November and Orange

 Before we move on to Christmas and all of the red and green I wanted to review my month of orange:  Orange pumpkins, orange persimmons, orange kittens, big bros and Mama cats, Orange apricots from the freezer, orange linens.  Fall has been gorgeous here in Southern California.  I still have  shorts on today.  Honestly I'll have to put on a sweater this evening but I can't remember when the last time I still had tomatoes on the vine and sleeveless shirts on my body on November 29.  Certainly not in Denver.  BRR

The fall sunsets set the color palette:

Even in California we get beautiful sunsets

Lots of purples, a little yellow but mostly orange.

Let me tell you about my orange:

Most of my extra energy was spent discovering and caring for a litter of kittens that was birthed in the back yard of an unoccupied home.  The Mama brought them over the fence to hide them in my orchard.  The Mama is not new to my orchard.  She naps there often and feels pretty safe.  My dog, Charlotte,  has an ongoing conversation with Mama "Ollie" about her hanging around so much.  So I knew that Ollie had brought her kittens to the orchard and where they were hidden.  Ollie is feral but trusts me a bit.  She trusted me enough to transplant her babes from the soggy place in an old trunk to the breezeway of the workshop:

Here's the whole family. Mama Ollie and her 4 three week old kittens - yes three of them are orange just like her.  The visitor to the side is Rodney who is from Ollie's last litter in March.  He's orange too

Rodney is a great babysitter and plays with his half bros quite often ( The white specks in the grass are the remnants of  avian hunting)  Feral cats know how to feed themselves

Lots of orange kittens

The kittens felt adventurous and safe enough to become part of the barnyard,  Axel sneaks in to have a morning conversation with Bullet

Well, Axel is the last kitten to be adopted.  He is finally big enough ( 2 pounds) to be neutered.  Here lies the biggest challenge:  There are many wonderful organizations who offer low or no cost neutering to feral cats but the demand is much higher  than the supply so I have been waiting months on many lists to have these little guys  and their Mama and brother neutered.  It's a real problem.  But guess what, Axel ? We are taking a road trip to Simi Valley and you are returning without the ability to ever be a daddy.  Yay!  

All kittens have been adopted by loving humans now so I'm just waiting for the teenager and Ollie to have an appointment

This has been a big focus of mine this Fall.  I'm not even a cat person.  Lots of orange!!!

Of course there are lots of orange pumpkins that color up the kitchen and good cuisine;

Jarrahdale pumpkins

pumpkin cut up and ready to roast

chunky pumpkin soup

Lots of orange.  Doesn't this table setting mimic all of the colors of the sunset?

Golden beets ready to roast

and a lobster salad- orange

Persimmons are orange too.  I love Fuju persimmons.  Raw they are kind of like an apple...crisp and slightly sweet with lots of fiber.  But they are pricy at about $3 each so a delicacy.  One of my neighbors has a tree and we will swap our harvests.  OMG he brought over nearly 50 pieces of fruit.

What to do now?

So knowing I had a lot of apricots in the freezer from my own bounty in June I decided to make jam

Butternut squash is orange as well.  The persimmon and apricot jam came out delicious...and not too sweet.  I used not only lemon juice but also lime which I will repeat very low sugar and a vanilla bean.

French onion soup is kind of orange.  I had a bounty of onions and some gruyere cheese.  Maybe it's the cheese that's orange.

Nasturtiums are orange among many other colors.  I just sneaked out to take this picture and the following:

My blood orange tree is bearing fruit for the first time since I planted it in 2018.  I just about gave up on it but patience won out.  These beauties will color up and be ready to pick in about January or February.  The tree is planted outside my bedroom window.  It's such a joyful view in the morning and reminds me of hope and anticipation for my next crop of fruit.

I could add some purple but I think this is enough of my sunset colors for my Autumn on the farm.  I am grateful tfor my lifestyle with fresh homegrown food to prepare into fabulous healthy dishes.  I am surrounded by loving animals who bring me great joy and this year a huge challenge.  Spending over an hour each day walking my dog is good for both of us and I get to visit with my neighbors.  Spending time around my goats makes me laugh and calm down with their amazing therapeutic energy.  The chickens are taking a few months off from laying eggs but they love taking dirt baths on these warm sunny days. 

LIFE IS GOOD ON THE FARM

AND VERY ORANGE

OK  time to get in the Christmas spirit

Blood orange and Passion fruit sorbet

blood orange and passion fruit sorbet

I found some passion fruit at the Downey Farmers Market last week and brought them home wondering what I could do with them.  Hmmmmmm.

Alice Waters helped me out with this recipe from her Fruit recipe book.  Here's the recipe:

Passion Fruit Sherbet:

Ingredients:

3 pounds of oranges (enough to make 3 cups of juice)..I used blood oranges

8 passion fruit (I only had 4 so made that do)

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract ( I mistakingly used 1 full tsp and would repeat this)

optional 1 tsp Cointreau

 Method:

Juice the oranges, stain and measure 3 cups

Cut passion fruit in half and scoop out the pulp and seeds into a small saucepan.

Add the sugar and 1 cup of the orange juice

Heat gently and stir until sugar is dissolved

Press and scrape through a fine meshed strainer with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula

Add the remaining orange juice, the vanilla and the Cointreau if using

Chill thoroughly

Freeze in your home ice cream freezer

Remember I used blood oranges,  They are pretty much only available in January and February.  But the blood orange juice gives this sorbet a gorgeous color:

passion fruit

blood oranges cross sectioned

sorbet liquid ready for the ice cream freezer

Fruit

This sorbet is not too sweet but enough..has a nice sour "bite" and would go well following a spicy dinner.  Alice suggests serving it with a delicate butter cookie or  coconut macaroons

I think I'll just go and have some all by itself.

Bon appetit!

footnote:  I am taking Alice Waters' Masterclass available at https://www.masterclass.com/homepage

               

8140 salad- original and 2.0

I live at 8140 Orange Street. I moved here 5 months ago with a very long "to do" list...it's still very long.  A couple of months ago I planted my inspiration garden.  I planted 3 very small citrus trees and then sprinkled flower and lettuce seeds to fill the space.  Now just a few weeks later my lettuces are mature enough to harvest along with a few other goodies from my garden.  I have a pomegranate tree.  My next door neighbor has a blood orange tree with a generous branch hanging over my wall.  I planted radishes AND I have a small herd of goats.  This salad came from my garden.  I'm going to call it the 8140 garden since all ingredients came from the property (well I guess I need to call it the "8140 salad with walnuts"

8140 salad

Start with the arugula:

arugula

Add some sliced blood oranges:

blood orange tree-January

blood orange slices

Well thin slice a couple of radishes:

radishes

Pomegranate arils, goat cheese and walnuts.  I used a little orange juice in the vinaigrette.

So last night I made a 2.0 version:

8140 2.0

My red oak leaf lettuce was ready, sugar snap peas and these lovely nastursiums...yes they are edible.

So my "8140 salad" is any combination of food items that come directly from my property and add a handful of California nut meats.

Bon Appetit!