For reasons obvious to people who know me, I particularly enjoy Australian or Australia-related foods and healthy beverages. Crisp and sweet-tart, Granny Smith apples, either in one of Karen’s famous apple pies or fresh with fine cheese are among my favorite fruits.
The Granny Smith cultivar (a plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding) actually originated in Eastwood, New South Wales, less than 20 miles from where I grew up. The bright-green fruit variety’s developer was Maria Ann Smith, a popular orchardist, who in 1868 reportedly chanced upon its first seedling among some ferns near a local creek. After she and her husband Thomas had raised a large family, Maria became widely known as “Granny Smith.” By the mid-1970s, almost half of Australia’s apple crop was Granny Smith apples, and since the 1980s an October “Granny Smith Festival” draws many thousands of people to both Eastwood and the nearby town of Ryde.
Oh, and another typically Australian delight is carefully brewed, truly hot tea. Karen follows the strict rule of bringing the water to a full bubbling boil, pre-heating the china pot and china cups, and allowing the tea leaves fully, richly to steep in the hot, hot water. Yum!
Well, what then is the “mislead”? There is a kind of “trick” in this blog entry. Study my still-life photo and the story above to see if you can decide how I have attempted to mislead you. To award a prize, we will draw from names of those who correctly identify my trickery and submit their answers in the comments below.
Also, you won’t want to miss a future blog article in which I will provide a practical lesson remarkably well illustrated by today’s posting.
Love to all from Grahame
