Juniper and Lamplight – Haiku – November 22, 2015

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Villa Fabri – Osservatorio per la Bio-diversità

in winter juniper
lines the barren fields and streets
eternal beauty

under the lamplight
juniper berries glisten
deep purple

juniper berry
taste of evergreen forests
German dinner

in Amelia
we gathered juniper berries
that cold winter

© G.s.k. ‘15

 

I wrote this trying to inspire myself from Carpe Diem #864 Juniper but what came to mind weren’t the spiritual aspects of the shaman of Altai Mountains but “juniper and lamplight” … for “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her” one of my favourite songs by Simon and Garfunkel came to mind …  The juniper tree is an evergreen (eternally green) which I’ve found all over Italy .. and their purple berries are beautiful and sometimes fills the air with their perfume when there are lots of these trees … then the taste of juniper berries … something very commonly found in certain German dishes, especially sauerkraut but also in many meat dishes in Italy.  Amelia is a small town in Umbria not far from Assisi which we visited the year my youngest son was conceived and where we gathered juniper berries to take home.

 

26 thoughts on “Juniper and Lamplight – Haiku – November 22, 2015”

  2. Beautiful post … i love what you did here! “Juniper in Lamplight” and “Jennifer Juniper” came to mind right away … lol…! But you’ve taken it to a new and gorgeous level with your haiku and your reminiscences. Very easily this could be a haibun 🙂

    [hugs]

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    • Thanks, glad you liked it … juniper can be used in a lot of ways, it’s an ingredient used in sauerkraut, it helps to “tame” the gamey taste in wild meat .. it’s used in roasts, it can be blended with earl-grey tea to make a marinade for fish … it can be used in fruit cakes and spice cookies. The important thing is to use it sparingly because it can be overpowering .. it tastes kind of peppery with a pine flavour behind it … and it is used to make give its characteristic flavour. So you basically use it with a strong flavoured meat or cabbage etc. I usually use it when I make sauerkraut and pork roast.

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  8. I agree with Jen, this is a haibun in my book. I had to translate in French to figure out what Juniper was and oh my, this is very common here too. Grandmaman also used it cooking le gibier like moose and fatty meats. It is a very popular tree; we used to have a few Genévrier grimpant (climbing bushes) as well when I grew up. I will have to try it with pork. I don’t remember if GrandMaman used it in sauerkraut. Another word for this tree is “poivre des pauvres”, weird huh? Thank you for this lovely read, cara (((((hugs))))

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    • The poor man’s pepper … now that’s interesting indeed.

      I think it goes well with pork roast … that’s pretty much in the lines of your Grandmaman’s use of juniper with fatty meats (although I choose my pork roast rather lean) and of course game really needs the juniper!

      The Alsatian’s use juniper in their choucroute … here’s a recipe that looks yummy (except for the polish sausage as I don’t like sausage at all) :
      http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/choucroute-garnie

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      • Thank you, my son is getting to be a pretty good cook, I think I’ll send it to him and ask him to cook for me during the holidays. Is choucroute is good…and we all love sausages.

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        • What’s with it with these modern day lads … good for him! Franz is into cooking as well … he makes one superb goulash and does wonders with pizza in fact he’s generally a great cook … by I still beat him (for now) baking cakes! Hope you delight in eating this during the holidays!

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in shadows light - walking under weeping pines - spring rain

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