foraging 101

dandelions

lambs quarters

         For the past few weeks I have had an abundant supply of wild greens in my backyard.  Lambs quarters and dandelions are growing with abandon. Both can be eaten raw as salad greens, used in a smoothie, or quickly sautéed or steamed with some garlic and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Dandelion leaves become bitter as the leaves grow bigger and older, so harvest the smaller ones if you don't like bitter greens.  The yellow flowers are edible and look very pretty in a salad, or you can put them in your smoothie.  Lambs quarters is a mild tasting green and can be substituted in any recipe that calls for spinach or chard. 

            In a few weeks we are looking forward to a bumper crop of blackcaps.  What's growing in your backyard?

budding blackcaps

small is beautiful

         Ice cream servings in a cone are small in Europe, probably a bit less than half the size of the big scoops we are used to over here.  Generally we equate big with good because bigger is better, right? Cars used to be the size of boats in this country until people became more energy aware.  "How was the food at that new restaurant?"  "It was great, we had a lot of food."  Huh?  But how did it taste?  May be the portion was too large if you need to take half your meal home in a doggy bag.  

            E.F. Schumacher was way ahead in 1973 when he argued in his economic classic Small is Beautiful that building our economy on eternal growth is not sustainable.  Indeed, our planet doesn't expand.  Around the same time Frances Moore Lappé wrote Diet for a Small Planet.  She pioneered the discussion around the terrible environmental impact our industrial "meat production" causes and argued for vegetarianism.

            Interest rates have been shrinking, they are even lower in Europe than here,  and discussions on negative interest rates are popping up - getting penalized for leaving your money in the bank.  So spend it or put it under the mattress. 

            All of these are signs that small is beautiful, bigger is not sustainable, our economies need to shrink to halt the consumerist excess and environmental damage we have created.  Think quality over quantity.  "How delicious was that meal?" not "How big was it?"  "What beautiful material is that dress made of?" not "Buy 2 for the price of 1."

a million years!

               I am a bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to recycling because I want to make sure nothing that doesn't need to go to the landfill goes there.  In the kitchen, in the spot originally designed for the trash can, I have a big recycling bin for the usual paper/glass jars/bottles/various packaging items, which the weekly collection truck picks up.  A canvas bag hangs behind the pantry door for the returnable bottles and cans for which I get 5c each back from the supermarket.  In another canvas bag behind the pantry door I collect recyclable plastic bags - the supermarket has a drop-off bin for them.  And then I have a bucket for all the produce scraps, eggshells and tealeaves that we compost in the composting bin in the backyard.  I recycle clothing six ways from Sunday - by giving it away, bringing it to the second hand or thrift shops in my area, or dropping it into one of the many clothing drops.  Cable, phone stuff and very small electronics go to Best Buy, but a few old phones are lingering on the hallway table while I am trying to figure out what to do with them.   

            My son always comments that the back of my car looks like a junk yard.  Indeed, it can get crowded back there between the mountain of reusable shopping bags, two freezer bags (you never know), various items waiting to be dropped off somewhere, and the carton I use to safely transport my weekly raw milk, yogurt and egg order back from the farm.

            The only thing I am really frustrated about is styrofoam.  They don't accept it for recycling anywhere in our area and it will linger in the landfill for a million or so years! No kidding!

            Also revisit a previous post on the joys of composting and one on wasting less.

the earth is all we have

             Let's not throw her to the dogs, let's not pollute her any longer, or blow her up to smithereens, we can't go live on the Moon or Mars.  Besides, I kind of like it here.  Do you?

            Without the Earth we're nothing.  We do not exist without her, at least not in our human form.  The Earth furnishes us with everything we need, food, fuel, material for shelter and clothing, and beyond those basics beauty and wonder.  Gaia and you and I are one.  She exists so we can experience her and all of us together.  

            On this Earth Day consider becoming aware of what you see and experience, then unravel it backwards to unearth what beliefs lie behind it, under it, buried.   What you experience and see is based on your thoughts and beliefs.  On this Earth Day the second phase of our solar installation is being completed so we can produce 100% of the energy we consume.  Zero footprint.  It's about mutual respect, and it's an investment in the future of our planet.

            Also take a look at this one and that previous Earth Day posts.

wild eating

         Onion grass grows wild everywhere in my area, wild thyme covers large patches of a friend's lawn, and I found purslane in between our stone patio slabs.  Not that any of this would provide enough for a meal, but the idea of foraging is no longer associated with having to make ends meet but is rather fashionable.  During the summer months foraging learning walks are offered in many places, and lamb's quarters and nettle tea don't sound as far out as they might have twenty-five years ago.

            Danish chef René Redzepi became world known for the fabulous and wondrous New Nordic meals he makes from locally foraged foods at Noma, his Copenhague restaurant.  Last year he opened a  pop-up restaurant in Japan, currently he is in Australia doing the same, as the NY Times reports.  In both places he worked together with local foragers and created dishes with ingredients even the locals didn't know about.  Redzepi pushes the edge of making meals of ingredients we would walk right by even if we saw them by the ocean, in the woods or a meadow.

nettle

            But purslane, a slightly sour succulent and wild growing crunchy "weed," has become so popular that I find it now in big bunches at my farmer's market in the summer.  Nettles were the scourge of my European childhood (I fell into a hill full of nettles as a 6-year old and suffered for days), here I don't see them much, but the tender young leaves make a delicious salad (without stinging) or a tea can be brewed from the dried leaves.  Mushroom foraging requires more experience and expertise than finding edible greens because many edible mushrooms have a similar looking but poisonous alter ego - so novices beware.  During wartimes my grandfather foraged for mushrooms and one of the trips resulted not only in a meal but also stomach cramps for the entire family.  But all wild onion weeds are edible (you recognize them by their smell), and lambsquarters, dandelion and purslane are easy to recognize.  So if you don't spray your lawn take a walk when spring arrives and see what sprouts.  I think I'll look for a foraging walk to get to know all the foods I have been walking right by.

lambsquarters

super crop

         You can eat it in seed, flour or oil form, you can make clothes and rope out of it as well as biodiesel fuel, paper and building materials.   Meet hemp, the old/new super crop.   Pretty much the only thing you can't do with hemp is get high on it because it's not the same as marijuana, although they both belong to the cannabis family.   It's a super plant and super food that withstands drought, thrives in poor soil, and grows fast.

            Hemp oil is extremely rich in essential fatty acids, and according to David Wolfe of Superfood fame "the only known food with ideal ratios of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids."  The oil is also used in body care products.  Hempseed is a complete protein, the leaves are edible and you can make tea out of them.  The seeds can be made into butter, bread, beer and milk, similar to a nut milk.  Hemp's fiber is one of the strongest fibers on earth, hence its use for rope.  But it can also be made into clothing.  Hemp clothing is better than cotton in every way - warmer, more absorbent, stronger and more resilient, accepts dye better, extremely durable and it becomes softer and more comfortable the longer you wear it.   Hemp can grow pretty much anywhere in the world and yields 2.5 times the fiber the same area planted with cotton would yield. A biodegradable plastic can be made from the stalk as well as building materials like insulation, fiberboard, and hempcrete, all non-toxic and non-off-gasing.

             Hopefully, the silly hemp ban in the US that dates back to the 1930s and was engineered around political and monetary interests will be lifted soon as people become more aware of this super crop.  

going sustainably

             We tend to bury our burial wishes because we don't really want to think about death and dying.  My husband and I decided quite a while ago to be cremated and our ashes thrown into the wind - from whence we came.  Perhaps it's a bit more sustainable than embalming the body in all kinds of chemicals for an open cask viewing, which I personally find kind of creepy, spending all kinds of money on a casket that takes 25 years to rot, and both, body and casket leeching all kinds of yucky chemicals into the soil (and our ground water!).  But even the burning is a toxic and energy intensive process.

            Did you know that embalmers have to wear full body "armor" while embalming because of the toxic fumes associated with the preservation chemicals?  There are more sustainable burial practices than cremation, from the weird (we saw the Jain funeral towers in Bombay from afar many years ago, where the bodies are laid out in the open on the top of the towers and the vultures take care of them) to the simple (wrapping the body in a shroud and burying it without casket and chemicals).

            Better yet may be this method.  One of my faithful blog readers (thank you, Alice) reminded me of this 2011 TED talk by MIT trained artist Jae Rhim Lee.  Lee has created a mycological burial suit embedded with mushroom capsules that assist in the quick decomposition of the body and digestion of toxins, as well as mushroom spores allowing mushrooms to grow and use the body as feeding ground while composting it all completely and sustainably.  Cheap and non-toxic!  Watch the talk on her website Coeio.

            I think I'll change my mind about cremation now that I know about the mushroom burial suit.

library of things

            Perhaps a better way to understand the new sharing economy than using Uber or Airbnb's services (after all these businesses are for-profit) is through a "library of things." I really like the idea.  A similar principle already exists in the form of seed banks, from which you can obtain seeds as long as you bring back seeds from your harvest at the end of the season to replenish the seed bank.

            Libraries of Things go beyond lending books, movies and magazines, as a recent NY Times article explained.  They lend tools, equipment or things to community members.  The benefits are multifold.  For one, you as an individual won't need to invest in the cost of say an expensive 3-D printer to experiment with, or buy a pair of snowshoes for that once-in-a-while winter hike.  The investment happens at the community level, for which we all chip in via our local taxes.  At the same time an economy in manufacturing develops because less stuff needs to get made.  Moreover, access to such a library reduces the stuff you need to store and upkeep.  It is likely that you only use your hedge clippers or power drill a few times a year.  Why not borrow one from a tool library instead of buying a brand new expensive tool that sits idle most of the time, collects dust and takes up real estate in your garage?

            Along similar lines there are hour exchanges, where you get time, help and experience from others for services you need against time for your expertise, as well as babysitting services.  All neat ideas to explore sharing and meeting new people.

windy power

       While solar has been all the rage for a few years now wind power is following close behind.  The Paris Climate Summit was a clear success, even though it comes a bit late in the game.  So now we have to hustle.  We are putting more solar panels on our house in the spring so we can be net zero and the solar energy covers our entire energy consumption - our current array covers 45%.

            According to the Scientific American it was announced yesterday that the highly appealing 30% tax credit for solar and wind installations (on parts and labor!), that was supposed to run out at the end of 2016, has been extended through the end of the decade for now.  This is a huge incentive in combination with state tax credits and NYSERDA credits (for those who live in NY, as each state has different incentives).

            Wind power will now be following in solar's foot steps for homes, small businesses and farms.  The NY Times just reported that small rooftop wind turbines are being installed along the same model as residential rooftop solar panels, many of them in leased deals.

            Go for it, whether solar or wind! 

valuable vegetable scraps

We eat lots of vegetables, and especially lots of greens, which goes hand in hand with tons of vegetables scraps. But stop - no need to throw them away and waste them. In fact, calling them scraps indicates that we think of them as lowly. Here are some ideas of what to do with your valuable raw vegetable leftovers, nose-to-tail in vegetable speak:

• Wash them and put them all in a big pot, cover with water, cook for a few hours - voilà, a beautiful vegetable stock you can use for making soup or adding cold to your green smoothie instead of plain water. More minerals to you. The stock freezes well in big glass jars or freezer bags for more soup on a cold day.
• Juice your stalks, stems, roots, outer leaves, cabbage cores, apple cores too, and benefit from all those beautiful minerals and trace elements (your veggies will have more if they are organic or homegrown).
• Use all your "other" greens - beet greens, carrot tops, celery leaves, radish greens, kohlrabi greens - like you would spinach, chard, collards or kale: sautéed, raw in salad, added to a smoothie, making pesto from them (i.e. carrot top pesto), added to soup, or juiced.

  

• Broccoli crowns are delicious, but my family loves the broccoli slaw I make from the stems: mix the shredded broccoli stems with a vinaigrette of olive oil, a generous amount of lemon juice, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and lots of finely chopped parsley (I am partial to curly). Better the next day, but you might need to reseason - more salt and pepper, more lemon juice so it's got some kick.