"Blossoms of Plum
perfume my sleeves with their scent,
vying there for space
with shafts of sparkling moonlight
spilling down through the eaves."
Fujiwara no Teika, from a hundred poem sequence composed in A.D. 1200
Collected in Waiting for the Wind, trans. Steven D. Carter
A very happy spring equinox, everyone.
This pre-refrigeration solution to the problem of medium-term fruit storage might be worth a look, if you have the resources to build it.
Intrigued by a mention of an odd odour in a paper from 1934, I stuck my face in several clusters of pear blossom, and this is what I found…
A few wise words from the seventeenth century, courtesy of the author of Vinetum Britannicum, on the “purest of humane pleasures”.
A few wise words on England’s favourite fruits from the University of Cambridge’s first ever Professor of Botany.
This early eighteenth century rant is quite entertaining, if only for the etymological ironies involved.
Feeling a bit off-colour? Hopefully this (mostly) apple-based, C18th remedy will be just the thing to sort you right out.
