Eat Your Yard

by Nan Chase

  Planted in a wide open space, a fig tree can grow about thirty feet high and provide wonderful shade. Just as commonly, though, figs for fruit production are grown near a wall, where they can be trained to maximum effect.

  Pruning figs is tricky. Too much cutting and they go wild with new branches. Too little and they stagnate. The happy medium is to cut away only weak wood and superfluous shoots; one source advises pruning away about 30 percent of branches every year, leaving a strong, open structure.

  There are no visible flowers on fig trees; rather, the flowers of this “inside out” fruit are contained within the receptacle that eventually becomes the fruit. The developing interior seeds give figs their crunch. Pollinators—often a specific wasp—must crawl inside the fig to do their work.

  Rangy and exotic, fig trees—or bushes, as they are sometimes grown—have their flowers inside the fruiting structure. Photo by David Karp, United States Department of Agriculture.

  Roasted Duck with Dried-Fruit Chutney

  2 ducks (about 5 pounds each)

  Kosher salt

  4 cups dried fruit such as figs (quartered), currants, cherries, and raisins

  1/3 cup brown sugar

  1 tablespoon molasses

  1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

  1/2 teaspoon black pepper

  1/2 cup orange juice

  1 cup water

  1/2 cup cider vinegar

  To prepare the duck: remove the necks, hearts, livers, and gizzards; reserve for other uses. Place both ducks in an 11-quart pot, cover with cold water, season with 1 tablespoon salt and bring water to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and let cool until ducks are cool enough to handle. Remove ducks from the pot and pat dry. Place on a wire rack set over a baking sheet, sprinkle generously with salt, cover, and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days.

  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place ducks on a rack in a roasting pan large enough to hold both. Add water to come about 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan (but not so high that it touches the ducks). Place in the oven and roast until the internal temperature of the legs registers 150 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, 1 hour 15 minutes to 1-1/2 hours. Add water to the pan as needed as it evaporates (pan should not be dry).

  Increase oven heat to 475 degrees F and continue roasting the ducks until the skin crisps, about 5 minutes more. Then turn and roast 5 to 10 minutes more to crisp the skin all over. Remove ducks from the oven and let rest 20 minutes.

  While the duck is roasting, make the chutney: combine all the remaining ingredients except the vinegar in a saucepan and simmer over low heat until dry, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and let cool to room temperature.

  To carve the duck, cut the legs off the body; cut each leg in half. Cut the breast meat off the ducks and slice. Serve each guest some sliced breast meat and a piece of leg, with the dried-fruit chutney and bread.

  Recipe courtesy of Bill Telepan, owner and chef, Telepan Restaurant, New York City.

  Photo © iStockPhoto/Angela Sorrentino.

  Photo © iStockPhoto/UncleScrooge.

  Landscape highlights

  Dramatic specimen tree in warmer zones

  Potted for container gardening

  Edible highlights

  Fresh fruit from the tree

  Baked in main dishes and desserts

  Dried for long-term use

  Canned as preserves

  Where it grows best

  Most productive in a warm, Mediterranean-type climate, but can survive to 0 degrees F, depending on variety; Desert King and Brown Turkey have good results in cooler climates

  In any well-drained soil

  In full sun

  How to grow it

  As the ornamental focal point of a large yard

  Lightly pruned, as a small fruiting tree

  In a large container during winter or for small-space gardening (see “Growing Plants in Containers”)

  With winter insulation if left outdoors in cold zones

  With roots contained by root pruning or barrier system

  Kumquat

  I wish I still had a kumquat tree in the backyard, as I did when I was a young child. We lived in hot country then—Fresno, California—where miles of irrigation ditches crisscrossed the flat, scorching countryside to carry life-giving water to the orchards.

  Even as a three- or four-year-old I remember my family’s kumquat tree—more like a bush, really—as a patch of cool, dark green leaves in the shade of our plum trees. I remember the bite-size orange fruits, which my sister and I and our friends, barefoot and blissful, would eat right from the branches.

  The kumquat’s charm was that we ate the thin, sweet skin and spit out the sour fruit and seeds. What a crazy fruit!

  Today, if I had a kumquat tree, I would still appreciate its compact form, its glossy evergreen leaves, and its marvelous fruit. But I would pay more attention to the masses of fragrant, star-shaped white flowers and to the kumquat’s great culinary value in the edible landscape.

  Kumquats can be used in an astonishing range of foods and beverages. As a citrus fruit, although of a different genus than oranges and lemons, kumquats impart a tangy, sweet-sour flavor to roasted meat, poultry, or seafood; to sauces, glazes, and chutneys; and to cakes and cookies.

  Kumquats make spectacular marmalade, and they can flavor vodka, brandy, or other liquors. They can be packed in salt and left to pickle themselves; this unusual treat can last for years in the jar. And they can be candied or preserved in syrup.

  When you eat kumquats fresh from the tree, be sure to roll the fruit to release the most flavor from the skin into the fruit. When you pick them to bring indoors, leave a bit of stem attached to lengthen shelf life.

  The greatest nutritional content includes vitamin C, of course, but also vitamin A, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and trace elements.

  On its own, the kumquat, of the genus Fortunella, prefers the climate of Southeast Asia, California, Florida, or Texas, but it can thrive anywhere in a large tub or pot, producing abundant crops of the bite-size fruit through the winter. Topping out at ten to fifteen feet, like a mini-orange tree, it makes a perfect candidate for container gardening in northern zones.

  Actually there are four kinds of kumquat, two or three of them readily available as nursery stock in the United States.

  The Nagami kumquat is cold-hardy, withstanding occasional temperatures as low as 10 degrees F. This is the common, elongated variety, with the famous sweet skin and sour insides; closely related is the Maruni kumquat. The Meiwa, also cold-hardy, has round fruit with a sweet flavored pulp and less-appealing skin.

  Imaginative hybridizing has produced such oddities as the limequat, orangequat, and mandarinquat. Bon appétit!

  Kumquats are citrus plants, but they are not closely related to oranges or lemons. They have an unusually piquant flavor. Photo by Michelle Levy Brocco, www.mishmishcards.com.

  Cranberry Kumquat Sauce

  Makes about 2-1/2 cups

  2 cups kumquats (9 to 10 ounces), trimmed

  3/4 cup sugar

  3/4 cup water

  1 (12-ounce) bag fresh or frozen cranberries (3-1/2 cups)

  Prick kumquats 2 or 3 times with a sharp fork. Cover kumquats generously with cold water in a heavy medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Drain and rinse with cold water, then repeat 2 more times (to remove bitterness).

  Bring kumquats, sugar, and water (3/4 cup) to a boil in rinsed saucepan (liquid will not cover kumquats) over high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved; then reduce heat and gently simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool kumquats in syrup, about 20 minutes.

  Transfer kumquats with a slotted spoon to a bowl, reserving syrup in saucepan. Add cranberries and 1/4 teaspoon salt to syrup and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally; then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until berries burst, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat.

  While cranber
ries cook, quarter kumquats lengthwise, discarding any seeds.

  Stir kumquats into cranberry mixture and transfer to a bowl. Cool completely, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

  Copyright ©2007 Condé Nast Publications. All rights reserved. Originally published in Gourmet. Reprinted by permission.

  Landscape highlights

  Evergreen in warmer zones

  Potted for container gardening

  Fragrant white flowers, colorful orange fruit

  Edible highlights

  Fresh fruit from the tree

  Flavoring for liquors

  Cooked as marmalade

  Candied for dessert

  Where it grows best

  Outdoors (in frost-free or low-frost zones only); plant in spring

  In a container in colder climates

  Massed in low hedges

  In healthy loam

  In sun or light shade

  How to grow it

  As a shrub or small tree to fifteen feet

  With plenty of water

  Pruned heavily after winter fruit harvest

  Hand-pollinated with small paintbrush if plants are indoors a lot

  Lemon, Lime, Orange

  There are so many kinds of citrus fruit—thanks to natural variety and hybrids—that it no longer makes sense to limit the topic to the standard lemons, limes, and oranges.

  Today the list of wonderful citrus fruits includes tangerines, tangelos, mandarins, clementines, and others.

  Grapefruit, of course, is another important citrus fruit but in the edible landscape its larger size may be a deterrent, since it doesn’t lend itself as easily to container gardening for colder climates.

  What they all have in common are glossy, dark-green leaves, beautiful and fragrant flowers, delicious and intensely nutritious fruits, a need for well-drained soil and ample sunlight, and intolerance of cold temperatures.

  Virtually all of them are evergreen. The cold-weather sour orange—Poncirus trifoliata or Flying Dragon—is an exception, and often provides zone-expanding root stock for other citrus.

  Grow citrus trees in the ground only where temperatures stay above freezing (or only get a few degrees of frost). In colder regions, consider growing them in pots; even in hot country, some gardeners grow citrus in pots to decorate patios.

  Every edible landscape gardener should grow citrus, just to forego the industrial waxes and fungicides that coat most supermarket citrus. I have never forgotten the penetrating chemical smell hanging over a citrus packing plant during a school field trip in Orange County, California; now, when I get a bag of fresh lemons from my niece’s organic backyard tree near San Francisco, they look, feel, smell, and taste better than anything store-bought. They’re juicier, too.

  My gardening buddy Doc has perfected a method for growing small citrus trees in pots. He divides his gardening time between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Hudson River Valley—hardly citrus country—but his potted trees are usually lush with fruit. Meyer lemon is the most prolific.

  “Use a good commercial potting mix without fertilizers or water crystals,” he advises. “Then you need a big unglazed terra-cotta pot and water, water, water.”

  Since citrus can bloom and bear fruit year round, he advises fairly constant feeding with a blooming formula. Keep pots outdoors as long as possible each year, so plants get pollinated, and be ready to hand-pollinate with a small paintbrush during winter months indoors. “And don’t be impatient. It can take a full year from bloom to fruit.”

  He also cautions gardeners to keep potted citrus from sunburn by placing pots on the eastern side of a building or in an open northern setting; commercial growers sometimes whitewash tree trunks for this purpose, and paper wrapping is available also.

  My only current citrus is the incredibly twisted and thorny trifoliate orange, the Flying Dragon. It provides awesome year-round screening and, yes, even fruit: the sour orange. One humorous recipe for “Poncirus-ade” calls for “a barrel of water, a barrel of sugar, and one sour fruit.”

  Photo by Nan K. Chase.

  A splash of fresh Meyer lemon juice improves any dish. With year-round appeal, this lovely plant does well in porous containers. ©iStockPhoto/Terry Wilson.

  Orange-Almond Pancakes

  Pancakes

  1 cup sliced almonds

  1 whole orange

  1 egg

  2/3 cup orange juice

  1 cup 2-percent reduced fat milk

  2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil

  3/4 cup buckwheat flour

  1 cup all-purpose flour

  1 tablespoon baking powder

  1/4 teaspoon salt

  Non-stick cooking spray

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread almonds over a baking sheet and bake 5 to 7 minutes until nicely browned. Remove and cool at room temperature. Use grater to grate zest of orange while careful not to grate into the white pith. Peel remainder of skin and slice between membranes to separate each orange segment. Set aside for garnish.

  Combine egg, orange juice, milk, and oil in a medium bowl and mix well. In a large bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, and salt with reserved orange zest. Add liquid into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly while being sure to leave some lumps.

  Set aside 1/4 cup almonds for syrup, then gently mix remaining 3/4 cup almonds into batter until ingredients are combined, but still lumpy. Do not over-beat or stir until smooth, as this will make pancakes tough.

  Ladle batter onto a hot non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray and cook until some bubbles begin to appear on top, about 3 minutes. Flip cake over and cook 2 minutes. Serve immediately with Orange-Almond Syrup, and garnish with orange segments.

  Orange-Almond Syrup

  1 cup orange juice

  1 cinnamon stick

  1/2 cup light maple syrup

  1/4 cup reserved roasted almonds

  Simmer orange juice and cinnamon stick in small saucepot over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 15 minutes. Add maple syrup. Remove cinnamon stick, stir in reserved roasted almonds and serve warm.

  Recipe courtesy of the Florida Department of Citrus and Chef Michel Nischan.

  Photo by Gary Quirling.

  Landscape highlights

  Evergreen in warmer zones

  Potted for container gardening

  Fragrant white flowers, colorful fruit

  Edible highlights

  Fresh fruit from the tree

  Juiced for drinks or syrup

  Cooked as marmalade

  Where they grow best

  In frost-free or nearly frost-free zones with dry heat, southern coastal regions

  In full sun, but protected from scorching if grown in containers

  In fertile medium loam that drains well

  How to grow them

  With best local characteristics (see Resources section for Agricultural Extension information)

  Hand-pollinated with small paintbrush if taken indoors during winter

  Fed with blooming solution to stimulate fruit production, especially when potted

  With plenty of water

  Pruned to eliminate old wood and crossing branches and to stimulate fruit production

  On dwarf rootstock (for potted oranges only)

  Sour oranges

  The deciduous trifoliate orange or sour orange (Poncirus trifoliata) can tolerate more frost than standard citrus, surviving even to 0 degrees F in sheltered locations. This plant provides rootstock for the hardier new citrus varieties and has its own charms. Densely contorted branches are covered with long, curved thorns, so this plant makes an excellent natural security system and can be grown as a hedge, a veritable wall. It is handsome, too, with evergreen limbs even when the leaves have fallen, and lovely white flowers in spring.

  The small, hard green fruits of some varieties can be made into marmalade.

  Olive

  Plant an olive tree and it may survive for five hundred years. Chop it down and i
t comes back. One reputable account tells of Mediterranean olive trees still bearing fruit after 1,500 years.

  Such longevity should come as no surprise; olive trees have figured in human affairs for at least eight thousand years. The oil pressed from harvested olives holds an esteemed place in some religions, and it gets high marks for its health properties and flavor.

  Thomas Jefferson called the olive tree “the richest gift of heaven.” He was a pioneer, along with Benjamin Franklin, in growing olives outside their natural “comfort zone” of dry heat and thin soil. These early Americans found that while the olive can survive in some cold climates, it won’t bear fruit.

  The olive tree has a beautiful form: gnarled branches covered in feathery evergreen foliage of silvery grey-green, masses of creamy white flowers, and fruits that can be pickled or pressed.

  For its ornamental value alone—as an accent against a wall or in a courtyard, or standing alone on a hillside—the olive tree deserves a closer look by edible landscape gardeners throughout North America.