A taste of spring - salad greens, edible flowers and rhubarb

The incessant April rains seem to have eased off a little, now that we have moved into May.  We've been watching everything green up with this warm weather, and have been enjoying first harvest of garden goodies.  A rabbit has been visiting our garden, and we just discovered it's been overnighting in our grow tunnel which provided a wonderfully cozy home under the raised plastic sheeting surrounded by rows and rows of young fresh lettuce to nibble.  We've taken off the plastic as the grow tunnel was overheating with the sunny days, and hopefully now the rabbit will move on.  Upon taking off the plastic I noticed the one end of the bed was at it's prime (we've been trying to eat up the salad greens in the greenhouse to make room for trays of tomato seedlings in there, so we haven't been checking the grow tunnel as much lately) - cilantro to full height, full heads of lettuce ready to harvest, swiss chard and red kale perfect for steaming, and chives ready to burst out any day into purple flower.  Today my young daughter and I sat in the garden path and had a feast of fresh salad "burritos", with chives, cilantro and parsley which she loved rolling into several layers of colourful greens.  Mmmmm.

Also some baking, to make room in the freezer and use up the last of our pumpkin from last season.   These moist and delicious gluten-free pumpkin cupcakes (see recipe below) for the various friends we have who are eating gluten-free these days, garnished with fresh violets picked by my little helper!... and since that same visiting rabbit, or maybe some squirrels, had neatly chopped off several stalks of rhubarb that were just starting to shoot up and left they laying in the path, I decided to make the first rhubarb pie of the season - topped off with a gorgeous dollop of Mapleton's organic ginger icecream (our best 100-mile source for icecream if you like dairy).  Happy spring eating!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I used 1 cup brown rice flour + 1/2 cup sweet sorghum flour)
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups pumpkin, pureed
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
3 tsp spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp xanthum gum (optional)

Mix all ingredients until just combined.  It will be a thick mixtures.  Scoop into lined muffin pans (makes 18).  Bake at 350F for aprox. 30 min.  I served them with cream cheese icing (cream cheese sweetened with maple syrup and a hint of lemon juice).

Local pear & pumpkin pie production

Full blown baking day today! 8 hours later...there were 14 pies (pumpkin and dutch pear) for our freezer, and 8 loaves of wholegrain sourdough for the neighbourhood bread delivery...whew!

Needless to say, our 100-mile dessert today was fresh pie!

Pear Sauce and other harvest adventures

This is my favourite time of year - the days are warm and mellow, the garden harvest is at it's peak, fall fruits that I love (pears, plums, apples, local grapes) have come into season, evenings are perfect for bonfires and cozy woolen sweaters, and we've pulled out our warm quilt for sleeping again. This weekend saw all of the above - lots of garden harvest, some canning and preserving, some baking, a toasty fire, cozy clothes, and a few long fall walks...

We canned up the bushel of pears, and will be making pear pie (dutch pear pie) tomorrow with a handful of pears left over. Below is the pear sauce recipe - very easy (it can even be done over two days, making the sauce one day and canning it the next) - and no sugar is added. We eat it with homemade yogurt and granola for breakfast, or as a dessert.

It was also time to pack the crock pickles (mentioned on this blog a few months ago when we started the crock) into jars - the flavours are just perfect and that is the point to put the pickles plus brine into jars in the fridge for longer storage. I have a friend who also just keeps these jars of fermented goodness in a dark cool storage area (non-refrigerated). I may have to try that as our fridge is pretty full these days. Fermenting foods is so simple, and so rewarding (and so healthful)! Like the sourdough starter that I've been experimenting with, it seems difficult to go wrong with it. Today's sourdough starter turned into 7 loaves and a large pan of sourdough cinnamon buns, and a pizza crust - this sourdough recipe is very versatile. Between fermented foods, sprouting indoors, winter kale, and our coldframe/greenhouse salad greens, I plan to get us through the winter months with fresh vitamin-mineral-enzyme rich locally produced food. The foods we've canned or put in the freezer will be a bonus too!

Easy Pear or Apple Sauce

Bushel of pears or apples
7-12 large mason jars, rings and lids

1) Wash, cut and core pears (or apples), but do not need to peel.
2) Slowly simmer pears with a little water in large pot until they are extremely soft (several hours). Remember to stir occasionally.
3) Puree pears into thick sauce and heat sauce, continuing to stir often so it does not burn.
4) Meanwhile prepare canner by heating water and sterilizing jars.
5) When canner of water is boiling, fill hot jars with hot pear sauce to within 1/2 inch from top (i.e. 1/2 inch "headspace"). Wipe rims to remove any stickiness.
6) Heat canning lids according to instructions on package (usually 5 minutes in boiling water to soften the seals). Fasten onto the hot jars tightening slightly ("finger tight").
7) Set jars in hot canner, and when water returns to boiling, boil for 20 minutes (20 minutes for 500 ml jars).
8) Take jars out, let sit for 24 hours to cool. Check to see that all lids have sealed (concave if sealed). Label and store for future use!

100-Mile Desserts: Mixed Berry Pie

I recently did some catering for a friend who was having all her grad students over for a start of term barbecue. The menu was local and seasonal, and featured locally made tamales, fresh corn on the cob, sangria with local fruit, and I added in dolmades made with wild grape leaves, a colourful heirloom tomato, basil & mozzarella salad, a roasted red pepper feta dip, and homemade aioli with seasonal vegetable platter.

For dessert the host had requested fruit tarts, which included rhubarb-raspberry, blueberry and cherry, and were served with whipped cream, edible flowers and mint sprigs. I made this fruit pie for our household with the leftover fruit mixture - this was our 100-mile dessert for the weekend!

100-Mile Desserts: Pear Upside Down Cake with Raw Whipped Cream

We been ordering late summer pears from Niagara through our buying club, and they have been sitting in bowls on the table looking gorgeous as they slowly ripened this past week. The plan was to make them into pear sauce for winter months, although we've also been enjoying fresh pears each day and the pile is dwindling. From my recent posts here it looks like I'm doing a lot of baking and not much else! We've had a number of guests in our B&B this past week and so I've had the chance to serve a variety of fresh baking to them, while also getting to photograph and blog about it :) I made a fresh pear upside down cake for our 100-mile dessert this week. The cake is usually a gingerbread variety, but I made it with local honey and maple syrup instead and it took on a darker almost pumpkin pie flavour. A friend dropped off a full 500 ml of fresh raw cream! This prompted me to bake this cake, so I could serve it with large dollops of this amazing fresh raw cream ontop (made into whipping cream, sweetened with local honey). Wow! Decadent! This recipe is a keeper - and it looks beautiful with slices of pears pressed into the dough once the cake is inverted. Here's the recipe (based on a similar one posted here about a year ago). This recipe is adapted from Simply in Season.

PEAR UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Syrup:

1/4 cup honey and/or maple syrup

1 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. water

2-3 ripe pears, cored and sliced

Cake Batter:

1/3 cup butter

1 egg

1 1/2 cups local flour (spelt)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup honey

1/2 cup milk or buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Prepare syrup by melting first four ingredients together in small saucepan. Stir until well combined. Pour into 8x12 glass baking dish.

3. Arrange sliced pears evenly on top of the syrup.

4. In medium sized mixing bowl, beat butter, sweetener and egg.

5. Mix all dry ingredients together in small bowl.

6. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with milk.

7. Spoon cake batter over pears in baking dish.

8. Bake about 30 to 35 minutes or until knife inserted in cake comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool a few minutes and turn onto a platter.

9. Serve warm or cold with homemade yogurt or whipped cream (with raw milk if you can get it!).

Makes eight servings.

100-Mile Desserts: Zucchini Muffins

Here is a 100-Mile recipe for simple, sugar-free, delectable zucchini muffins using local ingredients. It's zucchini season and if you grow them in your garden you are probably looking for new ways to use them up. They can also be shredded and put in the freezer for winter baking. Zucchini adds amazing moist texture to any baking - cakes, muffins, breads...(and of course these are easily embellished with other non-local ingredients like nuts, raisins, dates, chocolate chips, or cocoa - once the 100-mile diet challenge is over).

Zucchini Muffins
2 cups light spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1 cup maple syrup or honey (or half and half)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup applesauce*

* I actually didn't have enough applesauce, so I used 1/3 cup yogurt and 1 egg instead and they came out nicely. A touch of cocoa would be lovely, as zucchini and chocolate go nicely together. If you are using spices, then cinnamon, cloves and ginger is a nice compliment to these muffins.

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line two muffin pans.
2) Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. In another bowl combine syrup/honey, milk and oil. Pour wet into dry and stir well to combine. Then add in zucchin and applesauce and mix in gently.
3) Divide batter into 17-18 muffin cups (makes about 1.5 dozen medium sized muffins, or 1 dozen large muffins).
4) Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned and firm on top.

100-Mile Desserts: Cherry Pie

mmmm, we just had fresh 100-mile cherry pie, made with a double lattice spelt crust and served with organic icecream from Mapleton's dairy.

Life is so busy - no time to post the recipe now, but it's a simple unsweetened cherry (or other berry) pie (thickened with a little flour), with a crust made of organic spelt flour, egg, butter and water.

100-Mile Desserts: Fresh heirloom watermelon

Fruit season is so special! Although we do grow a variety of berries and fruit on our property, I had not planted watermelon this year. The melons, pumpkins and squashes tend to crowd out the rest of our garden, so alas, I just can't fit everything in! I want to experiment with growing them vertically on sturdy trellises next season. However, we are very fortunate to have the Bailey's Local Foods buying club in town, offering us 100-mile organic fruit! This week I picked up two watermelons, one an heirloom yellow variety, grown on nearby farms. What a treat! These were served to our bed & breakfast guests for brunch this morning, but would also make a lovely simple healthful (and beautiful) dessert option.

100-Mile Desserts: Peach & Blueberry Semifreddo

Here is a 100-mile dessert recipe using fresh peaches and blueberries that are in season right now. It's an Italian dessert, a frozen mousse, somewhere between rich creamy icecream and light fruity sorbet. It's a low-stress dessert as it can be made ahead of time and left in the freezer until you are ready to serve it. The recipe comes from the LCBO summer "food & drink" issue, and I've adapted it to be 100-mile (so no tropical coconut, mangoes or sugar as they suggest!)...here's the locavore version:

Peach & Blueberry Semifreddo
4-5 ripe peaches (about 2 lbs/1 kg) chopped
1/3 cup honey
4 large egg yolks
1 cup organic local whipping cream
1 cup blueberries

1) Oil a 1.25 litre loaf pan and line with smooth layer of plastic wrap.
2) Place peaches in blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.
3) Place 1 inch of water in bottom of double boiler or large pot, and bring to a simmer.
4) Combine honey and egg yolks in the top section oft he double boiler or a metal mixing bowl. Place over simmering water.
5) Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat honey and eggs until very thick and pale yellow, doubled in volume and hot but not boiling.
6) Remove egg mixture from heat, add pureed peaches and beat for 1 minute longer or until well combined and cool.
7) Place whiping cream in another mixing bowl and beat to soft peaks. Fold whipped cream into peach mixture. Then fold in blueberries.
8) Spoon peach mixture into loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days ahead of serving.
9) When ready to serve, dip base of pan into warm water to help loosen the semifreddo from the pan. Remove top layer of plastic wrap and pull on the plastic lining the sides of the pan to loosen. Invert semifreddo onto a serving plate and peel off any remaining plastic. Use a knife warmed in hot water to cut semifreddo into slices for serving.
10) Serve with a side of a small amount of berries or fruit salad.

100-Mile Desserts: Summer Birthday Cake and Urban Homesteading discussions

Today was our daughter's first birthday! We had a typical homesteading day full of projects (harvesting herbs, shelling peas, preparing for canning pickles, packaging soaps, working on our strawbale house in preparation for plaster work starting this weekend!), but we tried to make time for all her favourite activities - crawling in the grass looking for bugs, clover flowers and dandelions, picking raspberries to nibble, feeding the chickens and gathering the eggs, helping pull weeds, digging in the dirt and planting new seeds...and then taking time to decorate this 100-mile birthday cake. It was decorated with cream cheese-maple icing (no sugar), heart nuts grown in Niagara, and edible flowers and berries from our garden - and it was greatly enjoyed by all of us!

Today we also had a visit from a student in the distance education Food Security certificate program at Ryerson University. She was doing an interview with us for her final paper on urban agriculture. It was interesting to talk to her about the course, and for us to reflect on how and why our homestead has evolved, what obstacles we've encountered along the way, what kind of production we do here, and where we see ourselves going with future projects. This past weekend we had facilitated two workshops at the Hillside Festival on "urban homesteading: sustainable living in the city", which also both generated excellent conversation with participants and a huge turn-out (more than 50 people total!). We feel lucky to get to talk about the homesteading life, and continue to be encouraged by the ideas and suggestions of others who we meet.

Some homesteads/urban agriculture initiatives that have inspired us include:
- Path to Freedom (Pasadena, CA)
- Rhizome Collective (Austin, TX)
- Fairview Gardens Farm & Centre for Urban Agriculture (Santa Barbara)
- City Farmer (Vancouver, BC)
- urban agriculture in general in Portland, OR (especially city chickens and fruit harvest)
- Life Cycles (Victoria, BC)
- FoodShare (Toronto, ON)

100-Mile Desserts: Cherry & Oat Cookies

Here's another very simple cookie recipe, which can be adated to any fruit (apple slices, peaches, apricots, cherries, berries), jams or apple butter filling. They are based on the classic "thumbprint" cookie. We liked the cherry and oat combination....
Cherry & Oat Cookies

2 cups organic spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup large oats
12 cherries, pitted and sliced in halves

1) Preheat oven to 350F.
2) Combine dry ingredients. In separate bowl combine wet ingredients.
3) Pour wet into dry and gently stir to combine.
4) The dough will be quite sticky. Drop small spoonfuls onto 2 oiled baking sheets.
5) Press thumb gently into centre of cookie leaving small indentation. Fill with half of a cherry or 1 tsp jam.
6) Bake 12 minutes, or until golden.

Makes aprox. 24 cookies.

100-Mile Desserts: Spelt Crepes

Well it's fresh fruit season, so let's make the most of it! Today's breakfast was delectable - crepes made of organic spelt flour, covered with fresh berries, edible flowers (johnny-jump-ups, and borage) and local organic whipped cream. Hardly our usual breakfast - which tends to be organic oatmeal with homemade applesauce and local maple syrup - but we had a fridge full of beautiful berries including ones picked from our own backyard (currants, gooseberries, raspberries) so these crepes were on the menu. They would make a lovely dessert as well.

Organic Spelt Crepes - serves 4

1 cup organic spelt flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk

1) Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and whisk well until lots of small bubbles form.
2) Preheat cast iron skillet and lightly coat with oil. It is helpful to oil pan before making each crepe so they don't stick.
3) Pour 2-3 Tbsp batter into the pan, and quickly rotate so batter covers entire skillet.
4) Bake 1-2 minutes for first side, then gently flip crepe and cook about 30 seconds more for second side.
5) Remove from skillet and roll up.
6) Either serve with an inside filling, or top with fresh fruit and whipped cream or yogurt.

Makes 10 medium sized crepes.

100-Mile Desserts: Fruity Herbal Iced Tea

Here is a very simple drink that is not really a dessert, but because it looks lovely garnished with fruit is can definitely be served as a special treat perfect for a hot summer's day. To make herbal iced tea, simply pick a handful of your favourite garden herb and steep as you would for making hot tea (either by solar infusion for 12 hours, or in a tea pot with boiling water 5-15 minutes). Mint, lemon balm, anise hyssop, fennel, red clover and red raspberry leaves are my favourites for iced tea blends. Then add honey or maple syrup to sweeten, ice cubes, slices of fresh berries or fruit, and a sprig of mint and - voila!

100-Mile Desserts: Edible Flowers

There are so many edible flowers in bloom right now, that a post needed to be written offering these as a creative solution to sprucing up your 100-Mile desserts. Edible flowers are beautiful when added as decoration to cakes and cupcakes, or other fancy desserts that need a special or elegant touch. Edible flowers can also be added to drinks such as glasses of herbal iced tea, lemonades, or sangria. I love to add them to green garden salads for nice colour, flavour and texture. The garden salad pictured above was from lunch today - garden greens (4 kinds of lettuce, green and purple lamb's quarters, red orach, spinach, mustard greens), fresh peas, radish, cherry tomato, green onion, dill, basil, plus edible violas, bergamot, and borage flowers.

Of course when picking your edible flowers, make sure you are propery identifying the plant. Many plants look quite similar, but may in fact not be edible at all (or even toxic to eat)! If you are not sure, ask someone who is more knowledgeable, or consult a professional plant ID book that shows pictures of stem, leaf and flower. We like to use the Peterson's Field Guide to Eastern and Central Medicinal/Edible Plants as it offers colour photography of each plant, and includes descriptions of the plants in different stages as well as their many uses. Stalking the Wild Asparagus, by Euell Gibbons is also a classic for wild food harvesting, and there is a more recent book called The Neighbourhood Forager, by Robert Henderson, which offers great ideas on plants to be found in urban areas.

Many of these edible flowers will be growing in your own garden or herb patch. Some garden vegetables have edible flowers (e.g. pea blossoms, squash blossoms, cilantro flowers, broccoli flowers). Also other common edible herbs and flowers include: roses, dandelion, chickweed, bergamot, lavender, calendula, marigold, borage, nasturtium, sage, basil flowers, and more.

100-Mile Desserts: Mulberry-Cherry Scones

Not only is mid July mulberry season, but also cherry season...

Cherries are such an adaptable fruit - excellent chopped into muffins, cakes, crisps, fresh on cereal or oatmeal, made into smoothies, added to icecream, yogurt or sorbets, or dried and used in cookies or eaten as a dried fruit snack. They also freeze well - last year we bought a cherry pitter, which made the pitting process so much quicker than cutting the flesh off the pit by hand. The pitter is handcrank, with a large funnel ontop where you drop the cherries, and then by cranking the pit is extracted and the freshly hulled cherry falls into a bowl below. Very simple. The pitter is available at Lee Valley, Berry Hill Farm, or from the local Home Hardware store. Worth the investment if you are making cherry jam, or dealing with cherries in large quantities for winter storage.

Here's a cherry-mulberry scone recipe we made for breakfast this morning. The scones only use a few ingredients and take less than 15 minutes to bake, so they are the perfect quick recipe for unexpected visitors, a simple breakfast, or even to make while camping (they could be baked over a fire in a frying pan with lid on). They are adapted from a recipe called "world's best whole-wheat biscuits". They are nice eaten plain, or served with butter (or even jam).

Mulberry-Cherry Scones

1 1/4 cups flour, plus a little more for rolling out dough
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk or cream
fruit of choice (we used a small handful each of cherries and mulberries)

1) Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2) In large bowl sift together dry ingredients.
3) Using a fork, gradually stir in syrup and milk until soft dough forms.
4) Add fruit pieces and then knead dough on floured surface about 10 times.
5) Pat into a circle or rectangle about 1/2 inch thick, and using a knife cut into rounds, squares or triangles. Make sure fruit is distributed fairly evenly between scones, or press a few extra fruit pieces into the scones. Dust with additional flour.
6) Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Do not overbake.

Makes 12-14 scones.

100-Mile Desserts: Four Fruit Crisp

It's mulberry season! We've been out wild-harvesting the mulberries, and in this region they are not hard to find as these trees grow fairly abundantly, though often unnoticed and unpicked. They do take quite a bit of work to harvest as the berries are small and need nimble fingers to be plucked off the tree. Once ripened, they drop quickly and so it's often easiest to gather them from an undisturbed area on the ground. It's a juicy mess, including purple stained knees, shoes and fingers! But well worth the effort to have the berries for baking or smoothies later in the winter months. I also baked a few 100-mile desserts using the fresh mulberries...here's the recipe for a four fruit crisp, and in the next post the recipe for mulberry-cherry scones. The crisp can be made vegan if you leave out the butter and add extra oil. We just heard about a source for locally produced sunflower oil (from a farm near London) so now we have another source beyond always using local canola.

Four Fruit Crisp - adapted from Simply in Season

1 1/2 cups each of four kinds of fruit (we used apples, rhubarb, cherries and mulberries)
1 1/2 cups local organic flour
1 1/2 cups local organic oats
6 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp canola or sunflower oil
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey

1) Mix fruit together in a 10-inch deep baking or pie pan.
2) Mix the flour, oats, butter, oil and sweetener together in a large bowl. Blend until crumbly.
3) Evenly sprinkle topping over the fruit.
4) Bake in prepared oven at 375F until fruit bubbles and top is golden brown, about 30 min.

Serves 8.

Would be lovely served warm with locally made organic icecream, like Mapletons (does that count as 100-Mile??)

100-Mile Desserts: Carrot Cake/Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Everyone says they have the perfect carrot cake recipe, but this is really one of the best sugar-free versions I've tasted. It could be vegan (if you weren't eating 100-mile and used non-dairy milk). It is adapted from the Candle Cafe Cookbook. It does not contain eggs, and is wheat-free. The cream cheese icing is very simple, and again sugar-free. I made the recipe into cupcakes instead of cake today, and sprinkled some 100-mile hazelnuts that we got last fall on half the cupcakes. They were more like moist muffins.

I wanted to make a small test batch of the icing recipe, so I just drizzled a little of the icing on the rest, but it could be made much thicker and swirled on in a more elaborate way. Garnished with edible flowers like calendula, borage or nasturtium, these cupcakes/cake would be gorgeous! As it's healthy, yet moist and decadent-tasting, I think this will be the celebration cake I make for our daughter's first birthday in a few weeks!

Carrot Cake/Cupcakes

2 cups organic spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups coarsely shredded organic carrots
1/2 cup organic apple or pear sauce

1) Preheat oven to 350F.
2) In a large mixing bowl mix dry ingredients together.
3) In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients together.
4) Pour wet into dry and stir gently just to combine.
5) Divide the batter into 2 lightly greased and floured cake pans (9-inch). OR for cupcakes divide the batter into 12 muffin tins (lined with paper, or lightly greased).
6) Bake for 30 minutes (for cupcakes) or 35 minutes (for cake) until a cake tester comes out clean when inserted in centre of cake/cupcakes.
7) Remove from oven and let cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting
In a food process or blender beat together:
8 ounces local cream cheese, softened
with enough apple juice or cider to create a frosting consistency
and a little maple syrup or honey to sweeten (to taste)

100-Mile Desserts: Blueberry-Lavender Muffins

Blueberries and lavender - who would have known this made such a nice combination? This is a very versatile fruit/berry muffin recipe, which makes a dozen beautiful moist muffins! Here is my 100-Mile version, and as the season varies you can substitute raspberries, cherries, peach slices, apples, etc. I used fresh lavender from our garden, and blueberries that I still had in our freezer from last year (organic blueberries picked at a farm near London).

This recipe is adapted from two of my favourite vegan cookbooks - Simple Treats, and ExtraVeganza. I usually make these muffins vegan (using rice milk) but now to adapt to the 100 Mile Diet there is dairy included instead. They are still egg-free.

Blueberry-Lavender Muffins

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup maple sugar (can be found at the farmer's market sometimes)
3 1/2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole fresh (or frozen, unthawed) blueberries
1/4 cup fresh lavender flowers (or 1/8 cup dried lavender)

Note: if using frozen berries do not thaw before adding to the batter - unless you want completely blue muffin batter.

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Oil 12-cup muffin pan.
2) Mix oil, syrup, milk, vinegar in a small bowl.
3) In separate bowl place maple sugar, flour, baking soda & powder, and salt.
4) Whisk wet into dry ingredients. Do not overwork the batter or muffins will be dry.
5) Fold in 1/2 cups blueberries and lavender. Again do not overmix.
6) Finish mixing with spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.
7) Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Place 2-3 whole berries on top of each muffin.
8) Bake 20 minutes, rotate pan, and bake 5 minutes longer. The knife inserted in centre of muffin should come out clean when they are done.
9) Let cool for 15 minutes then remove from pan.

Substitute other berries or fruit as it comes into season. Rhubarb, mulberries, cherries, raspberries, peaches, apples, pears, and so on...

100-Mile Desserts: Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

Along with our wood-fired pizza (see previous post) we also baked some dessert. A friend had made an apple crisp, and we made a batch of 100-mile peanut butter cookies. Finally, a local dessert recipe that is vegan-friendly (no eggs or dairy!). It's nice to use the heat of the oven while we have it. Here is the recipe - very quick and simple to make. Ours were wood-fired, but here is the household oven version:

Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Simple Treats)

3/4 cup rolled organic oats, ground to a powder
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp canola oil
1 cup organic spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
2) In separate bowl mix wet ingredients, stirring until smooth.
3) Pour wet into the dry ingredients and stir until everything is well incorporated.
4) Bake for about 15 minutes on well oiled baking sheets, until cookies are golden brown.
5) Let cool about 5 minutes before removing from baking sheets.

Makes 12 large cookies.

100-Mile Desserts: Profiteroles with Fruit Whipped Cream

We heard from our favourite local organic strawberry farmer that this season has not been so good for strawberries. With the late frost during the first week of June, and the extremely hot weather that followed, the berries are now all but over. Luckily, we did manage to put several quarts into our freezer for winter use, but for now we are just trying to enjoy the last of the fresh berries in as many ways as possible. The 100-Mile Dessert recipe for today was profiteroles (cream puffs), filled with a honey-sweetened whipped cream and fresh berries. The recipe comes from the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts, slightly modified to meet our 100-mile criteria. They are an impressive, yet not difficult dessert to make and can be filled with a variety of sauces, creams or fruit. Here's how to make them:

Profiteroles with Fruit Whipped Cream

1 cup water
5 Tbsp organic butter
1 cup unbleached organic flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp maple syrup
4 large eggs

1) Preheat oven to 400F. The key to successful puffs is to have the high heat that quickly expands the egg-rich dough.
2) In a sauce pan bring water, butter and maple syrup to a boil.
3) Then add the flour and salt, stirring constantly to get a nice smooth dough.
4) Remove from heat and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes.
5) Beat in one egg at a time, stirring well to bring the sticky clumpy dough back into a smooth consistency. It can also be blended in a food processor for a few seconds to make a smooth dough.
6) Lightly oil baking sheet. Drop mounds of dough 2 inches apart on the sheet. Use about 1/4 cup dough for large profiteroles, or 2 1/2 Tbsp for small ones.
7) Bake for 10 minutes at 400F, then reduce heat and bake at 350F for another 15 minutes.
8) Restrain yourself from opening the oven until the profiteroles are done - otherwise, you risk the puffs not rising properly!
9) When the puffs are firm, let them cool and then score a horizontal cut about 1/3 of the way through the middle of the puff.
10) Fill with favourite cream or sauce and replace the top - we used 500 ml organic whipping cream blended with 2 Tbsp honey, and then mixed in 2 cups fresh strawberry slices.

Makes about 12 large profiteroles or 20 small ones.