The last day of summer
- 13 minutes ago
- 4 min read
“Summer is a state of mind." Unknown
As I sat down to write this post after a somewhat dismal day, I realised that it is indeed the last day of summer.
Technically that is. Of course it isn't actually. And in fact we shan't know when it is. There is not even an astronomical date for the end of summer - maybe the autumnal equinox? But then a large part of the world, doesn't even have a season that could be called summer. On the equator you could say it's summer all the time if summer is when we are closer to the sun.
We are in Australia and therefore the government has decreed that February 28th - or 29th in a leap year - is the last day of summer. Tomorrow is the first day of autumn. But not even all over Australia is that really what is happening. Up there in the north they have an almost monsoonal climate - three seasons, not four. And Melbourne is famous - or should I say infamous - for four seasons in one day. I think the Aboriginals had six seasons down here.
And summer - in the sense of what you expect - well what Melbourne expects - of summer weather is not over yet. Last week it might have looked like it, but this week not. And over there in England - the other kind of summer I know the best - when it is summer - in six months or so's time - summer won't be like summer is here. And besides who knows what climate change will do to summer everywhere.
“It’s always summer somewhere” says Lily Pulitzer (whoever she is), which is indeed so true.
Summer is also not necessarily a good time. Up there in the north of Australia - where, as I have said, it's not really technically summer anyway - being a monsoon climate - but nevertheless because it's Australia we call it summer - yes up there it's cyclone season - massive storms and lots of rain. And around the edges of this massive island it's bushfire season. Always something to dread.
Enough of summer - every season lurches into the next, sometimes taking a backward step. It's seamless until one day you realise it the last season has well and truly gone. And every season has good and bad. Autumn - with its plums - and soon its apples and pears, has much to offer after all. It's gentler, more reflective.
What really started me writing this particular post was a quote in Nigel's wonderful book Tender volume 1 - "the making of a salad is where kitchen craft crosses over into art." Well two really - the last words in his mini essay Putting a salad together is rather more reassuring and worth considering - "Even the mistakes can be interesting."
I don't really do salad, as you have probably realised by now. But every now and then I come across a really good one, and I am not going to deny that they can look incredibly beautiful, like this Michelin starred Salade de cepes au mesclun from Provence. And there's nothing to it really.
But no I don't really do salads, except for the daily green salad, and the occasional potato salad - a fairly traditional one with crispy bacon, onion, hard-boiled egg, parsley and a garlicky vinaigrette dressing.
I should say more on the general topic, and also feature salads more often, but not today. The brain is limping along here. But I'll end with one of the salads in the same book - Roast potato salad with rosemary and garlic. Now I shall never be able to make this because it features new potatoes - Jersey new potatoes, which for some weird reason you cannot get here. They taste so utterly different from the 'new' potatoes that you get here. You could give it a go with those I suppose, but it won't be the same.
"tell me I am not alone in finding something quietly perfect about a dish of scrupulously de-skinned new potatoes without the remotest flake of skin, dressed with a classic vinaigrette and some spanking fresh parsley."
says Nigel of his creation, although, as one of the bloggers who made Nigel's recipe says:
"Not really sure why Nigel Slater calls this a 'salad' It's more like roasted smashed potatoes with a warm mustard vinaigrette." Stacey's Snacks
I absolutely see what she means - should salads be warm? but she does go on to say: "Call it what you wish, but I call it delicious!"
And a couple of other bloggers, made it their own by varying it slightly, although this - Roast new potato salad from The Little Bean which had thyme instead of rosemary, and served it on a bed of greens, seemed to imply that it was a Nigel recipe, although she did not say from where. Maybe Nigel varied it himself, which is something he does tend to do.
The other - Roasted potato salad with black olive & roasted garlic gremolata as featured on The Boatshed Chronicles acknowledges it as a variation from a fellow blogger - Plate Fodder - of the original Nigel recipe and it is indeed more of a variation.
As I sit in here at my desk and look out of the window you might think it was a dull day on some in between season. The house is cool, although I am wearing light summer clothes. And yet if you go outside, instantly it's summer and 30 degrees. Climate is a slippery and ever-changing thing.
A random post which doesn't really say much but a different thought about salads I guess.
And Shakespeare to end:
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
The painting is not at all Shakespeare but it does somehow express that turning to autumn and its fruits can be a joyful thing. Not quite so joyful in England. It's too cold for that.
YEARS GONE BY
February 28
2025 - Nothing
2024 - Nothing
2023 - Fear of failure
2021 - Missing
2020 - Nothing
2018 - Nothing
2017 - What on earth is kombucha?
Comments