PICTURE POST II!

[Gary7]

Thanks, trekkiedane. Curious about those bitters you're brewing. Have you been doing this for a long while? How difficult and time consuming is it to do? I imagine it's easier than brewing beer.

[trekkiedane]

Gary7 wrote:

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Thanks, trekkiedane. Curious about those bitters you're brewing. Have you been doing this for a long while? How difficult and time consuming is it to do? I imagine it's easier than brewing beer.

Intermittently since I was old enough to buy the booze needed to make them with.
It's a thing around here, and these days you can find loads of pages on-line where groups of people into this sort share their recipes. It's all in Danish I'm afraid, but take a look at this list from Noras Street Snaps Guild (that's what they call themselves ).

The degree of difficulty and the time consumed varies enormously.

It takes some time to get out into nature and find some plants that are as far away from traffic and other pollutants as you dare venture of course, and some time to pick the parts you need but it mostly takes only very few minutes of 'actual' work (I won't count taking a walk and picking some leaves, flowers, berries or roots as 'work' (and some of those you can buy at any supermarket)).

The three in the picture are very simple: put in a jar, pour a neutral vodka (or other neutral alcoholic beverage of no less than 80 proof) over and close jar, shake it a bit about once in a while for two to three days and then filter (an ordinary coffee-filter is very good for this step). -That's it!

How you drink it is, of course, also variable: some of these infusions are essences that need more vodka before they're drinkable, some are very good with some sugar or honey; that rose-one in the picture is supposedly very good when sweetened and becomes something akin to a liqueur.

The Hypericum-bitter is ready to drink after those 2-4 days, but the Yarrow-bitter should be left alone for a couple of months.
Walnut-bitter (which is a wrong word as it isn't bitter) should be left to age for years and ages as well as whiskey (and tastes soooo much better than a cheap whiskey) -look into my T-BBS photoalbum to see how to make walnut bitter!

[CorporalCaptain]

Gary7 wrote:

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What planet were you on when you took this?

It's awesome!

[trekkiedane]

^Yeah isn't it just?!? -looks like something right out of Cardiff - - Oh, sorry, I mean: It looks like something right out of Doctor Who

The fruits of Rosa rugosa in alcohol:

Personally I find this to be one of the best ways to counter an invasive species
Those will have to steep for 4 to 6 weeks before filtering -and might warrant some sweetening (according to taste of course).
Good against kidney- and bladder-infections and as an urinatory aid -well, according to ancient use.

[KimM]

I couldn't help myself, when I saw a pattern on Pneterest to knit I just had to! Now to find insignia for it!

(the orig pattern has you knit in the dleta but I couldn't get the shape right).

[Rhubarbodendron]

^^ R. rugosa rosehips are also delicious when you cut off a lid, scratch the seeds out and fill the rosehips with a mixture of buttercream and rosehip jam.
From the flowers you can make an incredibly yummy rose jelly: Infuse a few handfull of petals over night in cold water. Strain and press them out, boil the liquid with gelling sugar according to the instructions on the packacke and fill in jam jars.
Version #3 in your fight against invasive roses: rose syrup.
Simmer 1 kg sugar with 1 l water until about 1/3 of the liquid has evaporated. Leave the syrup to cool. Add a few handfull of rose petals and leave to infuse overnight or up to 24 hours. Strain and press out thoroughly, bring to a boil again and fill in bottles or jam jars.
It's very good as a longdrink or with pudding or ice cream.
Works with any kind of strong scented roses such as rugosa, muscosa, centifoloa, damascena, alba and a few old sorts (Henry Martin for example)

Theoretically, syrup and jelly keep well over a year. Practically, they are so good that they hardly keep till Christmas...

[trekkiedane]

^Indeed, any rose could actually be used (as long as they haven't been chemically treated against pests - which most cut flowers, bought as such, have been).

A long-drink (soda, crushed ice and a shot of the infusion) is a fantastic thing on a hot summers day!

And, as you say, jellies and marmalades from those hips are also very nice. Plus: if you pick the hips before they're fully ripe they also contain large amounts of -whatsitcalled?- the stuff that stiffens the jelly/marmalade and thus only needs a bit of sugar. -but you'll need to remove the seeds for all that!

And wine made from those is also something that's good (but that'll need to rest for a few years before consuming)

[Gary7]

trekkiedane wrote:

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^Yeah isn't it just?!? -looks like something right out of Cardiff - - Oh, sorry, I mean: It looks like something right out of Doctor Who

CorporalCaptain wrote:

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What planet were you on when you took this?
It's awesome!

Thanks a lot, John and trekkiedane. Yeah, it does look rather "other worldly". Believe it or not, this is the City Hall building in London England, designed by architect Norman Foster, and the blue lit banister can be seen to the left/west of it (google satellite view). A little bit of trivia--this isn't the London City Hall administratively speaking (that's located in the Guildhall). The name has caused so much confusion, that for the London 2012 Olympic games, the mayor proclaimed it would be temporarily called "London House." How crazy is that? They never should have allowed it to be named "City Hall"... although I suspect it may have been intentional by the building owner, because the confusion would just give the building more recognition.

And for even more trivia, which I find a bit hilarious:

Wikipedia wrote:

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The building has an unusual, bulbous shape, purportedly intended to reduce its surface area and thus improve energy efficiency, although energy use measurements have shown this building to be fairly inefficient in terms of energy use. It has been compared variously to Darth Vader's helmet, a misshapen egg, a woodlouse and a motorcycle helmet. Former mayor Ken Livingstone referred to it as a "glass testicle", while the present mayor, Boris Johnson, has referred to it as "The Glass Gonad" and more politely as "The Onion". Its designers reportedly saw the building as a giant sphere hanging over the Thames, but opted for a more conventionally rooted building instead. It has no front or back in conventional terms but derives its shape from a modified sphere.

Trekkiedane, thanks for the description about making bitters. Sounds really interesting--I'll have to give it a try at some point!

[Rhubarbodendron]

trekkiedane wrote:

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whatsitcalled?- the stuff that stiffens the jelly/marmalade and thus only needs a bit of sugar.

Pectin
Here's a tiny selection of my mom's rosepetal-jelly ingredients:


and here our natural pest control They live in a hollow branch of one of our centennarian apple trees

[trekkiedane]

Pectin! -right! Thanks!

Wonderful place your mum has there -my parents have a yard almost like that -but not with that opulent a display of roses

[Rhubarbodendron]

the pic shows only about 20% of our roses. The garden looks pretty much like Sleeping Beauty's castle in early summer (hmm, that propably explains why I always sleep much longer than usual when I visit my parents there).

I like the roses but prefer the apple trees, especially when they are in full bloom. If only there was a way to conservate that wonderful scent!

I'll be offline for a week or so - am moving tomorrow and shall get phone and internet by Wednesday afternoon, according to schedule. Knowing German telecom I suspect it'll be Saturday next week till I have internet access again. I'll make good use of the time and try to find my photo CDs in the moving crate chaos. I have a few rather nice close ups.

Tiny waterfall with maidenhair ferns on the island of Ischia (Italy)

[Alienesse]

^ How lovely! Your mom's roses look amazing, too. My grandmother used to have those in her garden and I remember her making some delicious rose jelly.

[B.J.]

Although I can appreciate the roses, just looking at that picture makes my sinuses twitch!

[thestrangequark]

My mother just sent me this picture of my grandfather, Falcon, as a young man. This would have been taken sometime in the early 1960's, and the baby is one of my cousins. I don't really know my grandfather, because he moved back to the Chippewa reservation before I was born. I like this picture, though -- in it he looks a lot like my big brother, Christopher, who passed away several years ago:

[trekkiedane]

What a handsome young man he was!

trekkiedane wrote:

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/.../ -and definitely whataretheycalled? small orange berries...

Sorbus aucuparia!
(Rønnebær)

The ripe berries are to be picked after the first frost (or frozen after picking) as the frost will make them a little less bitter (the pectin content, however, is reduced by frost, so if you're making a jelly don't let the berries freeze).
Steep ~6 weeks, filter, drink or let stand for about (at least) a month. -this makes an essence.