Each Little World

Looking down

We were on the second floor of a UW medical facility on U. Row yesterday when I glanced out the window of the patient waiting room. I was taken aback to realize the building has a garden on top of its big roof overhang that extends out over the entrance of the building. (We had light snow Wednesday night and cold temps yesterday morning.)

I'd love to see what this looks like in the growing season but I am not sure if they let you wander the building without checking in for an actual appointment. 

Madison's West Side Farmer's Market is held in the parking lot of this facility every Saturday. I've been going to that for years but never looked up; though I'm not sure if anything would be visible from down below. Alas the UW is enlarging the building and the market is moving to a new location this spring. I have a feeling I will never make it back to this location until I need a colonoscopy down the road.

An almost perfect weekend

I bought this great market basket (note the wooden wheels) in the 1970s when the legendary Dane County Farmers Market began. I lived close enough to the market to walk to it, but far enough that I needed some kind of carryall. It's critical for August produce that weighs more than I can easily carry. These days there are so many excellent farm markets all over town that I haven't been downtown to the big market in years. 

You can see what I mean: cantaloupe and 9 ears of corn were the first things I bought. They went on the bottom and I built on that solid base. The bag holds pastries from Madison Sourdough. The thought of those treats gets me up early on Saturday morning.

Yesterday I got to the market when it opened knowing how hot and humid the weather was already. Last night at 7 p.m. the temperature was still 89°F. (31.66°C.) Weather Bug said it felt like 99°F. (37.22°C.) and I wouldn't argue with that. But I can't really complain given the extreme heat so many others are experiencing. 

Rain was forecast to begin overnight. Lately it seems like we are often in a gap in storm systems and get little or no rain. Not this time. When I went out around 8 a.m., my rain gauge measured 1.94" (4.92 cm.). We're supposed to get a little more rain today and possibly tomorrow. I was stunned at that number and thrilled. 

The temps look cooler for the coming week. So I will be able to weed in prep for our last garden tour on Thursday, even if it's too wet to plant the things that have been waiting for the temps to drop.

September splendor

In and out of vases on Monday

There are certain flowers in my garden that I prefer to showcase all on their on. This unknown Heuchera is one of them. It is one of the few that has done so well for me that I now have about a dozen big clumps of it; all the result of dividing it over the years. 

After I cut a nice bunch of the flowers, I clipped a few more pink blooms from another nearby Heuchera and added them. It was only then that I realized why I  am so enamored of these particular Heuchera flowers: The stems are a deep rosy purple instead of the more typical green.  

A recent windy, rainy night broke a couple of stems of my lovely tall Veronicastrum 'Fascination' flowers. Again, I let it shine on its own. 

Yesterday I did a little pruning on one of my Acer pseudosieboldianum trees. I decided I should enjoy the foliage and put a few stems in a big vase on the deck. They looked a little blah on their own, so I grabbed the fading Veronicastrum stem from inside the house and added it to the mix.

I bought this gorgeous fennel bulb at the West Side Farmers Market on Saturday. It is so dramatic that I felt like I should figure out how to display it. All I managed to do was have Mark photograph it so I can remember how big and beautiful it was. 

Perfect end of September weekend

The weather has been less than perfect, but I had a busy and satisfying weekend. It began Friday afternoon when a friend and I went to the Back to School Alumni and Friends Event sponsored by the UW's School of Human Ecology (where I received my grad degree in textile design).

We saw two widely differing fiber exhibits in the galleries of Nancy Nicholas Hall, followed by a fascinating look at the history of reusing textiles by Prof. Marina Mosokwitz — just for starters. I managed to get to two mini lectures before Mark picked me up at 5 pm for an opening at our favorite local art gallery. 

My first stop Saturday morning was the Westside Farmers Market where this trio was performing. After watching all 8 episodes of Country Music on Wisconsin Public Television, they reminded me of all the country music stars who began at this age.

Then I spent two hours at a WHPS free workshop "An Accidental Arboretum," where one of the members talked about all the trees and shrubs in her garden. As we walked through her garden she point out various specimens as well as sharing information about pruning practices, tools, and sources for plants. She topped it all off with cookies, lemonade and a handout with every one of her trees and shrubs listed by their botanical name.

I came home all excited about possibilities in our garden but went to work in the kitchen instead. First I roasted a couple of pounds of Roma tomatoes and froze them for winter soups and bruchetta. Then I made a batch of ginger broth, one of our personal pantry mainstays. Next up is Daikon and red raddish pickles. 

I took the photo above during the morning garden workshop. This is a Korean fir that died unexpectedly and the gardener left it for a snag. I love the pattern the critters who are using it are making.

We spent a rainy Sunday reading, listening to music and dealing with paperwork. Then Mark went off to a new photography book club while I settled in with the last season of Poldark. 

Mark blew our roof and gutters clear of leaves on Thursday just in case the rain was one of those gushers that doesn't move. Luckily it was gentle for the most part. But what a wet month. According to our rain gauge we got 1.48" (3.75 cm.) from Friday through early this morning, bringing our total for the month of September to 8.95" (22.73 cm.). Don't know if this is the new normal or just an unusually wet September.

Summer recipes

I've been taking advantage of the summer weather to to try out new recipes, including a few from "Smitten Kitchen Every Day," the latest cookbook by Deb Perelman, of Smitten Kitchen blog fame. These days I am usually thinning cookbooks from my bookshelves but leafing through the pages of this one in A Room of One's Own bookstore, I found recipe after recipe that I wanted to try. 

Then the New York times published an interesting sounding recipe for marinated and grilled flank steak, one of my favorite meals. I bought fresh dill at the Farmers' Market for another recipe but used it first with Alliums for a tabletop bouquet. 

This is Smitten Kitchen's "potato and asparagus gribiche" which became my new favorite potato salad at first bite. The gribiche dressing (with the spoon, below) of mustard, hard boiled eggs, capers and cornichons may not be typical but I found it perfect. This dish is a great way to eat asparagus in season and a good way to enjoy it when it's not local. (Note that all her recipe titles are lower case type, so I followed suit).

I make quick cucumber pickles often in the summer, but Perelman turns hers into a bright new idea: "smashed cucumber salad with salted peanuts and wasabi peas." Another recipe where I fell in love immediately upon tasting. 

If you don't cook flank steak, the NYTimes' recipe for "Grilled Flank Steak with Worcertershire Butter" is a good starting point. Plus I froze the leftover Worcestershire butter so now I have a lovely little treat to make any meat special. 

Alas I did not take any photos of Perelman's "whitefish and pickled cucumber salad' which we ate on thick rye crackers along with "Charred Tomato Soup with Coriander and Cilantro" from the NYTimes. Both were great and they were also excellent paired. The Times suggested this was a good soup for gazpacho lovers, which we are. This soup was tasty and complex and much quicker to make than gazpacho. With fabulous tomatoes at my  local farmers' market, this is going to appear on our table a number of times before winter. 

IVOM: Maket finds

My garden is not lacking in blooms at the moment but they are mostly flowers I don't really want to clip for the house. So I took advantage of the fact that the woman who brings buckets of Dahlias and Zinnias to the West Side Farmer's Market is now at her usual stall again.

I rarely go downtown to our famed Dane County Farmers Market anymore because today Madison has such a wealth of them. Indeed, few neighborhoods here lack a weekly market. I usually hit two of them on my way to our regular Saturday morning coffee group.

I love being able to pick my favorite Dahlias from her weekly offerings rather than having to limit myself to the one or two that I might be able to shoehorn into my crammed garden.

I picked the peachy-pink flowers to reflect the Lohan's peeling peach paint. Then I added the red one to spark the softer colors.

The cranberry glass vase is a long ago secondhand shop purchase. I added some painted fern fronds and a stem of Thalictrum 'Lavender Mist' to lighten the dense Dahlias.

To see what other gardeners have found to put into a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this Monday meme. 

The link at the top takes you to an article by the late R.W. Apple about our original Dane County Farmers Market that is well-worth reading. It is still dream market and a stop you won't want to miss if you are ever here on a Saturday. Our political climate has changed dramatically in the years since the article was written, but the Market continues to survive and thrive.

Last of the season

I picked up these three dwarf Chamaecypais pisifera plants at the Hilldale Farmer's Market couple of weeks ago. It may not be obvious from this image but there are differences among them. One is solid green, one has white variegation and one has yellow variegation. Two of them will be just a few inches tall by about one foot wide in ten years. The third one should make a noticeable contribution to the garden as it will be about 2 feet x 2 feet in ten years. 

My first Chamaecyparis shrubs came from the original Herronswood nursery and are still going strong. I expect these to do the same. I've noticed that the bunnies do not generally seem to like this plant so I don't think I will need to cage them this winter which would be a pleasant change. I'm hoping I can still get a nice big Yew to add to the border of Boxwood and Yew balls that we've been working on for a number of years. One of my efforts to reduce maintenance in the garden is to add more shrubs that need little attention.

Corn and tomatoes reign

Our local farmers' markets are bursting with fresh produce that is providing lots of great eating at our house. For as long as possible we will be feasting on sweet corn and tomatoes. I've been roasting and freezing tomatoes, making gazpacho and fresh uncooked tomato sauce for pasta. But my favorite for both flavor and ease is Caprese salad.

According to Epicurious.com Insalata caprese (literally, the salad from Capri) was created in the 1950s at the Trattoria da Vincenzo for folks looking for a light lunch. Its ingredients were tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and olive oil. I add a splash of balsamic vinegar so mine's not authentic but it's the way we like it.

I don't have enough sun or space to grow my own tomatoes but my garden does offer three kinds of basil. So we vary the salad with the type of basil and tomatoes we use. It may have been created to satisfy lunch-goers, but I am happy eating it as an appetizer, side dish or the whole meal. Not many dishes are so pretty or so flavorful.

We had Caprese salad the other night after an entree of Beaufort Soused Corn and Shrimp. The link takes you to a recipe that is identical to the one I follow from Christopher Idone's coffee table cookbook, "Glorious American Food." We mostly enjoy corn on the cob but I love this recipe that uses it off the cob.

The waters around Beaufort were once plentiful with shrimp who made their way into many dishes, including pies, which is the origin of this dish. Idone ditched the crust and added a lemony vinaigrette instead. I usually only make this once a summer but it's yummy as well as easy. The recipe serves 8. I use a scant pound of shrimp for the two of us which leaves us with enough for dinner the next night. But I make the entire recipe of vinaigrette because I love the flavor and don't want to run short. 

Holiday weekend

We spent the weekend socializing, beginning with shopping at the downtown Farmers Market for the first time in many years where we reconnected with longtime friends. The Capitol was its usual beautiful self at 6:30 a.m. 

We were serious shoppers and put off having coffee until we met the Saturday gang at EVP. I managed to plant the herbs I bought in the morning in the afternoon. And then we grilled out. (For those of you not familiar with Madison, there are hundreds of shoppers and booths right behind us on all four sides of the Square around the Capitol).

We were on the road by 8 a.m. on Sunday morning for our monthy Community of Reason (COR) book group. We ended the holiday with house and garden tours on Monday. 

Once a month nine of us get together on a Sunday morning over coffee and pastries to discuss a book that we've all read. Instead of going to church we gather as COR to talk science and philosophy. Everyone but us lives in the country which makes for many lovely drives. This past Sunday we turned down a side road on the way home to make a visit that has been on my "bucket list" for many years: the Hauge Log Church.

"Built in 1852, the Hauge Log Church was the first Norwegian Lutheran Church constructed in western Wisconsin," according to their web site. Surrounding the church is a charming little cemetery where members of the first congregation are buried, including a man named Arne Ruste "who cut the first log used in building the church."

Stopping to visit on a summer-like afternoon, the church seems like the perfect spot to worship. Until you step inside and 19th Century reality hits you.

The space is small and chock full of hard wooden benches upstairs and down. 

Space being at a premium, the stairs to the pulpit and the second floor are vertiginous in the extreme. 

As someone who's been dealing with vertigo, climbing to the balcony took all my courage. I was wearing jeans and could not imagine making the trek in a long dress. Though, perhaps, this space was reserved for agile young people.

The lattice railing is probably a later addition as we could see the spindle holes from an earlier era. 

The balcony seating was designed so that everyone upstairs had a view of the pulpit — and the minister had a view of you. 

There's also an outhouse which you can see at the left in the image below. It's designed for two people with a single door on opposide sides of the building and round windows on the short ends. It was open for use.

The cemetary had old stones that are almost illegible. A few have been replaced with modern ones.

When we drove up we were surprised to discover that the building is open from sunrise to sunset seven days a week — year-round. We signed the guest register, becoming two among the nearly thousand visitors from around the world who stop each year, according to the web site.

While we were there, another couple drove up to enjoy the scenery and the solitude. They parked their Harley by our pickup making for a very Wisconsin scene.