"David Rance" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004, Martin wrote:

I am not arguing with your contention that Germany gets more sun
than we
do, just with your opinion that English wines are inferior because
of
that.

The Germans help their wine by adding sugar in a wet year.

All wine makers do. In France it is called chaptalisation.

No. It is unnecessary in South Africa. The insolation is reliable
enough not to have to interfere with the must. I suspect the same is
true of California and Oz, which is why the wines from those regions
tend to be superior to French and German wines.

Franz

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 05:55:08 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:


"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in
message ...
The message
from Klara contains these words:


Being brought up on maize, I like sweetcorn
rather riper than is the taste in this country. It won't get
too ripe to eat as sweetcorn gere, because we don't get enough
sun to ripen it properly.

Don't they say it takes 100 days of sun to ripen corn?

You can get corn bred for cool northern climates to ripen in a
shorter
growing seasons; it's worth searching them out. I've grown it
successfully in west Scotland where a hundred days of sun in one
summer
would be a miracle :-)

What did you do with the ripe mealies? Do you realise that it is
only
eaten in the form of samp (English). stampmielies (Afrikaans), or
maize meal porridge? Where in the UK are there mealie meal mills?

It's used to make cattle feed.

Are you sure you are talking about ripe mealies? I doubt whether
cattle teeth would be of any help in masticating it.

Franz

"Janet Galpin" wrote in message
...
The message
from Martin Brown contains these
words:

In message , Joanne
writes
I understand that sweetcorn should be harvested when the juices
are milky,
and when the stringy bits on top are brown and dry. However, my
corns' bits
are stringy and dry but the cobs are still very small.

So, do I wait until the cobs are larger, or do I harvest now?

It has been such a poor summer that it isn't too surprising they
are
struggling a bit. I'd guess they are still not yet ripe even if
the
strings are dry. Mine usually come ripe around the end of
September.

Poor pollination might also be a factor if the cobs are short of
grains.

You could always pull a couple and see how well they cook. Fresh
produce
just off the plant always tastes sweeter...

My cobs are also well smaller than usual but I have been eating them
for
the last two weeks and they are excellent - just small. In fact I
now
have one or two which are what I assume to be over-ripe (though I
now
realise from the rest of the thread that ripeness is more
complicated
than I was thinking) in that the grains are caving in slightly - or
is
that just lack of water?
I would definitely try a cob.

If it is still soft enough to get your teeth to do damage to it, you
will be eating a cob at its very best. Do make sure you eat it with
vast quantities of butter.

Franz

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004, Franz Heymann wrote:

The Germans help their wine by adding sugar in a wet year.

All wine makers do. In France it is called chaptalisation.

No. It is unnecessary in South Africa. The insolation is reliable
enough not to have to interfere with the must. I suspect the same is
true of California and Oz, which is why the wines from those regions
tend to be superior to French and German wines.

Ah well, I was thinking only of Europe! ;-)

David
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"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"Franz Heymann" wrote
"Martin" wrote
"Franz Heymann" wrote:

If you attempt to cook ripe maize as sweetcorn, it will take
ages
to cook, and be completely unpalatable. As I said, corn will
not
reach that stage in the UK, as we don't get enough sun.
Germany
gets slightly more, as may be seen by the superiority of
German
wines to English ones.

Normalised to equal cultivated areas, English wines win far
more
first
prizes at blind tastings than German wines do.

In England or in Germany or elsewhere?

In international exhibition-cum-tasting events..
Franz

Aggggggghhhhhhhh - trying to resist saying, and not succeeding
"Oh, I thought
it was wine tasting......."

Oh dear, I put my foot in it again.

Franz

"David Rance" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004, Nick Maclaren wrote:

But there are good-flavoured English white wines now. The
winemaker's
art has improved enormously.

Hmm. I have heard that at least half a dozen times, been
suspicious,
checked up, and found no difference. I last tried half a dozen
years
back, at the latest Kent vinyard to be lauded to the skies.

I do think that they talk up English wine and say unrealistic
things.
One should simply take it for what it is.

As I
said, I am prepared to try again, but am disinclined to waste money
and effort unless I have reason to believe that there is at least a
50% chance of the wine being drinkable. I don't ask for it to be
good, or value for money - I am not THAT unrealistic!

Well, I do think that English wines are overpriced for what they
are.
But then I never buy wine other than at a vineyard, and most of the
time
I drink my own wine, so I don't know what the current price is for
foreign wines and can't compare.

So what English wine (preferably at an affordable price) would you
say is NOT thin and either acid or lacking in flavour?

Well, the most recent wines I have bought have been local ones from
the
Thames Valley Vineyard at Twyford. They do a very nice dry wine
called
"Regatta" (!). They also have a sweet wine which they call
"Botrytis"
(you'd think they could be a bit more imaginative, wouldn't you?).
It's
not bad - 10.5% alcohol and they produce it only when the conditions
are
right.

I don't get that. At only 10.5 % (weaselwater) and with a remaining
sugar content, they have to do something murderous to it to stop it
fermenting in storage.

Franz

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004, Franz Heymann wrote:

They also have a sweet wine which they call
"Botrytis"
(you'd think they could be a bit more imaginative, wouldn't you?).
It's
not bad - 10.5% alcohol and they produce it only when the conditions
are
right.

I don't get that. At only 10.5 % (weaselwater) and with a remaining
sugar content, they have to do something murderous to it to stop it
fermenting in storage.

Yes, I must say that that had crossed my mind, too. I'll ask the
winemaker next time I go over there. Chances are he won't tell me.

Well, he's Australian and I don't speak Australian! ;-)

David

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The message
from David Rance contains these words:

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004, Nick Maclaren wrote:

As I said, corn will not
reach that stage in the UK, as we don't get enough sun. Germany
gets slightly more, as may be seen by the superiority of German
wines to English ones.

You do bang on about the inferiority of English wines. That's the second
time in as many months that I've seen you put English wines down. Since
you don't usually say things about which you have no experience I assume
that you must have tasted English wines recently. Therefore I would put
your opinion down to personal taste rather than quality per se.

Quite. A Norfolk vinyard won Best Wine in an internatiuonal judging,
against all comers - including French and German. And that was back ten
or fifteen years.

Wine was Magdalen, from Pulham Market. (Pulham St. Mary Magdalen)

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from David Rance contains these words:

So what English wine (preferably at an affordable price) would you
say is NOT thin and either acid or lacking in flavour?

Well, the most recent wines I have bought have been local ones from the
Thames Valley Vineyard at Twyford. They do a very nice dry wine called
"Regatta" (!). They also have a sweet wine which they call "Botrytis"
(you'd think they could be a bit more imaginative, wouldn't you?). It's
not bad - 10.5% alcohol and they produce it only when the conditions are
right.

There's an established, though fairly young vinyard near me in South
Norfolk. (The Magdalen one I mentioned is not, I believe in existence
any longer. Peter Cook - not the late P. Cook - sold it, and IIRC, the
person who bought it didn't make a go of it.)

If I remember, I'll buy a bottle and report on it - though to be fair, I
don't like white wines, generally. (I like being hit with a Shiraz
sledgehammer...)

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 13:48:01 +0100, Janet Galpin
wrote:

In fact I now
have one or two which are what I assume to be over-ripe (though I now
realise from the rest of the thread that ripeness is more complicated
than I was thinking)

Actually, when it comes to many fruit/seed crops, "ripe" can be defined in
two ways (if not more). There's "botanically ripe", which means that the
fruit contains mature seed that can be planted next season, and there's
"horticulturally ripe", which that the fruit is at the desired stage for
eating.

cheers,

Marj
--
Mediterranean Garden Advice and Shop: http://stores.tiefert.com/garden/
Also: http://www.mindspring.com/~mtiefert/...gardening.html
In Sunset zone 14-mild

In article opsejf04kpadtv40@matservices,
M. Tiefert wrote:
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 13:48:01 +0100, Janet Galpin
wrote:

In fact I now
have one or two which are what I assume to be over-ripe (though I now
realise from the rest of the thread that ripeness is more complicated
than I was thinking)

Actually, when it comes to many fruit/seed crops, "ripe" can be defined in
two ways (if not more). There's "botanically ripe", which means that the
fruit contains mature seed that can be planted next season, and there's
"horticulturally ripe", which that the fruit is at the desired stage for
eating.

Quite. This rather futile thread started with me saying that
sweetcorn (effectively) never gets over the stage of being
horticulturally ripe into that of being botanically ripe (and
not eatable as green mealies, a.k.a. sweetcorn) in the UK, due
to our lack of sun and heat in the 'summer'.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from "Franz Heymann" contains these words:

Thames Valley Vineyard at Twyford. They do a very nice dry wine
called
"Regatta" (!). They also have a sweet wine which they call
"Botrytis"
(you'd think they could be a bit more imaginative, wouldn't you?).
It's
not bad - 10.5% alcohol and they produce it only when the conditions
are
right.

I don't get that. At only 10.5 % (weaselwater) and with a remaining
sugar content, they have to do something murderous to it to stop it
fermenting in storage.

To keep them as dessert wines I have pasteurised home-made wines in the
bottle on occasion.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message opsejf04kpadtv40@matservices
from "M. Tiefert" contains these words:

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 13:48:01 +0100, Janet Galpin
wrote:

In fact I now
have one or two which are what I assume to be over-ripe (though I now
realise from the rest of the thread that ripeness is more complicated
than I was thinking)

Actually, when it comes to many fruit/seed crops, "ripe" can be defined in
two ways (if not more). There's "botanically ripe", which means that the
fruit contains mature seed that can be planted next season, and there's
"horticulturally ripe", which that the fruit is at the desired stage for
eating.

Then of course, there's the 'ripe' which is suggestive of old socks or
of a freshly-turned dunghill...

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in
message k...
The message opsejf04kpadtv40@matservices
from "M. Tiefert" contains these words:

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 13:48:01 +0100, Janet Galpin

wrote:

In fact I now
have one or two which are what I assume to be over-ripe (though
I now
realise from the rest of the thread that ripeness is more
complicated
than I was thinking)

Actually, when it comes to many fruit/seed crops, "ripe" can be
defined in
two ways (if not more). There's "botanically ripe", which means
that the
fruit contains mature seed that can be planted next season, and
there's
"horticulturally ripe", which that the fruit is at the desired
stage for
eating.

Then of course, there's the 'ripe' which is suggestive of old socks
or
of a freshly-turned dunghill..

This thread is a discussion of mealies, not cheese.
{:-))

Franz.