God bless Canon MacQueen and Barra

Sally Rogers sends along this marvelous story about an elderly Scottish Catholic priest who lives and serves in the Outer Hebrides. Excerpt:

He still grows his own crops - carrots, onions, early potatoes, main crop.

"The potatoes we like best are something like Maris Piper for a main crop. The people in England they like wet potatoes. The people in the highlands of Scotland only eat dry potatoes. We were quite surprised when that war was on and people came to build airport runways here on the bigger islands. We thought we would sell them potatoes and we grew potatoes for them but they didn't like them because they were dry. Now, our idea of a potato is something that throws off its jacket once it's boiled, and is dry and you eat it with your fingers by preference. Those of us who are very old, we eat all our fish with our fingers. We forgive Queen Margaret of Scotland, God rest her soul, for bringing knives and forks from France."

On the fish front, herring and mackerel are obvious favourites: "We cure our own herrings and mackerel with rough fishing salt" and Dover sole would be a "very ordinary working-class man's dish". The island has a large fish processing plant which exports three days a week all over Europe and attracts labour from different Eastern European countries including Poland, Latvia, Estonia - "do you know there are more Masses said in Polish in the Catholic churches in Scotland than there are Masses said in Gaelic?" he said. "Our language, of course, is Gaelic." The men work on the boats, the women on the factory floor processing jumbo prawns and scallops.

Canon MacQueen does all his own cooking using old-fashioned iron pots, frying pans and griddles. "Good Hebridean food, it's so easy because we have the best ingredients." His six hens keep him supplied in eggs for his scones. "I do a lot of baking. The fish factory is just down the road. We have the largest red crabs you ever saw, we have lobsters, crayfish sometimes weighing up to six to seven pounds. I can wander along the shore and knowing the fishermen I can always find a fish to eat or a bit of lamb. During the hard time of the winter, we have barrels of herring and mackerel with potatoes. We are potato people. We eat potatoes every day... Kerr's Pink, Golden Wonder..."

Every morning after he has fed his animals, he sets off, visiting the small hospital and old people's home "just talking to people, wandering about".

Sounds heavenly. How remote are the Outer Hebrides? A pretty far piece. Father MacQueen lives on the isle of Barra. Learn more about Barra here. I want to go!