China Bayles' Book of Days (51 page)

Read more about herbs and astrology:

Herbs of the Zodiac,
by Bertha Reppert, available from Rosemary House, Mechanicsburg, PA,
www.rosemaryhouse.com

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

—WALT WHITMAN

SEPTEMBER 4

I forked the bacon out of the skillet onto a plate covered with a paper towel. We don’t often eat bacon at home, but I operate on the hypothesis that when you’re dining under an open sky, fat grams don’t count. I poured out most of the grease, cracked a couple of eggs into the little that was left, let them cook for a minute, then slopped a glug of water into the hot skillet and clapped on the lid. Eggs cooked this way are steamed, sort of. If I’d been at home, I would have added fresh parsley and garlic chives, but McQuaid’s camping pantry doesn’t include such niceties.

—INDIGO DYING: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

Garlic Chives

There’s garlic (
Allium sativum
), and there are chives (
A. schoenoprasum
)—and then there are garlic chives (
A. tuberosum
, also called Chinese chives), which are brightening my garden with pretty globes of starry white flowers, dearly loved by the bees. For months now, I’ve been snipping the flat, narrow green leaves into salads, omelets, soups, and mashed potatoes, where they add color and a subtle garlic taste. The tender young leaves are best to cook with, so it’s a good idea to shear the entire clump back to the ground every three or four weeks, to make sure that the leaves don’t get tough and bitter. You can dry the snipped leaves for wintertime use, or pop them into small plastic bags and freeze them.

Now, about those tiny black seeds that will inevitably be produced by those pretty white flowers. You can collect them by tapping the drying seed head onto a plate, then sprout the seeds for spicy salad sprouts. Or you can clip the seed heads while they’re still flowering, dry them in paper bags, shake out the seeds, and add the pretty heads to your herbal wreaths. Or you can let Nature take its course, in which case you will have more garlic chives than you know what to do with. (Of course, they do make lovely passalong plants.) In cold regions, they’ll die back to the ground and pop up again in the spring. Every two or three years, dig and divide the clump.

Oh, by the way: Chinese herbalists use garlic chives to stimulate the appetite, improve digestion, and fight fatigue—another reason to plant and enjoy this ornamental culinary herb.

Read about the Allium allies:

Garlic, Onion, and Other Alliums
, by Ellen Spector Platt

The juice of Onions mix’t with the decoction of Penniroyal . . . anointed upon a pild [bare] or bald head in the sun, bringeth the haire againe very speedily.

—JOHN GERARD, THE HERBAL, 1597

SEPTEMBER 5

“Oh, wow!” Ruby gasped. “Ivy, these are
beautiful
!”

I pulled in my breath. Before us lay a dozen different botanical prints, in exquisite shades of greens and pastels, all on fine ivory paper. I picked up a print and studied it carefully. “Why, this looks as if it were made from an actual sprig of yarrow!” I picked up another. “And here’s thyme. How gorgeous!”

“Do you think so?” Ivy asked, looking pleased. “I really enjoy making them. And yes, they’re plant prints, made by inking the plant material and pressing it on paper. It’s a very old art—the earliest example I know of is found in one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s books.”

—“IVY’S WILD, WONDERFUL WEEDS,” IN AN UNTHYMELY
DEATH AND OTHER GARDEN MYSTERIES

Plant Printing

Plant printing, described by Laura Donnelly Bethmann in her book,
Nature Printing with Herbs, Fruits & Flowers,
is a lovely way to preserve the herbs you’ve grown in your garden. Start by collecting some of your favorite garden plants. Fern, rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, dandelion, oregano—these and others make beautiful prints. Once you’ve collected them, press them in a plant press or between the pages of a phone book for a week or so. When you’re ready to print, assemble these items:

newspapers

water-soluble ink such as Speedball (it’s best to start with one color, say, green)

a flat plate or piece of glass or tile the pressed plants (make sure they’re clean) an artist’s brush tweezers

a few sheets of printmaking or art paper (your handmade paper would be nice!)

a few sheets of non-textured paper towel

Then do this:

• Spread newspapers over your working area. Squeeze or scoop a small blob of ink onto the plate, glass, or tile and brush it out evenly.

• Lay the plant material on the inked plate, veined-side up. With the brush, paint the ink evenly on the leaf, beginning at the center and working outward.

• Use the tweezers to gently lift the inked leaf and place it on the printing paper, veined-side down. Place a paper towel over the inked plant and gently press outward from the center. (Don’t rub—you’ll move the plant and smear the ink.)

• Remove the paper towel and use the tweezers to lift the plant. Let your print dry, frame it, and hang it where others can admire it.

Some project ideas: giftwrap, notecards, invitations, holiday cards, herbarium, calendars, printed fabric. Once you’ve begun creating your garden of nature prints, you’ll think of dozens of other exciting things to do!

SEPTEMBER 6

Maggie and I landscaped the patio and the lot beside it with pots and beds of annual and perennial herbs—a large bay tree in an old wooden wine cask and low hedges of chives, parsley, and winter savory for the kitchen; fennel and lavender and thyme for the bees; borage and catnip and monarda for the hummingbirds.

—LOVE LIES BLEEDING: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

Blue Stars

The blooming borage is full of happy bees this morning. The bright blue blossoms, star-shaped, make this one of the prettiest herbs. It’s not fussy about soil, but it does like a spot that gets plenty of sun. And once you have it, you’re likely to have more of it, for it reseeds readily, pollinated by the bees and hummingbirds, which adore the starry blossoms.

CULINARY BORAGE

The leaves and starry flowers have a lovely cucumber-like taste. Use borage fresh; it loses its flavor when dried.

• Garnish cold summer drinks with borage flowers, and freeze them in ice cubes and ice rings.

• The flowers are pretty in salads and cold soups. Garnish cold tomato soup with thin slices of lemon, cucumber, and bright blue borage stars.

• The young leaves are a complementary garnish to cucumber soups.

• Sauté the very young leaves like spinach, or toss (raw) with other salad greens. Older leaves are tough and bitter.

• The flowers can be candied and used decoratively.

MEDICINAL AND COSMETIC BORAGE

“Borage for courage” people used to say, and the plant belongs to a group of herbs called “cordials,” which have a reputation for being “heartening.” (Since borage was traditionally steeped in wine, perhaps it was the wine that imparted the courage.) Borage is also a valuable diuretic, for it is high in potassium. Applied to the skin, the sap soothes itches and insect bites. Borage oil is used in cosmetics; you might try using the leaves as a facial steam for improving dry skin. Pour boiling water over 1 cup fresh leaves in a bowl. Drape a towel over your head and allow the steam to penetrate your pores.

For more about borage and all your other herbs:

The Rodale Herb Book
, edited by William H. Hylton

Sprigs of Borage are of known virtue to revive the hypochondriac and cheer the hard student.

—JOHN EVELYN, 1699

SEPTEMBER 7

Sage never looks better, I think, than when I come upon it in the early morning and find the pebbled leaves silvered over with a summer dew. In its way there is nothing more quietly individual in all the garden.

—HENRY BESTON, HERBS AND THE EARTH

A Sage Choice

If we voted for our favorite herbs, sage (
Salvia officinalis
) would probably come out very near the top. In the garden, sage grows into a low, rounded bush about 3-4 feet in diameter, so give your plant plenty of elbow room in a well-drained soil with lots of sun. It’s a natural for a deck planter or an outside window box, if you trim it regularly. And of course, you’ll be using those trimmings!

The seventeenth-century herbalist Culpeper said that sage “is of excellent use to help the memory” and “profitable for all pains in the head coming of cold rheumatic humours, as also for all pains in the joints.” In fact, the herb’s name comes from the word
salvere
, “to save.” Sage is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant. Modern research confirms many of its traditional uses.

Sage is a favorite seasoning for soups, vegetables, meats, fowl, and fruit. For a stunning appetizer, try these savory sage fritters, a modern version of a recipe that first appeared in a cookery book published in 1518, written by a cook who worked for wealthy families in Italy’s northern provinces. The first English version may be the one for “Clary [Sage] Fritters” in Elizabeth Raffald’s
Experienced English Housekeeper
, 1769. She suggests serving with “quarters of Seville oranges laid round them.”

SAGE FRITTERS

36 whole sage leaves, washed and dried (leave stems on,
for easier handling)
1 cup beer
cup flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
salt and pepper, to taste
1 egg white, at room temp
vegetable oil for frying

Select whole, unblemished sage leaves with stems left on, for easy handling. Combine beer, flour, cinnamon, salt, and pepper, making a smooth batter. Let stand 15 minutes at room temperature. In a large skillet, heat 1 inch of oil to about 360°. Beat the egg white until it is stiff but not dry. Fold it into batter, and pour into a shallow dish. Lay a dozen of the leaves on the surface of the batter. Using tongs or large kitchen tweezers, turn to coat both sides. Fry in hot oil until crisp and golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels; serve hot.

Read more about sage:

Growing and Using Sage: A Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin,
by Patricia R. Barrett

SEPTEMBER 8

“Of course it’s real money.” Ruby was nettled.

“What do you expect to pay architects and contractors with? Vanilla beans?”

—CHILE DEATH: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

Vanilla: Worth Its Weight in Silver

Vanilla (
Vanilla planifolia
) is so flavorful and fragrant that it’s hard to imagine dessert without it. And in its native Mexico, it was so valuable that the Totonac Indians (the first to cultivate it) thought that it sprang from the blood of a princess, who was captured and slain when she fled with her lover. When the Totonac were conquered by the Aztecs, they were required to pay taxes and tributes with vanilla beans. Vanilla was literally worth its weight in silver.

The Spanish first became acquainted with vanilla as an ingredient in the bitter Aztec aphrodisiac drink,
xocolatl
, which was brewed with cacao beans and chile peppers. The tropical plant, a member of the orchid family could only be cultivated in Mexico, for the tubular flowers could be pollinated only by a tiny bee and a humming bird. In 1836, a twelve-year-old African slave in Madagascar figured out how to hand-pollinate the blossoms with a bamboo splinter, a method that is still used today. Vanilla is widely grown throughout the tropics, but it is still highly valuable. Some two thousand tons are produced each year, but that is still not enough to satisfy people’s desire for it, and many have to be satisfied with synthetic vanillin.

China enjoys making her own vanilla extract, using vanilla beans. This is her recipe:

CHINA’S FAVORITE VANILLA EXTRACT

Using a funnel, pour 1 cup brandy or rum into a small-diameter bottle. Split 2-3 vanilla beans lengthwise, then cut the split pieces into halves, retaining the aromatic seeds. Drop pieces and seeds into the bottle and cap it tightly. Set on a dark shelf for several weeks, shaking frequently (and sniffing deeply whenever possible). Use when the flavor suits you, topping off each time you remove some. Every now and then add a piece or two of split vanilla bean, to enrich the flavor.