Our annual fruit harvest once again failed, but luckily one of Kata's colleagues Erika allowed us to come and pick plums to our heart's content. Unlike most places in region, Aggtelek has a glut of fruit on the trees. Erika had used all she could, so we picked 5 baskets of various kinds of plums and left the rest for the neighbour to make palinka. With so many, we immediately began processing them. Our friend Agi gave us a yummy red wine-plum sauce recipe with ginger and chilli which we made 12 jars of. Then we made 2 batches of plum jam - one traditional and another with anise, ginger, cinnamon and clove which all came to about 24 jars. We called Krisztian in Bodvaszilas because we wanted to dry the rest in his wood-burning fruit dryer, but it is still too early in the season. Having no alternative, we took the old Szalamandra Hostel sign left at our place after Kata painted the new sign and set it atop a couple hay bales in the sun. We dried the plums for 3-4 days and they came out great!

We are trying our hand at palinka again this year with the same small pears, but will leave the barrel in a warmer place and kick-start the process with some sugar. We spent a day slicing up baskets of pears until my thumb bled. My mother always told me not to cut towards myself...

The cucumbers are still going strong. Luckily, Kata makes a great Hungarian cucumber salad with garlic and sour cream. The big tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, and we are crossing our fingers that they will do so before the cold front hits. The big ones contain more flesh and fewer seeds, therefore much better for making ketchup and juice. We continue to get a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes daily, as well as a few raspberries and meter-long beans. All ten of our surprisingly lovely watermelons have now been picked. The eggplants still refuse to flower and it is now probably too late to expect anything. The big green squash plants are meters long with tons of flowers, but there is only one big squash on the vine with a couple smaller ones finally developing. We planted new autumn crops of garden rocket, salads and beets. The ground fleas found the rocket again immediately, but the salads and beets are developing nicely. I also picked all the dry coriander for the seeds.

With all this preserving going on, and the cellar now renovated, we are ready to build our shelves. We have a lot of wooden planks and bricks left over from various renovations, so we are making use of these. The foundation of the house was made from lime poured over boulders and then "burned" together by pouring water over it. This was the existing technology when the house was built almost 100 years ago. However, it is not something you can drill into and anchor shelves. Kata and I came up with a solution we hope will be stable. We anchored vertical boards to the cement ceiling and floor, to which the horizontal shelves will be attached, supported at each level by bricks. When it is done, we will have 4 shelves for all our preserves and bottles of cordials.

Another concern all year has been our smoking stucco stove. After almost a year of discussions and angst, we located a stonemason in Tornaszentandras that Simon recommended and he demolished our old chimney. It was our hope that a larger and higher chimney would solve what we hoped was simply a draft problem. It was and it wasn't. Imre discovered that the chimney was not a standard 12" or 15", but instead a much too narrow 6-8". In fact, the original builders made a zigzag in order to avoid a wooden beam, narrowing the chimney diameter even more. The new chimney is a 20". The test fire in the sparhelt drew much better without smoke. Unfortunately, the stucco stove experienced the same problem as before - the smoke just roiled and boiled in the firebox like the London fog. Only two possibilities remain - there could be a problem where the stove connects with the chimney, or somewhere in the actual stove construction.

The car is also what I can only describe as hiccupping. The mechanic said that the problem is likely due to broken or weakened engine clamps. We went to Kazincbarcika to an autoparts store but had to wait 4 hours for the part or come back another day. We did a bunch of food shopping and Kata bought me a new pair of slippers. Simon and Dori recommended the HBH Restaurant and Brewery almost across the street, and with time to burn we had lunch there. I had a huge Caesar salad for 1400 HUF, while Kata went for the daily menu: cold plum soup, lasagne and ice cream - any one of which could have been a meal in itself.  The daily menu costs 1150 Huf with a glass of beer, 1550 Huf with water! The waiter was good, selling without overselling. But while I almost took his suggestion of the cold fruit soup with my salad, I am very glad I did not. The salad was really enormous and I struggled to finish it. True to its name, the restaurant and hotel also houses a microbrewery. While they were out of wheat beer, we tried the unfiltered lager and the cherry beer. I enjoyed both beers, though Kata would have preferred a stronger real cherry flavour. Bring your own bottle or get a plastic one there. You can take away a LITRE of great homebrew for only 300-350 Huf! We took away 1.5 litres each of the unfiltered lager, dark beer and cherry beer.

This weekend we plan on attending the VII. Annual Gömör Fruit Festival which will be held a week earlier than usual this year. Calm, the aromas of jams, live music, games, dancing, and a little serenity before the rainy autumn weather sets in.

Programme includes:
- Local products and crafts market;
- Regional fruit and mushroom exhibition;
- Plum jam preparation;
- Concerts; and
- Puppet Theatre
Full Programme here: http://new.gomorikte.hu/.../7-vii-gomori-gyumolcsfesztival-pl...

Organisers:
Mónika Vrastyák Dávid Várnagy
Gömöri Környezet és Tájfejlesztő Egyesület
Tel: +36-30-639-4549, +36-30-739-3647,
gomorikte@freemail.hu, www.gomorikte.hu