The generous sunlight of summer

November in the Western Cape is filled with sunshine. We can enjoy daylight for more than 14 hours a day. This will be increasing to 14 hours and 25 minutes at the most on 22 December, which is the Summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. After that, our days will gradually become shorter again.

Afternoon sun

We will be able to enjoy the long sun-filled days deep into summer. The longer days have turned the garden into a paradise of green. I am sure that if I stand still long enough in the vegetable garden, I will see the vegetables grow fuller and taller.

In the tree-filled garden, the sun gets filtered. It creates a visual experience that is pleasing to the senses. In the house, the morning sun falls deep inside through the kitchen door. Only to be repeated by the afternoon sun that falls deep into the house through a bedroom window on the orchard (western) side.

The play of light creates different atmospheres in the house the day long. It is as if it intends to highlight different details in the rooms at different times of the day.

Summer brings a different energy to Towerwater. The birds announce the sunlight at least half an hour before the first rays peek over the Langeberg. When the light filters into the bedroom, I simply have to get up. Even if just to walk in the garden with my camera, capturing that one perfect moment in the soft morning light.

Edward Hopper – Sun in an empty room 1963 - https://www.edwardhopper.net/sun-in-an-empty-room.jsp

I love what the sun does to the rooms in the house. Streaks of light fall like brush strokes over floors and furniture. If I had time to paint, I would like to capture it on a canvas like Johannes Vermeer or Edward Hopper or like so many other painters in history.

                                  Johannes Vermeer – Lady at the Virginals  1660’s                                                                        -https://www.rct.uk/collection/405346/lady-at-the-virginals-with-a-gentleman

At Towerwater, I have not reached the stage where I can indulge in the art of painting. The busy days allow me only to capture brief moments of brilliance with my camera. With the sunlight changing the mood in rooms, no moment is the same in the house at any time.

It is a fact that sunlight lifts the mood, is antibacterial and has healing properties. We are fortunate to enjoy a generous helping of sunshine all year-long. But in summer, we are restored in mood and being.

Olives in search of a martini

One of my favourite cocktails is a Dry Martini, shaken with a couple of olives. The olive is not just a pretty garnish to the martini. The saltiness and brininess of the olive help to highlight the aromatics in the gin, complement the vermouth, and counterbalance the Martini’s invigorating intensity.

If one prefers a martini on the wild side, one can enjoy a Dirty Martini where some of the olive brine is added to give the drink a pleasingly savoury character.

I received my bucket of olives from the Klaasvoogds valley near Robertson on Friday. Saturday was taken up by baking Christmas cake and that meant that Sunday was occupied with the bottling of Towerwater inspired olives. I added lemon, bay leaves, garlic and other fresh herbs from the garden to the jars of olives.

I enjoy making the special Towerwater olives. It not only makes the martinis I serve uniquely Towerwater martinis, but all the other dishes containing some of the olives, is like tasting the Towerwater garden.

After bottling the olives I admired their smooth round bodies in the jars and wondered which one of them were in search of a Dry Martini, I am sure I will soon find out.

)

"The martini felt cool and clean… I had never tasted anything so cool and clean. They made me feel civilized.” - Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (1929)

Going gingerly towards Christmas

This year I decided that it is time to start a new tradition, Towerwater Christmas cake.  The jars of crystallised citrus peel that I made last year got me thinking that I needed to make something special in which I can use them. Deciding on a recipe for fruitcake is not easy because there are so many available.

Candied Ginger Christmas cake

I only needed a basic recipe because I was going to give it a touch of Towerwater. A recipe that was said to be more than 100 years old caught my eye. I thought yes, let me start a new tradition with a traditional dark fruitcake.

Citrus peel and marmalade Christmas cake

Fruitcake reminds me of home and my mom baking a cake with all my favourite flavours. Ginger, citrus peel, green figs and what we now call Makataan (preserved wild watermelon). 

After a shopping expedition to the dried fruit shop in Montagu, I ended up with so many ingredients that I decided to bake two fruitcakes. This is very ambitious for one that has never baked a fruitcake before. The ingredients for fruitcake are very expensive, sometimes difficult to find and I can understand why some supermarkets charge over R50 for a slice of Christmas cake.

Baking Christmas cake is not something you do on a whim. One cannot wake up one morning and decide, I am baking a Christmas cake today. It needs commitment that involves sourcing the ingredients, macerating the fruit mixture in brandy for a day, finding the spices, and finally baking. 

The recipe called for a tube tin but the (un)seasoned baker that I am, I decided that my square tins will be just fine. I will simply bake the cakes for longer. Luckily for me, our friends from Klaasvoogds came over for sushi and MCC. As a surprise, Susan brought a Japanese cheesecake for desert adding to the theme of the meal. I say luckily for me, because between dessert and after dinner drinks, Susan gave me a crash course in the finer art of baking and why recipes ask for a tube tin.

Susan's Japanese Cheesecake

When I was asked to show the tin I was planning to use, I felt like a student that was about to fail a test. Susan assessed my cake tin and immediately explained what I need to do to get a solid fruitcake to bake evenly. With a strip of aluminium foil and towel paper, she showed me how to make an apron for the square tin that will help the cake to bake evenly and not dry out from the sides.

Having averted a possible baking disaster we could relax with a Japanese Miyagikyo Whisky and ginger and lemon chocolates, keeping to the eastern theme of the evening.

In the end, I decided to bake a ginger Christmas cake as well as a citrus peel Christmas cake. Something else that appealed to me in the recipe that I decided to use, is that one uses marmalade in it as well.  What better to give this Christmas cake a real Towerwater twist, than to add Towerwater organic marmalade.

On Saturday morning the kitchen was filled with the aroma of spices and rich crystallised fruit in brandy. So after a whole day of baking, we are the proud owners of two bespoke Christmas cakes. Evenly baked with Susan’s apron of wet towel paper folded in aluminium foil.

I could not resist eating some of the nuts and ginger that I planned to use as decoration after the cakes have matured. The taste of ginger reminds me of Christmas. Eating the crystallised ginger while I admired the two Christmas cakes on the table, I realised that Christmas season has officially started at Towerwater. We are gingerly heading towards Christmas with two cakes well fed with their first sprinkle of brandy.

Towerwater dark Christmas Cake

Ingredients

Fruit Mixture

1kg fruit cake mix (the one with cherries, nuts and citrus peel already added)

125g candied ginger (chopped fine)

250g chopped candied orange peel

125g candied cherries

125g pecan nuts

2 lemons (rind only, finely grated)

1/2 cup orange marmalade

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 cup brandy

1 teaspoon almond essence

Cake Mixture

2 cups flour (sifted)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon mace

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

250g butter (or margarine)

1 cup sugar

6 eggs

Method

Place cake mix, ginger, cherries, orange peel, pecan nuts and lemon rind, orange marmalade, lemon juice, brandy, orange juice and almond extract in a large bowl; toss well, cover and let stand overnight at room temperature.

Grease, then line the bottom of a 24cm baking pan with wax paper. Preheat oven to 130°C.

Sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice, baking powder and salt, and set aside.

Cream butter until light, add sugar gradually, and continue creaming until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients, about 1 cup at a time, beating just to blend.

Mix in the fruit mixture. Spoon batter into the pan. Fold insulation apron of foil and the wet paper towel around the tin. Place on centre rack of oven for even heat distribution. Half fill a roasting pan with water and place on the rack below. Bake uncovered for 4-1/4 hours until cake shrinks slightly from sides of pan and a metal skewer inserted midway between the edge and the centre comes out clean.

Cool cake upright in pan on wire rack for one hour. Carefully turn out, peel off wax paper, turn right-side-up and cool thoroughly. Brush with brandy, wrap in cling wrap and then in foil. Store in an airtight container for 3 weeks to ripen.

Decorate your naked Christmas cake with candied fruits and nuts of your choice.

A posse ad esse

Enjoying the splendour of the garden that each spring brings, reminds us that no dream is unrealistic and that what is possible can be made actual if one works at it. We could make “a posse ad esse” the motto for Towerwater - “from possibility to actuality."

Every year the rosarium is the same and yet different. The 120 different roses are like the beads of a rosary. It feels like the saying of the joyful mysteries as one walks down the garden path contemplating each rose and the joy that it brings to the garden.

This year it is no different. The garden adds a quality to our lives for which we are grateful. We appreciate the joy the roses bring with their shape, fragrance and colours.

Spring is for the birds

Over the last two weekends, we have met most of the new additions to the feathered folk in the Towerwater garden. First, was the family of Wagtails feeding all over the lawn oblivious of us having lunch in close proximity. They successfully raised two chicks and the family outing was intense with both parents having a child to feed.

Fiscal Flycatcher

The Olive Thrush that normally feeds along the rosarium scratching for, and catching insects, suddenly came back to the herb garden on a regular basis. Soon the reason was revealed when I noticed the juvenile Olive Thrush sitting under the Elderflower bush waiting for some juicy morsels from its parent.

Olive Thrush

The Robin’s warning chirps whenever I came near to the herbaceous border, made me stand still for a moment. Flying away to distract me, while giving the warning chirps, made me look in the direction from where it came. My patience was rewarded when I noticed movement in the Portwine Magnolia tree. The Robin chick ventured out of the shadows and I could see it clearly.

Juvenile Cape Robin

The absence of the Bulbuls from the lawn must mean that their chicks must still be too young to fly. The growing bird population in the garden is a welcome sign of spring. We find it delightful how they enjoy the garden oblivious of our presence. Or perhaps they instinctively know that we pose no threat to their idyllic lives and that our presence means an absence of stalking cats.

Wagtail

The spring air is filled with the sounds of young birds chirping for food and adult birds tending to their young with warning chirps. The raucous toads in the dam vibrate the warm evening air with their croaking. The new life in the garden and veld is palpable. A reassuring sign that it has been a successful season for our feathered friends.

Weaver bird's nest

The unfinished Weaver bird’s nest in the hibiscus tree, is a bit of a puzzle as there was no follow-up activity from the normally very active nest-builder. The female rejecting the nest at such an early stage, would be most unusual. Well, time will tell. But it’s clear that the birds do love spring.