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Despite rain and fog, we've moved from the "second spring" into a kind of second summer. The lapageria has two flowers on it, and shockingly, I found a flower spike in the Hedychium I'd given up on. The neighbors' cannas were also sending up new spikes before being hacked senselessly to the ground.
On the other hand, we know winter's coming because the first Camellia flower appeared a week ago. And many precocious Aloe arborescens spikes are starting to flower around town. Interestingly, the massive, floriferous specimen with a south exposure that I pass every day hasn't done anything yet, while the spikes I've noticed have been on east- and north-facing plants. Hmmm, I wonder if I should put one in the front.
Harvested the pomegranates yesterday. One of them had split open so thoroughly that I decided, probably stupidly, to toss it, but I tried a few arils first. The flavor was good, although the sugar was too low, as feared. But that's a problem that can be corrected. With tequila.
Labels: aloe, cannas, fall, hedychium, Lapageria rosea, pomegranates
posted by Anonymous at 2:57 PM
8 Comments:
By "we" you mean "we east bay gardeners". Because San Francisco is very much in the grip of early winter. It's cold, foggy and wet. But not raining. All the bad things, with none of the good. Well, maybe not bad/good; how about unhelpful/helpful. Garden-wise.
Speaking of Hedychium (again), which went flowerless for me all year, last week I cut mine to the ground, dug up the root, cut it in half with one pass of the spade, potted up each half in a 4-g pot, and sank both pots in the ground in sunnier spots. More sun, more stress on the roots for next year. Now, flower!
And please enlighten us (me) on the tequilla/pomegranate connection...
I just thought that cocktails would be a good destination for surplus pomegranate. At which point one can adjust the sugar as needed with simple syrup (which one has constantly on hand in case margaritas happen).
One of the main pastimes out here in the boonies is looking across the bay and laughing at your fog... You didn't get any sun last weekend?
And I'm won't believe my Hedychium is flowering until I see the actual flowers.
I don't think there was sun last weekend... I'm pretty sure there wasn't. All these cold, wet days just blur together.
You add sugar to margaritas? Must be a suburban thing. We in the city--excuse me, ahem, The City--prefer to go trad. 3 tbsp tequilla, 1.5 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp triple sec.
But margaritas are for summertime. Which is so two months ago.
After years of experimentation, i.e., heavy drinking, I usually replace some of the triple sec with simple syrup, depending on the quality of the limes. "Mexican" (Key) limes, superior to the "Persian/Tahitian" lime of commerce for the purpose of margaritas, particularly benefit from this treatment .
(Triple sec is basically sugar with artificial orange flavor and industrial alcohol thrown in. And don't get me started on Cointreau.)
I was hoping for some exciting ideas about what to do with pomegranate, MMW. I've got one in a pot (it'll move into the ground after we've moved house soonish). It hasn't fruited yet but in anticipation of that I'm hoping to find some recipes. I know that in the Middle East it's a popular fruit.
Cheers,
Margaret
Margaret, Armenian chicken with walnuts and pomegranate comes immediately to mind. I can't vouch for this recipe (at the bottom), but it sounds about right.
uh, ignore that previous comment, the dish is "persian," not armenian and frankly doesn't sound that great. Cladia Roden prefers to roast the chicken (she uses duck), which seems like a good call.
I'm a bad person to ask because I'm pretty fundamentalist that the best way to eat (almost) fruit is raw, over the sink. Your next best option is in drinks, and keep the sugar out of my food please.
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