Finding Refuge in the Garden

The garden is a refuge. Every time I walk through its gates I feel my heartbeat begin to slow down. Sights and smells come into view penetrating a little more deeply. It amazes me how much simply being there changes my perspective within a few minutes. Here are some stories from the garden…

Last year my friend, Gwen Mazer, and I made plum brandy for the first time. A very old plum tree with a girth so big you cannot put your arms around it in my community garden on Potrero Hill had a bumper crop. The tree looked positively biblical festooned with golden orbs each one tinged with a rosy blush. These plums we discovered through garden sites were the very unique variety called “Howard’s Miracle”, the kind that “if you only planted one kind of plum tree, it should be this one.”

What to make with this bumper crop? Both of us had grown up in families that canned fruit and made jam and pickles in the summer and we had a yearning to dip into those memories and connect with sweet memories of our mothers and grandmothers, right here in the City. We decided to make plum chutney using a recipe from my mother’s favorite cookbook “The Spice Cookbook” as well as vinegar and then the crowning glory: Golden Miracle Plum Brandy (recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook.)
We patiently waited 4 months while the vodka extracted the essences out of the plums. But when we tippled that first taste in my tiny demi-shot glasses I bought at the Florence Flea Market, we were in sensory heaven. This stuff was Elixir!
My boyfriend still keeps asking “Is there anymore plum brandy?”

The tree is laden, the plums are ripening. Tomorrow I go and pick them!

Spending time in the kitchen, particularly with a friend, is a great way to get perspective on everything else in your life!

Here is the recipe for Plum Brandy (from The Silver Palate):

2 cups sugar

2 pints plums, washed

1 quart vodka

1. Place sugar in a 3 quart glass jar with a lid.  Add the plums and vodka and cover.

2.  Place in a dark, cool place.  Each week for at least 4 months open the jar and stir the cordial.

3.  Strain the finished brandy through a sieve into a lovely decanter.  Enjoy!

Yield: 1 1/2 quarts