Monday 23 March 2009

Of knives and fruit

In the afternoon the knife - man came along
and I got some knives and scissors sharpened.
Blunt instruments are of no use.
When my life gets out of tune
God grates, polishes and scours me against the
abrasive wheel of trials and temptations
to put the edge back and keep me on my toes.
Not that I enjoy the process
while it is in action.
But the results produce
some fruit or the other.
_________________
Today I bought what we call gooseberries.
Locally they are also known as rus-bhari
(literally full of juice)
They are the poor man 's strawberries.
They are sweet and sour
with tiny seeds
encased in a paper like shell or covering.
You can eat them raw or make jam
and preserves with them.
I love them either way.
I wonder if people in other countries have them
and what are they called there.

This is from our mulberry tree

The fruit look like little bugs.

They are not too sweet but I love them.
I have a sore throat - could be strep
but I can 't resist the fruit.
I guess it has Vitamin C.

14 Fertilize my soul:

Michelle said...

Hope you had a great weekend. Very interesting seeing the gooseberries. I have never seen them before. I do like strawberries so I would probably like them too.

Olde Dame Penniwig said...

Amrita, we call those "ground tomatoes" and "ground cherries" where I come from. They grew wild. I am not sure if they are what the Mexican people call "tomatillos" out here in the Southwest, because I have not seen the vine from which they grow here. But back home, we ate them and my mother could make preserves from them, but she had to add a lot of sugar.

I ate lots of mulberries when I lived in New Mexico. The birds got the majority of them, though. Had to be pretty fast to beat the birds to the ripe ones!

I hope your throat is better soon. I wish you could get some antibiotics in case it is strep.

madison said...

Thank you for the wise words in your last comment in my journal. If you wouldn't mind, would you give me your email addy? Sometimes I struggle so with the differences in our cultures, but it would help if I had someone to explain things to me and help me to understand.
Your poor mans strawberries remind me of cherry tomatoes, before they ripen. They do look a lot like tomatillos I see sometimes in the market.
Hope your sore throat gets better. I'm just getting over one I had for a week. The last sore throat I had was strep and it was not fun. I hope that's not what you have.

Nina in Portugal said...

Those berries do sort of look like bugs

Hope you're feeling better soon....lots of Vit C!!

Deare Diary said...

I could use the Knife Man at my house. I need sharpening my self from time to time. Thank God that he is gentle.
Judy

Annette said...

The last picture of fruit look's like what we call "Boysenberries" and we make pie out of them or jam, not sweet tasting if off the vine, but sprinkle some sugar on them and MMMMMM, and put on vanilla ice cream is even better, but I don't think we have any of those what you call "Poor man strawberries", I love it when you post pictures. and a knife man? sounds fabulous! Hope you having a sweet evening my friend! Stop by, I have some flowers for you, if you'd like them, my spring time gift to all my friends out here in the blogging land!
Hugs
Annette

Danielle&Hannah said...

Hi there Amrita!

Thank you for your objective thoughts.

Wow, this is still a trade here - very rare - where the 'knife-man' visits and sharpens knives for restaraunts.
And I have some 'blackberries' and raspberries in my backyard. Mine are just a bit shorter and fatter. Yummy all the same :-)

May you be feeling 'loved' today!

“Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

(John 13:35 NLT)

Felisol said...

Dear Amrita,
the knife-man was a popular and useful guy some fifty years ago.
My dad among all other skills also would keep my mom's scissors and knives sharp.
Knives of today hardly have hard enough steel be last long enough to get sharpened. Like so much else, they've become a use and throw away product.
How comforting that our Lord never will throw us away!

Your berries loook delicious. Never tasted any of them. We don't havve anything ripe in the omnth of March.
I'm following your thermometre around the year. You have a most attractive climate, don't you?
25 Celsius degrees...we are happy the few days in midsummer when the scale is showing that high numbers!
Enjoy.
From Felisol

Amrita said...

Hello ladies,

I know what you mean by cherry tomatoes.We also have them, but are like miniature tomatoes dark red in color. These berries are differnt, they don 't have the tomato taste.
The British named them goodeberries I guess.LOL
How comforting that our Lord never will throw us away!

Yes the Lord keeps sharpening us, so that we can be of use to him.

My throat is some better, but I 've got a stuffy nose now. Well one thing at a tme.
Madison i sent you my email address. Hope you got it.

Felisol I like this sentence from your comment

the mother of this lot said...

Great minds think alike Amrita:

http://mscellania.blogspot.com/2009/03/scissorman-comes-calling.html

Brad the Dad said...

We have these gooseberries in Canada, but like my wife says it is funny because we only get these on fancy desserts at nice restaurants. I think we could find them at a specialty store, but they don't grow wild where we live.
I pray you will be better very soon sister.

Paresh Palicha said...

That knife man made me nostalgic. They have vanished from my city (kochi, kerala). All the children in the vicinity used to stand around him irritated by the noise his machine produced & amazed by the sparks it emitted. It was sheer magic to see black iron get silvery shine when he finished.

We also had gypsy barbers coming home.

ChrisB said...

Hello
I heard that you had written about 'sharpening knives' and I had to pop over and have a look. I was looking back on how times have changed here(UK) from the man who used to come around on his bike when I was a child, to the electronic system of today.

Amrita said...

Hi Jackie, I went over to ChrisB and enjoyed reading her post.Thank you for sending the link.

Oh really Brad, gooseberries are special in Canada. I know they would make a good dessert with cream or ice cream.

Hi Paresh,
The knife men are fewer now. And no barbers. The roadside barbers are plenty. Maybe i should take some photos. When we were children our barber used to come home.Girls were not supposed to go to the barber shops and I suppose there were not many salons for ladies in those days.Now you have the most fashionable salons and laser places too.

Dear ChrisB,
loved your scissorman post.
Mine did 2 knives and 2 scissors for about 33 pence - that 's rupees 25