In the pink...
Poppy spam! I know…I just can’t leave them alone, but it’s hard to believe they’ve been so sensationally rampant for such a long period of time. Already they’ve been flourishing for weeks (when normally they would just be reaching their peak about now), creating a captivating vision at the orchard, both inside and outside the fig cages, enchanting everyone who happens to walk by. It’s difficult to resist greeting each and every one of them individually, as if they’re characters at a party…each and everyone has a different personality and as they quiver and dance, it’s hard to walk away.
In the last weeks, I’ve had requests from various visitors for seed (it will come, once I collect this year’s) but I have no way of fulfilling a request for a particular variety - be that single, double/ruffled or multi-petalled. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it, but one year I carefully marked the stems of each different variety with a specific coloured ribbon (ie yellow for single, blue for double and white for fluffy) and kept those seeds from each individual separate to the other, in order to see if I could allocate different forms to different spots the following season. I sowed them accordingly, but it made not one iota of difference! Where I sowed single, double or multi-petalled, they arrived in all forms in each spot…so one simply cannot predict what the end result might be…except that they will be pink! I’ve often been tempted over the years to sow another colour…especially the darkest red but I just can’t bring myself to do it for fear they might cross-pollinate…as for sentimental reasons (these are the first peony poppies I ever knew and have flowered them for so very long) these are the ones to which I’m devoted!
And whilst I love them all…along with their unpredictability…
I truly think it’s this double, or ruffled one that I love best…
Preferring it over the crazy multi-petalled, almost pompom variety! I have so many photos of them it’s ridiculous! Including one where there are no less than five bees nestled deep in the petals and behaving like they’re completely intoxicated!
It’s possible today’s rain will put an end to the glory that has been…for week upon week, and leave us with bedraggled petals. But it is time for the next phase…for the seed pods to travel their season. The entire seasonal poppy story therefore, is not yet finished…
But nor is the pink…by any means! Even in the beauty left behind from preparation for a rose distillation, the remnants heading to the compost are pink-flecked…
After being separated from their petals (a topic upon which the jury remains out…depending to whom one speaks!). When it comes to rosewater, I declare I still have my training wheels on (I’m completely happy with my orange blossom, lavender and rose geranium - about those I have no questions) but the rosewater is still a conundrum. Although I’m more than happy to use all my experiments (and do so!)…I think it comes down to whether or not you enjoy a slightly ‘green’ note in your rosewater. All my first rose distillations were petals only, the next have been calyx and all (which by all accounts seems the most popular method) but this year I’m reverting to petals only…and we shall see what the end results bring…if only for comparison.
For my ‘real’ distillations (purist that I am!) I am only distilling Kazanlak, R. damascena Trigintipetala…though I’m drying petals of all the roses on ‘fine’ in-between days. Once the lovely Bulgarian rose is no longer producing the quantity I need for a distillation, I’ll play with a multi-rose combination for fun! Of course for any of these purposes, one needs dry flowers and so today (as earlier in the week too) will mean opportunity lost. I don’t mind…the rain is more important and at least I’ve taken two small rose distillations. It remains to be seen if there will be any more this year! Or if I even have any more to dry!
Behind the Dairy, the autumn damask rose Quatre Saisons nods in the breeze, making for an enchanting view from inside looking out as well as creating a lovely ‘loose’ aspect to her position. She is suitably messy for the kitchen garden, where she’s held the corner position (along with the Acanthus mollis and underplanting of Russian Sage Perovskia atriplicifolia, as a supporting ‘link’ betwixt building and kitchen garden proper, for these many years past. She lives up to her name, always being the first of the roses to flower and is inclined to flower the longest. In truth, there’s no reason why I couldn’t just distill her! I took runners of her to plant in the Field too, as she’s a true favourite and in my flower-language (see the Field post two) she fulfills my PPF descriptor!
Another PPF at its very best just now is the dog rose Rosa canina. Isn’t she enchanting? Those five pale pink, heart-shaped petals are so delicate…
Though I’m sure anyone living in the country will think me bonkers! I know they’re considered a weed, and even in unkempt paddocks around this district, they’re to be seen flourishing just now. But when many years ago, I was making these little ‘floating’ enclosures and decided to dedicate one to a mini ‘physic garden’ for naturopath and herbalist, Anthia Koullouros (who ran a spate of ‘medicinal garden’ workshops here) one of the top plants on her list was the dog rose. Why? Because, as I came to learn from Anthia (although they may not be as ‘showy’ as some ornamental ‘hips’) it’s traditionally from this particular rose that the ‘hips’ are used for medicinal and therapeutic benefit. When the time comes, I’ll show you…rosehip collecting is a long way off yet - they ripen in the hot summer sun and I can tell you from personal experience, that picking them in the midst of summer’s heat is enough to make you wilt!
Because the dog rose is considered ‘wild’ it’s not necessarily easy to get hold of - well…that is if you want to be sure it is absolutely the right one! I had a hunch the ones growing on the bank right here on the roadside were correct but…because it was for Anthia, I wanted to be absolutely sure. Via a lot of tracking, I eventually found a once-upon-a-time rose-breeder in South Australia to help me. She was an absolute darling on the phone, and we did laugh at the prospect of her sending me such a wild thing! To satisfy my own curiosity, she also sent me a ‘sweet briar’ so I could see the difference between the two. Whilst the latter has long-since departed this realm and curiously I was not so enamoured with it, the dog rose has flourished, my curiosity satisfied; and I’m excited that Anthia is coming out here this weekend and so will see her rose in full flight!
While there’s plenty more pink to be had…there are also many more subjects of greater import!
First…as hinted at last week, the time was right to begin dismantling the season that has been. It’s a curious thing…the moment sneaks up - one minute literally all is a-flourish and the next, the signs are everywhere that the time has come. I’m always sorry to lose the character each season lends to the space that is the kitchen garden. The towering wigwams of peas created such a vision during the winter months, spoiling us with flowers and pea pods a-plenty. Then almost in an instant…the foliage yellowed and before you know it, powdery mildew is next on the agenda: so on Sunday out they came!
I thought the broad beans might last another week, but as I picked on Tuesday evening I began spontaneously, to cut them down too. Just one ‘box’ I thought…but it was clear their time was up…the aphids were settling, and so I picked the whole lot, leaving a mountain of foliage on the path, and the next day (with Thalia to help in the name of expedition - I need it to look lovely for tomorrow’s event!) we dismantled the frame and together built the new summer shade structure!
And that’s how it rolls here….all jobs occur spontaneously, with the weather. There’d be no point in me making a list on Monday - I make decisions almost hourly on what must happen next! And so by Wednesday afternoon, I had a kitchen garden of quite different character to view. At this stage, I don’t want to throw everything away - I’m not a rip-it-all-out kinda gal. There are some treasures around the edge of this bed…I was using radishes on the corners as a means of having ‘something’ growing…aiding water retention and now they’re in quite romantic flower, as is one ‘black radish’ experiment left from a row I had running down the front edge. With each upright post we positioned, a new possibility arose in my mind and by the end of the day, the whole looked rather enchanting whereas it could have resembled ground zero. With no time to plant immediately, at least the preparation is done, the soil can have a little rest and when the time does come…shade awaits - it’s the only way I can enjoy leafy greens here during the summer months (and you know how important those are to me!). Of course I’m just itching to get sowing…but that will have to wait a few days!
And all the while during the dismantling process…I was setting aside the best looking pea and broad bean pods as I went - saving seed for next year’s sowing: building my seed bank once again.
A job I positively relished on Sunday afternoon was properly pruning the orange trees! I’ve delayed it so long…first because of the fruit and then the blossom (for fear I’d not have enough to distill) and then through sheer lack of time. They don’t necessarily get such a hard prune every year, but they were in sore need of one this year. I think I’ve mentioned a few times that I’ve had problems with my thumb/wrist - which were particularly bad last year (when the whole sorry saga began) and put paid to many of the tasks I like to carry out. But with perseverance and strengthening exercises (as long as I remember to do them!)…I’m doing a lot better, and so whilst trying not to overdo it…(hard for me!) I’m hopeful of getting on top of some of the things that I simply had to turn a blind eye to for awhile. So I am thrilled to have tackled the citrus trees! They’ve all since been mulched and…I’m trying an experimental crop of lucerne (tried and failed last year) as a ‘living mulch’ under each tree. But the seed was sown with a shower of rain and with today’s follow up…maybe…
Earlier in the week I pulled a head of garlic to see what stage the crop is up to…it’s the only way one can really tell. It’s pretty clear from this image that ‘clove formation’ is yet to occur, though you can just make out subtle indentations where they’re likely to form. Upon slicing the head in half, it was easy to see the beginnings of individual clove shapes…so they’re coming, they’re just not ready yet. And this certainly didn’t go to waste - I closed it back together, drizzled it will olive oil, wrapped it in baking paper and popped it in the oven where it softened to the most succulent, glossy, texture.
Now how can it be that I’m already seeing that strip at the top telling me my post is too long? Grrrr….or perhaps I have been rambling?!
And just when I promised you the Ice Cream recipe! So…I’m going to ignore that message and carry on (in the hope I don’t blow up the entire Substack platform!).
It may not seem much like an ice cream kind of day today, but it was when I made a batch yesterday…that’s for sure…and many more of those days likely lie ahead!
Whilst this particular recipe is for Seville Orange Ice Cream…truly…I’m going to give you the basics and then you can use a combination of common sense and your own imagination to play with ingredients. Over the years I’ve messed around with it a lot and I reckon the key thing is just not to add ‘liquid’. The only time I’m likely to do so is when I make Rum & Raisin Ice Cream at Christmas time, and I’m sure to soak the raisins in the rum for at least 24 hours…sometimes 48, so they’re good and drunken…swollen up with the rum and with no visible liquid left on its own! I might give you a repeat recipe then, when the time comes!
The best thing is...you do not need an ice cream maker (that’s you!) - only a hand-held electric beater and two sets of five minutes at a one hour interval!
SEVILLE ORANGE ICE CREAM
Ingredients
300ml pouring cream
60g caster sugar (or rapadura*)
1 egg
1 - 2 dessert spoons marmalade (or other**)
Method
Pop one large and two small bowls, along with the whisk attachment, a rubber spatula and the container into which you’ll place the ice cream (I use a 1 litre plastic box - it should have a lid) into the fridge to chill for a few minutes before you begin
Beat the cream and sugar together ‘til ribbons form and it’s a good solid mass but don’t over beat it
Separate the egg: yolk into one bowl / white into the other and put the white back in the fridge
Beat the egg yolk
Gently fold the beaten egg yolk into the cream
Gently fold the marmalade (or other**) into the cream
Pour / scrape the cream mixture into the chilled container, fix the lid on top and put immediately into the freezer
Wash the big bowl, whisk and spatula; dry and return to the fridge to chill
Exactly one hour later…and I mean exactly….
Whisk the egg white ‘til stiff but again, don’t overdo it - you want good foam and it should stay in the bowl if you turn it upside down
Take the ‘cream’ mix from the freezer and scrape the contents of the container into the big chilled bowl
Fold the egg white gently through
Pour / scrape the cream mixture back into the container, give it a shake, add the lid and pop it back in the freezer
And you’re done…that’s all there is to it. It takes approximately two x 5 minutes, exactly one hour apart! Leave it longer and that’s where you may find grief I guess…I never have!
I first had Marmalade Ice Cream when we went to lunch with the widow of one of Larry’s old bosses (Larry was, in the latter years of his army career, aide-de-camp to several UK Chiefs of Defence). Upon retirement, these two had lived in a pretty country house in Hampshire and I remember a kitchen lunch on a sunny, spring day…the kind when the English countryside smells like honey. I recall the idea of marmalade ice cream striking me as being quite peculiar at the time - ‘til I had a spoonful! It wasn’t long before I thought to apply the concept to the equally eye-brow raising recipe I’d followed a few times in an old cook book that had been Larry’s mothers…for Brown Bread Ice Cream - that had piqued my interest when I first landed on that page years earlier! Which is where my ice-cream making began…I mean, if they could turn out ice cream in the C18th, surely I could do it in 1983?
*I’ve always tended to use caster sugar when I make the Marmalade version - curiously, I used rapadura when I made yesterday’s batch, and OK..that’s it…now I’ve had a spoonful it’s rapadura forever more! I do use rapadura when I make Rum & Raisin and also when I make Cape Gooseberry…so let’s ditch the caster sugar! (Although you will have a more ‘fine’ result).
**Really you could use any jam so have some fun! I do think it works best with something of a heavy consistency rather than ‘jelly-like’ or ‘set’. My marmalade isn’t ‘set’ - we prefer it slightly runny and it seems perfect for the ice cream this way, as much as for toast. By the way…if you’re coming to visit…I do have jars here in the Barn!
Thanks to that line of text reminding me I’m overly long, clearly I’m going to have to save the other things I was going to tell you about this week, ‘til next…I feel like the banner at the top is going to start flashing at me if I don’t stop!
Tomorrow I have the SOFRA event. I’ve moved the furniture, made some spontaneous plans that I hope Karima and Sivine (and our guests!) will enjoy and am hoping the sun shines so I can bring them to fruition!
With happy weekend wishes and do let me know how you go with the ice cream!
Mickey x
Productive garden notes:
Eating from the garden:
Lisbon lemons, rhubarb (sparse but stems come in waves), parsnip, beetroot, cape gooseberry (running low now), mulberry, globe artichoke (I know I promised a recipe this week but I can’t bring myself to pick them before tomorrow’s event!) and asparagus. Leaves of all kinds - spinach (most of it’s going to seed now but the coloured chard is plentiful), kale - cavolo nero (now the weather has turned it’s leaves are a quite different consistency and although perfectly edible, there is a distinct difference between kale leaves that have been deeply chilled and those which haven’t!). Leeks, lettuce, radicchio (going), wild rocket, warrigal greens. Peas and broad beans (both going). Fennel fronds, parsley (going), mint, rosemary, thyme, chives, coriander (going to seed), nasturtium and calendula petals, borage flowers, chive flowers (new)
And…the dried Speckled Cranberry Borlotti Beans!
Going / gone: Oranges, mandarins, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, pumpkin, broccoli and cauliflower and mustard leaves have all gone, as have the fennel bulbs, coriander and almost all the parsley. Calendula petals are on the wane. I leave some things lingering on this list as you may still have them if you’re in colder climes than us, but if you’re in warmer ones, they will be long gone. Peas and broad beans are on this list now though I have plenty of broad beans in the fridge and peas in the freezer and the kale won’t be around much longer.
Seed saving: broad beans, peas, poppy, cima di rappa, mustard leaves
Sowing: beetroot, parsnip, carrot, Cape gooseberry! As soon as the parsley seeds ‘dry’ I’ll scatter them for the next round. Time to sow my favourite basil ‘Genovese’ into punnets and to tentatively sow the first bean seeds. I’m turning the tomato seedlings around to face towards the north each day. I’ll scatter rocket seed as soon as it’s ripe on the stem and it’s time to think about sowing corn, zucchini, watermelon (I have little luck with them here but like to try) sunflower and zinnia seeds. (No different to last week…I’m just getting fidgety about doing it cos I haven’t had time!).
Planting: lettuce and as soon as I have a chance now I’ll plant tomatoes, aubergines, capsicums, cucumbers and zucchini.
Ornamental garden notes:
Picking for the house: Sweet peas, roses, philadelphus, solandra
Perfumes and aromas: the joyful scent of my absolute favourite Philadelphus is still infiltrating the air and the lemon blossom is divine. The rose mentioned above, Quatre Saisons is simply flooding the entire kitchen garden with her rosy perfume and all the air feels heady.
Pruning and other: it was a big Sunday in the kitchen garden for me…beginning the overhaul and pruning the orange trees as well as doing a good deal of tweaking round and about - yellow leaves from the globe artichokes, a lot of spindly growth from the rose geranium at the end of the kitchen verandah. I pruned the Quince trees - long overdue, though I like to make use of their long, immature fruiting stems for events but the birds were showing too much interest so I got stuck in! Aside from helping me build the shade structure and kindly sieving and barrowing in compost for underneath the orange trees, Thalia has been on yellow fennel-leaf removal, field weeding and general tidying in prep for tomorrow’s visitors…in particular picking up all the eucalypt windfall and raking the front courtyard!
Sounds like you have some cream whipping to do Sally!!! Let me know how it goes :)) xx
Oh Elizabeth you're still there? Goodness what an adventure you're on...I imagine there will be many inspirations for your new home ahead! Sending love, Mx