Summer Is Right Around The Corner . . .

In about a week, it will be officially summer. There has been consistent rains for the last month which has delayed garden tasks that would have been best done before June such as sowing annual flowers like varied-coloured, long-term-flowering cosmos and zinnias; the last of the edible crops, graceful, stylish Tuscan kale with its smoky green-black leaves; fast-growing cover crops like mustard and tansy to revive the completely harvested pea beds (they provided about 5 litres of pods!). Hopefully, if we can believe the forecast, the next week will be sunny and the soggy soil should be workable fairly soon so those postponed tasks can be eventually completed. Regardless, the garden is humming along, with beloved-by-the bees, aromatic lavender, punchy poppies that reseed themselves through the years, and haughty Queen Elizabeth roses.

The potato variety, Daifla, flowers profusely. (That's the raspberry patch in the background, and if you look closely you will see the berries.) Potato blooms signify that the tubers are being formed. In about two months, when the haulms (the growth above ground) have wilted yellow, it will be time to harvest.

The dark green of ivy makes a good backdrop for rhubarb and potatoes. In the upper left, a drooping branch of a Mirabelle plum tree can be seen with its immature fruit looking like green olives. When ripe, they will be a glorious gold flushed with red.

Most of our potato blooms are pure white but there are a few which are tinted mauve. An interesting aside is that Marie Antoinette, a passionate lover of flowers, was known to have tucked some potato blossoms in her hair during the time Antoine Parmentier was trying to convince the movers and shakers that the New World upstart wasn't poisonous. 

Every other day, there's enough raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries to fill up the dessert bowl. Since blueberries must have acid soil to flourish, our bush is grown in a pot with the desired potting mix.

The rambunctious wild area which harbours lizards, hedgehogs, birds, and insects is festooned with bramble blossoms. The middle bed is filled with bushy Roma tomato plants and in front of them are beets which since have seen the trusty cultivator tool which has cleared away the prolific clover.

During a month these well-established daylilies put out many blooms, each lasting just a day. There are cultivars which are everblooming from early summer to autumn which will soon find a place in our garden.

David Austin climbing rose, Falstaff, is beginning a second round of flowering.

In the front garden, yet more lavender and also Shasta daisies are just starting to bloom. The other day, our neighbour across the street told me that she loves seeing, as does her visitors, the small green haven in front of our home. After all this time, it is known by a few that je jardine comme une folle (I garden like a madwoman). The English lavender is putting on the show right now while the late-blooming French lavender waits to take the spotlight in about a month.

From the vantage point of a reclining, cushy chair under the pergola, this is what I get to see: foliage of mums, rose of Sharon, calla lilies, ivy, two enormous, neighbouring spruce trees, and the imperious blooms of a Queen Elizabeth rose. All of this exuberant growth exists in an urban space. Though I can hear the distant din of traffic, I pretend that it's the sound of ocean waves.

À la prochaine!

Spicy Tomato Jam & Cheddar Biscuits

Tomato jam uses up lots of tomatoes which are still streaming in from the potager, though at a lesser pace. Three pounds makes around two cups (470 ml). It will keep in the fridge for a week or two and any surplus can be frozen.

These tender biscuits can be pulled apart with your hands

Ingredients for Spicy Tomato Jam
makes around 470 ml/2 American cups, 8 fluid oz each, adapted from Serious Eats

• Tomatoes (the best you can find, I used romas from our garden), 1.4 kg/3 lbs, skinned, cored, chopped
• Sugar, granulated, white, 4 T (the original recipe called for 2 cups or 32 T, feel free to use that amount, I am sure it will be delish and very jammy, but I was aiming more for a condiment plus our garden-fresh tomatoes are very sweet on their own)
• Ginger, freshly grated (I used frozen minced ginger), 1 T
• Red pepper flakes, 1/2 to 2 tsp (I used 1/2 tsp which resulted in a mild level of heat)
• Salt, 1 tsp
• Cinnamon, ground, 1/2 tsp
• Cumin, 1/4 tsp (I substituted caraway seed which gave a nice earthiness, is in the same family as cumin, and was in our larder)
• Lemon juice, freshly squeezed, 4 T (a large lemon should do it)

Place all ingredients in a large, heavy-bottomed pot (I used enamelled cast iron). Stirring frequently, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower heat and simmer uncovered for around two hours. When is thick, thick enough? The first indication is the 'parting of the red sea' test. If a swipe across the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon stays for around thirty seconds you are getting closer to getting a jam consistency. A rule of thumb is when the jam is still watery, higher heat makes sense, when pretty thick, a lower one does. Stir occasionally and don't leave the pot untended longer than fifteen minutes.

When you can pile the jam to one corner of the pot and it stays there like a mountain smugly satisfied with its stationary status . . .

. . . you are done. The jam can be eaten right out of the jar with a spoon; accompany fish, poultry, and meat; adorn grilled cheese, BLT, and burgers; cosy up to some scrambled eggs; gussy up a cheese platter.

Ingredients for Cheddar Biscuits
makes around 16 two-inch/5 cm rounds, from Fannie Farmer, my culinary bible

• Flour, white, all-purpose, 280 g/2 cups (American measure, that is, 8 fluid oz each cup)
• Salt, 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder, 4 tsp
• Cream of tartar, 1/2 tsp (I leave this out)
• Sugar, granulated, white, 1 T
• Vegetable shortening (I substituted sweet butter, cut into small cubes), 8 T (1/2 American cup, 4 fluid oz)
• Milk, 15o ml (2/3 American cup, 5.3 fluid oz)
• Cheddar, sharp, 8 T (1/2 American cup, 4 fluid oz), finely grated and loosely packed (if more cheesiness is desired, pack the cheese down, but the biscuits may be less fluffy)

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C/425 degrees F (for more crustiness, preheat to 230 degrees C/450 degrees F which is the temperature I used). Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl. Stir in the cheese.

Add the shortening or butter. Work it with your fingertips till the texture is that of coarse meal.

Pour in the milk all at once. Mix with a wooden spoon

The dough will be crumbly.

Knead it 14 times. That's right. 14 times. Not more or less. I never question Fannie. Flour a board well as the dough is somewhat sticky because of the cheese. Pat out dough to a thickness of 1.3 cm (1/2 inch). Cut out rounds with a 5 cm (2-inch) cutter. Gather the scraps and cut again. Repeat till all or most of the dough is used.

Properly cutting out the dough, that is, with an up and down motion with no twisting, will give you loftier biscuits.

Ah, the whiff of cheddar! Whets the appetite for sure

Place them, slightly touching each other (this gives crusty outsides and fluffy insides), on buttered cake pans or pie plates. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and when they don't leave an impression when touched.

Oh my. So GOOD! The pairing of spicy tomato jam with cheddar biscuits is a sublime one. Gobble them up as a snack or serve them with scrambled eggs for brunch.

À la prochaine!

A Nippy Morn=Oatmeal

Peaches, butter, and cinnamon topping oatmeal is a treat on a cool, late-summer morning. The peach harvest is now finished with a yield of about eighteen kilograms/forty pounds.

Most of those peaches have been eaten or processed. But no bowl of oatmeal chez nous should fear not being adorned with fresh fruit. Because? Figs! Our tree puts out two harvests, a small one in spring, and the main and larger one in late-summer/early autumn. They must be picked ripe as they will not mature any further once off the tree. When ready, it will fall into a cupped hand after a slight downward pressure is applied on its point of attachment. Plus, it will feel and look like a tight balloon ready to break.

Not fully ripe figs taste chalky

Though I try to keep all our fruit trees not much taller than myself, the fig tree is just too exuberant to be tamed that way.

The birds get the ones that are too high for me to harvest

Figs in various stages of ripening festoon a branch.

Farewell, peaches.  Hello, figs!

That golden, gooey lusciousness tastes as good as it looks

The tomato harvest is slowing down. So far, forty-five kilograms/one-hundred pounds either have been eaten or processed.

Potatoes are being dug up every day. The Calm One scavenged a pallet to put on the cellier floor so they will be well ventilated.

An old duvet cover is used to keep the taters in the dark

There's a honeysuckle bloom here and there. It doesn't matter how few there are, their fragrance still suffuses the air.

The zinnias are going strong and have been since July. Sedum Autumn Joy is setting buds.

Autumn Joy provides nectar for bees and seeds for birds, plus a whole lot of prettiness

Eli the Kitten at ten months of age is going strong too and takes his assistant photographer job seriously, sometimes too seriously. When I scold him that he is underfoot and is slowing me down, he meows that such pauses help my concentration.

I don't know, maybe the orange zinnias would have made a better shot?

À la prochaine!

Lush Late Summer

Processing our garden produce is often accompanied by serenading insects. Their captivating chorus drifts through the open kitchen windows as I rinse, chop, simmer, and sieve. Their identity? Doubt they are the beloved cigales of southeast France. Or grasshoppers. My bet is the chirping being given freely as August heat envelops and dusk closes in belongs to crickets. In the last two weeks, thirty-six kilograms/eighty pounds of tomatoes have been turned into concentrate and sauce. I no longer skin tomatoes for sauce because after several hours of simmering they cleave off the tomatoes on their own accord. I just pick them out once the sauce is cooled. To make around 3 litres, in a large, non-reactive pot like stainless steel or enamelled, saute in a little olive oil 4 Toulouse sausages (Italian sweet can be substituted) which have been removed from their casings. Breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, stir for a few minutes, and then add 4-5 crushed, large garlic cloves. Keeping the heat low, rinse and quarter 7 kilograms/15 pounds of tomatoes. Add them to the pot as you work. Toss in 1 tablespoon of dried basil, several bay leaves, and a few scrubbed Parmesan rinds. Simmer, partially covered, for 3-4 hours or until the sauce is thick and luscious. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Cool. Scoop out those skins. Portion. Freeze.

Though the tomato harvest is well past its peak, there are still quite a lot in the process of ripening on the vines.

When romas are ripe, they are fully and deeply red.

I quarter the romas. The crickets sing.

I have been meaning to get some Opinel knives for many a year which I finally have done so.  Only a French knife could boast of a denture velours (velvet teeth). It slices through food effortlessly.

Thinly sliced tomatoes? Some mozzarella remaining from making lasagna? Potted basil waving at you from a sunny window sill? It's a cinch to make caprese salad. Layer tomatoes and cheese. Sprinkle with olive oil and vinegar. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Top with chiffonade of basil.

Now that I am somewhat on top of tomato processing, it's the peaches' turn, and then the plums'.

There still are strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries here and there which get sugared and topped with cream whipped by The Calm One.

Though my focus is on preserving the bounty of peaches of which I am guessing will amount to about twenty-two kilograms/fifty pounds, we still make room for fresh ones which are pitted, sliced, and topped with whipped cream.

The Calm One's social creativity is always a delight: suggesting that his sibling reunion take place in the large garden of the Huddersfield home in which they all grew up (across the street where the familial dwelling of James Mason once was) though the house now belongs to strangers (who would be invited, of course); getting our niece and nephew to go racing out on our balcony to see who would be the first to spot the faint footprint of the international space station slowly padding its way across the night sky; most recently, his listening intently with a thoughtful facial expression as I announced the passing of some hot air balloons, and then his softly saying, lets photograph the universe in a glass against the backdrop of the balloons. 

The universe in his hand

À la prochaine!

Summer Style: Well-Dressed Pasta Salad, Lemonade, Five Easy Fresh Tomato Recipes & Front Garden Floral Displays

A capacious bowl of cold pasta salad is not only delicious like its steaming counterpart, there's also the benefit of a nice dose of resistant starch because letting pasta cool down, also cools down blood sugar spikes. Just mix ingredients, pop in fridge, sleep on it overnight, and the next day you got one lovely, exceedingly well-marinaded, and tasty concoction. If you made a hefty amount, it'll be there for you after doing chores or when you watch a video or welcoming you once the gardening is done for the day and beyond as it gets more flavourful through time. Since the dressing is what's going to permeate the pasta and give it an alluring oomph, choose ingredients you love. In my case: minced garlic, grated Parmesan, capers (Oh, how I adore thee!), olive oil, lemon juice, fresh basil, and silky, tart yogurt.

Romas from our potager are perfect for this salad as they are more meaty than juicy

For two meal-sized servings or four to six smaller ones: fistfuls of penne, 6; roma tomatoes, 8-10; yogurt, 8 T; extra virgin olive oil, 2 T; freshly squeezed juice from 1 lemon; capers, 2 T; chopped fresh basil, 1 heaping T; finely grated Parmesan, 8 T; 2-4 garlic cloves, minced; salt (I used several tsp) and freshly ground black pepper (I did about 8 turns of the mill) to taste.  Toss penne into boiling water which should take about 12 minutes to become al dente, the perfect consistency for salads. Put all other ingredients except tomatoes into a large bowl. Whisk for about a minute.

No whisk chez vous?  A fork will do just fine instead.

Drain the pasta and let cold water run over the strainer so the penne does not cook any further. Give the strainer a few good shakes and then plop pasta into the bowl with the dressing. Can't be bothered to dig out a strainer or you don't have one? It's summer; let's keep it simple and easy. Use a slightly ajar lid or a plate to let out the water and keep the pasta in, fill with cold water, and drain again. Mix pasta and dressing well. Chop tomatoes and add to the dressed salad. Check seasoning. Remember that as it chills, the impact of seasoning fades a bit so it needs a generous hand. Cover and put in fridge for at least an hour. It goes well with lemonade, but then again most summery comestibles do: put 2-3 tablespoons of sugar in bottom of a glass (296 ml/10 oz), scant cover with hot tap water, stir till dissolved, add juice of a large lemon along with enough icy-cold water to bring the 'ade to the rim. During the summer we keep several water bottles in the fridge rather than bother with making ice cubes. If you got them, then float a few in your glass especially if the temperature is scorching.

Lemon waiting to be turn into 'ade

It's that time of the year when The Calm One and I get to enjoy tomatoes fresh from the potager every day till autumn. 

Here are some of our favourite dishes:

We put thinly sliced tomatoes on top of macaroni and cheese, add more cheese, and then broil till tomatoes are more sauce than not and cheese is bubbly.

Topping is a mix of edam and cheddar

The big ones, cored and stuffed with a mixture of chopped pulp, minced tuna/shrimp/chicken, and mayonnaise, are served over couscous.

Thickly sliced toms are placed on a bed of cooked brown rice which are sprinkled with olive oil, basil, parmesan, then put under the broiler.

Medium-sized, hollowed-out tomatoes are filled with a raw egg while the chopped pulp is placed on a bed of cooked couscous along with the filled toms, sprinkled with olive oil, thyme, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and baked covered for about twenty minutes.

They are added to salads and sandwiches, especially grilled cheese.

Pan-Grilled Tomato Basil Cheddar Sourdough Rye Sandwich

Potted tuberous begonias and dahlias which were started several months ago are brightening up our front entrance. Additionally, the cascading begonias are scenting that area with their remarkable, black-tea-morphing-into-grapefruit fragrance. Late July and August often see a dearth of flowers, so long-blooming varieties like these two, especially potted and placed in full view, can carry the garden into autumn. Since these beauties are working so hard and are not in the ground, they get a liquid feed weekly.

Deadheading in general is a good habit but is essential for showcased, potted flowers

À la prochaine!

RELATED LINK

The grand history of breeding fragrant begonias