Reflections on 2013

Another year of gardening comes to a close. Last year I spent more time learning about gardens than gardening, so this year I tried to get a little more dirt under my nails! My vegetable garden was a bust; I realize that I have a deer problem that needs some creative attention. My tomato plants were especially targeted by my four-legged friends, but any fresh green sprout was fair game.

In 2013, Eden By The Bay continued exploring gardening in the Bay Area, with special focus on plant diseases. We looked at plant diseases in every major group (bacteria, plant parasites, water molds, nematodes, fungi), as well as viruses. After delving into how much can go wrong, it is amazing that anything grows at all! Thankfully, there is a built-in arms race between predator and prey, enabling each side to combat the other.

We explored gardens throughout the seasons – appreciating plants as they move through their seasonal cycles, and the hardscaping that provides the infrastructure. We visited public and private gardens, including the Ruth Bancroft garden, the Lakeside Park on Lake Merritt, Capitol Park and the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, a secret garden in Berkeley, and the gardens of the Madonna Inn and Hearst Castle. We also went further afield to enjoy the tamed and natural places of the Presidio, Clear Lake in the Lake Counties, the deserts of Southern California and Bend, Oregon, and Duncan Garden at Manito Park in Spokane, Washington.

Diseases: oak gall Labels: plant diseases	 Nature: Presidio dunes Labels: nature, coastal dune
Gardens: Hearst Castle Labels: gardens, garden design, hardscaping	 History: Renaissance influence Labels: garden history, movie star plants

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We continued our study of garden history – focusing on European gardens (including Medieval gardens, Italian Renaissance gardens, and interpretations of Renaissance gardens throughout Europe). We continued looking for interesting garden elements, such as raised beds, roof gardens, and trellises; enjoying winter and summer movies that star the plant world; and cooking with holiday spices from all over the globe. Best of all, we celebrated family, friends, and gardens of the world!

Renaissance Christmas Carol

I spent a lot of time this year learning about the Renaissance and Renaissance gardens. For background I watched movies that depicted Renaissance gardens, read The Prince by Machiavelli, and watched the Showtime series, “The Borgias” (with eyes half-closed or covered during the gruesome scenes)! So I thought it would be interesting to learn about the kind of Christmas carol that might have been popular during the Italian Renaissance. One thing I realized is that the Italian city states had not yet been unified during the Italian Renaissance, so many languages and dialects were spoken. Consequently, there is no one representative Christmas carol sung by all.

However, I did learn about a Neapolitan carol called “Quanno nascette Ninno” (“When the child was born”). The melody and original lyrics were written by Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696 – 1787), a Neapolitan priest who founded the Redemptorist missionary order, ministered to the poor, and was later canonized. In 1744 he created a version of the Christmas hymn in Neapolitan, while staying in the city of Deliceto in the province of Foggia in southeastern Italy.

The lyrics were later translated into Italian, by Pope Pius IX (1792 - 1878) as "Tu scendi dalle stelle" ("From Starry Skies Thou Comest"). The translated version is a well-loved Christmas carol throughout Italy. Check YouTube for beautiful renditions of "Quanno nascette Ninno" and "From Starry Skies Thou Comest".

 

Merry Christmas to all!

Holiday Cooking – Poppy Seeds

This month I have researched some of the plants that flavor my holiday baking using J.O. Swahn’s The Lore of Spices. Today I’m looking at poppy seeds, which are an important ingredient in poppy seed muffins, bagels, breads, and cakes. I am especially fond of the lemon and poppy seed combination. One important research question – can you fail a drug test after ingesting poppy seeds in baked goods?

Papaver somniferum is in the Papaveraceae (poppy plant) family and native to the Near East and Central Asia. Today it is cultivated in Europe (Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Greece, and Bulgaria), Turkey, North Africa, and India. Poppies were used in ancient times in mystery cult ceremonies, as a pain killer, and as a stomach-calming drug. Today, the milky sap of unripe poppy fruit is extracted for its opiates and pain-killing properties; and ripe poppy seeds are harvested for baking, curries, and poppy seed oil. Opium is used recreationally in some cultures.

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

The poppy plant is an erect, glaucous annual that grows to four feet high. Leaves are coarsely toothed or lobed; lower leaves are short-petioled and upper leaves are clasping. Flowers are often doubles, to four inches across, in white, pink, red or purple. Petals may be fringed or with a dark spot at the base. Fruit is a seed pod filled with many tiny seeds (the poppy plant was used to represent fertility in ancient myths). According to MythBusters, the answer to the research question is YES. You can fail a drug test after ingesting poppy seeds in baked goods. Traces of the opiates remain in your system up to 48 hours after consumption, so eat that piece of holiday lemon-poppy-seed bread responsibly!