SPRING IN A MUFFIN: RASPBERRIES AND ALMONDS

Muffins filled with raspberries and topped with almonds are the perfect end to a day in the Garden!

Shortly after moving into to our house in South Charlotte, I discovered that what looked like a blank palette for my garden was actually a bare landscape of very challenging growing conditions.

The lower part of the garden is in a flood zone. The habitually damp clay soil has been made even less hospitable by the previous owner’s removal of more than 40 trees. Just think about what that means. The average full grown tree absorbs between 10-150 gallons of water a day.    For 40 trees that’s 400-6000 gallons A DAY, or 150,000- 2 million gallons a year which is no longer being taken up from the soil.  It’s a soggy mess which extends about halfway up the lawn.

So down below I have very wet clay, shade and partial sun.  Farther up I have somewhat better, somewhat less wet, full Carolina sun.

And there aren’t a lot of plants that like those conditions.

Nevertheless, I persevered.  We planted a willow tree which loves it here.  And my Hosta Garden in a lower shady corner was gorgeous.  The herb garden in the center of the garden was another bright spot. And I was looking forward to seeing how they progressed this year.

That was before this winter.

This winter it rained. And it rained. And just when that seemed depressing enough, one afternoon we had the heaviest rainfall in 100 years.

Rick and I stood on the porch and watched the stream below leave its banks.  Logs and branches floated swiftly past the fence, some getting caught by trees and gathering debris with them.  Inside the fence the water rose and rose until the bird bath in the Hosta Garden was submerged up to the basin, three feet high. It seemed like nothing could survive: the plants that had not been washed away must have rotted and water-logged roots.

Sorry about the grainy picture. I took it through a screen. The water continued to rise until it was at the base of the small tree in the fore-ground. The bird bath on the far right was submerge to the bottom of the basin

With Spring comes hope. As the days got warmer, I found myself walking the grounds, pausing to move aside piles of leaves and searching for the smallest sign that my labors of the previous year had not been wiped away.

Day after day there was nothing.

But then,suddenly, one of the large Hostas on the left of the path  began to surface. Where there had been nothing, if I looked really closely, I could see a tiny reddish shoot appearing from the soil.

You have to really search to find hosta plants as they start to emerge in the Spring

As the days went on a few more began to reach up to the sun until one day I didn’t have to walk down to the path to look and search for them.  They could be seen clearly from the porch.

The Hostas to the left of the path are  flourishing. So far there is nothing to the right

As the weeks past however there was no sign of revival on the right of the path.  I raked up the leaves and waited. Once a day, sometimes twice a day, I search the soil for a sign. I had  started to give up hope when a few weeks later the Hostas on the right started to make their appearance. Not as many as across the path, but some.

It made me so happy.

I am in the second year of creating a garden.  I have seen the conditions I have to work with.  I have a better understanding of which plants may or may not thrive.  I am trying some new ones, transplanting some which are struggling and encouraging those which came back.

Yesterday I found myself with my hands deep in a pile of soil, breaking up the clods of clay and mixing in good garden soil to help my roses establish themselves.  It felt like baking.  I was putting together ingredients which I hoped would lead to something pleasurable, then placing them in a spot where the magic of life would change them into a sum of their parts greater than the whole.

Pleased with myself at the end of the day, I returned to the house and made Raspberry Muffins.

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RASPBERRY MUFFINS

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 12 muffins

Author Susan Murray, www.awomancooksinasheville.com

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp butter
• 2 eggs
• ½ c buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp almond extract
• ½ c honey
• 1 ¾ c flour
• 1 c almond flour
• ½ c sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 c fresh raspberries
• ¼ c chopped sliced almonds
• 2 tbsp Demerara sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-muffin tray with baking spray
2. Melt the butter and cool it slightly. Beat together the melted butter, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, almond and honey in a large bowl.
3. Stir together the flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
4. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until just barely combines. Crush 1 cup of the raspberries in a small bowl. Stir the raspberries into the batter.
5. Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Sprinkle lightly with Demerara sugar and chopped almonds. Place two to three raspberries on top of each muffin pressing them in lightly.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes until done. Let cool in the tray for ten minutes before turning them out on to a wire rack to finish cooling.