I Love To Hate Incurved Chrysanthemum Blooms

I bought some bloom chrysanths today for nostalgic reasons, even though I don't like them at all.

My father and granny used to grow them when I was a child, attached to canes in 'whalehide' pots. It takes skill to get them to flower at Christmas without botrytis and with strong enough stems to support their stupid globular heads. Granny used to put inverted clay pots stuffed with hay on top of the canes to trap the earwigs.

We try to uphold family traditions and remember our forebears at Christmas. My granny and my MIL were brilliant cooks and I try to produce a table of which they would be proud, making as much as I can from scratch like they used to do.