Loquat Liqueur

It's loquat fruit time again in Austin, and this year, I discovered - vis a vis the Lee Bros. - a recipe for making loquat liqueur. (Don't even ask me how many times I've spell-checked the word "liqueur." What a strange one.)

The recipe is pretty straight forward:

Wash some loquats and stuff them in a jar with a lid. Fill said jar with vodka (I used Dripping Springs). Wait for at least one week and up to a year. Keeps for a couple of years.

I'm probably going to lean toward waiting a year. So perhaps this time next year, I'll be experimenting with loquat liqueur drinks. I'm thinking a splash of the loquat liqueur with some ice and soda water would be a refreshing springtime treat.

Here's a recipe for a nice breakfast treat made with loquats.

Little Paper Lanterns

I swore off growing tomatoes a couple of years ago. We just don't get the right light and the critters beat me down. Between the stink bugs and the squirrels, we could never get a good tomato crop worth all the water and effort.

This year, I decided to try something a little different: tomatillos. They've been flowering for a while, and have just started to form these beautiful little papery lanterns, which I assume will begin to fill with the green fruit over the next months.

I figure that the husk will protect the fruits from the stink bugs. Squirrels? I don't have much faith in keeping them away, but maybe I'll be happily surprised and making tomatillo salsa in the future.

Pom Poms

Are pom-poms called pom-poms because they look like pomegranate flowers? This year our pom tree is producing a ton of fruit for the first time. Very exciting.

Loquats Dripping from the Trees

The loquats are dripping from the trees around here, and there has been buzz about them all over the local garden blogs and foodie media. I just harvested a bowl of them this morning, and look forward to turning them into something this evening. Mainly, I am trying to keep them away from our infinitely intelligent dog, because the seeds contain cyanide (like apples). If he eats them whole, they should pass through the system with no problem. But if he crunches on the seeds, I worry that the cyanide will be released in his digestive system. Word about the toxicity of loquat seeds is very mixed on the interwebs, some claiming that they are lowly toxic, some claiming that they are highly toxic. I'm not taking any chances. Plus, the more we harvest, the more we get to enjoy in one of these recipes!

Propagating Rosemary

So it turns out that rosemary is easy to propagate. All you have to do is snip a few branches and throw them in a glass of water. After about two weeks, they cuttings will have grown lots of thin white roots.

Here there are transplanted into small pots.

When they get larger, I'll move them into ever larger pots. I love simple.

Beet This

Yes, we have beets! Lovely beets.

Dill-Infused Vodka

We've got some serious dill growing right now, with stalks easily as thick as a thumb and about 3.5 feet tall. The flower pinnacles are beautiful and smell fresh and herbal. Tonight, we had dill with everything: dilly potato salad, wild salmon grilled on a bed of dill stalks, and a mixed green salad with dill sprigs. Über-Scandavian.

A couple of weeks back, we got the idea to infuse some cheap vodka we had laying around with dill from the garden, figuring it would be perfect for bloody marys. We dumped the vodka into this purty bottle and let it rest for a couple of weeks.

It made GREAT bloodies, by the way. 

Winter Blooms of the Loquat

The loquats are in full bloom this time of year, and even more than last year if I recall. They must be digging these once weekly shots of rain juice. There are two great things about this. One, the flowers exude a very subtle sweet perfume, which is always welcome in the winter months. Second, blooms mean future fruits. The warmer temps this year are also encouraging honey bees to venture forth from the hives. I'm not sure if the loquats depend on them to set fruit, but it can't hurt.

Our loquats are still pretty full and growing up front. Someday they may be large beastly tree-hedges. And that's cool with me. They make a nice dark green wall to shield our view of the street (is there anything uglier than a street?).

These trees are from southern China, and I saw many of them wither during the drought over the past summer. They seem much like our native Wax Myrtle only in that they require more water than you might think. We didn't get any fruits last year, so I'm crossing my fingers for a bunch of the pale orange sweet fruits this year. They taste much like apricots and are great in granola. I'd love to make a loquat cobbler or something like that, but have never gotten enough of the fruits...maybe this year.

One Lonely Lemon Still Makes a Curd

This year our improved Meyer lemon tree produced only 4 lemons, after producing a bumper crop last year. I hear that they might alternate years like that. And then some damn critter got to three of them, stealing them away in the night to ne'er be seen again. I can only guess it was a coon, since a squirrel would probably just take a bite out of the fruit and leave it there. These had vanished.

So I collected this one as quick as possible and got to making the annual lemon curd. (Here's the recipe.) I made some awful cookies to go with the curd too, but as Stephanie said, lemon curd really just needs a vehicle to get into your mouth, so the status of the cookies wasn't a complete downer.

Yum. Lemon curd.

Kales and Lettuces Going Gangbusters

A friend recently gave us some kale and lettuce transplants to grow in our new limestone garden beds, and they are growing like gangbusters!

This is my favorite time of year for veggie gardening in Texas. Frankly, it's the only time of year, if you want to stay sane.

The lettuces and kales are large enough now to harvest and use after only a few weeks.

And this sorrel is going to add a nice lemony zing to our salads with that lettuce.

I've also seeded in some lacinato kale, spinach, arugula and beets. Those should be pushing forth soon and ready to harvest in a few weeks too!

Back Veggie Garden Beds Finished

This weekend, we got up the gumption to move dirt and lift limestone to complete the redesign of the back vegetable garden beds. We've now gone completely from the three rotten wooden raised beds to four small squares of limestone.

I'm extremely satisfied with these. Their form brings some much needed design structure to the back utility area, and the limestone and square grid pattern really plays well with the rest of the garden design.

For now, we're testing out having the Mexican lime tree in the center, but that may change with weather and whimsy.

Truthfully, part of the motivation for redoing these beds (aside from the rotting wood of the old beds) is to reduce the amount of space that we have devoted to growing vegetables. Veggies are just really difficult and time consuming to grow, and though I still delight in having fresh, homegrown veggies, I want to limit their pull on my life.

Now, we have a bed or two for seasonal veggies, one devoted to herbs, and I'd like the last of these to be devoted to flowering perennials, both for using as cut flowers and as a nursery bed to grow seedlings to place in other parts of the garden.

This is also really a step forward in making the garden even more drought proof. Veggies require a lot of water and the old wood beds dried out very quickly. Hopefully, these smaller, lower beds edged by water-retaining stone and planted with more drought tolerant herbs and perennials will lesson our load.

New Stone Garden Beds

Back in July, I posted about how our wooden raised veggie beds were rotting and falling apart. Last night, John poetically referred to them as large sinking battleships, falling into a sea of pea gravel. They've certainly provided us with a lot of food over the last few years, so a silent salute...

Any good Southerner will know the answer to the following question: what happens when you have untreated wood in contact with soil, especially moist soil?

Yep, you guessed it: termites.

The wooden raised beds are home to happy colonies of the farkers. Hopefully, they don't make their way to the casa itself. Yikes.

The first step in making new lower beds was removing the dirt from one of them and replacing it with new limestone (6in Blanco Chop in this case). That one then became the planting ground for the herbs growing in the second bed.

This photo shows the first completed one with its new plants. The second wooden bed has been dismantled in the back.

Here are the first two completed and mulched with pine straw.

The new beds are smaller, further apart and lower. I just don't need that much space to grow veggies. Their lower profiles and stone will also prevent the heavy evaporation and drying that occurred with the wood (oh, and termites too!).

Next step will be to replace the really large wooden bed with two smaller 4' x 4' ones to match the others. It'll be a nice little grid. Very pleasing to my orderly sensibilities. And then I'll have to get the drip irrigation all hooked up again.

Here's a beautiful okra flower and okra fruit from the plants growing now in the larger bed. They love the heat.

Here is my attempt to keep the spearmint in check, planting it in metal buckets buried in the ground.

Hopefully, that will prevent runners from taking over. But if they do, so be it. I love mint.

Grilled Japanese Eggplant

Farm-to-table ya'll. Yum.

Raised Veggie Beds, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I've been growing veggies in raised beds now for about 7 years, choosing the method for three reasons. One, we live in an urban area and I just thought it easier to bring in uncontaminated, fertile soil rather than till down. Two, I like the modern confinement and lines of raised beds and always heard they could be really productive in a tight space. Three (and this is actually the biggest reason), for most of that time we had a blind black lab that knew no boundaries. That last reason was also cause for us to build the beds more than 14 inches high. Good bumpers for a dog of Libby's size.

Unfortunately, those beds - which were installed in August 2008 to replace an older rotting set that came with the house - are already buckling and breaking apart. They are only 3 years old!

For sure I should've used cedar instead of untreated pine (it was cheaper and I knew it was a risk). For sure, our construction is not ideal (I recommend using some metal braces on the corners instead of screwing the sides into a post). And for sure, I would never use wood to build raised beds again nor probably recommend it, especially in our climate. Wood doesn't last, meaning it's really less sustainable in the long run, and the soil dries out extraordinarily fast, particularly because these beds are too tall.

In a hot, dry climate like Central Texas, raised wood beds just don't seem to be the best way to go. Now, that being said, I've seen some that are extremely successful for some reason or another. Those are much lower to the ground and bracketed, which are big pluses. And maybe someone is replacing the wood every year or using treated wood filled with chemicals. At any rate, I've pretty much sworn them off.

The bloggers over at Root Simple, based in L.A., have also been questioning the wisdom of raised beds, and I really like their list of trade-offs:

Raised beds have some pluses and minuses. Lately I've been thinking about their drawbacks. Namely:

• Cost
• How fast they dry out in a hot climate.

Now I can also think of a few reasons one might want to grow vegetables in a raised bed:

• You do a soil test (and you should do a soil test, especially if you live in an urban area) and the results come back showing that you have heavy metals in your soil.
• You live in a very wet climate.
• A disability prevents you from kneeling or leaning over to garden.
• Your soil has no contaminants, but has some other problem, say bad texture or lots of buried rocks/chunks of concrete.
• You have dogs/rabbits/chupacabras, etc. 

I've come to the conclusion that for Southern California and, by extension, any dry climate, raised beds are a bad idea unless, of course, you have any of the issues mentioned above.

For more on the topic, check out "Are Raised Beds a Good Idea?"

My plan when these fall apart for good, which unfortunately I believe to be sooner than later, is to keep the raised bed idea, but use native limestone for the walls and sink the beds much lower. If I have pets that needs some boundaries, I'll install a little waddle fence or something around them. I think the stone will prevent drying, and of course, will last a lifetime.

But it'll also mean a lot of heavy lifting and, I'm saying "hell to the no" on that chore this summer for sure!

Ode to Herbs

Kitchen herbs are one of the simplest and most pleasurable things that we grow in the garden. A bonus in Central Texas is that many of herbs can be grown year round, or pretty near close to year round. When warmed by the sun, they infuse the garden with scent and we use them infinitely in our cooking.

In fact, I'd say that growing fresh herbs has completely transformed our cooking here. We almost never use dried flaky bits of herbs any more. Though we grow enough herbs to dry some and store them, we almost never need to do so.

Growing around the garden, and not all picture here, we have: flat leaf parsley, curly parsley, Thai basil, Italian basil, cilantro (coriander), speariment, peppermint, lemon balm, lavender, culinary sage, rosemary, bay, Greek oregano, Mexican oregano, Mexican mint marigold, thymes, savory, lemon verbena and marjoram.

We are forever chopping up fresh flat leaf parsley. Toss it in with many dishes to freshen things up a bit. Throw it in with some papardelle pasta, bacon, peas, parmesan and raw egg for a quick carbonara.

Chop up some spearmint and parsley, and mix with a can of whole tomatoes (chopped), a tablespoon of pre-soaked bulgur wheat, some lemon juice and oil, and you have a quick and lovely tabouleh.

And of course, I've sung the song of the bay tree in a previous post.

Rosemary and sage can be tossed in just about anything.

Thyme is something that I've always struggled with, though it's supposed to be "easy" to grow. I read a great article by Vicki Blachman in Texas Gardener magazine and she recommended trying it in a pot, which has worked wonders. Mostly, the pot method has worked because I can move the darn thing around until it finds happy sun situation. I've also learned, too, that most herbs need more water than you might think in the hot Texas summer.

Cilantro is great for the winter garden because it bolts so quickly in the warm weather. It's kind of ironic, because it's a key ingredient in salsas and picos, and those tomatoes are hot weather fruits. Not sure how that marriage ever happened unless someone was growing cilantro in cooler upper altitudes in Mexico just up the mountain from someone growing tomatoes in the hot valley.

Here is the cilantro bolting and flowering. The seeds, of course, are coriander.

Bay Laurel Finally Flowers

One of my favorite all time non-native, culinary shrubs in the garden is the bay laurel. It grows quite well here in Central Texas, we are forever plucking aromatic leaves off the thing for stews, soups and shepherd's pies. Bay is a fantastic fresh herb to have around, and while some people don't like to use the leaves fresh in their cooking, I personally love the fresh green taste of bay.

We bought this shrub when we fist moved to Texas 5 years ago and kept it in a pot on the patio. The first time we had a 98 degree day, the bay laurel fried to a total crisp. Thankfully, that coincided with our move to the current house. We quickly put the bay into the ground. It rejuvenated and has thrived ever since. Well, it got knocked back a bit by last year's super cold freeze, but I think that actually made it happier.

I've been waiting and waiting over the years for the thing to bloom and this year it finally produced! Lots of small, pale white flowers. They don't seem to have a smell, and now I wonder if they will produce berries? The ants are definitely enjoying the nectar, and perhaps they are also pollinating.

Anyway, I highly recommend planting one of these in your yard. A great, evergreen shrub or small tree that can be hedged or let run wild.

critters: I Want to Be a Beekeeper

One of the side benefits of having random late fall, early winter blooms on our potted Mexican lime tree - aside from the fabulous sweet smell - is that the honey bees are all over them.

Despite colony collapse disorder, we seem to have a fairly substantial bee population around East Austin. I know because they are never far from the blooming plants in my yard.

Bees have been on my mind lately.

John and I eat so much honey that we buy it in bulk sizes, and for years, we've talked about getting land and raising bees to harvest our own. I really first became interested in bees when I was studying wasps in graduate school. As part of those studies, I was exposed to a lot of literature on bees and bee behavior. Plus, I used to where a bee suit when working on the wasps (it made a great Halloween costume for John, too).

I have several beekeeping friends and one who is studying to become one. She gets her first hive this spring and (I think) will be placing them out near Bastrop on some land.

All this is to say that I wasn't sure we could make it happen until we had LAND out THERE somewhere. But more and more, I'm seeing beehives in Austin city lots - backyards AND front yards. In fact, here's a whole blog dedicated to urban beekeeping in Austin.

There's lots of reasons to have bees (honey being a huge one), but they are also massive pollinators. Not only can you encourage native bees to thrive (like we're doing with native bee nesting boxes), but imagine having an entire hive of honey bees buzzing around! And making honey? Oh my.

Unawares to John, I've been secretely thinking about how our flat garage roof might be perfect for a honey bee hive. It's far away from the dog and humans. We could build a permanent ladder to get up there. The only worry I have is that it will get really hot up there, though maybe if I locate the hive under the pecan it won't be too bad...it might just be time for some consultants...

In the meantime, here's an article in the New York Times about the rise in beekeeping. And a great site for those of us interested in Texas native bees, where you can learn about certifying your garden as an official bee garden!

fruit: Meyer lemon

One of my favorite times of the year is when the Meyer lemons ripen and hang full and juicy on our small patio tree. This year, we have a nice crop, probably about 20 of the large yellow fruits. And one of my favorite all time recipes with Meyer lemons, and a dish that has become a bit of a tradition around The Grackle, is lemon curd.

Now this isn't the most healthy way to get your vitamin C, trust me. But it is an old Southern staple and is just wonderfully sweet and tart made with fresh Meyer lemons. This lemony custard is fabulous in lemon bars, lemon meringue pie or spread on a shortbread cookie or a sweet cracker.

But we discovered another great recipe for lemon curd during a wine-fueled reverie by the camp fire at our annual Fall camping trip last year. First toast a marshmallow, then slather the gooey inside with lemon curd and slap it between two graham crackers. It's like a warm, toasty lemon meringue bite. Yum!

Another recipe John is experimenting with this year is for preserved lemons, which is basically lemons cured in salt. Preserved lemons are great in salads and used a lot in Moroccan food, which we both love to eat and cook.

Here's my go-to recipe for lemon curd from "Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie," by Bill Neal.

• 4 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tb. grated lemon zest
• 1/3 c. lemon juice
• Pinch of salt
• 6 Tb. unsalted butter

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, lemon zest and juice, and salt. Place over simmering water in a double boiler and stir constantly until thickened. Remove from heat and beat in the butter, bit by bit. Yield 1 1/2 cups. Makes a delicate and suave custard...

veggies: Sweet Banana Peppers

You know, I just haven't had much luck with peppers in my garden until this year. I planted a sweet banana pepper plant in late summer that just keeps producing and producing mounds of the tangy fruit.

This is probably my last harvest of the year, though I've left the plant in just in case (I noticed some new flower buds on it). I wish I were the canning type, because these would make for great pickled peppers. Maybe I'll get motivated over the holiday weekend. (You might notice a few bell peppers snuck their way in too.)

veggies: Black-Eyed Peas and such

The veggie garden is moving forward into the hot hot hot part of summer. Summer squash plants somehow have evaded squash vine borers this year (though the squirrels and snails had a ball), but I think it's getting too hot for them to set fruit now.

Here's a small harvest from last night: basil, banana peppers and black-eyed peas.

The banana peppers and sweet and tangy - really good - but not spicy like the ones you get pickled at the store. I wonder if that is another variety or they add a spicy pepper into the pickling mix?

This is my first crop of black-eyed peas, and they are really good fresh off the plant. We haven't yet gotten enough to cook up, but I just shelled these and ate them raw on salad.

How nouveau-Southern of me, right? Plus I'm trying to learn what they should look like when time to harvest - the thin pods are definitely not ready for shelling.