Wednesday, March 25, 2015
One of my favourite memories of Grandpa revolves around honey extraction. Beekeeping was one of his favourite hobbies, and he never turned away curious observers. He loved to show visiting kids the hives, explaining how the bees did their work and how we worked to extract the honey from the combs, but still looked after the bees. He would convince people to take a big chew of beeswax to enjoy and when the work was done, he couldn't seem to stop moving. And eventually he'd have to go out to the garden and see what produce he could bring in for Grandma. And inevitably, he would find a gooseberry. Gooseberries really do look like teeny tiny watermelons. And that's the line he would feed unsuspecting kids. "You gotta try this. It's just like a little watermelon". And those little green gooseberries were sour enough to turn your face inside out. And the crazy thing is, even though the rest of us knew better, we wouldn't say a word, allowing our friend or cousin to take that sour little snack. At least there was always honey to wipe out the sourness.
