Cornish News: St Pirans Day – 5th March

St Piran is the Patron Saint of Tin Miners and is also generally acknowledged as the National Saint for Cornwall, the Cornish flag which is a white cross on a black background is the St Pirans flag.

Legend: St. Piran lit a fire on his black hearthstone, which was evidently a slab of tin-bearing ore. The heat caused smelting to take place and tin rose to the top in the form of a white cross (thus the image on the flag).

Someone who is as ‘drunk as a Perraner’ is a description of a merry maker who has consumed large amounts of alcohol whilst celebrating St. Pirans Day, a traditional Cornish celebration adopted by the tin miners of Cornwall representing an official local holiday.  The only real tradition associated with this celebration is the consumption of large amounts of alcohol and food, mainly locally produced Cornish Pasties in their thousands!

On occassion employers have treated this as an official bank holiday in acknowledgement and support of the historic date. The 6th of March is known to be another unofficial holiday due to the amount of sore heads that are being nursed after the merriment!

Further afield in the USA, St Pirans day is celebrated in similar style but with a twist, “Tossing the Pasty” is a St Pirans Day Pastie Olympics Event which involves a Cornish Pasty being flung at a St. Pirans Flag which is usually sited some 200 meters away on the ground, nearest the flag wins and the lucky local dogs get to enjoy the remaining crumbs! The best two out of three pastie tosses gets the trophy.

St Piran’s Day started as one of the many tinners’ holidays observed by the tin miners of Cornwall. Other miners’ holidays of a similar nature include Picrous Day and Chewidden Thursday. There is little description of specific traditions associated with this day. However, many observers noted the large consumption of alcohol and food during ‘Perrantide’. The day following the St Piran’s Day was known by many as ‘Mazey Day’, a term which has now been adopted by the revived Golowan festival in Penzance. The phrase ‘drunk as a perraner’ was used in 19th century Cornwall to describe people who had consumed large quantities of alcohol.

a wikipedia extract

Proper Pasty Catering Van

Proper Pasty Company have been distributing Cornish Pasties, Sandwiches and other lunchtime meals to the remote workplace for over 6 years now.

As we have expanded our fleet of vehicles our image, message and product offer has evolved to reflect the changes in tastes and service.  The remote workplace is no less demanding than the city centre trade and we feel that it is our duty to deliver the very best in food quality to out of town businesses, why should they accept anything less?

With the new Dyna chassis we have the capabilities to double our stock for sales, this means that by clever stock management methods we can ensure that we can provide customers with an abundance of fresh products whether they are at the beginning or at the end of the round!  Our extensive range of food products caters to all tastes and nutritional leanings, hot or cold, vegetarian or health fanatic!

With the expansion of our fleet we have also convinced other licensed operators and food businesses to extend the reach of their high street shops to the remote workplace.  Our quality food to the workplace pledge is spreading across the network with the latest addition to our licensed operator in Yarm who have just invested in their second catering van after the first was so successful.

The Proper Pasty catering vans serve the following products:-

Hot Products

• Cornish Pasties (in a variety of flavours)
• Sausage Rolls
• Jacket Potatoes
• Sausage and Cheese Turnovers
• Savoury Chicken & Bacon Slices / Steak Slices
• Calzones
• Pocket Pies
• Bacon Sandwiches / Sausage Sandwiches
• Weekly Specials…Shepherds Pie / Sausage Casserole / Curry & Rice

Cold Products

• Fresh Sandwich Wedges ( Meat / Seafood / Vegetarian)
• Salad Boxes
• Fruit Salad Boxes
• Yoghurt
• Loose Fruit
• Milk
• Bottled Soft Drinks

Snack Products

• Crisps in a variety of flavours
• Chocolate Bars
• Muffins
• Cakes

The product offer changes from week to week according to weather and specials that we create especially for the catering vans.  In addition we also change the Pasty of the Month in line with our retail shops, this extensive offer enables us to capture more custom and reatin their loyalty.

Pasty of the Month March – Chicken & Bacon Cornish Pasty

What better Cornish Pasty to bring in the Spring time other than Chicken and Bacon!  Filled with fresh Cornish farmed vegetables mixed with large pieces of diced white chicken breast and the best bacon cut in a creamy sauce. This meal in a pastry case delivers a real lunchtime fill.

The Chicken and Bacon Cornish Pasty is part of our “Speciality” pasty range and takes pride of place as our March pasty of the month.

Calzones … Taste of Italy!

Try our new “Tastes of Italy” range of Calzones, a range of three delicious flavours from the Italian table!

The Calzone is a pocket of low fat pizza dough, produced in the traditional Italian way and filled with any combination of fillings. Choose from Bolognaise, Pepperoni or Margherita flavoured fillings.

We realise that not everybody can eat a Pasty every day of the week and the Calzone is a great Hot alternative to the traditional British sandwich at lunchtime…also suits the dinner plate, served with fresh salad and a generous drizzle of Olive Oil or Balsamic Vinegar!

Cornish Camper Vans

A revival is a-happenin’ thanks to those Cornish Surfer crowds.  The vintage VW Camper Van is hitting the scene around the World with a huge splash!  Mostly associated with the surfing scene, the VW camper has long enjoyed peaceful retirement at the bottom of the garden or buried in the European scrap heaps…until now.

Some outstanding renovations of this iconic VW have delivered automobile real eye-candy around the globe and as a result they are commanding huge sums of money (comparitively speaking).  The demand for second hand VW Campers and Camper parts has rocketed over the past three to five years and this former RV of the 70′s bohemian family really has risen to a cult status particularly in the surfing community.

As iconic as it is, with it’s association in surfing circles and Cornwall, the cornish pasty business owner also stakes his claim on the camper.  There are businesses out there who have adopted this icon as their catering van for selling pasties from!

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