Potager Garden

A French Kitchen Garden

Radish: photo by Cliff Hutson

The French kitchen garden or potager, has mixed vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs dates back to medieval times. It is, at heart, basically an ornamental vegetable garden that is productive yet ornamental. Often flowers (edible and non-edible) and herbs are planted with the vegetables to enhance the beauty. The goal is to make the function of providing food aesthetically pleasing.

Plant What You'll Eat

A potager should be designed to bring beauty into the utilitarian food garden, so start by planting what you like to eat and cook.

These are some of the plants that we have used over the years:

Radishes

Garden Fresh: photo by Cliff Hutson

Radishes come in numerous varieties, varying in size, flavor, and color. They can be eaten fresh, roasted, sautéd, or pickled.

Basil

Basil: photo by Cliff Hutson

Basil is a fragrant herb that tastes great in many dishes—especially homemade pesto. 

Chile de Arbol Peppers

Chile de Arbol Peppers: photo by Cliff Hutson

Chile de Árbol means "tree chili" in Spanish, a name which refers to the woody stem of the pepper. They are small and thin Mexican peppers, growing to 2-3 inches long and less than a ½ inch wide. When they mature to a bright, vibrant red, they are ready to be used.

Chives

Chives in Flower: photo by Cliff Hutson

A perennial plant that is a small relative of the onion. The leaves and flowers are both edible. 

Eggplant 

Eggplant Basket: photo by Cliff Hutson

An annual vegetable, few vegetable plants are handsomer than eggplant. My favorite way to consume the fruit is Eggplant Parmesan.

Parsley

Bolted Parsley: photo by Cliff Hutson

Parsley is a popular herb often used in American, European, and Middle Eastern cooking. Not really all that attractive when it flowers, the leaves of many varieties can be quite ornamental as well as tasty.  Use them to elevate the flavor of dishes like soups, salads, and fish recipes.

Squash

Summer Squash: photo by Cliff Hutson

This edible annual comes in two forms:  Summer squash which is picked and cooked in an immature stage such as scalloped white squash, yellow crookneck, and zucchini. And, winter squash which have hard rinds. We prefer the former. 

Tomatoes

Tomatoes: photo by Cliff Hutson

The tomato is a gift to Europe from the "New World" as a part of the Columbian Exchange . (The Eastern Hemisphere got tomatoes, chili peppers, cacao, peanuts, and corn. The people living in the Americas got smallpox, measles, typhus, and cholera. But, that is another post.)

It is difficult for some of us to think of life without tomatoes. They may be the most widely grown garden plants edible or otherwise. As my Aunt Dagmar was won't to say, "There are only two things that money can't buy. One is true love. The other is homegrown tomatoes."

Tomato Flower: photo by Cliff Hutson

 

National Lucky Penny Day

 . . . and a Pocket Full of Rye?

Six Pence: photo by Cliff Hutson

Some say that if you see a penny and pick it up then all day long you’ll have good luck. Apparently, May 23 is set aside to celebrate this belief. 

May today be your lucky day!

Love a Tree Day

 National Love a Tree Day

Trees: photo by Cliff Hutson

National Love A Tree Day comes on May 16th, right in the middle of Garden for Wildlife Month, That makes sense as trees not only provide food and shelter for birds and other animals. 

As a matter of fact, trees are some of the most important plants on the planet and humanity’s very existence depends on their continued well-being. They provide us with lumber, nuts, fruit, shade, and shelter. In addition, they produce oxygen for us to breathe and help to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So, we should give them the attention that they deserve, today and everyday.

Giant Sequoias: photo by Cliff Hutson

By the way, trees are not a taxonomic group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a trunk and branches seemingly as a way to stand above other plants to compete for sunlight. 

Mixed Drinks

Mixed drink or cocktail?

Add anther one to the category of learning something new every day. It seems that most of us conflate mixed drinks with cocktails. 

"A mixed drink is, at its core, any beverage that includes alcohol as an ingredient. Since cocktails involve more than just alcohol, such as flavoring, this is where the line of delineation resides.  Under this definition, a martini is classified as a mixed drink, and not a cocktail."

Another way to look at it is that a mixed drink is any mingling of an alcoholic spirit with one non-alcoholic component, such as in gin and tonic, whereas a cocktail generally comprises three or more liquid ingredients, at least one of which is alcoholic.

Can you identify the cocktails?

Screwdriver #1: photo by Cliff Hutson

Bourbon & Tonic: photo by Cliff Hutson

Ranch Water: photo by Cliff Hutson

Backyard Daiquiri: photo by Cliff Hutson

Reading Log: April 2022

 The books that I read in April 2022

April 2022 Books: photo by Cliff Hutson

"Case Study Houses," Elizabeth A. T. Smith

"Eero Saarinen," Pierluigi Serraino

"Charles & Ray Eames," Gloria Koenig 

"R. M. Schindler," James Steele

"Richard Neutra," Barbara Lamprecht 

"Frank Lloyd Wright," Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer 

Cliff's Notes

April was "Architecture Month" here at the old homestead.  And, much like "Bacon's Law", all of these can be connected. to each other as well the prior month's "Who Built That? Modern House". That book featured Frank Lloyd Wright, and Charles and Ray Eames.

"Case Study Houses"

I have long been interested in the Case Study House program and this book is an excellent overview of the work and its influence on the architecture and design of modern homes. I first became aware of them from Julius Shulman's photographs of the Stahl House (CSH#22). 

• Charles and Ray Eames designed CSH#8
• Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen designed CSH#9, the Entenza House
• Richard Neutra designed CSH#6, CSH#13, and CSH#20
• An Eero Saarinen table is pictured on page 83

"Eero Saarinen"

Saarinen, the creator of the "Tulip" chairs and "Pedestal" table, was primarily an architect. My wife and I were using his furniture when we got together in the mid-1970s. But, it was only with this book that I garnered a fuller undressing of his life and body of work. 

• Saarinen and Charles Eames became lifelong friends at the Cranbrook Academy of Art
• Don Knorr (CSH#19) worked in Saarinen's office in the early days of his career  

"Charles & Ray Eames"

I am a huge Eames fan and own several pieces of their furniture. My first encounter with them was as a teenager when I saw the "Mathematica" exhibition at he California Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles. This is the least of the books that I have about them, but it is a good read.  

• Ray probably met Charles when she worked on his joint project with Saarinen for a design competition. at MoMA.
• They met John Entenza not long after they moved to Los Angeles
• Entenza introduced them to Neutra
• They then moved into Neutra's Strathmore Apartments in Westwood

"R. M. Schindler"

 My wife and I visited the "Schindler House" in 2005 without our really knowing who he was. This book was quite an eyeopener. I mark it down for using too many terms, e.g., Gesamtkunstwerk, that only architectural historians will understand without resorting to Google searches. But, it gave me an understanding of his contributions to architecture.

• He attended a school in Vienna, founded by Adolf Loos, as did Neutra
• He worked for Frank Lloyd Wright and supervised the construction of the Barnsdall House
• Neutra and his wife lived in one half of the Schindler's King's Road House
• Schindler and Neutra had an ill-fated architectural partnership

"Richard Neutra"

Neutra was the least known to me of these architects. though I would have passed by his house/office on Silver Lake Boulevard many times as I was growing up, and photos of the Kaufmann House are inescapable in most discussions of modern architecture.. (In recent years, I have also attended a function the Claremont Methodist Church.) Now that I have read this book, I feel that Neutra may be the most talented of the lot when it comes to designing houses.

• Neutra and Schindler, his elder by five years, were friends
• Neutra also worked for Frank Lloyd Wright

"Frank Lloyd Wright"

Last in terms of reading, but first in chronology, is Wright.  He may very well be the most famous of the ones written about in this collection of books. One of his designs is certainly the first work by a major architect that I encountered in my life. I grew up not far from Barnsdall Park and knew of the Hollyhock House from an early age. I may not have appreciated its importance, but could feel that it was special. This book is a good introduction to his work, but avoids any discussion of how he was a rotten person.

• He entrusted Schindler with overseeing work on the Hollyhock House
• He employed Neutra, but that only lasted about three months