This pile of apples for cider appears at the roadside on one of my regular routes every year, this is the first time I've remembered the camera and made the time to stop for it. The morbidly picturesque levels of decay of the apples will not put me off the next coruscating glass of the delectable beverage I enjoy; I trust to the time-honoured practice of fermentation to render all things pure to the pure. And I notice that some willow leaves have also made their way into the mix, thereby perhaps supplying some useful salicylic acid to offset the headache-provoking properties of the final product. Yum.
And further to this paean to the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, rot, fungus and decay, a collection of mushrooms and toadstools. My friend E found a real cep today in the woods near her house, though not a very large one, I have never been so lucky. She was going to take it to the pharmacy to be sure, and a field mouse or some such had had a little go at it first, but she was looking forward to eating it later. Never such a year for fungi, so late.
Just one more blogging day to go!
7 comments:
Ceps are the favored mushroom here too; I think there is something about the nutty flavor (and ease of identification) that makes it the mushroom of mushrooms.
Do most pharmacists in French towns double as mushroom identifiers or is it just this one? Very intrigued!
Love you photos. And you've done very good at Nablopomo . . better than me.
Love these collages. A cep! Yum. Lucky E. I bought two (local which was unusual here) in the market on Sunday. Gulp. Broke the bank but such a treat. (I reasoned it was cheaper than going out to dinner!)
which reminds me of the unscrupulous pharmacist in a small Italian town who examined the baskets of mushrooms collected by a hapless visitor, declared them to be poisonous, confiscated them and then took them home to eat.
i love the dull, dirty bruised look of the cider apples - and that totally black one! the fungi on the other hand are a revelation. I have never seen such perfect undamaged ones as you have there, or as you are so skilled at finding!
Bruised beauties. The apple collage reminded me of Frost's poem, "After Apple-Picking."
Thanks all.
Julia, yes, it's part of a pharmacist's training and function here (and evidently in Italy too, seeing Mouse's comment!) something of a responsibility, I imagine, but let's hope they have lovely field trips into the woods and meadows learning to id them! Often in the autumn they have window displays of artificial fungi.
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