France in Focus

Time to harvest our only fig tree. Up in the tree, all sorts of little birds feast on the now ripening delicacy.
The only tricky part is that the sap released when peeling is rather acidic, actually you should put on thin plastic gloves as the OH just remarked.

Looks lovely.

This is interesting. RA, the electrical/electronics whizz using a mechanical scale. You can't go wrong with levers and wheels. Tasty looking jam, how much sugar went into it?

What's the tree to the left Robert? I can see there is a wisteria growing up through it but I don't recognise the tree's leaves.

They are huge compared to mine no bigger than a 2€ coin but turning brown and soft, I have covered them up but after a quick sampling by OH, we think it might be better to leave them to the birds.

@ Polarengineer: please don't let me be misunderstood, my electrical intentions are good, but I really do like the reliability of mechanical engineering. And above all: easier to understand. Maintenance easier: sweet memories, Mercedes diesel valve adjustment spanners. Even the Intel Pentium processor engineers in the nineties were already complaining: too many problems with "testability"(the Pentium FDIV bug).

On behalf of the kitchen engineer: figs / sugar - 2.5 / 1 + a spoonful of lemon juice.

@ Loup-garou: and the answer is Kiwi.

RA, do you get kiwi fruit, or is it like mine, all leaf and mile a minute runners?

PE, once upon a time rich harvests, 140 and more. The runners problem: enough is enough we said one day and we started pruning to keep them in check. Since then not any kiwi, an incredible lot of flowers earlier this year and bees working in almost three-shift. Promises, promises. Lean back and relax, the only thing we have to do is waiting. Nothing, except shadow, very welcome this year.

Seven o'clock p.m., getting dark already, the OH took care of loads of coings, three baskets this time. She already processed a first basket, took her hours. The coing tree is not very high, not impressive at all. But really, it took us by surprise this year. Last year about 10, 15 fruits, now almost 80. A bit too heavy this load, two broken branches, there was much wind yesterday.

I decided to pick my apricots today under the threat of storms this weekend.
I had 3 fruit. 2 have gone mouldy. I have one.
It is massive.