eG Foodblog: Jackal10 III - Smoking Bacon and a May Week picnic

[jackal10]

I thought we might have a quiz. Here are pictures of herbs, taken by me yesterday, growing in the garden. Your task, should you choose, is to identify them. Answers towards the end of the week. Extra kudos for identifying the variety. They range from the common and easy to obscure, roughly in order. There is only one example of each type of herb. Thus although I grow, say, three varieties of sage, there is only one sage picture. Some are in a different stage of their lifecycle, seeding for example, than you normally buy or use them at.

First group, easy

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

Edited June 8, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[jackal10]

Next group, not quite so easy

9 10

11 12

13 14

15 16

[jackal10]

Last group, mostly but not all obscure

17 18

19 20

21 22

23 24

25 26

27 28

Edited June 8, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[jackal10]

A few more, some the same family but a different form to the ones above

29 30

31 32

Now I really must get back to my marking...smoking later, maybe.

Any demand for more growing pix? Vegetables, fruit, edible flowers etc, with or without captions?

[bleudauvergne]

I thought we might have a quiz. Here are pictures of herbs, taken by me yesterday, growing in the garden. Your task, should you choose, is to identify them. Answers towards the end of the week. Extra kudos for identifying the variety. They range from the common and easy to obscure, roughly in order. There is only one example of each type of herb. Thus although I grow, say, three varieties of sage, there is only one sage picture. Some are in a different stage of their lifecycle, seeding for example, than you normally buy or use them at.

First group, easy

...

This is fun, I'd like to give it a try but want to give everyone a chance to answer. Should I PM my answers to you?

[hjshorter]

Any demand for more growing pix? Vegetables, fruit, edible flowers etc, with or without captions?

Yes please.

And you probably don't remember but the raspberry advice you gave me last year is, ahem, bearing fruit this year. Our yield should be excellent.

Edited June 8, 2005 by hjshorter (log)

[bleudauvergne]

I've sent my list to Jack, I don't think I did too well.

[jackal10]

I like the idea of Elizabeathan dishes for the Madrigal picnic.

Ive found this web site: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.html where there is a lot of good source material. Not adsobed it yet.

I found it from following a link about Sambocade - an elderflower flavoured cheesecake. Sambocus is the latin for elder.

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/FoC118small.html.

Seem to feature lots of meat pies and tarts. However don't want everything with pastry. Meatballs? Capon legs?

No problem with elderflower:

or with wood strawberries. These are "Mara du Bois" a cutivated version. There was a recent thread about them. The ones in the greenhouse are ready to eat, but he ones in the fruit tunnel need another month or so.

Speaking of strawberries, last weekend was Strawberry Fair. Strawberry Fair is not the big gypsy traditional Midsummer Fair. That happens in two weeks time, around Midsummer day, as it has every year for least 900 years or so, opened by the Mayor throwing pennies to the crowd, then chasing the town clerk around on the dodgems. Its why Midsummer COmmon is called Midsummer common, since that is where the fair happens, and hence why Midsummer House, which is on the common, is called that. Strawberry Fair was the origianl alternative hippy and traveler fair. Then about ten years ago it was aging hippies parents and their smart kids trying to disown them, now its mostly a rock festival, with a lot of West Indian influence. Lots of rightous Jerk Chicken and the like, as well as fair foods...I took lots of cell-phone pix, if you wnt them here, but I concious how bandwidth hungry this is becoming. Seperate thread? Your call..

Edited June 8, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Chufi]

How lovely. Pheasant chicks, baby rabbits and woodstrawberries, all basking in the English sunshine!

The German winetasting is interesting. Don't know much about German wine.. but I'm going to tour the Pfalz this summer, so that's about to change!

[Pan]

[...]Speaking of strawberries, last weekend was Strawberry Fair. Strawberry Fair is not the big gypsy traditional Midsummer Fair. That happens in two weeks time, around Midsummer day, as it has every year for least 900 years or so, opened by the Mayor throwing pennies to the crowd, then chasing the town clerk around on the dodgems. Its why Midsummer COmmon is called Midsummer common, since that is where the fair happens, and hence why Midsummer House, which is on the common, is called that. Strawberry Fair was the origianl alternative hippy and traveler fair. Then about ten years ago it was aging hippies parents and their smart kids trying to disown them, now its mostly a rock festival, with a lot of West Indian influence.  Lots of rightous Jerk Chicken and the like, as well as fair foods...I took lots of cell-phone pix, if you wnt them here, but I concious how bandwidth hungry this is becoming. Seperate thread? Your call..

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It's topical and figures to be of interest, so I say go for it.

I'm loving your pictures of your backyard garden, as always.

[jackal10]

That reminds me. Wendy asked about the food the German wine I bought will go with, and how long they will keep.

You can drink them with pleasure now, but I think the Spatlese will be even nicer in about 5 years time, and maybe keep another five years after that. The Kabinett not quite so long, and that is more for current drink slowly when a suitable occaisions arise. Flowers, honey and lemon. They are food wines, perfect for summer drinking outdoors, maybe with cold chicken, or with salmon or even the lighter creamier cheeses, or just a glass on its own.

[cdh]

Would love to see more photos of things growing. Your herb garden is prodigious. Do you dry or otherwise preserve any of your herbal crops? Also, are some of your herbs' leaves really yellow, or is that a result of lighting and camera effects?

Your sweet woodruff looks much happier and healthier than mine... what do you do with it? It has a wonderful aroma almost like baked goods-- sweet and spicy... but I've not figured much to do with it besides incorporating into wheat beers I brew. I'd love suggestions.

[slbunge]

Thanks Pan, that is a good direction to think.

Here is the salmon after an hour's brining, about to dry off in the fridge until smoking tomorrow.

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Did you get to the salmon today? Is it forgiving enough to let it sit for a few days? I've never smoked salmon but I'm fascinated.

Lovely gardens and yard. To see that much greenspace I have to walk over to the public garden and/or common. I'm envious.

Edited June 8, 2005 by slbunge (log)

[jackal10]

Those really are the colours. Maybe the Borage should be a little greyer leaves.Some like the Marjoram, the Feverfew and variagated Lemon Balm are yellow culitvars.

Woodruff makes a great sorbet with a little lemon juice. Beer is a lovely idea. Its a woodland plant, so it likes shade. I find it useful for dark corners.

Its too nice a day to be indoors. I feel more garden pictures coming on..

Edited June 8, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[helenjp]

Hmmm...if you see daylight during exam marking period, they can't be working you hard enough .

Enjoying the herb pictures, especially the close-up of elderflower. One of the earlier photos looks like lovage, I'd even say it might be a wild relative of lovage, but can't recall the name of the plant I'm thinking of...so I'll say lovage.

(Retires to at least arrange student essays into strata, if not actually do any nasty marking...)

[jackal10]

Yes, No 26 is lovage, but not a very big specimen.

The trick with exams is to make the questions hard enough so that the students prefer to answer another options question!

[Abra]

Well, for a start I see parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (thanks, Jack!), then several other sages, marjoram, various basils, lovage, tarragon, and a couple of mints. Chervil as well?

[cakewalk]

What lovely photos! I can't imagine living in such splendor. Thanks for sharing it.

[jackal10]

No tarragon. Only one sage picture, no chervil. Chervil and tarragon die on me for some reason

[jmolinari]

Jackal, i assume you're cold smoking your belly and salmon? How did you set up your cold smoker?

jason

[Smithy]

What wonderful photos! I especially enjoy the pheasants. They're rare in my area; the winters are too hard. I used to enjoy seeing pheasants and quail in California. Rabbits we have a-plenty, but they have the sense to stay out of our yard.

Is that horseradish I see in 27?

[jackal10]

Well done.! 27 is indeed horseradish

Smoking coming as soon as I've downloaded the pix. I had to wait for the camera to charge up and I had some other stuff to do

[tejon]

I love madrigals, and madrigal singing.  Tejon, I don't suppose you went to Scripps?

Not Scripps, but UCI. Here's a link to last year's Madrigal Dinner. I see that Legge of Fowle is still on the menu - the memory of dropping a chicken leg plop down in the lap of an elderly lady in a beautiful silk dress will never leave me. At least she had a good sense of humor and didn't agree that I should be beheaded

[jackal10]

Normally this is the garden bread/pizza oven. I built it instead of a BBQ.]

Sawdust and planings from a local joiner and furniture maker, bribed with produce. These are mostly cherry with some oak.

Sawdust goes around the edge of the oven in about a 2 inch layer. Some bricks in the middle as the smoke tends to be at the top. In the end I only used 2 bricks

Firelighting kit of kitchen blowtorch and fat from the bacon. Fire in the hole!

Salmon and bacon on a rack, and in the oven with a dual channel wireless smoker thermometer. Smoke starting to build.

Check in an hour or so then about in four hours... Its cold smoking, so the temprerature shouldn't go much above 90F, if that. The food will lose about 15% of its weight.

Edited June 8, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[cdh]

No tarragon. Only one sage picture, no chervil. Chervil and tarragon die on me for some reason

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Hmmm... there went my thoughts about nos 12 and 15. 12 is a dead ringer for my tarragon, and 15 looks a bit like chervil...

Wonder what they are, then.