"Blest fig's-end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes."
A highly succesful morning so far.
The Old Man came round early with a load of parsley plants, two 'parsley planters' and a bag of compost. We really need parsley, because I use a lot of garlic in cooking, and parsley makes heavy garlic eaters a little more socially acceptable.
Then we moved a load of baby trees from his allotment to mine. 20-odd fig trees and a dozen or so lemon trees, the result of my buggering around with fig and lemon seeds a couple of years ago. The figs will go on the allotment. The lemon trees... Christmas presents for houseplants, perhaps.
Then we went to the back of the fruit shop in Jarrow. What happens is, when stuff is past its sell-by, it has to get thrown away. It's a sin, really. So Dad's got a deal with the shop manageress to get greens for his hens, and I tagged along this morning, and Oh my God! Pounds of grapes waiting to be sent to a bliddy landfill somewhere. Strawberries ditto. SO we loaded the car up and brought them back here. I've gotten recipes for strawberry wine, and for proper wine from the grapes, (though they're seedless eating grapes of course, not muscadet, so it'll be an adventure). Now I've got to get to the Town and get some new wine yeast and other bits and pieces... So I'll stop tapping away here for now.
The Old Man came round early with a load of parsley plants, two 'parsley planters' and a bag of compost. We really need parsley, because I use a lot of garlic in cooking, and parsley makes heavy garlic eaters a little more socially acceptable.
Then we moved a load of baby trees from his allotment to mine. 20-odd fig trees and a dozen or so lemon trees, the result of my buggering around with fig and lemon seeds a couple of years ago. The figs will go on the allotment. The lemon trees... Christmas presents for houseplants, perhaps.
Then we went to the back of the fruit shop in Jarrow. What happens is, when stuff is past its sell-by, it has to get thrown away. It's a sin, really. So Dad's got a deal with the shop manageress to get greens for his hens, and I tagged along this morning, and Oh my God! Pounds of grapes waiting to be sent to a bliddy landfill somewhere. Strawberries ditto. SO we loaded the car up and brought them back here. I've gotten recipes for strawberry wine, and for proper wine from the grapes, (though they're seedless eating grapes of course, not muscadet, so it'll be an adventure). Now I've got to get to the Town and get some new wine yeast and other bits and pieces... So I'll stop tapping away here for now.
Good luck on the wine - my Mom tried that once. She did make wine, though my Dad wouldn't drink it . . .
ReplyDelete-John
Wow.. all that sounds great. I really want to plant a bunch of fruit trees in our garden - get rid of those damn firs! You'll have to keep up up to date on any fruits the trees produce.
ReplyDeleteFigs are SO easy. Just buy a fresh fig, it contains hundreds of seeds. Sow them on top of compost in a seed tray (they need light to germinate), and away you go. The clever part is to make sure the roots are confined when you plant them in the garden - otherwise, they'll not bear fruit.
ReplyDeleteI'll certainly keep you posted.