Raspberries and roses

The black raspberry has risen high on my list of Toughest Plants - so much died after last winter, but it and its rooted offspring kept going. The fruit is ripening overnight. It has made many new canes which will produce fruit next year (and perhaps even this fall).

And the first roses have opened. Above - supposed to be Boscobel (to replace last year's, which died after winter)...but I wonder. It is very pale (and pretty). I was less impressed with this year's David Austin shipment: the bare root roses were pruned badly, random cuts way above buds, so that there was a lot of dieback. I liked Boscobel because of its performance in muggy heat.

Below it is an ornamental portulaca, but you know me: it will find its way into our daily salads - it is stuffed with omega-3's.

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Terroir

Northeastern summer flavours: bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica), juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis) and sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina).

Plant them.

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The June days

The terrace is settling into ideas of early summer.

There are annuals, gasp! Scaevola, above (Urban Garden Center provenance) - low fuss and very forgiving of the extreme shade-sun ratio deployed in these square feet.

A yellow and blue theme has evolved.

The nemesias above, I could not resist. I found them at the Union Square Greenmarket. They speak of late winter and early springtime on the West Coast of South Africa. They will probably expire in the long humid days. But perhaps  they will revive after cutting back. The pelargonium behind the nemesias is probably 'Citrosa' - a cultivar bred in Canada in the 90's and sometimes sold as citronella, which it is not. But I have a soft spot for the genus, which became one of my first plant loves, when my family moved to Cape Town from South Africa's hinterland. The leaves smell quite rose-y.

Golden oregano, above. Found at the little Mushtari hardware store on 125th.

And the landlord's sour cherries are beginning to ripen, Until two weeks ago there was also a very healthy grape vine down there, but then it was hacked right back.

The sheep continues to do sheepy things, all day, day in, day out. It sleeps standing up. 

And the pretty foxgloves ('Gold Crest') all collapsed after a hard drenching in the night. I cut them back. They are alleged to re-bloom, and I did see the beginnings of new shoots, but I cut them back below those shoots, for stronger stems. So...

And we have been eating outside, in the evenings. This was a good clafoutis. Cream, eggs, sugar, wonderful vanilla. And I pitted the cherries, as a special favour to the Frenchman.

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Mt Loretto State Park Wild Foods Walk

Mt Loretta woodland

The summer wild food walk season kicks off on Staten Island.

13 June 2015, 1.15pm - 4.30pm (plus travel time)
Mt Loretto Unique Area, Staten Island
$45

This is an adventure. The New York kind. Plus lots of nature. In one outing we combine the big city, a sea voyage, a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty, a woodland walk, a grassland ramble and a shoreline visit.

Staten Island is one of the city's best-kept green secrets. Mt Loretta is a state park on the island.

From the entrance meeting point we'll spend some time scouting the woodland floor, and will emerge into the light to walk through grasslands.

Trifolium repens

If we are lucky we will see native roses, a little choked by mugwort.

Rosa virginiana

We will encounter wild edible weeds and indigenous common milkweed (and hopefully also some poisonous dogbane, often confused with edible milkweed).

Apocynum cannabinum

We may spot the occasional bunny, ospreys on the hunt and perhaps a taciturn groundhog (perhaps even the one that made the New York Times?).

Asclepias syriaca

On the beach we may find edible sea rocket.

For variety it is hard to beat.

Cakile edentula

Pack a picnic, drinks and tick repellent. This walk requires a reasonable level of fitness, and the day is long, but you will think of the forgotten borough quite differently, afterwards.

For the mass transiters:  Catch the 12pm Staten Island ferry across New York Harbor to St George. From St George take the 12.36pm SIR subway to Richmond Valley (37 minutes).

Here is the SIR schedule.

Drivers: Here is a map of where to park and rendevouz. We will meet up in the carpark at 1.15pm.

WALK COMPLETED

Mugwort in the kitchen

Chances are, you are surrounded by mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), a sage-fragrant and palatable herb which is rarely used in most kitchens. But Korean cooks know all about it (they call it ssuk) and I have come across Korean ladies gathering it in the city. My friend Clare - who lived in Korea - has seen it being sold on the street in Brooklyn, because no market stocks it.

Medicinally mugwort (a common name that encompasses other members of the Artemisia genus, so there may be some overlap) is used traditionally to treat a host of ills, from depression to intestinal parasites to menstrual irregularities. Bear in mind that medicinal applications usually use a large and concentrated amount of any herb (and in this case the root, too - always a part of a plant to avoid, if uncertain); culinary quantities are far less potent. But to err on the side of of excessive caution I would steer clear if you are pregnant, wish to be, or are nursing. And people familiar with acupuncture may recognize mugwort as the source of smudgesticks.

I have heard and read claims that mugwort is the source of wild dreams. My dreams are pretty vivid, anyway. Mugwort has had no effect on them. Maybe I don't eat enough. Otherwise it is one of the hand-me-down and unsubstantiated myths that muddies modern foraging waters.

But here is what I have been doing with it recently, as it reaches almost to waist height in the late New York springtime.

Roasting heads of garlic on a bed of mugwort leaves: salt, pepper, some good olive oil, 50 - 60 minutes at 400'F. The garlic turns beautifully soft, the mugwort so crispy you eat it with your fingers, as chips.

And marinating a rack of lamb with chopped mugwort, a grated onion and a bath of Japanese knotweed-black locust flower pickling vinegar, yielded a delicious (if fire-blackened) result.

More pan-roasting - this time with guavas, in season now from subtropical climes. The idea come from Babylonstoren, which serves their farm-grown guavas as an appetizer with thyme and citrus salt.

There is always mugwort salt in my tiny pantry, now,  and I have a jarful of the leaves in vodka, waiting to be turned into a Northeastern vermouth

We are SURE to encounter mugwort next Saturday on Staten Island's wild foods walk, where it is a super-invader, and threatens less aggressive local plants. If you'd like to join us, details are in the link below.

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Hell hath no fury...

I like the squirrel. Goodlooking fur, fluffy tail and the stricken little clasped paw. And the squirrel annoys me, of course. Hogs the birdseed and digs in the planters.

"The" squirrel - I don't actually know how many there are. A few weeks ago one squirrel - which was certifiable, it must be admitted, it showed no fear at all - was either 1. Drowned in the East River or 2. Released in a Bronx Park, depending on which version of the story you believe.

Our landlord trapped him, after s/he (the squirrel) apparently: 1. Chewed a hole in the roof  2. Chewed a hole through a metal plate inserted to deter it from chewing holes in the roof 3. Was ousted from the ceiling where it had taken up residence by an exterminator who sprayed something "non toxic" into the hole 3. Was thumped on the head late at night after it descended to street level by a passing drunk guy, in front of a small audience  4. Escaped again to the roof, despite what must have been a significant concussion.

Where s/he was caught the next day in a humane trap.

Maybe s/he fired the shot that reverberated on the street at 1.20am last night.  I mean s/he was angry enough, surely? Payback.

It was a robbery, close to home. No one was hurt, and the police arrived very, very fast and stayed till 4am.

So if you see a squirrel in a grey hoodie, s/he could be the one. S/he remains at large. Free. Drowned and risen.

Bent on revenge.

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                      (no squirrels will be harmed)

Terrace garden - rainwashed in Harlem

It has been raining. It has been cool. After the summerish humidity that came before, it has been wonderful. Forests and parks and gardens and waste ground are sucking up the moisture with cup-draining sounds. It was dry for a long time.

The white spidery stuff around the skylight  - I must tuck it in or store it. It was to deter the kitty from squeezing under the deck. One day there might be another kitty - not yet; do not send kitten pictures - so we will keep it, in case, but it spoils a picture.

Everything has grown. Stray fennel seedlings are offering feathery, free height and will be interesting, later in the year. A catnip seedling germinated, self-sown months before we knew that lovely cat was to die. Verbena bonariensis has given me a dozen free offspring, but  I'll snip this year's flowers before they set seed.

There are Nicotiana from last year, too - summer will reveal whether they are respectable green langsdorfii or monumental, white sylvestris.

The jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) plants look like small trees, and I am hoping for a squadron of hummingbirds, this year, to vibrate among their branches.

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