Scottish Marmalade?

[Bugbear]

Actually, my dad does that, so it works out pretty well-- he lives close enough for us to take advantage of it on a regular basis, but we still don't get citrus...

Ya, you would need some kind of cold season greenhouse for that, Ali. Kumquats might be good for that situation.

I was going to move up to the Cortez, Colorado area a couple of years back, it didn't work out, and I looked into growing citrus up there because I didn't want to hand over my prize navel orange tree to a bulldozer. I even went to all the trouble of getting his sour orange rootstock to grow a sucker branch to start a new tree, and grafted him over as an exact clone.

The clone started making fruit this year, by the way.

I suppose, with a heated greenhouse, sour oranges could be grown in parts of Scotland...

[Bugbear]

All right, I have been looking over, A Little English Book of Teas, by Rosa Mashiter; Chronicle Books, 1989.

There seems to be quite a few different sandwiches, cakes, etc that are eaten with the tea, and some of them involve marmalade.

I wasn't raised with that tradition, we had ice tea, with the sound of rattling ice in large glasses, and we also had watermelon on the porch...

We also had frozen Kool-Aid in what ever little plastic containers my grandmother happened to have around.

I couldn't bring myself to post this in the tea thread, in case you wondered.

[ThistleDown]

I suppose, with a heated greenhouse, sour oranges could be grown in parts of Scotland...

No, that's not how it should be, Ted. Sour Saville oranges were imported to Dundee and from them that unbeatable Dundee marmalade was developed. But those same oranges, grown in greenhouses local to Dundee, do not result in the same magnificent breakfast condiment. Grow the crop where it is best grown, transport with integirty and assemble the ingredients where they can be best assembled.

Or eat only what can be grown within a hundred miles of you.

And Ali, shame on you for going away on holiday and not making provision for your strawberries Tch tch (judge judge)

[ThistleDown]

All right, I have been looking over, A Little English Book of Teas, by Rosa Mashiter; Chronicle Books, 1989.

There seems to be quite a few different sandwiches, cakes, etc that are eaten with the tea, and some of them involve marmalade.

I wasn't raised with that tradition, we had ice tea, with the sound of rattling ice in large glasses, and we also had watermelon on the porch...

We also had frozen Kool-Aid in what ever little plastic containers my grandmother happened to have around.

[/i]

That's nice, Ted. I guess they are two quite different traditions. Did you enjoy your afternoon Kool-Aid with ice and watermelon, though, and how did you serve the marmalade?

[piperdbh]

Ted, it sounds like you and I might have grown up together, except my grandmother had the Tupperware popsicle molds.

In honor of you I baked a loaf of bread yesterday and had some marmalade on a slice of it.

[Mike_Oettle]

Ali wrote: “Nothing grows in my particular neck of the desert Ted – my feet have the kiss of death wherever they trod plants die.”

Obviously, Ali, you’re planting the wrong stuff. And it even depends on what kind of desert you’re talking about. But at a guess I would say you could grow cactus – it definitely needs not to be watered!
In my country a lot of people collect cacti, which is a pity because here they are invasive aliens. We have plenty of water-retentive plants in our dry regions.
Regards,
Mike

[Bugbear]

Ted, it sounds like you and I might have grown up together, except my grandmother had the Tupperware popsicle molds.

In honor of you I baked a loaf of bread yesterday and had some marmalade on a slice of it.

That's great!

My grandmother reused disposable plastic containers. She also saved things like glass mayonnaise jars, those were our water jugs, and she always kept one in the fridge.

I save the glass and plastic jars too, and I use them for humidity chambers when I'm propagating cuttings and those type of things. It's just the way I grew up...

Ali wrote: “Nothing grows in my particular neck of the desert Ted – my feet have the kiss of death wherever they trod plants die.”

Obviously, Ali, you’re planting the wrong stuff. And it even depends on what kind of desert you’re talking about. But at a guess I would say you could grow cactus – it definitely needs not to be watered!
In my country a lot of people collect cacti, which is a pity because here they are invasive aliens. We have plenty of water-retentive plants in our dry regions.
Regards,
Mike

Mike, we have a bunch of South African, desert adapted, plants over here now, too. I have devil or Bermuda grass and aloes growing in my yard; I have a Hoodia gordonii growing in a pot, and a bunch of Sansevieria plants growing as house plants. There's probably others.

[BoldHighlander]

That's great!

My grandmother reused disposable plastic containers. She also saved things like glass mayonnaise jars, those were our water jugs, and she always kept one in the fridge.

I save the glass and plastic jars too, and I use them for humidity chambers when I'm propagating cuttings and those type of things. It's just the way I grew up...

Holy cow Ted! Sounds like my dear departed grandma as well!

She reused margarine/butter tubs (a habit I've picked up on ), and instead of glass mayo jars, she utilized glass milk or orange juice jars/bottles for keeping ice water handy!

I think it's a generational thing, you know, "waste not, want not".

[Mike_Oettle]

Terry wrote: “Holy cow Ted! Sounds like my dear departed grandma as well!”

And mine, too. I was also brought up that way. Plastic containers, glass containers. What we can’t use goes for recycling (despite my wife’s protests – she just wants to throw everything away).

And Ted, I am glad to know that our South African desert plants are doing so well in your part of the world.
Incidentally, Hoodia gordonii is named for a Dutch officer who served at the Cape in the army of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company).
His name was Robert Jacob Gordon, and he was a personal friend of the then Prince of Orange. When he was still an ensign he undertook an exploration of the interior, and named the Orange River after his friend. He made extensive notes of the flora he encountered.
He was eventually promoted to colonel and was the commander of the garrison at the Cape when the British landed in 1795. They had a letter with them from the Prince of Orange, requesting that Britain take the Cape to keep it out of the hands of the revolutionary French.
On that basis he handed over the instruments of government. However, most of the Dutch at the Cape were republicans, and he was widely abused (mostly verbally) by the population. As a result he committed suicide.
According to Wikipedia, Gordon’s father was a Scotsman, but according to sources I have consulted, his great-grandfather was a Scot who settled in the Netherlands, and his ancestry included several leading Dutch families.
At any rate, there is a small resort town named after him, Gordon’s Bay, which since 2000 has been part of the City of Cape Town.
Regards,
Mike

[Bugbear]

Oh, ya. I lived with my grandmother, next door, for several years. We reused all kinds of things. It would have been very much the way she grew up.


That Hoodia plant is a very weird looking plant, and it is supposed to make a large stinky, rotten meat, flower, it hasn't yet, that attracts flies to pollinate it. Thanks for the history, Mike. Botanical oriented history can be very interesting.