Good Friday wishes...
If Easter suggests a time of renewal and rebirth, I’m not sure the concept can be better expressed than in the unfurling of a flower…in particular the plump bud of a Dahlia; as its whorl of petals release one by one, with the transition of the sun. Still clasped tight this morning, I expect this one to be fully open and basking in all its glory by Sunday. A passage of time…in petals.
Here at Glenmore, autumn is generally late to arrive, and at this particular moment in time, a muddle of seasons is represented which I find to be a particular thrill! The first hint of colourful leaves began to trickle in on Monday, though alongside them, out-of-kilter elements more akin to spring, bring a hint of Easter surprise. I do often feel the garden here is quite unhinged! But as the purpose of it is to bring joy…then I’m all for the muddle, as delivering joy, is what it does in abundance! I always have associated Easter with a sense of European springtime, which is ludicrous in our antipodean climate I know; but I guess it’s just the way I was brought up, or the era in which I was anyway. I’ve never been able to help leaning towards pretty colours as representation of this handful of Easter days and somehow, the garden has always obliged.
It also (most probably) has not a little to do with having two daughters who, when they were very young, I would encourage for hours at a time to undertake some craft project or other…the verandah table regularly covered in oilcloth for protection as little brushes and tubes of paint would bring fun and mess in equal measure!
Will I really get those long-ago painted eggs out of the cupboard again? I asked myself this morning. And do I really need to pull out the jar of cracked and broken ones? And yet I did, as I have done each and every year since little hands went about the delight that task brought…innocent little children at play with all their lives ahead of them. I can’t help now, but ponder upon those hairline cracks and broken shards; a representation perhaps of all the challenges and hurdles faced in the intervening years; the disappointed hearts and tainted dreams, the twists and turns and inevitable struggles that life is inclined to bring. And so again, when I set them out in the huge ceramic bowl in which I always have done, later today; I’ll sit the good ones atop the cracked and broken that support the whole, as they topple and spill over each other…in the hope there are no breakages ahead.
This time last week saw me once again, as one of a panel of judges at the Sydney Royal District Exhibits Competition - this year celebrating 125 years at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show. The displays are always astounding - displaying the very best produce each of the four ‘Districts’ have brought to bear, interwoven with a message, a theme, a narrative depicted by using fruit, vegetables, seeds, grains and fibre as the medium for creating unique works of art. “Building solid foundations” read the words of one little sign, laboriously picked out in contrasting grains. “Farmer + Water + TLC = Food & Fibre for Life” read another (this one reminding me of the equation I coined for my own first newsletter of the year that read “Soil + Sun + Rain = Food = Nutrition + Exercise = Health” - my gardening equivalent!).
The early week encompassed all the chaos of an imminent garden bus tour! The clatter of crockery, the rattle of cutlery, setting of tables and chairs and raking of gravel, towels in the loos, flowers to plunder for table arrangement and scattering over food…oh and the food!!!! Cooking, baking, lettuce washing…then on the dot of eleven the bus arrives…’welcome’ and elderflower cordial all round; I’m mic’d up for a ‘garden tour’ (so errant laggers from behind can still hear what I’m saying!) and off we go. Two hours later they’ve digested the garden, a hurried lunch, tea, coffee, scoffed the fennel-seed shortbread and…before I know it, I’m waving them off as the bus heads up the sweeping incline and noses gently out the farm gate…and I head back to…the washing up! It’s madness really…but the smiles that light up their faces make it all so worthwhile. I was excited to see the pure thrill when we got to the kitchen garden…and to answer a torrent of questions that erupted. Kitchen garden growers…beaming humans in alignment with my own heart!
On Wednesday I took delivery of a set of enchanting seascapes, specially commissioned on behalf of a dear friend, by an old school friend whom I hadn’t seen in over thirty years! Now there’s an example of instagram bringing about some good in the world. Reminiscing over childhood memories and catching up on all the years since…I don’t think we drew breath! Without insta, I’d never have known about Sunny’s Small Stills, or have this clutch now destined to hang in a cluster on the coast. (I sense a tangle of fishing line looming on the horizon…uh-oh!).
After Tuesday’s efforts with the tour, Wednesday called for simple morsels and I do sometimes think this is my favourite combination of all…especially at this time of year anyway! I had an abundance of Lebanese aubergines waiting their turn, so cut them into generous slices on an angle and gently fried them in olive oil, turning regularly, with a smattering of sea salt, a few twists of pepper and a dusting of Za’atar. A collection of garden tomatoes - some halved, some sliced, some whole, went into the oven on about 160C for an hour or so (errr…the ‘or so’ may have made the difference but also might have seen them burned to a crisp as I completely forgot about them while we drank cups of lemon balm, thyme and rose petal tisane down at the Dairy!), drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt flakes. Luckily there was almost half a loaf of Pumpernickel Soda Bread left from the day before…and…
I’d made the very first batch of Fennel Frond Pistou for the garden tour lunch. Given those newly formed, feathery fronds are so fresh and plentiful (post all my pruning of stems these last weeks), I made it a very big batch indeed so we’d have plenty for the week ahead.
Just add chunks of chèvre….and that’s my kind of lunch…part fork, part pile it on the pumpernickel with a knife…every mouthful simply scrumptious!
Remember the pea seeds I sowed last week? We have germination! Not yet quite 100% but jolly nearly. And the broad beans too, that I sowed on the same day: there was just a hint of one breaking the soil surface last night, but all twenty were visible this morning - now I have snails to worry about! Not for those inside copper rings though (which are likely to deter slugs), but I don’t have enough copper rings for every seed I’ve sown!
How tempted I am to climb a ladder to pick several of the last whole stems of flowering frangipani for this special weekend!
The thing I love most about the garden here is that one can immerse in the beauty of one plant…for instance the frangipani, and imagine yourself by the sea; but make just a quarter-turn and there’s no mistaking the rural rise and fall…
Similarly…take a few steps and…we’re back by the coast…
And then another…suggestive of nowhere in particular, but a trip down memory lane…
The Heliotrope has been in abundant flower for weeks…maybe months…in fact it seems to almost always be in flower, but it’s only at certain times that its ‘cherry-pie’ perfume wafts, carries and swamps the air…which has been occurring these last many days. It may not be the most engaging of flowers to look at, but its foliage is a good ‘filler’ and I think a little purple does no harm. Sadly it doesn’t do well as a cut stem, so the (could be!) cloying fragrance is one that can only be enjoyed outdoors…perhaps it’s for the best!
And in the real spirit of Easter’s story of death and resurrection…one single, vibrant pink hydrangea flower has decided to open amidst the long-browned-off heads that were crisped in the hot summer sun and…gone to God.
Well…I’m off to bake an Apple Cake! It’s long been a Good Friday thing…it makes a good Easter cake. I gave the recipe in a post last year…here’s the link for you to retrace (just scroll further down that post ‘til you arrive at the Au pair’s Apple Cake!). I’ve been baking this cake so long, it goes back to the days when my parents would always come to visit at Easter…when the girls were little. If I think of all the cakes I’ve regularly baked during my life, this was their favourite. Something about it smells like a coffee house in Vienna…I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on where or why, but the aroma is completely transportive…and for some reason, goes with Easter!
I hope yours is a happy one. I have a lot of compost to sieve (in a final push to complete my rotation) and…we plan a little bonfire tomorrow! Don’t forget to scroll down to the productive notes below, but I’ll end with a profusion of Tansy, that has been cascading down the kitchen garden path for so many weeks now and in fact is romping around the entire kitchen garden! Lengths of it made for an impromptu table arrangement at the long lunch on Tuesday. How I love its pungent aroma and those darling sprays of golden-yellow, button flowers. I might pick a bunch of those for us for this weekend too.
Sending happy Easter wishes,
Mickey x
Productive garden notes:
Eating from the garden:
Onions, garlic aubergines, zucchinis (trombonchino), tomatoes, coloured chard and spinach; lettuce, rocket (just a few good leaves…I’m so glad the newly sown is sprouting!), red elk mustard at the four-leaf stage post germination is at its very best. Basil, lovage, mint, rosemary, thyme, chives. Calendula and nasturtium petals, rhubarb…another lone fig - I’m hoping it’s perfect for Sunday! Fennel fronds (and a handful of sprays of flowers at the pollen stage…now there will be a treat over the weekend!). Tentatively picking a parsnip here and there…and they’re beauties, but I don’t quite feel we’ve reached parsnip-eating territory yet.
Going / gone: beans, potatoes, zucchini, basil
Seed saving: parsnip, bean, tomato
Sowing: peas, broad beans, cima di rapa, carrot, beetroot, parsnip. I forgot to sow parsley and coriander on the last lunar leaf day (or seed day!), so I’m keen to do so at the next likely opportunity. Tempted to sow garlic this weekend…will see how I go, but if not, Anzac Day is looming.
Planting: brassicas (kale, cavolo nero, cabbage, broccoli, kohl rabi, cauliflower), lettuce, radicchio, fennel (bulbing), bok choy and leeks… and continuing to plant these successionally. Flowering ‘stock’
Ornamental garden notes:
Picking for the house: tansy, dahlias, Cottonwood hibiscus, amaranth, a few roses. There is one more ginger bud developing……and I do believe I will fetch the ladder and pick a bunch or two of frangipani…just because!
Perfumes and aromas: Heliotrope, frangipani, nicotiana
Pruning and other: a lot of rose deadheading and general tidying in anticipation of the garden tour but otherwise a slowing-down of big jobs…aside from the kitchen garden where I finally cut down all the rest of the spent fennel stems! As a result, I’m sure I’ve scattered their seeds around the entire garden…trapped as they were in the brim of my hat!
There's always some pest or other Sally! At least there's time to sow again...hopefully in your neck of the woods. The dahlias are on their last legs...hoping for just a few more surprises. Happy Easter Sally :))) xx
To eat???? Abutilon????!!!! Oh Kathy I must try!!!! Their veined petals are so beautiful...hmmm...and thank you 😊