In praise of SPONG

SPONG is the name of a device I found in a charity shop. It's a mincer that screws onto the table in the caravan. It's ancient, simple, robust and highly effective. You feed stuff into the vessel and wind the handle, which turns an Archimedes screw, forcing the stuff through a couple of metal discs with holes in, reducing it to mash. It has revolutionised my life. No more of the agony of trying to grind chickpeas in a mouli or herbs in a parsmint. These two tools have served my mashing needs for the past nine years, since living without electricity, but both the mouli and parsmint are plastic, bijou, feeble affairs, which leave me aching and cross after endeavouring to squish any serious volume of stuff. At this time of year, my garden is producing mint by the sackful. A parsmint just is not powerful enough. Now, with SPONG, mint sauce is just a few handle-turns away.