NT they've really gone and done it now!

The National Trust need to address the pricing system in their tea-rooms. Very expensive at most properties. Recently my husband and I each had a bacon roll and a cup of tea. the bill was over £12.00. Ingredients would not have cost more than £1.00 in total. I know they have overheads, but really!
I strongly advise taking a picnic.

Oh for goodness sake we are in the middle of an OBESITY crisis!

People need to eat far less sugar and fat like margarine. Seeds and nuts provide the right kind of fats. Fruit is a natural sweetener.

Why are you dinosaurs protesting? We will have a generation whose life expectancy is reducing not increasing.
This is a good thing, not a bad thing!

There should have been a paragraph break before my last sentence.

Obviously I mean it is a good thing sugar is decreasing. Not life expectancy!

I expect this has been discussed before, but if wish there was a 'like' or 'thumbs up button.
I often agree with a comment, but don't have anything to add as a reply, and it would be interesting to see how much support views have.

Not worth me having NT membership now as I have a dog.

I'm with you Riverwalk. Never considered it a 'good buy'

Grannyknot your logic and wit is lovely. Ditto on both counts from me.

chris so do we!

Next week off to Chartwell where we can take him into the formal garden, the wider park and sit outside in the courtyard for lunch. We know there is plenty of shade for parking so he will be on his own snoozing whilst we look around the house after his walk etc. It is usually a timed entry so will go on line and book and plan accordingly.

Lots of lovely parkland now to take your dog.
One of our nearest and favourites is Nymans where there is a valley walk by lakes and around the woodland that takes a good couple of hours. Plenty of shade for parking as well.

i'm not a member of the trust either and rarely visit any of their properties.
but when i do i will be sure to pass on the flapjack - whoever heard of flapjack not being the sweet syrupy delight it's always been.
hopefully visitors will vote with their "eyes" [or whatever] and leave their horrible looking flapjack on the shelf - birds eat seed not humans.

Depends how often you go there. We visit up to 10 properties every year, some we go to regularly to walk around the gardens, probably use the tea shops. One is one of our lunch stop-overs when we head off to see DGC in Yorkshire. You need your ticket to access the gardens and cafe's; anything is better than a motorway service station.

We also belong to the Historic Houses Association (HHA) and English Heritage. As you may gather we are heritage junkies.

We also like supporting them even if we do not visit because, disgruntled (I love that word!) as I am with the NT, they, with the other two do so much to protect our countryside from the depredations of developers.

We have seen in our area that the Green belt, once thought to be sacrosanct is constantly having large chunks bitten out of it under the cry of more affordable homes, which the houses then built on it are not, because the Green belt is under the care and supervision of the government and local authorities.

The NT also do much to encourage ethical farming, though even with that they have a tendency to over-zealousness.

I can't remember if it was in this piece or a subsequent Telegraph letter, but it was pointed out that the flapjack is a generous size, and an easier way to be "healthier" was just to make it a bit smaller. IMO trying to make cakes healthy by fiddling with the recipes is ridiculous. No-one buys a piece of cake assuming it to be a sugar free/fat free product. It's a treat, generally, not compulsory (!) so you could just choose to be even healthier by not eating it in the first place

Anyone got a recipe for a nice squidgy flapjack I can make at home? I never seem to get them right - so some tips would be welcome!
We're a bit short on NT properties in my area - but you have all reminded me of the importance of occasional treats and tradition...(sigh of nostalgia here...)

I am a N.T. member and noticed recently that there were very few women on the Board. Maybe that's why they are now embroiled in flapjack gate! !

I am a member of NT because I love their beautiful houses & gardens but never have been a great fan of their politics....

Entirely agree "GrammaH" Even though there is a dearth of NT properties near here, I do like to contribute to the upkeep of these fantastic places. I've often thought that I would like to be a part of the admin. of this organisation as there is much that I don't agree with. One of my gripes is the amount of money spent on restoration by using the original materials. Surely it is good enough to use replacement/modern materials as long as the finished article is identical.

We are not members either as everywhere we go we take our dog. Yes there are some lovely parklands but I would not leave the dog in the car to view the big houses, which is really what the NT is all about.
As for the flapjack, surely its up to the individual to choose whether they want a high sugar fix or not. You don't have to buy the cakes.

I resigned from the NT many years ago over their policy of moving away from what was their core remit. Have never regretted it as they ciontinued to change, and never mind the food.

Mention of the FODMAP diet reminds me - I am using it and lost a stone very easily - that it is being used to help with a range of bowel problems. And it is being revised by the authors at Melbourne Uni as more data comes in.

They have excellent picnic provision at most of the places we visit - especially good if you have the dgc with you. If we're on our own, we usually would have tea or coffee and used to share a flapjack - maybe give it a miss next time. Interesting point about cost of restoration - I also think that there are some properties that weren't worth restoring at all - but I love Standen especially. Did anyone see the series of programmes about the Landmark Trust ( last year?).

Well I think it sounds delicious, and I would choose it if it was an acceptable price, whereas I wouldn't choose a traditional flapjack, far too many calories!

You have my sympathy, eddiecat78 - I'm on a low carb diet which has successfully kept me off medication for Type 2 diabetes, and I can't ever get a snack when I'm out because everything has carbs in it. Even courgette soup comes with 'crusty bread'. I would love to see strawberries (v low carb) and cream (no carbs) served at NT properties - just as quintessentially British, but with far less sugar. The liquidised peaches will add just as much sugar back to the so-called flapjack as it had before, anyway - as M0nica says, this is just virtue signalling. I used to make wonderful 'Cheesejacks' with cheese and a bit of mustard as well as the oats and butter - I much preferred them to sweet ones anyway .... though I admit I do miss golden syrup!

Petalmoore, totally agree with you. Am controlling type 2 and wish they did mini salads or a mini fruit salad .
Am rather surprised this nation is not even more overweight.
No I don't belong to the NT. There are too many large country houses in this country. And land owners don't pay inheritance tax on land. Which is why pop stars etc think they are a good investment.

Land-owners do pay inheritance on land. Many of the properties that came to the NT came in order to avoid it.

Nowadays most of the landed gentry have trusts set up, with trustees, that mean that they does not own the land or house but just draw an income.They are not always trustees and have limited power. The Duke of Marlborough through the trust, stopped his eldest son from having anything to do with the family estate because of his drug addiction, although it was changed later when he had been clean for a number of years, and near us another member of the landed gentry was evicted from the family home by the trustees after a very long court case. I am not sure he even gets an income from the estate.

Not a member. Do not have transport so not a usable option to be a member.

Oh for goodness sake we are in the middle of an OBESITY crisis!

But we're not going to go to a NT property every day and eat flapjack! I don't think that NT flapjacks are the cause of the obesity crisis, most of their food is healthy and often grown in their own kitchen gardens.
In fact, we probably wouldn't eat one once a month (and most NT properties are shut for several months of the year anyway) - and a flapjack is a flapjack, a seed and fruit bar is something else and needs another name.

And there was me, clicking on this thread and it's about cake, not about the people at Blickling Hall being banished to the basement if they won't wear the pink bows!