Table-top Diplomacy & American Style

If the White House is supposed to be, among other things, a showcase for American hospitality, then it would seem food and flowers produced in America would be at the heart of every party. That didn't appear to be the case last week at the Governors Ball.

Call me picky, but I'm a Californian and prickly as an artichoke when it comes to where table grapes are produced in February in the U.S. Likewise, cut flowers and foliage in the varieties showcased on the nation's dinner table for U.S. governors. The varieties I see didn't grow in winter snow and rain. Most likely the table-top decor highlighted at the new administration's first major social occasion came straight off a plane from South America.

Sec. of State Rex Tillerson at the White House Governors Ball
in February. The table-top decor featured imported
table grapes and flowers. 

Truth is, regardless of the season, there's always food and flowers grown in the U.S. worthy of gracing the most important occasions, as well as the humblest family gatherings -- domestic fruit, flowers and greenery abound.

The Californian Table Grape Commission notes the state's farmers have been cultivating grapes for two centuries and offers this brief history: 

"Grapes have been around a long, long time.  In fact, the first grape varieties might date as far back as 6000 B.C.

But for California, the fresh grape boom hit in 1839 when a former trapper from Kentucky, William Wolfskill, planted the state’s first table grape vineyard in the Mexican colonial pueblo now known as Los Angeles.  An agricultural entrepreneur, Wolfskill was the first farmer to ship fresh grapes to Northern California.  R.B. Blowers expanded the idea and sent the first 22-pound box of California grapes to Chicago via the new transcontinental railroad in 1869.

The gold rush may have ended, but the grape rush continues.  Today, over 99 percent of grapes commercially grown in the United States come from California.  With over 85 varieties grown, California grapes come in three colors – green, red and black – and are available May through January.  

During the 2015-16 season, California's table grape growers harvested their third largest crop ever, sending 110.5 million boxes of grapes to more than 55 countries around the world, and setting a new record for crop value at $1.83 billion."

Photo By MEG PEROTTI

The commission's website offers creative ways to decorate table tops with grapes at http://www.tablegrape.com/DecoratewithGrapes.php

So, if the intent of the new administration is to make "America Great -- Again," starting at ground level makes sense by using the products actually produced in America. There has long been complaint by U.S. flower growers that in international trade deals low tariffs on flower imports have put them at an extreme disadvantage. Perhaps in negotiations, flowers have been seen as a minor sacrifice to good trade deals. But for hardworking Americans who make a living producing them, it's about economic survival -- jobs, innovation and growth.

Flower farmers have been fighting back, however, emphasizing the importance of their products through the "American Grown Movement." In recent years growers around the U.S. have been hosting "Farm to Vase" dinners in their greenhouses and on their farms, featuring locally grown food by top local chefs and floral arrangements by leading designers. Pre-dinner, floral design professionals offer guests workshops on arrangement techniques, as well as tours and entertainment. The dinners have all been sell-outs The list of dinner dates and locations is online at: http://www.americangrownflowers.org/

Campaign organizers say the American Grown Flowers brand symbolizes a unified and diverse coalition of U.S. flower farms representing small and large entities across the country. Together, they want to give consumers confidence in the source of their flowers and assure them that the bouquets and bunches they purchase come from a domestic flower farm. 

W

ith less than a month to go until the first stop on the 2017 American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour, F2V announced the lineup of the all-star floral designers who will lend their talents to the tablescapes and other floral designs at each of the upcoming seven dinner tour locations.

Photo courtesy of F2V. Design by Carly Cylinder of Flour LA, Inc.
and author of  “The Flower Chef: A Modern Guide to Do-It-Yourself Floral Arrangements” (named to Best Books of 2016), 

All the F2V designers are acclaimed in the floral design community and organizers say consumers have seen their work in magazines, on television shows, at celebrity weddings and all over social media. The Field to Vase Dinner Tours offer a chance to experience their work first-hand.

Sorry, couldn't resist these floral purse and shoes by Francoise Weeks of European Floral Design, 

John Jay Chapman (born March 2, 1862, New York, died November 4, 1933) was an American poet, dramatist, and critic who attacked the get-rich-quick morality of the post-Civil War “Gilded Age” in political action and in his writings. Ancestors on both sides of his family had distinguished themselves in antislavery and other causes, and he sought to continue that tradition among the upper middle classes, whose integrity he felt had been eroded by the upsurge of big business. He wrote:

"If you are to reach masses of people in this world, you must do it by a sign language. Whether your vehicle be commerce, literature, or politics, you can do nothing but raise signals, and make motions to the people." 

Food and flowers are the signs and symbols of  style, culture, art, prosperity, dignity, humility and diplomatic acumen.

If we are to make America gracious again, it's best to start from the ground up, embracing American grown food and flowers to showcase our nation's regional diversity and seasonal bounty!

Thoughts? Comments? Share? Thanks for visiting the garden.

Mother Trees Feed the Future

Sometime ago a Santa Barbara avocado grower invited me to take a walk to what he called the “Mother Tree.” I’d heard the term, but didn’t really know what it meant. I gathered it referred to an old tree that had been grafted to create more trees and then, with more grafting, more trees, eventually resulting in an orchard.

But, the way the farmer asked, his shy offer to show me his Mother Tree, implied more than simply visiting a hearty tree with prolific off-spring.

He would have blustered at the suggestion it was something sacred, yet I couldn't help feeling he was taking me someplace special. We walked quietly in the early evening deep into the grove, scuffling leaves and stepping over sprinkler lines. He carried a long pole with a gripper on the end.

As dusk gathered, we stood at the base of strong tree with lush canopy and looked up. Although the grove had recently been picked, this tree had lots of fruit. The farmer hoisted his pole and plucked the huge fruit, handing each piece to me, explaining he saved the fruit from this tree for family and friends.

I stuffed my backpack, not realizing how much the fruit weighed until I tried to lift it. The farmer gave me a hand with the load. The fruit I brought home weighed a couple of pounds or more apiece and when ripe the flesh was smooth and creamy, flavored like nuts and honey.

The experience changed my way of thinking. Today when I buy avocados, I secretly know what I’m getting isn't the absolute ultimate best and I listen closely when someone talks about Mother Trees to find out more about them, hungering for fruit that comes straight from the source.

And, now I know the beauty and abundance of California’s millions of acres of groves and orchards are the product of strong, prolific mothers. But, although the tree where I first tasted Mother Fruit isn’t actually the oldest avocado tree in California or the original mother, I'm convinced it’s her oldest daughter.

The actual Mother Avocado Tree died in La Habra Heights in 2002. Every Hass Avocado in the world can trace its lineage to that tree. The tree's wood is currently stored in a Ventura nursery awaiting decision on a fitting commemoration of the original Hass Mother Tree.

Which brings me to the newly launched effort of the Felix Gillet Institute. This newly formed group aims to properly place Gillet, who was a Nevada City nurseryman in the mid-1800s, in the history of California and United States agriculture through research and education. The foundation said it’s goal is to educate farmers and gardeners about the many tree and plant species he introduced because they continue to provide valuable genetic material for modern propagation.

Amigo Bob Cantisano
Organic grower and Founder of FGI

Gillet brought cuttings from Europe for fruits, nuts, grapes, berries and ornamentals to the Sierra foothill’s during the Gold Rush period from the 1860′s until his death in 1908. These original plants have provided food and fiber that play a strong role today in American agriculture.

Along with all of his many accomplishments, Gillet was a two term City Councilman of Nevada City, was responsible for creating Nevada City’s first water system, moved the City Hall to its present location, was a prime mover in the Workingman’s Party, was a founder of what is now the State of California Department of Food and Agriculture, and was a prolific author whose work appeared in numerous agricultural publications.

The Felix Gillet Institute is raising funds to collect the more than 100 original plant varieties imported by Gillet that are scattered throughout the Sierra foothills and plant them in a Mother Orchard on Heaven and Earth Farm on San Juan Ridge. All of the trees will be propagated from the Grandmothers, which were planted and treasured in the 1800s by miners and homesteaders, and are now feral and endangered in the wild.

This orchard will preserve the best of 19th century fruit and nuts for lifetimes to come. To support this horticultural preservation effort, contact the Felix Gillet Institute at http://felixgillet.org/?page_id=61 

Information about the fund raising effort is online at Barnraiser. https://www.barnraiser.us/projects/eureka-help-save-heirloom-fruit-nut-trees-of-california-s-gold-rush

Gravel Gardening Gains Ground

Flowers growing in rock wall of a church
From Blog: Let Beauty Be Your Constant Ideal

After years of watching me putter in the garden, my grown sons have taken to the soil, planting, like most men, vegetables. They turn up their trowels at the mention of flowers, like most men, and ask about good soil and practical results. Although I love flowers, I indulge their interest in efficiently producing food. They want to know, like most men, how to create the best growing medium with the least amount of effort. 

Apprentice gardeners
Mark & Mike Campbell
Van Veenendaal

Until now, my answer to creating good dirt has been this: Make it mooly. I explain, using a good Scottish word, that good growing soil needs to be soft and crumbles easily, but retains enough body to hold moisture. I tell them creating mooly garden soil takes years of painstaking work – troweling, shoveling, hoeing, raking – in short, tilling one’s arse off.

In commercial agricultural fields, it also takes years of tilling to get mooly soil using heavy equipment and field crews. But mooly soil is only part of the equation. Plants need water, an ingredient that has been in extremely short supply in California lately, this year being an epic drought. It has been so dry here that the wooden door frames in my house have shrunk and doors are out of true and don't properly latch anymore. 

So I got excited the other day when I learned a company in Virginia has found a way to grow and sustain vegetables, fruits and flowering plants using nothing more than gravel, sand and cotton based fabric. They say using gravel to grow crops is the most efficient method in history.

I’ll grant them the over-statement, ignoring the dry-land growing techniques used since the beginning of time and all the research and successful demonstrations of deficit crop irrigation. And that's not to mention the ancient art of bonsai, the sculpting of miniature trees grown in crushed rock, with bits of organic matter. See a feature story on "Bonsai: Shaping Nature's Narrative," explaining how these living artworks thrive in a growing medium of crushed rock and bits of bark. 

But, experts are calling geological agriculture is a new science defined as the study of using rocks to grow crops without soil and fertilizer. Commonly known as gravel gardening, they say this form of crop cultivation will bring significant sustainable agriculture benefits to populations around the world, predicting that a variety of industries will find value from gravel gardening, including home and community gardeners, real estate developers, commercial farmers, landscapers, restaurant owners, health care providers and international development organizations.

Promoted by To Soil Less, a family business founded in 2010, owner Richard Campbell (no relation) shares the growing body of information on gravel-based growing techniques and practices with the agriculture and gardening communities. Download a free how-to guide from the company's website.

Professor Arvazena Clardy Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Horticulture at Tennessee State University, has been researching the practicality of gravel gardening and calls Campbell’s techniques a  “significant step for plant sciences.”  She and 39 TSU agriculture students conducted a germination study of various crops using river pea gravel as the growing medium.

Their research conclusions can be found in Campbell’s guide Grown in Gravel: The Study of Geological Agriculture, available online from Amazon and at participating Ace Hardware locations. Combined, he says these studies begin to shape the academic building blocks of this new science.

The book  includes a 16-page gravel gardening gallery of the past year, along with the first geological agriculture glossary of terms, which introduces a variety of new terms to describe the process of rock-based crop production.

Campbell says gravel gardening benefits include:

1. No soil needed.

2. Less Watering.

3. No fertilizers.

4. Less Weeding.

5. Less Cost.

6. Sustainable.

7. Efficient Irrigation System.

8. Durable

          In the meantime, for sustainable gardening ideas using drought tolerant plants and native soils, check out the Poetic Plantings website. Marianne Simon founded the Southern California landscape design company, Poetic Plantings, with the vision of creating gardens that nurture the spirit and the earth. Many of her designs use native soils, rather than top soils and potting mixes. Take a look at her online portfolio of completed garden.

Monterey Pine growing in rock and gravel
 Photo: Gibhran Jimenez

Marianne Simon She founded her Landscape Design Company, Poetic Plantings, with the vision of creating gardens that would nurture the spirit and nourish the earth.

Blackberry Millionaires with Recipes

They stopped beside a wild blackberry bramble on a two-lane road into Guerneville, along the way to Russian River. It was late summer and the ripe berries called to them, my sister and my son. I waited for them at a rented cottage, listened for the sound of a car pulling up outside while I puttered with potato salad and sandwiches. They were late. I did not know why.

Eventually the warm hum of my sister’s car signaled they were outside and I went to greet them. My son burst past me with a small box in his hands. “Where’s the refrigerator?” he shouted, charging into a small bedroom, turning, bursting back into the living room, frantic.

“In the kitchen,” my bewildered reply. Where else would it be, I thought, and followed him. My sister appeared with luggage in hand and followed into the kitchen, dropping the load in front of the stove.

“We can make millions!” my son shouted my sister laughing and running water in the sink. “Let’s go back and get more! Let’s sell em!”

I realized then my son had been bitten by an abundance of berries, acres of the fruit ripening on the twisted mat of vines, that he’d been seduced by the idea of scooping berries up by the handful and bringing them home to share, to sell.

I know the feeling of being in the brambles, of the luscious fruit just beyond reach. We used to pick blackberries in the fall, taking long boards to lay against the vines, creating wobbly platforms into the richest parts of the brambles. I know the lust.

I also know about wearing long-sleeved flannel shirts, jeans and boots in the heat of the day to protect from the thorns. I know the peril of falling into the brambles, of waiting still until help arrived to carefully pull me out, the thorns cutting like razors and tattering my clothes. I know it’s not easy to be a blackberry millionaire.

I didn’t prick my 9-year-olds euphoric bubble that afternoon, didn’t explain about the perils. Instead, we ate sandwiches and potato salad. My sister made a cobbler for desert and we talked about what we’d do with our blackberry millions.

There’s no need to put yourself in harm’s way for berries. There are skilled farmers who take the risks and bring the berries to you. Summer is berry season and the Oregon Raspberry & Blackberry Commission offers two summer recipes featuring blackberries to enjoy while figuring out where to spend your millions:

Tuscan Quinoa Salad

Serves 4

Salad Ingredients

·        1 cup Quinoa uncooked

·        2 cups water

·        ¼ teaspoon of salt

·        ½ Tablespoon vegetable oil

·        1 lb chicken Italian sausage, cooked and sliced

·        ½ cup parsley

·        ½ cup shaved Parmesan cheese

·        ¼ cup green onions, sliced

·        ½ cup red pepper – sliced thinly lengthwise

·        1-cup fresh or defrosted frozen blackberries

Dressing Ingredients

·        ¼ cup white wine vinegar

·        ¼ Extra Virgin Olive Oil

·        2 Tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

·        ¼ teaspoon salt

·        1/8-teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

Whisk vinegar, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside

Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in quinoa and salt. Reduce to low; cover. Simmer 10-15 minutes or until water is absorbed and quinoa is fluffy. Transfer to large size bowl. Cool 10 minutes.

Toss quinoa with dressing. Stir in green onions, red pepper slices, sliced sausage and parsley. Mix well.

Gently stir in blackberries to combine with salad

Top with shaved Parmesan. Serve immediately

Almond Buttermilk Shortcakes with Blackberry Filling

Serves 6

Ingredients

·        2 1/4 cups all purpose white flour

·        1/3-cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling over biscuits

·        1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·        1/4 teaspoon baking soda

·        ¼ teaspoon salt

·        ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

·        2/3 cup buttermilk

·        1 beaten egg

·        1 teaspoon almond extract

·        1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

·        1 tablespoon grated orange peel

·        1 tablespoon whole milk

·        1/4 cup sliced almonds

Preparation

Coat a baking sheet lightly with non-stick cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, 1/3-cup sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, cut butter into the flour mixture until crumbly. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, egg, Grand Marnier, orange peel and almond extract. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the buttermilk, mixture. With a fork, stir just until combined, adding additional buttermilk, as necessary, to from slightly sticky dough. Do not over mix.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and sprinkle with a little flour. With your fingertips, gently pat dough to an even 1-inch thickness. Using a 3 inch round cookie cutter, cut out shortcakes and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet. Gather together scraps of dough, re-roll and cut remaining shortcakes. You should have 6 shortcakes. Brush milk over shortcakes. Scatter almonds over the tops and sprinkle lightly with the remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Bake shortcakes for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Transfer them to a rack and let cool slightly

Fruit filling

·        6 cups fresh or thawed frozen blackberries or Marionberries

·        1/3-cup sugar preferably superfine

·        1-pint heavy cream

·        1 tablespoon sugar

·        1 teaspoon of Grand Marnier

In a large bowl mix berries and 1/3 cup sugar set aside for a few minutes. Whip cream with tablespoon of sugar and liqueur until soft peaks form.

Using a serrated knife split the shortcakes. Set bottoms on dessert plates: spoon on whipped cream and then the fruit mixture and crown with lids. Top with whipped cream if desired. Serve immediately.