Wildcrafting Ramps & Fiddleheads

I recently had the opportunity to attend a talk by Philip Ackerman-Leist where he discussed his book Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems.   During his lecture, Ackerman-Leist spoke about the critical components and challenges of creating strong local food systems.  One of the interesting things he mentioned in his lecture was the importance of utilizing the food that is already at our feet.  This practice is known as wildcrafting and is defined as the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, wild habitat either for medicinal use or for food.  A few years ago, my friend Ali led me on a few walks to show me the ins and outs of wildcrafting in my region.  Ali is a physical therapist and also a certified herbalist who utilizes wildcrafted plants to make medicinal salves and tinctures and also harvests them for food.  She taught me where to look for certain common plants and how to harvest them sustainably.  Today, I will focus on two of my favorite plants that Ali taught me to find for food:   ramps (also known as wild leeks) and fiddleheads.  Restaurants and specialty grocers where I live will pay upwards of $10 a pound for these spring vegetables, as they are seen as something of a delicacy.  I don't intend to sell any that I collect, and be aware that it may be illegal to sell them in some places.  But, I will share how to find them, how to sustainably harvest them, and how to prepare them.

Fiddleheads are the young, furled fronds of the ostrich fern, matteuccia struthiopteris,  as they first emerge from the ground.  Once they unfurl they become beautiful full-length fern fronds and are no longer edible, so they must be harvested and eaten when they are still curled up like little pinwheels.  Fiddleheads can be found in damp woodland areas of Central and Eastern North America in early spring before the leaves fill out on the trees that tower overhead.  Search near streams, brooks, rivers, or vernal ponds.  Because the trees in forested areas are still bare in early spring, there is still plenty of light reaching the forest floor allowing the tiny ferns to sprout.   Ostrich ferns can be identified by the clusters of 3-12 shoots on each plant, the smooth stems, and the u-shaped curve on the inside of the stem.  They are high in antioxidants, omega-3, omega-6, iron and fiber.  When locating and harvesting, tread lightly so as to disrupt as little of the natural vegetation as possible.  Harvest only one or two fiddleheads from each fern so that the remaining fronds can reach maturity and reproduce.   Harvest from a wide area, moving often, rather than in a very concentrated zone.  That way, you can be sure that there will be fiddleheads to harvest for years to come.  

Snip each fiddlehead with shears an inch or so from the ground then soak them in water until the little brown, papery shavings come loose from the ferns.  Rinse them well to remove any other dirt or debris.  Do not consume fiddleheads raw.  They should be boiled or steamed for 10-15 minutes and can be prepared several different ways.  My favorite dish I have made with them is a fiddlehead orzo salad.  First, I boiled the fiddleheads in salted water for 10 minutes, then I plunged them into ice water to stop the cooking.  I boiled orzo pasta in a separate pot of salted water, drained, and rinsed it.  Then, toss the fiddleheads, pasta, some halved grape tomatoes, chopped fresh chives, a generous squeeze of lemon, olive oil, salt & pepper.  Chill and serve for a delicious, healthy spring salad.

Ramps, allium tricoccum, are wild leeks that can be found in the same wet, densely wooded areas where fiddleheads are found through central and eastern US and Canada.  They grow in dense clusters in marshy areas and around rivers, streams, and brooks.  They thrive in early spring when the leaves of the forest canopy are thin, allowing light to pass through to the forest floor.  They can be identified by their broad, smooth, green leaves and purple lower stems.  Their taste can be described as a mix between a green onion and garlic.  When harvesting ramps, follow similar rules as you would follow with fiddleheads:  tread lightly, never harvest any more than 5% of any one clump and harvest from the center of each clump rather than from the outskirts.  The ramps can repopulate an area in the center of a clump easier than they can from the outer edges.  When harvesting, you will need a small, sharp spade so that you can dig underneath and harvest the ramp roots and all.  They are well-rooted, so attempting to pull them out of the ground results in tearing the leaves off,  leaving the onion in the ground.  Be mindful of other plants growing among the ramps and don't unnecessarily disturb any of them.  A great example of this sort of thing happened on Sunday when I was harvesting ramps from one of my favorite spots.  Growing among the ramps was flowering trillium, a plant that is listed as threatened or endangered in many places.  Picking or otherwise disturbing them is illegal without a special permit in some states. 

Trillium in the Ramps

Once I harvest the ramps,  I like to place them in a bucket and soak them in water to remove the loose dirt.  Then, I place them on a screen or in a plant tray and hose them down well.  Next, I remove the roots and the outer skins of each ramp and rinse them again in clean, cold water.  Now they are ready to be bagged and stored in the fridge for any meal where you might otherwise use onions, scallions, or leeks.  Because I like ramps so much and they are only available for a few weeks each year, I like to preserve some of them by pickling them.  I use a pickled ramp recipe that comes from a cookbook called Cooking With Shelburne Farms:  Food and Stories From Vermont.  


Shelburne Farms Pickled Ramps

20 small ramps, roots removed and trimmed to 1" of greens
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar (I usually omit this)
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp whole fennel seeds
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
1 bay leaf

Prepare a large bowl of ice water.  Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat, add the ramps, and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain immediately and plunge the ramps into ice water to stop cooking.  In a medium pot, bring the cider vinegar, honey, sugar, red pepper, peppercorns, fennel, coriander, and the bay leaf to a simmer, then remove from heat.  Put the drained ramps into a clean pint jar.  Pour the hot pickling liquid into the jar and allow to cool uncovered.  Then, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.  These pickled ramps will stay good in the refrigerator for at least a month.  The cookbook recommends serving these in salads with beets and goat cheese, with charcuterie, or as an unexpected touch to a cheese plate.  I like to eat them straight from the jar.

Another way I really like to use ramps is in a pesto.  Pesto is really versatile and can be spread onto toast, used as a base for a homemade pizza, or tossed with pasta for a quick dinner.  I found this particular recipe in the produce section of my co-op and I'm unsure of its original origin.  I used a really great olive oil sent by my friend Sara that was grown and pressed by her neighbors in Winters, CA and I made a few minor substitutions to the ramp recipe.

Ramp Pesto

1/2 cup ramps, roots removed, leaves and bulbs roughly chopped

1/2 cup basil (or any fresh herbs you have on hand.  I used cilantro)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (I used toasted pecans)
1/4 cup parmesan reggiano, grated
salt & pepper

Combine all in a food processor and blend.  I used this most recent batch in a pasta dish by coating a chicken breast in some of the pesto and then baking it.  Meanwhile, I boiled whole wheat angel hair spaghettini, drained it, then tossed it with the shredded cooked chicken, the rest of the pesto, and a few finely chopped sundried tomatoes.  

Starting Seeds

"Food is the first wealth.  Grow it right and you feel insanely rich, no matter what you own."
                                                                       -Kristin Kimball in The Dirty Life
       

Garlic

Spring has finally sprung in my corner of the world.  The snow has melted away, the crocuses are blooming, and the peeper frogs are peeping their hearts out.  The garlic that I planted last fall has begun to send green shoots out of the straw that blanketed them through the winter and the rest of the garden beds lie waiting for new life.  Three weeks ago, I combed through the seed catalog from High Mowing Seed Company in Wolcott, Vermont and tried to restrain myself.  With over 650 varieties of organic seeds, I was tempted to order way more seed than my little garden plot could sustain.  To keep from getting carried away I chose fruits and vegetables that I knew we liked to eat;  chose varieties that would grow well in our unique growing conditions; and chose some that we could eat at harvest time and others that we could freeze, can, or otherwise preserve for later.  A few days later, when the seeds arrived, I divided them into three stacks:  seeds that were cold-hardy with instructions to plant directly in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked, seeds that do best when started in seed cups and transplanted after all danger of frost has past, and a pile for the seeds that are best planted directly in the ground after all danger of frost has passed.

I began with the stack of seeds that like to be started in seed cups.  This included four varieties of tomato, Clemson Spineless okra, Early jalapenos, Honey Nut butternut squash, Primax cabbage, Belstar broccoli, Pickling cucumbers, Tomatillos, King Of The North bell peppers, Caribe cilantro, Genovese basil, and Italian Flat Leaf parsley.  Most of them suggest somewhere between 4-8 weeks of growth time before transplanting.  In this region, the magic date when the frost danger has passed comes on Memorial Day weekend.  That gives me about 8 weeks from my planting date to get them sprouted and strong with the help of some indoor grow lights and some outdoor miniature greenhouses.  I picked up a bag of potting mix from Vermont Compost Company and pulled my planting cups and trays out of storage.  I save the planting cups and trays any time I purchase seedlings since they can be stacked together and stored easily.  If you don't have any on hand, you can use egg cartons, empty yogurt containers, or any other reusable containers.  Just remember to poke a few holes in the bottom for drainage.  You can even find instructional videos on you tube that show how to make them from newspaper.  I like to pour all of the potting mix into a bucket, pre-moisten it, then fill each seed cup with the mix, compacting it lightly.

The seed packet will give instructions on how deep to plant the seed and I generally like to plant two seeds in each cup.  If both sprout, I pinch off the one that looks the weakest.  Once all the seeds are planted and labeled, I placed them under an indoor grow light.  These indoor growing set ups can often be expensive, but I found this one in a Gardner's Supply outlet and someone had returned it without packaging or instructions, so I was able to get it at a very reasonable price.  It has a metal frame and a tray below the frame that holds the seeds.  The full-spectrum fluorescent light fixture hangs from the frame on adjustable cables that allow the light to be raised and lowered as the plants grow.  These bulbs don't produce too much heat and use very little electricity.  The ideal temperature for seed germination is between 65-75 F and they like to have at least 10 hours a day of direct light.  It is also very important to keep your seeds moist, but not to over-water.  I like to use a spray bottle so that I won't over-water and the gentile mist doesn't disturb the fragile seedlings.  Before I had an indoor grow light to get my seedlings through the first few cold weeks, I kept the seeds in a sunny window.  I found this method satisfactory except that the plants did tend to become leggy and if I didn't rotate the trays frequently, the ones that weren't directly against the window would lean and bend toward the light.  If you are lucky enough to live in a region where there isn't snow on the ground in April, you can skip this step all together.

seedlings under the grow light

mini greenhouse holding last year's seedlings

Once outdoor temperatures warm up into the 40's and 50's,  I take the seedlings outside and place them in my miniature green houses.  These handy little hot houses were a given to me as a going-away gift from my former co-workers and on a recent 45 degree day, the thermometer inside the greenhouse read 80 degrees.  Each one has three tiered shelves and each shelf can hold two full trays of seeds.  The frame is covered with a clear plastic cover that can zip fully closed for maximum heat, or can be left open and tied back to allow ventilation on warmer days.  Before I had these, I made a cold frame out of old windows.  I posted a want ad to my local group on freecycle.org for four windows and someone who lived nearby responded that they had four to give away, so I picked them up, screwed them together into a cube shape, and made a floating shelf that hung from wire from the top edges so that I could put two trays of seeds inside.  There are lots of DIY instructional videos available on the web that give lots of ideas for making your own cold frame and if you utilize resources like freecycle, you can make one at little or no expense.  Whether using a cold frame or a greenhouse, make sure to install a good thermometer so that you can keep an eye on the temperatures. I have cooked entire trays of seeds by failing to monitor temperatures and failing to vent the greenhouse or cold frame when the mid-day heat was at it's peak.

this season's seedlings in the mini greenhouse

Once that stack of seeds was planted, I moved on to the stack of seeds that are cold-hardy with instructions to plant as soon as the soil can be worked.  These included six different varieties of lettuce, Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, Cherrybelle radishes, Megaton leeks, and Conservator shallots.  I began by preparing the soil in each garden bed.  A tiller is on my wish list, but since I don't have one yet, I tilled the soil by hand with a shovel.  Next, I added a 5-gallon bucket of our compost to each bed and turned it into the soil.  I then raked the soil level, staked and labeled my rows, and planted the seeds according the recommended depth and spacing indicated on each packet.  Finally, I mulched each row with straw that came from the chicken's winter bedding.  They got fresh straw bedding for spring, and their old bedding makes a great blanket and weed deterrent for my new seedlings.

newly planted rows with straw mulch

The third stack of seeds will have to wait until Memorial Day.  Meanwhile, most of my seedlings have sprouted and will need adequate light, water, and warmth over the next few weeks.  I always plant a few more than I will actually need because I inevitably lose a few.  If I get lucky and they all survive, then I have a few extra seedlings to share with friends.  It would probably be easier to buy all of my seedlings from someone with a greenhouse and a greener thumb than mine, but it is certainly less expensive to do it this way and I never tire of the miracle that is a seed.  It never ceases to amaze me that I can plant a little tiny seed in a plot of dirt and fast forward a few months to a basket full of fresh vegetables.  To borrow another line from Kristin Kimball, it is as simple as this:  dirt plus water plus sun plus sweat equals food.  There are few things I find more satisfying.

Adventures of a Wannabe Fermento

About 10 weeks ago, I embarked on a culinary adventure in fermentation.  It began when I received a ceramic fermenting crock and a book by Sandor Ellix Katz titled The Art of Fermentation from my Aunt Janet.  The book is a masterpiece that is not so much a cookbook as it is an instructional manual, anthropological refresher, microbiological refresher, and cultural manifesto.  Katz explains what fermentation is, how it pertains to us culturally, how it has evolved as a method of food preservation throughout history, outlines the many health benefits of consuming fermented foods and gives instructions on how to ferment everything under the sun.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  At the mere mention of the word fermentation, most people picture that green stuff that grows on your leftovers when you leave them in the fridge too long.  We have a great fear in our culture of aging food outside of refrigeration and most view the concept of leaving food outside of refrigeration to encourage bacterial growth as a dangerous threat to health.  But, as Katz points out, nearly one-third of all food eaten by human beings worldwide is fermented.  Things like pickles, bread, cheese, yogurt, kefir, tempeh, sour cream, salami, vinegar, soy sauce, condiments, chocolate, coffee, beer, and wine are all examples of common fermented foods.  Most of the processes by which we make these products are ancient rituals that humans have been performing since the dawn of history, but because in our times these processes are largely relegated to large scale factory food production, we have become so disconnected from the process that we fear it.

Fermentation in this context is defined as the anaerobic transformation of food by various bacteria, fungi, and the enzymes they produce.  Fermentation is inextricably linked to culture, both in the literal sense of the starters we add to the crock to initiate fermentation, and in the broader sense in terms of our culture as humans.  The word culture comes from a Latin word that means "to cultivate" and our cultivation of the land and its plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria are essential to human culture.   In our bodies, bacteria outnumber cells by more than 10 to1 and the majority of these bacteria are found in our intestines.  They allow us to digest and break down nutrients more efficiently, they regulate the balance between energy use and storage, they produce necessary nutrients for us like B and K vitamins, modulate expression of some of our genes, bind with and remove a variety of toxic compounds in foods, and provide us with much of our immunity since many of our immune cells reside in the linings of the gut.  Consuming fermented foods, particularly those containing live bacterial cultures, helps to keep the bacterial populations in our intestines healthy, which allows us to maximize the benefits to our health.

Foods and beverages fermented by lactic acid bacteria and then consumed without further cooking have profound healing aspects.  Living lactic acid bacteria has always been present in food, but is particularly important now due to the multitude of chemicals present in our lives.  Antibiotics prescribed to fight illness wage a war on our intestinal bacteria because they kill a broad spectrum of bacteria rather than targeting a specific problematic bacterial strain.  This is why a doctor will often recommend taking a probiotic in conjunction with an antibiotic.  Even without taking antibiotics, we are exposed to them and also to chlorine and antibacterial cleaning agents through our water supply.  According to Katz, the problem with killing 99.9 percent of bacteria is that most of them protect us from the few that make us sick.  This exposure leaves our intestinal flora diminished and unbalanced, making us more susceptible to infection and disease.  The key to reestablishing and rebuilding healthy levels of bacteria can come in the form of a probiotic supplement, or in the form of fermented foods containing live active cultures.

Probiotic therapy has been found to have a documented and quantifiable measure of success in treating and preventing diseases of the digestive tract such as IBS, inflammatory bowel syndrome, diarrhea, constipation, and even colon cancer.  They have been shown to reduce incidence and duration of common colds and upper respiratory illnesses, and have been shown to improve outcomes and prevent infections in critically ill intensive care patients.  They improve liver function in cirrhosis patients and they increase CD4 cell counts in patients with HIV.  They reduce blood pressure and anxiety.  They can reduce dental caries in children, treat periodontal disease, treat allergies, urinary tract infections, prevent kidney stones, and prevent various types of cancers.  There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that consuming a diet rich in live cultures along with fatty acids and devoid of artificial ingredients, trans-fats, sugar, gluten, or casein can improve the symptoms of autism.  According to  a review in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, probiotics like those present in fermented foods, may prove to be one of our most effective tools against new and emerging pathogens that continue to defy modern medicine in the 21st century.  Still yukked out by the idea of consuming fermented foods?  Not me.  I'm sold.

So next the challenge was to decide what to ferment first.  The possibilities are nearly endless.  There are instructions in the book for fermenting fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, seeds, nuts, meat, cheese, fish, and instructions for making yogurt, kefir, butter, buttermilk, wine, hard cider, or mead.  My head was spinning with the possibilities.  My Grandpa Millard has been making sauerkraut all his life and I have a really clear memory of having some of his sauerkraut on a hot dog when I visited him in Logan, Utah as a kid.  It is one of those memories that is so oddly specific that it seems my brain somehow knew that it would someday have some relevance.  So then it was decided, my first ferment would be sauerkraut.  Sauerkraut is the product of a wild fermentation, meaning that the fermentation is based on organisms that are already present on the food.  If you are fermenting grapes, yeast will initiate the fermentation, and in the case of milk or vegetables, the fermentation will be carried out by lactic acid bacteria.  This is also referred to as a lacto-fermentation.  Wild fermentation does not require the use of a starter culture, which introduces specific isolated organisms or established communities of organisms to the substrate.   By contrast, making yogurt or sourdough bread does require the use of a specific starter culture.  I picked up 2 large heads of cabbage grown by Blackwell Roots of Cabot, VT, some non-iodized Kosher salt, some fennel, and a few juniper berries and began my first fermentation experiment.

I washed the cabbage in non-chlorinated water then finely shredded it, saving some of the larger outer leaves whole. Then I began packing the shredded cabbage into the crock along with about 2 Tbsp non-iodized pickling or Kosher salt, 1 Tbsp fennel, and 1 Tbsp juniper berries mixing, bruising, and crushing it with my hands as I added each layer.  It is important to pack it down as tightly as possible, pushing the air out.  I then placed the large intact leaves of cabbage over the top of the shredded cabbage and added enough non-chlorinated water to the crock to cover it all.  It is important that the water be non-chlorinated and the salt non-iodized since both will slow, change, or inhibit bacterial growth.  Finally, I placed the weights on top to keep it submerged and gave it one final push down to remove any excess air bubbles, sinking the weights below the water line.

I placed the top on the crock and added water to the gutter surrounding the lid to create an air-tight seal.  This water level will need to be monitored and refilled throughout the fermentation process.  If you don't have a fermentation crock, then you can use any large, non-reactive container.  For the seal, place a bag filled with water on top of the cabbage in your container, ensuring that the sides of the bag are making good contact with the rim of the container.   By excluding air, you can encourage the growth of the lactic acid bacteria while discouraging growth of undesirable mold or yeast.  When sealed this way, the ferment gurgles and burps for several weeks.  I particularly enjoyed this phase of the fermentation.  There is something fun about having a gurgling, burping jar of liveliness on your counter top.  It was a bit like having another pet in the house.  The exclusion of air is not necessary, however.  Many fermentos do not aim for an airtight seal and instead just scrape the top layer of the ferment off the top, discard it, and consume the rest.  My Grandpa does it that way. 

The final step is the longest and requires some patience.  The ideal fermentation temperature ranges between 50 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  Generally, the warmer it is, the faster your fermentation process will be.  Salt also influences fermentation speed, so the saltier it is, the slower it ferments.  The length of time that you choose to allow your substrate to ferment is largely depended on personal taste.  Some prefer the mild flavor and crunchy texture of a shorter, more mild ferment while others like a more mature, longer-aged version.  Some view it in a strictly utilitarian way based on the optimal number of bacteria present.  The concentration of lactic acid bacteria present typically follows a bell curve building to a peak, then declining at high levels of acidity.    Katz recommends sampling the ferment at various stages of the process and judging it to be ready based on your own personal tastes.  I sampled mine at 4 weeks, then again at 6 weeks, but found the flavor and texture to be perfect between 8 and 9 weeks.  At this point you can either pull it all out of the crock, transfer it to jars, and store it in the fridge or just take out of the crock a jarful at a time, leaving the rest in the crock to continue fermenting. 

Feast of St. Patrick & a birthday cake

Celebration was the theme at our house this past weekend.  I celebrated a birthday on Saturday and baked my favorite cake to commemorate- a buttermilk cake with lemon cream cheese frosting and blueberries.   Then on Sunday, because I enjoy celebrating food traditions, I prepared a traditional St. Patrick's Day feast.  Today I will share with you the recipes for both.

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and the holiday originally known as the Feast of St. Patrick was first celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the 9th century.  In the early 1600s, it became recognized as a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland and in 1903, it became an official public holiday in Ireland.  St. Patrick's Day falls during the Christian season of Lent and Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat and alcohol were waived and people would dance, drink and feast.  The traditional meal was Irish bacon and cabbage, but around the turn of the century, Irish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side substituted corned beef as a less expensive and more widely available option.  Thus, the American celebration of St. Patrick's Day typically consists of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and, of course, a pint or two of Guiness. 

I chose to make our Feast of St. Patrick in a pressure cooker that my Uncle Tom sent to me.  The pressure cooker is great for making one-pot meals, cooks dried beans in a snap (even without pre-soaking!), and doubles as an excellent rice cooker.  It is similar to a crock pot, except that instead of slow cooking foods, it cooks them quite rapidly to juicy, tender perfection.  I get a lot of use out of mine.  The handbook that came with my pressure cooker included a recipe for corned beef & cabbage, which I used as my framework for this meal.  No pressure cooker?  No problem.  You can make this same meal in a dutch oven or in a crock pot.  You will just need to adjust the cooking times accordingly.

Corned Beef & Cabbage with Potatoes & Carrots:

3 lbs Corned Beef Brisket
12 oz Guiness
1 med onion, halved
1 shallot, halved
3 whole cloves garlic
2 cups of water or beef stock
4 medium red potatoes, halved
1 large head of cabbage, cut into 8 wedges
1 cup carrots, peeled and halved
Whole grain Dijon mustard

Trim any excess fat from the corned beef and if the seasoning packet is separate, open it and rub the brisket with the seasonings.  The brisket I selected comes from Lou's Garrett Valley Naturals and came pre-seasoned in a brine made of water, sea salt, unrefined sugar, beet powder, garlic powder, bay leaves, mustard seed, and allspice.   Place the brisket in the pot, then add the beer, onion, shallot, garlic, and the water or stock.  Then, lock the pressure cooker lid, select the meat setting, and cook for 60 minutes.  Release the pressure, open the cooker, and add the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage.  The carrots I used came from Elmer Farm in East Middlebury, VT and the cabbage is from Blackwell Roots in Cabot, VT.  Re-lock the lid, select the vegetable function, and cook 10 minutes.  Serve with a bit of Dijon mustard for the meat.

And now, for the birthday cake!  I chose this cake because it is my absolute favorite.  The buttermilk cake is super moist and the tart lemon cream cheese frosting tastes so great with some of our blueberries that we grew and froze last summer.  In addition to using our own blueberries, I also used our eggs, cream cheese from Green Mountain Farms, buttermilk from Animal Farm and flour from Nitty Gritty Grain Co.   This cake is really easy to make and can be paired with lots of other fruit toppings depending on what's in season or stocked in your freezer.

Buttermilk Cake:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.  If using frozen fruit, remove it from the freezer and set aside to defrost.  Grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan, unless you are using a silicone pan.  In a mixer with a paddle attachment, mix the softened butter and sugar until they are creamy.  Add the eggs, then the vanilla, then the buttermilk.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.  If you don't have cake flour, you can use all-purpose flour and substitute 2 Tbsp of it for 2 Tbsp of cornstarch.  Sift the flour mixture once or twice.  Turn the mixer on medium and add the flour mix in several batches until combined.  Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Transfer the cake to a rack and allow it to cool before frosting.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Mix all but the sugar in a mixer with the paddle attachment.  Blend well.  Sift the confectioners sugar and then add to the mixer in two batches.  Blend until smooth.  Spread over the cooled cake.

To prepare the blueberries, I defrosted them, then squeezed a little lemon juice on them and sprinkled them with a little bit of sugar.  Stir, then put a spoon full on top of each piece of cake as you serve it. 

What is a Co-op, anyway?

If you read my posts regularly, you may have noticed a few mentions of my local co-op.  And, if you're curious like I was when I first heard mention of a co-op, you may be wondering what exactly it means to be a part of one.  The United Nations named 2012 the year of the co-op and the latest issue of Yes! Magazine features a cover story about how cooperatives are driving the new economy.  Publications like the Business Insider and Triple Pundit also feature articles on cooperatives.  So what exactly are they and why are they so important?

Here is what I know of co-ops so far:  They can be small like the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op where I work and shop.   Or they can be Fortune 500 companies, like Land O Lakes and Sunkist.  They can be credit unions, art galleries, insurance agencies, even sports teams (did you know that the Green Bay Packers are a co-op?!).  All together the 30,000 cooperatives in the United States make up a $500 billion dollar industry, employ more than 2 million people, and have around 130 million members.  More Americans have membership in a co-op than hold shares in the stock market.  Globally, there are a billion co-op members with more than $2 trillion in revenue.  If these enterprises were a nation, their economy would be the ninth largest on earth.   What they all have in common is the fundamental idea that co-ops, just like people, can get more done together than anyone can do alone.

Here are a handful of other things that all co-ops have in common:  they are owned by their members in equal shares; their ownership is democratic, meaning that the members elect a board of directors to shape the priorities and direction of the co-op and the members vote on issues pertinent to achieving those priorities; they build healthy local economies; and they exist to meet the needs of their members.  Yes! magazine cites some fascinating statistics from a study titled Healthy Foods, Healthy Communities which point out that for every $1000 spent at a local food co-op, $1606 in economic activity is generated in their local food economy.  That means that 17% more money stays in the community than if that same $1000 was spent at a conventional grocery store.  There are also more jobs created for every million in sales with food co-ops adding jobs at a rate of 9.3% per million and conventional grocers at 5.8%.  Food co-ops on average source 20% of their products from local vendors compared with 6% for conventional grocers.  This means more money going directly to small, local family farms who are then able to stay afloat in the sea of Big Ag and continue to nourish their communities.

The local farmers who supply food to the MNFC are featured in photos in the produce, cheese & dairy departments.

Original building of the Rochedale Society of Equitable Pioneers

The cooperative business model is not new.  The first modern, consumer-owned co-op began in the 1840's when a group of cotton and wool workers in the depressed industrial town of Rochdale, England, decided that they were tired of being cheated by dishonest shopkeepers who would use rigged scales to sell flour mixed with plaster, used tea leaves that were dried and passed off as new, and rancid butter disguised under a thin layer of fresh butter.  They banded together to form the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers and sold quality foods at fair prices with any profits distributed back to the members based on their use of the store.  This is where cooperatives really stand out among their big-business peers:  they are profit-making, but not profit-driven.  They are driven, instead, by a desire to meet the needs of their members and the needs of their communities first and foremost.  And not just in the sense of economic health, but also in the areas of education and civic engagement.


The Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op was founded in the early 1970's by a group of families who wanted access to healthy, natural foods at reasonable prices.  They operated first as a buying club, purchasing items at wholesale price and in bulk scale, then meeting at a different members home each time to split up the order among the group.  The buying club grew, and began having surpluses after dividing the items.  They also needed more space for storage and packaging, so they purchased a small store front in the Middlebury train depot and scheduled volunteers to run the store.  The store continued to grow with pre-ordering and retail store functioning side-by-side, and eventually elected a board of directors in 1976.  Fast forward to 2013, and the store is now in a beautiful new building with 3600 members and 60 employees.  The focus remains on providing healthy, natural foods to members of the community (based on a voted-upon buying criteria); stimulating a vibrant local economy; operating under democratic, cooperative ownership; and operating with environmentally sustainable and energy efficient practices.

Additionally, the MNFC puts strong emphasis on community education by sponsoring classes on budget shopping, food preservation, cooking basics, and other topics in partnership with the Hannaford Career Center.  Last week, we co-hosted a GMO labeling forum with the Northeast Organic Farming Association at the local American Legion. We often give tours to middle and high school groups, senior groups, and  college students who are studying local food systems.  In a few weeks, I will give a tour to a group of young parents who are interested in learning how to shop for healthy foods on a tight budget.  I'm particularly enthusiastic about that upcoming tour because I love debunking the myth that shopping for healthy, whole foods needs to be expensive.  I also like to let community members know that you don't have to be a member of the co-op to shop there, but membership does come with a discount at the store and at other local business in town.  Plus, membership brings monthly member coupons, an informative and educational monthly member newsletter, and the opportunity to vote and have a voice on issues that matter to me as a co-op member.  Board meetings are open to all members and members are encouraged to attend and participate. 

Another thing I find really interesting and appealing about my co-op is their strong emphasis on local products.  Many of the small farmers and food producers still deliver their goods themselves, and it gives members and customers a chance to meet them and ask about their products, processes, challenges, and experiences as a small food producer.  There is something special about meeting the people who grow and make your food, and you begin to feel a distinct connection between their success as a farmer/producer and your role as a consumer.  You begin rooting for them to succeed because you see how hard they work and you like what they bring to your dinner table.

I also love the fact that my co-op donated over 7000 pounds of food to our local food shelf last year, we compost much of the food waste that can't be donated to the food shelf, and many of our farmers and producers reuse the cardboard boxes and other containers they ship and package food in.  Things like maple syrup buckets, honey buckets, nut butter buckets, egg cartons, and glass milk containers are reused over and over again.  Food co-ops in general recycle 81% of their plastics, compared with only 29% at conventional food stores.  Reusing and recycling means a lot less food and materials are going to waste.

Vermont Cheeses

The MNFC represents just one example of a co-op and how it can impact a community.  You may not have a food co-op in your area, but you may have a credit union, an artists cooperative, a farmers cooperative, or an insurance co-op.  You may also have the opportunity to purchase items from cooperatives at conventional stores.  Cabot Cheese, Florida's Natural Orange Juice, Blue Diamond nuts, Bob's Red Mill flours, Ocean Spray, and REI Outfitters are all cooperatives.  I hope that we can all embrace the idea of a business model that puts people before profits.  I hope after reading more about what makes a cooperative tick and what it means to the community to have a healthy, thriving co-op, that you might seek them out in your area and give their products and services a try.  They are the future of our economy, after all!

Dinner & dessert for your Valentine

Want to wow your Valentine with a romantic dinner at home?  That is what I set out to do last weekend, since on the actual Valentine's day (Thursday) I've got to work all day, then head straight to a 3-hour class, which leaves me home around 9:30 or 10.  Not exactly a recipe for a romantic evening, right?  So we celebrated a little early at our house and enjoyed a really delicious meal together in the quiet of our own home and without the hefty tab at the end of the meal that we would have to pay to have something similar prepared for us at a restaurant.

This particular meal is not difficult to make, nor does it take long to prepare, but the meal will be so delicious, it will seem that you must have spent hours on it.  Also, for my gluten-intolerant and Celiac friends- this meal is gluten-free.  It also means no post-meal bloat for the rest of us, 'cause nobody wants to feel bloated on Valentine's Day.  So with Florence & The Machine wailing over the speakers and a glass of wine in hand, I set out to prepare a special meal for my Valentine.  The menu includes:

Rosemary Lamb Chops in a Shallot Balsamic Reduction
Almond Green Beans
Volcano Rice
Mini Molten Lava Cakes

For the Chops:

4 lamb loin chops
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp salt
fresh-ground black pepper
2 Tbsp sunflower oil (or any high-heat cooking oil)
1/2 C minced shallots
1 clove minced garlic
1/3 C aged balsamic vinegar
3/4 C water or broth
1 Tbsp butter

The chops I'm using today come from a small, family-run farm in Lincoln, VT called Meetinghouse Farm.  Ruth Shepherd at Meetinghouse Farm has been raising and finishing organic lambs on pasture since 1986 and in her free time she teaches other farmers how to do so through Master Shepherd Courses sponsored by the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association.

Combine the rosemary, salt, and several generous cranks of fresh-ground black pepper.  Rub this spice mixture into each of the chops and set them aside.  Mince the shallots and garlic.  Heat the oil in a large cast-iron skillet over high heat.  Once oil is hot, place the chops in the hot skillet and reduce heat to medium-high.  Cook for 4 minutes, flip, and cook 4 more minutes without otherwise disturbing them.  This will leave 3/4 inch chop medium-rare.  If you wish to have it more well done, add a minute or two to each side.  Remove the chops from the pan, set aside, and cover to keep warm.

In the skillet with the pan juices, add the shallots and cook a few minutes over medium-high heat until they just begin to turn brown.  Add the garlic and cook an additional minute, then add the balsamic vinegar.   Scrape the browned bits of lamb from the bottom of the pan and then add the broth or water.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally,  until the liquid reduces by at least half and becomes the desired consistency for your sauce.  Remove from heat and add the butter.  Place two of the chops on each plate and pour the sauce over top.

For the Almond Green Beans:

2 servings of green beans
2 cups water
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sliced almonds, toasted
salt & pepper

I used a package of our home-grown rattlesnake pole beans from the freezer, defrosted them, and brought 2 cups of water to a light boil in a medium saucepan.  Add the green beans, and some salt & pepper and simmer 2 or 3 minutes over medium heat.  If using fresh green beans, cook a bit longer until desired tenderness is reached.  Drain the water, add the butter, almonds, and another pinch of salt & pepper.  Toss, gently and serve.

For the Volcano Rice:

2 C rice
4 C water
2 tsp olive oil
salt & pepper

I chose Volcano rice because I love the flavor and love how packed it is with minerals and antioxidants.  It is very rich in magnesium, manganese, and zinc due to the volcanic soils where it is raised by a cooperative of family farmers in Indonesia using the SRI method.  This method of rice production uses less water, less seed, less land, and no chemicals.  Plus, the name of the rice made it seem fitting for a hot Valentine's day meal.  Rinse the rice and cook in a 2:1 ratio with water on the stove or per the directions of your rice cooker.  Fluff when done and add a bit of salt & pepper to taste.

For the Mini Molten Lava Cakes:
 
3/4 C sugar
plus a little for coating ramekins
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 C dark chocolate
5 tbsp butter
plus a little extra for coating ramekins

In a double boiler (or a large bowl set over a pot of simmering water) gently melt the chocolate and the butter.  Remove from heat.  Mix the cornstarch and the sugar.  Beat the 2 eggs and the 2 egg yolks.  Pour the eggs and the cornstarch sugar mixture into the warm chocolate.  Gently combine, but don't over mix.  Chill.  While batter is chilling, rub butter into each ramekin to coat the bottom and sides, then coat with sugar.  This recipe will fill 2 large ramekins, or 4 small ones.  Place the ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and fill the bottom of the pan with 1/2 inch of warm water.  Pour batter into each ramekin until each is 3/4 full.  Bake at 325 F for about an hour.  They should rise up out of the ramekins a bit when done, then they will settle and cave in as they cool.  The centers of the cakes should remain gooey like lava, with the outsides completely done.  Serve with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or a dusting of powdered sugar, if desired.   

 


So pour the wine, light the candles, put on Marvin Gaye's greatest hits, and prepare for sparks to fly!  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Super Bowl Red Beans & Rice with Buttermilk Bread

According to sports reporter Darren Rovell, 440 gallons of red beans and rice were prepared at the Superdome in New Olreans, Louisiana for the Super Bowl today.  I decided to make a gallon of my own here in Vermont to eat while we watched the game.  Red beans & rice is a staple dish of Louisiana Creole cuisine and historically was  prepared on Mondays, since Mondays were also the traditional laundry day and, therefore, were good days for slow simmering a pot of beans.  Ham was the customary Sunday meal, which meant that there were ham bones left over on Monday for the pot of beans.  I don't have a ham bone, but I do have some delicious Daily Grind pork sausage from Vermont Salumi seasoned with Lincoln Peak Marquette wine and garlic.   For the beans I chose to use 1 1/2 cups of traditional dried red kidney beans plus 1 1/2 cups of Jacobs Cattle Beans.  The latter are heirloom beans grown in Maine which are similar to kidney beans.  I soaked the beans overnight, then slow cooked them this afternoon while listening to some of my favorite New Orleans blues music and gearing up to watch the big game. 

Red Beans & Rice

3 C Red Beans
1 1b sausage
splash red wine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium shallot, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper chopped
1/2 C carrots, chopped
1/2 C celery, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 C water or broth
2 C cooked brown rice

1 bay leaf
1 tsp thyme
Salt & Pepper

Brown whole sausages on all sides over medium-high heat in a hot soup pot or dutch oven.  Remove the sausages and set aside.  In the retained sausage drippings, add the splash of red wine and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pot.  Add the onion, shallot, bell pepper, carrot, celery, jalapeno, and garlic.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until softened.  Add seasonings, then the rinsed beans, and 4 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat to the lowest setting, and simmer for an hour.

Meanwhile, cook the rice in a rice cooker or on the stove top and slice the sausage into one-inch bias- cut slices.  After an hour, or when the beans turn soft, add the sausage and rice.  Stir and heat through.  Serve with a slice of crusty bread and enjoy.   You'll be glad you made a big pot, since the leftovers are better than the original.

Even though a crusty French bread would be the customary accompaniment to my red beans & rice, I have a recipe for buttermilk bread that I have been excited to try out.  The recipe comes from The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book- a Guide to Whole-Grain Bread Baking.  There is a great dairy farm in Orwell, VT called The Animal Farm that makes the most delicious fresh-churned butter and buttermilk from their small herd of grass-fed Jersey cows.  They ship most of their supply of dairy products to two restaurants run by Chef Thomas Keller:  The French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York.  It's highly unlikely on my budget that I will ever visit either of these, so I'm lucky that what little they have left, they sell at my co-op.   I love using their buttermilk in everything from mashed potatoes to biscuits and was excited to try it out in a bread recipe.  Here is what you will need:

Buttermilk Bread

2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 C warm water 
3/4 C hot water
1/4 C honey
1 1/4 C cold buttermilk
5 1/2 C whole wheat flour
plus more for dusting
2 tsp salt
2-4 Tbsp cold, unsalted butter

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.  Ideal temperature range is between 110 and 115 F.  Mix the hot water with the honey and stir until the honey is dissolved. Add the cold buttermilk.  Meanwhile, mix the salt and the flour in a large bowl.  Make a reservoir in the center of the flour and pour the buttermilk mixture and the yeast mixture in.  Stir from the inside out until all the flour is incorporated.  Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for 15 minutes.  Cut the cold butter into bits and knead it into the flour.  Knead an additional 5 minutes.  Form the dough into a ball and place in a large bowl.  Cover, and place in a warm, draft-free place for 1 1/2 hours.  To check readiness, poke the dough in the center 1/2 inch deep with a wet finger.  If the hole doesn't fill back in, it is ready for the next step.  Press the dough flat, form it into a ball again, and return it to the bowl.  Cover again and let it rise another 45 minutes.

Press it flat and divide it into 2 separate balls.  Let it rest for 15 minutes.  Deflate it, and shape it into two loaves.  Place them into loaf pans or just onto a baking sheet and let them rise in a warm place until the dough slowly returns a gentle fingerprint.  Preheat the oven to 325 F, brush the loaves with some melted butter or buttermilk, and bake for 1 hour.