Sunday, October 13, 2024

October 13, 2024-it is time

Welcome


Sometimes you run out of time- to put things off. You just have to shift into some higher gear and get to it.

This time of year I pay a lot of attention to the 10 day forecast. I am watching for frosts.

During this last week there was one of the first 30's in the forecast. That was joined by some other 30's. All of sudden the 33 became 28. It is to get to 28 this coming Tuesday might. This of course was on the iphone weather which I think is from the weather channel. The local TV weather still just says 33. I find the weather channel tends to extremes.

Whatever. The plants should come inside.

This freeze possibility has kept my thoughts away from the lack of rain. 


So the migration has started. 

The sansevieria have led the group to spend the winter at the office. We take a few plants to work every day.


Yesterday, Saturday, I kept at it most of the day. I logged13,000 steps for those of you who keep track of that measure. By the end of the day I was tired.

I sort of took in plants in groups.

The Sansevieria went first.

30-35 orchids have already come inside.

Then the clivia.

There was an opportunity for a group picture. I think there are 13.


That included this really nice variagated one. This plant is actually a side shoot from a much bigger plant.


This is the large variagated plant.


Clivia set seeds after they bloom. It can take over a year for the seeds to ripen. You know they are ripe when the pod softens and sometimes turns red.


Clicia story
In early July there was a plant mishap. I had planted a seed 3-4 years ago. It was  a seed from one of the yellow ones that Pat gave me. Well, during the garden walk, someone knocked the plant over. It broke off right at the stem. I had the above ground part of the plant, with no roots.
On the theory that plants can make miraculous recoveries I put the rootless stem in a jar of water. Sure enough roots grew.
I planted the rooted plant today, back in its old pot, complete with its ornament.



With clivia there is the rule of 13. You need 13 leaves to be big enough to flower. This plant will have a way to go.

All clivia got a top dressing of compost, and some systemic. They can be subject  to the dreaded white fly.

On to something else.

All the cattleya orchids are inside, under lights. There must be 20 of just the cattleyas. One is about to bloom.


The little airplant globe is back in its inside place, over the kitchen sink. It has lots of red, meaning it should bloom for a while.



The crotons are coming, or going. This is the biggest and heaviest one. Colin carried this one.


The hoyas are coming. I can carry those. But with carrying them one at a time you can see how I can get to 13000 steps. Many plants live on the second floor of our house.


This one has been blooming non stop for months.


More pictures


This is croton Rams Horn.



Crocuses are popping up around the yard. They would do better with some rain.




Some color remains.




Here is perhaps the best picture of the week. This is our neighbor Colin, carrying the pink orchid cactus. I decided it would spend the winter in the basement. That meant Colin did not need to go up the stairs.



Julia's recipe

Another recipe for mild white fish. 

From the NYT, with a twist of my own.  As the farmers market season draws to a close, it is good to use fresh-from-the-market produce while it is still available. So here you go with a recipe that uses fresh produce, is baked all together on a rimmed sheet pan, is on the table in about 45 minutes and tastes great.  

The ingredients:
3/4 lb. or so of white fish (I had rockfish);
1 pint cherry tomatoes;
some cilantro (1/4 cup plus a bit more for garnish);
some young fresh green beans (not shown);
about 1-1/2 teaspoons grated ginger;
about 1 teaspoon lime zest;
about 1-1/2 teaspoons lime juice;
about 1/2 teaspoon smushed garlic;
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes;
a little less than 1/2 cup coconut milk;
1-1/2 teaspoons honey;
1/4 teaspoon turmeric;
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil;
about 3/4 teaspoon salt;
and about 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.

My addition to this recipe was the young green beans. I decided to add them, after Philip had taken the picture, to add a complementary green vegetable to the meal - all baked together on the same rimmed baking sheet.  


I started by making the marinade for the fish - and eventually the tomatoes and green beans too. 

I measured the coconut milk into a large-ish bowl. I added the turmeric, red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, garlic and honey. I zested the lime right in, which is why I am a little hazy about how much zest I used. About 1 medium-sized lime's worth. I also added the lime juice, which I did measure. 


What to do with the rest of the can of coconut milk? Use it instead of  cow's milk when making pudding or custard or sweet bread where a touch of coconut flavor would fit in. Probably not butterscotch pudding/ 



I whisked the ingredients and then used my herb shears to add about 1/4 cup of cilantro, which I stirred in.















I cut the fish in half as there were two of us. I put the two fish pieces in the marinade. They fit nicely. I turned them over to make sure both sides were exposed to the marinade. 

Then I put the fish bowl in the refrigerator for something like 20 minutes. Refrigerator time can be anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes

While the fish was marinating, I turned the oven on to 425 degrees, and I turned my attention to the green beans and the tomatoes. 

The tomatoes only needed to be washed. The green beans needed to be washed and to have their ends cut off. I left the beans whole. Easier. 



I put the washed tomatoes in a small bowl and added a scant tablespoon of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.  

When the oven was preheated, I put the tomatoes at one end of the rimmed baking sheet. 

I added the green beans to the bowl just vacated by the tomatoes and added another scant tablespoon of oil and another sprinkling of salt. Then I put the green beans on the other end of the rimmed baking sheet. 

Lastly, I put the two pieces of fish in the middle. I spooned the marinade over the fish, and then spooned some over the tomatoes and green beans. 

Into the oven for about 8 minutes. At that point the fish was almost but not quite done.

I took the baking sheet out of the oven and turned the oven to broil. No preheating - as soon as the broiler came on, that was it. I put the baking sheet on a rack closer to the broiler. I let the fish, etc., broil for about 4 minutes. I kept an eye on the baking sheet as broiling requires constant attention.

By the way, baking time and broiling time will vary depending on the thickness of your fish. Mine was a little thicker than sole, but thinner than cod or sablefish. So understand that the baking time should end when the fish looks mostly done, and broiling time should end when the fish looks altogether done and the tomatoes look very done.  


After about 4 minutes of broiling, the tomatoes had begun to brown a bit, the green beans were crisp-tender and the fish was done. 










I made this recipe for two, so it was easy to divide and plate in the kitchen.

We had made rice, as it was clear that there would be delicious sauce to sop up.

We also had salad and blueberries with yogurt. 

Lovely dinner. 


Odds and Ends

Sometime in the last few days the 3 big cactus plants disappeared. Seriously. I was going to show them to Colin yestrday, and was planning on their placement inside. Yesterday I discovered they were gone. For the second time in 40 years I had plant theft. 

Someone suggested vandalism. But I had not yet put up my Harris sign. (It went up yesterday.) And the plants would have been awkward to carry, and a little heavy.

One had bloomed just this last week.


Here are some pictures  over the years.




There are many plants from the original plant that are now all over town. 


I still have 4 little plants. They are about the size of the plants in the picture above. They will be carefully tended this winter.

There is less than a month until the election. Please America, wake up.

A special thought goes out to those who were in the path of the hurricanes. 

Pray for peace, as the bombs continue to fall. 

Find a way to help make it a better place. 

Be kind. And forgiving. 

It is always good when I hear back from you.

Philip

Sunday, October 6, 2024

October 6, 2024- color as the garden year fades

Welcome


This is called a splash of color. That is what zinnias are supposed to do. My little patch of zinnias has recovered from the deer trimming. More are blooming every day.

It is still warm and dry.
We sort of had some rain the other day. None had been scheduled. The 10 day forecast on the phone has shown 0 rain for weeks. It must have been about 3 in the morning on Wednesday night. There was just one loud boom of thunder that woke us up. Then there was light rain for a while. It measured .3  to .38 by the local professional reports. It was better than nothing, but it was only a little better. Now we are back to all 0's in the forcast.

Several days this week the  temperature dipped officially into the upper 30's. That was in the low lying areas. Yesterday it was in the upper 80's. It will be down to 40 several times this coming week. I guess that is October.

The ground sort of crunches when you walk on it.
I have been running the sprinkler quite a bit.
I then water wand the potted plants in the back. That would include the hoyas and the orchids and orchid cactus and the sansevieria.

This is hoya kereii. It has heart shaped leaves. It sometimes is sold just with a single leaf in a pot. It is starting to grow nicely in its second year.


I am still repotting orchids. It feels like a total makeover for the plant. Of course it is. Only usually when they are too big for one pot, that means I wind up with more than one plant. The collection grows. 
I will bring in some this week, as the temperature goes to 40 several times.

I had an "oh wow" moment yesterday afternnoon. I was walking around the east side of the house when look what I found-





These fall crocuses are actually  crocuses.
Another one had popped up, once I started to look for them.


Other pictures











Julia's recipe

Pear Tart

This recipe for pear tart intrgued me. Pears as the centerpiece in a dessert? I like to eat Bartlett pears raw, but I haven't made any pear desserts. I wasn't sure they's have enough oomph to carry a dessert. But I learned otherwise. The tart tasted like pears with a hint of lemon. It was good. With ice cream or whipped cream. The recipe is from Michael Knock, the Press-Citizen's food guy. 

The ingredients for the crust:
1-1/2 cups white flour;
2 tablespoons white sugar;
1 teaspoon lemon zest;
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter, make it 1/2 teaspoon);
1 stick (8 tablespoons) chilled butter;
and 4 or 5 or  tablespoons whipping cream.
Ingredients for the filling:
2 Bosc pears;
3 Bartlett pears;
1/3 cup sugar;
2 tablespoons flour;
1 teaspoon lemon zest;
2 teaspoons lemon juice;
2 tablespoons sliced or slivered almonds; 
1/4 teaspoon of grated nutmeg;
and some more (maybe 2 tablespoons) of the whipping cream to brush on the crust


First I made the tart crust. I put the flour, sugar, salt and 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest in the food processor.

A lemon zest hint: I zested 1/2 of the lemon straight into the food processor. And later I zested the other 1/2 of the lemon straight into the bowl with the pear slices. No loss of zest in transition. 

I cut the butter into little cubes and added it to the food processor. 

I zizzed it around until it was like coarse meal. 

Then I added the 1/4 cup of whipping cream, and zizzed some more. The dough was still dry, so I took the tube thingy out of the top of the food processor and poured in another tablespoon of cream while the machine was running. As I recall, that took care of it, but I was prepared to use a total of 6 tablespoons of cream and you should be too. 


When the dough was a more or less cohesive lump, I dumped it out onto a piece of parchment. I kneaded the dough a little to make sure it was all mixed (no dry bits). Then I patted the dough into a round; folded the paper around the dough and chilled it in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 





While the dough was chilling, I turned my attention to the pears. My Bartlett pears were ripe-ish. The Bosc pears were, well, Bosc pears. 

I peeled the pears. In the picture, I was peeling the last Bartlett pear. After peeling, I cut each pear into quarters, took out the cores and sliced the quarters into thin slices. 








This is a picture of the slicing of the pears.

After the pears were prepared, I added the sugar, the rest of the lemon zest, the lemon juice, and the nutmeg and stirred the mixture.

And I preheated the oven to 400 degrees.

Then (when the hour of chilling was up), I took the parchment-wrapped dough out of the refrigerator. 

I rolled the dough into a roughly (and I do mean roughly) round shape. (See below.)



I poured the pear mixture onto the crust.

















I sprinkled the almonds over the pears. Then I started to kind of pleat the dough all around the filling. 

There were a couple of places that needed repair. I used the larger-than-needed parts of the dough to make the patches. 











I left the tart on the parchment and transferred the parchment to a rimmed baking sheet. 

I brushed some of the remaining whipping cream around the edges of the tart and dabbed some onto the filling as well.





The tart baked for about 45 minutes. I started checking it after 30 minutes. It's done when the crust is golden brown and the pears are soft (that is, when one can pierce the pears with a sharp knife or skewer and meet no real resistance).






It was easy to transfer the tart from the rimmed baking sheet to a serving platter. At that point, I ran a metal spatula under the tart to make sure it wasn't sticking to the parchment anywhere. Then I pulled the parchment out from under the tart. 





It was a fancy tart so we used fancy plates. We whipped the leftover whipping cream for a dollop on the side. 

The tart held up well and we ate it up over several days. 







Odds and Ends

I wish a Happy 100th birthday to Jimmy Carter. That was October 1, 1924.

It is the time of year when many hosta do not look so good.

This is hosta Beckoning.


This is hosta Winter Snow.


Sometimes there is an "oh wow" moment in the garden. Sometimes there is an "oh my" moment.

I was looking for seeds in the Bartzella peony when I saw this.


Special thoughts should be sent to folks who were in the path of Hurrucane Helene. It does not seem fair that another hurricane may be coming. 

This is the temperature chart from last year, October 2023.  Cold weather comes in October.


I think about the election almost every day. If there is a spare $25 in the budget it goes to someone running for office. The other day it was Don Osborn, running for Senate as an Independent in Nebraska. Apparently he has a decent chance of being elected.) That was probably my first ever contribution to anyone in Nebraska.

Pray for peace.

Pray that voters show some sense, rather than respond to lies. (Gosh there are some awful adds.)

Pray that people have enough to eat.

Thanks for your notes. 

Philip