Eye Candy

Delicious autumn! 
My very soul is wedded to it,

and if I were a bird, 
I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

- George Eliot

The pyracantha berries are at their peak now in my garden. They are beautiful, bright, and full of goodness that the birds and squirrels are feasting on.

Plant pyracantha in full sun and prune before flowering in late winter or early, early spring and you and the birds will be rewarded year after year.

In bloom in my garden today: Cuphea vermillionaire, Double white daisy, Fuchsia, Hardy Geranium “Lily Lovell”, Knifophia, Lavender, Himalayan honeysuckle (Leycesteria Formosa), Pachysandra axillaris 'Windcliff Fragrant', Salvia, Solanum crispum

Author’s photo

Blueberry Grunt

"I prefer Hostess fruit pies to pop-up toaster tarts because they don't require as much cooking."
- Carrie Snow (comedienne, actress)

I have 2 bushes of Sunshine Blue blueberries in my garden. I’m contemplating a third. This variety is a smallish bush, reaching about 3-4 feet (1m) tall and wide. It is evergreen so is nice to look at most of the year round. The beautiful new leafy growth is bluish green leaves with pinky tinged edges.

All blueberries are shallow rooted, so good drainage, regular watering and mulch are best around the root zone for optimal performance and weed suppression. Blueberries like an acid pH soil, so your organic mulch can include spent coffee grounds and conifer needles. Your fertilizer should be an organic rhododendron or blueberry mix. Both are acidic.

Your local nurseries should carry plant varieties that will thrive in your climate and locale. There are lowbush varieties (New England), highbush varieties that grow throughout the US, and rabbiteye varieties (South and West US). Highbush like mine do not require cross-pollination but the others do, which means if you plant lowbush or rabbiteye varieties you’ll need more than one cultivar in your garden. Check with your local nurseries for specific information to your needs. They should sell you 2 year old plants or older to get a jump start on harvest. If you allow flower production on plants that are too young or too newly planted, you can slow down the root growth. A healthy root structure is so important to the plants overall health and more importantly, future fruit yield. Even removing the flowers the first year you have it will redirect the plants growing efforts back down to the roots. Patience will give you reward in the years to come.

Now for the harvest. Blueberry Grunt. What a bizarre name for a dish I thought when I first saw it, but there it is. Blueberry Grunt is like a steaming bowl of blueberries with a fluffy biscuit on top. It is yummy. It is said the sound of the simmering berries under the biscuit topping sounds like a grunt.

You can use your favorite biscuit or dumpling dough, or try my version below. Recently I’ve been experimenting with gluten free flours, so for this recipe I’m including both options. The gluten free flour mixture I used this time is Vanessa Maltin’s basic flour mix which can be found in her wonderful cookbook The Gloriously Gluten Free Cookbook.

Blueberry Grunt

In a 10 inch skillet (NOT cast iron) or an 8 inch pot, bring to a boil then turn the heat down to a simmer:
4 cups of fresh blueberries (no doubt frozen will do)
1/3 C water

Meanwhile in a separate bowl combine:
1 C all purpose flour OR
1 C of a gluten free flour mixture
½ TB baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt (I use Celtic Sea salt)
3 TB butter or butter substitute (I used Earth Balance organic buttery spread)
3 oz milk (I use soy or rice milk)

Wisk (or sift) the dry ingredients together. Cut in the butter till it’s fine and crumbly. With a light hand fold in the milk just till it’s all combined.

On top of the simmering berries, drop small spoonfuls of the dough, dotting the whole surface. Use it all up. Cover with a lid and let steam 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy immediately. It is heaven on earth in a bowl!

It’s quick, easy and ever so wonderful. You can make it sweeter by adding your favorite sweetener to the berries or serving it with whipping cream, but I find that neither is needed. You can make it dairy free, gluten free, soy free, sugar free…whatever your needs. Make your own version. There is no reason why you can’t substitute raspberries, blackberries or other in-season summer fruits for the blueberries.

Get your creative mojo going! Then tell us about your ideas in the comments.

In Bloom In My Garden Today: green beans, tomato, basil, oregano, zucchini, cucumber, black mondo grass, lavender, borage, veronica, fushia, rose, nepeta, salvia, russian sage, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, echinacea, liatris, coryopsis, caryopteris, begonia, alyssum, lobelia, heather, hosta, gallardia, Star Jasmine, anise hyssop, gaura


Authors photo

Rasperry Ice

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.
~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show

Berry season is upon us! I just love going out into the garden and picking a basket full of berries. Most don’t make it into the basket cuz my mouth gets in the way, but those that do make it to the kitchen counter are destined to become something yummy like raspberry sorbet or blueberry grunt. Grunt? What’s a grunt you ask? That’ll be a topic for a later post, when the blueberries are ripe. But for now…it’s raspberry season!

I’ve tried several varieties like Royalty, Munger, Fall Gold and Heritage, but currently Willamette feeds our cravings. All the other’s have slunk away while Willamette stays strong, so I think rather than more experimentation, I’ll transplant suckers from this plant to increase our crop. The picture above is our Willamette. Our honey bees and the local bumblebees did a great job pollinating it this year, so there are loads of berries. The only pests I’ve had problems with are squirrels. The birds don’t seem to get to my berries but a squirrel has gobbled more than I care to share.

Raspberries need full sun and good drainage. There are dozens of varieties, many with differing pruning requirements to ensure healthy crops. I highly recommend you purchase your raspberry canes from local, reputable, knowledgeable fruit and berry growers/retailers so you be sure to get the correct information on how to establish and prune the variety best suited for your area. Many of the US fruit catalogs don’t include enough information leaving you to pick from pretty pictures without knowing if the variety will thrive in your region. The local retailers should know which varieties have proven to be reliable in your area. The USA is big with vast climatic differences, and yes, this matters when we are talking about fruit set, pests and disease.

One of my favorite ways to enjoy raspberries, other than straight off the stem, is as a sorbet. And it’s not difficult to make your own.

The typical fruity granita recipe calls for pureed fruit or fruit juice of your choice, optional sweetener, something to freeze it in (a 9x9 glass dish, freezer safe), and a fork to scrape it. After pureeing the berries and straining the seeds (optional), pour the liquid into your freezer safe dish. After freezing for a few hours, it should be frozen firm but not rock hard. Now scraping thin layers with a fork will yield loads of icy, fruity crystals for a refreshing dessert.

I’ve put an ice cream maker to work for this, making it even faster.

This Donvier Half Pint Ice Cream Maker is indeed ancient. My hubby acquired this jewel in his bachelor days. An ice cream maker for two, this little half-pinter makes impromptu fruity sweet cravings easy, dairy free and healthy to satisfy. Needing no special rock salt, all you do is put this little gizmo’s inner cylinder in the freezer for a few hours prior, puree some just picked garden raspberries and in15 minutes sorbet is ready. Pour ¾ of a cup of the puree into the frozen cylinder, turn the handle frequently for 10-15 minutes and it is ready. The frozen puree will increase in volume by 25%, yielding a nice cool treat for two. In summer we keep the cylinder in the freezer all the time so it’s ready at a moments notice.

These little Donviers come in bigger sizes too. Such a naturally sweet way to keep cool in the summer heat! 

In Bloom In My Garden Today: Purple Poppies, Borage, Phygelius, Echinacea, Lobelia, Mullen, Nigella (Love-In-A-Mist), Thyme, Lavender, Thalictrum rochebrunianum (Meadow Rue), Lavender ‘Hidcote’, Digitalis, Begonia ‘Bonfire’, Penstemon schmidel ‘Red Riding Hood’, Salvia officinalis (culinary sage), Salvia nemorosa ‘Viola Klose’ and 'Hot Lips', Astilbe ‘Bridal Veil’, Tomato ‘Stupice’, Hardy Geranium, Peas, Rose, Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’, old fashioned Coral Bells (Heuchera), Alpine strawberry, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’


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