Lucky

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

A piece of plastic has changed my usual late winter habit. How can one have cabin fever when fresh greens are available for dinner? By February I am usually sick of food and longing for something fresh to eat. Produce in the stores is unappealing and road-weary. And I’m so over root vegetables.

The difference this year is that I made a cloche over one garden bed in November, and planted lots of types of greens and radishes. It’s my first real winter gardening trial and I thought I lost it all during a serious cold spell in December. But the seedlings persevered and in the mild weather since have been slowly gaining height and succulence.

Every two weeks I water them and pick out a few slugs. The baby-green mixes have been doing best. I planted two types (one with arugula, lettuce and kale pictured here). They are easy to harvest by mowing down a wide strip with a scissors, and they grow back in about two weeks.

Show opening this First Friday! I’m really excited to be showing new work printed on luscious bamboo paper, mounted on bamboo panels, alongside the work of the talents listed below. Stop by and check it out:

Friday, February 5
6 to 9 pm

pushdot studio
1021 Southeast Caruthers Street
Portland, OR

Traci French
Sarah Kamsler
Nicole Linde
Kim Oanh Nguyen
Ann Ploeger
Georgia Stylou
Tatiana Wills

www.pushdotstudio.com | www.plywerk.com

If you can believe it

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

Plum branches are ready for forcing. I brought an armful into the house first thing this morning and put them in a tall vase with warm water. Spring ethers are rising and it is Making Things time.

Citrus x meyeri
RUTACEAE, The Rue or Citrus family

..or hope to be at least.

The Meyer lemon tree I rescued from the compost heap last summer is living in the studio happily and blooming its heart out. I stopped in when I got back from my TC/DC odyssey and was almost overwhelmed by the scent. I might have to move it out temporarily to work in there. While there is the stray flying insect in there, I don’t want to leave my lemon supply up to chance, so I’ve been working on the blossoms with a soft paint brush. So far none have set that I can tell, but there are plenty more chances. A Meyer lemon in a 5 or 7 gal. pot, in Portland, can produce over 100 lemons a year!

Did you know Queen Victoria had (faux) orange blossoms on her wedding gown? She was the one who started the whole flooffy white dress thing.

Diospyros kaki
EBENACEAE, The Ebony wood family

Happy new year.

Persimmons are a beautiful aspect of Portland’s abundance. When friends were giving them away by the bagful weeks ago I had no time to do anything with them. So instead of leaving them on the counter where, as gorgeous as they are, they eventually start giving me baleful glances, I just popped them all into the freezer. Laid them out on top of a tub of berries.

This weekend when I had the chance to do some healing baking, I thawed a pile of them to make this amazing bread/cake:

1 3/4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
2 eggs
1/4 c. whisky
1 c. persimmon puree
1 c. walnuts
1 c. chopped dates and/or raisins

Heat oven to 350 F. Butter a loaf pan, dust with flour. Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk wet ingredients together and add to dry, folding together gently. Stir in nuts and dried fruit.

Bake for 1 hour or so.

Variations:
Use plum jam instead of the persimmons and reduce the sugar by half. Sub Absolut Kurrant for the whisky and currants for the dried fruit.

Use apple or pear butter instead of persimmons and reduce sugar. Sub brandy for whisky and add a little cinnamon.

Adapted from Ellen Jackson, for Edible Portland, who adapted it from James Beard’s Beard on Bread. She recommends making a double batch and I definitely second that.

or bee spiderflower
Cleome serrulata
CAPPARACEAE, The Caper family or
CLEOMACAEAE, The Cleome family, depending on how forward-thinking or backwards you want to be.

This North American annual is a great attractor of beneficial insects! Despite it’s name, it’s widespread across the midwest and west including most of Canada. It can reseed itself and is sometimes considered a little weedy. I learned today in Permaculture Design course that it is a good plant to include in some types of guilds. It’s a really pretty plant and like other Cleome, would make a nice cut flower.

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

Cynara cardunculus
ASTERACEAE, The Aster family

An arrangement for December.

This occurred almost naturally as the dried Cardoon flowers were displaced while the house was being decorated for Thanksgiving, and they ended up near the heat vent in the kitchen, where they opened and slowly started releasing their plumed seeds.

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

October 1

Rabbit run

Berry patch

Compost tumbler and bins

Rain barrel

Rhubarb

Leafy quince

Supposedly original-to-the-house picket fence

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

November 28

Path partially built

Low stone walls, in progress

Arbor duct

Seating area

Soon-to-be bird feeding area

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

The bench bin is complete, except for the decoration part. The worms have taken up residence, in a bedding of shredded newspaper and timothy from the rabbits’ box, plus some soil and kitchen scraps including coffee grounds and crushed egg shell.

Prunus dulcis
ROSACEAE, The Rose family

Slivered almonds are such a nice thing to have on hand this time of year. Lovely toasted in salads, makes cake more nutritious, mixed into crumbling topping on pies and crisps, so many uses. Tonight I made biscotti for the first time - it’s easy and has only 2 tablespoons of butter! I admit that a lot of my favorite recipes call for ‘a stick’ or ‘a cup’. I adapted a recipe for hazelnut biscotti off the Bob’s Red Mill flour package. I omitted the hazelnuts and anise, instead using slivered almonds, chopped bits of chocolate that I had left over from another recipe, and almond extract in addition to the vanilla. It made 2 dozen small biscotti. The honey makes it delish.

It was a year of stone fruits for sure. Usually this time of year I’m surrounded by apples and pears. But now, aside from kiwi, quince and persimmons that are ripening on the counters (all of which are from friends!), and a growing squash collection, most of what we have for the winter is peaches and plums in various methods of preservation. We’ve started nibbling at the jars of cherries. The almonds will be key in the winter baking.