Garden Notes #1 May 2018

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. - Margaret Atwood 

I was out in the garden today for the first time in bare arms. I am Ginger so I got a mild sunburn in about 20 minutes. I pruned the fig trees. We had a very cold Winter and I thought they were frozen. Figs are sprouting at their base. I removed the branches that were frozen.

I surveyed the damage to order. Order? Hah! The Birds eat Poison Ivy berries and defecate on my garden in flight. I have lots of new little Poison Ivy vines everywhere. The same for baby Mulberry trees.

The Squirrels who live in the Chinese Nut Trees ate a baby Hosta I planted. We have lots of wildlife In Philadelphia. Perhaps some marauding child hosta-napped because it was in a pot out front. God bless their evil little hearts. I love them.

Posters brought to you years ago by the United States Government, the Works Progress Administration, and American Graphic Artists. We need a Civilian Service Corps again in my humble opinion. When I come back from having some more coffee I will post a link to their source. And then I will write about some flowers that reseed themselves and take over like weeds. Especially if you mulch garden.

Fun with Food

It is almost Spring and Easter is coming soon. Now is the time for Peeps Jousting. To arms!

Christmas Cherry Cake

This cake dates from 1709 according to Sadie Dell the Brit. Those who posted on the old AOL Comfort Food Board remember her well.  In pace requiescat et in amore.

Sadie was a WWII war bride and a famous baker. Sadie translated this British recipe into American measurements. This is a terrific alternative to Fruit Cake.

Christmas Cherry Cake

1 cup Sugar
4 Eggs
1 cup all purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 pound Cherries, candied
1 pound Dates, pitted
1 pound Pecans, chopped
2 slices candied Pineapple
1/2 pound Coconut

Mix Sugar, Eggs, Flour, Baking Powder, Salt and Vanilla. Put Cherries, Dates, and Pineapple through a food grinder on coarse. Add ground fruit to the sugar mixture; then add Pecans and Coconut. You will have to use your hands to mix it. Grease and flour an angel food cake tin. Place mixture evenly in the bottom and cover with waxed paper, then brown paper. Tie with string. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. When cake is cool, pour Sherry over it and let it sit until Christmas.

October's Bright Blue Weather

Helen Hunt Jackson

Fall is my favorite season. Time to make Pumpkin Pie and enjoy good Soup. Halloween will soon be here..

The colors of Fall are so rich - eggplant purple, bright blue sky, bright orange squashes. Time for children to dive into piles of golden leaves with abandon. Life is good.

October’s Bright Blue Weather
O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October’s bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October’s bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October’s bright blue weather.

by Helen Hunt Jackson