This month Master Gardener Gaius Robinson waxes on Fig Vinegar, shares a recipe for Honey Fig Jam below, and has an update on fennel pollen from her last article.She also shares some Quince Lore . . . . .
Quince are an easy fruit to grow in Sonoma County and we have another few weeks to harvest them (see accompanying recipes for jam and butter). Quince is the "lost fruit" in this country as far as I can tell. My friend gave me a cook book called,” Simply Quince" by Barbara Ghazarian. Some of the recipes are great, some not as good. BUT her basic premise is super. (The use of the seeds is important in assisting the jelling of quince. In fact, the seeds used to be saved, boiled in water and the gel that resulted was used as a hair-styling gel before Brycreem! It was also used (with more water) as a medicial tea. Good for sore throats and digestive upsets. What a fruit...useful from top to bottom.)
I make her "pate' de coing" every year. A traditional dessert served in Provence at midnight after Mass on Dec. 24 every year includes fruits, nuts, special bread, nougats and quince paste.
The Spanish, traditionally, have used "membrillo”, another form of quince paste, with Manchego cheese and bread for breakfast. I like it with soft cheese, like Brie, for hors d’oeuvres. Marmelo is the word for quince in Portuguese. They made jam called marmalade out of quince. It was not until 1790, in Dundee, Scotland that orange rinds were used to make "marmalade".
--Gaius Robinson
Seasonal Home Growing Information
Planning the Fall and Winter Vegetable Garden Kale Broccoli Beets Swiss Chard
Winter Herbs
Timely Kitchen Garden Seminars and Workshops
Preparing the Garden for Winter--Sonoma Library, Nov 7th
Recipes Honey Fig Jam Quince Butter Grandma's herbed Triscuits
SCMG Rebecca Goodsell, Kitchen Garden Editor
| Kitchen Garden Tips
November
There is a saying, attributed to various people at various times, that you cannot simultaneously prepare for war and promote peace. In Sonoma County, in November, I propose that The Kitchen Gardener can simultaneously put the garden to sleep for the winter while keeping it awake for spring!
The vegetal debris of the summer produce, vines and stalks should be pulled up, chopped up and put into the compost pile or in the green disposal can. Remember to admire the amazing and distinctive root structures of these vegetables as you haul them to their resting place.
Clean up any fallen fruit in the orchard (windfalls!) to reduce opportunities for pests, both insects and rodents, to flourish at your expense come spring. You can spray citrus trees to prevent citrus brown rot, coating all foliage and fruit. You should use a Bordeaux mixture or any other fixed copper. Planning ahead for frost, I just heard about a new Remay product. It resembles an extra-large shower cap with a string at the open end. You put the sack over the citrus tree and pull the string closed. Voila!
If you do not intend to plant anything over the winter, mulch heavily; last year, I left one bed fallow and layered cardboard, lawn clippings, leaves and straw over it. And there is always the workhorse cover crop, the fava bean.
There is time to plant out the following things: onions, garlic, sugar snap peas and swiss chard. If you planned carefully for a winter garden, you have quite a number of vegetables in the ground already, including the brassicas (broccoli and cauliflower), leeks, lettuce, beets and herbs. Before the winter rains and chills really hit, you should avoid adding any nitrogen fertilizer from now on. Nitrogen encourages rapid, tender growth which the frosts can easily burn. This is a sort of plant "antifreeze" technique.
Enjoy the orange of the persimmons on the trees - they are almost ready to pick. You can also continue to pick quince (see accompanying recipes), (although some of the ornamental varieties bred for flower color are not very tasty).
Also out there for the picking in many gardens are lettuce, broccoli raab and herbs such as tarragon, chives, parsley and basil.
There are even some tomatoes left on the vines, especially cherry varieties. A full-sized variety which has held up well locally - the late October fruit is as tasty and unblemished as the August fruit was - is Black Pear. Ripe fruit is about 4-6 ounces, dark- fleshed, and still ripening on the vines as we post this.
As we post this predictions are being made for nighttime temperatures in the high 30's, so frost may not be far behind. Even if frost eludes us for a while, the rains and heavy dews set the stage for molds and decay. Use Mother Nature's refrigerator as long as possible, but the time is drawing nigh to get any summer vegetables picked that you can! --Becky Goodsell
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