"A great deal of human traffic moves through Gipsy House and more than 100 suppers, not to mention lunches, are devoured here with gusto every week of the year. Liccy and I have between us six daughters, a son, two sons-in-law
and five grandchildren. As well as that, we have five sisters between us, and they in turn have their own large families
of children and grandchildren. Many of this vast population live within thirty miles of Gypsy House, and all are welcome
to come by for a meal. Our dining room contains an old pine farmhouse table twelve feet long and three feet wide surrounded by many chairs, but even so there are times when it is a squsah to get everyone in."
"The best buyers of food (or anything else) are opportunists. If a cook passes a shop with a hake just in, gleaming and fluffy, or a brace of partridges on the hook, he should get them first, then decide what to do with his purchase. To go out looking for either of these things could lead to disappointment, and makes no allowance for the possibility that the best
fish on the slab might be a haddock or herrings, that there may be no fresh fish at all, or that there might be something better in the butcher's way."
"Great mother-cooks produce great great daughter-cooks and so on ad infinitum. The kitchens of great mother-cooks are suffused with a glow of enthusiasm and competence, and the children are encouraged to come in to watch and learn. The kitchens of lousy mother-cooks on the other hand are usually chaotic and messy, and any child who ventures in is likely
to be greeted with an 'Oh, do get out of my way! Can't you see I'm busy!'
"The finest large onions that I have ever grown come from seed supplied by a small family nursery in
the north, W. Robinson and Sons Ltd, Sunny Bank, Foron, near Preston, Lancashire, PR3 0BN,
and they are called Mammoth Improved Onion."
"We are all pigs, but we are, I hope, discerning pigs who care with some passion about fine cooking."
from Memories with Food at Gipsy House by Felicity and Road Dahl.