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Slow-cooked Tomato and Snap Beans

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Right now we are inundated with tomatoes and snap beans. I adore both of these summer crops, but after a while I find myself staring at them in the kitchen wondering what I can do differently to keep us enjoying them. Soon enough winter will be here and we’ll be desperate for delicious, fresh veggies. Yet, here we are mid-season with so much to choose from sometimes we find it difficult to appreciate the bounty.

Tomato, Bean and Onion with Olive Oil

Tomato, Bean and Onion with Olive Oil

Yesterday I stared just long enough to find inspiration! I put together this delicious slow-cook medley that I guarantee we’ll eat again and again. Plus, it should be wonderful in mid-winter using the beans and tomatoes we’re putting up now.

This recipe couldn’t be much simplier, and I bet you could make it in your crockpot if you aren’t around to watch it on the stove or in the oven for hours. And, the cooking is worth the wait. The beans take on a melty texture and richness that is delicious in a stick-to-your-ribs kinda way. Enjoy! (more…)

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The Elephant (garlic) in the Garden

Monday, October 27th, 2008

I planted one last clove of garlic today. I was rummaging through my eating garlic drawer and happened upon a last clove of elephant garlic a friend had given me from her garden this summer. Is it organic? I dunno. Will it produce here? Again, dunno.

But, I had one last large-ish container filled with potting soil that was moist and drained, so I ran out and planted it instead of chopping it into my dinner cassoulet.

Bob’s Favorite Cassoulet: This warm supper whips up fast. Its a meaty-veggie-over-brown-rice favorite that sticks to the bones!

  • 4 Skagit River Ranch Andouille Sausages cut into 1″ rounds
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 2-4 garlic cloves chopped
  • 1-2 Tablespoons chopped mixed fresh herbs like oregano, rosemary, thyme, savory (optional)
  • 1-2 cups frozen or canned tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth (optional)
  • 1-2 cups (or 1 can) navy beans
  • 1 cup chopped chard or beet green stems (or any green you prefer, just adjust cooking time for stem stiffness)
  • 2-4 fists full torn up chard or beet greens (same as with the stems)
Simmering Cassoulet

Simmering Cassoulet

Saute chopped sausage until browned. Pour off all but about 1 T. oil. Add onions and chopped greens stems and saute until limp. Add herbs and chopped garlic and toss until release fragrance. Add tomatoes, beans and broth. (I add broth only if it seems dry.) Saute over medium-low heat for about 10-20 minutes to let flavors mix. Just before serving, stir in greens and cook until wilted.

Serve in steaming mounds over brown rice.

By-the-way, everything in tonight’s cassoulet is from my garden or the local farmer’s market…except the rice.

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Posted in Edible Gardens, Food, Localvore, Recipes, bulbs, cooking, herbs | No Comments »

Last of the Veggies Are Planted and Clean Up is Underway!

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Here we are on the other side of the middle of October, and I can say that the last of my veggie planting is done for winter. My seed garlic is all tucked into deep, black (heat absorbing) planter tubs. The last of my chard starts replaced fading summer annuals in a bed that gets winter sun. And, that’s about it.

Fava starts have several sets of true leaves and are working away to rejuvenate tired beds, including the parking strip where we grew corn this summer. The corn stalks have been cleared out. Spent Anemone flower stalks are cut down, and a few weedy beds have been cleared and mulched. Tiny hardy cyclamen are beginning to peek out from under a Japanese Laceleaf Maple starting to lose its leaves. The delicate plants were protected by it during the heat of summer and are now revealed in their fall wonder.

Of course, this isn’t the last of the fall work around here. There’s plenty more clean up to do, but nothing is urgent. Trees are still bright with fall color, so their leafy messes will be tasks in a couple of weeks. For now, the rain is gently watering the newest starts in the garden.

I’m enjoying harvesting from my fall/winter veggie container. Last night the container yielded enough chard to feed two adults a wonderful sauted side dish, with a little leftover for today. And the other great thing? the container is designed in a way that we must be harvesting regularly or the chard will shade out other smaller plants and destroy the rhythm of the tiny garden-in-a-pot. For the first time since early summer, I did not purchase lettuce at the farmer’s market. Mine, in the pot and in the garden beds, is about ready for the salad bowl. And, like with the chard, I must start taking it out of the container or risk losing other plants to overcrowding. What a shame, right? ;)

Wondering how to quickly make a great chard side dish? Try this super fast method:

Ingredients:

  • Big Bunch of chard
  • 1 sliced red or white sweet onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2-3 late season tomatoes, cut into wedges
  • salt
  • dash of balsamic vinegar
  • olive oil

Remove chard mid rib and stem. Chop into ~1″ pieces. Tear up remaining leaves into 2-3″ pieces.

Heat olive oil in wok or large saute pan. Add sliced onion and saute until onion becomes limp or golden. Add red pepper flakes and  chopped chard stems and continue to saute until they soften. Add fistfulls of chard leaves and toss with warm onion. As the fistfulls begin to wilt, add more until all is incorporated and nearly limp. Toss in tomatoes and saute lightly for a minute or two. Hit the pan with a dash of balsamic, toss. Serve.

In our house this recipe is a favorite side to go with a savory meat and potatoes meal. Or, add a bit of chopped sausage to the saute and call it a meal in itself!

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Posted in Container Garden, Edible Gardens, Food, Recipes, cooking, seasons, vegetable gardening, vegetable starts | 1 Comment »

Back from the Dead…A Food Dehydrator’s Return

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

I plugged in the food dehydrator later in the day, and it started up again. Thank goodness! Now all the tomatoes are done drying, and I am contemplating buying another batch to dry today. A good 15 lbs of tomatoes dried down to about a paper lunch sack full. It seems like such a waste, but what it really shows is how high in water all living things really are!

For dinner I made a fantastic quiche using a fistfull of dried tomatoes.

Crust:

  • 1.5 cups unbleached, organic all purpose flour
  • .5 cup flax seed meal
  • 1/2 cup chilled butter
  • pinch salt
  • 2-4 Tablespoons water

Sift flour, flax seed meal and salt. Cut butter into Tablespoon sized chunks and then blend into flour mixture with your hands until pea-sized and smaller butter is well mixed through the dough. One Tablespoon at a time, stir water into dough. Add only enough water so that the dough forms a ball when gently pressed together.

On a floured board, roll out the dough to 1/4″ or less thickness. Place in pie plate and crimp edges. Set aside.

Filling:

  • 3 fresh eggs
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1 cup milk (or forget the 1/2 and 1/2 and use 2 cups milk…you’ll just get a runnier quiche)
  • salt
  • pepper
  • fist full of dried tomatoes
  • 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated gruyere cheese (or grated parmesan)
  • 1 bulb roasted garlic (yes, the whole bulb, not just one clove)
  • 1/4 cup flax seed meal — yay! Highly nutritious!

Preheat oven to 475F. Squeeze pulp from roasted garlic and rub on uncooked pie crust. Fill unbaked shell with cheddar cheese, sprinkle with flax seed meal and arrange dried tomatoes decoratively over cheese.

Scald milk. As it is heating, whisk eggs together. Remove scalded milk from heat and whisk in eggs. Whisk in pinch of salt. Pour over tomatoes and cheese in pie plate. Sprinkle grated greyure over top. Grate a bit of fresh pepper over top.

Place in preheated oven and bake at 475F for 10-15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F. Bake for another 30-45 minutes or until quiche is set. Watch for burning and bubbling over. A cookie sheet or foil on a lower oven rack will help with bubble overs. Foil lightly placed over a browned quiche will control burning as baking is finished.

Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

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Posted in Food, Localvore, Recipes, cooking | No Comments »

Dehydrator RIP

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
The batch the Machine Couldn't Quite Finish

The batch the Machine Couldn't Quite Finish

I just checked my tomatoes and found my dehydrator had stopped running. Maybe 17 hours straight is just too long for these machines, but many juicy items require a lot of time to finish drying. Alas, perhaps when it cools down, it will work again, but I have my suspicions that it is finished. Fortunately, only one tray of tomatoes wasn’t quite done by the time the machine pooped out. I guess this means I’ll be making a pizza, tapenade, sandwich or snack out of this last batch that’s not quite done.

And, I guess I won’t be buying another box of tomatoes at the farmer’s market tomorrow to dry!

Sadly, I wonder how long the machine was really designed to work. Though I’ve had it for a few years, I think I’ve used it less than 10 times to dry a few batches of tomatoes, a couple of peaches and a couple of apple batches. Hmmm…certainly not a machine that’s made to keep up with a serious food preserver!

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Posted in Edible Gardens, Food, Food for Thought, Localvore, cooking | 2 Comments »

Ninety-nine Pounds of Tomatoes to Preserve…

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Tomatoes Galore! These made Soup.

Tomatoes Galore! These made Soup.

You know the tune. And, if you’re putting up fresh summer vegetables to enjoy over the winter, you may be singing a similar tune. I really did end up preserving close to one hundred pounds of tomatoes, or at least that’s what I bought with the intention of preserving them. We ate quite a few raw, and a few hit the compost before I could get through preserving all of them. But, today marks the last day of putting up tomatoes. My food dehydrator is on the last hours of drying the last batch I think I’ll do. Granted, you never know, I may be lured into buying more to dry, but freezing more is starting to be out of the question. My freezer is nearly full, and I still have about 5 lbs of carrots and a few lingering ears of corn to put by.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m not really into canning a lot of vegetables. I do make jams and preserves, but something about canned vegies just doesn’t appeal to me. I may need to come around on this, but this year its all about the freezer and the dehydrator. I’ve dried probably around 20 lbs of tomatoes, and the 80 or so remaining pounds went into chopped frozen tomatoes, two different soups and basic tomato sauce. I have about 10 meals for two in soups and about 5 meals for two in tomato sauce. I have somewhere around 20 bags of chopped tomatoes that will go into 20 more stews and soups through the winter.

I was pretty amazed at how little food these actually produced. I think I had visions of much more as I lugged in each tub of the fragrant red, orange, yellow, green-striped and blackish orbs, But, really, this is a load of food that will keep us well.

Dried Tomatoes -- a Sweet Treat!

Dried Tomatoes -- a Sweet Treat!

If you’ve never dried tomatoes, its a fantastic way to preserve them. They become sugary sweet and are wonderful on a cheese and cracker appetizer, mashed into a tapenade, spun into tomato paste or just popped in your mouth as a sweet treat. When you taste them, you’ll understand why I may just buy another 20 lbs of tomatoes at the local farmer’s market to dry. Wondering how to do it? It’s pretty easy:

Slice and seed tomatoes. Cherries, plums and small tomatoes work great cut in half. Larger tomatoes should be sliced into 1/4″ thickness. Dry as is in food dehydrator for about 11-18 hours or in 250F oven for about 2-3 hours.

OR

Toss with a splash of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a pinch of thyme and a pinch of sugar. Then dehydrate according to the same method above.

And when they’re done, consider making the sandwiches from this earlier post. They’re divine!

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Posted in Edible Gardens, Food, Localvore, Recipes, cooking, vegetable gardening | 1 Comment »

Localvore Tendencies — Feeling Suicidal in the Fall?

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Even my regular farmer at the farmer’s market asked on Sunday, “What are you doing with all the food you’re buying?”

“Putting it up for winter, of course.”

I know that the time invested over the last few weeks harvesting corn, basil, tomatoes and other things I’ve grown and preparing them for the freezer will reward me in winter. Purchasing 100+ lbs of tomatoes to make soups and sauces to freeze (I have a freezer and find canning kind of a pain.), buying 20 lbs of potatoes (and will buy more) to put in my root cellar basement, buying and harvesting carrots and beans to freeze, drying tomatoes and freezing basil, roasting garlic and ordering fresh to store — all will be welcome treats when fresh, local options are not available in a few months.

Still, I wonder, is it worth it? Its a bummer to spend all day on a sunny September in the kitchen making robust soups and sauces to put up. But is an 8 hour day in Fall in the kitchen worth the fast, local food that will be ready after long days at work in the short days of winter? I kind of think so.  In an 8 hour day in the kitchen, I made about 10 soup dinners (for two) and about 8-10 tomato sauce dinners (for two). The prior Sunday I put up about 10 more bags of frozen tomatoes to use in stews and other soups. This will eliminate buying canned organic tomatoes that drive all the way from California, after being processed. Plus, I put up about to dinners-worth of frozen corn (for two) and over the course of two weekends I put by about 10 dinners worth of yellow and green beans. Oh, and I have another 20lbs of tomatoes to deal with, so more frozen tomatoes, definitely more dried and possibly more sauce to go! It is a lot of work.

Will baking 4 loaves of bread to freeze 2 each week (well, realistically 2 go in the freezer and 2 get eaten each week) and start a stockpile pay off? I think so (as long as the dog doesn’t eat another unbaked loaf and cost $200 at the vet to get her stomach pumped; another story…another time…).

I don’t intend to be a 100% localvore, but I do look forward to quickly reheating some tomato soup with wheat bread on a cold day after being in the garden all day in November (or February). And, I’ll be glad at how fast dinner will be ready. Plus, when the taste of September-harvested, organic, local tomatoes fills the air, perhaps I’ll breath in a moment of the September sunshine that filled my kitchen as I cooked all day yesterday.

How does this pertain to garden help? Well, any gardener considering growing their own food needs to think about the work that goes into putting the food by. So many are enamoured of the growing but don’t think about the work that goes into the harvest. In the course of being a garden coach, when I meet someone who wants to create a permaculture edible garden and invest about 5-10 hours a week in it, I have to ask, as their garden mentor, ..well, first is 5-10 hours going to be enough in the garden? And, what about the putting food by that happens at the end of season? Are you willing to give up a Sunday (or maybe your evenings) to put the food up? Is it worth it to you? I certainly hope so, but it is food for thought.

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Posted in Edible Gardens, Food, Food for Thought, Gardening, Localvore, cooking, garden coach, garden mentor, vegetable gardening | 1 Comment »

Sharing Crops with Neighbors — A Community of Suburban Foragers

Monday, September 15th, 2008
Garden Mentor With Corn to Share

Garden Mentor With Corn to Share

September is the season of harvest. Today is the date of our harvest moon. It’s hard to believe summer is nearly gone, but so it is. A week from today is the autumnal equinox! During the harvest season I find myself sharing my garden coaching skills with neighbors. In return, I have the pleasure of sharing in their harvest!

Fresh Picked!

Fresh Picked!

Over the weekend, I celebrated harvest with many of my neighbors. I’m very inclined to work on building relationships within my community, so I don’t hesitate to introduce myself to neighbors I don’t know. And, really, it has paid off. My best friends live next door. We are as close as family (but perhaps we get along better than some families). We share meals together, which means this time of year we put together many fresh harvest potlucks.

On Friday we got together to share a meal and visit together around the the firepit after dark. Bob and I offered to bring fresh, sweet corn from our abundant crops. Just before heading over to dinner, I went into the garden and harvested one ear per person. So, by the time we sat down to eat, our corn had only been off the stalk for about an hour!

Fresh Blueberries

Fresh Blueberries

When I walked to our neighbor’s for dinner that night, I noticed that their blueberries were laden with ripe fruit. My friends are always generous with their fruit, so I didn’t hesitate to ask if I could pick some. The next day, I hit the bushes with a large bowl in hand and cleaned the bushes. Of course, I took half of the harvest to my friends before heading home to gorge myself on fresh, sweet fruit!

Fresh Apples!

Fresh Apples!

Later that day, while walking the dog, we stopped in on a neighborhood garage sale. One of our alley neighbors saw me and asked if I wanted some apples from her overflowing tree. Each year for the last 3 or 4 she has generously shared her fruit. The next morning, I grabbed the garden cart, a bucket and a ladder to harvest from her tree. First I cleaned up the windfallen fruit from the ground and then I worked on the fruit highest in the tree to save her the effort.

Dried Apple Rings for Winter

Dried Apple Rings for Winter

While I was picking, she came out teasing, “Thief! Thief!” We laughed, and she told me the tree had been planted in (probably) the 1930s. When she moved into the house about 20 years ago, she found just a stump that sent up a single shoot. Fortunately for her, the resulting sprout has turned out to be a tree that produces wonderful fruit. She keeps it organically, so there are worms in some, but the fruit is sweet-tart, making for great eating, baking and drying apples!

Native Huckleberries - Yum!

Native Huckleberries - Yum!

Later, I paid a visit to another neighbor who lives in a landscape containing almost all edible plants. I knew they had no idea that the strange black berries on their evergreen hedge were actually native huckleberries**. When I asked if they’d mind sharing, they were happy to learn about the bushes and to share the fruit. I spent at least an hour painstakingly removing the tiny, ripe berries from the shrubs. They’re a bit seedy and the skins aren’t as soft as their cultivated blueberry cousins, but the fruit is fantastic!

Fall Harvest Bowl

Fall Harvest Bowl

Over the weekend, I continued to pull tomatoes out of the garden, pick corn for pasta salads and pinch back basil to use fresh and to freeze. The harvest is abundant this time of year. I know that soon my fresh options will be much less interesting. Chard, lettuce, kale, evergreen herbs, cabbage, and peas are starting to kick in for the cool weather, so fresh foods will still be available. I’ve started germinating some fava beans to plant in a couple of beds that need their soil rejuvenated…more on that later…But, the big harvest season is on the wane. I intend to enjoy it for all it’s worth!

In addition to drying about 2 dozen apples yesterday, I also made a bisquit-style apple cobbler. I’ve decided that it makes a better breakfast than a dessert…maybe that’s because I was more hungry this morning when I ate it than I was last night. Decide for yourself. Here’s the recipe (adapted from Fanny Farmer Cookbook):

Ingredients:

  • 12 T. Butter, melted
  • 3 cups peeled and sliced fresh apples
  • 1 T. chopped, crystalized ginger
  • dash cinnamon
  • dash salt
  • 2/3 cup raw sugar (I use raw because I like the crunchy texture it imparts)
  • 1/2 cup 1/2 and 1/2 (or milk)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 t. baking powder
Apple Breakfast Bread

Apple Breakfast Bread

Preheat oven to 350F. Pour 4 T butter into deep pie plate and spread to grease the pan. Toss apples and ginger together. Arrange sliced apple/ginger combination in pan. Sprinkle dash of salt, cinnamon and 1/4 cup of sugar over apples.

Pour remaining butter into mixing bowl. Beat in half and half and egg.  Combine remaining dry ingredients in small bowl then beat into wet mixture. Drop in clumps over apples to completely cover.

Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (Check to be sure top doesn’t burn; cover with foil if it gets too brown).

(**Just a quick note: If you don’t know what a plant is, don’t assume you can eat the fruit. There are many evergreen shrubs out there with little black berries this time of year. If you aren’t 100% sure that something is what you think it is, don’t take the risk of poisoning yourself by eating it.)

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Posted in Edible Gardens, Food, Recipes, cookbooks, cooking, garden coach, garden mentor, herbs, seasons, vegetable gardening, vegetable starts | 4 Comments »

Clean Your Plate! There are Starving Children…

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Recently, there’s been a local story about a school district trying to recoop owed lunch money fees by throwing out food. Okay, so that’s over generalizing, but really? Throwing out food to try to get paid? Seems petty and that’s probably part of the reason there’s been such an uproar. Kids are always being told, “Clean your plate; there are starving people in Africa/Asia/America/Russia/you-name-the country.” So, a school tosses out food in front of them to prove a point? I don’t get it, and apparently neither do a lot of other people. The uproar around this practice has lead to some changes in it. Sure, the schools are under-funded and don’t have the funds to feed the world, but can they really afford to try  to teach this lesson by tossing out hot lunches?

Bob With Corn for Dinner

Bob With Corn for Dinner

In a world where people are starving despite the fact, “…all the world’s farms currently produce enough food to make every person on the globe fat.” (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver), I have guilt about what it takes to produce our food. It takes petroleum, and a lot of it to produce, refine, and ship most of the food that is consumed in the United States. So, like many others, I’ve been trying to curtail my consumption of this wallet-cheap-environment-spendy diet.  Here, on our small city lot, we grow some of our food. We buy about 95% of our meats from local ranchers and as much of our other goods as possible from the farmer’s market. I can’t get sugar, tea, flour or coffee locally, and I do stray from time-to-time, buying a mango from Hawaii or can of hearts of palm from Ecuador. But, for the most part I stay local. And, we eat our leftovers. And, we put all the waste we can in our worm bin. When that’s at capacity, we put the remaining waste in a curbside pick up yard waste container. The coffee grinds, egg shells, apple cores and cucumber skins are then converted to composted mulches that are later returned to the earth.  So, when I hear that a school is tossing out hot lunches, I feel pretty defeated. (Probably much like the poor kid who wonders why they didn’t tell him he couldn’t have the lunch before he got to the dumpster.)

Just-picked Sweet Corn Warming for Dinner

Just-picked Sweet Corn Warming for Dinner

So, what do we eat around here? Well, in August we’re blessed with a bounty. This year we have an abundance of herbs, corn and even tomatoes. The corn is flowing in so fast, we’re eating it at almost every meal. Either we eat it, or the rats and squirrels will be fattening up on it soon. I guess that’s something to consider as well, dealing with rodents and other wildlife in an edible city garden. We have the problem every year. Seattle is known as “rat city”. We have a serious problem, but should that deter me from growing my own food? I don’t think so. Rats are everywhere. If farmer’s can work around them, why can’t I? Hmmm…maybe it’s time to get an outdoor cat on the job!

Tomato and Hearts of Palm Salad

Tomato and Hearts of Palm Salad

This year the rats are also foraging for tomatoes. In the past, they haven’t even given them a try, but this year, I’ve been picking more tomatoes green or just with a blush of color. Otherwise, I find them with little nasty nibbles, and those go into the compost. Rats and squirrels carry diseases that I prefer to avoid, thank you very much! We eat tomatoes in many ways. One of my guilty pleasures is tomatoes with hearts of palm salad. I doubt very much that I could grow edible hearts of palm in Seattle, so I do give in and buy a few cans each summer. They’re a special treat for this fantastic, easy recipe that includes local tomatoes and herbs (plus imported olive oil and pepper):

Ingredients:

  • 1 can hearts of palm, sliced
  • Olive oil
  • Fresh ground pepper
  • 3-4 T. chopped fresh parsley
  • 3 T. Torn fresh basil
  • 3-4 large, ripe tomatoes chopped or 2 cups sliced cherry or pear tomatoes (mix whatever you’ve got!)

Put tomatoes and hearts of palm in a medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle with pepper and herbs. Drizzle with about a Tablespoon of olive oil. Toss very gently. Serve.

Clean Your Plate!

Clean Your Plate!

Hungry yet? Well, in addition to eating a lot of local vegetables (and some imported condiments), we do indulge in breads that are made locally from organic materials that are mostly not grown locally. Wheat just isn’t a crop in our area. Last night I made some tasty sandwiches that were sorta local/sorta not. Together with corn-on-the-cob and tomato salad, we had a fabulous meal that left nothing to waste. (Oh, and I should confess that the wine is also an import from Portugal — Broadbent Vino Verde)

Ingredients:

Preheat oven to 400F. Layer all ingredients except lettuce on sliced bread. Close sandwich. Cook in oven for about 15 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted. Remove from oven. Insert lettuce. Enjoy!

Corn-Crazy!

Corn-Crazy!

So, yes, we eat very well. We eat real food, and we eat a lot of local food. We clean our plates. We eat leftovers. We also give in and eat somethings that we just can’t get locally. When Bob came in last night with an armful of corn, he told me that growing corn this year was probably the most satisfying thing he’s grown. I was sort of surprised because he does quite a bit of gardening, but he said it was because in the past it hasn’t been a good crop for us. (And, frankly, there’s a world of guilty-issues related to corn that I’ll discuss some other time.) When he planted it, he really didn’t think anything would come of it. Now he’s able to eat the tastiest corn ever, knowing he planted it, weeded it, watered it and cared for it. No way this corn-crazy guy would let the lunch lady take this food out of his mouth!

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Posted in Edible Gardens, Food, Recipes, and now for something completely different, cooking, herbs, vegetable gardening | 1 Comment »

Sorrel — My New Favorite Leafy Green Herb

Friday, July 25th, 2008

Recently my pre-teen niece came to visit. She’s always been a picky eater, and as she approaches her teen years she’s at least tasting some new things. She never likes the new things, but at least she’s giving into my pleas to, “Come on…just one little bite. You don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it.” Rather than continuing to be frustrated with her phoo-phoo’ing of all the amazing flavors of the culinary world, I’ve started taking a different perspective of her situation.

As a kid I was willing to eat just about anything. That’s probably why I ballooned into a chubby teen when puberty hit. There were a few things I never enjoyed –okra, brussel sprouts, and beets come to mind. So, unlike my niece, I didn’t have much food discovery left to me when I grew up. I’d already experienced so many of the foods out there. And, as a foodie, I crave finding new tastes.

I was thrilled about eight years ago when I tasted a beet that I actually kind of liked. I’d always thought they tasted like sweet dirt, and, well, I guess I still think that. But, my adult pallet now craves that flavor! I’ve even had a few pickled okra in my adult years that don’t totally gross me out. The brussel sprouts, well, as much as those cute little buttery bundles look good, they just don’t work for me. So, sadly, my “to be discovered” list is still quite small.

Yes, I recognize that there are loads of foods around the world I’ve never tried. I’m not about to go dig up grubs in the garden just to see what those taste like, and I try to eat locally, so I’m not going to import a lot of crazy fruit from south america just to make my tongue happy. So, back to my diverse, but pretty regular diet. (Anyone else get sick of their own cooking now & again?)

Last weekend I was visiting our local farmer’s market and stopped at an herb booth. The vendor was offering herbal sodas and herbal teas. I ordered a nettle tea that looked and tasted like swamp water, but I know the stuff is amazing for me, and it was pretty refreshing. She also had a fresh, leafy green for sale on her table.

“What’s this?” I asked.

Turns out it was sorrel. She had me tear a piece off to taste. Wow! What a tangy, lemony plant. Now, its not a “sweet lemon” like lemon grass, lemon balm or lemon verbena. Its more of a “tangy-tart lemon” like the “lemon weed clover” I used to munch on as a kid in northern California. (Sorry folks, don’t know the name of the lemon weed.)

I ended up plunking down $4 for a small bunch of sorrel. She told me that its incredibly easy to grow, and it comes back after being cut to the ground. So, I knew getting a few plants was likely to be my next step. I certainly wasn’t going to pay that kind of price for a vegetable I could grow & likely couldn’t kill.

Sorrel is a member of the Rumex genus. If you’re familiar with Dock weed, you’ll quickly realize why she said cutting the plant to the ground won’t kill it. These suckers are tough! It’s important to tip out flowers to keep the sorrel from bolting and going to seed. And, leaves can be harvested, as needed throughout the season.

Today, I spent $3.49 on a 4″ pot containing 3 sorrel plants. The Herbfarm Cookbook indicates that 3 plants are sufficient for the average kitchen. Now I just need to find the right spot for them in my garden.

If you’re wondering what I did with the cut sorrel I bought at the farmer’s market, well I experimented. I tore up a few leaves into green salad and enjoyed the raw tanginess. I sauted several and cooked them into a tart with gruyere cheese, carmelized Walla-Walla spring onions, and fresh morel mushrooms. And, I used the last bit tossed with new potatoes roasted in foil on the grill. All were amazing!

If you haven’t enjoyed sorrel, consider grabbing a bunch at your farmer’s market. And, if you’ve got a picky eater at home, rather than get upset at what they’re missing, be envious of all the great opportunities coming to their tongue in the future!

And, if you’re just getting into gardening with herbs, read more about them in my earlier post, Herbs in the Garden — Some Thoughts.

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