A very Merry Christmas to all of you

I hope you are all in the midst of enjoying this wonderful holiday season.  Christmas is now just six days away and hopefully we all can slow down enough to celebrate and be with the ones that you love.  I never really plan for a yearly theme and when I do I always change it.  This year I changed twice but it is not difficult to figure out what I landed on.  I have always loved Van Gogh and have enjoyed studying and learning about his art through the years.  A couple of years ago I dove in and copied three of his paintings. I painted with my most familiar medium: watercolor and then tried acrylic and ended up painting rocks.  I painted only from the colors that were in his palette.  I copied the wheat fields, lavender fields and a not so famous vase of sunflowers.  But I avoided The Starry Night....too scary.

You probably knew that Van Gogh painted all of these plus about 100 more while he lived in Saint-Remy-de-Provence but did you know that he drew inspiration for The Starry Night in the wee hours of the morning?  He could only sketch in his room at the asylum but could paint in a public room elsewhere in the complex.  Venus was the morning star and the brightest.  He placed it to the right of the cypress tree. The background hills were accurate but he created the little village below including the steepled church.

So this year's Christmas theme:  STARS!

My Christmas card...each hand painted with gouache 

Under the Christmas tree

My first attempt at copying- then I just immersed myself

in my studio: felt and my new gouache set

to create swirling star ornaments on "night" card stock

Then to the kitchen to make star shaped butter cut out cookies

both white and blue

I cut out felt and scrap fabric stars, sewed them together with seed beads and added ribbon to make a garland for the tree.  Yes Vincent came along for the ride

Again a very Merry Christmas from me and the farm:  Charlotte (the dog) Eloise (LuLu), Poppy, Bullet and Rose ( the goats) and my 7 hens - one of them French

Add on: Van Gogn on the rocks:

The Starry night on rock - 4"

lavender fields paint pens on a 3" rock

Haystack on rock

Five sunflowers- lost during a raid in WWII - oil pens on rock

 

Tomatoes - OK I can't stop myself. I ask the world for abundance and it often delivers in tomatoes. I am grateful

 

one day's harvest in the kitchen sink

Here is a good sampling of my tomato garden this year.  I'm trying to think which is my favorite but it's impossible to choose.  I love Cherokee purple for a traditional beefsteak tomato.  I also love love Chocolate stripy which is a pear shaped with tons of flavor and always is firm.  Last year I tried Lava Flow which is yellow orange medium size with rich non acid flavor.  Then there are chocolate cherry and Shadow boxing.  This year I tried black strawberry which is a gorgeous jeweled color cherry but was a little disappointed in the flavor but is so pretty plated.  I couldn't ignore my new one this year: Brad's atomic grape:

Yes  These are ripe...a small sauce tomato- delicious in a salad sliced or as you must do with a sauce tomato I made Marinara:

Brad's atomic grape marinara

Yes  I sent some to my son, Brad, for his birthday!

But I kept some myself to sauce up my eggplant Parmesan or simply use as a dip for the quite decadent Fried eggplant.

My first tomato was enjoyed in early June and I will today (September 9) sit down today and enjoy the end  of my crop.  I did plant a winter variety called Glacier.  Fingers crossed I'll have fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving salad.

The entire month of July I had my dehydrator working 24 hours each day.  As posted about an hour ago in my stone fruit post I dried the plums and peaches during the day and at 9pm would place sliced tomatoes to loose their water by morning when it was time to place the plums again.  Here are Lava Flow tomatoes on their way to dry:

Lava Flow

Chocolate Stripy

OK  Now I have 100 pounds or so of dried tomatoes securely locked in vacuum bags and losing most of their weight. In cooler weather I'll grab a bag of these beauties and add them to a soup.

Rogers Gardens in Newport Beach presents "Tomato Mania" the last weekend in February and offers over 250 tomato varieties.  I think I show extreme self control to only take home 8 ( or was it 9?)

Plums, plums and more plums

 

On June 30 I stripped the Satsuma plum tree.  This was what I picked on this day....all of these.  I need more friends

When designing  my orchard  I wanted to add a Satsuma plum tree.  They are so sweet with beautiful dark purple meat,  I really only needed one tree but the Satsuma is not self pollinating and like almost all plum varieties needs a Santa Rosa plum for the bees to work with.  The Santa Rosa plum is a gorgeous dark purple on the outside with yellow meat on the inside and usually not as sweet.   Usually.

Santa Rosa plums

Harvesting time  lags about 2 weeks starting with the Satsuma.  So for six weeks solid I had ripe plums.

I made some stone fruit jam from The Yummy Life blog.  It's a recipe that uses 3 ingredients: stone fruit, sugar and lemon juice - no pectin so pretty easy.

 

Stone fruit jam

Now what to do with the rest of the 400-500 plums?  On about July 1 I pulled out my food dehydrator and put it to use.  Each morning I would pit and slice enough plums to arrange on 6 trays.  I started each morning at about 10 am so I would have all day to keep watch on the progress. Oh yes I set it up in the "office" kitchen ( which is just a part of the garage that has an air conditioning unit in the window and access to electricity.  My "office " kitchen also houses my freezer and overflow pantry items along with the small appliances that don't have a home inside. 

Satsuma on left, Santa Roses on right

The fruit took all day with a turn and right before bed I would remove the dried fruit and get it ready for the overnight fruit= tomatoes.  The room smelled absolutely divine all day long whenever I would wander past or in the office.  Almost without exception this was my routine every day of July.

I also froze several pounds but I am excited that I have such a reserve for the winter and plenty to share with my friends and family.  I use a Food Saver for vacuum storage. 

OK  moving on to my intermediate crop: tomatoes

After apricots come peaches, nectarines and plums

 Next to ripen on the orchard trees is peaches followed by nectarines.  One characteristics of stone fruit is that it all ripens within a short period of time - usually 2 weeks to a month.  When I planted my trees 3 years ago I studied a calendar of harvest time and made a graph. I jokingly realized that most of my fruit ripens in alphabetical order: apricots ( same time as apples), nectarines, peaches and plums.  Although not stone fruit the Asian pears follow the plums, then pomegranates and this year the resurrection of persimmons.  And there are tons of passion fruit ripening on the vine but first nectarines and peaches and what on earth am I going to do with my bounty

peaches plums and nectarines

Nectarines ripening on their branches - will be ready soon

My peach crop was ok- about 30 but my nectarines were abundant - maybe 400

Besides eating them fresh - lean over a sink because they are juicy I made a batch of canned stone fruit using as little sugar as possible.  I added cinnamon, star anise, allspice and about 2 " of a vanilla bean for a rich spicy flavor  Here is the recipe from Food in Jars 

And then I made a batch of peach scones.  King Arthur Baking is a great go to for anything baked.  Her is their recipe

What a great treat for breakfast 

Apricots! in May

 Three years ago I planted a dozen fruit trees.  Some have grown faster than others and have produced wonderful fruit.   Last year I harvested about 50 apricots but this year was a bounty for sure.....well over 40 pounds which equates to about 9 fruit per pound.  When is the last time you had an apricot that tasted like an apricot? What to do with all these?  I certainly don't have enough friends to share them with but they did help me make use of a lot. 

One morning harvest

My apricot tree is a gorgeous three year old tree. 

The first thing I made not knowing how many fruit I would have was jam/preserves.  Ingredients: just halved apricots, sugar and lemon juice.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 pounds apricots, halved and pit removed

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Method:

Place apricots in a wide bottom pan.  Simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes

Add sugar and lemon juice.  Cook an additional 40 minutes or until jam is thick.

Place in clean glass jars.

If you want to can in large batches.  Use your favorite equipment and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.  If you are new to canning I highly recommend Food in Jars by Marisa McClellan or jump to her website  Food in Jars

I usually fill a couple of jars and then store the rest in the fridge.

I also tried a second of her recipes from her book Naturally Sweet Food in Jars  that uses honey as the sweetener and added vanilla

Ok What else?  I halved and pitted about 10 pounds, vacuum packed them and put them in the freezer.  Next I dried about another 20 pounds in my food dehydrator and vacuum packed them.  And for dessert: tarts.  When I was a student at the Cordon Bleu in Paris we made tartes aux abricot

Tartes aux abricots

I used a sweet pate sucre (sweet pastry dough), a traditional pastry cream. and placed quartered apricots on top.  Oh yes an a sprinkling of powdered sugar both before and after baking.  These are a perfect serving size and can be popped in the freezer.  Here is the book that I use for tart recipes:

not an abundance of pretty pictures but authentic recipes

French Tarts by Linda Dannenberg

I was really fortunate this year to have such a huge crop.  Next year could be a dud.  My other fruit trees are about ready

The nectarine tree is next - about the first of July

Satsuma plum - maybe ready late July

Sally - who is the official orchard kitty

February 1st in the garden

Lots of leafy greens ready to make into something wonderful!  Each day my chickens give me a few eggs.  

They are much fewer on these short days of winter.  They will go back to full production in a couple of months.  Poppy provides about 2 cups each day of delicious milk. This month I made cheddar, Feta and "fresh" chèvre.  I thank her after each milking for her delicious milk and she thanks me for the treat of fresh and crunchy apples that she eats during the chore.

Tetsoi - Asian spinach 

This grows in a gorgeous florette about 12 inches across.  You can pull leaves off or I think that I will just steam the whole burst

It's winter but in Southern California a garden can still give you a plethora of fruits and vegetables.  Citrus is the dominant fruit here right now.  I planted a few small trees when I moved here 3 years ago but this tangerine tree of my neighbor's is absolutely amazing:

Even in a year of draught this beauty is loaded with fruit.  Often neighbors share their abundance with others   Last month I posted my tiny grapefruit tree.  I still have a dozen fruit left to pick but they do well on the tree.  I also have a Meyer lemon tree- with about 8 gorgeous lemons, a blood orange tree (no fruit yet) and a kumquat tree.

I have trained many of my friends and family how to eat these.  The fruit is tiny  - about an inch oblong.  The skin is very sweet.  The pulp is very sour with a few soft seeds.  How to eat? Commit to eating the whole darn thing at once.  Don't think about it.  The blend of sweet and sour is delightful.  These little gems are great made into a sauce with wine and honey.  Try this:https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/05/17/narsai-david-recipe-chicken-breasts-sauteed-with-kumquats-and-honey/

Believe it or not I have one last tomato on the vine.  It's a Berkeley tie dye beefsteak tomato.  I planted it new last February and it gave me a beautiful production but then it reseeded and gave me another huge crop starting in October

Today I combined my freshly picked tomatoes with some of Poppy's cheese to make 

Baked goat cheese and tomato pasta- recipe at the end of today's post

There are lots of other greens:

Arugula : try making a salad with walnuts, cranberries and a balsamic dressing

Tuscan kale - love in a salad or quick stir fried in olive oil, add pine nuts for a minute and then balsamic vinegar,  I love to add a piece of grilled white fish or steak to the top

And red freckled lettuce

There's still plenty of passion fruit

And my very first strawberries

But also there is a lot of HOPE:  The fruit trees are bare, pruned and starting to blossom

Nectarine

Then the apple tree is starting too:

Here come the nastursiums.....flowers soon.....lovely and spicy in a salad or under a crab cake

And this is my first artichoke plant :

This morning my friend Linda Avignon shared with me her recipe for baked goat cheese and tomato pasta.  I had all the ingredients on hand and decided to make it for lunch.  It is so good.

Baked goat cheese pasta:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup good olive oil - is there really any other kind?

11 oz goat cheese- unflavored

20 oz cherry or small heirloom tomatoes

3 garlic cloves - peeled and sliced thin

1 shallot - peeled and sliced thin

10-12 oz dried pasta

10 large leaves of basil

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

salt and pepper

cooked pancetta for a top of garnish.  I didn't have any but I wish that I did.  It would be perfect!

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

In a 3 quart casserole dish (that will take high heat) pour in the olive oil.  Then add all of the goat cheese to the center of the dish.  Add the tomatoes, garlic and shallot.  Place 4 leaves of basil and the thyme on top and then add salt and pepper:

Bake in 400 deg oven for 20-25 minutes.  The corners of the dish should be lightly brown and bubbly.

Meanwhile cook the pasta according to box directions.  Use any kind you want....gluten free would be nice too.

Optional: cook under broiler for 2-3 minutes to crisp up the cheese.  I didn't do this step.

Drain the pasta reserving some of the water in case you want to thin the sauce.  Add the pasta to the sauce. Finish with the remaining 6 leaves of basil and pancetta.

Enjoy!

Serves 6

Serve with a leafy green salad for vitamin A and C

Would be perfect with a citrus based dessert or throw a little citrus into the green salad.

This will keep in the fridge a few days or freeze

This recipe was inspired by The Dizzy Cook, by Alicia Wolf