marie-helene kutek

Second post today, my giddy aunt!!
Roses, it`s a love affair, particularly old style beautifully fragrant roses.
I love watching bumble bees rolling about in the flowers, drunk on nectar?
petals are dried and used in soothing teas, additions to salads and in rice dishes, inspired by Iranian jewel rice.
And preserved in honey.
Hips are gathered, some eaten on the way home and the rest dried for use in sugarless jams and syrups.

So another story, here it comes; boarding school a country away from nuclear family was a blessing and a challenge for me and my keepers. Room for lots of adventures for a feisty 10 year old.
Anyway, a besandaled(my invention) nun took me under her wing, told me that the rose garden was my look-out.
I learnt a lot from her including grafting which has been splendidly useful over the years.
Rose grafting is not too dissimilar to grafting vines and it has given me the confidence to graft fruit trees in spring and later in summer, using different methods of course.

The rose nursery has become a veritable jungle with cuttings competing for attention.
Even in last summer`s heatwave, they managed to grow vigorously.
They do receive tender care and attention, so much so that an apple tree, a couple of peaches and some invasive plum have joined them. Food forest? The dewberry is under the impression that ground cover is needed, in the mix, battling with Melissa, a harpy of a wonderful herb.

I gather that rose bushes are planted at the end of a row of vines as an indicator of disease. The roses give advance warning of potential illness in the vine.
Thank you for contributions, inc pictures.
I shan`t go on, it`s a bit of a train spotter thing, yawn.

Blessings
M-H

Hello salut
I love the comment about building high tolerance to bad coffee.
It is rare to be served with delicious hot coffee in food establishments in these parts.
Cold cups? recycled grounds?

I have a variety of coffee making implements and I find it`s a mix of coffee quality; temperature, timing, water ......
then my eyes glaze over.
Very little gets done of a morning before and until a substantial amount of coffee has been consumed

Two French presses, one glass, regularly replaced, that oh dear elbow moment with flying coffee press: and a stainless steel version; much sturdier and retains some heat. This method uses more coffee, I think, and sometimes the brew is rather good.

Years ago, with family in Central Europe, we drank rather palatable coffee; cowboy style has been mentioned, coffee grounds in a glass, covered with boiling water, with a glass saucer placed on top. The condensation on the saucer drips to encourage the grounds to settle.

In Yugoslavia, as was, I was given coffee making lessons to make Turkish style coffee.
in a small usually aluminium pot, make a sugar syrup, bring it to a rolling boil, take it off the heat, add the very finely ground coffee, put it back on the source of heat until the liquid starts to climb, frothing, in the pot, any longer and it tastes bitter.
The pots are really small, taking about 4 shot size glasses of water, a tsp of sugar and coffee per glass, sometimes a drop of rose water.
I would order 4 coffees, then wait and wait. They didn`t know that the order was all for me.

The hedges are calling for attention and it`s not raining.
Blessings and good wishes to us all
Later I shall have a cup to drink to our health

M-H

Hello,
Thank you all for the carrot info.
One day,I too might have a carroty harvest.
Clay soil, very heavy, drought, mulch, flood. It gets a little biblical.

ADVICE:My neighbour, when she was active, mixed carrot seed with radish and sand.
It solves the thinning challenge as radish is harvested way before carrot and the radish leaves provide early shade.
It worked for her.
Perhaps I should give it a go, finally.

Blessings to us all
M-H
and, grated carrot steeped in olive oil, left for a bit, then filtered, makes a fab non toxic sun screen.
Perhaps some presidents with an orangey complexion use it for protection, who knows?

Hello,
What a wonderful post!! The whole thing, I mean.
Nancy’s photo reminds me of soda bread which I make.

I use lye for cleaning clothes, as a ‘detergent’, sometimes soaking ivy in it for extra value and scent.
Never used it in cooking but am aware of its use to optimize corn/maze qualities.

Bicarbs, I know it’s a side issue, it costs an arm and a leg to purchase as a grocery item, between 3 and 7 euros for very small quantities, not even 1/2 kg
I discovered, as an innocent, that I could buy 25kg sacks of it for less than 20 euros, as an animal feed supplement.
I have the space to store sacks of useful stuff in bins and to share with friends and neighbours.
They call to ask for 1kg of that white powder, haha.

When I bought the bicarbs in small quantities, I didn’t use it much.
Now it’s used for clothes washing, washing dishes, leaves glasses sparkling, removing moss from the roof, as a dry hair wash, exfoliation for better skin health, toothpaste, around the house to discourage all kinds of bugs like fleas etc, they don’t like the ph, on the kitties also for bugs, in the fridge as a deodorant, and of course in the kitchen, soaking dried pulses to shorten cooking time but rinse well otherwise there is a frothy volcanic reaction when heated, beware.
SODA Bread, it’s delicious and dead quick to prepare.
I welcome recipe suggestions, not to hog the post.

It’s getting decidedly nippy, I’m outside with a suggestion of sun but moving is a good idea.
Blessings
M-H

hello hello,

wonderful peach pictures, thank you.

i started off with one peach tree, now they grow like weeds, die off pretty young but hey ho.
the photograph with the branches heaving under the weight of fruit is pretty much the situation here.
i have no idea about varieties; they know who they are.
locally, they are referred to as peche de vigne as they grow around grapevines, like fruity groupies.
they come in white, yellow or red flesh.
i have the white which have finished now and on to the yellow ones.
everyone is enjoying them. ants and bees and wasps and hornets are busy in the branches.
i need to pick them several times a day to avoid total rot.
they are fabulously delicious and juicy.

baskets and crates full of these fruit in the kitchen.
what next?
jam, chutney, compote(canned fruit), juice, cake, dehydrated slices and fruit leather, juice all over my hands and chin as I can`t resist another bite.

as for protection, yes egg shells; I hang those up in little nets in the tree, plant tansy hoping to discourage ants, a bit, and have lots of copper wire, mesh and  pipes all over the place, mainly to stave off slugs.
at the same time I`m careful with copper as I believe it`s an indiscriminate fungicide and I like mushrooms, some at least.
I remember a newspaper headline: copper kills sheep.
they were not talking about British policemen sometimes referred to as coppers.

I have used a spray using diluted whey to keep some pests away from peach and certainly apple, early in the year.

my approach to many things is intuitive so crap with dates, measurement, recipes and such like.

There is now a very happy frog in the new pond; lots of rain, yey!
the pond needs shade after a summer of worrisome evaporation.
duckweed, source of vitamine b12, has arrived which will afford a little protection, and willow are making lovely roots in various buckets and will be planted shortly.
the peaches are just too fruity to be near the pond.

thank you and of course merci
blessings from peachy me
m-h

Hello and Salut

The sun is shining. We had monsoon rain the other day, hip hip hooray, whilst the village down the road had a shower.
There you go.

WALNUT oil, I’m writing from walnut country and I confess to having taken a step back when I read that the oil is used for
treating wood. And why not? (I have used olive oil.)
It’s jolly expensive even here, and even if you have your own walnuts.
I didn’t make oil from the last crop. Some visiting friends asked if I could source some oil for them this last week.
Difficult as supplies have been sold in readiness for this year’s harvest.
Managed to find some: 2l of unknown quality in recycled clear glass bottles, @ 10€ each.
That’s a giveaway price and found another 1/2l for 12€, which is more like the bottom end of the going rate.

The oil should not be heated for culinary use; it has some sort of nasty chemical effect. Not good.
And, a question for a quizz night: which oil can be emulsified with water?
Answer, yes, walnut oil. The one and only I have been led to believe.
I haven’t tried this myself.
An ancient, experienced walnut person advised me of this and the information could be useful for our wood treatments.

Interesting also if you want to ‘lengthen’ your oil to achieve higher profits. The things people do.
Something I would come across in my line of work at some stage of my professional meanderings.

Thank you for all the wood advice.
Let’s have a lovely week with thoughts of autumnal planting blessings
M-H

Hello again,

Welcome to the other first posters missed.
Welcome welcome and thank you for info
M-H

It’s the heat

Helloooo,

Welcome Johanna

Super advice from everyone and everywhere. Thank you

With dog issues, Diameticious earth(DE) both topically and with raw food.
Dealt with some worming and post flea bite skin inflammation.
Massage with, is it tansy leaves and whatever oil is to hand.

For skin issues someone suggested sulphur in drinking water.
I’d drop a modest slab in the bowl.
I found some skin beauty sulphur soap.

All of these provided relief to the beasts, me inc.

Cats also with skin issues.
One I suspect of neuroses and I’m not investing in therapy.
She has massively improved with DE, MMS in her drinking water; she seeks it out, and also applied topically.
I use the stuff so why not share the benefits.

A homeopathic vet suggested arsenic, can’t remember the dilution.
Moggy wasn’t having it.

They all seem to enjoy the loving application of salves and oil, in moderation of course, with relief that it provides.
Thanks for the heads up on plastic dishes.  

It’s seriously baking hot here, no really, and draught again, and believe it or not, slug guest appearances?
Whatever.

May our furry companions fare well, and us too

Well watered blessings if only in my dreams at the moment
M-H

Me, again, it must be the weather

Use percarbonate as a whitening agent for textiles.
Had some mixture left over so iffy jars and glasses went in. Good result, cleaned the scale off.
Not bad with getting certain labels off too.
I have also used the liquid on outside plastic and wood furniture, sorry! but it do a nice job.

Blessings from nearly hygienic M-H

My 10cents  worth,

Thumb, the bit with the nail is one inch, c.2.5cm, pretty much universal I believe.
When smoking, I used lighters, cigar boxes also useful for carrying harvested seeds.
Feet not so good as sizes vary a lot, eventhough one foot is 12 inches.

Sometimes, size is not shared: omg you should have seen it! like the fish that got away - I don’t fish

As mentioned, it’s what is immediately available to give others an idea of dimensions.

Blessings
M-H