The End of Winter & the Start of Spring
It's rained pretty much every day that I've been here. Before it was a kind of drizzly
cold rain with gray skies interspersed by hefty downpours, all in unbelievably cold weather. Seriously!
It's still raining but the rain is now a more sideways torrential bucket poured over your head type, so loud that I can't hear the construction going on next door. I realize now that I miss (by comparison) the gentle freezing rain of winter (not to be confused with actual frozen precipitation such as snow, sleet or hail). Now the rain is warmer but then everything gets kind of mildewy smelly very quickly and there's mold growing on the walls. Yuck. I've wiped down the walls with bleach using Wendy's patented method for mold abatement, let's hope that works.
I'm not complaining actually, but this is my reality right now. The only other place where I lived that rained as many days (altho not as torrential) was England. Along with the water comes the hot weather, and I am such a delicate wilting flower. I've started walking around under an umbrella even when the sun is out, coz when it's sunny it's HOT- the sidewalks steam.
You can still find some winter holdovers- like the random roasted chestnut cart. I'd always read in books about roasting chestnuts by the fire. Sung about them in carols, but never actually really eaten one. So I plonked down my NT$15 kuai ($0.50US) and bought a bag of toasty warm brown smoky chestnuts. The lady selling them could tell I had no idea how to eat them, so she gave me a quick demo. And then I found out why they always say "as brown as chestnuts"... Roasted chestnuts make your hands black!
But as the weather gets hotter, the cherry trees all blossom and look so pretty! Up in the Fern Garden they got a spectacular display.
Last spring my cousin Monica invited me and Gwynie out to Dry Creek Peach and Produce to thin the peach crop. It was tough removing all of the perfectly formed baby peaches on many levels. I felt like each peach was a summer moment waiting to happen, so I was very reluctant initially to choose which one got the axe. But if they all stayed on the branch, they wouldn't get enough nutrients or room to grow and would break the branches that were mostly skinny new growth. It was also very hot and hard work to stand on a ladder with your arms raised for what seemed an interminable age. Our instructions were to reduce the number of peaches on a branch to about 4-5 (on alternating sides) depending on the strength of the branch. We just dropped the green fruit on the ground, they were too green and tough to eat. After about 2 hours of work we'd finished off about 4 trees in a 10 acre plot. It really gives one a new respect for farm work and where our food comes from. The result of all that hard work is ambrosia!
picture courtesy of Dry Creek Peach and Produce
Here in the Taiwanese markets, of course there's a use for these discarded baby green peaches (which are a sign that summer stone fruit is just around the corner). Brined baby peaches- taste like salted plums crossed with crab apples. Crunchy and slightly sweet salty from the brine. The first time I ate some I got the worst stomach ache from the green fruit. But that thankfully has subsided and I've happily added these to the breakfast rotation.
