Reflections on 2017

What a fine year in the garden! We learned all about color from Penelope Hobhouse and her book, Color in Your Garden. I enjoyed combing through photos to identify and categorize native and Mediterranean plants by color for our San Francisco Bay Area gardens (and appreciated that color refers to foliage as well as flowers). We also spilled over into the art world to learn more about the art and science of color using movies, books, and art exhibits.

We explored my new digs in San Ramon, and walked part of the nearby Iron Horse Trail in all seasons. We visited several of the East Bay Regional Parks that are part of the local watershed, and provide wonderful opportunities for recreation. I especially enjoyed the views from Sibley Volcanic Park, and the beauty of the second-growth redwood trees in Redwood and Roberts parks.

Color wheel (by Jason Quisenberry)	Beautiful plants
Exploring nature	Seasonal beauty

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We traveled from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest to the wilds of Alaska and Canada, enjoying wild places, gardens, and container gardens all along the way. It's hard to pick a favorite, and honestly, it's the companionship of family and friends that really makes the journey through gardens and life fun (especially when there is a tasty meal and stimulating conversation involved)!

We also enjoyed some of our regular pursuits, like good movies and books, the San Francisco Garden Show, garden history topics, and seasonal change. Now we're relishing the cooler weather, and taking time to review the year and our rambles in the gardens of the world!

Christmas in Seattle

My husband and I are celebrating Christmas with our son and daughter-in-law, and their new family member – Mako, an Alaskan Husky with beautiful fur and ice blue eyes. He is affectionate, protective of his family, and a good sport!

We have great plans for our time together – visiting Candy Cane Lane for the Christmas lights, eating at our favorite restaurants and trying new ones (dinner at the Space Needle is on the list), cooking and baking, watching movies, working on a puzzle, taking long walks with Mako. Best of all is having a little extra time for conversations and shared experiences, and getting to know each other more as we all journey through life.

Charming hand-painted greenhouse ornament ready for the tree

Our family has a lot to be grateful for this year, including a new job, good friends, career preparation, wonderful family, interesting work, time to curate a music collection gathered over a life time, travel, and interesting times. Hope you enjoy your holiday!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Holiday Cooking – Curry

We're back in the kitchen again – exploring the herbs and spices from around the world that flavor our holiday cooking. As in previous years we're turning to Jan-Öjvind Swahn and The Lore of Spices to learn more, and this week we are covering curry powder. Curries come in a range of colors from yellow, to red, to green, and in a range of heat. I like to prepare a mild curry chicken dish for my family, but some folks prefer hot curry dishes that make you sweat!

Curry powder can include up to twenty spices, including (clockwise from upper left):
nutmeg, turmeric, cinnamon, and cardamom.

According to Swahn, religious texts, such as the poem Bhagavad Gita, mention curries around the time of Christ, and the Indian Brahmin, Sheta Karma, records that curries were used to prepare food offered to deities in fifth century A.D. Today, foodies covet curries for sheep, fish, shrimp, and egg dishes, and more. Technically curry is not a spice, but a combination of spices. Up to twenty different spices may be found in a curry blend, frequently cardamom, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, ginger, nutmeg, and turmeric. Additional components may include anise seed, Laurel, saffron, pepper, and more.

There is a spice tree known as "curry leave" (Murraya koenigii), which may be used to flavor Indian cooking, but it is not a common spice in curry powders. According to Swahn, the secret of curry is to heat it in butter or vegetable oil before adding it to the sauce or soup to release its full flavor. As you plan your holiday meals, think about adding something with a little heat to the menu, like a tasty curry dish!

J.O. Swahn (1925 - 2016)  While researching for this year's Lore of Spices posts, I was saddened to learn that J.O. Swahn is no longer with us. I have appreciated his research and writing for many years. See: http://www.librarything.com/author/swahnjanjvind.

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Holiday Cooking – Turmeric

Back to the kitchen for another session of holiday cooking with the herbs and spices of the world. Our guide is The Lore of Spices by J.O. Swahn, and this year we're spicing it up by borrowing seasonings from the cuisines of the world. Today we're looking at turmeric, which originates in Southern Asia, but is cultivated in southern India, China, Taiwan, Philippines, Java, Haiti, Jamaica, and Peru.

Botanical illustration of Curcuma longa

from Koehler's Medicinal Plants

(published before 1923 and public domain in the United States)

Curcuma longa (or C. domestica) is from the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) and is a key ingredient of curry powder. The plant propagates from a rhizome, and at harvest the rhizomes are dug up, cooked, cleaned, sun-dried for a week, and then polished. The deep yellow-orange pieces are ground into a powder that is used in both food and drink, and as a dye. According to Swahn, Asian medicine uses turmeric (and recently Western medicine has been looking at turmeric as well). He also warns that turmeric may be passed off to tourists as a cheap alternative to saffron.

Rhizomes are short, tuberous, with yellow flesh. Leaves to 1.5 feet long and 8 inches wide. A flower spike terminates the leafy stems to 7 inches long, with a terminal tuft of white bracts. Flowers are pale yellow. Widely cultivated in the tropics.