Sunday found me in the kitchen and the garden, baking a garden focaccia and creating a posy.
Here is the posy part. It has been so dry here only the strong are thriving and flowering. The plants from Mexico and Florida are best for this time of year. Theoretically, it should start raining in about two weeks. I know how these things go, wait and see and keep the hose handy. Or turn off the irrigation system. Things could go either way.
A closer view:
The red, yellow (and pink!) Gallardias (Gallardia pulchella) are the prettiest flowers in the garden this week. These are US natives and live in sandy prairies, perfect for my garden. The white flowers are from the White Geiger tree. This tree has been blooming for months, it is oddly shaped – 6 feet tall and twice as wide, though it was blown over by a near miss hurricane a couple of years ago. Native to the Rio Grande area in Mexico, another survivalist (Cordia boissieri). The orange tube shaped flowers are from another sand lover from the Bahamas, Firebush (Hamelia patens) The grey green background leaf is a trimmed palm frond from Florida’s state tree, the Cabbage Palm (Palmetto sabal). These palms pop up in my garden and I leave them to use in flower arrangements. The vase, one of my favorites, is a thrift store find.
Here is the bread part. My nephew’s wife sent me a photo of a garden focaccia and said “you should try this”. I am known for making focaccia as I bake some nearly every week and it is our regular sandwich bread. I also am overrun with Yellow Pear tomatoes and needed to use them. This was fun to make and is tasty with the exception of the areas with a lot of tomatoes – the bread is a bit mushy under the tomatoes. Here it is before it went in the oven.
My focaccia is always made with a crust of mixed parmesan and low fat cheddar cheese. The stems are small fronds from a fennel bulb; the flowers are red onions, yellow pear and Riesenstrube tomatoes. Leaves are rosemary, thyme and parsley from the garden. I brushed the vegetables and herbs with a mixture of olive oil, garlic and balsamic vinegar before baking.
Happy Monday and Happy Gardening and I hope the rain gods smile on all of us. Just the right amount, of course. As always, thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting In a Vase on Monday. Follow the link to see more vases.
The Shrub Queen 
Wow! I love your bread and surprised that it was bread after looking at the small photo. I thought it was an art project.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, I am amazed at what people can do with bread and vegetables..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your vase is so pretty but the focaccia is a work of art, bravo! Maybe one day you’ll share the recipe, I’d love that 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – it is very easy to make…
LikeLike
That focaccia is an edible arrangement and I am impressed by your artistry. I find baking and gardening mix quite well, though I knead to take my alarm with me into the garden! Have a great week baking and gardening.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Noelle. I have to hang around the house when the bread is rising or I forget to punch it down.
LikeLike
Lovely Queen. I must try this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your Gallardias are cheerful. That vase was a great find. Bread looks amazing–beautiful and delectable.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Susie..the Gallardia make me smile.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I always like to see your trimmed ferns when you use them and today they set the gaillardia off perfectly. Your bread looks wonderful and I am sure tastes great too. I enjoy making focaccia – usually onion and mushroom when I have leftover mushrooms that are nearly past their best!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – do you cook the vegetables before you put them on the focaccia? Onion and mushroom sounds great.
LikeLike
That bread is gorgeous!😍
LikeLike
I would love to see your abstract version!
LikeLike
Now, how can that focaccia be eaten after so much effort?!
Anyway, the gaillardias are rad, although they look like they should be from Oklahoma or Kansas. (I remember that they were popular there.) I really should check out this white Geiger tree when I get back to Southern California. I do not remember it, but it might be available there. I had to look it up, but found that only other types are only beginning to be introduced.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The focaccia was chopped up, frozen and is being eaten for lunch..I have so many tomatoes I may make another. Orange Geiger trees are more common here. I think I bought that one because it was on sale. I think the Gallardias are native to Oklahoma and Kansas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, gallairdias are native to Oklahoma and Kansas, and their cultivars are popular in home gardening. I found the gardening style there to be amusing. It conformed more to the natural landscape more than landscapes of California do. I do not understand why we try to create such synthetic landscapes here when we live in such a naturally beautiful place. I think that such landscapes are more justifiable in places such as Florida because they do not need so much water and resources as they do here. Water consumption here should be a hint that we are doing something wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, Florida is also running out of water. Tampa Bay area won’t allow more than 25% turf on new developments. You are right about synthetic landscapes I think it goes back to the UK and their naturally beautiful turf.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that is supposedly what popularized it. In much of North America, lawns do not need the irrigation that they do here. In the Pacific Northwest, most lawns do not even have the sorts of elaborate irrigation systems that are standard in all lawns here. They may dry out by the end of summer every few years or so, but they recover. Even if Florida uses more water in landscapes, they probably still use less than the Chaparral and desert climates of California. Palm Springs is one of the few places in California that has plenty of water (hence ‘Springs’), but so much energy is consumed by pumping all that water around to the golf courses and such. Those lawns consume vast volumes of water in that desert climate!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not sure about you, but toxic turf doesn’t appeal to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I dislike it because it is so consumptive (of irrigation), needs so much maintenance, but, without children or dogs, is useless.
LikeLiked by 1 person
yep, uses a whole lot of resources. Though I would add I have it over my septic tank..
LikeLiked by 1 person
So, it does not need much?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, it needs water and fertilizer..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your fanciful bread is delightful, Amelia. If I baked bread, I’d definitely try that 😉 I love the cut palm fronds too, another artistic touch. Maybe I should take artistic license with some of my Phormiums. I hope you get rain soon. We got a tenth of an inch early Sunday morning, an unexpected surprise. Although not much in the larger scheme of things, it finally pushed our total rainfall (since October 1st, the official start of our “water year”) past 4 inches.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Kris. We are enjoying eating it..Phormiums will be fun to play with. FOUR inches!? Yikes
LikeLike
Love the bread! It’s a lovely idea and I will have to try and be artistic too next time I do some baking. That pink Gallardia is very fetching. 😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. I have even more tomatoes and may try another. I am loving the pink Gallardia and hope more appear, the differences in the seedling colors and shapes are amazing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Impressive focaccia (at least it is to me!) – you created an artistic and edible treat. What did the hubby say?
Pretty arrangement – I see the vase as a head and the arrangement as a fancy, whimsical hat!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Eliza he said I knew you were going to do that and then he ate it. I can see the hat concept! I would make another with smaller slices of tomato.
LikeLiked by 1 person