Olives

Olives...green, black, Spanish, delicatessan gourmet delights.  Their divine flavour belies the fact that when eaten directly from a tree, your mouth will pucker at the sharp disgusting acidity. How can something so foul possibly turn into a taste sensation??
Many people here have olive trees, but noone seems to actually use them, so I thought it must be really hard to make olives.  Well, take a bit of salt and water, and think again.

Nuts!

Well, it's been a while since any blogs got blogged about here, and alongside the fine autumn weather which keeps me happily away from a computer, my top excuse is that I've been busy...
busy increasing GDP?  No, not exactly, but busy investing in my nut supplies during the harvest season.

For the urban gatherer there's a vast amount of bounty to be found dropping into parks and lining the footpaths in autumn.  Walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts...

The splinter secret

"Do you know a good poultice??"  a friend asked this morning.  "I've got this enormous splinter in my thumb, it's been in there 3 days, is infected and I've tried...everything"  "Everything??"  "Well, first I did a bread poultice, then silicon paste...no luck.  Someone recommended soaking in cider vinegar for 30 minutes, which didn't work...finally I tried sunlight soap and sugar last night...and it's still there."
"Ah, yes, but it's really easy, all you need is...