The nightshade family

This fruit is called physalis and the fruit belongs to the nightshade family, that fact was the most interesting thing I found out about them. Once you know they are related to tomatoes, the similarity is obvious but they are fragrant, like perfume.

I was out at dinner with friends, and one of these were sitting atop her ice-cream.  What followed was a discussion in Swedish that I couldn't follow, as they tried to figure out the English word for the fruit.

Then I saw them in my local grocery store, for some reason, (nonsensically as so few food items are) I decided the fruit was local.

It is strange and wonderful to find a fruit I have never seen before.

Well, until my mind wanders into all the information that has been the topic of so much news with regards to globalization, and its impact on food production.

This made me think about Tasmania versus Sweden.  Tasmania smugly can exist on food produced on the island, with tropical foods (like physalis) coming from Queensland.  But Sweden would be sadly lacking in variety if the country could not import foods.  Of all the fruits and vegetables in our store, only the potatoes and strawberries had been grown in Sweden.  

What comprises a moral stance in one country can not often be applied to another country.  Why am I bothering to think about all this?  Probably because Zok's idea to have a road trip through Scotland was booked during the high season, of a record breaking year for tourism in that country.

I spent three days, and contacted over forty places to find us five places to sleep and none of the places were even in my top twenty choices.

I would say the say to see Scotland is to pick an area, book a cute cabin/lighthouse/farmstead for an entire week and explore from there.

Also most take bookings from Saturday to Saturday so you might want to factor that in.  We will be doing some back tracking on our driving, but all of the scenery on the web seems so pretty that I don't think this will be a problem.

I also am lamenting all my cute, good, hiking clothing I have amassed- in Tasmania.  None of which is here.

Of course when I get a photo of Nessie, I will be so rich that I can just buy whatever clothing I want.