mears garden: November 19, 2017- it is a gray month.

40 and gray. That seems to be the November we are having. Actually it is gray when it is not dark. It is dark a lot.
Then there is drizzle and fog. I suppose this is better that 10 degrees with snow.
What we need is some cheerful pictures of warmer times.

Well, I will oblige.
In just one week, this year's picture contest begins. 17 weeks of fun starts next Sunday. There will be more pictures than ever. There are 65 pictures that made the final cut. That is 13 weeks times 5 pictures each week.
By the time we finish with the contest, it will be Spring.

Last week because the garden was mostly done, I showed you pictures from 2011.

You liked the bluebells. They really do give you something to look forward to.

The full voting was
Bluebells 15
Asiatic Lily 11
Peony 9
Pansy 7
Bloodroot 4
Trillium 3

This week I want to show you some pictures from 2017. These were taken from the group of pictures that will not be in the contest.

#1- Winter aconite and early crocuses

This picture is from March 6, 2017. Early March does not seem that far away. Actually that is only 107 days.
Sometimes we have these early spring flowers in February.

One of my remaining tasks in the garden before the ground freezes is to plant some more crocuses.

#2 Star of Bethlehem

I am somewhat embarrassed that sometimes I consider this a weed. It will spread. But the flowers are pretty.

#3 Crown Imperial Fritillaria

I have planted more of these this fall, and replanted others this summer. I do not find that they last for very long. They are amazing when they grow well.
They are perhaps the flower that most could appear in a book by Dr. Seuss.

#4 Phlox
It grows everywhere.
It makes a good companion plant, until it begins to crowd out its companion.

#5 Elephant ears

The foliage makes for great patterns.
I am so fond of these plants. They take up space, but do well in pots.
They do have to come inside for the winter.

#6 Oriental lilies

in silhouette are good.

This is the last week you can vote for two.
Next week, there will be no such option for indecision.

Julia's Recipe

Beef Stew

I cut this recipe out of a ladies' magazine years ago, and it got into our notebook of stray recipes. The recipe is called "Peggy Malaspina's French Beef Stew." No idea who Peggy M. is or why it's French. It is good and seasonal for this cold snap and easy to prepare with no messy browning, although there is a stretch of oven time.

Here is a picture of the players: 1 lb. beef stew meat, a big carrot, 2 stalks of celery, 8 oz. of white button mushrooms, 8 oz. of pearl onions, a can of diced tomatoes, red wine, minute tapioca (yes, really), salt, basil and pepper. You will also want a bit of sugar, not shown.

I started by prepping the vegetables: I peeled and cut up the carrot into 1/2" pieces for about 1 cup of carrot pieces. I also cut up the celery into 1/2" pieces, also for 1 cup. If you don't like celery - and you know who you are - you can use green beans or bell peppers instead.

Then Philip helped me prepare the pearl onions. I brought a saucepan of water to a boil and dropped the onions in for 1 minute, then drained them, and cut off their root ends. The skins then slipped off easily or with a little knife work. 8 oz. of pearl onions came to about 1 cup, and if you do not want to use pearl onions (although they are pretty), use 1 cup of coarsely chopped regular old onion.

Then I washed the mushrooms, and I quartered them as they were large-ish. 8 oz. of mushrooms yielded about 2-1/2 cups, quartered.

I put all the vegetables in little bowls and turned my attention to the meat, below.

The New Pioneer Co-op was out of beef stew when I wanted some so the butcher cut up a chuck roast for me. The pieces of meat needed to be cut smaller and trimmed some. If you buy beef stew meat as such, you won't have to do this. I usually don't have to either.

I turned the oven on to 300 degrees to preheat.

Here we are on the verge of assembly. I put the meat in the bottom of a large oven-proof casserole with a lid. Next I added (in this order): onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms. The order does not really matter, although the meat should go on the bottom. Next I opened the can of diced tomatoes and poured that on top.

Here is the casserole at the-everything- including-the-tomatoes stage. Next I added 1/4 cup of minute ("minute" in this case meaning quick-cooking not tiny, although it is tiny) tapioca, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Then I filled the diced tomatoes can half full of water and filled it the rest of the way with a nice dry red wine. I have used a nice dry white wine when that is what is on hand.

The tapioca disappears into the stew (as it is washed into the overall mixture by the wine/water addition), and it gives the stew body. The end result is not as thick as some flour-based gravies, but it is pleasantly thickened, and of course, gluten free.

Nest, I put the lid on the casserole and then off it went into the preheated oven. Here is the time-consuming part: it baked for 3 hours. Once an hour, I opened the oven, took the lid off the casserole and stirred it up with a big wooden spoon.

This is the stew at the end of 3 hours. As with many stews, this stew is good the day it is cooked and even better if refrigerated and reheated the next day.

We serve it in bowls with noodles. Or you could serve it with boiled potatoes. Or just as it is. You can play around with the solid ingredients: more meat for example or different or additional vegetables. I think chopped up winter squash or parsnips would work. Onions and mushrooms are essential, I believe, and I happen to like celery and carrots in stew, but as I say, go ahead and use what you like and have on hand. And enjoy the leftovers.

Odds and Ends

Yesterday I potted up several of the Persian shield cuttings I clipped right before the first hard freeze. That was 3 weekends ago, I think. The cuttings had little roots that were maybe 1-2 inches. I read somewhere that cuttings should be potted before the roots are not more than that. I do not understand that piece of plant lore. But the list of things I do not understand is long.

I also finished planting the new Asiatic lilies yesterday. The drizzle did stop and the sun actually came out for a few hours.
Now all that is left is some little bulbs to plant. There are crocuses and iris reticulata and a few snowdrops still to go.

When the sun came out the cattleya orchid put on a great display.