My Big Fat Christmas Cactus

By Patricia Dumas

Garden Center 

It’s late fall, and the leaves are drying, the flowers are shriveling and there’s a bleakness in the air. All except indoors where my big, fat obscenely colored Christmas Cactus is blooming its giddy little heart out.  

The Christmas Cactus, also known as Schlumbergera or Zygo-cactus, is not a true cactus as we know it. Instead of loving the dry, desert conditions of a typical cactus, they are at home as a tropical plant that preserves water in its leaves, yet likes humidity and heat. They are native to South and Central America where they get the hot, steamy weather they thrive on.

 There are varieties that can bloom at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Zygo-cactus that are purchased blooming at Christmas time usually repeat their growth at the same time every year. With orchid-like  blooms of red, fuchsia, orange, white and pink, there’s a variety for every décor.  You just have to plan on making good friends with it, because it will be around for probably most of your life.  And the lives of your children too!

I will say that my Christmas Cactus is a true antique.  I’ve been growing it for over 20 years. I  bought it when my children were young. They’re 30 and 28 now.  It blooms heavily every year before Thanksgiving.  Blasting hot pink shrimp-like blooms, my old friend gets bigger and more beautiful with just a little care and a few pinches here and there.  If you don’t believe it, look at Mr. Sickles Sr.’s plant on display in the greenhouse at Christmastime.  It’s almost a hundred years old, and blooms like a trooper every year. They are tremendously long-lived and are often passed down in the family for years.  If that plant could talk, we’d surely know the secrets of the good old days.

Maybe you’ve seen one out of bloom, tucked away in your mom or grandmas house sitting in a corner doing nothing all year long.  It looks dull green and somber for most of the year until its time arrives. Then it explodes like the promise of Christmas to come. It is big, blowsy, and full of color.  Every stem reminds you of the year you bought it, and how long you’ve come since it was a little sprig.

There are a few things I’ve learned from my Xmas Cactus. It will take sun or part sun, and once the blooms come, it can be placed anywhere for a showy centerpiece. I can get it to bloom better by doing a few things.  I leave my cactus outside all summer long during its growing season- letting the succulent leaves soak up the sun, humidity and rain.  I leave it outside until it gets just a little bit too cold in November, and then I bring it inside.  Within two weeks, it’s a blooming mass of flowers.  After blooming, I let the plant rest. When Spring comes around, it goes outdoors again for its biggest growing push.  I pluck off the the top leaf segments to encourage future blooms and bushy branching.

Water well during the growing season as the daylight outdoors gets longer, and fertilize monthly in summer.  When the fall sets in, start the process all over again. Keep water scant before bloom, then water weekly again when the flowers appear.  You’ll soon come to being “one” with your green family member.  Every few years, you will need to re-pot your baby because it grows quick.  More room makes more blooms.  Eventually, like a child, you’ll know its habits, needs and quirks.

If you’re having a hard time with the bloom, set the plant in a cool, dark place indoors in  November for 12 hours a day with just enough water to keep it alive. Once the buds set, the plant can be brought out into the household and it will bloom anywhere. If you really want your plant to bloom at Christmas instead of Thanksgiving, keep it in the dark longer until a couple of weeks before the big date.   

Not much to look at during the rest of the year, you’ve got to let the Christmas Cactus grow, and make leaves until it’s ready to flower up  in December. In the spring and summer, you can make babies too.  Pluck a few stems and set them out to dry for a few days in a warm spot until the stems form a nice, hard callous at the bottom. Stick them upright in fresh potting soil, and water.  In no time, you’ll have young plants from the mother lode; enough to start the whole family on a life-long journey of growth and remembrance.

Patricia Dumas

November 29, 2011

To keep in mind in late Autumn:

• Don’t throw those tree leaves in garbage bags!  They are good lawn and garden nourishment in the form of ground- up mulch.  Try mowing over your leaves a couple of times. Works like a charm here.  The grass is richer, and better every summer.  Pile some up around bushes and in the vegetable garden too!

• Bulbs planted now, will bring you color and beauty in the spring.  Plant some in in the garden, and save some for inside.  Just chill some potted daffodil or                                                        ,       hyacinth bulbs in the fridge for a month, then bring out and force in a bright window. Voila!  Instant Spring!

• Pick those dried, left over hydrangeas that are hanging on for dear life, and  place them indoors in vases. If the color is too dull, get a can of burgundy or dark pink spray paint and spray the flowers for a great natural look.

• Plant, plant, plant!  You can plant all your shrubs and perennials in the cold  as long as you can work the earth. They are hibernating and take less water and nourishment, while establishing themselves well in the cool weather.  

Cranberries

Whole cranberries are irresistibly cute.

Whether scrubbed cleaned and bagged together for sale or growing au naturel on trailing vines in a cultivated bog or on dwarf, evergreen shrubs beside a sand dune on Cape Cod, they charm me. Uniformly deep red, in a shade that’s often reserved for evening-time lipstick, they reflect the vibrant colors of autumn. After all the leaves have fallen and we are left with a brown, barren landscape, cranberries give a welcome burst of color, like the inedible berries that grow on denuded shrubs and trees. Whenever I see cranberries at farmers’ markets and on store shelves, I want them, just as I want holy greens with their red berries in the house during winter. They bring natural, visual cheer.

Fresh cranberries also embody the holidays. Can you imagine Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce? It has been an American traditional condiment since colonial times, when Native Americans introduced this tart berry, high in vitamin C and helpful in preserving food, to the Founding Fathers. America’s first cookbook author, Amelia Simmons (1796), recommends serving cranberries with turkey, and this combination has been the sine qua non of the Thanksgiving table since at least then. Even their appearance has a festive air, like miniature ornaments for a Christmas tree set up in a doll’s house. As soon as they appear in the market, we know that the holiday season is upon us.

thepioneerwoman.com

In the past fifty years, we have been able to enjoy cranberries year-round, but mainly as a cocktail juice or as sweetened, dried Craisins. For breakfast on the run, we may pick up a cranberry muffin. But as to fresh, unprocessed cranberries, we feel as though we must hold off until Thanksgiving, when we also search around for our respective families’ cranberry sauce recipe, made but once or twice a year.

I say don’t wait to buy those charmingly red berries until Thanksgiving and don’t limit yourself to sauce. Embrace cranberries’ seasonality and special place in American foodways--and their delicate cuteness!--by bringing them into the kitchen for some novel preparations.

The first time I ever used fresh cranberries was to make a cocktail (of course), Applejack Cobbler, that caputures the essence of autumn with a combination of apples and cranberries. The apple flavorings come from apple schnapps and Monmouth County-based Laird’s Applejack. The cranberries are boiled in a sugar syrup to sweeten the cocktail and to lend balanced tartness and visual appeal. Toast the advent of autumn with this delectable cocktail!

www.finecooking.com

For the sweeter side of the pairing of cranberries with apples, finish a meal with an easy-to-make crisp. Straying from Fine Cooking’s formal recipe, I leave the cranberries whole instead of chopped. This approach yields textural appeal and prevents the dessert from being too cloyingly sweet.

My go-to portable lunch in autumn is a toasted Cheddar sandwich with chutney. It provides a warming wholesomeness that I crave at this time of year. Sometimes I use a store-bought chutney, like Major Grey, and other times I plan ahead and make my own. Here’s one from Martha Stewart with fresh cranberries and apples (these fruits sure like each other!), that could also be an intriguing replacement to cranberry sauce or make zesty leftover turkey sandwiches.

Cranberries are what make Thanksgiving, but they also make a whole variety of delicious drinks and treats.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Diana Pittet, the cheesemonger charmed by cranberries

A Question of Taste



Realsimple.com

It’s getting to be that time of year again when there’s one burning question on everyone’s mind: To stuff or not to stuff? As the calendar approaches the fourth Thursday in November, what to do with America’s favorite Thanksgiving side dish takes front and center. I’ve always thought that stuffing vs. dressing was simply a question of semantics, but there are actually a few differences worth considering.

MarthaStewart.com

Stuffing, obviously, is exactly what its name denotes, a preparation that is stuffed into the cavity of the bird. Dressing, on the other hand, is prepared as a stand -alone side accompaniment, which takes less time and energy. Another key difference is flavor. The ingredients in the recipe determine a dressing’s flavor, whereas stuffing gets a boost of savory richness from the roasting turkey. The stuffing’s spices permeate the turkey meat as well.

The cooking time is also a key factor. The turkey takes longer to cook when there is stuffing inside of the cavity. It is also important to note that the temperature of the stuffing must reach 165 degrees F. when measured with a meat thermometer in order to prevent the spread of food borne illness. The stuffing can be removed from the bird and finished separately in the oven to bring it up to the necessary 165 degrees F. Dressing is always cooked as a side dish and poses no health threat of this nature.


MarthaStewart.com

Whether you opt for stuffing or dressing, there are literally thousands of recipes to choose from. The Southern states tend towards corn bread and pecans in their recipes. You’ll find Martha Stewart’s Cornbread, Bacon, Leek and Pecan Stuffing to be a mouth-watering example of this type of classic stuffing. For a more fanciful, creative way to present the popular side dish, try Cherry Pecan Cornbread Dressing, served as individual muffins. I grew up in the San Fransisco Bay Area, where sourdough bread is a significant part of Thanksgiving stuffing and dressings. Pancetta Sourdough Apple Stuffing balances the tanginess of the sourdough with the sweetness of the apples and the savory pancetta.

If you want to avoid a lot of fuss, try Marcy’s Gourmet Orange Cranberry Stuffing, available at Sickles Market, and follow the simple recipe. Of course, there’s a chance that your family will want you to make exactly the same recipe year after year, and that’s okay too. Tradition is a very special part of Thanksgiving. Whether you end up stuffing or dressing the turkey this year, I hope that you enjoy a plentiful bounty with a thankful heart!

Cheri the Cheesemonger

Brie by Any Other Name

www.aftouch-cuisine.com

I’m a stickler about grammar and words. This doesn’t mean that I am exact all the time––far from it!––but I endeavor to be exacting with myself. This rigid mindset is especially helpful when I copyedit an academic Latin and Greek journal four times a year.

Precision about the structure of phrases and meaning of words doesn’t abandon me when I step behind the cheese counter at Sickles. In fact, I get a bit caught up about the defining names of cheeses.

Bloomy-rinds getting more bloomy

Take, for example, Brie. Folks tend to call any cheese covered in a white, bloomy rind Brie. But there are only two real Brie cheeses out there, ones that can legally and appropriately go by this name. The French government, which is even more of a stickler about language than I, officially certifies only Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun, neither one of which is available in the United States. The reason for our national dairy deprivation is that true Brie must be made from unpasteurized milk. Raw milk cheeses are indeed permitted in the United States, but they must be aged for at least sixty days. Brie’s ideal maturing time is thirty to forty days. Sickles comes as close as it can to selling a true Brie with Fromage de Meaux, which follows the recipe for the name-protected cheese, but uses pasteurized milk.

Most of what folks generically refer to as Brie falls into a popular category of cheeses called bloomy rinds or soft-ripened cheeses. Bloomy refers to the white mold on the surface of the cheese, Penicillium candidum or camemberti or Geotrichum candidum. These types of mold break down proteins in the cheese from the outside in, making them nice and soft, hence “soft-ripened.”

Not totally prescriptive, I understand that it’s much easier to refer to this entire class of cheese as Brie, just as it’s more lively to call all sparkling wines Champagne. If you were to ask a cheesemonger for a soft-ripened cheese or a wine clerk for a sparkling wine, you would sound a bit dull and scientific, in essence, a stickler. I may be one, but who really wants to be around a stickler?

Even at the risk of being rain at a parade, the stickler in me has to come out on this topic. It’s not fair--or correct--to call all white-rind cheeses Brie. A bulging, 14-inch wheel of true Brie reflects a specific sense of place and centuries of tradition, of French women on farms in Île-de-France, collecting milk from their few cows and transforming it into the solid wonder that is cheese. Calling anything else by that name denies Brie its unique flavors, texture, and history.

Instead, tell your cheesemonger than you are looking for a soft cheese, or get more specific and specify a double crème (e.g., Fromager d'Affinois) or a triple (e.g., Délice de Bourgogne). Or say, as some hip cheese shops do, that you are looking for a “bloomy,” as in a bloomy-rind cheese. That’s just as easy as asking (incorrectly) for a Brie, no? This way, when you ask for a Brie, your cheesemonger won't have to waste your time trying to figure out if you want a true, assertive Brie or a more luscious double- or triple-creme cheese.

Let Brie be Brie; let it be its unsurpassed, mushroom-y self, a cheese developed for centuries in Île-de-France. And let the other bloomy-rind cheeses stand proud in their own names.

Don’t let this stickler rain on your parade. Enjoy!

Diana Pittet, the overly precise cheesemonger

Time for Tea!

By Cheri Scolari

When America declared independence from England a couple of centuries ago, in our eagerness to leave the old behind and embrace the new, we made one unfortunate mistake. Instead of just dumping the tea overboard during the Boston Tea Party, we ditched the whole tea time tradition: tea, scones, jam, the whole works. You still find formal tea service in large cities at landmarks such as the Russian Tea Room or Palm Court in New York City, or at an occasional shop like NovelTeas in Red Bank, but it is a rare find nowadays. A few years back, my daughter and I experienced an afternoon tea at the Georgian Restaurant at Harrods in London and that’s when I really fell in love with the whole notion of tea time. The room was grand and the table impeccably set with bone china and silver. A three-tiered serving piece filled with delicate sandwiches and pastries appeared, and we devoured everything with as much proper tea etiquette as we could manage while listening to gentle strains of classical piano music in the background. It was a delightful and memorable way to spend an afternoon.

Since then, I love to take a few minutes out of my busy day for a cup of hot tea in the afternoon. It’s even more enjoyable to invite a few friends to an afternoon tea. A tea time held between 2:00pm and 5:00pm is considered a “low” tea. Scones and other pastries, as well as delicate finger sandwiches, are normally served. “High tea” is actually an early supper between 5:00pm and 8:00pm and is served at a high dinner table (hence the name). In addition to the sweets and sandwiches, meat pies and cheeses are often added. Whichever tea time you choose, be sure to treat yourself to a high quality tea that is prepared well. Use loose tea leaves in a tea pot with fresh, boiling water. When you re-boil water or let it stand for a long time, the water loses oxygen and does not extract the full flavor from the tea leaves. Brew your tea for no more than 3-5 minutes. If you leave the tea leaves in the water much longer the tea will taste bitter, as tannins are released.

Harrods Tea Room

The choices are limitless when it comes to selecting teas. English Breakfast and Assam are stronger black teas with higher caffeine levels and are normally served with milk. Earl Gray is imbued with the citrus oil of Bergamot and is pairs well with lemon. Darjeeling is considered “the champagne of teas” with its lush, flowery notes and smooth finish. An excellent option in the afternoon is green tea, which has a small amount of caffeine but a rejuvenating effect on the mind and body. The Republic of Tea’s Big Green Hojicha is made from roasted Japanese green tea leaves and has an earthy aroma and lightly roasted flavor. White tea is another low caffeine option that lifts your spirits in the afternoon. The Republic of Tea’s Silver Rain from China’s Fujian province is one of the rarest of all teas. It is a high grown, white tea with floral overtones and a sweet, lingering finish.

Whatever tea tickles your fancy, you may want to sweeten it up with a little honey. I have recently discovered Aiva, a multi-floral raw honey from the mountains of Armenia. The bees gather honey from wild herbs and flowers in the pure mountain air at elevations of 5300 feet. Agave nectar from Mexico is another alternative to sugar. It is very low on the glycemic index and it only takes a small amount to sweeten your tea. Spice blended and flavored teas are also a very appealing option. Blue Lotus Chai is one of my favorite afternoon teas. The finest Indian black tea and organic spices are combined to create a traditional Masala Chai that you mix with hot water and milk. It is so spicy and satisfying! SerendipiTea is a Fair Trade company that creates organic flavored tea combinations such as Buccaneer, an African rooibos tea with coconut, chocolate and vanilla.

Afternoon tea wouldn’t be complete without something sweet to nibble on. Lark Salted Rosemary Shortbread is savory and sweet with a lovely herbal aroma that is perfect with a cup of tea. Caffe Dolcetti from Bath, England offers a Stem Ginger Sultana biscuit that pairs nicely with tea as well. For a traditional afternoon low tea, Sickles Bakery offers an array of scones from The Scone Shoppe, including Pear Pecan, Oatmeal Cranberry and Apple Cinnamon. The company’s miniature quick breads (I’m a fan of the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip and the Sweet Potato Pecan) would also be an excellent choice, but they have been flying out the door as soon as they arrive, so you might have to order ahead! Add some Devonshire clotted cream and jam and you’ll have a tea time fit for a queen!

Cheri the Cheesemonger!