The Olives are Cured! and Some Cal Native Garden Themes

Woohoo! We did a taste test of the olives we water cured from the very first harvest of our Mission, Manzanillo & Arbequina olives, and they are actually edible! There's just a slightly bitter aftertaste, but I guess that's not unexpected when you water cure according to U.C. Davis' olive curing guide http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8267.pdf . I'm really jazzed because we had absolutely no clue what we were doing when we embarked on this olive curing adventure. I think I'll use these to make tapenade, Greek salad, or marinated in herbs & olive oil for an antipasto. 


The details on how we harvested, cured & brined these guys, are on my food blog:
http://thegrubfiles.blogspot.com/2011/01/our-olive-curing-adventure-begins-may.html 
http://thegrubfiles.blogspot.com/2011/01/finish-brine-for-water-cured-olives.html 

2/20/11 Manzanillo & Mission Olives in the jar on the left, Arbequinas on the right.

Onto gardening matters. The weather here in SoCal is totally schizo. We had some 80F temps and no rain in Jan-Feb, but now it's all rainy & frosty. I give up.

2/17/11 Frosty bark mulch.

2/17/11 As close to "snow" as we'll get here. 

2/17/11 

As for Cal native garden themes, I never had any in mind. But when the house was first built we had this swath of graded area that needed to be revegetated. Mind you, we had lived in a 900 sf townhouse for 15 years before moving to this 5-acre property, so the landscaping task was really, really daunting. Anyhoo, we've preserved about 3 acres of the native chaparral, and 4 1/2 years later and on a modest budget, here's some of the stuff I've planted that survived our DG soil & inclement climate:

2/19/11 'Dark Star' Ceanothus, Winnifred Gilman Sage, Allen Chickering Sage, Cedros Island Verbena 'De La Mina' (Verbena lilacina), 'White Cloud' Chitalpa (Chitalpa tashkentensis), along the driveway.

2/19/11 'Harmony' & 'Sunset' Manzanitas along the gravel pathway at the front entry, with Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis) planted in between.

2/19/11 Another shot of the front entry pathway with Paradise Manzanita (Arctostaphylos pajaroensis) in view.

2/19/11 Lef to right: Sargent's Cypress (Cupressus sargentii), Mediterranean rockroses (Cistus spp.), Mountain Haze Ceanothus, Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), 'Anacapa Pink' Island Morning Glory (Calystegia macrostegia) taking over the Zen arbor, Catalina Cherry (Prunus lyonii) and Island Alum Root (Heuchera maxima) in the circular raised bed, 'Dana Point' Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum).

2/19/11 Left to right: Gowen Cypress (Cupressus goveniana), Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), 'Snow Flurry' Ceanothus (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus) in full bloom, Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosis), Showy Penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis), Konocti Manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita ssp. elegans), Woolly Bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum), 'Route 66' California Fuchsia, 'Ghostly Red' California Fuchsia, Prickly Phlox (Leptodactylon californicum), St. Catherine's Lace (Eriogonum giganteum), Red-skinned Onion (Allium haematochiton), Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum). 

2/19/11 Along the fenceline: Chaparral Mallow (Malacothamnus fasciculatus), Wolfberry/Baja Desert Thorn (Lycium brevipes), Desert Wild Grape (Vitis girdiana), Nevin's Barberry (Mahonia nevinii). Thorny & rangy - maybe that'll keep potential intruders at bay (I'm pretty sociable, but ya just never know who's coming up your driveway out here in the boonies). 

2/19/11 Manzanitas do indeed produce 'little apples.' Santa Cruz Manzanita (Arctostaphylos andersonii).

2/19/11 Rainbow Manzanita (Arctostaphylos rainbowensis).

2/19/11 I made some cuttings of our native monkeyflowers (Diplacus aurantiacus) last year. They're still small, but are starting to fill out and bloom. 

2/18/11 Hoary-Leaved Ceanothus (Ceanothus crassifolius) in full bloom all along Clinton Keith Road. You'd never know they were there any other time of the year!

2/14/11 Gil's photo of an Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) perched on  a stem of the China Rose, Rosa mutabilis.

2/20/11 Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii). Heard the tell-tale buzzy-trilly call early this morning and managed to get a shot of this guy through the window.

2/20/11 A Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) doing calisthenics on the Chaparral Bushmallow (Malacothamnus fasciculatus).

2/20/11 Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus).