Arete's Shout Box

[arete]

There's a restaurant I love in Vienna VA that's
called the Amphora & those olives look identical
to the olives they use on their Greek salad.  It's
my favourite dish.  Whenever I order one I always
ask for extra olives and extra feta & NO anchovies.

[arete]

You have no garlic?  Can't you use granulated garlic?
Or garlic powder?  garlic chips?  Surely you have some
type of garlic flavoring, no?

[caskur™]

I think I have an old jar of garlic in the fridge, at the back...but I want fresh garlic to go with the fresh olives.

[arete]

I understand.  I think they are better with no flavoring.
Just the brine.  I've never had them as fresh as you are
having them, of course but as with artichokes, I like olives
in their own juices, no flavoring.  Don't ruin em'!

[caskur™]

There was this old guy 10 yrs ago, John...he was 62 at the time so I guess he is 72 now...[I miss him] well every week John used to bring me a jar of olives that he prepared himself because he found an old abandoned olive grove near where he lived, [which incidentally is right near where Megan Gale [the New Wonder Woman actress] comes from]....so, the jar contained black ripe salted olives coated with either so tiny amount of fresh chilie and olive oil and garlic or just garlic and olive oil....both were perfect.....so maybe a sliced up clove of garlic per jar....not enough to overpower but rather enhance and it does enhance the flavour, providing you don't over do it....but the very first time I had an Italian woman's fresh homemade olives was 25 yrs ago, and hers were in a little olive oil with garlic and caraway seeds....just a light, light sprinkle and they were perfect too....I've had some from the store done with caraway seeds and garlic and mustard seeds....that was yummy too but they were giant green ones....

but my own, they're going to be perfect because, quite frankly they already are perfect....I wished John was here so I could give him some of my first successful crop.....the first ones two years ago were ruined because they weren't prepared properly.....that wasn't my fault.

It was John who inspired me to buy a tree in the first place. I was at a nursery and saw a tiny potted "miniture" tree with 30 black olives on it and bought it for $36 ...I knew by putting it in the ground it wasn't going to stay a miniture but grow tall....but my drip of a husband one year shovelled in some fertilizer instead of forking it in the ground...chopping the roots up...I knew he had set the tree back....basically bonsaiing it...know what I mean??....I went off my tree in anger at him...he is so, so not green thumbed..

[arete]

I had a pear tree that the kids behind me at my old house
pummeled down TWICE.  That tree turned out to be the best
fruit tree ever.  I think once they have survied something traumatic
they just grow stronger and better.  I have no fruit trees now. 

[caskur™]

that is right, you can do that with an old tree and it puts life back into it...showing it an ax......you can do that with some vines....chop the roots and threaten to tear it out and it goes nuts....the reason for that is, before it "dies" it puts out more fruit as a survival technique....

I'm trying to think of that purple flowing creeper that everyone loves to grow but my mind is a blank..

[arete]

My pear tree was just a baby when they practically
destroyed it.  The apple tree didn't make it but the
pear tree survived their wrath.  I wish I could have
brought it with me but it was very big when we moved.

[caskur™]

some thing like a hard prune and others don't...the pair tree was probably bonsaiied.....a freak tree...that is how granny smith apples came to be....that was a freak variety that was discovered in Australia and now grown world wide. I think it is the best apple.....not too sweet and not sour....it is the best apple to make apple crumble.....

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10441b.htm

Descendants of Thomas and Maria ('Granny') Smith have from time to time disputed the circumstances of the Granny Smith apple's discovery, but the earliest and most authoritative account of its origin appeared in the Farmer and Settler in June 1924, in an article by the Dundas orchardist and local historian Herbert Rumsey. Rumsey interviewed two fruit-growers who had known Maria. One remembered that in 1868 he and his father had been invited by her to examine a seedling apple growing by a creek on her property and that she had explained that the seedling had developed from the remains of some French crab-apples grown in Tasmania. According to this recollection, Mrs Smith herself then began to work a few of these seedling trees and soon afterwards Edward Gallard, a local orchardist, planted out a large number of them, from which he marketed a crop annually until his death in 1914.

[arete]

Granny Smith's are the best for baking and they are also
the best for candied and caramelled apples.  They are
crisp/tart which goes perfectly with the sweetness of the candy/caramel.
The contrast is what's so scrumpti-aaaaa-licious.

[arete]

Honeycrisps are my FAVOUUUUUUURITE eating apple.
They are the perfect tasting and textured apple with
no baking or anything added.  Just right.

[arete]

http://www.bestapples.com/varieties/varieties_honeycrisp.shtml

[arete]

I live in apple country.  Apple orchards are everywhere.
We have a whole week devoted to the Apple Blossoms &
around town you see big decorated apples everywhere.
Down main street there are tiny pink and green apple blossoms
painted down the road.

[chaosfactor]

Yarr, I lived among big fecken apples, measured at 442D.
Those are the bloody apples, that makes the cider for me..
They are so bleeding big, that they are dropped upon the ground,
Where my fair Arete is gathering, like a faithful f-ucking hound
 

[arete]

*PINCH*

surely, ur dreamin'