Autumn Abundance

- a recipe, planting for spring and a little musing about "MOVING IS MURDER"

Sep 27, 2023

The first day of Autumn was Saturday, September 23^rd, but I must admit I have been in fall mode since the end of August when all that gorgeous abundance started appearing at our local farmer’s market. Plus, if I can be so proud as to say, in my own little garden also.

I couldn’t help myself and started several jars full of fruits to make homemade vinegar for winter. All the minerals in the fruits go into the vinegar, adding goodness along with interesting flavor profiles for salads and dressings.

Kinds of vinegar in various stages of fermentation.

Making vinegar with fruit, pure water, and a little sugar takes about 30 days, and you need to stir them twice a day. When they stop bubbling, you strain the pulp off and bottle the vinegar. Surprisingly, one of my favorite vinegars is Watermelon Rind. It started out as an experiment but has a delicate taste and clarity.

Like our ancestors, something wells up inside me when this autumnal equinox slides shimmeringly across the celestial equator. Like some squirrel, I have to put something away for winter. Everything depends on what amuses me in any particular autumn, what is available, and the time I have to give to it.

Experimenting with food gives me balance in my everyday life, providing a little whimsy away from writing or illustrating, or I should say, more fodder for these creative pursuits I love engaging in. It’s always a little sad to see summer end here in the Northern Hemisphere, but I’m glad we have the changing seasons to keep our lives interesting.

One thing I have tried to make each fall when the deep purply-blue or almost black Fellenberg European Plums are in season is a plum tart recipe that was something our family always looked forward to. The tart comes in many different styles in Europe, and I remember eating it at a bakery in France as a teenager. It was a trip to somehow learn French, but I ended up instead with an appreciation for food and how it tastes on our tongues, how some dishes can take us instantly back to the memory of a time long gone.

Plum Kuchen, or Tart ready for baking, with an inset on the right ready to eat. Image from my cookbook, Gluten-Free, You Can Do It.

Such is the lure of Plum Torte or, as it is also called, Tarte aux prunes, Zwetschegenkuchen, Pflaumenkuchen, or just plain Plum Kuchen or Plum Cake. Our version was made with plump, ripe Fellenberg Plums placed on a sweet, yeasty dough and baked, then sprinkled with Cinnamon Sugar so the juices release themselves into the crust, resulting in mouthwatering perfection. Oddly, we always ate this as a main course with Potato Soup when freshly baked and the next day as a dessert with a dollop of Austrian vanilla whipped cream alongside.

For several years after going gluten-free for health reasons, this was off-limits. But foodies can’t let that stop them, so I developed a gluten-free version, which I added to my cookbook, Gluten-Free, You Can Do It.

This year, Fellenberg season crept up on me, and there was no time to make the yeasty crust, so undaunted, I just eliminated it for this dessert. Very easy and also gluten-free.

Baked Fellenberg Plums Recipe

Baked Plums with Cinamon Honey and Cream in a Bowl. Don’t you just love the magenta swirls of sweet plum juice mingling with the cream?

Wash and slice open the plums to remove the pits.
Make a second small cut at the top to look pretty and help the plums lie flat.
Place the plums in a glass casserole baking dish.
Add a small amount of water to the dish.
Bake at 350 ℉ until the plums are tender. Remove from the oven.
Serve with a little fresh Cream and a spoonful of Cinnamon and Honey blended together.

Just Baked Plums with a small bottle of blended Honey and Cinnamon… (great on gluten-free or any toast, for that matter, also.)

Planting for Spring

One of the reasons I didn’t have time to make my regular Plum Kuchen was that our front garden had been dug up since spring. Since the gas lines in our neighborhood, as well as our gas meter connections, were 75 years old, they had to be replaced. No argument there!

We have always looked forward to the beautiful spring Tulips, Daffodils, and Hyacinths that arrive early to dazzle us in our front garden. I picked up as many old bulbs as possible and saved them during the upheaval. It took all summer for the lawn to be re-seeded and look similar to what it did before, and the garden bed remained a flowerless expanse of brown dirt.

But sometimes, such dishevelment is an opportunity, and this was no exception. I learned a great deal more about planting bulbs for spring.

Did you know that about six to eight weeks before the first frost, you need to water and fertilize your spring garden? And if you are planting any new bulbs, it has to happen then, too.

A few dried-up bulbs were saved over the summer from the backhoe that dug up our garden. Still amazing to see there is still life, and they have a built-in clock making them want to come alive again.

The dormant bulbs need a little boost to get them to send out a few tender roots and get ready before the ground freezes. While digging the garden bed and adding new soil, fertilizer, and water (so dry as we’d had no rain), I managed to find a few more bulbs, which I saved. But even at that, I didn’t find them all because when I started to plant the new bulbs I’d purchased, I found some more old ones, but now they had tiny roots! So, I gently lifted them into another spot before planting the new bulbs.

Isn’t nature wonderful…! I was wondering how to tell the blue Hyacinths from the white ones for planting, and when looking closer, I think you can tell. The white bulbs should be, well, white and the blue, blue.

I couldn’t decide whether to plant the same kinds together or intersperse the whole lot. I ended up planting in rows, intermingling the types of bulbs. Then I gave all of the old bulbs their own row since I couldn’t tell what was what. The spring garden should look artful and uncontrived, I hope.

Along the rows, I planted white and blue Hyacinths together. The daffodils I interspersed with the bi-color Tulips and the shocking pink Tulips I dotted here and there for emphasis.

Now I can’t wait for next spring!

Note to self: Remember to take some pictures of the spring garden to show you!

“MOVING IS MURDER”

I can attest to the fact that moving is murder! I don’t like moving. It takes so long to get re-settled. Even moving the earth just in our front garden was murder to most of what was there before.

But that is not why I am telling you about this.

Actually, one of my favorite Cozy Mystery authors, Joan Havelange, has just published her newest book in her repertoire of well-loved mysteries.

Do you love a good Cozy Mystery? Do you lose yourself for hours following along with the not-too-dangerous but nail-biting action nonetheless? Your imagination races along at a fast pace following the adventures of an amateur sleuth… someone almost like yourself, if you had the nerve, that is… You eat up the sprinklings of romance and enjoy a few laughs along your armchair journey.

If this sounds like fun, have a look at more about Joan Havelange and her books in the Creative People section of Astoria Magazine.