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"Why don't you come on Thursday," says Audrey, "that's baking day." Baking day! My mind flies back to my childhood in rural England and the excitement of the kitchen where, once a week, old Emily would stoke up the range and cook a mountain of pies, cakes and cookies to last for seven days.

First would emerge jam tarts, maids of honor (almond tartlets), ginger cookies and scones, all brown and crisp from the early, searing heat of the oven. Then came larger cakes -- pink, white and chocolate marbled sponge, checkered Battenberg loaf, and seedy cake, an ancient recipe flavored with caraway seeds that stick between the teeth. Finally, as the oven cooled, the slower baked custard tarts and fruit cakes emerged. Cherry cake was a particular specialty of Emily's, a poundcake studded with whole red candied cherries, the trick being to toss the heavy cherries in flour to prevent them falling to the bottom of the batter.

We were a small household, but on the nearby farm where Audrey now lives, the farmer's wife cooked three hearty meals a day for up to a dozen, with snacks in between still known as l0 o'clock's and 3 o'clock's. These were carried into the fields, great tin cans of hot tea, baskets of scones, pies, and Yorkshire teacakes, sweet yeast breads flavored with dried fruits, candied peel, and often with spice. Plain bread was made at home, kneaded on the wooden kitchen table, then left to rise in a bowl covered with a damp cloth in front of the fire. "My mother used a 50-pound bag of flour each week", says Audrey.

She herself is a notable baker, loading the table with treats such as fat rascals, sweet currant scones made with a batter soft enough to drop from the spoon. "Don't overmix them", warns Audrey -- "that's the key to a light scone." Tea, around 6 o'clock, includes fruit loaf, apple pie, and perhaps some home cured ham or cold meat left over from lunch. Jams are home made, and for us visitors Audrey has whipped up a fatless Victoria sponge, filled with raspberry jam and cream from the dairy. "Have another slice" she presses us, "it won't keep, you know."

Baking and preserving are just the beginning of Audrey's tasks. Poultry is also her province -- she raises turkeys and chickens, with a few geese and ducks for the Christmas table. Her mother kept pigs, making the trimmings into black pudding, a blood sausage thickened with oatmeal, and brawn, a type of head cheese using the cheeks, shanks and perhaps a rabbit or chicken.

The local Wensleydale cheese is world renowned, and Audrey remembers the surplus milk being curdled with rennet then pressed into molds with the whey going to the pigs. A few fresh curds would be reserved for curd tarts, the local version of cheesecake. Any spare time is spent in the garden, Audrey's love, but the climate is chilly and vegetables are limited to roots, the onion and cabbage families, plus some peas and beans. Mint and sage are the only herbs, reflecting the wholesome Yorkshire table.

Surrounded by good food, you would expect Audrey to be as plump as her currant scones. But no. "The wives work harder than the farmers," cuts in my mother who has been listening as we talk. She should know. Her mother and grandmother were born and raised in this house, moving to the local market town only when the motor car, and my grandfather's new-found prosperity, opened the way.

Fat Rascals
Makes 8 cakes

Made just like scones but with more sugar, fat rascals are a favorite on the farm at the l0 o'clock tea break.

1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup lard or shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup dried currants
2 tablespoons golden raisins
grated zest of one orange
3/4 cup milk, more if needed
1/4 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup water (for glaze)

1. Heat the oven to 400 F; grease and flour a baking sheet. Sift the flour into a bowl with the baking powder and salt. With your fingers or two knives, work the lard or shortening into the flour to make course crumbs. Stir in the sugar, currants, raisins and orange zest.

2. Make a well in the center, add the milk and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are incorporated into a sticky dough. Do not over mix the dough or the cakes will be tough.

3. Using two large spoons, drop the dough onto the baking sheet, leaving at least two inches of space between them. Bake in the heated oven for 20-25 minutes, until browned and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

4. Meanwhile heat the sugar with the water until dissolved to form a syrup. Brush the syrup over the cakes while they are still warm. They are best eaten the day of baking but can be kept up to 2 days in an airtight container.

Anne Willan is the founder of the famous French cooking school, LaVarenne, and has also served as president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She is the author of over a dozen internationally published cookbooks.