Public Garden with family

My mother is visiting for a few days, mostly just to spend time with us. Yesterday adrian_turtle came over in the morning, and we all sat around talking for a while, then went over to Central Square for lunch. (We had been going to head straight out, but it was raining, and we had nowhere we needed to be at any particular time.)

Apparently cattitude and I had each picked one of the best things on Middle East restaurant's lunch menu on our respective first visits. This time I had the lamb shank again, which everyone agreed was excellent; my mother had Cattitude's original choice, the pumpkin kibbe, still excellent; but Cattitude's spinach pie was only okay, and Adrian didn't like her stuffed grape leaves. (They also didn't get the water hot enough for tea this time.) But we had more nice conversation, and shared the particularly tasty things, and then adjourned to Tosci's for tea and ice cream (I'm the only one who had both).

By the time we were done at Tosci's the sun was out, and we took the T over to the Public Garden. We enjoyed the flowers and the big old elm trees (now a rarity, alas), and Adrian showed everyone the ether statue, commemorating the introduction of anesthesia at/by Mass. General Hospital in 1846. It was erected by a "grateful citizen," no name given, the following year: probably either one of the first patients to benefit from anesthesia, or a close relative thereof. (We saw mallards, of course (one reason people visit the Public Garden is Make Way for Ducklings) and a couple of swans, and lots of squirrels and pigeons. Someone was hand-feeding the pigeons (and had a few landing on her arms briefly), and the mallards were trying to get at the food on the ground.

We then had a nice evening at home. Cattitude had stopped at the farmers' market and bought Arctic char for dinner, and baked it with mustard and fresh dill; Adrian made a salad with lettuce and our home-grown cherry tomatoes, and more of the dill in the dressing.

My mother both likes the tomatoes specifically—one of the plants we selected is a fairly sweet yellow-orange variety—and is pleased and impressed that we are growing vegetables, and finds the garden attractive to look at out the window. She missed the best of the cucumber flowers, but the general effect is still green and pleasant, and now includes a volunteer purple-flowered clover plant.

That one tomato plant is doing very well indeed; the other cherry tomato, a red-purple one, is bearing, but those haven't been ripening as quickly, nor has it spread as far.

Apple review: Puritan

Puritan is an early season apple variety. cattitude bought a couple at the farmers' market, because we'd never heard of them. I googled a bit, and the usually useful orangepippin.com said "Red skinned apple covered with small white dots. Soft texture, tart flavored." They also inform me that it was developed by the Massachusetts Agricultural Extension Station.

They're right about the tart flavor and soft texture, but the ones we got are more green than red, and had no white dots. It's possible that they were underripe, which would explain the blandness. Cattitude's reaction was that he would try it again a year from now; mine was that I wouldn't bother. (Last week the market had Lodi and Vista Bella, both of which I already knew I don't like.)

We also bought some "J Mac" apples, which may or may not be the same as Jersey Mac ("J Mac apple" was completely useless as a search string, and adding "variety" still got me mostly computer references), and will try those next.

Apple review: "J" Mac

cattitude bought four of these today; he said they smelled better than the Puritans, but the vendor said he wouldn't have any Puritans next week.

It's an early-season apple, not a strong flavor, somewhat astringent, but crisp and juicy. We just shared one, and there are a few more in the refrigerator. I may take one out tomorrow and let it come to room temperature before eating it; I grabbed this after Cattitude said it had seemed more appealing than the Puritan.

Working from his memory here, the "J" Mac [quotation marks sic] is a descendant of the Jersey Mac (which in turn is not descended from the Macintosh). There's no listing for this apple on orangepippin.com (which does describe the Jersey Mac), and whoever named this has come up with a close-to-ungoogleable name for an apple.

I want Macouns and Macintosh and Esopus Spitzenberg and Cortlands (I don't know if those grow around here, but I have seen the other three in local farmers' markets in the past); it really isn't apple season yet.