@cardicoven ‘s Plant Spirit Devotional 15 Day Challenge:
DAY 3: CULTIVATION, FORAGING, & PREPARATION
🍋Cultivation of Meyer lemon trees:
Best planted in early spring, Meyer lemon trees need special fertilizer/soil made for citrus trees. This is acidic soil, with ph from 5.5 to 6.5, and they need to be watered regularly with good drainage. Meyer lemon trees need eight hours of direct sunlight, and thrive in zones 9-11. They start bearing fruit at four years old.
🍋Foraging of Meyer Lemon Trees:
Don’t harvest Meyer lemons from their tree until they are DARK mustard yellow. They naturally turn darker yellow than other lemon varieties, and they are naturally sweeter while still maintaining a decent sour component. Harvest between December and April, depending on your zone, and depending on when the tree was planted.
🍋Preparation for Meyer lemons:
Preparing Meyer lemons for use is very easy and simple! Just rinse the lemon thoroughly, and slice! If you want to save the juice, juice it and freeze the juice so you can use for longer times! They make great additions to ice water to sip on, or jasmine green tea!
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Grand Dark Eyed Junco and Meyer Lemon Earrings
🍋 All of the components of these earrings are handmade by me, the wires are made of hammered stainless steel. The birds, leaves, flowers and lemons are Flameworked glass.
There are 6 real baroque pearls afixed to the top hoop
The earwires are solid sterling silver.
the birds are modeled after dark eyed juncos
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Snow Pudding with Blood Orange Curd & Lavender - 4 Stars
Vegetarian - Yes
Vegan - No
Dairy Free - Yes
Gluten Free - Yes
That's not whip cream, it's snow pudding!
I finally got around to this one, and I have to say I'm surprised. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. Everything from the way the dessert was described to its unusual origin (19th century? They beat eggs like this by hand to make this?) made me think this was going to be unbearably complex and just too odd to enjoy beyond the novelty, but it wasn't so.
It's sort of like eating cold meringue without the crunch, topped with a curd that surprisingly isn't all that acidic. It's light and airy, and just as Ian says it does sort of feel like you're not eating anything at all. And, just like Ian says, the curd drizzled on top of the pudding makes the dessert look just like an egg.
If you have an electric mixer, it's relatively simple to make too, it just requires time while you wait for various ingredients to chill. It's honestly not a bad dessert for a dinner party, especially if you want to seem fancier than you are.
I skipped the lavender, though, as I couldn't find the lavender buds I used to have from my time working at a Chinese apothecary, and they're basically just garnish. If the scent of lavender can add to this (and it probably can, I just didn't really care enough to find out) I bet a sprig of the flowers for garnish on the plate or bowl would be fine as a substitute.
Ingredients:
For the pudding:
One 1/4 oz package unflavored gelatin
1 1/3 cups boiling-hot filtered water
1/2 cup sugar
Fine sea salt
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
For the curd:
3 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup blood orange juice
2 tbsp Meyer lemon juice
Fine sea salt
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 tsp dried lavender flowers for garnish (optional)
Serves 6.
Make the pudding: in a medium bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup of the boiling water and let it bloom for 5 minutes. Whisk in the remaining boiling water along with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Continue whisking until all the sugar and gelatin have dissolved, then transfer the bowl to the freezer. Check the gelatin mixture every 5 minutes or so and give it a whisk to break it up as it begins to set. When it reaches the consistency of egg whites, which takes about 35 minutes, beat it with an electric mixer until it becomes very frothy and foamy, about 2 minutes.
[My mixture actually got to egg white consistency after about 20 minutes. If you miss the mark and the gelatin firms up to be more jello-like, you can still use it, but be sure to to use it before it gets too hard.]
Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl, until they just hold soft peaks, then add the gelatin foam and beat util the mixture triples in volume and forms soft ribbons that slowly disappear back into the foam. Divide the pudding among 6 serving bowls and chill until set, about 2 hours, then cover with plastic wrap until ready to serve.
Make the curd: Heat a saucepan of water until it simmers gently. In a small metal or glass bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, egg, sugar, blood orange juice, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Set the bowl over the saucepan of barely simmering water and, whisking constantly, gently cook the curd until it becomes slightly thick and velvety. [You'll see a change right away when it thickens -- it froths up slightly beforehand.] Remove the bowl from the saucepan and slowly incorporate the butter by whisking and swirling it in one piece at a time. Cover the surface of the curd with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Drizzle the curd over the snow puddings, sprinkle with lavender, and serve.
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