M.J. Rose

Tis the season for festive and interesting cocktails! This is a lovely little piece about something delightful called perry – “a fermented drink with fine bubbles made of inedible pears.”

Huffcap and Longford pears illustrated in 1811’s Pomona Herefordiensis
via Archive.org

From Jstor.com,

England’s Forgotten Favorite Drink

by Cynthia Green

“People were drinking perry—a fermented drink with fine bubbles made of inedible pears—for at least 150 years before the legend of Dom Perignon chancing upon his liquid stars in the French region of Champagne. And yet, somewhere along the line we forgot about perry, and over a hundred varieties of ancient perry trees throughout England’s West Midlands sunk into oblivion. That they were found again is partly due to the beautiful and accurate drawings of nineteenth-century botanical artists.

The Three Counties, referring to the agrarian West Midlands counties of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire, are unique in having more than a hundred varieties of inedible pear. Rather than let the tannin-rich fruit go to waste, by the 1500s agricultural families across the West Midlands (and bordering eastern Wales) were making and drinking perry. According to tradition, as the wonderfully-named Cherry Ripe writes in Gastronomica, a perry orchard should contain several varieties. This makes the harvest more manageable by spreading it across late autumn. It also staggers the flowering, which in turn staggers the risk of frost damage, and allows for unique flavour blending. But in order to do this, you have to be able to identify several varieties. By the 1800s, botanical artists specializing in fruit were drawing them all…”

For the rest, click here.

Here’s a population and a subject we can’t resist a little curiosity about…

A Courting message from Harald Harfagre to Gyda. Google Images

From History Collection,

Viking Love: 8 Facts about Love and Sex Among the Vikings

By Natasha Sheldon

“Vikings in popular culture are often viewed as the brutes of the Dark Ages, robbing, raping and pillaging people and goods. However, an analysis of their personal lives shows a much different side. Family life was important to Norse men, and every proper, upstanding Viking aimed to marry and have children. And although their parents arranged their marriages, Norsemen liked to court their ladies- and made a special effort to impress with their appearance.

As for Norse women, although they had to put up with their husband’s affairs with live-in mistresses, slaves and even other men, they had the right to divorce their partners for violence, neglect, and various sexually related issues. In fact, Norse customs of love, marriage, and sex set a high standard in their time- and some even survive to this day. Here are just eight facts about sex, love, and marriage in the Viking era…”

For the rest, click here.

…and we wonder, what else can our furry friends see that may be invisible to us? Spirits and ghosts perhaps? How many times have we watched our pets staring at (or barking at) something up in the corner that is unseen by us?

From Live Science,

Cats and Dogs May See in Ultraviolet
By Tanya Lewis

“A house cat’s bizarre antics may be more than just feline folly. The kitty may be seeing things that human eyes can’t.

Unlike humans, many animals see in ultraviolet, and a study now suggests that cats, dogs and other mammals can, too. Knowing these animals see things invisible to humans could shed some light on the animals’ behavior, the researchers say.

“Nobody ever thought these animals could see in ultraviolet, but in fact, they do,” said study leader Ron Douglas, a biologist at City University London, in England.

Light is made up of a spectrum of colors. Visible light (that humans can see) spans from red to violet, and beyond the visible lie ultraviolet wavelengths. Many animals are known to have UV-vision, including insects (such as bees), birds, fish, some amphibians and reptiles, and a handful of mammals (such as some mice, rats, moles, marsupials and bats)…”

For the rest, click here. The video is below.