Don't know what to say other than Thank You! for kind comments on writing.😊
Commenting a little randomly here, will reread thread better later.
@NowLightOneThousandChristmasLights We generally stick them on a piece of grease proof paper in a baking tray on top of an oil radiator. The smell's lovely when drying. If you have past their best star anise and cloves, press them in beforehand for added interest. The best colors we got was from the one year organized enough to buy summer market rejects and dry them in the sun.
@Bimblesalong The “trompette de mort” or death trumpets got long ago named for 'outsiders' by wise folk as being the trumpets of the dead poking out of the earth calling the living to join them.
They had their own name for them, but let the parsons and vicars spread the word that the villagers should be afraid and leave them.
They're also known as 'horn of plenty' and often turn up near oak and beech if mossy. There's also grey and brown varieties in UK. (As with all, some need to be left to ensure annual harvests.)
Really good to eat, very rich flavor, gorgeous just sauteed in butter if fresh, and drop beautifully into a white wine and cream sauce in any state. Once dried you can also powder them and add them to pretty much anything. I mainly use to flavor oil, and elevate scrambled eggs, polenta, and tofu and as an umani flavoring.
@LillianGish There's sevral grades and types of Frankinsense and Myrrh, and different qualities. General rule of thumb is the lighter and more opaque, the fresher it is and the better the quality. Exception is myrrh if its deep colored but with white streaks.
Bdellium, Indian myrrh, and opobalsamum all get passed off as high grade to the unwary.
Not sure exactly where you are - but you can get proper fresh harvested good resin at many places in the Wazemmes area in Lille, and Matongé area in Brussels, especially this time of year as it's an essential cooking ingredient for some for Christmas celebrations. (one reason for the annual trip)
Look for Olibanum and Oleo gum, from Somalian, Ethiopian, Yemeni, Djibouti, and N.Kenyan suppliers for the good stuff. If it's harvested through SUNARMA you'll be helping keep Ethiopian frankincense farming sustainable. The Boswellia tree's becoming endangered, but especially on Ethiopia's 'green wall'.
Somewhat posey picture of the tidied calm after the messy storm, showing off battered Mrs Beeton, our well used and scrubbed home made chopping board, treasured small pudding basin, veggie mincemeat, and gently boozy ginger lemon, and quince marmalade, and one of the candles looking and smelling fine now lit.
Our jars are still topped with brown paper and tied with pot scrubber wire.
It's traditional in this family as a reminder of earlier times, and the once obligatory tea toweled shepherds for the nativity.
We had neither tea towels, nor tinsel at the time, so in some trepidation I used the marmalade paper and sent them in with sewn crinkled brown paper headdresses, and pot scrubbers plaited into headbands, very concerned we'd be looked down on. The worry was for nothing, it was seen as an artistic statement and widely copied.
Dc's complained when I later tried to upgrade our jars to fabric and ribbon so donkeys years later it's expected here.
We effectively have two Christmases here, the new one and the old one. (Dec and Jan) Presents for the second one are made, but small amounts spent if it's meaningful, are ok, but it's very much about deeper gifts.
We go to see Fortnum and Mason's Christmas window displays annually and the good ones get rehashed in conversations at Christmas. "Do you remember the..." It's known that if I won the lottery I'd go Christmas shopping there!
One of the Dc's spotted the Fortnum and Mason bowl in a charity shop, and made truffles overflowing from it, and it's been used for the second pudding ever since.
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