Limoncello for Breakfast

The last couple of weekends have been  a frenzy to get things done on the property and Sunday mornings and sometimes afternoons were spent preserving the prolific harvest of Citrus fruit. Yesterday morning I bottled the Limoncello I started making last Sunday. Limoncello is a hundred year old lemon liqueur made in Southern Italy. It is basically the yellow of the lemon peel that you steep for seven days on a clear spirit that extracts the oil into the alcohol.

Towerwater Limoncello

I see that one can make Limoncello with Pistachios called Pistachiocello. You can guess what I am making with the next batch of lemons.

I also want to try,
Limoncello Martini

1½ oz Citron Vodka
1½ oz Limoncello
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp simple syrup

Cut lemon, to rim glass
Sugar, for rimming

Thin lemon slice, for garnish glass


A couple of shots of Limoncello were left in the jug and I tasted my handywork the taste was very misleading and it had a surprising kick to it. Limoncello for breakfast is best left for the Italians.

Ek Onthou jou in my Tuin

As ek deur my tuin stap onthou ek onwillekeurig D J Opperman se gedig Sproeireen,

My nooi is in ‘n nartjie,
my ouma in kaneel,
daar’s iemand..iemand in anys,
daar’s ‘n vrou in elke geur!

As ek ‘n stukkie nartjieskil
tussen my vingers buig of knak,
breek uit die klein sproeireën
wat geurend om my hand uitsak,
die boorde weer van Swartfoloos
en met die nartjies om my heen
weet ek hoe dat ‘n vrou kan troos.

O my nooi is in ‘n nartjie,
my ouma in kaneel,
daar’s iemand…iemand in anys,
daar’s ‘n vrou in elke geur!

Soos Opperman se herrineringe aan mense deur geure opgewek word , word myne ook deur die visuele aangewakker. Ek vind familie en vriende oral in my tuin.

Philip se Clivia

Die geel clivia blom met oorgawe en ek onthou die mark in Bonnievale waar Philip hom vir my gekoop het en onthou Philip en my gedagtes gaan draai by die lekker kuier en waar ons by die Trattoria Alle Vignole op die Vignole eiland in Venesië borde seekos en karafte wyn sit en weg gesels het.

 

Die Portwyn Magnolia in blom

Die Portwyn Magnolia se swaar soet reuk soos verouderde portwyn vul die tuin en ek onthou my ma wat hom lank op haar balkon vir my versorg het. Ek het hom om op die historiese plaas Karnemelksvlei gaan haal as 'n klein boompie wat die boer se ma vir my gemaak het. Tydens 'n besoek van die Volksboukundige vereniging het ek hierdie boom buite die ou huis gesien en geruik en die tannie wat ook 'n kranige tuinier is het gesê sy sal vir my ‘n klein boompie maak nadat ek nie kon uitgepraat raak het oor die reuk van die blomme nie. Uit die bloute kry ek toe eendag 'n oproep,"Jy kan maar kom kuier jou boom is reg". Daardie selfde naweek ry ek deur Citrusdal toe om my Portwyn Magnolia te gaan haal.

Ek ontou my ma waar sy dou voor dag vye in die boom naby die kombuis deur gepluk het voor die voëls hulle kon kry. Vye en Hanepoot druiwe was van haar gunstelinge en my gedagtes gaan draai by "roadtrips' saam met haar Gamkaskloof toe, huis toe waar sy 'n ander mens was tussen die hanepoot wingerde en reuse vyebome. Die soet pienk blokke gedroogte vye was vir haar 'n kleinnood van herinneringe en jy kon nie beter kry as die in Gamkaskloof nie.

Die Hanepoot wingerd loop uit en ek dink aan neef Karel wat hulle vir my gaan soek het en soos gewoontlik gekry het. Langsaan staan die sitroenella malva wat hy sommer een naweek geplant het toe hy kom kuier het en ons nie by die huis was nie. Ons is sommer kom kuier mense sonder fensie reelings. Karel en Klein Karel wat so maklik 'n plan kan maak, soos toe Keith 'n sement "rope moulding" detail op die huis se "pediment" moes aanbring. Klein Karel se jeep se trekstang is sommer daar en dan afgehaal in die helfte gesaag, twee ysterplate teen 'n hoek is vasgesoldeer en Keith se troffel waarmee hy as jong seun leer messel het se handvatsel is vasgesoldeer. Vandag spog die huis met 'n ware volksboukundige afwerking.

Ek kan nie sê die rosarium laat my onwillekeurig aan Keith dink nie want niks omtrent die rose is onwillekeurig nie. Dit is 'n intense verhouding van water, kos en behandeling teen siektes. Maar waneer die rosarium in blom is slaan dit jou asem weg en ek sien Keith waar hy dooie knoppe uitpluk of diep water gee met 'n salige uitdrukking op sy gesig en ek weet nou is hy gelukkig. Die rosarium is 'n veeleisende liefde wat jou nie deel met 'n ander plant nie.

Die groenvye sit onnutsig in die vyeboom en ek besef dit is tyd vir groenvye konfyt. Ek onthou my suster Stella vir wie se hande niks verkeerd staan nie en wat elke jaar seker maak dat ek 'n paar flesse groenvye kry vir die huis net vir bederf. Hierdie jaar het sy help marmelade kook en ek ry huis toe na ek die groen vye afgelaai het met flesse vol marmelade wat die belofte van 'n lekker onthou inhou.

 

Stella se Marmelade

 My tuin gee vir my die lekkerte om die mense vir wie ek lief is te onthou deur wat ek sien, proe en ruik heeldag lank.

Research and Collective Heritage

On Sunday I went to the Drostdy Museum in Swellendam to look at some maps and do research. I invited Shawn Mpofu, the property manager of Hoogelegen and Towerwater along. Shawn has a keen interest in the world in general and the place he calls home at the moment. In his company there is never a lack of conversation.

Swellendam Drostdy

At the museum we looked at the Zanddrift restaurant the house was the original farmstead of the farm Zanddrift.

You can read more on the website http://www.drostdy.com/zanddrift/zanddrift-farm/

One of the old maps and the Bosjesveld where the farms Aan de Breede Rivier and Zanddrift is today
 

The project was done under the guidance of Dr Mary Cook that saved it from being moved to the old Transvaal by another curator according to Me Miemie Rothman granddaughter of the author M.E.R

The map of 1880 shows the farms along the Langeberg. Boschjesmans Drift is the original farm that our houses belonged to and on Sand Drift the house is indicated just below the word river where the road forks.

Me Miemie Rothman is still working at the museum and is a fountain of information. I got permission to photograph the maps and I left Shawn in her capable hands. I could hear the conversation from the passage where I was photographing. Shawn was charming Me Rothman with his stories of building methods and the smearing of cow dung floors from his village in Zimbabwe while she shared her experience of smearing floors and laying peach pip floors.

Shawn Mpofu  outside the museum
 

Shawn found several objects in the kitchen that he remembers from home and I realise that all the people in the world have a collective heritage that is similar in many ways.

One of these days Shawn will be an expert in the maintenance of Cape vernacular buildings, at the moment he is mastering the skill of limewashing.

When your Garden gives you Lemons.....

The philosophy of the garden is that nearly everything must be edible or should at least be usable in one way or another. Specific seasons bring specific activities. Just after winter the citrus grove provides the fruit for preserving and bottling. This weekend I spend Sunday making lime and lemon cordial. A drink for hot summer days when the sour surprise of lemonade can be cooling and refreshing.

Citrus Harvest

Lemon cordial is part of the South African  Culinary landscape and it was always served to celebrate the end of the harvest or to refresh guests after they climed Table mountain.

Lemon Cordial

Lime Cordial

 

The Produce of my Sunday Labour

For the Love of Clivias

The Clivias in the bulb garden have produced many flowers and added to the orange explosion in the garden. I have rescued 14 clivias from the dump and planted them on the other side of the herbacious border. I cannot wait to see what they are going to do next year. I am constantly rescuing discarded plants from the dump and the garden is like a plant orphanage.

Clivias in the bulb garden

 

A Close up of the Clivias

 

The sun Captured in the Clivias

"Why the name “Clivia”? History has it that a young horticulturalist, working for Kew Gardens in London, named James Bowie, arrived in the Cape and spent considerable time and effort sending plants back home, to be classified and grown in the glasshouses and gardens of Syon House, the residence of the Duchess of Northumerland. The Botanist Lindley named this plant “ Clivianobilis “ as a compliment to the Duchess of Northumberland, a patron of gardening, of the noble family of ‘Clive’" Source:http://www.dirkmeyer.co.za/clivias-south-africa-lily

Oranges and Lemons........ and Limes

The garden in mid September is tinge with hues of green yellow and orange. I harvested the last of the citrus, limes, lemons and oranges from trees that are bursting into blossom as if they want to say pick the old fruit we are ready for spring.

Harvest of Citrus fruit in the citrus grove

Ode To The Lemon by Pablo Neruda

From blossoms
released
by the moonlight,
from an
aroma of exasperated
love,
steeped in fragrance,
yellowness
drifted from the lemon tree,
and from its plantarium
lemons descended to the earth.

Tender yield!
The coasts,
the markets glowed
with light, with
unrefined gold;
we opened
two halves
of a miracle,
congealed acid
trickled
from the hemispheres
of a star,
the most intense liqueur
of nature,
unique, vivid,
concentrated,
born of the cool, fresh
lemon,
of its fragrant house,
its acid, secret symmetry.

Knives
sliced a small
cathedral
in the lemon,
the concealed apse, opened,
revealed acid stained glass,
drops
oozed topaz,
altars,
cool architecture.

So, when you hold
the hemisphere
of a cut lemon
above your plate,
you spill
a universe of gold,
a
yellow goblet
of miracles,
a fragrant nipple
of the earth's breast,
a ray of light that was made fruit,
the minute fire of a planet.

Thank you Pablo!

Pips and Pathways

The weekend of 13 September 2014 concluded the resurfacing of the garden pathways with new crushed apricot pips. We decided to use crushed pips to surface the pathways 23 years ago because the use of pips was fairly uncommon but for us it was so natural  and spoke of the area. The Langeberg canning factory was around the corner in Ashton and the pips were crushed in Montagu. It is a natural organic material that cannot harm nature and supports our dream of an organic garden.

I can write poetry to describe the pleasure of seeing the pathways looking so fresh and orderly.

The Vegetable garden freshly pipped.
 

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

 


The Original Front of the House freshly pipped

“The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul.”
― Thomas Moore

What can I say pips give me pleasure.

The Tao of Handmade Marmalade

The first Spring weekend at Towerwater was very busy with the freshening of the broken apricot pip pathways. Raking the broken pips should be very Zen and I did contemplate raking designs and patterns and allow the experience to aid my meditation about the true meaning of life but if you have a mountain of pips the reality of moving that mountain does not allow for meditation. Although the freshly pipped pathways do bring a visual sense of order and pleasure to the garden and that is another form of meditation for me.

September brings the pleasure of citrus smells into the garden and the trees are a profusion of stages from blossom, young fruit and ripe fruit. On Sunday morning I could harvest, Seville, Valencia and Lemons. To harvest one's own fruit is to be in harmony with nature, a teaching of Taoism. The yellow and orange are alive with the brightness of sunny days and the intoxicating smell of orange blossoms hangs warm in the cool morning air.

First thing on Sunday morning I got everything ready for making marmalade before I ventured into the garden to harvest the ingredients. Got my trusted preserve recipe book "Lekker vir Later" and refreshed my brain with the basics of marmalade making. I could fill my white enamel bowl with the black edge to the brim with the most delicious oranges and lemons.

This year I was prepared and I bought an electric slicer that can cut anything from 0 -15mm. I could visualise the precision cut orange peels suspended in the golden syrup in my preserve jars. With the water and juice in the pot, the insides of the oranges tied in a muslin cloth and the sugar heating in the oven I was quickly going to slice up my citrus peel. The blade was set on very thin to produce "landbouskou" quality marmalade but the peels dit not work and the blade just zested the peel. I was not sure how I was going to give the "dysfunctional" slicer back to the store after shattering that dream.
In the end I had to put the hands back into my handmade marmalade the industrial age will have to wait. In the background Simon and Garfunkel was singing, “Slow down, you move too fast,
You got to make the morning last"
Marmalade is slow food and I love the smell of fresh orange oil bursting on my hands as I cut the orange peel as thin as possible. For me food is about the visual "ek moet sien hoe lekker dit is voor ek dit nog geproe het." That I had to say in Afrikaans because I could not translate it. As a lover of Marmalade it is the best to have the kitchen filled with the smell of cooking citrus peel. I can taste the Marmalade that it is going to produce. When I eat my Marmalade on toast I will also have this memory of cooking citrus peel.

In the end my peels were not the perfect precision sliced ones I had hope for but each of them are unique and when I put them on the breakfast table it is not just a pot of Marmalade I am offering you but also the abundance of my garden captured in a small glass jar.




"Soetlemoen" Marmalade and Seville Marmalade with Ginger

My kitchen with the first batch of Marmalade the second was still cooking

Lekker vir Later





“I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It's amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

History Revisited

I came across a journal I started in 1991 and realise that it was actually the first blog about the garden. It is in Afrikaans but I thought it should be part of this blog.

"23 Februarie 1991

Bonnievale is groen en rooi, groen wingerde, rooi kannas, rooi rose en rooi Bouganvillas.
Die tuin van 25 Kerkstraat is ongeorganiseerd en ek twyfel of die ooit kon mooi wees selfs toe daarna gekyk is. Dit is te onbeplan, ongekoordineerd en te veel vetplante. Botterbome (masief) , plakkies en aalwyne.
Die vrugtebome het droogte gely. Ek het altyd van bloureën gehou maar ek het my bedenkinge nou. Die bome is oud en ek wens dat ek van hulle kon laat agterbly maar geen boom is eintik die soort boom wat jy by ‘n Kaaps Hollandse huis sou kry nie. Maksimum benutting van die grond gaan baie beplanning kos. Die tuin is wild en onvriendelik of miskien is dit net bang.  Ek oorweeg dit om die tuin om die bestaande bome te beplan miskien  verander ek weer van plan.

3 Maart 1991

My ma, Keith en ek gaan deur die tuin, my ma sê die vrugtebome is nie so oud nie maar die grond is uitgeput. Sien ‘n enkele Maartlelie blom, die eerste vriendelike  teken van die tuin. Ek moet probeer om die bolle te  behou.

Besluit om alle plante op die erf te laat uithaal, daarna moet die grond ‘n vrag kraalmis kry en omgeploeg word.

 23 Maart 1991

Die bome word met wortel en tak uitgehaal."

I am only publishing snippets of the much longer journal. Reading it now  I realise I might have been too harsh in my judgement and overlooked the charm of that type of garden but it never fitted in with our vision.

But looking at photos taken in 1991 I realise it was quite a challenge.

Front of the main house 1991

Looking at the house from Church Street through the old orchard

The Cottage in 1991

 

I also found my original plan for the garden and realise we hardly deviated from it.The idea was to create an authentic garden that compliments the house and its  historical landscape.

The original Garden Plan Circa 1991

The orchard is to the right of the picture with a rosarium spanning the length of the property bordering the canal. On the old outspan between the house and the cottage we would keep the big open feel with oaks and a lawn.

Next to the cottage we laid out the 12 vegetable beds bordered by vines and citrus trees. In front of the cottage is the four herb beds shielded from the lawn by a quince hedge.

A 1942 aerial maps shows some interesting buildings on the property before subdivision.

1942 aerial photo

This property has been a labour of love that has kept us busy for over 23 years and the end is not in sight.