Hi there, everyone, and welcome to The Daily Gardener, and thank you for listening. I'm your host, Jennifer Eveling. It's November 3rd. Today we celebrate the American romantic poet who wrote, The rose that lives its little hour is prized beyond the sculpted flower.
We'll also learn about the man who made Six Hills Nursery famous. We'll hear some words about autumn by an American poet laureate. And we'll grow that garden library with a book that rocked the vegetable cookbook world three years ago. And here's a hint.
The author divided the year into six seasons. And then we'll wrap things up with a recipe that I received from a friend recently for a delicious golden squash soup. You know, before the pandemic, one of the things I would do each fall is look forward to the time when Panera put their squash soup on the menu. And then I'd go to Panera, usually with my daughter, because it's her favorite place to eat.
And that was my favorite thing to order, a big bowl of their squash soup. And so, like you, I'm sure, we're missing our favorite restaurants. And I'm especially missing going to Panera and sitting down, usually working on the podcast, and enjoying a bowl of squash soup. And so that's what inspired me to make my own.
And so that's what I'm doing. That's what I've been doing this past month. I just couldn't wait. And so I started making different squash soup recipes.
And this one that I'm sharing on the show today is my favorite. So I look forward to sharing that with you at the end of the show. Here's today's brevities. Today is the birthday of the American romantic poet and nature lover, William Cullen Bryant, who was born on this day, November 3, 1794.
As a young man, William became an attorney. His first job was in Plainfield, Massachusetts, a town seven miles away from his home. In 1815, William was walking to work one day in December when he spied a lone bird flying on the horizon. The image moved him so much that William wrote his poem called To a Waterfowl.
William Cullen Bryant is a favorite poet among gardeners. Here's an excerpt from a little poem by William called A Winter Peace. When shrieked the bleak November winds and smote the woods and the brown fields were herbless and the shades that met above the merry rivulet were spoiled, I thought. I loved them still.
They seemed like old companions in adversity. When he was alive, William Cullen Bryant visited Wodeneth, the 20-acre estate overlooking the Hudson River. It was purchased and sculpted by Henry Winthrop Sargent. Sargent's naming of Wodeneth was a marriage of two old Saxon terms, Woden and Eth, which stands for woody promontory, a highland that juts out into the sea or large lake, a headland.
Sargent turned Wodeneth into a personal arboretum where he artfully used trees to frame the Hudson's incredible views. One reviewer said it was a bijou full of interest for the lover of rural beauty, abounding in rare trees, shrubs, and plants, as well as vases and objects of rural embellishment of all kinds. William Cullen Bryant loved Wodeneth, and he was particularly charmed by an illusion that Sargent had created on the property. Sargent had created the view from inside his house to look like the lawn extended out to the Hudson, creating the illusion of a sharp drop-off, almost like the lawn ran out to the edge of a cliff.
To help pull this off, Sargent would send his young son Winthrop out onto the lawn with a fishing pole where he would pretend to fish off the edge of a non-existent cliff. On one occasion, a lady visitor commented on how she wouldn't let her children play so close to that drop-off. Well, in reality, Winthrop was sitting a good mile away from the water's edge, quite safe on the flat earth of the lawn nestled among the trees. Sargent's masterful vista created an artful and beautiful illusion, a trick that he even pulled on William Cullen Bryant.
Wodeneth so moved Bryant that he wrote his poem, A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson, from Wodeneth. Here's an excerpt. All save this little nook of land, circled with trees on which I stand. All save that line of hills, which lie suspended in the mimic sky.
It seems a blue void, above, below, through which the white clouds come and go. And from the green world's farthest steep, I gaze into the airy deep. Loveliest of lovely things they are on earth, that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour is prized beyond the sculpted flower.
And today is the birthday of the English garden writer, plant explorer, renowned nurseryman, alpine specialist, and a founding member of the Alpine Garden Society, Clarence Elliott, who was born on this day, November 3rd, 1881. Clarence had a remarkable career, and he cast an enormous shadow from his legendary nursery in Stephenage, called Six Hills. If Six Hills has a familiar ring to it, you might be familiar with the popular and prevalent landscape plant and stalwart of most garden borders cultivated at Six Hills, the Nepeta Six Hills Giant. Or perhaps you were thinking of the Penstemon Six Hills, another Clarence offspring.
And many gardeners have forgotten that the Mrs. Popple fuchsia was actually a nod to the Popples, a couple who lived near Six Hills. One day, Clarence spied Mrs. Popple's gorgeous hardy fuchsia.
After taking some cuttings, Clarence ultimately won an RHS show Award of Merit for the Mrs. Popple fuchsia in 1934. Nearly a century later, gardeners still grow this beloved starter fuchsia in their gardens today. When Clarence wasn't scouring his neighborhood or the world in general for new plants, he was busy mentoring other horticultural greats like Will Inguerson and E.K.
Balls. The great Graham Stewart Thomas worked at Six Hills for 24 years. A gardener's gardener, Clarence even invented a little garden tool he dubbed the Widger. Somehow, Vida Sackville-West ended up with a Widger, and she wrote that it was one of the neatest, slimmest, and cheapest of all gadgets to carry in the pocket.
Vida continued, In today's Unearthed Words, Here are some words about November and autumn from the American poet and poet laureate Robert Frost. And the dead leaves lie huddled and still, the longer blown hither and thither, the last lone aster is gone. The flowers of the witch hazel wither. It's time to grow that garden library with today's book, Six Seasons, by Joshua McFadden.
This book came out in 2017, and the subtitle is A New Way with Vegetables. This is one of my favorite vegetable cookbooks ever. Joshua's book won a James Beard Award for Best Book in Vegetable-Focused Cooking. What a fantastic category.
Joshua's book was named a Best Cookbook of the Year by the Wall Street Journal as well. In addition to all of these magazines, listen to this. The Atlantic, Bon Appetit, Food Network Magazine, Every Day with Rachel Ray, USA Today, Seattle Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Library Journal, Eater, and more. Here's what Bon Appetit said about Joshua's book, Six Seasons.
A New Way with Vegetables is poised to join the veggie canon. The flavors are big. They're also layered and complex. Despite their apparent simplicity, what will really change your cooking is Joshua's approach to seasoning.
Trust me, read this book, and you'll never look at cabbage the same way again. And here's the review from Sunset, which is also fantastic. Downright thrilling. Divided into six seasons rather than the traditional four, a more accurate reflection of what's happening in the fields.
This book encourages readers to embrace what Joshua calls the joyful ride of eating with the seasons. On page after page, Joshua presents a deliciously enlightening way of cooking with vegetables. Well, this book is 384 pages of vegetable magic. That's what I call it.
That's what I've told my friends about this book. You can get a copy of Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $23. That makes an excellent gift. Finally, here's something sweet to revive the little botanic spark in your heart.
Speaking of recipes, I wanted to share that delicious recipe that I received from a friend for golden squash soup. It's a keeper. I'm going to walk you through it here on the show right now. And then if you want to check it out for yourself, it's in today's show notes over at the website, thedailygardener.org.
That's thedailygardener. Make sure you spell that right. G-A-R-D-E-N-E-R dot O-R-G. All right.
The ingredients are three leeks. Use the white portion only. Four medium carrots. Five tablespoons of butter or margarine.
Three pounds of butternut squash peeled and sliced. Six cups of chicken or vegetable broth. Three medium zucchini peeled and sliced. Two tablespoons of salt.
A half a tablespoon of dried thyme. A quarter tablespoon of white pepper or black pepper. I use black pepper. One cup of half and half and a half a cup of milk.
So you get your soup kettle out over medium heat. You're going to saute the leeks and the chopped up carrots in butter for five minutes and stir that occasionally. Then you're going to add in all of the other ingredients. Squash, the broth, the zucchini, the salt, thyme, and pepper.
Bring it all to a boil. It gets nice and soft this way. You're going to reduce the heat and cover them and let it simmer until all of your vegetables are tender. It takes about 30 minutes.
And then you're going to let it cool down. And once it's lukewarm, you're going to take all of that and you're going to put it in a blender or a food processor. And you're going to puree it until it's smooth. It is so easy.
And then when that's done, you're going to return it to the kettle, add the cream and milk, and heat it up again. Just make sure it's nice and warm. Don't let it boil. And then eat it.
And if you want, at that moment, you can pour it into a wonderful bowl. And I like to add Parmesan cheese and some chives and maybe some croutons, whatever you have on hand. And you'll have a wonderful bowl of golden squash soup. Enjoy.
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember, for a happy, healthy life, garden every day. The Daily Gardener is produced in lovely Wyoming, Minnesota, with the help of Paige Vance, Brooke Beerbaum, Keanu Raley, Maddie Doyle, Natalie Decker, and Eric Begay. You can find The Daily Gardener on all your favorite social media.
You can follow the show on Instagram. And listeners always have a standing invitation to join the free Facebook group for the show. Just search for Daily Gardener Community the next time you're on Facebook and request to join. All the stories and books that are featured on the show can be found over at thedailygardener.org, thedailygardener.org.
And while you're there, be sure to sign up for my free Friday newsletter. Last but not least, you can share your own gardener greetings on the show by emailing me at jennifer at thedailygardener.org. I'm your host, Jennifer Ebeling. And as always, have a great day in the garden, and we'll see you tomorrow.