Days like this

After a week of crazy winds that blew out some of my recently planted gazanias and rain that did not want to rain but instead hung about undecided, damp but not wet, we finally awoke to a brilliant, bright winter’s day. With not a cloud to be seen in the sky, everything looked greener, bluer, and brighter.

Looking up at the African blue sky through the opening apricot blossoms, I am reminded of the series of paintings of almond blossoms that Vincent van Gogh painted in southern France. I can understand his inspiration to capture the lines, colours and textures of the dark branches edged with white blossoms on a bright blue background. 

Almond blossoms, Vincent van Gogh, 1890

We managed to change several things in the garden. Replacing the Bougainvilea hedge with a spekboom hedge, brought endless sunshine into the orchard. The new almond tree that was not happy growing in the shade of the Bougainvilea hedge, finally looks determined to follow in his sibling’s footsteps and become a larger tree. The two almond trees were planted at the same time. The one that was planted in a sunnier spot in the orchard has become a proper little tree in one season, whereas the one planted in the shadier spot in the bottom of the orchard has hardly showed any growth. The magic which sunshine brings to the garden.

We decided to re-plant potted hydrangeas directly into the soil on the old front side of the house. With four empty terracotta pots now available, we decided to replant the Veillchenblau rose in two of them and get them into the sun. Their original spot used to be very sunny, but the sprawling oak tree had increasingly eroded most of their afternoon sun. We hope that this move will give them a new lease on life.

The two remaining pots we moved to the stone stoep in front of the cottage. I planted two Cara Cara oranges in them. The Cara Cara oranges are a cousin of Blood Oranges, and we thought it might be interesting to introduce them into the garden.

The garden feels new and fresh. We replaced 37 roses in the rosarium and continued using Mycorrhizal granules in the re-planting of the roses. This year we are introducing guano into their feeding program in the hope that it will help them stay healthy and strong.

After about 25 years, we had to rescue the rosemary bush in front of the cottage by cutting out the deadwood and trimming it back to a more manageable size. The idea was to replace it with a new one but after we trimmed it back, we decided to give it another chance, this time as a Rosemary tree. Most of the lower branches were dead or dying and after we removed it the plant looked more like a miniature tree than a bush.

August is a time of renewal at Towerwater with constant changes and improvements in the garden. With the garden bursting into blossom and new growth, it is fitting that I celebrate the birth of this blog nine years ago. It is astonishing that so many years have passed since the first post. At the time, I thought recording country life in a traditional Cape farmhouse might interest a small group of people.

With more than 176 000 visits to the blog to date, it has proved that there is a larger audience who have an interest in traditional building maintenance, food and baking, gardening and nature, Cape furniture, art, and antiquity. I enjoy the interaction and the sharing of ideas with readers and through the posts I have met so many interesting people with interesting stories.

Enjoying this glorious winter’s day and reminiscing the time spent recording a country lifestyle, reminded me of the song “Days like This” by Van Morrison.

“When it's not always raining there'll be days like this

When there's no one complaining there'll be days like this

When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch

Well my mama told me there'll be days like this”

 

Happy ninth birthday Blog!

Previous birthday posts,

Our marmalade malady - 2022
Still life with oranges - 2021
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