Red Sky

This is what sunrise looks like these days, seen peeking through my neighbor's Japanese Black Pine. During the day, the sky stays red, with the sunlight filtering through the thick layer of smoke in the air. 

It's depressing as hell, actually. It feels post-apocalyptic. Then I think about the folks who live near, or in, the fires. For them, it really is post-apocalyptic.

This isn't a political blog, but I must say it doesn't help when the president tweets out falsehoods about why California is burning. I've come to believe that there is a large part of the population that believes every word he says, and he knows this. And that's why he says things that are deliberately false, to spread this dissension and hatred. So the fires, or the air quality, or the true reasons behind them, aren't the only thing depressing me (although God knows, that's enough to depress anyone). It's this horrendous idea that California has brought this on itself. The truth is bigger than that. It's that it's happening to all of us, everywhere. Our events look different, but they all stem from the same thing. And at the moment I just can't see a way out for any us. And it weighs heavily.

It's hard to focus on the harvest, or what we're cooking, or starting seed for a winter garden, when this larger issue is (literally) hanging above our heads. I try to remember that all I can control is my immediate sphere. I try not to read the news more than once a day. I try to find the real science behind the 'why' and try to imagine a future where we are all okay. But friends, I must be honest, I'm struggling. And I wonder if you are struggling too? Am I alone in this feeling?

Paprika, and some other random things

I am growing three kinds of paprika peppers this year, in the hopes of making my own spice powder for the year. So far this has been a tremendous success. All three of these peppers are producing like crazy. When fresh, they are all mild enough to eat on sandwiches or salads (at least mild enough for my pepper-loving son, I haven't tried them that way) and when ripe, have been excellent for making paprika. 

For regular paprika, I just slice up the peppers and dry in them in the dehydrator, then grind them in our spice mill (a dedicated Krups coffee grinder). 

For smoked paprika, we smoke them for about six hours over hickory wood smoke, then slice and dry in the dehydrator. This has yielded a particularly yummy result.

It's lovely and fresh in jars, and will make nice additions to our meals over the next year. It can also be used in other homemade spice mixes such as chili powder, which is next on my list. I also want to smoke some jalepenos to make dried chipotle peppers.

In other news, I've read a couple of articles that I thought you might be interested in, regarding the current fires in California and climate change. The first is from one of our favorite local farms, Full Belly. This article starts off reporting the condition of the farm after a fire passed within its boundaries, but then goes on to explain all about soil health and water conditions. You can read this article HERE.  The second is from the LA Times, and it explains how the current fire conditions (and weather conditions, and water conditions, it's all related) are a direct result of climate change. Here in California, there's been a distinct shift (in the last year) from speculation to confirmation, regarding climate change. (And as you know, our current administration is still denying it.) You can read that article HERE. 

Rudbeckia hirta

I still haven't gotten around to making the August wreath yet. It's been too hot and smoky to get out on a hike and see what's available. I'll post it when I get to it, but meanwhile last month's wreath has dried beautifully and still looks nice, so there's no rush.

Now, off to make tomato/basil sauce for the freezer!

Gezahnte tomato

I have a new favorite canning tomato. These beauties are a variety called Gezahnte, from Baker Creek Seeds, who reports they are from Switzerland. As you know, I pick tomatoes just after they begin to break color, so the squirrels don't eat them. I bring them inside to ripen, and these ripen beautifully inside over just a couple of days and become a bright pink-red.

They are hollow-ish inside. So when you pick them, they feel very light. But what it means is that there is very little juice/seeds/pulp, which makes them perfect for canning.

But they also look really gorgeous when sliced (like flowers!), and taste great, so they're good for fresh eating, too. And not terribly messy because they are not terribly juicy.

The plant itself is super-prolific. I have two of these vines growing, and each has at least 15 fruits on them at the moment, with just as many already picked and processed.

They form in these adorable clusters. I just love their pleated shape.

The plants have done wonderfully despite our hot days (mid-90's for months) and cool nights (around 60 still every night) and dry conditions. They did have blossom end rot early on, and I lost about 10% to that, which seems about typical for my garden. However 10% is nothing on a plant this prolific, so it doesn't bother me so much.

The fruits are between 6-8 ounces; not terribly large. When canning, they slip their skins extremely easily and pull apart effortlessly for crushed tomatoes. Another plus is that they keep their color after canning.

The cans on the right are the Gezahnte; the ones on the left, other kinds of tomatoes mixed. You can see how much prettier the Gezahnte cans are.

So this tomato is a new winner for me, and I plan to grow it every year. I think my four favorite paste tomatoes are Opalka, Amish Paste, Ukranian purple, and this one. I won't mess around with any others from now on - just these four.

August

Happy August, my friends! I'm feeling distinct twinges of summer winding down, though here in California, it's not so much that the harvest is ending, or that the temperatures are lowering; no, we're still near triple-digit heat and the garden has come into its own, pumping out fruit and veg like I planned for it to, way back in January. It's just that end-of-summer feeling with school starting again in a couple of weeks, and all that goes with that: Figuring out where the backpacks are, trying to finish that summer assignment, and finalizing calendar dates. 

However, summer ain't over yet, and I've got lots to share with you. During my self-imposed computer break, we also traveled: Last Christmas our gift from my folks was a family trip to Europe, and we spent a scant week in England and another in France, all of us together with Tim and Lois (my parents), and Stewart and Niki (my brother and his partner). Mom and Dad lived in London for a few years in the late 90's, and they wanted to show that neighborhood to Adam and Kate (our kids). So we spent time in London visiting their flat and some of their favorite haunts, exploring some tourist attractions, seeing Kinky Boots, walking a lot, eating scones, and doing some serious drinking in pubs (research for Tom's brewing projects, natch). We also took a couple of day trips to the East and South of London, visiting Chartwell (Churchill's home), Hever Castle (Anne Boleyn's childhood home), Oxford (particularly Christ Church College), and Blenheim Palace. We had a hilarious couple of hours in a local coin-op laundry and a middle-of-the-night hotel fire alarm, all of which added to the great stories of this interesting week in England. Despite some of the dire clouds you see in the photos here, we had zero rain while in Europe. Both England and France were in the middle of heat wave (near 90 in England the whole week, mid-90's in Paris, near 100 in the Loire Valley) and hadn't seen rain for months. England looked a bit like California, which was particularly sad for us. 

The White Tower, Tower of London

Windsor Castle

the Thames in Windsor

Kate striking up an artist's relationship with a local wanderer

Part of the gardens at Chartwell

Gardens at Chartwell

Kate sketching

Hever. You can see how dry it is.

Adam working out the yew maze at Hever

Blenheim through a portal

Feeling a bit like Harry Potter at the Great Hall at Christ Church (the inspiration for the Great Hall at Hogwarts)

After five terrific days in England, we hopped on the Eurostar and had a wonderful train ride through the Chunnel to Paris. Tom couldn't help comparing that experience to his daily commute, and I'm afraid BART (our metro) came up woefully short. (Though we did appreciate the air conditioning on BART after riding the Tube in a heat wave.) We had a very short two days in Paris, but we got the best overviews we possibly could; by walking, by yacht on the Seine, and in antique Citroen cars driven by four irascible Frenchmen whom we adored. Everyone but me got to tour Musee du Louvre with a Frenchwoman who had studied art history; I was sick for that afternoon and got to know my hotel bathroom quite well. That same art historian took us on a culinary tour of Paris and those that could eat enjoyed local cheese, wine, and charcuterie. We fell in love with the long summer days of France (sun rising before 5, and setting well after 10), and got to see the lights twinkling on Tour d'Eiffel while we were eating the cheese and dessert course on our yacht on the Seine. Parfait!

the view from our hotel

La Seine, Le Louvre

Tom getting in to our Citroen

Our drivers: Flo, Sebastien, Jean-Marc, and Yves

Notre-Dame de Paris

Driving down Champs-Elysees, towards L'Arc de Triomphe

Eggs in France are not refrigerated and are much fresher than in the US. On a side note, we were so pleased to see so many things bottled in glass instead of plastic: Yogurt, sodas, fizzy waters.

Tomatoes, variety names listed

Dad, Tom and Adam dans la Fromagerie

Adam in his happy place - with charcuterie

Dad, Niki, Adam, Tom, just a little hint of our blonde guide Anne-Marie, and Mom: street picnic!

on the boat

We were then picked up by our guide, Marina, who lives in Tours. She drove us south of Paris down through Chartres and into the Loire region, which is famous for its farms. We spent several days at an renovated hunting lodge in the tiny town of Onzain, and used that as our home base for traveling around the countryside. The valley is gorgeous; the farms/acreage are much smaller than most of the states, and just as in England, bordered by forests and hedgerows to keep ecosystems intact. Many of the farms advertised that they were biologique, or organic, and were very proud of that. The Loire grows most of the country's cereal grains, so we saw fields of wheat, barley, rye, corn, sorghum, sunflowers, and alfalfa. We toured a mushroom cave which was carved deep into the limestone of the region; visited a local organic winemaker specializing in the wine of the region, Sauvignon Blanc; and tasted fresh chevre at a local goat farm, where the farmer and I discovered we were kindred spirits despite our language differences. Our guide took us to an outdoor market near her apartment and we met a local chef there who purchased items that we then took back to her restaurant and prepared for lunch. We played croquet late at night on the vast green lawns of the hunting lodge and took sunset walks in their kitchen garden. We ate bread, cheese, and ham with every meal and drank wine nearly as often. By the end of our week in France, I was understanding conversations pretty well, but was only starting to gain the courage to use my high school French to join in. Both Tom and I felt that if we'd had another week there, we would have been chattering away (haltingly). 

Chartres Cathedral

stone carving on the columns inside the church

Just a pretty building in Chartres

narrow medival streets

Entering Les Caves de Roche, the mushroom cave. No sign, no gate, no safety equipment required. We were told to keep up so we didn't get lost and duck under low ceilings.

Shiitake mushroom blocks

our mushroom guide talking about growing oyster mushrooms

in the cave, the temp is 12 C with 93% humidity. No wonder my CA mushrooms aren't growing.

At Domaine de Clos Rousilly, some of the grape vines are in a field above the limestone cellar where the wine is processed

Sauvignon Blanc grapes

our 'picnic' lunch at the winery - a delicious salad of mache and frisee, cornichon, fresh bread, local chevre, and several kinds of pork and duck rillette. Plus lots and lots of wine.

Mom took this picture, but the rest of us are here, as well as our winery guide and our guide in the Loire Valley. Adam and Kate tasted all the wines and got a little tipsy, I think.

the sign greeting us at Ferme de la Cabinette, a goat farm owned by the Ragot family

picnic area in front of the farm with beautiful old apple trees

daily chevre-making

our lunch date with a local chef

Frederique, our chef, pulling up on her bike. She goes to market every other day and fills her bike basket with ingredients that she uses in her restaurant.

the market, held three days a week, is half outdoors and half indoors. 

garlic for sale

spices for sale

cooking our lunch with Frederique. Recipes below.

walking through Tours

We walked through a cobbled, narrow, low passageway that Marina said had been used in the 11th century as the path from the jail to the center of town, where folks would be hanged or beheaded. The passageway was known as the 'heart-sick' path. This door was on this path, just as we started to see other well-marked apartment doors, and made me giggle. How many drunk teenagers try to open this door in the middle of the night? And can you imagine having this kind of history as your doorstep?

the cathedral in Tours

cloisters

our hotel's kitchen gardens

sunset from the garden

It's always good to come home, especially to find that the person who lived in our house had done a good job taking care of the property and animals. Now time is filled with processing the harvest and trying to duplicate some of the things we ate and drank in Europe, as well as the pre-school busyness of last-minute appointments etc. Our days have found a new rhythm as we adjust back to our time - we go to bed early and wake up before dawn, getting garden chores done before the heat of the day. Pick an apple from the tree, eat it while harvesting green beans, turn the compost, hunt for ripe cucumbers, fill the water fountain for the bees and birds, put cardboard under the ripening pumpkins, start the dehydrator, pick tomatoes, and repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The rhythm of summer.

Here are the recipes from Tours a Table, the class we took with Frederique. You can substitute ingredients, of course, skip others, make it your own. I've written down the recipes exactly as they were given to me, so you might see some grammar differences or measurement differences. All three of these recipes were delicious.

“Tomato Bavarois with goat cheese and basil

1 can of crushed tomatoes (or fresh)
1 chopped shallot
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 stem of thyme
1 flat teaspoon of agar
salt and pepper to taste
20 cl (3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp) of heavy cream
8 cherry tomatoes
200 g (3/4 cup) fresh goat cheese
10 basil leaves
dash olive oil

In a large pot, saute tomatoes, shallot, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Once it begins to boil, add agar and whisk until the mixture begins to thicken. Once thickened, take off the heat. Let cool. Reserve in refrigerator for at least one hour.

In a non-reactive bowl, add cream with salt. Whip until medium peaks. With a spatula, fold in tomato mixture.

In a bowl, add cheese, chopped basil, salt and pepper, and a dash of olive oil. Mix with a fork until smooth.

Using ramekins to dress, place some of the herbed cheese mixture at the bottom. Add some bavarois mixture on top. Place in refrigerator for two hours. Decorate with sliced cherry tomatoes and basil.

serves 4”

“French Fish Stew

12 scallops without the coral and foot removed
6 small filets of salmon, deboned and skin removed
1 small tail of monkfish, deboned and grey skin removed
1 organic lemon
12 medium sized potatoes
6 large carrots
4 stalks of celery, preferably from the heart
half a bunch of Italian parsley
15 cl (3/4 cup) creme fraiche
white pepper and salt
1.5 l (2 3/4 pints) fish fumet or pre-made fish stock

In a large pot add 1.5 l of water and the sachet of fish fumet.

To begin, start with the celery stalks. Using a paring knife cut one end of the celery stalk and peel the strings off. The cut the celery into 1 cm slices. Set aside.

Peel the potatoes, carrots, and cut in medium sized pieces.

Next, cut the lemon in a small dice. (we actually did slices)

place all the cut vegetables into the fish fumet. Let cook for 10-15 mn.

While vegetables are cooking, cut the salmon in large pieces. Cut the monkfish tail in four pieces about 4 cm each.

Once the vegetables are cooked, remove and set aside. Add the monkfish and salmon. Let the meat cook about 10 mn.

Reduce heat to simmer then add cooked vegetables.

Five minutes before serving add the scallops and the creme fraiche. Gently stir in the creme to incorporate into a smooth sauce.

Sprinkle the fresh chopped parsley as a garnish and serve immediately.

serves 6”

“Chocolate Souffle

7 ounces finely copped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus for preparing molds
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup sugar, plus two tablespoons
8 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
confectioners sugar for garnish

Brush 6 ramekins with soft butter, then coat with sugar. Put them in the freezer.

Set an oven rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F

Put the chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl. Put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and let the chocolate and butter melt while stirring occasionally.

Combine the egg yolks and warm water in a bowl and beat until frothy. Gradually add two tablespoons of sugar and continue to beat until ribbons form, about 5 minutes. Very lightly fold the yolks into the chocolate mixture.

Remove prepared ramekins from freezer.

Put egg whites in a bowl and add lemon juice. Beat until frothy, then gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until the whites hold a still but not dry peak.

Working quickly, fold about a third of the egg whites into the chocolate to lighten (our chef called this a ‘sacrifice’), then fold in remaining whites until blended. Gently ladle or spoon the souffle mixture into the ramekins, and place on baking sheet.

Immediately bake until the souffle rises about 1 1/2 inches from the tops of ramekins, and are touched with brown, about 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven, dust with confectioners sugar, and serve immediately.”

I Love Black Krim Tomatoes!

Every year, I appreciate Black Krim tomatoes more. They are consistently among the first to ripen, the vine produces like crazy, the size is great (about 12 oz) and the flavor of the fruit is tremendous. Plus, it's really beautiful, with dark red walls and green tops. If left to ripen a long time, they get very dark red.

I think they are the best-looking tomato. Perfect, really. And hey - do you see that white thing on the bottom of this one?

That's the egg sac of a Green Lacewing, a very beneficial bug to have in the garden. The larvae eat all kinds of soft-bodied insects. I'm always glad to see these eggs!

Black Krim are focusing prominently in my crushed-tomato canning project this morning (we use a LOT of crushed tomatoes over the winter). The seeds for this tomato, according to Seed Savers, are originally from (you guessed it) Krim, Russia. Baker Creek Seeds says this tomato won their 2014 nutritional study. I do see this tomato on many restaurant menus and it appears to be a favorite of chefs. 

I am also experimenting using my dehydrator to make dried tomatoes (using all kinds, not just Black Krim). They seem to take a long time in there (I'm on the second day now!) but these will be a great addition to the winter pantry.

I'm going to shut down the computer for a couple of weeks, for a summer break from screens. I'll be back in August to update you on all things garden!