter treat.

Summer is the season for rich fruit harvest. Many, if not all, gardeners are home-grown. Every season, rows of jars of jam and compotes are placed in the vaults. Plum compote is considered one of the most delicious delicacies. When you have to remove the bone from the berry. There are two ways to do this.

Removing the stone from a plum with a pencil

To be able to remove the stone from a plum with a pencil, you need to take a ripe berry. The plum should be soft to the touch and juicy. Otherwise, the bone will not separate from the pulp.

Take an ordinary pencil, while holding the plum firmly with your hand so that the berry does not slip out. With the blunt end of the pencil, you need to press hard on the wide part of the plum, the stone comes out without any problems.

You can pop the bone with any object with a suitable end, such as a sushi stick or other household item. The main thing is to calculate the pressure force, otherwise the berry will be deformed, and all efforts will be in vain.

If the stone does not give in, it remains to do what mothers and grandmothers always do, spinning plum compote or jam for the winter. This method is for hardworking and selfless people.

Remove the stone from the plum: cut in half

Plum berries come in different ripeness and quality. Sometimes merchants sell plum leftovers for harvesting cheaper than usual. Such a berry is often unripe. In this case, you can remove the bone only in a proven way.

Wash the plum and cut it into halves. The bone is removed with a knife. If the berry is completely green, it will take a lot of time and effort, and if it is overripe, things will go quickly. It is only necessary to remember that in these cases more sugar is put, and the plum is boiled for a long time to avoid poisoning and mold in winter.

There is another way to get the pits out of plums quickly. You need to purchase a special machine for extracting bones. The unit is sold in stores along with other machines of this purpose and is used in industrial production.

There are also home analogues, they are cheaper. By purchasing such a device, you will cope with the problem once and for all. But you should first weigh all the pros and cons of such a purchase. If you have your own plum garden, it is appropriate, but if you buy a plum once a year for food and preparations, it is easier to cut it into pieces.

Homemade steel for many hobbies. The cooking process itself gives people a lot of pleasure. In the end, the plum is boiled and, together with the bone, there would be a desire, but there are many recipes.

Cherry plum, or wild plum, juicy, slightly sour, widespread in the southern mountainous regions of the planet - in the Caucasus, Iran, Asia Minor. It is unpretentious in breeding, but loves warmth very much and bears fruit abundantly only in the south.

Harvested in late summer and early autumn. There are many color options for cherry plum fruits: greenish, yellow, pink, crimson red, purple. Moreover, the color of the fruit can say a lot about the composition of the berry: for example, yellow cherry plum contains a lot of carotenoids, and purple - anthocyanins.

Cherry plum is low in calories and has a low glycemic index. Its juice and flowers are used in folk medicine and in cosmetology. And activated charcoal is made from the shells of cherry plum seeds.

Cherry plum is unusually tasty both fresh, and in jam, and as a filling for a pie. It is used to make jam and marshmallows, syrups and marmalade, wine and compote, pilaf and kharcho soup. There are even recipes for making cherry plum with garlic - for example, tkemali and satsebeli sauces.

Perhaps the only disadvantage of cherry plum is that the seeds are not always easily separated from its pulp, except in very ripe berries. And if they almost do not interfere in jam or compote, then in other dishes their presence is unacceptable.

How to free cherry plum fruits from the inedible part and at the same time keep their shape is a question that housewives have to decide, who prefer their dishes not only to be tasty, but also to look beautiful.

Methods for pitting cherry plum berries

There are quite a lot of options and ways to remove pits from berries. Among the main ones are the following:

1. Cherry plum pits can be removed with a knife: the berries are cut in half and the hard core is removed by hand. But, unfortunately, at the same time, a significant part of the pulp is often lost, and during heat treatment, the cut fruits boil too much and turn into jam, which does not suit every housewife. And the time spent in this case is impressive, especially if you have to process several kilograms.
2. The next method requires some skill. The cherry plum berry is placed on the neck of the bottle with the notch up, and then the bone is squeezed into the bottle with a stick no thicker than a pencil. In this case, the appearance of the berry will hardly suffer, unless, of course, the hostess overdoes it with pressure and if the bottle is well reinforced.
3. 
   

   Various devices for squeezing the cores out of fruits, both manual and mechanical, work on the same principle. The simplest forms resemble a double spoon or a stapler. The berry is placed on the lower plane in a recess with a hole, the device is compressed by the palm of the hand, and with the help of a point with a spring mechanism, the stone is quickly pushed out.

   Other attachments may be a piston attached to a container. A handful of cherry plum is placed in the tray above the container, the berry enters the recess under the mechanically driven prong, the squeezed-out stone falls inward, and then the berry rolls out along the outlet sleeve.

4. Special devices are very convenient, which allow you to remove the stones from a significant number of berries at a time. At the time of summer preparations, they are indispensable, as they save the hostess' time perfectly. In such devices, there are several cells and teeth at once. The berries are rolled into the recesses under the teeth, with one movement of the handle the mechanism is set in motion, the removed bones fall into the tray, and then are thrown away.
5. 
   

   You can also make a device for processing berries with your own hands from a conventional medical syringe of 10 ml or more. The nose of the syringe is cut off with a knife, then a hole is drilled in its place in the center, the roughness is removed, and a “window” for the berry is carefully cut close to the edge in the wall of the syringe according to its size. The piston is processed with tweezers so that a non-sharp dense tooth with a length of 25 mm or more and hooks is obtained just above its base.

   As a stop for the piston, a round rubber cap previously removed from it is attached so that the tooth travel is limited by the upper edge of the window. And in order to provide it with an automatic reverse stroke, the usual accounting gum is used: it is folded in half, then in the shape of a figure eight, put on the stops of the syringe and the piston hooks, and the piston nose is threaded into the loop formed.

6. You can use an ordinary closed safety pin, hairpin or paper clip, even a tiny spoon. This method is only suitable for soft ripe fruits. The cherry plum is pierced with the rounded end of the object, the bone is hooked and pulled out.
7. Some housewives use an ordinary pen with the tip removed to clean berries, but the hole becomes clogged too quickly and needs to be cleaned from time to time. For such actions, a solid stick with a recess in the middle is better suited.

Thus, getting rid of the seeds in the cherry plum and not deforming it is a solvable problem.

But we must remember that the berry is very juicy, and use deep dishes that collect splashes of juice.

Summer is the season for rich fruit harvest. Many, if not all, gardeners are home-grown. Every season, rows of jars of jam and compotes are placed in the vaults. Plum is considered one of the most delicious delicacies. When you have to remove the bone from the berry. There are two ways to do this.

Removing the stone from a plum with a pencil

To be able to remove the stone with a pencil, you need to take a ripe berry. The plum should be soft to the touch and juicy. Otherwise, the bone will not separate from the pulp.

Take an ordinary pencil, while holding the plum firmly with your hand so that the berry does not slip out. With the blunt end of the pencil, you need to press hard on the wide part of the plum, the stone comes out without any problems.

You can pop the bone with any object with a suitable end, such as a sushi stick or other household item. The main thing is to calculate the pressure force, otherwise the berry will be deformed, and all efforts will be in vain.

If the stone does not give in, it remains to do what mothers and grandmothers always do, spinning plum compote or jam for the winter. This method is for hardworking and selfless people.

Remove the stone from the plum: cut in half

Plum berries come in different ripeness and quality. Sometimes merchants sell plum leftovers for harvesting cheaper than usual. Such a berry is often unripe. In this case, you can remove the bone only in a proven way.

Wash the plum and cut it into halves. The bone is removed with a knife. If the berry is completely green, it will take a lot of time and effort, and if it is overripe, things will go quickly. It is only necessary to remember that in these cases more sugar is put, and the plum is boiled for a long time to avoid poisoning and mold in winter.

There is another way to get the pits out of plums quickly.

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