Reflections on 2015

What a dry year for gardens! We had a few good soakings here in the East Bay, and several light rains out of season, but that’s about it. Everything was DRY, DRY, DRY all year. Only in the last month has El Niño brought some much needed relief.

At Eden By The Bay, we spent the year delving into drought and water issues, and looking for ways to adapt our gardens. Like replacing thirsty lawns with ground covers; embracing native and drought tolerant garden designs; and recycling water. We visited botanical gardens to learn more about plants compatible with our climate, and found nurseries that specialize in native and Mediterranean plants.

Bay Area Botanical Gardens	Wild Landscapes
Landscape Movement Landscape with Polyphemus by Nicolas Poussin	Drought

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I did get dirt under my nails – planted some drought-tolerant plants in the front planter. They are thriving so far, with weekly water as their roots get established. I'm also covering some of the dry areas in the yard with mulch and bark, to save the soil as I transition to a new kind of gardening. I'm enjoying the challenge, but do miss the green, verdant rain forest of my childhood. Looking back, it was a great year for gardens and gardening, and learning something new.  CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR RAIN!
 

Christmas Joy

Life is full of gifts if you look for them. I mean the kind of gifts that you can’t buy from the glossy catalogs or the flashy web sites (although that can be fun too)! I mean gifts like family, a snug home, a good book, a beautiful plant, the Christmas Story. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, rain is one of those gifts. After four years of drought, we are finally receiving some ongoing, noteworthy rain. El Niño has finally brought some relief.

Foggy, wet, beautiful rain!

Another gift – our son and his wonderful wife have arrived to celebrate Christmas with us, and their friend and colleague joins us tomorrow. They all met in Anchorage, Alaska while attending University of Alaska, Anchorage, and now live in Seattle, Washington. My husband and I have been in a whirlwind of preparation for the visit – cleaning, decorating, and stocking the pantry. Our visitors are all avid foodies and cooks, so we’re looking forward to delicious meals and dining experiences. I still remember the biscotti, blueberry scones, and bread pudding with rum sauce from their visit two years ago. Yum!

Hope you enjoy time with your family and a bit of rest and reflection amid the chaos, whatever your traditions. Enjoy all gifts, large and small, in your life.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Holiday Cooking – Anise

Our final holiday ingredient—anise—flavors both baked goods and beverages. Anise has a distinctive licorice taste that comes from the organic compound, anethole, but is not the true licorice from another Mediterranean plant – Glycyrrhiza glabra.

Pimpenella anisum is from the Apiaceae family (formerly Umbelliferae), the parsley plants. The seeds are used for cooking in meat rubs, sauces, sausages, and cookies. The seeds are pressed to yield aromatic oil used by the confection industry (think black jelly beans and licorice). The oil also flavors liquor (such as Greek ouzo), and root beer (like Virgil’s Root Beer in the United States). Anise is used as a digestive, and a tea.



Botanical illustration of Pimpenella anisum from Koehler's Medicinal Plants.
Published before 1923 and public domain in the United States.

 

According to Jan-Öjvind Swahn in The Lore of Spices, anise originated in the Eastern Mediterranean, so was available to the world’s oldest civilizations. The Romans used it to make after-dinner cakes for digestion. Pliny documented its virtues for improving breath, making you look younger, and keeping evil dreams away. Later it was used to make a calming tea, and used to mask the bad taste of medicines. The Southeast Asian tree, the Chinese or star anise (Illicium verum), has gained popularity over the years for its fruit, which also produces anethole, and is used like anise.

The common anise is an annual that grows to two feet tall, and has a long taproot. Basal leaves may be simple and pinnate; or ternately compound and entire or toothed. Flowers are white. Seeds are gray-green and downy, with five ridges. Propagation is by seeds.

Holiday Cooking – Wormwood

Our next holiday ingredient, wormwood, also flavors beverages, and has been used for cooking and medicine. The name sounds like an ingredient in a witch’s brew, but actually came from the false belief that it could eliminate stomach worms, and even protect the home or granaries from pests. An alternate name is mugwort, which has a definite Harry Potter ring to it!

Artemisia vulgaris is in the Asteraceae family (formerly Compositae), or composite plants. Wormwood originated in Europe and Asia, and has naturalized in North America. It was used by the Egyptians, to spice wine and beer as early as 1500 BC, and used by ancient Romans to promote good digestion and sexual health. Wormwood leaves were used to season pork, lamb, and turnips, and as a digestive in Europe, England, and Scandinavia. But its chief use was to season wine and beer. Jan-Öjvind Swahn, in The Lore of Spices, speculates this was done more to mask unpleasant flavors in these drinks, than to flavor them.
 

Botanical illustration of Artemisia absinthium (a relative of A. vulgarius) from Koehler's Medicinal Plants. Published before 1923 and public domain in the United States.

Vermouth was created in 1786, with wormwood as the primary ingredient. Today vermouth is flavored with many ingredients, including wormwood, and added to cocktails for its distinctive flavor. The French add wormwood leaves to the spirit, absinthe, for the mild narcotic effect. (Absinthe was banned in the United States for this reason, but was legalized around 2007).

Wormwood is a perennial that grows to six feet high. Plants are glabrous below the inflorescence, and distinctly downy-gray. Aromatic leaves are ovate or obovate, to four inches long; 1-2 pinnatifid into oblong, toothed or entire segments; and dark green above, and white-tomentose beneath. Inflorescence is reddish-brown, with heads to 1/8 inch across in dense leafy panicles. Propagation is by seeds and rhizomes.

Holiday Cooking – Hops

I love this time of year, with all the Christmas traditions, decorations, and music. I especially like attending candlelight services, singing Christmas carols, and finding special gifts for people I love. Also high on the list is baking and cooking favorite recipes, and trying new ones. For the past several years I’ve reported on spices, herbs, and ingredients used in these holiday recipes, using The Lore of Spices, by Jan-Öjvind Swahn. This year, the series title should be "Holiday Drinking," since all of the plants are used to flavor beverages. This year I’m starting with a flavoring used in beer – hops!



Botanical illustration of Humulus lupulus from Koehler's Medicinal Plants.
Published before 1923 and public domain in the United States.

Humulus lupulus is in the Cannabaceae family, the hemp plants. Hops originated in the temperate regions of Eurasia and North America, and were first cultivated in Eastern Europe, and then across Europe. Beer making was invented in prehistoric times, and beer spicing dates back to early Egyptian and Roman cultures. Spices were added to flavor the beer, and enhance the feeling of drunkenness. In Europe, during the Middle Ages, hops were added to beer to enhance foaming, add a bitter taste, and preserve it. Hops were used medicinally by the Greeks and Romans for its mild narcotic effect, and by monks to flavor beers brewed in monasteries. Today hops are an important ingredient in beer (“Imperial” in the label indicates a hoppy beer).

Hops grow 19-22 feet (6-7 meters) tall. They grow clockwise around a pole or tree, clinging with small barbs. Hops are dioecious, with male and female flowers growing on separate plants. The male flowers are small, loose, axillary panicles, with five sepals, and five stamens; female flowers are short, solitary, bracted spikes, each with two flowers, which are cone-like at maturity. The fruit is an achene with one carpel, a single seed, and indehiscent. The fruit excretes a substance called lupulin, which contains the bitter flavor. Foliage is yellow-green; leaves are 3-5 lobed, palmate, as broad as long, coarsely toothed, and opposite. Stem is coarse. Reproduction is by seed or rhizomes. Hops favor loose, limy soil and moist environments. Hop cones are harvested in the fall, dried, and sent to the brewery.