Autumn travel: grapes and almonds

[Bob Spenger]

A bit of warning. Any grapes picked off the vines should be washed
thoroughly with water before ingestion.  Pesticides, bird droppings,
road dust - whatever, it is a reasonable precaution to wash them. I
sampled only a few -  but still had qualms of conscience. The
blackberries are another matter. They were growing wild; almost
everywhere along the Camino Francés. They are small, but quite sweet. I
was envious of the young people (i.e. under 70) that could eat them with
impunity. For the codgers with diverticula problems, it is a chore to
avoid swallowing any of the seeds.

regards,

Bob Spenger
rspengeraadelphia.net

"E. O. Pederson" wrote:

> And autumn is an excellent time to sample some grapes.  Whatever the
> rule may be, pilgrims were sampling from the vineyards in Navarra and
> La Rioja and later in Galicia.  I seemed to be about a day behind the
> grape pickers in 2001, and I was somewhat taken aback by the amount of
> waste--grapes left on the vine and especially grapes dropped from
> carriers and crushed into the mud along the vinyard edges.  After
> discussion at dinner, we determined that the few grape bunches we
> sampled were unlikely to be missed, and so we sampled all the way
> across the vineyard regions.  Many of the wine grapes are tasty
> indeed!
>
> As to apples, all of the trees had been picked by the time I got to
> them, but perhaps a little earlier they would have been good.  On
> occasion a farmer hands out apples to passers-by on the Camino, and
> they are good apples, mostly of the sort we now call heirloom--not
> very pretty but delicious.  Finally the almond trees were ready to be
> picked, but sampling almonds in the field takes some doing (I did not
> try any).  The fruit looks rather like an apricot, a close relative,
> and there is a thick set of hulls between the fruit and the nut
> kernel. I have been told the flesh of the almond fruit is astringent
> and may be toxic in sufficient quantity, and if one mistakes an
> apricot for an almond, the pits of apricots are truly toxic.
>
> E. O. Pederson
> Seattle, WA
>
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