Brooks Plums

Back in 2018, Ann and I went shopping for a tree for our side yard with an eye towards growing a little fruit on our tiny 1/10 acre lot. I remember going to one of our favorite nurseries looking for a fruit tree other than a plum, but something about a small plum tree drew us in and it went home with us in the back of our pickup.

Part of what attracted me to the plum was the fact that it was discovered in an orchard in Lafayette, OR, the next town northwest of ours, about two miles distant. I figured that a local plum had to be a great choice for our location. And as I planted it beside the house, I thought nothing more about it other than how I would start pruning it come dormancy and whether it was as self-fertile as the tag proclaimed. A lot of self-fertile fruit does better with another variety as a pollinator. Time would tell.

Brooks Plums, Extra Large Egg

In February of 2018, I committed to my pruning decisions, always a bit nerve wracking for someone who does not prune fruit trees for a living. Then in the spring of 2018, the tree was covered in beautiful white blossoms which morphed into dozens and dozens of tiny fruits, so dense that in June, I dropped a lot of the small green fruit on the ground. The last thing I wanted was a massive load of small fruit threatening to break my new scaffolding branches, the branches that would carry the fruit load for the productive lifetime of the tree.

As we watched the fruit develop during the course of the summer, a lot of it fell to the ground, but still a fair amount remained. I assumed that this fruit drop was normal, but it was a tad worrisome. And as we got into late August, I wondered if and when the egg-shaped fruit would ripen. Magically, as it seemed at the time, the fruit started coloring and by about the tenth of September, the oval blue-purple fruit was soft enough to pick.

Not having any idea what we would be tasting nor how serendipitous our choice of fruit tree would be, Ann and I bit into the first yellow-fleshed fruit off the tree and immediately, we were hooked. It was the best-tasting plum I had ever eaten and its deliciousness was beyond compare. Ann said she preferred these plums to pluots and that is saying a lot, because she adores pluots.

The ultra-delicious fruit got me wondering about the back story of this plum and I found some information at OSU and other places, though some of the information conflicts. OSU says the original Brooks sport was found in 1930; other catalogs place it at 1946. The earlier date may be the discovery date and the later may be the commercial availability date.

All agree that this variety formed the backbone of the now-defunct Oregon prune industry. That prunes are now associated with California is in part testament to the fact that Oregon growers routinely shipped their plums to processors in California. Alas, most of the old plum orchards are gone, replanted to grapes, filberts, or other crops.

Brooks is a sport (a mutation) of the standard oval purple European prune plum which is known locally at the Italian Prune plum. The scion is larger, sweeter, and ripens a week earlier than the parent. The size, sweetness, and relatively dry flesh made it perfect for drying, though we do see little quantities of fresh fruit at the local farmers markets. Moreover, as a bonus for eating out of hand, the fruit has a relatively thin skin and is freestone.

Many references say that Brooks is a little sweet and lacking acid, but ours has the perfect balance of both sugar and acid. You get a big burst of brown sugar sweetness, followed by a medley of fruits (overtones of peach and cherry on the plum), followed by the perfect acidic finish that makes you crave the next bite. In wine-geek-speak, Ann and I are both acid-heads, meaning that we crave wines with great acidity. Our Brooks tree produces fruit with sugar and acid levels that please both of us.

After another heavy winter pruning to shape the tree and with much anticipation for a great second crop, we went into the 2020 season. Rains at blossom inhibited pollination and we got a very tiny crop needing no thinning at all. And we lost 40 percent of that to normal fruit drop over the course of the summer.

While OSU says that Brooks tends to overset, necessitating fruit thinning to avoid branches breaking under a heavy load and while that was necessary in 2019, I didn't touch the sparse fruit in 2020. Some fruit trees bear heavily every other year, but Brooks is supposed to have a reliable crop each year. Although I think it was just bad timing with the weather this year, it will be another couple of years before we know for certain.

Picking day for most of the crop this year was September the 8th, right on schedule despite our relatively cool summer. The rest of the crop I picked on the 12th. And the fruit that you see above in the photo did not let us down. Brooks is definitely the most superb plum I have ever eaten.

The tree put on six or seven feet of growth this summer that I am going to have to tame this winter to keep the tree compact enough for our tiny lot and to carry the heavy fruit load. In retrospect, I should have topped a lot of branches this summer, but I'm still learning about plums. I can't wait to see what happens in 2021 for our third harvest.

Hummingbird Shower

We have difficult spot in our landscaping, a small area off the front patio, surrounded by tall fence on three sides, the patio on the fourth. Originally conceived as a place for a kitchen herb garden, right off the dining room, the area proved too shady to grow most herbs. A total about-face after abandoning the herb garden idea has turned this little nook into perhaps my favorite spot in the yard.

Rain Chain Fountain

I had been puzzling for two years what to do with this bed that abuts our favorite sitting place of all our many sitting places. This past winter, I concluded to Ann decided that I should design and build a rain chain fountain there to help mask some of the street noise.

So early this spring I set about collecting the parts and assembling the fountain. Really there was nothing tricky about it except getting a very small pump that could lift water seven feet off the ground. Easily enough done, but when I first turned the water on, the pump blasted the water into the top rain chain cup so hard that it ricocheted in a five-foot radius around the fountain. Oops! Installing a ball valve (the trick was finding one!) in the water line let me fine tune the flow.

Once done, I realized that we had some shade plants in our full sun back yard that were doing poorly and moved them into this shady bed, along with some additional ferns, hostas, cranesbills, and groundcovers. It has proved already to be a beautiful and calming shade garden, just a couple of months into its planting. We really cannot wait until next year when the plants expand to fill the space.

Our yard with hundreds of plants for nectar sources is intentionally a hummingbird oasis, and we do not tire of seeing the brazen aerial acrobats ever. In fact, hummers bring joy to our lives all year round here in the Willamette Valley.

I never imagined that this fountain would be of interest to the local Anna's Hummingbirds, but it is, and brings us even more joy, if that is possible. Each day the tiny creatures perch on the rain chain and take a shower, ducking their heads under the stream, then rolling the water down their backs, then fluttering their wings and splaying their tail feathers to dry them. Watch, in the 9-second video clip below.

Here are a couple stills of a female Anna's Hummingbird (we never see the males):

A lot of things in life have unintended consequences, some bad, some neutral, and some totally wonderful such as this.

Edible Landscaping

Years ago during chefdom, I would put on an annual cooking with herbs demonstration at the State Arboretum of Virginia, Blandy Farm, during the fall garden fair. I loved being out in the the courtyard, some years battling intense wind, thunderstorms, or brutal sun, doing what I do. After the demo, after all the questions were answered, and after all my gear was packed, I would then have the time to wander the booths and talk to the vendors.

Early on in my string of demos, I encountered a vendor named Michael from Afton, VA, just outside my hometown of Charlottesville. Michael's company was called Edible Landscaping. He really opened my eyes to using edible plants in landscaping, as opposed to my then-mindset that edibles only go in this separate area called a vegetable garden.

After we moved to Oregon in the fall of 2017, we purchased a newly built house right at Thanksgiving, well into our rainy season. Not wanting builder-grade plants, we had our entire tiny soupy mud parcel simply covered in mulch, what the locals call bark dust. There was not a single plant on our property.

In the spring of 2018, I started planning and planting. As a chef, food is critical to me and planting edibles in our landscaping resonates with me. The first critical decision and purchase was where to place the fig bush. To be fair, it wasn't a bush back then, but a mere whip 24 inches tall. Now in 2020, our third gardening season, that fig bush has hundreds of baby figs and our lot is completely planted. A great many of the plants are edible and mixed in with the ornamentals. In fact, we don't have any space big enough for a traditional vegetable garden.

Here is a brief walk-through of some of the edibles in our landscaping. Maybe you'll be inspired to put edibles in your yard and maybe if you're near central Virginia, you'll go visit Michael in Afton.

Fruit

The major focal points in our landscape are fruit trees or shrubs. We're fortunate to live in a Mediterranean climate that allows us to plant figs and olives. On the downside, it is harder to grow apples and peaches here without enough really cold nights to achieve the necessary dormancy periods, but we can really grow some plums.

Prune 'Brooks'

Brooks is an Italian-type plum that was discovered as a sport in an orchard in the next town over of Lafayette, OR and was a workhorse of the dried prune industry here in Oregon. As fresh fruit, they are one of the tastiest plums I have ever eaten.

Olive 'Arbequina'

Here in the Willamette Valley, our climate is right on the edge for being able to grow olives commercially. We do have a local olive farm with its own frantoio (olive mill) and the oil they produce is superb. Most people are having the best luck with Arbequina because it is among the most cold hardy of the olives. OSU is actively testing and promoting olives as a crop here.

Fig 'Brown Turkey'

Whether you consider a fig a shrub or a tree is a point of debate. While I vigorously prune mine to keep it harvestable without a ladder, I know of one nearby that reaches to 50 feet tall and wide, a vast shade tree. Coming from Virginia, we're used to significant winterkill in our figs, even though we were growing Chicago Hardy. The worst we've experienced here is a Mother's Day frost in 2019 that knocked down the uppermost leaves. So, I really have to prune the heck out of this beast to keep in under control. From a 24-inch whip in March of 2018, we'll probably get a bushel of figs, if all this green fruit ripens. Brown Turkey is larger but less tasty than Chicago Hardy, but a fresh fig is a fresh fig and probably my favorite fruit.

Grape 'Pinot Gris'

McMinnville is the capital of Oregon wine country, as Beaune is the capital of Burgundy wine country. It is fitting then that we should grow wine grapes in our yard. Last year, I turned the harvest into Pinot Gris Chipotle jelly. This year, who knows? Because we have precious little gardening space, much of our focus is on vertical gardening. This grape is a case in point. I have it pruned and espaliered against a vertical trellis that separates one "room" in the garden from another, a green screen that hides your direct view of what is beyond it and invites you to walk further to investigate.

Evergreen Huckleberry

Besides planting edibles, planting natives also resonates with me. In this Evergreen Huckleberry, I have a twofer. Not only does it grow wild all over the hills here, especially towards the coast, the tiny blueberry-like fruits are delicious.

Earliglow Strawberries

Our back yard offers some landscaping challenges, among which is that the north edge of the yard is framed by the side of our garage. To use the blank space that the windowless garage wall offers, I built a bamboo scaffolding bolted onto it, for vertical gardening. More challenging is that a concrete sidewalk runs along the base of this wall, forcing us to plant in galvanized bins sitting on the concrete. The southern exposure of the scaffolding means brutal heat and bins that dry out quickly. 

The smallest of our edible fruit landscaping comes in the form of strawberries whose primary purpose is to shade these bins and to help stem as much evaporation as possible. Out here in Oregon, we have our pick of strawberry varieties bred to our climate (Hood, Tillamook, Totem, and Rainier for example) but I have been growing awesome tasting Earliglow berries most of my adult life and didn't see any need to change. Growing in 14-inch high bins, these strawberries are at perfect plucking height for our two dogs, who consume most of the ripe fruit when we are not looking!

So much for edible fruit. In the yard, we also have other fruit trees as specimen plants, grown for their stellar blooms in the early spring. These include two large ornamental plums and a weeping cherry, both with insignificant fruit that you really wouldn't want to eat.

Herbs

As a retired chef, I cannot imagine being without fresh herbs ready to hand. I have long contended that one of the significant differences between home and restaurant cooking is the abundant use of herbs in the latter. Besides the perennial herbs below, we also grow annual herbs in pots: parsley (technically a biennial, but grown as an annual), Genovese basil, dill, and Thai basil. We also grow our perennial spearmint in a pot, so as not to have it overrun the yard.

Lovage

If you have a lovage bush, you will never need to buy celery again, except perhaps in the middle of winter when the foliage dies back. Lovage is pleasantly more bitter than celery with a haunting and slightly more herbaceous flavor and an incredible aroma. It's like someone put flavor enhancer on celery. Critical for an awesome Bloody Mary, lovage is big tall plant (ours tops out around 7 feet) whose foliage can add drama and a focal point to any garden.

Culinary Sages, Salvia officinalis

The Salvia family is one of my favorites: culinarily, to soften the landscape, and as a hummingbird magnet. We have three different culinary salvias in three different shades as you can see. The gold one doesn't have the best flavor, that award probably going to the purple one, which is planted out on the front sidewalk where our neighbors can help themselves whenever they need sage.

Americans really underappreciate this herb, using it mainly at Thanksgiving for poultry seasoning. For my full-blooded Italian wife, however, sage is indispensable. The very first meal that Ann ever cooked for me was pasta in sage butter and I could not have been happier with any meal ever. When you are a chef and everyone is afraid to cook for you, a woman who will not only cook for you, but who will make an awesome plate of pasta, is a keeper. Needless to say, I use sage often and unsparingly in dishes.

Sage is one of those herbs that is probably better dried than fresh, so in the fall, I cut big bunches of it and hang it to dry. Woe unto the health inspector who would dare to come into our kitchen at the restaurant and bitch about the bundles of sage dangling from the ceiling. Several tried, among them ones who would also complain about buckets of eggs on the counter. I guess at their houses, their chickens had refrigerated butts.

In the landscape, the tubular flowers of the sages are irresistible to hummingbirds and hummingbirds are one of the great joys of our yard. We probably have ten different species of Salvia in the yard, comprising 25-30 different cultivars. The huge Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' in the back yard next to the fig bush is a hands-down favorite of our little female Anna's Hummingbirds, who viciously protect their sage from all comers.

Silver Thyme, a Favorite for Flavor

English Thyme

Thyme is one of the herbs that I cannot cook without. We have several thyme plants all over the yard, typically in the front of beds where the plants can function as low ground covers. Around and in our walkways, we also have a lot of creeping thyme, which blooms beautifully in July, but doesn't have any flavor to speak of.

Greek Oregano

We have no shortage of oregano in the garden, including a decorative variety called Kent Beauty. This is another herb that works better dried than fresh, though I use plenty fresh in the summer.

Chives

Chives grow insanely well out here in Oregon and we have large clumps of them all over the yard where their upright blue-green foliage and pretty purple blossoms are charming. They grow so well that I have divided and given away vast amounts to neighbors and to the compost pile. The vigorous growth is a good thing because we consume massive amounts of chives in our eggs and in other dishes. Be brutal with yours. Once they bloom, cut them back a couple inches above the ground and they will come right back. I cut these back about the first of June and they are already back up and blooming again at the Fourth of July.

Rosemary

Rosemary grows into shrubs out here in the Willamette Valley. This is a big one that is a focal point in the back yard and which threatens to get out of control if I don't prune it. If you expand the photo, you can see the fig bush in the background and another large herb in between. We also have a conifer-shaped 'Arp' rosemary growing in a pot on our front porch. I mainly use that one for cooking, because I need to keep it pruned to shape.

Edible Flowers

We also grow some edible flowers that look great in salads and such, but which we grow mainly for their good looks.

English Lavender

We grow lavender out here in the Willamette Valley like it's our job. Besides many large lavender farms, each yard will have at least one lavender bush. Ours is no exception, with perhaps a dozen or more varieties, none better than the old fashioned English lavender in the photo. Our friend Perrin gave us this venerable bush when she and Chris relocated from Beaverton to an apartment in downtown Portland. While I have used the flowers for garnish and to flavor dishes, mainly desserts, mostly we harvest the flowers and give bundles or sachets of it to our neighbors for gifts.

Nasturtium

With beautiful edible flowers, edible leaves, and edible seeds, what's not to like about a vine such as nasturtium especially when you're working hard at vertical gardening? We mostly use ours to drape over the edges of flower boxes and hanging baskets, to lend a downward motion to our mostly upward growing vines. And because young nasturtiums transplant so well, if you let one go to seed in the fall, in the spring you can have all the baby plants you want for all over your yard.

Calendula

Out here in Oregon, calendulas are perennial. They are prolific seeders, so if you live in a colder climate, you can let them go to seed to ensure a crop next year. The flowers come in all shades between yellow and orange, including the unusual one above with multicolored petals. The petals make great garnishes to dishes and can add a pop of color to salads. Ours get very leggy, so I have to be ruthless about pruning them.

Annual Vegetables

We tend not to grow annuals in our gardens, but many vegetables are annuals. Limited to vertical gardening, we grow beans and peas up our trellises and scaffolds.

Sugar Snaps on the Garage Living Wall

Scarlet Runner Beans in a Wine Barrel

That's a long-winded tour of some of the edibles in our yard. Perhaps it will be the inspiration to add edibles to your ornamental gardens.

A Garden Tour

June the 28th would have been my mother's 80th birthday had she lived to see it. It was a bittersweet day in that the weather was absolutely gorgeous in contrast to my pretty down mood. My mom loved flowers and gardening and even though she never got to see our gardens here in Oregon (her death was in part catalyst for Ann and me to pick up stakes and move from Virginia to Oregon), she would have loved them.

In memory of her, I took a little tour of the yard and snapped some photos of a few of the plants currently in bloom.

A Hosta in Front of our Fountain

A Cistus aka Rock Rose

One of Many Coreopsis

A Helenium, aka Sneezeweed

Yet Another Coreopsis

A Small, Sterile Butterfly Bush

Potentilla gracilis aka Slender Cinquefoil

A Geranium, Perhaps 'Johnson's Blue'

Still Another Coreopsis

A Spanish Lavender, Lavandula stoechas

Coreopsis 'Moonbeam'

Leucanthemum 'Daisy Mae'

Hebe 'Amy'

A Small Solidago

Another Potentilla, P. fruticosa

Creeping Thyme

A Lavatera

Two Coreopsis, Silene dioica, Salvia gregii 'Radio Red'

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

An Unknown Gaura

Sysirinchnum bellum 'Rocky Point'

Calla Lily

Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria) and Calendula

A Hugely Tall Echinacea angustifolia

Monarda didyma

A Massive Hyssop, Agastache sp.

Verbena bonariensis

Crocosmia 'Lucifer"

Purple Wallflowers and Salvia gregii 'Furman's Red'