This one’s for you, Alysia.

                          

Bred in 1918, "Mermaid" is a tremendously thorny, ridiculously vigorous rose that rapidly makes itself into a first-class high-security fence if you grow it along an existing fenceline, as I am along our back alley.

The Mermaid Fence.

Baby white peaches, var. "Peregrine," bred 1906. It is said to be to white peaches what Cox's Orange Pippin is to dessert apples -- the gold standard. It's in its second year in my garden, so I should soon get to find out!

My blueberries are starting to look like they might eventually be edible.

HRH Fez, our bronze Egyptian Mau, busily claiming the new daybed for catkind and challenging us to do something about it.

A sentiment Fez wholeheartedly endorses, and I do also. Spotted on a lamppost across the street from the hardware store.

A nearby house sports this fine, subtle piece of ironwork. I walked past it a number of times before I realized what the "spindles" below the handrail were made of.

                          

The elderberry bushes I planted last year are now quite large and blooming profusely, so I decided it would be fun to try  my hand at  making my own elderflower liqueur.  I’m a big fan of St. Germain liqueur, which has a great deal of elderflower in it (along with various fruits), and have enjoyed elderflower cordial, the nonalcoholic infused sugar syrup, many times.  In the past I have had decent success at making various other types of infused liqueurs and brandied fruits– Meyer lemon limoncello, gingerbread rum, lemon-ginger cordial, brandied cherries and plums and peaches–so I figured I’d give it a whirl.

First, pick your elderflowers.  You want the heads that are fully bloomed, but that are not yet yellowed or withered-looking, since as they wilt they can take on an alarming aroma of cat piss.  You’ll want to carefully examine them and remove any tiny insects, of which there will be more than you expect because of course you aren’t going to use the blossoms from elderberry plants that have been sprayed with icky things like pesticides, right?  Right.  So you’ll be debugging, in the literal sense.  Be patient, since either you can get them out now or you can drink a bug-infused liqueur later.

Your Very Good Dog will help you be patient.  He likes to sunbathe while his monkeys do the work.

Then you strip off the blossoms, with as little of the green stems as possible, and shove them into sterilized jars.  Pack the jars nice and full, since you want plenty of plant matter available to infuse its oils into the alcohol you’ll add in a minute or two.

Fill the jars with clear, plain alcohol.  I did two jars, and filled one with grain alcohol and the other with cachaca, the Brazilian sugarcane liquor, to see which I like better.  I’ve made some very nice fruit infusions with cachaca in the past, so it’ll be interesting to see how it works.  Grain alcohol, of course, brings no flavor of its own to the party, and is very high proof, so it affects botanical ingredients somewhat differently and you end up with a different flavor at the end.

I also added a small quantity, about 1/4 teaspoon, of citric acid to each half-pint jar.  I’ve found in the past that the acid helps retain whatever color gets infused, and also helps balance the flavor.  You don’t need much.

Put lids on your jars.  Put them in a cool, dark place to infuse.

And now we wait.  I’ll give these a few weeks to infuse, then strain the solids out and see what we’ve got.  After that, I’ll sweeten the infusion with simple syrup, or possibly do a second shorter infusion with some other, complementary ingredients — lemon zest, perhaps, or some kind of fruit.  We shall see!

                          

The Venus de Milo lives in a rosebush down the street.

My neighbor Joel is a nurseryman. This is his busman's holiday of a front garden.

My dog, Ushi, shows off his summer haircut as he enjoys my neighbor's garden.

From my garden, a new rose for me this year: "Souvenir de la Malmaison," bred originally in 1843.

Another new rose for me this year. I put in these "Cecile Brunner" roses (originally bred 1894) to either side of the "Souvenir de la Malmaison" varieties. Eventually they will grow into a sprawling hedge of pink roses in two different bloom types.

                          

There were some definite winners last year, and some less successful attempts.  One, the pumpkins, was highly successful but is something I won’t repeat: my yard is too small and pumpkins like to take over the world.  Mowing around their aggressive sprawl was an adventure.

I’m definitely going to plant more Armenian cucumbers.  They were wonderful.  Not a heavy bearer, but the best cukes I’ve ever eaten, let alone grown.

I’m going to plant plenty of chard again, usually just the Fordhook Giant white.  Though I liked the ruby chard last year too, the stems on the Fordhook were more tender, even when it got hot, which it did early and often.

I was not taken by the sweet pepper variety I planted last year and I think this year I will go with Biscaynes.

I am looking for seeds for piment d’espelette, if anyone knows where to get some.  Also for Halaby or Aleppo pepper.

The guajillos grew well and I will definitely grow more.

The beans were a problem.  Positioning more than anything else.  They overtook the larger of the elderberry bushes and formed a really impressive fortress that made it very difficult to get to the beans to pick them.  Also they did not bear particularly well, I think because of heat.

The tomatoes got the better of me last year.  I planted too many plants for my household — I find tomatoes hard to resist, but even I can only consume so many, and last summer I was finishing two books so there was no time for processing/canning/freezing the rest.  I gave a lot away.  This summer, as God is my witness, I am going to plant only two tomato plants.  Which means that I have to choose what kinds.  Probably a Tula Black or a Black Krim… and something a little less intense.  Green Zebra are nice, perhaps those.

I ought to put in some celeriac.  I’ll also grow some kale, and some garlic.  The herbs will volunteer themselves, most likely; the dill is considering a hostile takeover of the Kentucky Colonel mint, and I think I’ll let them duke it out.  Should be entertaining.  I had poor luck with basil last summer (again, I suspect the heat).  The Bavarian sage is unstoppable.  I’d like to get a nice rosemary bush established, and another Greek oregano and another thyme variety.

What else?  Maybe cabbage, though it’s usually easy to come by and cheap.

Beets, although I know I will only keep cutting and eating the greens and only at the bitter end pull and eat the roots.

Maybe eggplant.  I do like eggplant.  They tend to be very prolific here, which can be a bit much to keep up with, but I bet if I grew only one plant of a large-fruited variety and one of a small-fruited variety it wouldn’t be so hard.

What are you planning to grow in your garden?

                          

We had a great big Hollywood-style summer storm early this morning, dark and windy, with plenty of thunder and a truly impressive sudden pounding rain.  After it had cleared I went out into the garden to check on things… and to pick up the windfall.

There were two more large tomatoes, in addition to these, but they didn’t all fit on the plate.  Later today I plan to make some pico de gallo and some salsa.  They’ll go with the mess of kidney beans I cooked up yesterday.  Mmmm, beans and fresh salsa!

                          

So I won’t speak of it.  Instead I will show you pictures.

Lilies and hydrangea from the garden.  I’ve been cutting the lilies as they hit their peak, and bringing them into the house so they can stink up the joint with that heady, sweet scent of theirs.

This morning’s farmer’s market was a wonderful orgy of high-summer fruit.  We bought white peaches and yellow, white nectarines (one of my favorites), and the most glorious tiny sweet yellow-orange cherry tomatoes.    It’s a little MStew of me, but I always think fruit looks prettier on Depression-era glass, somehow.  (And to make up for the MStew quotient, you can enjoy my very old, very faded, very seriously worn and stained tablecloth, heh.)

So pretty.  Now if my own tomatoes would just hurry up and ripen…

                          

One week until my book is due.  I picked us some liles and sea holly from the garden and put them in an old mustard jar on the kitchen windowsill so we’d have something pretty to look at.

                          

1. Flavored Waters — I see them for sale in the shops and I think “I may really be incapable of understanding how far people will go to avoid doing something that is nearly effortless to begin with.”  Because $1.49 for 20 ounces of water with a little mint in it?  It’s not highway robbery if you voluntarily part with your money, my friends.  Get yourself some sort of reasonably wide-mouthed jug (a recycled glass juice bottle is tops) and fill it 7/8 of the way with water.  Plunk in something that tastes nice: cucumber slices, citrus zest, borage flowers, mint leaves, sliced fruit of any kind, a couple chunks of watermelon plus a few chunks of rind (white part only), a quartered tomato, basil leaves, a clove or two, orange flower water, rosewater, kewra water, knotted strips of lemongrass, a pinch of fennel seed. Play with the combinations and mix it up.  Try mint plus orange flower water, cucumber plus rosewater, watermelon plus basil, borage flowers plus halved green grapes, tomato plus fennel seed, citrus zest and a dill blossom.  Refrigerate your water and its add-ins and let infuse for an hour or two before drinking.

2. Cucumber-Almond Granita — Puree two large peeled seeded cucumbers in a blender.  Add a couple of handfuls of almonds and a couple handfuls of green seedless grapes or honeydew melon.  Add a tiny splash of orange flower water and just a touch of honey or agave nectar.  Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze.  To serve, pop out as many cubes as you want and turn them into slush in your blender or food processor.

3.  DIY Creamsicles — 2 parts freshly squeezed orange juice to 1 part buttermilk (or soymilk plus a little extra lime juice), about a half a lime’s worth of lime juice, and a little agave syrup.  Pour into popsicle molds or paper cups, freeze, and eat.

4. Beans Love Greens, Hot Weather Version — Drain and rinse a can of good quality cooked white beans like cannellini.  Get a bunch of the nicest, tenderest, most voluptuous greens you can find.  For me, it’s almost always chard straight from the garden but you can have what you like.  Just don’t buy the “prewashed” crap in the cellophane bags please, it’s all ‘prewashed’ in the same gigantic sink, effectively, and people get sick from it.  Also it is neither nice nor tender nor voluptuous and really, what is the point of eating any green vegetable that does not look up at you from the plate, flutter its undulating curves at you, and whisper “I’m lovely, I’m delicious, eat me”?   Anyway, wash and dry your greens and tear them into pieces of a comfortable size.  Make a nest of leaves on your plate.  Top with beans, cherry tomatoes or wedges of larger ones, seeded chunked cucumber, torn basil leaves, some good pitted olives, and, if you like, some kind of salty cheese like feta.  Dress with the best olive oil you can lay hands on, and either good wine or sherry vinegar or lemon juice.

5. The Essence of Fruit Crisp — Prepare and layer on a plate or in a shallow bowl bite-sized pieces of whatever sort of fruit appeals to you.  Stone fruits and berries work best, but you could do this with summer apples and with pears, too.  In a small frying pan, melt a tablespoon or three of salted butter (depending on how many people you plan to feed) and then cook, in the butter, three tablespoons of Grape Nuts to each tablespoon of butter.  As they start to get fragrant, sprinkle with brown sugar and maybe a little cinnamon.  Stir and keep cooking until the sugar is all melted, just a moment or so.  Drizzle the butter/sugar/Grape Nuts over the fruit.  Perfect for when just plain sliced fruit doesn’t seem desserty enough.  If you want to bump it up another notch, sprinkle a pinch of really good sea salt over the whole shebang.

6. Water Chestnuts with Coconut Milk and Shrimp — Use FRESH water chestnuts only for this, or in a pinch, jicama.  Peel and julienne the water chestnuts, keeping them submerged in cold water before and after cutting so they don’t discolor.  Roughly chop some shelled, deveined shrimp — cooked or raw, it’s up to you.  If you can get good raw ones, it’s nice that way.  Make a mixture of 4 parts lime juice, 3 parts coconut milk, and as much fresh minced chili and onion as you want.   Mix the lime/coconut mixture with the shrimp.  Drain the water chestnuts well and add.  Refrigerate for an hour.  Salt to taste.  Vegheads, just sub nice fresh firm tofu.

7.  Vietnamese rice-paper “salad” rolls, aka gai cuon — Oishii Eats will show you how, and her mom is hilarious.

8.  The Best Peanut Butter Sandwich Ever — You want some good, crusty French-style bread.  Baguette is great.  Slice a hank of it the long way like a sub sandwich roll, and remove some but not all of the crumb.  You can also do this on a really dense seedy wholegrain but try it with the French loaf first.  OK.  Get you some peanut butter, whatever kind you like.  A little sweet is OK.  Spread a thin — and I am not funning with you, I mean thin! — layer on both halves of the bread.  Next, you want a little chili paste.  Sambal oelek, the Indonesian spice paste, is fantastic and is what they use at Chicago’s Cafe Lula where they call this the tineka sandwich, but you know, it will work with many different kinds.  Sriracha, sweet chili-garlic paste, toban jian, what you got.  Schmear that right on up into  your peanut butter.  Then you wanna make a nice friendly haystack of shredded carrot, cucumber slices, sprouts, lettuce, definitely some tomato and a little bit of paper-thin sliced onion.  Drizzle just a snoodge of soy sauce on your veggies.  Sweet black soy if you have it.  The Indonesian kind is particularly choice in this, but the Chinese will do fine.  Slap the whole thing together and eat.

9.  Tuna Salad in a Tomato — So maybe the savory peanut butter-chili-veg bomb is too adventuresome for your palate.  That’s okay.  Get a fantastic tomato and slice off the top so you can scoop out the gooey bit in the middle (put the gooey bit in some water and let it infuse, you can pour it through a sieve later, and the water will taste wonderful).  Fill your tomato up with tuna salad instead.  Or egg salad.  Or chicken salad.  Or tofu salad.  Or… you get the idea.

10.  Banana Cream — Peel, then toss in a plastic bag and freeze, a few very ripe bananas.  Cut them into chunks, put them in the blender, and puree to a soft-serve ice cream  sort of texture. Add a little bit of vanilla extract.  Stir in chocolate chips if you like, or shredded sweetened coconut, or toasted nuts.