What’s most prolific in the garden this year? Well, it’s not the tomatoes. Everyone’s garlic seems to have failed, so the garlic cloves I companion-planted around the roses have actually produced just as well as everyone else’s—or better. The blueberries are done. The peach tree is loaded, but slow to tree-ripen. (Great in Manischewitz Cream Peach though)

   But the grape leaves! Following a recipe from a Greek cookbook, I have been making “vine leaves”. Last year I started harvesting first whenever I needed to cut the wild vines back. I have never seen a single grape, but the leaves blanch and roll just great! This year I am preparing to paint the house, so I mixed up the rice filling, harvested leaves and got the pot simmering on the stove while I went out to cut the vines out of my Alba York rose bush, “Cecily”. They are delicious!

   Today, I took the bigger vines I had set aside when I trimmed, and I made two nice bag rustic wreaths. This is actually much moiré fun than what I did next, which was scrape the old paint off the walls in Cecily’s corner—she’s safely trussed up with a couple of rubber tie-downs—and clean out the gutters above, which can’t be reached when the corner is full of grape vines and wild morning glory vines running through the rose bush, Sure, it takes longer to harvest rather than just ripping out things before I paint, but those grape leaves sure are tasty! Also organic—and free!

Why’s there no coffee in Calandra? It’s not like they couldn’t import it. But Tristan is a really big tea drinker—classic or herbal tisanes. And he has a huge sweet tooth. But the only sweetener he has access to is honey. And honey is great in tea, but not so much in coffee. Maybe once he really gets some trade going, opens up Dunehollow as a royal port, he can import more cane sugar and try it in coffee besides shortbread.

What’s cailon flower tea? In the beginning, it was entirely made up—I read an article where Ursula LeGuin explained how she knew some of her Earthsea characters drank rushleaf tea, and I added that detail to my world-building tool box. Cailon is a white flower, and the tea is calming—at least that’s why Elisena offers it to Tristan when she does—and I suspect it is very similar to jasmine tea. Steep a couple of dried apricots in the pot, sweeten lightly. It’s much to Tristan’s taste, though he will brew his tea strong and bitter to get through a long research session.

Draft Cider. National beverage of Esdragon. They grow a lot of apples there, so it makes sense. I first tasted it when I went to England in ’85. Was not able to find it here for a long time, but now there are cideries all over—you can even get perry without any trouble. Want to vie for the honor of being the official cider of the Duchy of Esdragon? It can be settled by a tasting! (Though Woodchuck Raspberry is a very strong contender. It’s Tristan’s favorite.)