Thursday 9 February 2012

A Nexceptional Year for Sprouts!

Allotments, Neckelchester Village


Greetings to all my dear human friends! It has been many Camelopardalian moons since I last visited your planet via the Interneck. We have had such adventures! I shall begin with our most important news; this has been a nexceptional year for sprouts ...

As you will know, we giraffes love our sprouts and they have a very special place in our culture and energy. (Necky Becky has just reminded me that she will NOT eat sprouts!)

Our Brassica camelopardalis are very similar to your earthly Brussels sprouts, coming from the same family. Here are some of our most popular varieties:



'Nexceptional' yields very neat tightly-budded sprouts with a lovely nutty flavour and is one of the easiest to grow.

'Celestial Giraffe' sprouts are a little untidy in their individual shapes, yet their taste is truly heavenly! Those of us with a delicate and experienced palate can detect subtle honey-like flavours that vary from region to region.


Last and most important is our great 'Fountain of Flatulence', grown especially for our AFF Gas energy supply. A robust plant that will flourish in any soil, it has a wholesome flavour especially popular in soups.

Camelopardalian sprouts grow very tall, and have to be harvested with special long-handled tools.


Here we are enjoying a family sprout-gathering in our vegetable patch at Necky Knoll House. The February evening sun sends low shafts of light between the trees and overhead the sky is dusky pink and mauve.

As it grows dark an enticing aroma wafts across the garden. Uncle Girth is busy at a huge tureen of freshly prepared sprout soup! It's time for supper ...

(c) Ingrid Sylvestre - Artist, Illustrator, Writer, Durham North East England UK

12 comments:

The Solitary Walker said...

Talk about synchronicity! My wife has just been to the shop with a small shopping list: bread rolls, cane sugar, fruit, coleslaw, cheese — and SPROUTS! (to accompany the pork chops we're having later). Unfortunately she forgot the sprouts and, for some reason, came back with chocolate instead. This will not go well with pork, so I'll have to return to the shop (through the snow, as it's just started snowing again.)

Very nexciting to have you back, Raph!

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

LOL the drawings!!

Raph G. Neckmann said...

Ah, Solitary Walker - chocolate and sprouts both hold the highest place as important and nexquisite foods! You may like to try sprouts dipped in melted chocolate for your dessert - as delicious as strawberries!

Don't get lost in the snow :)

It's good to be back among my human friends again!

Raph G. Neckmann said...

Drawings, Monica? These are photographs! Maybe the journey along the Interneck from our constellation to yours changes their appearance somewhat? :)

Heather said...

If only 'Fountain of Flatulence' could grow on our planet - it might help solve our energy crisis. Beautiful artwork as usual and lovely to hear from you again. Keep warm and enjoy the soup.

Raph G. Neckmann said...

Maybe 'Fountain of Flatulence' already grows somewhere unseen on Planet Earth, Heather, or possibly a similar variety.

It's lovely to be back, thank you - you are welcome to share our soup with us - and we have chocolate cake too!

Cloudia said...

HOW very DELIGHTFUL to recon-neck-t with you!!!!!!!





Warm Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral

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Raph G. Neckmann said...

Hello Cloudia! Thank you and Warm Giraffe Greetings from Camelopardalis! I'm looking forward to visiting your blog today when we have finished our sprout sorting. :)

Rune Eide said...

Whatever can beat the 'Fountain of Flatulence'. The soup parties must be thrill indeed :-)

Hyacinths "Candlelight suppers" would have along way to go - or maybe candle would be dangerous!

A Magnificent post!

Raph G. Neckmann said...

Thank you RuneE! :))

I looked up Hyacinths 'Candlelight Suppers' on the Interneck - I imagined at first that it was a variety of hyacinth flower, but I see that it is a Planet Earth celebrity event! I wonder if I would ever be invited? We would of course nextend a warm return invitation to one of our Sprout Suppers!

Barbara Martin said...

My own house plants have shown remarkable growth since January. I have an orange tree growing in a pot that seemed to take ages to get its rooting stablized. It's come up about 2 inches since then. My African voilets are all leafy but they haven't flowered. Something must be missing.

Lovely post as always and the drawings are splendid.

Raph G. Neckmann said...

Hello Barbara, how lovely to hear from you. It's good that your houseplants are putting on remarkable growth this year. Hopefully your ceilings will be high like ours, if you are growing trees indoors!

Glad that you liked the post - we're continuing to gleefully harvest our sprouts.