Big thanks to Paul Greenstein once resident of East Dulwich now of Melbourne, Australia for sending us a couple of photographs of his gardening related exploits. Above is his garden at the moment (That sunshine makes us weep here as the weather is on the cold side in SE23 at the moment) and here’s some accompanying words from Paul:

“Garden looks a bit wild from this angle. There’s an Oregano bush that’s taken over one of the veg boxes. Apricot tree in the foreground. We had a good crop of Apricots this year after the tree was almost destroyed by the local possum. Apricot mead is on the cards. We’ve learned that you have to net the tree once it’s pollinated or the possum wins. Just out of sight is a Bramley tree that’s currently netted – this time it’s the parrots that eat all the fruit. Australian wildlife; either it’s trying to kill you or it wants to eat your fruit and veggies.

The weather is a bit crazy at the moment, we are getting 2-3 day runs of high 30’s (Celsius), then high 20s, with thunderstorms. On really hot days, we are banned from lighting fires (which makes a lot of sense). Still, this is nothing, we live in Melbourne, which is considered ‘temperate’ – i.e, it can get really cold here. Other parts of Australia like Tropical North Queensland, it’s shorts and a vest all year round…”

If you remember Paul also keeps bees in his garden and as he told us in his post last year here he had some Mead fermenting (above) and “each mix includes around 1.5k of honey. World’s oldest alcoholic drink apparently..”

We only made it once here and it tasted like battery acid so we didn’t even bother again.

“Mead Bottled! The cherry is made with Morello cherries, the rhubarb grows in the garden. The cherry is around 15%ABV, the rhubarb around 11%.” Looks absolutely wonderful, unlike the stuff we produced. Cheers for the report and the pictures Paul, they’re appreciated.

Talking of Mead we found this the other day advertising Penge’s first ever Wassail. We hadn’t a clue what it was, but the mention of “Bring something to make lots of noise – saucepans and wooden spoons are perfect” made us very interested.

Thanks to @rbrt1k on twitter who sent us a link to the wikipedia entry for the word/event. “Wassail is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Christmastide and Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following year.^“

Big shout to the Penge Wassailing event and we hope all goes well and you make a right old racket so we all can get a good harvest this year of apples. And potatoes, and carrots and onions etc. Big up with the wassailing!