It has been a year of harvesting in our own backyard,
humbly striving to contribute to the health of the planet.
The tomato experiment was wildly popular with our Hornworms.
Waldemar built a miniature electrified fence around the strawberry field so both the mice and I got zapped every time we picked the fruit. The grapes were unexpectedly abundant.It only took 7,000 individual dried grapes to make a scant 8 ounce jar of raisins for my GF Colorado Cowboy Cookies. There really are a lot of potato recipes. The plum tree that came with our house has lived through the McCarthy era, the Korean War, “Duck and Cover,” the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iran-Contra Affair, and a buffet of inappropriate behaviors by too many Presidents to mention by name, but you know who they are. Let them eat tart. Alexandra and Spike offered the fruits of our labor to a French Galette. Waldemar spent much of 2020 toiling away at French sourdough bread despite the fact that our favorite bread bakery (TARTINE) opened in a former funeral home in nearby Santa Monica. Glorious biblical fruit.Bumper crop of low hanging Testicle Fruit, as the Aztecs called it.Here’s one of our precious Beverly Hills apples wrested from the mouths of the Kangaroo rats who share our habitat. Our Squirrel-in-residence was singularly unimpressed with Waldemar’s “high-capacity-super-squirt-water-blaster gun” recommended for ages eight and older. After we harvested all six apricots, it was up to the Farmer’s Market to provide for my caramelized upside-down stone fruit cake. After many years of (what we thought was) infertility, our tree rewarded us with voluptuous mangoes. Shortly after this photographic evidence, a drive-by urban forager stole the entire crop. For Lauri’s February birthday we basked in a citrus haze. Behind the scenes, I battled white fly, a squiggly leaf worm, a bumpy fungus and the spirit of my ancestors who were more successful working their 19th century citrus groves than I was with a few dwarf trees. See what I mean? That’s the David Hockney treatment for killing fungus and saving the fruit—if you still have the nerve to eat it.The survivors became Preserved Lemons for the next overwrought Ottolenghi recipe. Finally, a shout-out to Santa Monica for saving our sanity and rebuilding the bike path to Copenhagen’s most exacting safety standards. Now for my personal contribution to world peace in 2021: learn how to say “passing on your left” to pedestrians speaking Russian, any Chinese dialect, or Korean.
What a great holiday treat this is! I love your humorous descriptions, (“a buffet of inappropriate behaviors by too many presidents . . .”). I love the photography. Everyone more luscious than the next.
I even love the wallpaper!!
The Arts of Adventure 
Thank you for making me smile. My son and daughter in law have a wonderful small garden at our place on the canals.
This was a delightful description of the year. But where is the limoncello?
This has already transported me, not to mention the sheer visual pleasure!
Mille mercis for such a treat in such times.
Xxxxs
Thank you for this lovely post Florence! And well done with your garden, Im impressed!
Cant wait to visit you ❤️❤️❤️
Love
Sara and family
What a great holiday treat this is! I love your humorous descriptions, (“a buffet of inappropriate behaviors by too many presidents . . .”). I love the photography. Everyone more luscious than the next.
I even love the wallpaper!!
Blessings to you and your family,
Lenore