OCCASIONAL PICTURES NO. 231

This Ace Records compilation, released last year, escaped my notice until internet randomness brought it to my attention this morning:

Most of you will know at least some of these, and they include that great version of 'From A Buick 6' by Gary US Bonds (which, as it happens, I included in a Dylan compilation album issued decades ago now); but I'd like to mention a lesser-known track on How Many Roads  -  and that is 'I Shall Be Released' by Freddie Scott. I've not heard it and it might not be all that good, but Freddie Scott is always worth looking out for. His slow, ineffably soulful 1960s version of the normally fast-paced 'I Got A Woman' by Ray Charles was one of those singles I played to myself compulsively in adolescence. It still sounds tremendous. He also made a cover of Van the Man's 'Brown-Eyed Girl' and after a 15-year silence made one last album in 2001. He died in 2007. There's a good brief biography of him by Jason Ankeny here.

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Today, many of us appreciate roses as something to be admired in a solely visual sense. What with modern plant hybridization, the vast majority of rose varieties commercially available have little to no fragrance. But Shakespeare was right in noting the sweet scent of the rose as its most distinctive and valuable attribute (Romeo and Juliette, II, ii, 1-2). According to Carla Emery, “the scentless rose is a modern reality” and one definitely worth avoiding if you want to do more than look at your rose plants. Though they may be thorny, fragrant roses have a lot to offer in the kitchen and for arts and crafts. Carla Emery suggests sticking to “old-fashioned” roses like Damasks, Bourbons, Centifolias, Albas, and Gallicas to use in potpourris, rose jars, beads, and food.

But what exactly is it about the rose that we can find useful? Emery focuses on the hips and the petals.

Rose Hips—These are the round orange-to-reddish “fruit” formed after the flower of a rose has bloomed. The hip is the seedpod of the plant. Some hips are better tasting and bigger than others; Carla Emery recommends Japanese rose varieties, sweetbriar eglantine, or wild rose hips for their generous size and doses of Vitamin C!

Rose Petals—These are a bit more obvious: the petals of the blooming flower contain oils you can use for scent or flavor. Harvesting rose petals takes a bit of attention, though:

Gather just when the rose has fully expanded. If you wait a day longer, until they start to fade, they will have lost some of that precious fragrance. Gather in the morning after the dew has dried, but before they have gotten really warmed by the sun. Dry before proceeding by pressing them gently between layers of cloth. Dry them in a dehydrator or on a muslin cloth laid over a screen in an airy, shady place.

Here are a few ideas to make the most your old-fashioned roses:

Rose Hip Tea

Boil dried coarse-ground rose hips with water, about 1 T. for each cup of tea. The longer you boil, the stronger your tea. Mash the hips with a spoon to get out all the juice, and strain. Sweeten with brown sugar or honey.

Rose Brandy

To flavor sauces for cakes and puddings, gather rose petals while the dew is on them. Fill a bottle with them. Then pour into the bottle a good brandy. Steep 3 to 4 weeks. Strain and rebottle.

Rose Petal Honey

This recipe was a favorite of Martha Washington’s. Bring 2 pints of honey to a boil. Add 1 pint rose petals. Let stand 4 hours. Heat again. Strain into jars.

Damp Rose Potpourri

Dry the rose petals just until they feel leathery — 8 hours or overnight. Use ice cream-type salt that is coarse and not iodized. Layer salt and rose petals in the bottom of a glass jar, 1⁄4 c. salt to 2 c. petals. Add some orrisroot, too. Keep a lid on the jar and open only when you want to let out some fragrance.

GERRY RAFFERTY: RIGHT DOWN THE LINE

It seems reasonable to draw this to people's attention, since its subject was a key part of an influential if short period of my life. I haven't seen any advance version but I think it includes some use of a photograph of Gerry and his producer Hugh Murphy that I took in a small studio in Worthing in 1980  -  they were there co-producing Richard and Linda Thompson, if memory serves. Right Down the Line will be shown on BBC 4 TV later.

The Magical Fruit

Fact: The peanut is a bean, not a nut.

Fact: The chickpea is also a bean, not a true pea.

Fact: The soynut is the seed from a bean plant, not a nut.

Confused? I was too, until I took a little time to get to know the legume family—the large group of healthy and tasty foods to which all of the above belong.

Legumes are part of the family Leguminosae, or the “pea” family. Legumes all have clusters of fruit that matures in pods. Beans are actually just a small subgroup of this huge category. There are about 200 edible species of legumes cultivated worldwide, with about 1,500 different varieties from snap peas to lima and runner to lentil, soy and black-eye. There are so many different types of legumes that it is difficult to tackle them all in one post, but here are some key facts true of all legumes that can help to clarify what they are and why we should eat them!

Carla Emery says that legumes are incredibly important foods. And when Carla Emery says something is important, I listen. Here’s why:

• Since most of the common legumes are nitrogen fixers, they are great for renewing fertility in a crop rotation following heavy feeders, and they make perfect “green manure.” Till legume roots into your soil along with the leftover coffee grounds from the last post!
• They dry easily and store well under the simplest care, even increasing their protein value in storage.
• Together with a grain, they make a complete protein. So, after grains, beans are the most important food on the planet. So don’t neglect your beans, especially when grains are present in a meal.

A bit about combining beans and grains. All over the world beans are regularly eaten in combination with a grain, creating a complete protein combination essential to all human diets. Both grains and beans are good foods, but no bean or grain by itself contains all the amino acids necessary for human health, unlike meat and dairy (and mushroom) products. For example, corn is low in lysine and tryptophan, 2 essential amino acids. Beans are rich in lysine and tryptophan but lack zein, which corn can provide. So grains and beans together are as good as drinking milk or eating steak (an important detail for vegans or vegetarians to consider). But they must be eaten in the same meal for it to work. You get the same result with corn and bean stew (succotash), baked beans and bread, beans with barley or rice, beans and pasta, or corn chips and bean dip.

Besides providing you with a complete protein in a meal, legumes can have quite long-term health benefits, since consuming legumes regularly can reduce your risk of both heart disease and cancer. In fact, Carla Emery says that eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day reduces you cancer risk by half.

For a healthy and tasty snack, try dipping corn chips in your own homemade hummus!

Hummus—made from the “garbanzo bean” (as it is known in Spain) or “chickpea” (in England). This legume is actually grown all over the world in warm climates and is prominent in national dishes from India, Italy, the Middle East and Latin America.

2 cups precooked garbanzos

1 garlic clove (or 5, if you boil them ahead for a milder taste)

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

Puree garbanzos and garlic. Add olive oil and lemon juice. If it seems too thick or dry, thin by adding a little water. Chill before serving.

Change it up! Try adding sesame oil or tahini for a nuttier flavor. Or add roasted bell peppers or sun-dried tomatoes and spread on crackers or wheat bread for a perfect protein!

BOB DYLAN'S US TOUR ENDS

Bob finished the first US leg of this year's touring last night at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts. His set introduced no song previously unplayed on the tour, and it began as follows:

1. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
2. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
3. Things Have Changed.

Clearly they haven't lately.

OCCASIONAL PICTURES NO. 78

photo © Duncan  Hume, 1992

 

Wake up and smell the coffee

For many people, Seattle is synonymous with Starbucks. And sure enough, my fellow Seattleites and I are avid drinkers of this satisfying beverage, and even boast ownership of the birthplace of famous Starbucks Coffee from Pike Place Market. However proud we may be of our city’s role in the modern celebration of the coffee bean, it is easy to forget the origins of the plant and the process required in order to hold that fragrant, steaming mug of caffeine in our hands. Thankfully, we have Carla Emery to fill us in.

The coffee plant is native to east Africa. It looks like a small tree or shrub and grows up to 8 feet tall in a pot (up to 15 feet outdoors). A dwarf variety gets only 3 feet tall. Coffee can be grown in a temperate-zone garden if you transplant to a container and bring inside for the winter. The coffee plant is quite ornamental with its scented white flowers and shiny dark green foliage. The coffee plant can’t survive a frost and needs some shade to protect it from excessive sun. It can be grown outdoors in the California coastal area from about Santa Barbara on south.

Planting

Keep seeds dry before planting. Plant coffee seed on the soil surface in a sand-peat or half-organic mix. Keep warm (about 85 ̊F) and allow a sizable time (a month or more) for germination. Once well started, transplant outdoors or to 4-inch pots. Grow potted coffee in well-drained soil; situate in a sunny window. Young coffee plants grow best at 70–75 ̊F. If you have trouble with brown leaves, it means you’ve been watering too much, need to move the plant to a larger pot, or both.

Harvesting

For flowering and fruiting, the plants need 55–58 ̊F night temperatures. Without those conditions, the plant will just grow bunches of lovely dark green glossy leaves — no flowers, no beans. Also be cautious with pruning. Cutting off the top does no harm, but trimming branches eliminates your crop, since flowers and beans grow there. The white flowers evolve into 1⁄2 - inch fruits that are first green and then red, purple, or scarlet when ripe. When ripe, harvest them.

Using

Each pod contains 2 coffee beans, which you rescue from the outer pulp, dry, roast, grind, and soak in very hot water to make your beverage.

If you live outside of the ideal temperature zone or just don’t have the time or means to maintain your own coffee plant, there are other ways to localize your participation in the coffee industry—for example, garden maintenance or composting.

If you buy coffee and cook it at home, you can use the leftovers to give back to the earth in your own garden. “Coffee grounds are a first- class, environmentally harmless deterrent to ants. To keep ants out of your house, or any other building, just lay a solid 3-inch layer against your foundation all the way around. To deal with an anthill, surround it likewise with a sizable ring of grounds. Grounds will also prevent cutworms (as do wood ashes). Just dig a shallow ditch around vulnerable plants and pour grounds into it. As they break down, they’ll also add fertility to the soil.”

Coffee grounds are also a great addition to your compost pile. “Earthworms love them and will quickly turn them into rich humus. And a manure/grounds/leafy mulch mixture added to poor soil will practically instantly make it fertile.” Carla Emery warns that consuming the large quantity of coffee it would take to produce grounds for a large garden could be a strain on your pancreas. She advises not to drink all the coffee yourself, but “contact a business that brews coffee in quantity, and ask them to let you take all those unwanted coffee grounds off their hands!”