Macrobiotic inspired meal with side of wild carrots

When I lived in Maine I attended a macrobiotic cooking class. We would meet at the woman’s house (I think her name was Susan) and she would prepare a macrobiotic meal for us, while explaining what she was doing and the philosophy behind macrobiotics. Then we would all eat the meal together at the end.

She would often pick the vegetables straight from her garden - bring them in, chop them up and cook them right there, fresh as can be. One time she made a carrot dish for us, with baby carrots from her garden. She chopped the greens up as well and tossed them right into the saute. It was delicious.

Normally I don’t use wild carrots. Obviously they do have a close resemblance to their deadly family member poison hemlock (and water hemlock), both very common in this area. And though I have identified all three and feel secure in my identification, I’ve read that wild carrots just aren’t worth it. So occasionally I will pull them up and inhale the wonderful smell of carrot, and then longingly toss it aside.

Our yard is full of wild carrot this year. Wild carrot is distinguished from poison hemlock by the little hairs found up its stalk. It also smells strongly of carrot and does not have the purple mottled stalk of its deadly relative. I decided to include it in this week’s share of our Community Supported Foraging (our wild food csa.) So of course I had some myself.

Wild carrots, also called Queen Anne’s Lace, is Daucus carota, which you may recognize is the exact species of cultivated carrot. They are exactly the same plant, differentiated only in the subspecies. By the time the carrots are wild, they are white rather than orange and are much smaller (though the greens are still full and lush.) Some people are sensitive to these greens and can have a rash reaction on their skin. The greens are edible, however, just as cultivated carrot greens are.

I also like to include a recipe for each new edible in the share. Because the carrot part of the wild carrot are relatively small, I decided to include the greens in the dish. I lightly sauteed the carrots, greens and some mint from my garden in olive oil, with a little tamari and water at the end to steam. I turned off the heat and added chopped chives and garnished it with chive flower petals at the end.

Making this dish inspired me to cook some brown rice and tofu, and enjoy a delicious macrobiotic type meal reminiscent of my days in Maine (20 years ago!) And I must say: I enjoyed this wild carrot dish more than I enjoy cultivated carrots! Cultivated carrots are too sweet and mushy. These wild carrots don’t have the sweetness and they are tougher, but that only adds to them, not detracts, in my opinion.

If you are sure about your identification of wild carrot, I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did!

Recipe: Wild Carrot and Mint

Stir fried wild carrot roots and leaves with mint. Topped with chive flower.

• wild carrot root and greens, chopped (I used all the roots in the share - they’re so small, but only half the greens.)
• one stalk mint, leaves removed and chopped
• one chopped chive or onion grass
• chive flower (or red clover flower, petals pulled out) to garnish
• olive oil
• tamari

In olive oil, saute chopped wild carrots roots for about five minutes. Then add chopped carrot greens and saute until wilted. Finally add chopped mint at very end, sauteing just a bit, adding tamari and a splash of water to steam.

Turn off heat and stir in chopped onion grass.

Remove from heat and garnish with pulled petals from red clover or chive blossom.

(Suggestion: you can also saute some red clover blossoms right into this dish, and then garnish with a fresh one at the end.)

~ Melissa

Before going raw, I made some scrumptious flower fritters with red clover blossoms and dandelion flowers. They were incredibly easy to make. They were inspired by my friend Vanessa who told me she’d made some with dandelion flowers: just mix egg, flour and milk for batter, dip the flowers and fry. Then drizzle with maple syrup.

I used coconut milk and buckwheat flour (to make them gluten-free and dairy-free), fried them in olive oil and voila: pure yumminess!

Red Clover and Dandelion Flower Fritters

Recipe: Flower Fritters

Batter

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (you can use any milk)
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (you can use any flour)

Mix ingredients together.

You’ll also need:

• red clover blossoms
• dandelion flowers (you can do one or the other or both)
• olive oil
• maple syrup

Dip flowers into batter, covering the flower with batter.

In a small pan (or pot) with olive oil, drop battered flowers. Flip when browned (this only takes a couple minutes.)

Remove onto cloth or paper towels to drain excess oil.

Serve drizzled with maple syrup.

Enjoy and Happy Mother’s Day!

~ Melissa

It usually hits me mid April. But even though it was a warm spring, my unstoppable desire to “go raw” again didn’t hit me until last week. So here I am, mid May, morel season is over (thank goodness: wild mushrooms must be cooked!) and I have “gone raw.”

By raw I mean I am eating only raw fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds. So lots of green smoothies, fresh juices, and yummy wild salads. But sometimes I do crave something…more. More savory and tasty than a smoothie or even a salad (though I have some delicious dressings that get me out combing my yard and neighborhood for wild delights!)

Yesterday I found a recipe in Brigitte Mars’s book, Rawsome, for Palak, which is a curried spinach dish. I substituted raw nettles for the spinach, changed a few other things and I can not even begin to convey its deliciousness.

Raw Curried Nettles with Flax Crackers

Raw and Wild Recipe: Indian Nettle Curry

inspired by Palak, from Rawsome by Brigitte Mars

• 1/2 cup soaked cashews
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger root
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 cups fresh nettles
• 1 Tbsp chopped onion
• salt, tumeric, coriander, cumin, cayenne to taste

Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and puree.

I made the flax crackers as well, although those these can be purchased at food coops or health food stores (or even health food sections of regular grocery stores.) If not eating all raw, this dish would go well on rice or pasta, or even spread on sandwiches (or pizza!) Raw veggies would be excellent dipped in it.

Hope you are enjoying spring!

Love and nettle stings,

~ Melissa

In your share this week:

• plantain leaves
• burdock roots and stalks
• red clover flowers
• nettles
• violet leaves
• lemon balm
• creeping charlie

Plantain leaves are excellent to eat (raw in salad or in soups or stir-fried). I also love to coat them with a special dressing and dehydrate them a la kale chips. If you get our newsletter you have seen this recipe for plantain crisps, but I will also include it below.

Plantain is also a wonderful medicinal plant. The leaves are used fresh from the yard, crushed and applied to bee stings, nettle stings, or bug bites. You can also make an oil by chopping the leaves (or cutting into small pieces with scissors) and covering them with olive oil. Let it steep for a couple weeks then strain the leaves out saving the oil. This oil is excellent to take the itch away from bug/misquito bites and even poison ivy! It is safe to use on children and animals as well. To make the oil faster, place chopped plantain and oil in the blender and blend well, strain and it is ready to use. You can also gently heat the plantain and oil in a crock pot (on low) or oven with a pilot light for a couple days. Sometimes leaving the plantain in the oil too long will cause mold, so I like the faster methods of blending or lightly heating!

To make a salve, just take the strained plantain oil, gently heat on the stove (double boiler) or in a crock pot) and add some grated beeswax. Stir until beeswax melts, remove from heat and pour into a container with a wide mouth (so you can reach into it.) I also like to add lavender essential oil as it cools. Lavender is also helpful to take away redness and itching. When it cools it will become harder. Depending on how much beeswax you add is how hard it will get. I usually just add a little so it’s not too hard. (I like to scoop it up and apply liberally to poison ivy rashes!)

Recipe: Plantain Crisps:

• 1/2 cup cashews, soaking makes them softer
• water to cover cashew, use sparingly in blender and add more as needed. You want a fairly thick sauce.
• onion, 1 Tbsp, chopped
• garlic, 1 clove
• lemon, juiced or 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• tamari, 2 Tbsp or salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

In a blender place cashews, water, onion, garlic, lemon juice or vinegar, tamari or salt, and nutritional yeast (optional.) Blend until creamy.  Pour over plantain leaves (or kale leaves) and massage until fully covered. Place on dehydrator tray and dehydrate on 115 until crispy (about 6 hours.) If you don’t have a dehydrator you can use your oven on a low temperature until dried and crispy. It will probably take less than an hour in the oven.

Burdock Root, also known as Wild Gobo

Burdock root is a very popular vegetable in Japan, where it is known as gobo.  If you get the newsletter you’ll have received an entire ebook on Burdock! (If you don’t get the newsletter just sign up in the green box on the right, it’s free and filled with awesome information!) Burdock root is a tonic which brings great strength. The roots can be juiced, eaten raw, cooked in soups or stews, or sliced and dried for tea or roasted (and then ground) for a coffee substitute.

Here are some links to this blog for things I have done with burdock:

• burdock info page
• burdock juice
  
• burdock tincture
• dried burdock root
• fermented veggies with burdock

Recipe: Burdock Juice

Zesty, Lemony Burdock Juice

Ingredients:

• 3 apples
• 3 inches burdock root
• 1/4 lemon, including peel
• ginger root

Run all ingredients through a juicer and enjoy!

Here is a recipe for Kinpira Gobo, a traditional Japanese dish.  In this dish, you peel and cut the burdock root into strips, and saute it (often with carrot cut similarly), and season with tamari, mirin (a sweet Japanese wine), sake and sesame seeds.

Last week I battered and friend the red clover blossom, and it was delicious! To keep it dairy and gluten-free, I used an egg, coconut milk and buckwheat flour for the batter. I simply dipped clover blossoms (and dandelion blossoms) in, and fried in olive oil. Then I drizzled the fritters with maple syrup and enjoyed!

Red clover blossom and dandelion fritters

I have been using the violet greens and flowers in salads and on sandwiches.

This week I plan to dry some nettles to have as tea, and also I’ve been enjoying the nettles in a simple potato soup:

Recipe: Red Lentil, Potato, Nettle Soup

Red lentil, potato, nettle soup

• potatoes, chopped
• nettles, blanched (in the soup water) and chopped, then re-added to soup at end
• onions, chopped
• garlic, chopped
• red lentils
• salt
• pepper
• water

Heat the water until boiling and add nettles to blanch (removes sting). Remove nettles and chop, saving the broth for the soup.

Add red lentils, potatoes, onions, garlic and boil until potatoes and lentils are soft.

Add salt and pepper, return chopped nettles to soup.

Ideas for lemon balm:

• Add to smoothie
• dry for tea
• steep in honey for a delicious flavored honey

Creeping Charlie makes its return from week one. This is a mint found commonly in yards and gardens. It has a refreshing sharp minty taste. It can be dried for use as tea, added to smoothies or added to dishes (like tabouli) or rice for a minty bite.

This morel is in someone's share this week!

Welcome to Week 4 of the CSF!

New this week: Burdock leaf stalks, onion grass bulbs, catnip and lemon balm.

In your share this week:

• Burdock Leaf Stalks
• Catnip
• Lemon Balm
• Purple Dead Nettle
• Onion Grass with Bulbs
• Garlic Mustard
• Chickweed
• Japanese Knotweed
• Nettles
• Morels

What a fun share we have for you this week!

We’ve been out hiking the hills and forests of Western PA and we do indeed have more morel mushrooms for you this week! Remember to always cook morels and all wild mushrooms before you eat them! I have been enjoying morels sauteed in butter with onions and eaten with eggs, or in fried rice. In fact, I made some wonderful fried rice with morels, nettles and cat tails the other day - yum!

The Burdock Leaf Stalks are new this week. (They look like huge stalks of celery.) They taste very bitter if you eat them raw due to their outer skin. However, I found by boiling them in water (I added salt to the water) for 20 minutes (then throw away that water), they are no longer bitter and they are no longer stringy. (If not cooked enough they are pretty tough.) You don’t even need to peel them! If you’d like to try them raw I recommend peeling them - it is just the outer skin that is bitter.

I made a delicious dish with a good sauce by cooking the stalks:

1. Wash stalks
2. chop them into small pieces, about 1 -2 inches (smaller than in the picture below…I made it a couple times and I liked it better when the stalks were a little smaller than shown.)
3. put them in a pan and cover with water
4. simmer with lid 20 minutes
5. save stalks, throw out water

Then:

1. Melt butter into that same pan (you can use olive oil to make vegan)
2. Added 2 Tbsp of buckwheat flour (I used buckwheat so it’s gluten free, you can use whatever flour you like)
3. Mix over medium heat
4. Add a little water and mix the flour in evenly, keep adding water slowly and mixing until it becomes a thick sauce
5. Add salt and pepper (and Parmesan cheese if you want, optional.)
6. Once sauce is done add burdock stalks back in and stir until coated.
7. Serve with the sauce.

Burdock Stalks with Sauce

This week we also finally made homemade nettle pasta again! We had run out of eggs so we just omitted them and made vegan pasta instead. I added a little water to the steamed nettles while blending them, and then mixed (by kneading) the nettle/water mixture into buckwheat flour (again so it was gluten free, you can use regular flour if you wish.) It came out great!

Catnip is an herb which is beloved by cats as well as people! You will find this soft-to-the-touch mint in your share this week. As a tea (you can boil it fresh or dry it first, then steep) it acts as a muscle relaxant and induces relaxation and sleep. I have mine hanging to dry in my doorway and my cats are going CRAZY today!

catnip (far right) hanging to dry nest to 3 bundles of already dried thyme

The Lemon Balm is also a mint, this one very lemony. I like to add the leaves to tea (fresh leaves or dried) and salads. I think lemon balm also makes a delicious pesto. Try slicing the leaves and floating on top of a lemongrass soup after it’s done cooking. Very delicious.

This week we found a gorgeous field of onion grass (at Wild Red’s Gardens in Morningside.) You’ll find we harvested the whole plant this time: bulb as well as green.  You can cook the bulbs as you would any onion bulb or shallot. Use the greens as you would chives. They can also be dried if you find yourself with an abundance!

You’ve seen all the other wild edibles before…check back to previous newsletters for ideas. I have been using garlic mustard leaves on sandwiches (in place of lettuce) and I love it!

Please remember to send me any pictures and recipes that you make with your wild edibles…I’d love to pass them along to the rest of the share!

Enjoy your share this week!

~ Melissa

ramps

This week your share contains 3 new items: ramps, trout lily leaves and wild mint.

I want to take this time to stress to you how carefully and sustainably we harvest your produce, especially foods like ramps and trout lily, which are native and not invasives (such as knotweed and garlic mustard.)

Ramps take time to become established. We pick with permission, extremely carefully and leave the bulbs so the plants can continue their life cycles. Our intention is to disturb the ramps as little as possible. That being said, they are quite a celebrated plant with ramp festivals happening all over West Virginia in the upcoming weeks (end of April beginning of May.) Last Thursday’s Post-Gazette (the one in which we were featured) had a bunch of recipes using ramps, be sure to check them out.  Here are a couple ramp and morel festivals which were listed in the Post Gazette.

Trout lilies are also a native plant and were harvested carefully and with permission. We picked the leaves for your share this week (the little root tubers are also edible.) We recommend adding them to salads.

Wild mint is extremely flavorful. I made a gluten-free tabouli (using rice, you could also use quinoa or wheat products such as bulgar, cous cous or cracked wheat) and it was delicious. Instead of parsely I used chickweed. Instead of scallions I used the onion grass. You could even add garlic mustard (I would have but didn’t have any on hand.) Truly a delicious wild dish! (Recipe below.)

Wild, Gluten-free Tabouli

This week your share includes:

• ramps
• trout lily
• wild mint
• chickweed
• garlic mustard
• onion grass
• dryad’s saddle - make sure to cook before eating!
• Japanese knotweed
• stinging nettle
• deadnettle

We’re almost done with the Japanese knotweed season! To have knotweed on hand once the season ends you can:

1. freeze it: cut it into thin rings and freeze it (you can blanch them first or not)
2. tincture them: chop and fill a jar with knotweed stalks, then cover with 80 or 100 proof vodka. After 6 weeks the resulting tincture will be a more medicinal way to get the benefits of knotweed (resveratrol among other compounds).
3. pickle them! If you’ve made pickles before do it the same way,  using knotweed stalks in place of cucumber spears. Or follow the wild fermentation recipe below.
4. make a soda! (see info below.)
5. Add to homemade sauerkraut

Fermenting food is a healthy way to preserve it. You do not cook the food, thereby preserving all the vitamins, minerals and enzymes, and fermentation causes healthy microbes to colonize the food and is very healthy for your gut.

To make a soda you need to have a “ginger bug” starter on hand. This is good to make and then keep in the refrigerator…you may want to make a naturally fermented and fizzy soda out of one of the many plants you’ll receive this season!

To make the ginger bug:

• 3 cups water
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh ginger (unpeeled)
• 2 Tbsp sugar (organic is best)

To a glass jar add the above ingredients and stir well. Cover with a cloth and leave on the counter for 2 days.

After two days, add 2 tsp chopped unpeeled ginger and 2 tsp sugar each day for a week. Stir a couple times a day. Keep covered with a cloth on the counter (not refrigerated.) It should get fizzy and taste like gingerale. It is now ready to use. If you are not ready to use it simply cap and refrigerate until ready.

To make Japanese Knotweed Soda:

Chop and boil 2 quarts (or as much as you have, doesn’t need to be that much) knotweed into a strong tea for at least 10 minutes in a gallon of water. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar. Cool to body temperature (or room temperature). Strain plants out and add a cup of ginger starter. Mix and cover with cloth, leaving on the counter for a couple days. Once it becomes fizzy and less sweet, bottle and refrigerate. Corks are best to cap bottles with - the carbonation builds even in the fridge and it’s better for the cork to fly out than for the bottle to explode (which has happened to a friend of mine.) These sodas are delicious.

Replenish your ginger bug: add another cup of water, 2 tsp ginger and 2 tsp sugar, stir and refrigerate until ready to use again.

We’ve made sodas from: yellow dock, dandelion, black locust flowers, nettles/ginger, even cacao nibs! I will definitely be making Japanese knotweed soda soon.

Naturally fermented knotweed pickles:

• fresh Japanese knotweed stalks to fill a quart jar
• spring water, 1 quart
• 2-3 Tbsp sea salt (between 1/2 and 1 Tbsp salt per cup water)
• 2 peeled garlic cloves
• 1-2 Tbsp dill seed (optional)

Mix salt and water until salt dissolves making a brine. Add garlic and dill to bottom of  jar. Fill with knotweed stalks and cover with brine. Cover jar with cloth or the top. Leave on counter 1 - 7 days, tasting every day after about 3 days to see how sour the pickles are. This is a no-cook natural fermentation method to make pickles and can be used for cucumbers as well.

Recipe for Wild Gluten-free Tabouli

• 2 cups cooked rice or quinoa
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cucumber, chopped
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup chopped chickweed (or 1/2 cup chopped chickweed and 1/2 cup chopped garlic mustard)
• 2 - 3 Tbsp chopped fresh wild mint
• 2 -3 Tbsp chopped onion grass

Mix all ingredients together. Enjoy!

Remember to cook your dryad’s saddle (and all wild mushrooms) first before enjoying.

And make sure to check out CSF member and Pittsburgh Magazine Columnist Leah Lizarondo’s recent column: Girl Gone Wild. You’ll find her delicious recipes for garlic mustard/nettle pesto and chickweed crepes.

Also, nettles season is coming to an end soon (once they flower they will not be great to use.) If you’re out of ideas or can’t get to all your nettles, consider drying them or even freezing them. Here’s an inspiring blog post I found when searching the web….lots of great ideas on how to store wild edibles!

Enjoy your share!

~ Melissa

Our first walk of the year was so much fun! We had great weather and lots of enthusiastic people. We identified at least 12 wild edibles (including Dryad’s Saddle, an edible mushroom that everyone got to take home.) Unfortunately we didn’t find morels…but join us on Saturday for our Earth Day walks and who knows what we’ll find!

discussing wild edibles at a wild edibles walk in Frick Park

We found and discussed:

Dandelion

dandelion flowers

Plantain

Plantain

Chickweed

close up of chickweed

Japanese knotweed

Japanese Knotweed

Dryad’s Saddle

Dryad's Saddle

Purple Archangel (Purple deadnettle)

Lamium purpureum, purple deadnettle

Violet

violet

Broad Leaf Dock
Burdock

Burdock

Nettles

stinging nettles

Cleavers
Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard

May Apple

We discussed making:

• Dandelion Wine
• Plantain Oil and Salve - to soothe the skin and ease itching, rashes, stings, poison ivy/oak, bug bites, etc
• Latkes (potato pancakes) with nettles and garlic mustard
• Garlic Mustard Pesto
• Garlic Mustard “Horseradish”
• Steamed Deadnettles
• Roasted Dandelion and Burdock root for coffee substitute
• Drying plants and roots
• Making tinctures

Our next walks are this Saturday at the Frick Park Environmental Center for their family-friendly, free, Earth Day Celebration! The festival is Saturday April 21, 2012  from 11:30 to 4, and we will lead two walks at 1 pm and 2 pm.

Hope to see you there!

~ Melissa

gluten-free nettles broccoli quiche

Recipe: Gluten-free Broccoli Nettle Quiche
by Melissa Sokulski

Preheat oven: 375 F

“Crust”: one cup or so of cooked quinoa (you can also use brown rice or not use a crust.) Spread quinoa over the bottom of pie pan.

1 cup broccoli, chopped
1 large bunch stinging nettles
1 small tomato, chopped (optional)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
6 large eggs
1/4 c milk (or water or soy milk, etc.)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

• In a shallow pan, steam broccoli and nettles in a little water (covered) for about 5 minutes until broccoli is bright green and nettles has completely wilted.

• Remove from pan and when cooled a bit, chop nettles into small pieces and broccoli into smaller pieces.

• Saute onion in oil (can add some salt) until onion is translucent. Add nettles and broccoli. Turn off heat and mix in chopped tomatoes.

• In bowl: mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

• Spread grated cheese on top of quinoa, add the veggies next, pour the egg mixture over top (pour slowly, allowing egg to sink in.)

• Use fork to poke quiche to bottom of pie pan so that egg mixture can run all the way down, this will hold crust together. Poke all around quiche.

• Bake until top is browned and egg no longer jiggles, about 45 minutes.

This is delicious! I brought it to a Passover Seder (quinoa is not a true grain and can be eaten during Pesach.) Of course it is wonderful anytime.

What are you making with nettles these days?

Enjoy!

~ Melissa Sokulski