Fruits and Nuts

I have a new planter bed, courtesy of a grumpy inspector from the electric company. Well, he decided we needed a barrier on our garage roof deck, and my lovely husband negotiated that barrier to be a new planter box. It's enormous. 18' long, 2.5' wide, 3'(+) deep. We've always talked about a planter box up there - this was merely the motivation we needed to get going.

Currently, the enormous box is sitting empty. We decided to parcel our our resources and build the box to create the mandated barrier but hold off on filling the box with soil until Spring. Looks like that might have been an error. We're contemplating fruits or nuts up there, and looks like many of those should be going in late winter. It's hard to get the right soil components around here in late winter.

This merry adventure has led me to the library archives, searching for information on miniature orchards. Here's what we've got so far:

"Fruit Trees in Small Spaces," Colby Eierman:  Subtitled 'Abundant Harvests from Your Own Backyard.' Interesting general resource. The book covers all aspects of the trees, from selection to pruning, with recipes for the harvest at the end of the book. Beautiful pictures and easy layout designs. Sadly lacking in specific information about hardiness. The biggest problem, however, is that like so many other 'small spaces' books, this author assumes a rather significant amount of space. Space more likely found in the suburbs than in the urban area I'm living in. For me, 'small spaces' are postage stamp yards. It's a step up from container gardening, requiring principles of permanent planting. This book is pretty to flip through but not a good resource for me to make a solid planting plan.

"Fruits and Nuts," Susanna Lyle. Subtitle 'A comprehensive guide to the cultivation, uses, and health benefits of over 300 food producing plants.' This is a heavy duty book. It's very textbook like. It checks in at almost 500 pages, formatted on 8x11inch paper, with small color photos. The index at the front is essential, as it connects the common name of a plant to it's Latin name - the book is organized alphabetically by Latin names. This text lives up to it's 'comprehensive' claim. It is amazingly thorough. However, this isn't a good resource for sifting through the various types of 'food producing plants.' There's simply too much information. I'm seriously considering purchasing it, however. Because once you've picked out a plant, this book has everything you need to know about growing it. And I have a hard time resisting comprehensive reference books.

Still waiting for review includes "Vertical Vegetables and Fruit" - which looks promising for 'small spaces.'

In the meantime, I'm taking a bit of a break to wander through "30 Day Gourmet Big Book of Freezer Cooking." I'm going to be less than stellar in January due to health stuff and I need a freezer stocked with ready to eat meals. Preferably not premade stuff from the store. Often, the premade entrees are stocked full of sodium and my blood pressure doesn't care for high doses of the stuff. Off to meal planning! Who knows? This could revolutionize the ready to go meals in our house.

Homemade Food Gifts

The holiday season is now upon us. Crazy how time flies! Back in the heart of last winter, I had hoped to make enough gardening progress to be able to gift homemade jams/preserves/relishes to the neighbors, friends, and family who stop in this season. Sadly, that didn't work out. I just couldn't get enough out of the garden. I'm working on a plan now to maximize next years growth - and to accept that my family can easily eat through the produce we're growing, with little leftover.

Since I can't raid the food preservation shelf (with one exception, see below), I'm looking towards food gifts I can create. Cookies are traditional, but I'm trying to look at things that are a little different. I stumbled across a book the other day called "The Flying Brownie" by Shirley Fan. It was a staff pick at the local independent bookstore. The book's tagline "100 recipes for homemade treats that pack easily, ship fresh, and taste great." In addition to the recipes themselves, there are tips for packing care packages. The best part is that each recipe includes tips to increase the longevity of the goods and how long you can expect each to last. Really, that last detail is what convinced me to invest in this book. Even though I'm not planning on shipping any of this years gifts, I'm looking forward to trying out these recipes for holiday gifts.

One thing I did get to this year is Rumtopf. It's a berry infused rum liquor. Starting with the early season berries, fruit is layered in a jar and covered with rum (at least 90 proof). Pick fruit in season and use the best fruits. Use a clear glass jar so the fruit layers can be seen. If you have several fruits at the same time, try alternating color for a great look. Keep adding a layer of fruit as each comes in season. Finish when the jar is full, or with sliced apples. Between layering, cap tightly and store in a dark place. Once the final fruit has been added, leave the jar to sit for six weeks. This concoction is ready just in time for Christmas. The fruit gives the rum a very sweet, fruity flavor and thickens it similar to a syrup. The fruit in the jar is edible, but highly alcoholic. The syrup is great over ice cream, pound cake, or just about anything that sounds good to you. Small jars go a long way for gifts. Large jars are good if you're expecting parties (oh! I can use it as a mixer with seltzer for a great drink!) but for individual use large jars are just overwhelming. My rumtopf is on schedule this year. Can't wait to gift those jars!

Going homemade. Looking forward to every minute of it.