Nocino part 2

A year ago I made some Nocino, or Liqueuer de noix - green walnut liqueur.   The traditional time to harvest the green walnuts is next week on June 24.  The previous blog post explains the method.  Making Nocino requires patience, just like making wine. 

We tasted the Nocino on Saturday.  It has been resting in the dark in the cool basement.  I actually forgot where I had stored it and had to do a search in the special rare foodstuffs (liquors) area of the cellar. 

At the time I bottled it, the Nocino had a bitter, bitter taste.  So bitter, it seemed like it had crawled out of a bile duct.  I questioned whether the bitter flavor would ever go away.  Now the Nocino has a complex spicy, nutty, tannic flavor and still has a somewhat bitter edge.  It needs a little more rest, but has become very promising.  Visualize this deep amber liquid poured over fresh vanilla ice cream.  Surely it will be worth the wait.

Limoncello

Meyer Limoncello is one of the ways we use up some of the hundreds of lemons produced each year on our old Meyer lemon tree.  I had the tree moved about 15 years ago to make way for the deck and re-built dining room.  While the backhoe was here doing the footing excavation, I had the backhoe operator scoop out the already root-pruned tree and placed in a large new hole near the garage.  The tree may be over 40 years old and is extremely vigorous. 

This recipe has evolved over the three or four times I have made it.  The original recipe I used had zest of 20 lemons. This was not enough.  I next tried 24 lemons, and had a better batch.  This last time I used 30 lemons and have a really great color and lemon flavor.  It may be that you can use as much lemon zest as you can cover with the vodka.

Meyer Limoncello
1.5 Liter bottle 100 proof good quality vodka
30 (or more) lemons, zest only, no white pith
Combine vodka and lemon zest in a large glass jar with a tight fitting lid. I use a glass jar with a metal bail and rubber gasket. Place in a dark cupboard, take out and stir or shake every day for at least 40 days.
____________________________________
simple syrup:
4 cups sugar
5 cups water
Simmer 5-7 minutes, cool.  Add to the liquor mix.  Let rest another 40 days+/- in the same cabinet.  Filter through cheesecloth into bottles with metal bails with stoppers or with tight fitting lids. Store in the freezer.


We still have many, many lemons, so stop by to pick some up for limoncello, preserved lemons or lemon marmalade. 

after dinner music

Cover of Ludwig van Beethoven











It appears that scribefire, a blog editing tool, is not supporting youtube video clips. Back to the onboard editor for this post.

Yesterday was an eight hands/two piano session which turned into a marathon of sorts, beginning at noon and lasting till ten in the evening. There were breaks early for lunch, for afternoon refreshment, then for dinner - but the pianists continued after dinner.


Music for the afternoon included Haydn, Mozart, Liszt, Joplin, Beethoven (two complete symphonies, including all repeats), and Wagner. In honor of my recent concert at the Napa Valley College where we had a chorus of over 100 singers plus orchestra performing the final movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony, John and friends played the entire symphony.  Launching into the chorus section prompted a choral outburst from at least two pianists - "Freude!"



For dinner we had southern California style tacos courtesy of John, Rancho Gordo beans, a fresh vegetable platter, guacamole, and olive oil citrus cake described about a year ago. After dinner, another light piece by Wagner:

Paeonia 3

Here are a few more images of peonies from the American Peony Society convention held in Oregon May 27-29, 2011.  Can you pick out the "best in show"?  

Paeonia 2

With an uncertain internet connection, I am dividing the trip posts.

After visiting Brooks Gardens on Friday, we had the pleasure of touring Adelman Gardens.  Adelmans' has an enormous commercial cut peony operation as well as commercial production of peony plants, grass seed production, winter wheat and other crops that are rotated on the 100 acre +/- farm. 



I took a real fancy to this tree peony - "Leda" - on display at the Adelman retail barn.




A grandson of the Adelmans drove the tractor pulling the people movers during a late spring downpour.  In the south we would have called this rain a "gulley washer" or a "frog strangler". 



We next visited Piet Wierstra's Oregon Perennial Company, where a hail storm kept us in the cut peony production shed for a few minutes.  We then visited the greenhouses where peonies have several weeks head start on field grown flowers.  At Mr. Wierstra's house we found these four speckled brown and white eggs on the ground at the base of a peony, with mother squawking in alarm that we might molest the eggs.
 

Paeonia 1

The 2011 American Peony Society Convention is being held in Wilsonville, Oregon.  This is the first time the annual convention has been held on the west coast - or even west of the Rockies.  Weather has been as difficult in the Pacific Northwest as in many parts of the country - with bloom time delayed by about three weeks. 

A field trip to several commercial growers on Friday had tents, umbrellas, rubber boots, tractors and a ferocious hail storm.  Since many attendees came from across the country, the show went on.


John and I revisited the Peony of Unusual Size ("Haephestos") at Brooks Gardens. It is a tree peony with deep red dinner plate sized flowers on a woody plant about 5-6 feet tall. 



I did not notice on a previous trip that there are many Siberian Irises planted in the gardens with the peonies.  This time I noticed the irises and the huge field of Siberian Irises planted beyond the showy growing area for the peonies.  John is off in the distance beyond the irises.


From a closer point of view, this flowering fruit tree framed another large tree peony.