Fresh Fruit “Cake” and Fresh Fruity Friends

I made  my first-ever fresh fruit “cake” today. It was so much fun to build and everyone liked it!

Isn’t this a beautiful group of friends!?

A close up of the finished product.  I’ve seen these online and wanted to try making one, but needed a good reason.

My good pal Las Weezas provided the incentive. Hydra and I hosted a Songmakers song circle today and Las Weezas’s  birthday is this week. She is a wonderfully talented, supportive friend and musician. She’s part of The Harmonistas, which have changed my life in so many good ways. She’s always willing and capable of backing me with her guitar and voice when it’s just the two of us, too.

First step of the fresh fruit “cake” is to cut the ends off of the watermelon and then shape it into a cake-like cylander.

Next, start decorating with other fruits. I was so thrilled to find that I do indeed own a melon baller!  I dug holes in the sides of the watermelon and filled them with muskmelon (cantaloupe) balls.

(Please excuse my ailing point-and-shoot camera! Weird color and accidental border!)

Dug holes for the grapes, then skewered them into place with toothpicks and topped them with blueberries. Used more balls on the top. I later added grapes and blueberries to the balls on top with toothpicks and filled in with banana slices and blueberries.

It was really fun to to and I’ll do it again. Great way to celebrate without processed sugar!

Apricot Report: Hope is High

Surprisingly, there is a lot of fruit on the tree this year.

I MUST go out today and put bird netting over these low hanging boughs before the squirrels start their theivery. They can have the ones up high.

They’re getting big!

The tree has become a wonderful source of shade over the years since we arrived here. In 2000, it was spindly and damaged. Now it must be 30 feet across!

The tree in 2009. I have an earlier shot somewhere, but who knows where!?

Food Focus

So yeah, I was cutting up fruit for a big fruit salad, and this happened.

 And then this.

It reminded me how Silvina, the still life teacher I’ve been taking a workshop with, talks about choosing a focal point for our compositions, something that we want to make pop, that will draw the eye.  I’ve become instinctively aware of this in photography, especially in close ups with this 1.8 lens.

Somehow, the concept sunk in while cutting and shooting fruit.  It’s wonderful how different creative endeavors play off of one another.

I took shots of this with both more and less of the bowl included. I liked the one with no bowl showing a lot, but somehow the context is important, too.

Context and focus happen somehow  in literature, too.  How else is it that the tiny detail we need to remember at the end of the book springs back to mind when the author conjures it? A touch of light in the phrase, a touch of color?

Dubious Fruit

Because somebody’s going down.

Soon.

Food Fashion Plate

Las Weezas brought this amazing dragon fruit to The Harmonistas’ overnight rehearsal and food fest.

They arrived at the house around 12:30 on Saturday and stayed till around 6:00 on Sunday night.  We had a terrific time rehearsing and sharing food. Even managed to go to The 49er in Acton  for dinner on Saturday night and danced to a sixties rock n roll/surfer music band.

Dragon fruit, raspberries and blueberries on Las Weezas’ Greek yogurt.  What a wake up call on Sunday morning!

I decided not to make a big fuss over breakfast, so we had fruit and yogurt–most of which the others brought–and toast, and pulled all the jams and lemon curd, etc. out of the fridge.  Singfolk manned the toaster, I made coffee and decaf.

Quite a spread, right?

Too funny how LDub set up the dragon fruit and I took a shot.  Then she added the mango: another shot.  Blueberries accent, last shot!  I’m eating it now!

One last look at all the jams.  I don’t really use them enough to justify having all this variety, but there was this sale on the Bon Mamman brand at Fresh & Easy last month when I was able to get there…

Anyway, it’s a lot of fun, but also a lot of concentration and we were all righteously tired at the end of each day. Love the commitment and the way we all voice our opinions and are heard.

Looking forward with great anticipation to our West L.A. concert next weekend!!

Cherry Jubilee

 

Rainier cherries ripe for the picking.  We went up to the Leona Valley, about 15 minutes from Palmdale, CA to pick cherries on Saturday.  I’ve been doing this for the past few years.  Cherry picking is pretty painless if you’re just doing it for your own use.

The Leona Valley Cherry Growers Association has directions and picking conditions, etc. They will be open this week and weekend June 10-16th, at least.

Last weekend, the valley was under evacuation due to the Powerhouse Fire, so they lost one of their three or four annual opportunities to let people pick fresh pesticide free fruit.  We went to one of the smaller orchards and picked 15 pounds in about 20 minutes!

We hear good things about the Mexican restaurant at the crossroads in little Leona Valley.

Very inviting! Find your tree and pick!

They warned us about the cannons that go off periodically to keep the birds off the crops.  Probably cheaper than pesticides, too.

Hydra’s haul.  It’s hard to stop picking!

I mixed Big Utahs, Rainiers, and Bings randomly.

The lane leads to where you weigh and pay.  Some farms are big enough that they offer trams to the orchards. Some are small enough that you don’t have to walk this far.

Is that a sink full of joy, or what?

Tim Burton’s Breakfast

Turned up, inexplicably, in the mini-fridge at work.

I swear, this thing winked at me as I started to close the door on it.

Sunchokes and Black Apples

Here’s a photo of the sunchokes in the raw.  Apparently, they are the root of a specific type of sunflower–which is also in the daisy family–and they are also variously known as sunroots, earth apples or Jerusalem artichokes.  Check out another sunchoke experience over at  Hungry Cravings, where you’ll also find a basic recipe.  And some admonitions not to eat too many at once.  Hmmm.

Anyway, I’d want to be pretty sure I knew I had the right thing before I started yanking daisy-like flowers from the roadsides and roasting them up.  My sister, Pegerty, is really good at harvesting from the wild.  I tend to be willing to try a lot more things than Hydra would, when it comes to eating stuff out of the yard and off the hillside.

This past year I actually picked some yucca flowers in bloom, but then didn’t use them.   Okay… this spring!

I also picked this up at Ben’s Corner.   It looks kind of like a purple plum, but it’s an apple that was labeled “Arkansas Black.”  I only picked up one because it was heavily waxed, unlike most of the produce at BC.   Tried it, and I’m glad I didn’t buy more.  I like a firm tart apple like a Braeburn or a Pink Lady, and this is more the texture of a Golden Delicious…kind of mealy for my taste, and not very sweet or tart.  But interesting, anyway.

Oh, and submarine progress report.  Dodger is quite happy to sit on the tallest perch.  In fact, he’s doing so as I type.  I brought the submarine into the studio and rested it on a TV tray.  He’s dozing.

He hasn’t gone all the way inside yet, but he has had a look from several angles.  There are a couple of peanuts inside waiting for him.

I Never Met a Fruit I Couldn’t Bounce

Well, actually, I’m not making bounce out of the fresh figs I bought at Trader Joe’s this week.  And I don’t suppose apples are juicy enough to make good bounce.   The neighbor’s plum tree, which started this whole thing last year by bursting with fruit, doesn’t seem to be bearing much this year.  Sigh.  The plum and the peach were the best last year.

When BassJumper told me she’d bring me peaches from her back yard, I jumped!  We met up outside St. Joseph’s hospital, where she volunteers and near where I work and she handed me a bag of juicy freshly picked peaches.  I used half brandy/half vodka in this batch, which should be ready in October.

And then, you know, I had to take it outside to have its picture taken in the sun.  What delectable colors!

There May Be Apples Later

I’m not making any promises, I’m just hopeful.  Last year we had lots of apples, but we had even more worms, for the first time  When we had a dozen or so, the bugs didn’t care…

Anyone know any good organic ways to keep the bugs off, and when I need to start doing something about it?

The blossoms smell so good!  The whole yard is full of the scent!