Still life with oranges

Seven years ago, a plum orchard in blossom was the image that nudged me into action. That action was to get a blog out of my head and onto paper. Where the first blog post was inspired by the promise of spring in late August, this year was a reminder that late August often is, and this year quite unmistakably so, winter in the Western Cape.

Towerwater still life with oranges after Conrad Theys (see below)

We marveled at the overnight snowfall on all the mountains around us as we travelled to Towerwater from Cape Town. It is years since we have seen such extensive snowfall in the Western Cape Winelands.

Snow capped Du Toitskloof mountains

The last thing on our minds was the prospect of blossoms on the roadsides between Robertson and Bonnievale. Instead, we marveled at the full Breede River and the lushness of the veld around us.

Towerwater welcomed us with warm tints of orange from a very cold garden. From hints of orange in the fiddlewood leaves, to the warm oranges of the nasturtium patchwork under the grapevines and orchard trees. In the herbaceous border, the clivias foretold of a show of orange blooms soon to follow while Seville and Valencia oranges shone bright in their orange abundance.

Seville oranges

Visual warmth emanates from the cold garden while bowls of bright orange kumquats brighten the kitchen yellowwood table.

Valencia Oranges

A still life with oranges, painted by Conrad Theys in 2003, inspired me to recreate the image on a table in the voorkamer. Contemplating the still life with oranges, led my thoughts to all the many artists that have been inspired to paint such a theme. Was it the bright colour of the oranges on a cold day that inspired?

Still life with oranges - Conrad Theys, 2003

Even an artist like Piet Mondriaan, known for his abstract work, once was seduced into painting a still life with oranges. While Paul Gaugin, better known for the Synthetist style, could not resist painting a still life with oranges.

Detail of Still life with oranges - Piet Mondriaan, 1899 

Henri Matisse painted his orange basket in 1912. As a starving artist in Paris, Matisse splashed out on expensive fruits and flowers, not to eat, but to paint. Several times he bankrupted himself to "paint summer in a freezing Paris winter" as Hilary Spurling puts it. That’s how I like to think of the colour of citrus fruit in the garden, summer in winter.

Still life with oranges - Paul Gaugin, 1881

Even Picasso must have loved the colours in Matisse’s painting because he bought the painting, ‘Basket with oranges’ in 1945. I am sure Matisse must have seen the gesture as a compliment from his friend and rival.

Detail of Basket with oranges - Henri Matisse, 1912

So many things inspire creativity. The need to capture beauty, record traditions, share an experience or keep a journal. All of which inspire this blog. On this occasion, I celebrate seven years of recording life on a historic homestead on the edge of the Klein Karoo and the people who read, enjoy and perhaps even, learn from these musings. 

Thank you for the more than 137 000 pageviews. With 505 blog posts to date, it seems, in truth, that there is always something new to write about.

Happy 7th birthday, Blog!

Previous birthday posts

Almond trees in August -2020

Of birthdays and blossoms - 2019

A life imagined - 2018

Looking back to the future - 2017

Reflections - 2016

Happy birthday blog - 2015
Heading for spring -2014

Herbal cordials

I could not say goodbye to the herbs without first harvesting the fresh purple flower of the lavender and the fresh soft tips of the rosemary. I needed to use as much of the reliable herb bushes before I took the roots and tough stems to the local refuse and recycling plant where they will be turned into compost.

I decided to make herbal cordials for healthy and refreshing drinks in summer. Historically, cordials originated in Europe where the art of distilling was refined during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Most recipes for cordials contain alcohol but the nonalcoholic, syrupy drinks are also known as cordials, though mostly in the United Kingdom and associated countries.

Most of these were believed to be beneficial to one’s health, especially for the heart (cor in Latin, hence cor-dial).

I made a lavender cordial as well as a rosemary cordial. Perhaps the properties of lavender will infuse the syrup to stimulate circulation, clear one’s thinking and reduce worries. Sounds like the perfect drink on a sunny day, safely in one’s garden away from the Covid madness.

Rosemary can infuse the syrup with its properties of improving memory performance and quality, as well as boosting alertness, intelligence, and focus. Then I shall remember to forget about the pandemic and focus on planting the new vegetables and herbs for summer.

Removing the old herb bushes forced me to revisit the uses of these herbs in the garden. I undertook to use as much as possible and lose little. Reading of all the health benefits of the different herbs in the Towerwater garden, made me realise that I needed to make better use of the healthy abundance on our doorstep.

Cleaning the herb garden forced me to rethink the way I use the herbs. It helped me plan the new layout of the gardens with far greater insight into the uses and benefits of these life-sustaining gems of nature.

Fragrant faggots for food and fires

The herb bed dedicated to lavender, rosemary, and scented geraniums, had become overgrown. I decided to clear the bed and make it available for the planting of a new selection of herbs and salad greens. The replanting of the herb beds will also incorporate the new rosemary, lavender and lemon verbena plants which have been produced from cuttings taken earlier on in the season.

A herb faggot (bouquet garni)

The decision to take out the herb bushes was not an easy one. The large bushes were reliable suppliers of lavender flowers, rosemary sprigs and lemon verbena leaves. Before I had the bushes removed, I did a quick research on uses for lavender, rosemary, and lemon verbena twigs.

The overgrown herb garden

Historically, nothing in and around a house was ever wasted. All small branches and twigs were bundled and tied together to form faggots.

Herb faggots for making fire

Interestingly enough, when I researched the binding of faggots, I came across the website of the MOT, a DIY museum of old hand-tools and techniques which are powered by man, wind, or water. The DIY Museum is located near Brussels. It has a complete section dedicated to the binding of faggots. The sentence, “If you want to use a wood fired baker’s oven, or you know somebody who wants to do so, carefully keep the branches when clipping, pruning or clearing the garden”, immediately caught my attention. I needed to know everything about the use of faggots.

From the information on the website, it was clear that binding faggots was an important part of recycling twigs into faggots for their use as fuel in wood fired ovens. Thinking of all the prunings that we generate each year, made me realise how valuable these faggots could be for future use.

The website has measurements and practical guidance for making the faggots. “You make bunches with a circumference of about 90 cm and a length of about 80 cm that you press together well. Make sure to tighten well, the branches will shrink during drying and the binding will come loose.”

Side view of the Woodman's Grip and an example of a Faggot Press

There are also dedicated tools for binding faggots. There is a woodman’s grip to tighten branches as well as a faggot press and binding jig. There is even a plan for a binding jig that you can build yourself.

I am excited by this newfound information. I decided to cut up the large herb bushes and with the help of Fungai, we bound them into fragrant faggots to use as an aromatic fuel for fires.

I have discovered that the historical way of doing things was more eco-friendly than we are today.

In “Mrs Beeton’s Dictionary of Everyday Cookery”, published in 1865, she writes the following about the use of faggots, “Brick ovens are generally considered the best adapted for baking bread: these should be heated with wood faggots, and then swept and mopped out, to cleanse them for the reception of the bread.”

Clearly, binding faggots was an integral part of farm work. Making faggots produced a constant source of fuel for bread ovens.

In my further research, I came across the reference for herb faggots by Mrs Beeton. I fetched my own copy of “Mrs Beeton’s book of Household management” in the Towerwater library. I was hoping to find more detail of what goes into a faggot of herbs. From the 23 references to faggots in her book, the reference is either a faggot of herbs, a faggot of savoury herbs and a faggot of sweet herbs, depending on the dish. Clearly Mrs Beeton trusted that her audience knew their herbs.

In her Bechamel sauce, she calls for 1 small bunch of parsley, ½ a bay-leaf and one small faggot of savoury herbs. I will have to do some more research on Mrs Beeton’s cooking because when I make a bouquet garni (faggot of herbs), I normally include parsley and bay leaves.  

The cleaned herb garden ready for fresh planting 

Cleaning the herb beds after winter has taught me so much more about the functions of a herb garden and the optimal use of fresh herbs and pruned bushes. From a faggot of herbs for making lamb shanks to faggots of herbs for cooking fires, the herb bushes might be gone but they will not be forgotten. Their fragrance will linger on in future meals and fires.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word faggot means:

a. “A bundle of sticks, twigs, or brushwood tied together for use as fuel.”

b. “A bundle or bunch of reeds, herbs, flowers, etc.; esp. a small bunch of herbs for seasoning a dish. More generally: a bundle of anything bound or clustered together.”

 

Sources:  

Het MOT https://www.mot.be/en/ (The drawings of the Woodmen's grip and faggot press are also from this website)

Mrs Beeton’s book of Household management, published 1861

Mrs Beeton’s Dictionary of Everyday Cookery, published 1865

The Oxford English Dictionary - https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/67623