Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac – Beware of treacherous fruit

Mrs Finnegan, housekeeper at The Regency Town House, author, almanac-ist AND expert preserver of all manner of food is GLAD that matters are no worse…

I’m told it’s been a middling harvest this year and after the bitter cold winter and wet spring we’ve had we should be grateful as HIGH bread prices brings hunger into HOMES and rioters out on the street.
I am therefore delighted to share this CHEERFUL harvest song (although vicars should perhaps SKIP the second verse).

Cider is an ESSENTIAL part of the harvest and it is not unusual for farms to give their workers a gallon a day, and more, if they ask for it. (And I’m told they DO ask.)
I was offered some last week by a local farmer. I would have refused except he poured it into a charming tea cup and was anxious for my culinary opinion having made it himself.
One sip ROBBED me of speech, turned my mouth into a desert and left the DISTINCT impression that my teeth were covered in fur.
The farmer announced that his cider was sharp enough to cut the throat of a graveyard ghost, as if that was a good thing. I rather wish he had told me BEFORE I took a sip rather than wait until afterwards.

Bottle Up!

It is the season for bottling, preserving, pickling and general storing of the things PLUCKED fresh from your GARDEN and the GLUT of fruit and vegetables available in the market place. The following tips should prove useful.

Apples MUST be spread, separately, on clean dry straw, on a dry upper floor of an out building (if you have one). Care should be taken to preserve them from frost.

Pears have to be be hung up, singly, by the stalk in a dry place.
It is a frizzy-frazzy kind of job hardly worth the EFFORT as it is well known that the pear is a treacherous fruit. It will turn from granite hard to syrupy mush in the time it takes a hard-working housekeeper have her AFTERNOON nap.

All MANNER of fruit can be BOTTLED in the following fashion:
Pick before it is too ripe and PUT into wide-mouthed bottles. Cork them down tight ; then put them into a moderately heated oven for three hours. Store in a cool place to keep them from fermenting. They should keep for TWO years.

Saint of the Week

St. Simeon the Stylite Feast Day September 1st.

In a drawing room full of saints, St Simeon would stand out.
Well, I suppose he wouldn’t actually be in the drawing room as he spent 37 years living on a small platform on top of a pillar. When I say SMALL, I mean the platform was only 3 and a bit feet square – not enough room to lie down properly.
Why? Mortification of the physical body so he could focus on SPIRITUAL matters, but at first it didn’t work out so well. People flocked to see him (I suspect some were sightseers) and disturbed his meditations. So he swapped his 10 foot pillar for one that was 50 ft high. People still came but he got a bit of peace, although he was happy to talk as well. He advised Emperors (YES, more than one) and wise men and was given a great deal of respect.
As a woman hardly able to get on a chair to get a jar of pickles down from a shelf, I sit in awe of him.

Improve your Vocabulary One Word at a Time

Stound. A strong, vaguely noble-sounding word that means a SUDDEN pang of emotion, as felt perhaps when hearing a familiar piece of music, or catching a particular scent or eating a certain kind of pickle…

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