Whisky Marmalade for a Wet Sunday

The garden is showing serious signs of spring with the fruit trees coming into blossom and the rose bushes covered with shiny green to red leaves. The colour of the rose blooms are foretold by the leaves with the red and darker roses having more reddish leaves and with the lighter coloured roses having vibrant green leaves.

Wet Plum Blossoms in the rain

Saturday was spent cleaning, fixing and taking away garden refuse. Having lost all our naartjies to some freelance harvesters we were left with some Valencia and Seville oranges for marmalade making. I harvested oranges and cleaned jars on Saturday to prepare for making marmalade on Sunday.

Prepared  Sweet Orange and Lemon Peel

On Sunday we awoke to a wet wintery scene and with the day still shrouded in darkness I prepared the kitchen for marmalade making. Citrus squeezers, Muslin cloths in bowls for the pulp, sugar, sterilizing jars and chopping boards for hand-slicing peels, were all set out.

Prepared Seville Orange Peel

Normally I would only make one batch of marmalade per day. With Keith helping we decided to make three batches, each batch one hour apart. While the first batch of peels was cooking we started slicing the second batch of peels and when the second batch of peels was cooking we prepared the third batch of peels.

Cooking Marmalade

Cooked Marmalade

We worked like a well-oiled machine and we had two batches of peels cooking to the correct softness and the first batch of marmalade in the final cooking stage. As soon as the first batch was bottled we started the final cooking of the second batch and when the second batch was bottled we started the final cooking the third batch.

A variety of Marmalade

After five hours of making marmalade we had batches of Seville and ginger marmalade, sweet orange marmalade while the second batch of Seville marmalade we decided to turn into whisky marmalade.

Sweet Orange Marmalade

The aroma of marmalade cooking mingled with the homely wood fire smells drifting over from a neighbour’s fireplace. It smelled warm and comforting on a cold wet day and it just seemed appropriate to make whisky marmalade befitting of the misty landscape resembling a rural Scottish Highland scene. It was inevitable that our new hobby would spill over into our yearly production of marmalade making. 

Seville Orange and Ginger Marmalade

I have contemplated chopping the peels with a machine but there is something about a marmalade with hand-sliced peels that just seems right.

Whisky Marmalade

With the season of marmalade making on the property in full swing I will be making marmalade for the next couple of weekends. With so much organic orange peel available, it would seem a waste not to preserve them.

Organic Orange Marmalade

An extra pair of hands made a big difference in the production of the first jars of marmalade of the season, but from next weekend I will be the sole ‘marmalader’. I will have to think of creative flavours for the next batches of marmalade to keep it interesting.

Keith is quite impressed that he can now have whisky for breakfast albeit on his toast.

The Brown Betty teapot

Years ago after a Vernacular Architecture Society outing we ended up at Vredenburg in Mowbray, Cape Town, the home of Dirk and Jean Visser. Dirk Visser, the renowned architect, was our tour leader on that day and it was a privilege to learn about vernacular architecture from such a knowledgeable and passionate man.

The Brown Betty teapot

We were sitting at the big yellowwood table enjoying tea and some of Jean Visser’s famous “siterkonfyt” (citron preserve). The tea was served in the most beautiful brown teapot that I admired for its simplicity and colour of its glaze.

Citron Preserve

The teapot only had a triangular stamp with an A, L and B in it and I started to look out for one like it at markets and antique shops.  One day I saw one in a second hand shop in Woodstock, Victoria Road and it took me three days to buy it because the shop was never open.

When I saw the shop open on my way home one day, I popped in and went straight for the teapot and looked at the stamp. There it was the A, L and B. I was informed that the shop was not open by an irritated man who asked me brusquely what I wanted. I held out the teapot to show him what I wanted. He looked at me with a confused expression on his face as though he had never seen a teapot before.

When he realised that I actually wanted to buy something in the shop he saw an opportunity to get rid of me and said R10. I realised then that the shop must have been a front for some other business.  However, with a happy heart and my teapot in hand, I went home.

Later I learned that I had bought a Brown Betty teapot that was made in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent in England at a pottery that ceased operations in the 1970's. The glaze is a Rockingham glaze that is lead free and retains heat better. The teapots are known to make the best tea in the world.

The latest Brown Betty bought on Saturday in the foreground

One day I bought a Brown Betty and I haven’t stopped yet, having grown a collection of the most beautiful teapots in the process.

Peruvian Black Mint and the Anglo-Boer War

One morning I opened an email from our friend Susan. The tone of the email was one of excitement as with all other emails which introduce a new herb to my growing collection.

This email introduced me to the huacatay (pronounced WAH-kah-tie).  In Peru the herb, a member of the marigold family, is used to introduce a minty flavour to many dishes.

The plant in the picture looked familiar and a quick search on the latin name, Tagetes minuta, informed me that the herb is no other than an invasive plant in South Africa called Khaki Weed or “Kakiebos”. It is a highly invasive species that was brought into the country by the British during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1902) when they imported horse feed from Argentinia.

Tagetes minuta/Khakibush

The British troops were called Khakis (in a derogatory sense) because of the colour of their uniform. The weed appeared with the British troops and got the name Khakibush because it was unwanted and invasive.

With forests of it growing in the vineyards and orchards, the potential to make these Peruvian dishes should be easy. 

Dry Khakibush standing tall in the vineyards

In bygone years we used the tea which can be made from Khakibush as an insect repellent and a dip for farm dogs. It was also effective as a measure for repelling fleas and insects, and as a wash for dog's bedding. A regular spray of the tea also maintained its effectiveness in repelling fleas and insects from the pet’s bedding.

Well Susan might just have started the process of taking the Khaki out of the Khakibush and making it an upstanding culinary herb in South Africa. And where better to start the movement than in the valley where the plant has become a prolific by-product of orchards and vineyards.

Happy Birthday Blog

Today my blog is 1 year old. The blog has received over 9596 page views to date. I thank everyone who reads and enjoys the blog for your enthusiasm and support.

I started the blog as a journal of the daily activities on a South African Cape country homestead, honouring traditional crafts and exploring their origins. I had no expectation that it would enjoy an international following, but I do appreciate the interest.

The top 10 countries where the blog is being read are South Africa, France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the Ukraine and Canada. The blog is being read on all the continents and some islands in between! Besides the loyal followers in these countries, there are many other readers in the most distant and unlikely of places.

As far as the top 10 most popular posts are concerned, the current list includes;

1. A Vernacular Restoration Project Published

2. The Tao of Handmade Marmalade

3. Rivers, Ruins and Restorations

4. The Cape came home in Bubblewrap

5. Ek Gooi My Luike Oop

6. The Memory of a House

7. The Cape Chair

8. Wet Winter Days and Wine Coolers

9. Research and Collective Heritage

10. Cape-Pondweed Ponderings

My favourite posts include all the posts! I enjoy writing them and it provides me with an opportunity for contemplation and the celebration of life. If followers find pleasure in reading them, then it makes me even happier to share glimpses of a Cape country lifestyle in terms of space and place, that is the source of my inspiration.

Getting down to the Roots

I cannot get enough of how amazing the orchard looks. All the trees have new dams, have been fed, watered and composted. Blossoms are appearing everywhere and the excitement of the new season is evident in the trees.

The orchard old and new

The row of quince trees looks as if they were frosted with soft green icing. The history of the herb garden is repeating itself with seeds coming up everywhere clearly loving the fact that there are no more big plants throwing shadows everywhere. With the abundant sunshine every seed that fell in the garden is coming up and I can just imagine the bursting and spreading of the roots underground.

I am tempted to let the seedlings grow bigger to identify the legitimate herbs and rescue them before I dig over the rest for green compost. The roses are getting their new leaves and some overachievers actually have some flowers already. With the last treatment for scale on the roses completed they are now ready for the new season. It is always exciting to see the first flush of the season - in no year has the display been quite the same.

With most of the seasonal tasks in the garden complete the focus shifts to pest control. The snails are busy with their destructive march through the garden I am starting to question my approach of live and let live in the pursuit of an organic garden.

Keith and Shawn tackled the last big rescue operation in the garden, that of the oak trees.  The oak trees do not like the clay-rich, poorly drained soil in the garden. Pin oaks prefer moist, rich, well-drained, acidic soil, and are extremely intolerant of high pH soils. 

Treating the oak at root level

As with other pin oaks planted in soils with a pH greater than 7.5, our pin oaks developed iron chlorosis, a nutrient deficiency symptom.  Keith saved the oak tree in the parking area by changing the soil structure and a feeding of iron sulphate.

So the brave and laborious task of removing the soil from the roots started after which compost and other organic food is put back in the place of the clay soil. Keith has taken on the challenge to save the oaks and turn them into the dark green beauties that they should be. I have seen what Keith’s determination can achieve and will watch the response of the oak trees to this archaeological approach to gardening.

Classic G and T

A balmy afternoon gave us the perfect opportunity to have our first braai of the season.  Relaxing with a gin and tonic we could throw a few apricot logs on the fire in memory of the apricot that needed to be replaced in the orchard.

The tonic water of choice was the fever tree Elderflower tonic water just to add a hint of summer to one of the best cocktails.

Cape salmon on the fire

Braaied Cape salmon

After we had braaied the Cape Salmon we had lots of coals left and decided to braai the butterflied leg of lamb and have it as cold meat for Sunday lunch. We had a glorious al fresco meal sitting next to the roaring fire raising a glass to our recycled apricot tree.

Butterflied leg of lamb

Al die Veld is Vrolik

Die natuur het besluit die winter is verby en tekens van die lente is besig om oor die vallei te spoel in blokke pienk, wit en groen. Daar is ‘n energie in die natuur soos waneer mens wag vir die eerste vuurwerk  om te omplof in ‘n reën van kleure by ‘n vuurwerk vertoning.

Saterdag het ek deur die veld buite Bonnievale gestap en ek kon die Lente in die veld ruik en sien.

So baie keer word ons asem weg geslaan deur die plate en plate kleur van veldblomme maar gaan sit op jou hurke en bekyk die veld van nader en bewonder die verskeidenheid van die kleinste blommetjies  wat deel uitmaak van hierdie visuele fees.

Die veld is ‘n bedrywigheid  van insekte wat heen en weer hardloop besig om iets belangrik in die gogga gemeenskap te doen. Ek weet hierdie is net die voorvertoning want die natuur kan partykeer lekker uitspattig raak met die verskeidenheid plante  en blomme wat die hoof vertoning van die lente en somer uitmaak.

Terwyl ek daar in die veld staan en die natuur se handewerk gadeslaan kom Leipoldt se woorde van “Al die veld is vrolik” by my op.

Al die Veld is Vrolik

Al die veld is vrolik; al die voëltjies sing;

al die kriekies kriek daarbuit'; elke sprinkaan spring.

Al die koggelmannetjies kom om fees te vier;

hier galop 'n goggatjie, daarso dans 'n mier.

Selfs die vissies spartel teen die kafferskuil;

in die groot ou eikeboom droom 'n oupa-uil.

Oral in Karooland is 'n ruik versprei:

boegoeblom en appelkoos--kan jy beter kry?

Bind vir my tesame katjiepiering wit,

bobbejaantjies blou en bont, rose in gelid,

varings van die klippe, oral, ai só mooi,

rooi kalkoentjies uit die vlei--blomme uitgestrooi.

Vrolik is die wêreld, vrolik rant en vlei!

Elke koggelmannetjie het sy maat gekry.

Elke gons'rig' goggatjie is getroud of vry:

vrolik is die wêreld hier, vrolik veld en vlei!

C. Louis Leipoldt

Releasing Serpents and Embracing Monsters

A visit to Dullstroom in Mpumalanga province opened up the world of whisky and whiskey to us.

Fly-fishing is the reason why one goes to Dullstroom but neither of us are really keen fishermen and after exploring the antique shops and the largest clock shop in the Southern Hemisphere we decided to visit an emporium, ‘Wild about Whisky’ for a whisky tasting.

A Sample of the wide variety of Whisky at Wild About Whisky

It seemed the right thing to do because the landscape and character of the area could remind one of Scotland.

Wild about Whisky is a local whisky trader in Dullstroom that prides itself on having the biggest whisky collection in the Southern Hemisphere. I decided on the six nations tasting menu. With six whiskies from six countries, of varying styles, from bourbon, through Irish blend, South African grain, to Asian single malts. The Asian single malts were a surprise with their floral notes. Keith selected the Celtic journey tasting menu. He decided on a selection of whiskys and whiskeys from  Scotland and Ireland and fell in love with the peated whisky. The smokey peat flavour is released into the whisky originally through a process of drying the damp malt over a peat-heated fire, thereby introducing the peat smoke into the barley grain.

The tasting mat for the Six Nations

The tasting samples on the mat

We learned to swirl the whisky around the glass, nose the whisky, from around 10cm at first, then from the glass. Then you taste the neat spirit before adding a drop of water (around 20 – 30% by volume). Adding the water is referred to as ‘releasing the serpent’.

 Whisky before the serpents are released

Releasing the serpents by adding a drop of water

The whisky notes before and after adding the water was completely different. We also learned to identify the taste flavours and if it was buttery, waxy or oily.

We bought a selection of the Asian and peated whiskies, a small sample of the over 1000 different whiskies available in the emporium. Glowing warm with our newly acquired knowledge of whisky we stepped into the cold evening air and walked to our accommodation.

Some of the Asian Whisky that we bought

We stayed at the Dullstroom Inn and went for a trout supper in the public dining room where the log fire has been burning constantly for more than 30 years. With Dullstroom claiming to be one of the coldest towns in South Africa, it just makes sense to have a constant fire. There we sat in front of the fire warm on the inside and on the outside.

If you like a peaty and smokey whisky you can embrace the Peat Monster

Sprucing up for Spring

Mother Nature has been kind to me last week. Seven days of glorious sunshine meant that I could get the bulk of the preparation in the garden completed before Spring. Two of the days I could actually wear shorts and t-shirts, giving me an early taste of summer.

The Rosarium ready for Spring

I could feed and compost the rose garden after planting some replacements. Some of the roses were twenty years old last month. I celebrated the twenty years of existence of the rose garden with a well-deserved MCC and rose petal liqueur cocktail.

The twenty-three years existence of the orchard was celebrated by replacing four trees to complete the layout plan of eighteen trees. Eight of the original trees planted in July 1992 are happily continuing to delight us with their fruits. I fed and watered the trees and some are coming into blossom.

The Herb Garden before cleaning

The Herb Garden after cleaning

I cleaned the four mixed herb beds and moved the perennial and fragrant herbs to the beds bordering the quince trees. This left me with the two beds next to the grape vines to utilise for annual herbs, lettuce and some vegetables. I needed to move the salad vegetables out of the vegetable garden to make space for the growing collection of the new heirloom vegetables.

Before

After

With the garden ready for Spring I can relax into planning and sowing for summer harvests.

Our garden the Micro-cosmos

With the cleaning of the herb garden I had to temporarily relocate some very important inhabitants. There is a whole other world that one is aware of but that you hardly see. The micro-cosmos of the garden is an intricate component of the cycle of life.

The residential common slug-eater (tabakrollertjie)

The Lizard playing dead

I was happy to see snakes, lizards, bullfrogs and spiders in the garden, a clear indication that it is a healthy garden. All these creatures make sure that the garden functions as it should by controlling other pests that eat plants and destroy crops.

A Huntsman spider

A spiderweb in the oaks

I wanted to clear all four beds but decided to leave two with some larger geranium and rosemary bushes to protect the lizards and little snakes from the Fiscal Shrike. The Fiscal Shrike was watching everything that was happening and dived to catch caterpillars and grubs in the freshly turned soil.

The Fiscal Shrike keeping an eye on the gardening

I watched him as he hopped from branch to branch in the freshly pruned rosemary bush clearly looking for the lizard. I was glad to see that the lizard still had his tail, a clear indication that he has been safe from the Fiscal Shrike up to now.

A sunbird in the roses

There were four sunbirds flitting from rose tree to rose tree hunting for spiders. One could hear the whirr of their wings and the sharp excited chirping up and down the rose garden.

It is only when one gets down to ground level that you discover the real magic of nature and how important it is for us to support and nurture it by maintaining an organic environment.