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Green Almonds


Spring is the season of green almonds. While the shells are not yet hard and dry, and the nut (the actual almond – the “seed”) is not yet ripe. The whole fruit is eaten as is, or with salt. Are you surprised to find out that it is sour? Wait until you reach the interior of this peculiar fruit – the almond is soft and jelly like, and has a very peculiar yet delicate texture and flavour. I am yet get converted to eating almonds at this state, despite the fact that my family adores them (I got a good example of watching my parents eat them as a child, as if it was the most delicious thing in the world). I prefer to wait until May, when the peel is still green, but the interior almonds have started to ripen. The almonds inside are by than crunchy and slippery white. Or better yet, wait until June, when the almond actually start tasting like almond – milky yet not as dry is the almond nuts, much like fresh blanched almonds. Yum!
(At this point the green outer peel starts to peel off and the a soft white shell starts to develop).

Green Fava Beans


fava beans, originally uploaded by Catbus.

As a perfumer, there are not very many scents that I don’t like. But if you asked me what is my most hated scent on earth, I would answer with no hesitation – green fava beans!
The uncooked fresh green fava beans, as well as the whole plant, has a very green yet sickening aroma. In fact, it is mildly poisonous to eat fresh peels of green fava beans. But once they are cooked, they can make an exotic and unusual dish – much like the lovely and crisp green beans can. They are a delicatessen with tomato and red pepper sauce. If you make your green beans with tomato sauce, try to make them with green fava beans and you will be happily surprised by its flavour and texture.

Thorny Experiments

One of my missions for this visit was the harvest and tincturing of the thorny bushes that account for the most intoxicating fragrance of spring in my village. The yellow flowers of a variety from the family of broom – only much more thorny. In Hebrew it is called Kidah Seirah. The thorns are sharp and evil and can be likened to small poisonous swords and may cause quite some pain for a while for those unfortunate enough to be wounded by them. The flowers, however, are heavenly smelling – with a scent reminiscent of sweet peas and sunshine. When the peak of the blossoming season arrives, it is almost dangerous to walk outside without becoming intoxicated by their sweet and ethereal aroma.

It was my dream to be able to extract and even a little bit of spring in my visit, but I was not able to make it true. When it comes to tincturing, I am quite the novice and am yet to feel successful with the results.

After an elaborate harvesting process with my devoted assistant, and waiting for over a week to mature, the result is not quite satisfying. Once the blast of alcohol brashly escapes the vessel, I am left with a sweet, honeyed yet sickening aroma that is not floral, but rather – reminiscent of propollis. Medicinal and not quite what I would call pleasant, not to mention inspiring or spring-like. I have left the jar behind, and took with me the renewed memory of the dangerous beauty of spring blossoms, and a few pictures to share with you.

The first one being the bushes in their natural rocky hills environment.

This is a handful of the precious flowers, which took about an hour to pick:

And this is how I ruined them by soaking them in alcohol, hoping to get their essence in return for the free booze:

I am quite convinced that the absolute of these flowers would have been incredible. But given the challenge of picking the flowers, despite their abundance, it would not be very realistic to keep such an operation for an extended period of time. It was fun though!

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