“Follow the compass of joy.”
–Barbara Marx Hubbard

This morning I arose early, as is my custom, and as I made my daily cup of tea and honey I found myself pondering a long list of possible places to visit with my camera. Oh, a long list, my dears. I took utter delight in imagining myself visiting the town just north of the Golden Gate Bridge where Antonia spent her early childhood. I would recreate the walk we took nearly every day along the Bay. I knew exactly where the old nasturtium beds still blossomed, where the purple bougainvillea blooms along the pier. Oh, yes! But no. My body said no. OK, how about the gentle rolling drive out through the redwoods to the coast? Lovely as it is, again a gentle no. Hmm. I know! A trip to Oak Hill Farm! Oh, yes, I can shoot the beautiful tipped redwood tree, roots exposed, at the gate! A wonderful and beloved image. Regardless of the merit of the creative idea, each suggestion fell into a soundless vaccuum with no splash following the luminous pebble tossed. Then what? I nagged. A need to go inside more deeply. To listen more carefully. What? Then what?

Gradually the excitement stirred by my creative imagination settled to the side and what emerged was a simple question: what if you stayed home? Is there not enough in your own backyard to film and write about? And if not, WHY NOT?

Bingo.

I pulled my camera out of its case, looked gratefully skyward at the gentle morning light and ventured out into my Own Back Yard to look for treasures. Within seconds I saw what the Universe was guiding me towards–a whole lot of Somethings not quite in their prime. I was flooded with humility and gratitude and the realization that my first inclination had been to gravitate towards the technicolor splendor of the fully mature. I adjusted my inner lenses and sharpened my vision towards the yet to become, the green, the forming.

An Early Girl, bless its little heart. It is working its way toward nurturing me. And first I must nurture it, which of course I do, faithfully.

It has a brother.

My appreciation heightens as I abandon my busyness and my thirst for flamboyant color. This is about green. Green is its own beauty. What else lives in its lush but elusive palette?

Of course.

The apples.

I grab a red and green apple from the tree. They are the most crisp, the most wonderful apples I have ever tasted. But what are they? I drop it into my bag which I take with me to the Saturday morning farmer’s market. I search out the elder, Jo Gowan, who lives on over 250 acres filled with fruit trees, largely apples. She will know. I see her wizened face among the crowd and move towards her, smiling as I pull the apple from the sachel. “Jo, I knew you would know. What kind of apple is this? Can you tell me?” She responds immediately and practically. “That is a delicious apple. That is a delicious apple before they started messing with it. This is the original apple.” I have an original apple tree in my back yard…I feel so privileged. So lucky.

I stare happily through the lens and capture the small emerging apples in my camera, remembering their promise of the best apples I have ever eaten coming end of summer. Yum. My tummy growls and my gratitude expands.

What else? What else?

The plums, of course, stand next to the delicious apples. They will be offering their store much much sooner. Conner is especially fond of these!

My lovely lovely hydrangeas are just turning from greens to their resplendent pinks and blues and pastel loveliness. I cherish them so.

And the very first of the nasturtium blossoms are peeking out beneath their fully formed leaves. This year I will finally use them in my salads. (Some things take time.)

Not all the greens are in their nascent phase. Here is a favorite I discovered year before last. It is invasive and likes to be very moist, so it’s happy, and I’m happy, that it lives in a container. I’m very fond of it. I was attracted to it for its variegated leaves, tinged with pink. The little white flowers that eventually emerged were an additional surprise.

Of course, dear readers, there is a time to venture out, to explore, to push our boundaries, to learn and grow with new input, new vision, new adventure. But, gosh, I for one am going to be ever more mindful of examining that impulse when it surfaces. It might just be that what I need most–and perhaps where I am most needed– could be right in my own backyard.

Love and gardening blessings,
Kathryn xox

Posted on June 8th, 2008 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Life | 26 Comments »

When Antonia was a little bitty girl I made almost everything from scratch. Yogurt, bread, tortillas, pies, cookies, pancakes, jams and pizza. I haven’t learned how to make pasta yet, but I’m going to. I’ve been watching that lovely older Italian woman on PBS lately and she’s inspiring me. With all the talk of Returning to Victory Gardens, and the price of energy and a really practical need to move back to self reliance (oh, yes, my darlings–just watch us reach back and grab every agricultural baby we threw out in the industrial bathwater) I’m more determined than ever to reclaim my 60’s roots and get off the agribiz fast train. For you and for me.

So one of the weekly routines I am now building into my schedule is to automatically make scones. And today I thought you might like to join me, and I’d teach you how to do it, as, frankly? As simple as the recipe is, unless you are skilled and comfy with dough, it can be frustrating and tricky. Even scary. Seriously. So I literally climbed up a ladder this morning in the kitchen and shot a couple of steps so you could see how it should look. If you are a visual learner like I am, you will be reassured. And once you do it successfully, you will see how utterly easy and fast they are and what a lovely addition they will be to your family life. What I particularly like, and am doing, is popping the ones that do not get eaten on the first day into individual bags in the freezer and then I know they are there, for tea, in the morning. Simple. Simple and inexpensive. What does Starbucks charge for a scone, might I ask?

Okey dokey, this is what you do.

Orange Current Scones

Put two cups of all purpose flour in a bowl. Add a pinch of salt. Add 1/3 cup of sugar. Add 1 tablespoon of baking powder. But here’s the trick. Before you put the baking powder in the flour bowl, put it in a small open bowl and crush it down with a spoon to make sure each crumb is in its tiniest form. Otherwise you chance getting a bite that is acrid. See? OK, whisk these ingredients together.

Now. Take a stick of cold butter (don’t cheat, mama) and chop off about a half inch. And then take the big part and cut it into pats. And throw the pats in. And then you need to chop that in with a pastry blender. (Yes, you must use a real pastry blender. And please don’t even think about using any kind of electric machine at this step. You will ruin it.) They always tell you that the goal is to get the mixture looking like peas, but the truth is it’s never going to look like peas, dear readers. Never. Just chop at it and after a remarkably short amount of time you will see there are no big butter lumps in there. That’s when you know you’ve accomplished this step. It’s very fast. You’ll see. Then gently mix in a half cup of currents. You can use raisins if you prefer, but currents are more fun. Trust me.

Then in a separate bowl you crack a large egg. (If you use a small one this recipe will go to you know where in a handbasket and you will be so sorry.) And then you pour in a half cup of cream. Now I’m going to tell you what I’m using here. First I only use organic eggs that came from free range chickens. If you watch the movie “Baraka” you will know why. I’m sure you can get it on Netflix. Secondly I am using Horizon organic whipping cream. It’s expensive as all get out, but this recipe only requires a small amount and it lasts, and I’m making these weekly, so it just boils down to very little over time. So that’s what I’m doing. Do what you need to do. OK, mix those up. Then throw in some finely grated organic orange peel. (You don’t want to add pesticides at this stage of the mix, now do you?) I use at least one teaspoon. It smells delicious.

OK, now this is the part where easy could get weird, and that’s why I took photos for you.

You add the egg/cream mixture to the flour mixture. Just dump it on top. However, now you need to mix with a wooden spoon, minimally. Your mind is going to say, “It’s not mixed up. What do I do with all those crumbs??” When you get to the point where it’s pretty mixed up, put down the spoon. (Have I lost anyone yet?) Now with clean hands, start kneading the dough in the center of the bowl so it begins picking up all those wayward crumbs and loose flour around the edges. Again, you don’t want to do this for very long. At the point at which you think it’s more or less together (i.e, don’t work it until it looks all neat and tidy–it will be overworked and, hello, you will melt all that nice cold butter with your warm fingers and then guess what? They will not be flakey. Bummer.) then flip the dough onto a lightly floured board.
OK, this is the hardest part, OK? You can do it. Start working the dough into a round flat circle, around ten inches across and about an inch high. NOW you can get those naughty ones worked in to the sides of your circle. If they absolutely refuse, leave them. The quality of the cold underworked dough is the most important part. After you do this a couple of times you will become comfortable with this part and you will be amazed how fast you can get it into the proper shape. The butter is your glue, but you want it to stay cold. Here’s what it should look like:

Now. Take a big knife and cut the circle of dough in half. Now quarter it. Now cut the quarters in half. So now you have eight triangles of scones. Easy.

Dabble a bit of cream on top of each scone and then drizzle a bit of sugar on top of that with your fingers.

Pop in an oven on an ungreased cookie sheet, preheated to 475 degrees F. And bake them miraculously for only about 15 minutes!

Voila!

Now place your scrumptious scones on a cooling rack to cool.

How would you like to serve them? This is what I did this morning. A vase of fresh flowers from the farmer’s market. A lovely blue and white Spode setting in the garden.

Pretty is a good thing.

Love and garden blessings,
Kathryn xoxox

Posted on May 25th, 2008 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Play | 26 Comments »