Garden in the Second Half of June, 2020

 

The end of June is not as exciting as high spring in the garden.  The daffodils and tulips are long gone.  Some of the allium is taking off, and there are peonies.  

The annuals are still little things without much drama, so we are grateful for the allium altopurpureum (those are the deep purple ones) and allium nigrum (the white ones - go figure!).  The giant alliums have already gone to seed.

This is the first year for the peonies, and three plants have bloomed, but with only 1-3 blooms.

In the absence of flowers, we take joy where we find it.

Can you guess what these white ones are?

They are mushrooms!

The most exciting crop of June is Strawberries - These are Mara des Bois, a French strawberry with outstanding flavor.  They are not very firm, which means they will not travel well, so they are not grown commercially.  In June, we harvested a total of 9 pints.

Spring is mud season, and lace-up boots are difficult to remove to go in an out.  

This is a handy mud remover.

This boot scraper is made of two industrial stiff pushbrooms, handles removed.  They were cut in half and screwed to boards to scrape bottom and sides of boot at once.  In the garage, it lives under a bookcase, and the string is used to pull it out easily.  Then, when not in use, it is kicked under the bookcase, out of sight.

And it's time to anticipate summer blooms.  This frame will support lots of dahlias, as well as some gladiolus and zinnias.

The Tibetan Prayer Flags make me smile as they send prayers in the wind.

We will enjoy the bench seen in the background all summer!

Other creatures enjoy the garden.  During an afternoon of reading in the screen house, I looked up to see a cardinal perched on the apple tree cage.

His lady appeared right after he left.

It turns out, we had a nest of cardinals in the hedge.  How cool is that!

(These photos were shot through the screen of the screen-house.)

This is a time to get the tomatoes staked.

Tommy just enjoys being out!

D's experiment this year is growing Brugmansia.  This plant is often called Angel's Trumpet for the large, fragrant flowers that hang down to earth.  

(That name is also often given to Datura, a closely related Genus, also in the Family Solanaceae.  Datura flowers usually point up.  Other members of this genus are Deadly Nightshade, tomatoes, eggplant, potato.)

We did not expect them to flower the first year, so this was a wonderful surprise!

At first glance, this looks like a toad - and we do have a resident toad in the tomato garden.

But if you pick it up, you see it is a nut, dropped here by a neighborhood squirrel.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

And the first half of June is here.

Hermès Scarf - Festival

 

When I first began looking at Hermès scarves, I was drawn to the primary colors and the black and gold ones.  But, now, some of the other colorways are calling me (notice how I snuck in the fashion term!  Like I know what I'm talking about!).  

This scarf is called "Festival".  Hermès was originally a leather company designing fine quality saddles and other horse equipment.  This may be why there are so many horse-themed scarves.

The title is shown in the top center.

It was designed by Henri d'Origny in 1992.  I did not find his signature.

Candy took this as a challenge and was able to find the signature, H d'Origny, on the bottom right corner.

The copyright is in the top left corner.  The style of care label and the Hermes © suggest this is between 1987 and 1998.

Like all the scarves, this scarf drapes beautifully and the heavy silk feels wonderful.

Vogue in Australia reminds us of the pronunciation:

HERMÈS

"Correct pronunciation: ehr-mez. Hermès is French, so the ‘h’ is silent. While usually in French if a word ends in 's' it is silent, the grave accent on the second 'e' means that the 's' is very softly pronounced." 

To see the other Hermès scarves I have blogged, click here.

Hermès Scarf - La Clé des Champs

 Hermès Scarf - La Clé des Champs - The Key to the Fields

This scarf was designed for Hermès by Françoise Faconnet in 1965.  It has been reissued, (1965, 1970s, 1984, 1990, 1995) but some of the more recent ones are not damask.  And some have the fireworks damask pattern.  This is one of the older ones, with the damask initial scroll.

In the center at the bottom is the title of the scarf:  La Clé des Champs. 

(This would be pronounced Lah Clay Day Shahn.  

You already know that Hermès is pronounced Air Mezz.)

At the bottom left is the HERMÈS - PARIS.

The artist signature, F Faconnet, is at the bottom right.  In this photograph, you can see the scroll damask pattern.  You can also see that this has been cleaned and ironed many times, flattening the rolled hems.

I have spent more than two years trying to find the copyright!  In the older scarves it may be non-existent or it may be a simple C hidden in the design.  Finally, I found the C with the help of carredeparis.  You can see it below.

You can see a very faint C in the largest of the little balls above the name of the scarf.

Compared with some of the scarves, this is understated and subtle.

To see the other Hermès scarves I have blogged, click here.

King Arthur Blueberry Muffins - copy of Jordan Marsh muffins

Karen gave me a pint of blueberries.  She had picked them on her property.  They are delicious, small, and with concentrated sweetness.  I came across this recipe from King Arthur that sounded like a great use of the berries.  https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/famous-department-store-blueberry-muffins-recipe

These muffins copy the recipe of the treat sold in the tearoom of Jordan Marsh Department Store in Boston, Massachusetts in mid-20th Century.  It has a crunchy sugar top.  If it helps you to see the video, you can see it on the King Arthur page, but, fair warning, these two are experts at making a long story longer.  

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter

1 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup for topping  Will probably use 3/4 cup granulated sugar in the next attempt

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract  I used my own home-made bourbon vanilla

2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour  I used Aldi's all-purpose

1/2 cup milk

2 1/2 cups blueberries   I used two cups, because that's what I had.

375°

25-30 minutes  

I had just two cups of berries, but that was plenty.

I love the USA Pan.  It's silicone coated, and I do not have to use  paper cupcake liners.

And I don't have to grease the tin.

And the muffins do not stick, even with the sugar baking on the tin.

And cleanup is a breeze.

And there is no waste like when the cake sticks to the paper. . . 

With this pan, the edges brown nicely.

The pan is not cheap.  But with the money saved on cupcake liners, and the aggravation saved by not greasing, and the time and energy saved by easy cleanup, it may be worth it!  

It is to me.

The recipe called for one teaspoon of granulated sugar added to each cupcake.

I did half with Demerara Sugar, a crystalline, slightly brown sugar.

The other half got regular granulated sugar.

I much preferred the Demerara.  D much preferred the granulated.  So it goes.

Pane Bianco - a recipe from King Arthur Flour

What a stunning loaf of bread:

This is a picture on the KAF website:  https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pane-bianco-recipe

We  have plenty of basil and tomatoes. .  . The next few days are predicted to be super-hot and super-humid, so if I want bread, I'd better do it today!  

Dough

• 3 cups (361g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour*
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup (113g) lukewarm milk
• 1/3 cup (74g) lukewarm water
• 3 tablespoons (35g) olive oil

I measured wrong, and used 74g milk and 113g water. . .  I did put in the salt - that was probably a mistake. . . 

Filling

• 3/4 cup (85g) shredded Italian-blend cheese or the cheese, of your choice
• 1/2 cup (113g) oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes or your own oven-roasted tomatoes                              I                                      I used 2 fresh san marzano tomatoes
• 3 to 6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced. I used 4
• 1/3 cup (14g) chopped fresh basil, green or purple I used 1/2 cup chopped parsley and basil
•                                    I also added 1/3 cup chopped Kalamata olives Better leave out the salt if using olives!
• And because I was using fresh tomatoes, I added a splash of olive oil.

The dough came together beautifully in the Cuisinart stand mixer.  

I picked and chopped the parsley and basil, and sliced and chopped two San Marzano tomatoes (They are plum tomatoes and not very juicy.).  

I got to test out the garlic trick shown on the Netflix series with Nadiya.  Drop the cloves of raw garlic into a bowl of boiling water for one minute - the garlic won't be in long enough to cook, but the skin will slip off.  Sweet!  

Alas, it didn't work. . . 

Had to do the finicky hand peeling - I could have smashed them to make it easier, but. . .  I guess the easiest way to peel garlic is the same as always - smash them flat with the side of a knife, then peel and chop - That's fine if you are planning to chop or grate the cloves.  Won't work if you were hoping for whole cloves.

After the first rise, it was stretched out on a cookie sheet.  And the filling was spread on top.

Then it was rolled.

When rolling was complete, there are directions for cutting and shaping.

I did try to understand the directions, but they made no sense to me.

I'll need to find a video.

Here are the directions:

Using kitchen shears, start 1/2" from one end and cut the log lengthwise down the center about 1" deep, to within 1/2" of the other end.

Keeping the cut side up, form an "S" shape. Tuck both ends under the center of the "S" to form a "figure 8;" pinch the ends together to seal.

I could not make sense of that, so I just did what I could.

Alas, it bears no resemblance to the plan.

Here's the final result. 

It is delicious - a bit salty - so next time, if I add olives, I'll omit or reduce the salt in the dough.

We really liked it.  Very tender but very flavorful.  It's a keeper!

August 6, 2020

I contacted King Arthur by using the Ask a Question link on the recipe page, because I could not, for the life of me, figure out what they were telling me to do about the shaping.  They gave me a link to more pictures and it made more sense.  I tried again:

This is more like it!  It's still delicious.  
And it looks better, too!

I did omit the salt in the dough.  Next time, I'll use 1/2 teaspoon of salt rather than none.