Archive for June, 2010

WOW: Wood Sorrel

June 30th, 2010

One of our favorite garden weeds is wood sorrel, also known as sour grass. With it’s bright green leaves and pert yellow flowers, it lends a cheerful air to shadier areas in garden beds, lawns, woodland margins, etc.

We love it’s lemony tartness in salads, sandwiches, smoothies and soups. Once the tomatoes come in, lunch often consists of tomatoes chopped with wood sorrel, basil, a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of Herbamare or salt. Simple, quick and oh so satisfying. And literally mouth-watering. Seriously. Try a bite. I defy you not to salivate! This is a handy trick when hiking with thirsty kids.

Leaves are a sunny light green and are divided in three heart-shaped leaflets with a center crease that allows the leaves to fold down at night or under stress. Although sorrel leaves are lighter green, their shape is otherwise quite similar to those of clover. Flowers are a bright golden yellow, with five petals. Other varieties of this weed have pink or white flowers, but in our area, yellow is the dominant color.

Medicinally, wood sorrel is a wonderful source of comfort for several ailments. As with plantain or yarrow, you can crush the leaves and put them on wounds or burns to promote healing. An infusion is helpful for digestive maladies, as well as for reducing fevers.  High in niacin, thiamin, riboflain and Vitamin C, wood sorrel can be a nutritious addition to your diet . A note of caution, however — it does contain oxalic acid  (also found in spinach, rhubarb, parsley, etc) and should be used in moderation. Those with gout and other conditions that are irritated by oxalic acid should probably forgo the pleasures of this mouth-puckering herb.

If you aren’t already familiar with wood sorrel, you will soon discover that it’s lurking about in shady spots all around you. Find a spot that is unlikely to be contaminated by pesticides, auto exhaust, etc and enjoy!

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Power Slaw

June 13th, 2010

Wow! I am so impressed with the salad I am going to share with you today. It is called Wakame Hemp Power Slaw and it is a knockout! I am still on my kick of using my recipe books at home. I like to call my raw books recipe books because well, they aren’t really “cook”books. I have also changed my lingo in conversation to making or preparing food rather than cooking it since I am not applying heat to the dishes. Anyway, back to the point. This salad blew me away and is another new favorite. I am so grateful to Ani Phyo and her book Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen for all the new salads I have been exploring through her book. They are so varied and different than your typical salad so now I have almost enough salads in my repertoire for every mood I am in!

Wakame Hemp Power Slaw was so easy to prepare and will last 3-4 days in the fridge. Mine didn’t last but two. Proud to say, my hubby even took some to work the next day he liked it so much. I also brought some to share with Sioux to get her review. So, my kids didn’t like it so much but I think they would after a few exposures. I read the other day it can take 15 exposures to a new food before taking to it. So, one down, 14 to go because mamma will be making this one again with all it’s flavor and creamy goodness.

I think we have all heard of the wonderful benefits of kale but what about wakame? Sea veggies are powerhouses. Wakame is high in calcium, protein and chlorophyll. Sea vegetables add essential nutrients and minerals to our diets. They are very versatile and are great in salads and soups. Nori is a common seaweed used as the wrapper for sushi. Dulse is a great salt substitute as is kelp granules. Here is a yummy to add more of these treasures from the sea into your diet.

Wakame Hemp Power Slaw

slaw:

  • 1/2 head kale, ribs removed and torn into bite sized pieces
  • 1/4 head red cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
  • 2 scallions (I used chives from the garden)
  • 1/2 c dry wakame
  • 1/2 c hemp seeds

power dressing

  • 3/4 c brazil nuts (I was out so I used some almonds and cashews)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 TBS grated ginger (I didn’t measure and just threw about a 1 inch hunk in)
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 c hemp oil (I used olive oil but hemp or flax would be delish!)
  • juice of 1 lime, about 2 TBS
  • 1/4 c water
  1. For slaw, tear kale into bite sized pieces and put in a bowl with the thinly sliced cabbage, scallions or chives and wakame.
  2. To make the dressing, use food processor to process nuts, garlic, ginger and salt. Add remaining dressing ingredients and process until smooth. I just put it all in the Vitamix and whizzed it up until smooth.
  3. Pour or scoop dressing into bowl with slaw and toss until well incorporated.
  4. Top with hemp seeds

The slaw does have very interesting flavors. The lime and ginger in the dressing combined with the creaminess hold up very well to all the flavors of the kale cabbage and wakame. This salad doesn’t need to stand off to be labeled a side dish but is a perfect meal type salad and can hold it’s own in the spotlight. Enjoy!

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yard salad

June 10th, 2010

Thanks to our chickens, who managed to escape their large run frequently this spring, many of our greens got off to a slow start. Therefore, when I want a salad, I have to meander about the yard grabbing bits here and there to make up a salad. I take up a bushel or the salad spinner and head out into the yard to see what I can find. The flavor and freshness of yard salad bowl me over, and I love adding whatever edible flowers we have for both decoration and flavor, depending.

We just used a light homemade vinaigrette and made a salad bar, so everyone could choose the salad components they liked — yard salad with herbs and flowers, a spicy mix with cress and sliced radishes, and a not-exactly-from-our-yard mix that includes cucumber, romaine, celery and pea shoots. I wasn’t sure if they mesclun would be too spicy for the kids since some of it had bolted in the warm weather but it turned out to be tame enough for their palates.

The kids picked some small not-quite-ready-yet french breakfast radishes while I cut the mesclun mix and cress (cress, tiny radishes and mesclun in spinner acros the top of the picture). I also gathered (going clockwise for rest of picture) parsley (far left), lambs quarters (pick them young — you can eat the stems if they’re young enough, or just the leaves if they’re woodier), some merveille de quatre saisons lettuce and bronze arrowhead lettuce, two varieties of kale and just a pinch of basil.

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago, and the rest of the radishes have poked their ruddy shoulders out of the ground and were eaten already. Our lambs quarters are at the point that I’m only picking leaves, and our parsley, which had overwintered, is starting to flower. The lettuces are offering up more than just a couple of small leaves, and the chard is also big enough to harvest so we’re still enjoying yard salad in all it’s seasonal variations. The chive flowers have passed, though i’m wondering if I’d chopped them all off and not allowed it to set seeds, if it would keep producing flowers — anyone have any experience with this? We’ve started adding rose petals and wood sorrel which are out now that earlier “weeds” like chickweed are also past their prime.

What do you scrounge from your yard for your salad?

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Pretty In Purple

June 6th, 2010

I love to get new raw books from the library! For a change, I decided to start making more recipes out of the many raw books on my own shelf. What a novel idea, eh? So, it was time to go grocery shopping again and I went to the shelf and picked Ani Phyo as my author of choice this time around. I bookmarked several recipes I want to make and am concentrating aon a couple a week.

I am always leery of kale salad recipes because I LOVE the one that I currently make and have tried many others and none have held up to the one tried and true recipe that makes everyone in my house go goo goo for kale and may I add, is the most passed on recipe I have. In her book Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen is one titled Cabbage Kale Slaw In Simple Greek Dressing. It is so simple and I really dig this way to use kale!

Pretty In Purple Salad

  • 1/2 head kale, any type, destemmed (I used curly)
  • 1/4 head red cabbage (Iused 1/2 a head)

simple Greek dressing

  • 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 c. olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp thyme

Thinly slice the kale and cabbage and place in a mixing bowl. Place the dressing ingredients in the bowl and toss well. Eat right away or set aside to marinate and soften.

I had also added a couple cloves of garlic to the dressing. I put the dressing ingredients in the Vitamix to blend and then poured it on the slaw and massaged it to aid in softening the veggies since the dinner bell was going to ring soon.

Fantastic and pretty! Just right and perfect for lunch the next day. I even sent some into to work with my hubby and he ate it all up, yum!

The dressing recipe is like an extra special bonus. It is so good and really tastes like Greek dressing. It calls out for further experimenting to make a big Greek salad with greens, olives, grape tomatoes and dare I say a raw feta to crumble on top!

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Soup, It’s What’s For Lunch

June 5th, 2010

I really love Gatlin’s interpretation of my lunch today. He called it a plate of sunshine.  I made River and Gatlin veggie soup (cooked) and myself another one of Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen recipes called Tomato Basil Bisque. I had actually made the soup the evening before and was having the leftovers.

Raw foods are interesting in that as time goes by, the flavors of dishes change and meld together. I have had some dishes that I didn’t care for after making them but a day or even two later they are smashing. The same seems to hold true for Ani’s Bisque. I liked it better day two. The kids didn’t really care for it day one but Gatlin said, “Not bad” this next day at lunch. Neither of them still ate a bowl.

Instead, Gatlin devoured my rays of sunshine! I sliced red pepper and stuffed it with a simple homemade guacomole. He loves these as do I. River is my simple kind of man. He likes just straight up red pepper and lots of it. He does like guacomole but not tampering with his red pepper.

Tomato Basil Bisque

bisque base

  • 3 tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 1/2 c. olive oil
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 2 c. water

bisque toppings

  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 1 c. basil chiffonade
  1. blend bisque base ingredients until smooth
  2. pour into four bowls and top with tomatoes and basil

Did your eyes pop when you read 1 1/2 c. oil? Mine did, but I followed the recipe. Whoooo, too much oil. I would at least half the oil next time. It had mellowed by the next day but still way too heavy for me. I also didn’t have another tomato to dice for the top so I made and ate only the base. It would be really good with the basil and diced tomatoes on top but would lend itself well to other toppings as well.

A new cut: chiffonade, for those that are unfamiliar, is a way of cutting the basil. It will create long, thin strips. I like to take a few basil leaves and lay them on top of one another. Roll them up together and then cut thinly from the short end to the longer end. This looks decorative as all the strips will be of equal width. Basil is a tender herb so cutting it chiffonade also helps not to bruise the basil.

Enjoy!

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CT Herbfest

June 3rd, 2010

Just a quick post to let you know that this weekend is the CT Herbfest in Somers. Check out the website for a list of workshops (including an edible wild walk and a raw food talk) and activities. Admission is $10, under 12 or over 70 are free.

And if you’re looking for more events, don’t miss the CT NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) website. They’ve got an upcoming tour of an urban community garden on June 21, and save the date for Taste! Organic September 19th, to mention a couple.

If you’re on facebook, you can do a search for The Essence of Being at Johnnycake Mountain. They lead wild weed walks, herbal talks and more, but their website doesn’t appear to be functioning yet. The Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center offers many interesting programs, including a wild edible feast this Saturday from 9-4, as well as a FREE Beekeeping for Beginners class at 2, also this Saturday.Other events at ANRC include Joseph Firecrow, Native American Flute Man, night hikes, solstice drumming circle and tunes from trash.

No time to post more, life calls.  Let us know about a cool event in your area!

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beautiful baby red-tail

June 2nd, 2010

dante holds a baby hawkHoly cow — we had the opportunity of a lifetime on Saturday! We were heading to see family in New Jersey for Memorial Day weekend when the phone rang. My neighbor was on the other end telling us her son had found a baby red-tailed hawk on a trail in their woods. It was lying on the ground with its wings spread and tongue out, seemingly dehydrated. He scooped it up in his sweatshirt and brought it to her. They gave it water and worms (!) and it perked back up. Definitely not a fan of worms tho, and it’s very easy for them to aspirate water (they get most of their moisture from their food — evidently mice are nice n juicy!), so she was hoping to find someone to take over so she wouldn’t have to head to the store for mice to chop.

I brought her a list I’d printed from the DEP website of CT wildlife rehabilitators trained to handle protected birds, as well as the number for the Audubon society in Glastonbury. The rehabilitator came over within  minutes of her call, and that’s all I know of that little hawk baby’s story. Despite knowing that it’s really important for the birds not to imprint with humans, I figured that since he had been held all day already it wouldn’t hurt for my kids to pose for a picture with this gorgeous fuzzy feathered friend. Boy are those talons strong and sharp!

lucia holds the hawkWe had been to a presentation by Wind Over Wings recently, as well as several more birds of prey talks in the last few years, and even the kids felt a little guilty holding him since not handling baby raptors had been such a major message of the talk. One of their hawks is with them because a woman found him in the woods and brought him home. After cuddling him plenty during his stay with her, he had imprinted with humans, so they bring him with them to educate the public about these beautiful animals and how important it is to call someone trained to care for them in a way that enables them to return to the wild.

Take a look at Wind Over Wings advice about how to help injured or possibly abandoned/orphaned wildlife that crosses your path. Definitely good info to know before you run into another wild animal (not just birds) in need of assistance.

We’ve also been enjoying the videos of a family of red-tailed hawks in Massachusetts — love the commentary, miss the accent from our days  in the Boston area. Don’t miss the previous posts — you can find them in “related content” in the sidebar. Some have videos, some just pics, but you can watch the chicks grow up! They’ve just started to fledge!

Fly, little birdie, fly!

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