Last month I lamented that I couldn’t find my mother’s Susan Branch cookbook.
Just the other day I was moving boxes from the barn to the basement. I stacked a few boxes in front of the bookshelf, and guess what popped out at me? My mom’s “lost” copy of Heart of the Home: Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen, right where it belonged.
And the book is better than I remembered. Yes, there are colorful drawings of wooden spoons and checkerboard floors, glass milk bottles, lavender wands and rows of scallions. There are recipes from appetizers to desserts, with entertaining tips and playfulness sandwiched in and spread with dollops of craft projects and family traditions
Heart of the Home, Found
But I had forgotten the quotes. I’ve collected quotes since I was in junior high. Other people’s words are treasures. And Heart of the Home is a treasure box.
Under a recipe for Quesadillas is a true confession from Robert Louis Stevenson:
“Many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese—toasted mostly.”
With instructions for an appetizer of tiny herbed cheese balls centered on orange nasturtium flowers floating on a bed of dark green nasturtium leaves is the poetry of Edgar Guest:
“Things that haven’t been done before,
Those are the things to try;
Columbus dreamed of an unknown shore
At the rim of the far flung sky.”
Susan’s recipe for Pasta with Smoked Salmon & Peas suggests accompaniments and is accompanied by these words:
“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs.
He most lives who thinks most—feels the noblest—acts the best.” –P.J. Bailey
Her attachment to Martha’s Vineyard comes across in this quote by Helen Adamson:
“The Greeks had just one word for ‘economize’.
Our New England grandmothers had twelve:
“Eat it up; use it up; make do, or do without.”
(I guess Helen counts “with” and “out” as two words…)
Introducing Susan’s chapter on Breakfast is this gem that I totally agree with:
“You have to eat oatmeal or you’ll dry up. Anybody knows that.” Eloise, Kay Thompson
Alas, the book is out of print, but look for it in used bookstores or community book sales. And, you can enjoy Susan’s blog at: https://www.susanbranch.com
Leucocoprinus birnbaumii
It’s always a thrill to find something lost, but even better to discover something new. I spotted a cute yellow mushroom growing in our atrium planter. I pulled out three mushroom ID books and was able to key it out. It is a Yellow Parasol or, as they refer to it in the Bahamas, a Spirit Umbrella. Of course the British have the best name for this brilliant fungus: “Plantpot Dapperling.” A dapperling is a neat, trim, stylish, yes, dapper, little fellow, and this mushroom is definitely that.
Its botanical name is Leucocoprinus birnbaumii. According to the British Kew Gardens website, the mushroom was first described in 1839 by Czech mycologist August Corda who saw it growing between pineapple plants in a German earl’s garden. “Birnbaumii” refers to the earl’s garden inspector by the name of Birnbaum.
While L.b. is common in the tropics, in Pennsylvania you will only find it in greenhouses or flowerpots, a sunny toadstool of wonder found in rich, dark soils. Devour it with your eyes, but please don’t taste. Laurie Lynch
One Last Find: I’ve been reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch for several weeks now. It is a classic that I’ve read about numerous times, but had never read. The first 100 pages were quite a struggle, and I was close to quitting. Now I’m at page 565 of 811, and totally enthralled.
Eliot won me over several chapters ago with this spot-on description of a main character’s eyelashes–comparing them to the blossom of a passionflower vine, one of the most intricate specimens in the flower kingdom.
“For Dorothea, still in that time of youth when the eyes, with their long, full lashes look out after their rain of tears unsoiled and unwearied as a passion-flower, that morning’s parting with Will Ladislaw seemed to be the close of their personal relations. He was going away into the distance of unknown years, and if he ever came back he would be another man.”
They are just stunning. Each year they are different, but always fabulous. Her displays are a blend of contrasting colors and textures of foliage and flower. She stuffs her pots with spikes and spillers, spreaders and thrillers, but only one of each plant per container is her rule. She fertilizes twice a summer with MiracleGro and provides daily TLC.
Fleur-de-Blog 