A Cordial Affair

A Harvest of herbs

With the garden going into autumn we are going into cleaning, pruning and preparation mode. We are cleaning beds, pruning herbs and shrubs and preparing the garden for the autumn planting.

Rose geranium cordial

Cleaning the mint patch and cutting back the herbs, left me with a harvest of herbs that could enhance the compost in the compost bins. The abundant fragrance of the rose geranium, mint and lavender however made me decide to rather capture the essence of summer in cordials.

Lavender cordial

Making herbal cordials allows one to capture the fragrances of summer for a healthy, refreshing drink on warmer autumn days or as a refreshing mix for a champagne cocktail. Lavender has many health benefits including the ability to relieve stress, improve mood and promote restful sleep.

Mint cordial

Rose geranium has the ability to reduce inflammation, improve kidney health, relieve pain, lower stress levels, strengthen the immune system, and ease digestion. Mint, apart from being refreshing, also has a large variety of health benefits.

I made rose geranium, lavender and mint cordials, leaving the kitchen smelling like an essential oil factory. It left me happy with my handy work and with the knowledge that with some ice, lemon slices and water I can have a refreshing and welcoming drink ready for both expected and unexpected guests. I could add them to my stock of homemade drinks in the cellar.

A cordial affair

I added Papa Meiland rose-petals to the rose geranium cordial to enhance the rose colour. It has a beautiful rose-coloured hue against the subtle lilac of the lavender and the hint of green of the mint.

Seeing cordials in a different light

That is what is so amazing about a garden. There is always something growing that can be used to create a treat that is both healthy and refreshing.

Lime Plaster and Lime-wash

After two weeks of not coming to Bonnievale as a result of organising restoration work to be carried out on the Cape Town cottages, it was good to be home again. Autumn came for an extended stay with the neatly mowed lawn scattered with oak leaves and the crinium moorei flowers having gone to seed.

Lime-washed wall drying

With work on the Cape Town cottages starting in April, we decided to use our leave to do some restoration work on the homestead at Towerwater. A wall had incurred some rainwater damage a while back and with clay brick building it is best to repair any exposed adobe as soon as possible.

Lime-wash freshly applied

After we cleared the voorkamer Keith mixed the adobe friendly plaster comprising of sand, building lime and cement in quantities to a ratio of 8:2:1. Although lime cures more slowly than cement, it does hold many advantages as a workable, self-healing, breathable, nearly carbon neutral material, making it much more suited to natural building practise. As the house is built with sun-baked clay bricks, it is very important that the plaster should be compatible with the original clay bricks and adobe plaster finishing of the building.

Chandelier reflecting against freshly lime-washed walls

The 8:2:1 mix is used by most restoration architects and practitioners working with old Cape Dutch buildings. We have found that it works well with the old plaster.  Traditional buildings need to ‘breathe’ so as to allow moisture in the walls to evaporate through the external plaster/render and paint finishes. Many problems on old buildings are caused by using the wrong mixture, usually cement rich, trapping moisture in the walls thereby causing bigger problems.

Drying lime-wash brush strokes

 Prior to fixing the cracks and spots of exposed adobe, the walls were dampened and again the next day, before Shawn lime-washed the room. Lime-wash is a mixture of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) in water which sets slowly by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. We do not mix our own lime-wash but use a ready mixed product, Glutone. The finish we get on the walls is softer, warmer and awash with reflective salt crystals.

For two days the dining-room table looked like we were planning a major drinks party with all the glasses and liquor packed out on it when Keith emptied the jonkmanskas that had to be removed from the voorkamer.

Lime-washed walls and handmade terracotta floor tiles

But the disruption was worth seeing the voorkamer in pristine condition again. Looking fresh with its two layers of peach coloured lime wash, reminiscent of the first colour to be found on the wall.

Harvesting Mexican Black Beans

Mexican Black Beans

After our friends Susan and Michael sang the praises of Mexican black beans, I wanted to try them and so started a search. I discovered that Mexican black beans are not that easy to find in South Africa. When you do find them, you have to be prepared to pay a lot for them.

Mexican black bean harvest

My philosophy is to make ingredients with the raw material available. If you cannot find an ingredient for a recipe, my alternative then is to grow them.

Thus it was that I ordered some heirloom Mexican black beans. I was a bit let down when the packet arrived with 25 black beans in it.

Clearly not enough beans to fill a bed, I decided to plant a row of Mexican black beans with a row of the 25 Rattlesnake beans I got from the same supplier. The rest of the bed I filled with yard long beans.

The beans dried on the stalk, while the stalk kept on growing and producing more flowers and beans. The raw beans had the most amazing purple colour before they dried to black.

I harvested my black beans and with the help of a strong breeze, I separated the beans from the threshed shells. I expected more than a bowl of dried beans and plan to keep the beans that are still on the plants for sowing again next season.

I decided to make oven-roasted lamb and black bean stew. I love the texture and flavour of the black beans in the stew.

Southern Flavours in the Western Cape

Summer Lunch

The big clean-up of the vegetable garden has started. On Saturday we cleaned four beds of underperforming vegetables and harvested those that were overdue for harvesting. After filling compost bins with leaves and cuttings, I took a Bakkie-load of garden refuse to the municipal dump.

Baby Beetroot

Keith harvested the carrots and now we have to think of creative ways of preserving them. I could harvest the first batch of baby beetroot for lunch.  The Mexican black beans were ready for harvesting and it was my first experience of harvesting dried beans. I satisfied my curiosity by tasting and inspecting the fresh beans earlier before they dried. The beans are an amazing purple colour in the pod and turn black as they dry on the stalk.

Oven Roasted Lamb and Mexican Black Bean Stew

I decided to make a Mexican black bean and oven roasted lamb stew with corn bread. Our friend Susan introduced us to corn bread and the way she spoke of the black beans made me curious enough to try them.

On a hot Sunday we could enjoy lunch in the shade of the big oak on the lawn.  We refreshed our palates with mint and cucumber water and enjoyed the black bean stew with traditional Southern (USA) cornbread and Weltevrede Malbec. Desert was the simply delicious chilled Hanepoot grapes that burns ones throat with their sweetness. 

Organic Hanepoot from the garden

For my first try at making corn bread I went looking for a traditional Southern corn bread recipe. I believe cooking is like dancing. You first have to master the classic steps before you can improvise and make the dance your own. Trying to find a traditional corn bread recipe was basically impossible. There are several recipes claiming to be traditional but which all had different ingredients. So I looked at several recipes and used the core ingredients I could find most commonly in most of them and omitted the ingredients that were listed as optional.

Cornbread

I decided to make the corn bread in a cast iron skillet; but in my case, a cast iron dutch oven or black pot without the lid. My first attempt at Southern food was quite good, even if I have to say so myself. But I will definitely have to practice more before I serve it to our American friends.

In the American Home Cookbook by an American Lady, New York: 1854 the following corn bread recipe is provided:

“1 quart of milk, 4 eggs, tablespoon of sugar, 1 of butter, tea-spoonful of salt, some nutmeg, a large tea-spoonful of soda, and 2 of cream of tartar; stir in the meal until it makes a thick batter and bake in buttered tins in a quick oven.”

I decided not to try this one and rather use one with clearer quantities for the ingredients. I trust my version of a corn bread was fairly traditional. It was fun to explore the history of a dish that is clearly American vernacular.

Thanks to our American friends we have been exposed to new flavours and dishes. On a hot summers day we could enjoy Southern flavours in the Western Cape.