May 26, 2019 Summer is here

About 2pm on Thursday afternoon summer arrived in Iowa City.
Early in the week we still had the cool weather of the past month.  Tuesday there was a high of 57 with a low of 42. With wind and rain 42 degrees makes you think about wearing a winter coat. But I did not.

Some said it was just the humidity on Thursday, but I just knew it was hot. And muggy.
In the next 40 hours we would have another 2.5 inches of rain. Friday evening we even had a real tornado scare. Fortunately it fizzled out before it got to Iowa City. It was a real tornado, however, complete with weather spotters. There were live pictures of a funnel cloud on the ground 10 miles southwest of where we live. It was heading northeast.
Maybe it touched down at the airport, and maybe it touched down in town south of where we live. We could see little damage when we drove around that area yesterday.
This scare was all about 7:00 pm so there was plenty of light out.

So all the other signs of summer were here yesterday. We put away the flannel sheets for the season. The upstairs where we sleep was hard to cool at night.
But yesterday was a great day for working in the  garden. While it was wet in places, the weeds came out easily. I had that wonderful rotation during the ideal afternoon. I would watch some Cubs baseball. (Fortunately they won.) Then I would do some laundry. Finally I would go fill up a bucket of weeds.
Did I mention mosquitoes? Well I had my first encounters this week. Yesterday I went out before 7 with a good coating of repellent.


The garden is almost at full strength.








As I was writing this last night as the sun went down the light became all strange, the way it can at sunset. Look at this panoramic view of that same back yard.

The one thing that is lacking is shade. Right now  the Walnut tree in the front yard and the Linden tree in the back are still waking up. I expect the warm weather will make a big difference.
I need that shade before the orchids can go outside.


The white tree peonies ended rather quickly with several heavy rains. On their way out they gave us some amazing displays.
I love how the petals in this picture have the shadows of the stamen.










Here you have the progression as the flower ended its show for the year.









That center will eventually look like a jester's hat. Then in October there will be seeds.

Here is the wonderful Orchid cypripedium  Gisela. It has eight flowers this year. That was the most ever.




We are moving from bearded iris to Siberian Iris.
The first two Siberian Iris bloomed yesterday. Hot (maybe 80 and high humidity) and sunny, with lots of rain in the recent past, means fast forward the garden.





I am really looking forward to Siberian Iris season. Several of the ones I purchased from Joe Pye Weed Gardens in Massachusetts are going to bloom. One is called 'Here be dragons.'

Here are other pictures this week.






This is an English hyacinth. They are a late blooming Spring bulb that adds color to the garden this time of year.


















Here is one of the few lupines this year. I have lots of little seedlings. The plants seem to behave like biennials. They will bloom in the second year and that will be it.












This is the time of year for this woodland anemone. It is all over the front yard. I wind up pulling it up with the spent bluebell foliage. But it is pretty.



















Here is the pink tree peony holding on all week.
















This is hosta that is about the prettiest hosta in the garden and the one with the best name. It is Confused Angel. It is a sport or ancestor of Blue Angel. I have Guardian Angel with is now quite large.
Perhaps befitting its name this variety has been very slow to grow. I have had it for perhaps 10 years and this is it.
I have moved it several times to find if that helps. Not much.





The pink dogwood is done. One of the two little ones is going to bloom soon.














Here is a closeup of the leaf from Confused Angel.












Here you seem the extent of the woodland anemones in the front parkway. I will be pulling them out as time allows.














Hosta Victory guards the entrance to the garden from the east. It just keeps getting bigger.














As the hosta get bigger they begin to crowd out their neighbors. These little lilies will have to get moved.

Julia's recipe

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

It was Maggie's birthday recently, and as per our tradition, the birthday celebrant gets to set the dinner menu. Mags opted for lamb kebobs, vegetable kebobs, tabouli, cucumber salad, green salad and strawberry rhubarb pie. A very nice birthday dinner indeed. This being rhubarb season, strawberry rhubarb pie was a natural, and easy too if someone like Philip makes you a nice 10" pie crust.


Here are the players: some rhubarb which when sliced thin came to 3 cups; some strawberries to make 3 cups (I used an entire quart from the grocery store); 1/2 cup of regular flour; a pinch of salt; 1-3/4 cups of white sugar and 1 tablespoon of butter. Plus the aforementioned 10" pie crust.

As I have said before, with pie, the star is the filling. So buy frozen pie shell if that works for you. At some point, I will persuade Philip to let me post his pie crust recipe.





I rinsed the rhubarb and trimmed the ends off. I sliced the thinner stalks into about 1/4" slices. I cut the bigger stalk (not shown) in half length-wise before slicing. I stopped when I had 3 cups and then transferred the rhubarb to a big bowl.

(Extra rhubarb can be made into sauce, for which I previously gave you a recipe. Or sliced and frozen in quart containers to make small rhubarb pies (like 8") in the winter.)





Next I rinsed and cleaned (actually de-stemmed) the strawberries using a tool designed for the purpose which was a present from my sister Joan. This is what Alton Brown would call a uni-tasker, good for one thing only, and therefore not welcome in his kitchen. But it works really well if you have a bunch of strawberries to clean.

One quart of strawberries yielded 3 cups - sliced, with bigger berries cut in half and then sliced.




I added the strawberries to the rhubarb and then added the pinch of salt (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) plus the 1/2 cup of flour and the 1-3/4 cups of sugar. I used this spoonula thing (a hybrid spoon/spatula) to mix gently. Any utensil used gently (but thoroughly) would work.


I preheated the oven to 375 degrees.






I poured the filling into the pie shell, smoothing it out and filling in any blank spots along the edges (fruit does not spread out like a liquid-y pie filling does). Then I cut the tablespoon of butter into tiny pieces and scattered them about.











I baked the pie on a half sheet pan with a silpat (silicone baking sheet) on the bottom. There would be bubbling over and the sheet pan plus silicone made cleanup a breeze.

The pie takes a long time to bake - about 75 minutes. I set a timer for 50 minutes and started checking. The pie should be bubbly all over and a skewer stuck into fruit in the middle of the pie should meet no resistance of any kind.






A nice piece of pie on the Paddington Bear Happy Birthday plate, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Note that the pie kept its shape. In order to have this result, the pie has to be completely cold. So you should bake it no later than the morning of your event. The day before is just fine.






Alternate thoughts: You could add 1-1/2 teaspoon of orange zest. I would have, but I didn't have an orange. If you are a gluten-phobe, use 1/4 cup cornstarch or tapioca flour (but not tapioca beads) instead of regular flour. Or maybe gluten-free flour, but I am not sure how much. Maybe 1/2 cup - a straight substitution.

Speaking to those of you who are piecrust averse, and you know who you are, you can use the filling to make a rhubarb-strawberry crisp. Use a bit less sugar - say 1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups, and omit the butter dots on top. Bake it in a casserole or souffle dish (something deeper than a 10" pie plate). Lube up the baker - with butter or with no-stick spray. Pour the filling into the baker. Top with a streusel: mix 1 cup flour with 1/2 cup of sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup of butter with a pastry cutter or your fingers. Sprinkle the streusel on top. Bake as above.

Any way you make this, it's delicious.

Odds and Ends

It is Sunday morning and guess what. It is raining. Rain is in the forecast for most of the week.
We have had over 8 inches this month with several days to go.

The sun was out yesterday. We went to one of the garden centers. I had wanted to get another little dogwood. There were not all that many and there was one that looked much better than the others. So we got it. We paid a little extra at that place, but they guarantee the tree for two years, which is more than the other places.
It is another Kousa dogwood. It blooms much later than the other varieties.
They will deliver it later this week. We will plant it.
I have the spot  ready. Well, I know where it is going and have moved the plants from that place. I put a tarp out over that spot last night. I would like to have that get somewhat dry.

The last of my waterlilies have found a home. Now the warmer weather will have them grow.

That's it. Maybe the rain is stopping.
There are weeds to pull.
Philip