Thursday, 23 August 2018

Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
"Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy:
Apples,
and Quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpecked cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crabapples, dewberries, 
Pineapples, blackberries,
Apricots, 
strawberries;
All ripe together
In summer weather, 
Morns that pass by, 
Fair eves that fly;
Come buy, come buy:
our grapes fresh from the vine,
Pomegranates full and fine,
Dates and sharp bullaces, 
Rare pears and greengages,
Damsons and bilberries,
Taste them and try:
Currants and gooseberries,
Bright-fire-like barberries,
Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the South,
Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
Come buy, come buy."
August heralds baskets laden with fruit from our gardens. Now is the time to pull up a comfy chair, sit back, read a good book, and simply enjoy🍒🍋🍓🍊

29 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful array of luscious fruit. The peaches here in Colorado are in our markets now and I have made more than one peach cobbler.As usual I am quite envious of your photography.

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    1. Thank you Janey, that is most kind of you.

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  2. Professionals take note. Beautiful post Rosemary. This is how flowers and fruit should be photographed.
    Thanks for the happy eye opener.

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    1. Dear Gina - your generous comment has made me feel emotional💕

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  3. How tempting and beautiful these photos are. So many fruits I have never tasted and some I have never seen in our grocery stores, like damsons and quince.

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    1. Dear Catherine - you can use quinces to make a jelly which is used to glaze hams, stir into sauces, or have with cheese.tThe
      Damson are a very old fashioned small oval plum which are getting far more difficult to find these days. They have a wonderful, very intense flavour, and love using them to make a very delicious ice cream.

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  4. What a beautiful post, haven't heard this poem in a while.

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  5. Nice varied selection. My fruit eating tends to be seasonal and limited to grapes, strawberries and plums mainly. A creature of (bad) habit(s)

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    1. We have eaten loads of strawberries all summer long - they have been so plentiful. However, the hoped for yield from our plum trees has been a big let down this year.

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  6. That fruit looks delicious - only citrus and last autumn's apples here at present - roll on spring.

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    1. I can understand your wanting the soft fruit season to arrive - I always enjoy it too.

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  7. What a beautiful array of fruit photos. You have a wonderful eye for photography, Rosemary. Summer fruits are so luscious.

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    1. Summer fruits are really delicious and so beautiful to look at too.

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  8. Hello Rosemary, Such beautiful fruit photos, but somehow this summer, with a few exceptions, was not ideal for fruit. The hard part is leaving Ohio just before the fall harvest fruits, like pears, rose hips, and some of the more interesting apples start to ripen. I can't tell you how long it's been since I have had a flavorful, tart (known as "sub-acid" in fruit circles) apple!
    --Jim

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    1. Hello Jim - I am sorry to learn that your trip to Ohio is almost over, and I wish you safe travels back to Taiwan.
      We visited an orchard owned by the National Trust last weekend on the Shropshire/Herefordshire borders, an area renowned for growing fruit. The apples were unbelievably large and perfect with a great selection of old fashioned varieties. Our own apples in comparison are smaller than usual.

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  9. Great photos of the fruits and I love the matching poem of Christina Rossetti.

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  10. How wonderful - are those beautiful fruits all from your garden? I have never found a quince or a damson,let alone a bilberry, in our area! So lovely to read the Rossetti poem too.

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    1. Some but not all Patricia - damsons are getting more difficult for me to find these days. At our old house we had three trees which we really miss. Their flavour is so intense and unique, and of course I love them for making my special damson ice cream.

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  11. Dearest Rosemary,
    Well, I would be in heaven with such a supply of quality fresh fruits!
    Guess fruits would be the hardest for me to ever give up...
    We are lucky for still having found some fresh cherries; can't get enough of them - ever!
    This year they were so plump and juicy.
    Wish we had apricots too... My dear friend in Escondido, CA grows some in her own yard and it is heaven to taste them right off the tree!
    Thanks for sharing such abundance.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  12. The names of the wonderful fresh picked fruits are enough to whet the appetite, and then we see the beautiful photos - great job Rosemary. Finding fruits 'unpecked' in the garden is always a challenge, seems birds and squirrels are much faster than us. Having this problem with the figs this year - not many to begin with and as soon as they start to ripen they are pecked for the moisture! Did make the fig tart though and it was really good with the Stilton!

    Gina is up to her ears in her fabulous fruits, picking and canning etc. wish I was back there to help out, such a wonderful time and she is delightful and so kind.
    Mary x

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    1. Glad to hear that you made the tart Mary, and enjoyed it too.

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