Is it Spring Yet?

California Poppy blooming now

When I wrote last I told you we were checking the nearby hilltops for snow. After that we had days of summer with temperatures up to 85 degrees. I do think we do this a lot .... skipping from winter to summer and then back again. It seems it is always above or below "normal". I remember one of the agriculture magazines I wrote for ran a cartoon once. There was a picture of God sitting at his desk and many angels around searching through the files, papers flying everywhere and God says, "There must be a normal year in there somewhere. I distinctly remember we had one." Don't know when that might have been, but I don't think it was in my life time.

Now the weather seems to be stabilized. It is a little warmer than that elusive "normal". This makes it very tempting to start putting out those plants we have been nurturing but I think I will wait a week for most, and even longer for things like cucumbers, summer squash and eggplant; they really object to the lower temperatures.

Freesia in bloom now

Kohlrabi est mort! The planted kohlrabi is gone. My fault. A critter got into the raised bed and destroyed it all. It was my fault because I forgot to put the chicken wire back over the bed. It is getting a little too warm to replant, instead I will plan for a fall planting.

Graham Thomas rose, too.

I am picking fava beans. I planted
them for the first time last fall. They grew all last winter, blooming with lovely but rather odd looking flowers. My purpose in planting them was for the nitrogen they would contribute to the soil. I have seen them as a winter cover in the vineyards and elsewhere doing that job, so I thought I might try. Now I have fava beans, too.

Some don't bother with the beans; they chop off the plants at ground level and leaving the roots to feed the soil. I thought I might give the fresh beans a whirl. I have eaten the very small ones, whole, out of the pod. They are generally served raw with olive oil and salt, accompanied by wine. They were nice; it was sort of like eating edamame, the soy bean served cold with salt. I plan to cook the midsize. Those I missed until they became huge are now drying. I will treat them like any other dry beans and see how that goes. I will keep you posted.

Note: There is a caveat to this fava thing. Apparently there is something called favism, a severe allergy to the beans. According to the literature I have found so far, it is not the bean, but that downy lining of the pod that can cause the problem. The allergy is very serious, but extremely rare. It affects only a few people of "southern Europe" and the Mediterranean. This, I find a little odd because the only people I ever knew who ate fava beans were Italians. They are grown elsewhere in the world and are called by many other names: Broad bean, English bean, Windsor bean, Horse Bean and in Mexico, Ava.

A recipe

When I started this blog I thought I would visit with you about every ten days. That way you would have a chance to actually cook any recipe enclosed, should you be so inclined. I know it has not yet been ten days since I was here, but Easter is just around the corner and if that is a day you celebrate you just might want to have this recipe for Pao Doce, a Portuguese bread that is often used for the Easter holiday.

When we lived in Hawaii, children would come to our door from time to time, as they do now, selling various goodies to raise money for their school projects. In Hawaii the goodies were most often loaves of Portuguese Sweet Bread, Pao Doce, baked by the mothers of the students. Goodness, what a treat! If I had any idea how good that bread was going to be I might have followed that little boy home to get his mother's recipe. I did try any number of recipes and tweaked a few of the better ones. This is the treasured one and the closest to the one that was delivered to our door.

Pao Doce (Sweet Bread)

Portuguese Sweet Bread

This recipe is adapted from one of Napua Stevens', Oahu Hawaii

Makes 2 large, 12 inch rounds or 4 medium 8 inch loaves.

1 - 2 potatoes (enough to make 1 cup mashed)

1/2 cup potato water

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

7 - 8 cups flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 3/4 tablespoons instant yeast (2 packages)

1/8 teaspoons dry ground ginger

1/2 cup milk

7 eggs (6 for the dough and 1 for the topping)

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces. Cover with cold water and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are very tender. Drain off the water and set aside while you mash the potatoes. Measure out 1 cup of mashed potatoes and set aside to cool. Into the half cup of hot water stir the salt and the butter and allow to dissolve and melt. Set aside to cool.

In the bowl of the stand mixer place 4 cups of the flour, all the sugar, ginger and yeast. Start the mixer with the paddle in place and stir the dry mixture. Keep the mixer going while adding the rest of the ingredients starting with the potatoes which have cooled to room temperature. Then add the 6 eggs, one at a time. Add the milk to the potato mixture and, keeping the mixer on medium low, continue mixing for 4 minutes.

Add the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing in after each addition. When you have a total of five cups in the bowl stop and attach the dough hook. Add as much flour as needed, 1/2 cup at a time. The dough should be a little sticky when you are finished.


Place in a greased bowl or a very large plastic container with lid. Cover and set in a warm place for 2 hours. It should rise to one and a half or more the original size. If it seems like it may not make that, set the bowl in a larger bowl of warm water.


Turn out onto a flour board and divide into 2, or 4, pieces. Shape each into a round loaf and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise again until almost double, about 45 minutes. Beat the last egg with the last sugar and brush the tops of the loaves before placing into a 350 degree oven and bake 45 to 60 minutes. Test with an instant read thermometer; 200 degrees is what is needed.








Tip: Like other heavy sweet bread doughs, this one will rise very slowly. Setting it over a bowl of warm water will help. Another aid would be to use a yeast developed especially for this job. King Arthur flour sells one; it is called Nevada. It comes by the pound so if you are not doing a lot of such breads stick with the regular instant yeast. Yeast does keep in the freezer, though.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All material in this blog is copyright to Eaglehearth Press.

To ask a question email me at patriciaseasons@gmail.com
To subscribe, scroll down and follow the instructions