Poppies - beauty and death
And far and wide, in a scarlet tide, The poppy's bonfire spread.
Bayard Taylor
Today is the first of June - the official beginning of winter here, but to me it's still summer, my birthday month and, to my mind, with September perhaps, the best European month. So I turned over the beautiful calendar supplied by my English artist friend and there was this beautiful painting of poppies. Which immediately sent me into a nostalgic spin and homesickness for France. So I thought I had to do something on poppies for this blog - and indeed you can eat poppy seeds so here I go.
In Provence and the south of France in general there are four plants that you see everywhere in the fields and lanes and also on just about every bit of tourist stuff there is - olives, lavender, sunflowers and poppies. The first three of these are big cash crops. The last is a weed which the grain farmers probably hate. You see it springing up in every field of grass or grain. I have taken many pictures in my time but, of course, can't find my favourite. But here are two.
Doubtless if I ever get to go there again I shall take many more. There are, of course, many more wonderful pictures out there, both photographs and paintings. Van Gogh, Matisse and Monet painted a few and doubtless others did too. They are just so stunning. So red.
Which is one of the reasons for the dark side of poppies. Red after all equals blood. Which is why they have become such a symbol of World War One which took place in the fields of Flanders where thousands and thousands of young men died. At the centenary of the war in London the moat of the Tower of London became filled with ceramic red blood poppies. I think the idea was that you bought one and planted it in the moat - or maybe somebody planted it for you. I can't imagine that the general public was allowed willy nilly into the moat. It was an extremely effective memorial though. Of course I did not see it for real, but I am told by some who have that it was very moving. And, of course, cemented the symbolism of the poppy for WW1. It was like a river of blood and yet beautiful.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard among the guns below. John McCrae
Life goes on.
And still on the downside of poppies - it is of course the source of opium - in itself a blot on the world and yet a valuable, even essential source of pain relief. I did not realise that opium actually comes from the sap of a particular poppy - from the seed head whilst it is still green and the seeds have not formed properly. And did you know that Tasmania now provides 50% of the world's legal opium - for medicinal purposes? Victoria and the Northern Territory are thinking of getting in on the act too. Northern Territory?
And yes, some of the opiate remains in the seeds, but in very low quantities which are nevertheless sometimes sufficient to mean that some people have failed a drug test after having eaten poppy seed bagels. Indeed in America they are so wary of poppies that it's actually illegal to grow them in some states. Californian poppies someone? I suspect they turn a blind eye, however, to beautiful examples like this.
You can certainly grow them here anywhere. A lady in my Italian class always has a wonderful display of them at this time of the year.
"Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe of God, nothing seems to me more surprising than the planting of a seed in the blank earth and the result thereof. Take that Poppy seed, for instance: it lies in your palm, the merest atom of matter, hardly visible, a speck, a pin's point in bulk, but within it is imprisoned a spirit of beauty ineffable, which will break its bonds and emerge from the dark ground and blossom in a splendor so dazzling as to baffle all powers of description."
Celia Thaxter
But what about food? This is supposed to be about food after all. A very big thing in Central and Eastern Europe where they make numerous cakes, pastries, breads and biscuits with them. I had a colleague at work many years ago who used to bring a poppy seed cake to school every now and then. It was delicious - and she gave me the recipe. I used to make it every now and then but haven't done so for many years now. There are lots of recipes out there, including one from Nigel Slater, but I will give you hers. It's a nostalgia thing. (By the way the same article from Nigel Slater also had a rather interesting roast chicken recipe with poppy seeds and chick peas.) The picture is of Nigel Slater's cake but the recipe isn't.
POPPY SEED CAKE
6 eggs
8oz caster sugar
1/2lb ground poppy seeds
1 grated Granny Smith apple
2oz. melted butter
2tbsp milk
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Cinnamon
2 tbsp bread/biscuit crumbs
Separate eggs and whip egg whites. Beat sugar and yolks. Add apple, lemon rind and seeds. Melt butter and add to mixture with milk, crumbs, and cinnamon. Fold in the egg whites. Put in an 8" spring form tin which has been buttered and floured. Bake at 350ºF for 1 hour approximately.
Apologies for the measurements being in Imperial units. It's a very old recipe and at the moment I don't have the time to convert. Because I'm simultaneously cooking the Friday special meal. Most of the recipes I saw for this kind of cake included orange - like Nigel Slater. My friend Jenny used apple - and yes it's a lot of poppy seeds. Maybe you could be soothed and sedated by it!
There are a whole range of things you can do with poppy seeds. Saveur has a lot of interesting choices for example.
"Poppy seeds add a floral, earthy flavor and pleasant crunch to all sorts of dishes, from savory pastas to sweet, airy pastries." Saveur
The Indians of course use them quite a lot - they have white ones too. and doubtless other cuisines do as well.
So poppies - beautiful but with a dark side.
Pleasures are like poppies spread: You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed.
Robert Burns
And here's a subversive thought that I think might only work in Europe where they are into meadow flowers.
"When you go for a walk, take seeds with you, poppies, rainbow chard, rocket. Plant them among the weeds in patches of wasteland. See what happens."
Tom Hodgkinson
