Monday, November 5, 2012

Don't throw that away!

A post more in keeping with the intent of this blog today, about a wild harvest and using up everything:

My darling SO, he of the "bake crackers in the car" adventure, is an evil genius for using up, or fixing, or re-purposing,  any and everything - seriously, nothing gets thrown away around here. He does most of the cooking in this house, and I have learned the hard way always to ask "what's in this?" before taking the proffered bite -remember that slightly rotten milk? or the mouldy cheese? Yeah, you're eating it. I have to say, it's all  been good, and we haven't died yet. But it's the idea of it sometimes, amirite?

But the subject of today's story is slightly more appealing - in the village of Davayé in Bourgogne, there is an agricultural college, where you can learn to grow grapes, make wine, raise goats, and make cheese. Some vines there are still hung with grapes, a little too old for the harvest, maybe? Well, today they were "re-purposed", shall we say, and are being turned into wine. Fruit gleaned from the field that would otherwise be left to rot, turning into free wine. Whether it'll be drinkable or not is another story. Fred's fingers are stained prurple from the grapes; a few years ago, so were his feet, because he just had to try the old-time "stomp on the grapes" method.

Me? I have my eye on everyone's front yards, where the ornamental quince bushes are now leafless, exposing a surprisingly large yield of fruit - quince jelly! and chutney! Pretty sure that will be edible, at least.

Davayé:

6 comments:

  1. I had never even heard of quince until last holiday season, when a friend from Australia brought quince jelly with cheeses and crackers for our get together. And now, I am hearing about quince everywhere! There's a thread in LSG about it, and you're giving quince bushes the eye...

    But at least wine and quince is a much more pleasant thing to consider than wind chill and snow.

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    1. I went looking for that thread - synchronicity, is that the word I want?

      This morning early dog walk was...crisp? Or, not to beat around a (quince) bush, fucking cold!

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  2. When the zombie horde descends I want you on my team.

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    1. Yeah, immune to pretty much everything by now, even zombie bites.

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  3. What a beautiful view! What does quince taste like? I've only ever really heard of it in connection with medieval recipes (I reenact).

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  4. Quince tastes like....quince, haha! I suppose you could say it's apple-y, with some flowery notes, maybe? Hard to describe, quite yummy.

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