Flat

So far, the fruit may be late this year but perfectly delectable. My two rhubarb plants are growing like crazy. And, I bought a flat of strawberries at the farm stand last week. That is 8 quarts or 16 pints of strawberries. So far, I made a batch of strawberry freezer jam, a batch of strawberry rhubarb freezer jam, and strawberry shortcake. Besides eating fresh strawberries all day long, I will still have enough to make a fresh strawberry pie, a favorite of mine.

I am anticipating an amazing berry harvest this year and have been digging through my cookbooks to find not only tried and true recipes but a few new ones as well. I will be sure to share my successes here. In the meantime, I thought I would share two recipes that form the foundation for desserts that can be made with virtually any fruit. Fast and easy, I call these recipes Baking Basics for their versatility throughout the year with any fruit harvest.

Cornmeal Shortcake

Cornmeal gives this shortcake a golden color as well as a bit of crunch.

1 ½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg, beaten
½ cup heavy cream

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. 
2. Cut butter into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Combine egg and cream, and add to dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until just moistened and dough begins to come together.
4. Spread dough in a buttered 8-inch round baking pan.
5. Or, roll on a floured surface to a thickness of one inch; cut into 6 to 8 triangles with a knife or rounds with a 3-inch biscuit cutter. Place on a greased baking sheet. 
6. Bake at 450° F  for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Cool slightly and remove from pan.
8. Split and serve single or doubled with fruit topping and whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Oatmeal Shortbread Bars

Substitute any whole grain or nut flour for those listed in these bars shown here with cherries.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ cup oatmeal

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon table salt

¾ cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

2 to 3 cups fruit in thickened syrup

1.       Grease an 8-by-8-inch baking pan.

2.       In a medium bowl, combine flours, oatmeal, brown sugar, and salt. Cut butter into flour mixture, using a pastry blender, two forks, or your clean hands, until mixture resembles coarse sand.

3.       Press two thirds of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan, finishing by pressing firmly and evenly with the bottom of a drinking glass.

4.       Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes until lightly browned.

5.       Remove from oven. Top with fruit and spread evenly over the base. Sprinkle remaining one third of flour mixture over fruit layer.

6.       Bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

7.       Remove from oven and cool completely prior to cutting into squares.

Yield: 16 two-inch square bars

Starter

One of the staples of my diet as a child was German rye bread -- no caraway seeds. Dense, filling, hearty, and healthy. The thought of this bread, topped with butter and homemade jam, still makes me salivate.

I remember buying rye bread from the German baker, and I remember my aunt baking it in her kitchen. I think this is the reason I have longed to hone my own bread baking skills. Most importantly, I have wanted to come up with a rhythm for bread baking that goes something like this: I bake bread on Mondays from a sourdough starter that makes multiple loaves for the week; then, I feed the starter before returning it to the refrigerator to "sour" in preparation for the next week.

So, when my mother visited in late May, I started an Amish style starter that I found in Prairie Home Cooking by Judith M. Fertig, a recent find at our Friends of the Library sale and shared half the starter and recipes with her to take home. One month later, I am still baking bread, perfecting the recipe and technique.

The cookbook that has taught me the most about baking bread is The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens. I enjoy all the British River Cottage cookbooks and found the basics of bread baking really made sense in this book, particularly the rudimentary recipe that has numerous variations. Essentially, you need a flour, a liquid, yeast and salt to make bread and may, optionally, add fat, starter, and extras for inside and out. End of story.

In addition to making bread, the sourdough starter can be used to make pancakes and scones from recipes in Prairie Home Cooking which were also delicious. I have had trouble in the past, keeping the starter from going bad. So far,so good, this time around. Here is my basic recipe:

Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread

2 cups sourdough starter
2 cups lukewarm water
3 cups flour

Mix starter, water, and flour in a large bowl and let ferment uncovered on the counter top overnight until very active.

1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon fine salt
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast, proofed in 1/2 cup warm water
4-5 cups whole wheat bread flour

Add and mix in brown sugar, butter, salt, and proofed yeast. Mix in four cups of whole wheat bread flour. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface to knead, adding as much of the remaining one cup of whole wheat bread flour to bring the dough together. It should become smooth and elastic not sticky or tough. I knead for about 8 to 10 minutes. You may let the dough rise once in an oiled bowl until double in size or simply move onto next step.

Shape into two loaves that can be baked free form on a greased baking sheet or in greased loaf pans. Let rise until almost doubled. Be patient for the dough to rise which can vary greatly upon location humidity and temperature.

Slash tops of each loaf with a serrated knife if desired and bake at 375° F  for 35 minutes. For a crisper crust, you may use a baking stone and/or add steam to the oven.

Yield: Two Large Loaves

Start here and begin to vary your ingredients and techniques to find the combinations you find most irresistible. You can find ideas in The River Cottage Bread Handbook and go from there. Join me in bread baking and feel free to share your experience. I love to hear from you, dear reader.

Volunteers

Iowa farmers used to call a stalk of corn growing in a soybean field a "volunteer." I've always loved the personification lurking in that use of the word, as though a cornstalk among the soybeans were like a zealous schoolgirl sitting in the first row of desks, arm thrust in the air after every question....
Walking back to the barn, I crossed a slope filled with maidenhair ferns, not a bit different from the cultivated one we put beside the hostas last spring. The hillside, once a field, had filled with saplings. A couple of years ago, you might have mowed them down with a bush hog. No longer. They've passed the point where they could accurately be called volunteers. Now, they've made the place their own. (81-83) Verlyn Klinkenborg, The Rural Life

The grounds of NOLD are filled with volunteers, the unexpected shoots and saplings of vegetation not cultivated but the result of seeds carried along by nature and planted with serendipity to surprise the gardener. The most astonishing volunteer I discovered so far is the Dawn Redwood or Metasequioa, one of three species of deciduous conifers known as redwoods. I am thrilled to no end after my recent visit to Muir Woods.

The Dawn Redwood had left me clues, innumerable small pine cones like the one above strewn across our back drive. Unusual in size, hardness, and shape, I had never seen pine cones such as these until I ran across a piece on them in Margaret Roach's blog, A Way to Garden.

Sure enough, just over the stream on our neighbor's property stands a majestic Dawn Redwood with its characteristic red colored bark, bundled trunk, and long, lean lines. I have a difficult time photographing it, but it is the tallest tree around in a community of large, old growth.

The species was thought to be extinct until rediscovered in China in the 1940s. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University collected and distributed seeds in 1948 for research and study, reintroducing this "living fossil" to North America. I have yet to find out how this Dawn Redwood ended up next door.

In the meantime, I discovered three volunteer Dawn Redwood saplings thriving in a flower bed nearby. I had nearly pulled and composted the trees, because they appeared dead after our bitterly cold winter, having shed their browned needles. I didn't realize that conifers could be deciduous.

Come autumn, two Dawn Redwoods will be transplanted in the front of the property with ample space conducive to their mature size, and one will be sent to the property of friends nearby. Clearly, they chose NOLD and have made it their own home. I am more than happy to comply.

Three Dawn Redwood volunteers discovered in the underbrush. The finding that ancient giants may live in our midst without detection, without really being seen, seems mysterious and magical. All I can say for certain is this: I have been given an exceptional gift, an enduring reminder to always embrace serendipity in life as in the garden, plain and simple.

White

I am trying to think through carefully the footprint I leave in the gardens and lawn on my property, using organic methods and introducing primarily perennial plants that are local, deer resistant, and drought tolerant.

In this vein, I continue to discover and assess plantings beneath the overgrowth of NOLD, noticing a handful of different white blooms in our midst.

Bleeding Heart

Their shapes are varied.

Their shades of white cover the spectrum as well.

Trillium

Some I have identified.

Azalea

Some I still need to name.

Lily of the Valley

Nonetheless, the beauty of the white blooms needs no label.

Asian Pear

So, I work to restore many plants and bushes back to health.

Vibernum

And, I weed vigorously to control the invasive plants that threaten to smother out desirable vegetation.

Garlic Mustard -- Eradicate or, at a Minimum, Control

At the same time, I am embracing weeds that may deserve a more elevated place in the garden.

Dandelion -- Embrace Along with Clover 

Essential Sustenance to Monarchs Before Milkweed Blooms

I try to do an hour of work in the garden each day, weeding by hand -- no chemicals for me. A recent article in the New York Times highlights the perils of the use of pesticides, weedkillers, and synthetic fertilizers. I urge you to read it as well as a book I received as a gift from a dear friend, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy for a thoughtful approach to the garden and the white flowers in your midst, too.