Garden Update

The lettuce is bitter. It was bitter a good two weeks ago, sadly. Now it is inedible. I would say it has bolted, but it looks like it is bolting. Such is lettuce. I knew I planted too late, but did so anyway. It was good while it lasted. I'm considering letting it bolt and trying to collect and save seeds.

First tomato is in--a black cherry!

Peppers are gangbusters. I'll give them another three weeks before there are too many to count.

I've picked about five cucumbers. Excellent varietal choice this year.

Summer Squash #2. I picked the first ripe squash a week ago. Grilled and eaten. Delicious. More coming. So far, no vine borers...

Blueberries are trickling in too. My daughter happily shared the bounty with our neighbor's boy, who is only a couple of years younger than Maia. The bounty was only eight or so, but they both seemed to like it.

I haven't watered in well over two weeks. Summer rains have been prodigious.

Tomatoes abound!

Caring for the garden

The garden is on autopilot now. With the bee balm fully in bloom the bees are out in force. I presume they are pollinating everything.

The squash looks healthy, but I could have sworn we had a beautiful squash growing that appears to be gone now. That is weird. I would imagine that pests would eat it on the vine, leaving some behind. Or it could be that it stopped growing. Insufficient pollination? Insufficient flowering? That stupid bore beetle everyone keeps warning me about?

I fertilized yesterday. Used two gallons of Neptune's Own organic and fertilized all of the rows, the hydrangea and the petunias.

First cucumbers are in. I believe it was the Diva, but I have been too lazy to check and see whether it was the Jade or the Diva. Quite tasty. Made a salad with it.

the gin, the tonic, and the garden

I've been researching gin and tonics this week to try and figure out the best way of using my tonic water. It's been arduous. But then again, I suffer for my art.

There are two versions of the gin and tonic that I make. The first is The Quencher, and it works something like this:

1 part gin
1 part tonic syrup
5 parts club soda

If I do this with 1 1/2 oz. parts, then I'm looking at a very tall drink--nearly 12 oz. of fluid on top of a whale's share of ice. I don't bother garnishing this, but it'll take a squeeze or two of lime or lemon, should one want. The Quencher is perfect for touring my extensive gardens, especially when the black krim is beginning to fruit.

The Black Krim shows progress

Velvet Underground?

The second version is The Standard:

2 parts gin
1 part tonic syrup
4 parts club soda

This makes a standard gin and tonic--as close as I can get to what it tastes like when I use Schwepps, Q, Fever Tree, or what have you. In short, I believe this is the correct recipe to create a gin and tonic that you might order at a serious cocktail bar. And The Standard is not just a modified Quencher. Parts should be measured with a 1/2 or 3/4 oz. jigger and it should be served in a traditional highball glass. To order a double is, inappropriate. Garnish is not necessary, but lemon peel is nice. So too is this cucumber, with Hendricks gin.

The third version is The Bitter Pill:

2 parts gin
1 part tonic syrup
1 part club soda

Mix ingredients in a shaker, add ice and shake vigorously five or six times. Strain over a highball glass packed with ice. You can also "layer" the drink by shaking it without club soda, pouring over ice in a highball glass and then adding the club soda.

The cucumber in perspective

Tonic Water #3

Some major changes on this one. The most important is that I am soaking the cinchona bark chips without pulverizing them. In order to get more from them, I am steeping the chips longer in hot water before transferring the mixture to the fridge.

cinchona in the raw

Here is the recipe I used.

20 caradamom pods
1 tsp coriander
1 grapefruit peel
2 lemon peels
1 lime peel
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup cinchona bark
1/4 cup citric acid

I brought the mixture to a boil, covered it, then simmered it for forty minutes. Then I let it sit for a good three hours before transferring it to the fridge. I am going to let it steep for two days before transferring it to another vessel and then let it sit two more days before filtering it out.

Then I'll decide how to sweeten it. I am leaning towards agave syrup. It produces the cleanest tonic I've yet made.

The Jethro Tull Experience

Jethro Tull can refer both to the famous British farmer or a British "progressive" rock band. Both had big hair, which gives them some connection. Both enabled big business as well, perhaps unwittingly. But I'm not sure how much further that connection goes, having never heard even one of the band's songs.

Jethro Tull is also the name of a flower hybrid, a fluted coreopsis. It is a hearty southern plant that grows a brilliant yellow fluted head. I have two that I planted in my garden, neither of which has done horribly well. Both are somewhat disease prone, and I, being both a conscientious organic gardener and decidedly lazy, have neglected to treat them with some insecticide.

Until now. I finally dropped some 3 in 1, which I detailed in another post. It is my sincere hope that this makes the Jethro Tull blow up, as I quite like the flowers. They also last a week or more as cut flowers, which makes them wonderful to pair with herbs, miniature roses, and other small flowers for bud vases.

Big hair, big style

UPDATE: since this post seems to be attracting traffic from real gardeners, any advice on controlling disease or helping the plant thrive would be most welcome.

The Rose and the Black Krim

I broke down and bought some 3 in 1 and treated my knockout roses, miniature roses, and Jethro Tull. 3 in 1 is this ugly milky concentrate that does not mix well with water. So I really don't know if I got enough into the soil, or if it all went into the last plant that I treated. Which is good news for the Jethro Tull, and the knockout roses closest to Doug's house.

The Black Krim is starting to flower. Given that I'm not allowing my tomato plants to vine out like I did last year, I'm anxious about fruit production, especially after the squirrel's share is calculated.

the Krim flowereth

Countdown to 40: beyond the margarita

Notwithstanding the classic beauty of the margarita, it is time to invent a new cocktail with tequila. Tanteo's jalapeño infused tequila presents an intriguing opportunity. Smooth and spicy. A favorite of ours is this riff on an old fashioned:

1 1/2 oz. Tanteo jalapeño infused tequila
squirt of agave syrup. I would guess 1/2 tsp.
two stopper-fulls of chocolate bitters

shake with ice. Then splash some pineapple syrup in and shake again. Pour over a single big ice cube and serve.

The next stage is to substitute fresh pineapple for the canned juice, and to treat the drink essentially like an old fashioned. muddle the sugar and pineapple and chocolate bitters, add the tequila, shake, serve up or on a single cube. I would also consider muddling the pineapple without agave syrup, depending on relative sweetness of using fresh juice along with pieces.

Countdown to 40: stirred, not shaken

In a series of posts, I plan to reflect on aging, the distinctive possibilities of midlife crisis, and the existential angst that either rises or dissipates with the approach of a significant landmark.

We start with expectations. There are distinct memories that everyone has, a reservoir upon which we draw as we move down the uni-linear path towards the final resting point. These memories, for me, have been about expectations that I had, at one point, and expectations that I have now. It occurred to me tonight that the expectations I had in my twenties, approaching thirty, are so distant that they feel a lifetime away.

It is worth mentioning that I am speaking in small terms. If I had, in my late twenties, asked what a perfect evening might look like, I doubt I would have had the same expectation as I do today. I honestly cannot even posit--or recall--what it might have been at that point. But I don't think I respected food or drink enough to understand what I do today, or to appreciate it.

that's stirred, not shaken, Mr. Bond

So let us begin with the Martini. After tonight, I will never again in my life shake another Martini. A Martini should be served stirred, not shaken. Tonight I took 3 oz. of Greylock Gin, 1 oz. of Noilly Prat dry vermouth, two dashes of hopped grapefruit bitters, and stirred it with one big ice cube. I could have stirred it with several smaller ones for a colder drink. We were short on ice, suffice it to say. But the result was a wonderful martini--a complex and beautiful drink where the flavors might play off of one another in a delicate manner. So, stir the martini.

mesquite laced charcoal

The martini launched an evening of cooking. I grilled a 2 1/2 inch ribeye, properly salted (4 seasons mix of salt-black pepper-garlic salt-cayenne) and basted with a southern concoction--oil and butter, thyme pepper red pepper apple cider vinegar mustard and ketchup. Flipped constantly on a 500 degree mesquite wood grill for nearly 17 minutes. (Quick note: the steak could be rarer, I know. But I'm cooking for the family, including my six year old daughter.)

I cooked with a gin and tonic at my side. The tonic was my honey cinchona syrup blend, which is refreshingly bitter and a wonderful aperitif. We had Grayson Cellars Lot number 10 with dinner, which included potatoes and beets. We followed it with home made ice cream--piña colada--and baklava fresh from the DeKalb Farmers' Market.

the proper color for a gin and tonic

A perfect evening. I am currently finishing it off with redemption rye in a snifter, sitting on my back deck. And reflecting on how at thirty, this would not necessarily have registered as a potential beautiful evening, and certainly not the perfect Saturday evening. Things change.

The Whoppers Are coming in

Fertilized the garden today. 2 gallons of fertilizer went on the blueberries and the tomato plants. Also fertilized the begonias and the summer squash.

The summer squash is beginning to come in. The plant looks healthy. My lettuce is producing beautifully. Enjoy it while it lasts--my best is that two weeks more is about as much lettuce as I will get.

Tomato report. The transplants all did quite well. Only the Juliette cherries did not survive. I'm not sure what happened, except that the stalk broke at its base. Given that the plant was not top heavy, I have no idea what precipitated this. I staked the plant immediately, but it is worth pointing out that none of the other plants required staking at this point. The leaves have all since wilted, but the stalk still appears to be alive. I'm monitoring it daily.

The Black Cherries were the first to fruit. That planter has always produced beautiful tomato plants, with thick, Jack-and-the-beanstalk-style trunks and multiple vines that I train up the light pole (and whatever plant grows around it).

The Whoppers and the Beefy Big Boy plants are beginning to bear fruit. They are quite pretty, and my guess is that we are three weeks from potential harvest here.

Planting dilemma. The lettuce will doubtlessly bolt sometime in June. I have to decide whether to let the space remain fallow until the winter garden is planted, or try and bring up something else in the meantime.