Oranges, Sour and Sweet

My citrus tree are bearing. The limequats have lots of fruit. The kumquats won't be outdone.The amber sweets served sushi cut style are beautiful and tasty. Northerners gasp after the first bite. So this is a real orange, they say.Reading Kate Morrison's accounts of the revival of the Cross Creek Groves brings tears to my eyes. I,too, have a sour orange tree after one of mine froze back to the graft. I am about to make the sour orange pie Kate talks about in her Cross Creek Kitchens.

Rabbits' Eye Blueberry Toast

Yum. This morning was a big hit. I used some of the berries I had frozen from the bushes out front, tore up yesterday's fine pecan bread, made a layer of blueberries, cream cheese on the pecan bread, sprinkled some pecan halves and covered the entire mix with a standard French toast egg mixture. Put it in the fridge overnight. Popped it in the 350 oven for an hour. It was so completely wonderful. The aroma had the guests dancing down to breakfast.I can't wait for the blueberry bushes to bear fruit this year. Technically, only two of them are true rabbit's eye. The others are Bonnie Blue. Marjorie could have had some bushes just like mine.

Stuffed Collard Leaves

Why not? Why should the Middle Eastern folks have all the fun? I harvested some young collards and put them in the microwave for a few minutes to tenderize them. Then I stuffed them with cooked brown rice and peppers and covered them with marinara sauce. Yum. Who says collards are just to be cooked to death with fatback? I think Marjorie would approve.

Snakebite Sauce and Fried Green Tomatoes

It is tomato freezing cold here at the B&B. I harvested all of the green tomatoes yesterday and made fried green tomatoes for my guests. The Roma tomatoes were cut in 1/4 inch rounds ,dredged in cornmeal and flour, doused with Mrs. Dash's Lemon Pepper and "fried" in butter. The St. Augustine Snakebite sauce was served as an optional side in a crystal dish. The guests from the frozen north seemed to enjoy the sauce engendered warmth.

Florida's Cranberries AKA Rosselle

The flower looked like an okra flower but MKR's description of a rosselle plant was clear enough for me to understand that I did indeed have one courtesy of Lowes. Or at least I HAD one until the freeze. Curses on La Ninya or Ninyo whichever weather system dries us and freezes us. My urban farm is certainly dry and certainly cold.

Anyway I harvested the dead Rosselle calyxs and followed the directions for making jam. Yes, it turned out syrupy and red. It is good on hot biscuits, but then what isn't?

The Vegans Have Landed

Wonder what MKR's take would have been on vegans? No, Dora cream. No butter. No eggs. No meat. I can't imagine Marjorie eschewing animal products. I can't imagine myself doing without them either. Still, reading Dr. Will Tuttle's World Peace Diet has made me think about the effect our diet has on the world at large. The statistics are grim.

Max and Me

I am reading Max and Marjorie, the letters of MKR and Maxwell Perkins, her famous editor. I am amazed by how much her work depended on his suggestions. I knew that The Yearling arose from his initial suggestion that she write a " boys book" and that she was the one who changed it to a book " about a boy." Reading his suggestions for South Moon Under, I am aware of both his talent and his technique. He always began with praise and then inserted suggestions. She took most of them. No wonder she could not compose well after his death.

Last night I received a huge bag of well washed collards. I think I will create my favorite collard soup since I have smoked turkey from Thanksgiving and sweet potatoes from the river yard patch. They are slender but scrumptious. The combo is something MKR would have enjoyed with a pan of hot corn bread.