June 02, 2008 by Vándorló Budapest

There is always some weird stuff going on in the garden. Spring had the woodpeckers out in force each morning and late afternoon, sounding like the noise of distant road drills. Right now it's the emergence of pomegranate blossom. 

I know, it doesn't sound much like Budapest, but this is Buda, the hilly side of town. The bit that forms a backdrop to the castle district. Up here we get woken up by the raucous din of warblers, chaffinches... fighting over their mating and nesting territories. It's noisy, but you can get use to it.

I'm trying my best to pick the two cherry trees clean of fruit before they are go over. I'm getting through about a breakfast bowl a cherries a day so far and have rediscovered my childhood talent for scaling trees effortlessly. For the first few days it was great, but I'm beginning to hate the prospect of eating any more cherries. So I've taken to giving the things away in big bags. It's retarded, I know, but I just can't let the stuff go to waste.

Elsewhere in the garden the walnuts are coming along. The English word 'walnut' comes from an Old English word  meaning "foreign nut" ('wealhhnutu' - wealh meaning "foreign"). I was a bit slow on the uptake last Autumn, as I had never had the opportunity to collect walnuts straight from the tree. This meant I picked some too early and was put off by the bitter taste of the unripe nut oils.

I was a bit over eager as I know the nut oil is much higher in omega-3 when fresh and young. It's also meant to have preventative properties against the onset of Alzheimer's. Anyway, by the time I tried them again, half had already gone. The ones I did manage to collect managed to last me through till early May. Which meant suffering for about 3 weeks while the garden never offered anything free to eat.

But while I never made full use of the bounty offered by the walnuts, I completely missed out on the almonds before it was too late. Truth is, I hadn't got a clue they were there even though there are 5 of the things scattered front and back. I just never expected to see an almond tree and especially one full of nuts.

Two of the trees are currently doing battle with a form of wood ear or cloud ear mushroom (Auricularia auricula-judae), which is that jelly-like mushroom that Chinese love and westerners seem to hate - and I'm indifferent to, but it's fun to pick and eat occasionally. Always worth trying to serve them to unsuspecting guests to see their reaction.

But as you can see, the almond trees are pretty packed with nuts, so I'm collecting new recipes to try out. Particularly those that use almonds and pomegranate or walnuts and pomegranate.

Of all the trees in the garden the pomegranate was the last to come
into leaf and the last to blossom. It's not much of a tree all told, more of a straggly bush or shrub and stands about 5 meters tall. But it is a wonder that the thing is here at all. It's not the hardiest of plants, so can only cope down to about -10C, so that it has managed to get through all the Winters unscathed is great.

As the plant was the last to come into leaf (starting as late as April), the blossom buds only really started to show up 10 days ago.

 They all bare an uncanny resemblance to a viper's head when looked at head on.

About 4 days ago these buds broke open and the blossom has started to emerge, ranging from deep orange through to blood red.

I know of no others anywhere round here, so I am pretty certain that the tree is self pollinating. I am also experimenting with some pomegranate seeds I collected last year to see if I can get some to grow. Only recently I found out the best method of propagation is by hardwood cuttings taken in Autumn, leaves removed and buried 2/3rds into soil.

Useful Vocabulary

• Az élet nem habos torta - life isn't a bowl of cherries


• Kiválasztja a legjobbat - cherry pick


• Hullott gyümölcs - windfall (this is the literal meaning of windfallen fruit)


• Váratlan szerencse - windfall (this is the meaning of unexpected gift, blessing...)


• Fafüle gomba - wood ear mushroom


• Bogarat tett a fülébe - plant the seed of an idea (the Hungarian literally means "put a beatle in someone's ear")
  


• Potyázik - to freeload
  


• "A dolgok természetéből következik, hogy..." - it is in the nature of things that...