best applesauce (from foraged fruit)!

Apple season is upon us, the early apples at any rate.  Our old tree out back is FULL, just absolutely full this year with lovely little apples.  They are not pretty by store standards, but they are our free apples, a generous harvest that we gratefully accept each year from this old tree!  The apples taste tart with a slightly sweet tinge if you pick one that is perfectly ripe, but the squirrels seem to know and knock the apples down a day or two before they really are ready to be picked by us humans.  So, I've been gathering the apples from the ground, which really is so much easier than trying to climb up into that huge old tree.  These are just right for applesauce, a ritual we have around here starting every August and continuing on well into October, with any apples we can get our hands onto.  I love to imagine the members of the  who first planted this apple tree, also picking and making applesauce to keep their household well-stocked over the winter.  We love this applesauce on our pancakes, with yogurt and granola in the morning, or simply as a healthy snack.

How we make our applesauce with our gathered/foraged fruit - the simple method:

You need:
apples
water
large pot and lid
chopping knife
cutting board
dash of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pinch of nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla (optional, or try each one)

Method:
1) Core and chop apples, and cut away any parts that you think are overly ripe or blemished.
2) Place apple chunks (with peel on -this adds texture and colour to the sauce) into pot with a bit of water to cover the bottom.
3) Heat on medium with lid on to help steam the apples to soften them.  Stir occasionally.  Add more water so there is enough liquid that apples don't stick to bottom of the pot.
4) Add cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, or vanilla - optional, based on your taste.
5) When apples are softened you can leave the sauce chunky, or puree it in a food mill or food processor.
6) Ladle into glass mason jars leaving 1/2 inch space at top (minimum) and store in fridge or freezer.  This sauce can also be canned in hot water bath according to proper canning procedures.

Spring wild edibles are all around you!

Last weekend we had a second installment of our Spring Wild Edibles Foraging class here.  Holding this several weeks after the first session (on the same topic) was really interesting as we could see a vast change in the plants available, the new growth that has sprung up rapidly from all the warm sun we've been having.  What were just hints of leaves and buds a few weeks ago, were now fully formed flowers, leaves and perfectly sized young roots for harvesting.  Some wild spring plants we discussed in the class, such as fiddleheads and ramps (wild garlic), were already past their prime by now as they really only have a tiny window of the ideal harvesting time.  Fiddleheads literally become inedible when they are too big as they move into becoming ferns, and can make us quite sick. 

So, in this workshop it was stressed by our facilitator that it's not only having excellent plant identification skills (and remembering there are many look-alikes to be aware of), but also knowing how and when the timing is right to harvest, how much to harvest (and what not to harvest at all, tempting as it can be, because it's at risk of being over harvested - like wild ginger and ramps in some of our woodlands).  Then of course it's important to know how to prepare the wild plant.  For example, can it be eaten fresh or does it need to be cooked in several changes of water?  What parts can be eaten (roots, leaves, buds, flowers, bark, shoots)?   Can it be fermented or dried to be preserved for later? 

Plants that are edible and all around us right now - in this spring workshop we enjoyed nettles (leaves - in tea or cooked into sauces, steamed), dandelion (flowers in salads and baking, leaves in salads, roots in tea or stir-fried), dock (roots in stir-fry), cedar tips, pine tips and spruce buds (now will be past their prime, but can be made into drinks and brews, or nibbled cautiously), wild grape (leaves to be eaten as stuffed grape leaves, tendrils to be eaten fresh, and soon grapes to be eaten or made into jelly), wood sorrel (leaves that taste like lemon added into salad), purslane (leaves into salads), wild strawberries, violets, lamb's quarters,  red clover....

Please get yourself a great foraging book to ID plants before getting started - the Newcombe's Guide, or Peteron's Guide, or Lone Pine Guides, are all great plant identification resources -- or best of all, start by foraging with another knowledgeable person to learn side-by-side before you venture out on your own.

For those interested in this topic - we'll be having a Fall Wild Edibles class here at Little City Farm on Sept 19.  More details on our website - please sign up and come to join us!

Happy foraging!

Wild apple bounty

The past few days have seen baskets and bins of apples piling up on our counters.  The wild apple harvest is on, and this year is proving to be an bountiful one.  We've taken to carrying extra bags with us everywhere we go, just in case we need to do some spontaneous foraging.  We, as a family, have gathered fruit from at least 10 different types of apple trees in various locations around town, all which are walkable or bikeable from our place.  There is such abundance hidden in the city, and I love sharing this experience with our daughter.  We often meet others who are also wild foraging, including a group yesterday who was picking wild apples for their annual cider-making event. 

I just love the different colours, textures and tastes - the red and white striped markings on the apples held in the hand below is especially pretty.  Our own big old apple tree is in it's fullest year yet.  Most of these apples we use for sauce, since they do have blemishes and are not long-keeping varieties - and occasionally there is a pie.  Mmmmmm, pie.   That makes today an exceptional day.

Mulberries and urban fruit foraging

Our mulberry tree is finally producing - we have both a male and female tree in our yard, both planted not by us but by birds dropping seeds.  It's one of the nice surprises we got when we started tending our overgrown part of the yard (former driveway) that was behind our strawbale house addition after the building project was done. The male doesn't produce fruit, but the female tree is loaded with berries this year.  This tree is already high enough that the top branches need to be harvested by ladder, but luckily the low branches droop down and many higher berries fall to the ground when ripe.  There is certainly more than enough for us to gather.

It reminds us of the many forgotten fruit trees, berries and other wild edibles all around our city, left over from old orchards or planted in parks, boulevards or yards.  Just in walking distance right in our own neighbourhood, the service berries lining the boulevard of the next street over are in full swing with delicious berries just low enough to reach when you walk by on the sidewalk; there are several large mulberries in a park nearby; wild grapes and raspberries are growing all along the old railway line; and an old apple orchard with 4 well-producing trees is behind an older factory.  This is not even considering all the fruit trees that may be forgotten in yards where homeowners no longer tend them.  Our cities are full of food, and we could be much more organized in planting, tending and harvesting it.  In many cities there are urban harvesting groups that are banding together to collect these delicious resources - Not Far From the Tree in Toronto is a wonderful example.

Neighourhood fruit gleaning

This week we have been processing apples and pears, gleaned from the backyards of neighbours.  The pears arrived on our doorstep without us even needing to search for them!  Already picked, perfectly ripened, they were grown in the yard of a 70+ year old neighbour who has been pruning and tending his pear trees for decades.  He preferred to pick them himself, but needed to find homes for them to be used. We were more than happy to welcome the bushel into our home, in exchange for freshly baked bread and the promise to bring him a taste of something we make with the pears.  Seemed more than fair to us!  There are many urban fruit tree gleaning/harvesting projects across North America, some of which we've written about before.  These are wonderful ways to use up the bountiful often abandoned fruits that are available throughout our cities.  Check out: 
Not Far From the Tree (Toronto, ON)
Life Cycles Fruit Tree Project (Victoria, BC)
Portland Fruit Tree Project (Portland, OR)
Community Fruit Tree Project (Berkeley, CA)

Healing power of herbs! Urban Wild Foods Recipe 2: Stinging Nettle Tea

Well, we thought we'd celebrate our successful seedling sale by ordering a special treat of Indian food. Very tasty, but about an hour after eating I broke out in itchy red hives! Upon reading about the possible causes of hives, I found out they are related to allegies (food allergies, seasonal allegies), stress, and various other factors. Connection to restaurant food with examples such as Indian food, Thai food or Chinese food, are common due to the MSG which is often used at these establishments. I should have known - MSG is not only usually hidden in the spice blends, but also in the red and yellow dyes which are sometimes used to colour the curries, etc. MSG is so prevalent in most processed foods that I basically need to stay away from anything with suspect labelling (MSG is hidden under various names and guises), not that I mind as we try to eat a fresh local seasonal diet when we're at home - but it makes going to restaurants treacherous sometimes.

So I tried a few home remedies to deal with the itchy hives - baking soda poultices (short-term relief), homeopathic gel for bites (not effective), and then I drank the miraculous stinging nettle tea. Within about half an hour of taking one strong cup of this tea all the itching subsided and swelling/redness was greatly reduced! It's actually interesting that this healing action is similar to the homeopathic approach - which may seem counterintuitive to some people - that of using a plant which causes a reaction in the body to heal the same condition. For example, the nettle plant can causes red, stinging itching welts (similar to hives) when it's picked without caution. However, taking nettle internally (as tea) over time can build an immunity to this stinging, and drinking nettle tea can also heal hives. In homeopathic medicine there are many such examples, e.g. apis (made from the body of the honeybee) is the main healing remedy for bee stings. Also, I remember seeing this same principle in action while I was working at the Algonquin Tea Company up near Ottawa. If one observes a plant and our reactions to a plant closely, it is possible to give a well-educated guess at it's healing properties. We were washing the dirt off of a massive pile of astragalus root that had just been harvested. While we were cleaning the astragalus root it caused our noses to run and eyes to water - and it turns out that astragalus root is an amazing plant which has been used for centuries in healing colds, flu and breathing problems. Interesting! We only need to take the time to observe plants, understand them and learn from them - the plants will teach us.

Back to the nettle plant - I am so fortunate to have this wonderous plant growing in our woodland section at the back of the yard. Nettle has many healing properties, including being a blood purifier (which means it helps to heal inflammation, eczema, arthritis, etc by tackling these conditions internally). Many herbal sources recommend to take a strong nettle infusion for a week, at least 2 times per year (generally best in spring when it's freshly available) to help with this blood purification. Nettle is also rich in iron, minerals, calcium (increasing bone density) etc etc. It can be made into a soup (cream of nettle is nice), added into sauces or steamed. I made a nettle-kopita last year that we are still talking about. Definitely need to do that again!

But to keep things really simple, the wild food recipe for this weekend is an easy one - nettle tea. Here is how to make a strong healing infusion, which can be taken hot, cool or as iced tea.

May 23: Nettle Tea
Steep 1 large handful of fresh nettle leaves in 2 cups of water that has just boiled. Let steep for at least 30 minutes. This creates a strong medicinal infusion. Sweeten if desired with honey or organic sugar. Drink 1-2 cups nettle tea per day for one week, as a spring blood purification tonic. The root of nettle is also very potent, if not more so than then leaves, so harvest this carefully if you have access to some fresh plants. Root can be made into a tincture (steeped in an alcohol base), or a decoction (boiled in water like a strong earthy tea).

It's the season for urban maple tapping!

It's maple syrup season around this part of Ontario (has been for a few weeks, and in fact is almost over by now). A nearby town, Elmira, held it's annual maple syrup festival last weekend, and the thousands of visitors that flooded the town to take part in tours of sugar shacks and a free pancake breakfast definitely signifiy how much maple syrup is part of our national psyche - a Canadian trademark, the flowing sap announcing spring and allowing us to celebrate a short, sweet, almost sacred harvest from our iconic maple trees.

And, across the country urban foragers are also tapping into this wonderful syrup bounty - with urban maple tapping (as well as other trees, such as birch or black walnut) becoming increasingly common in urban neighbourhoods. Exciting - though not a job to take lightly! Tapping trees takes patience and diligence, not to mention the nearly 24 hour vigil of boiling down the sap on a fire into beautiful amber-golden syrup. This makes for a great community effort as there is plenty of time for socializing as you boil down the sap or check your neighbourhood taps each day. As it takes aproximately 40 gallons of sugar maple sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup, each precious teaspoonful should be carefully reverently savoured.

Urban maple tapping projects are going on in many cities across North America. Brooklyn boasts it's own "made in Brooklyn maple syrup". In Winnipeg not only sugar maples are tapped, but also Manitoba maples, birch trees and black walnuts for a delectable combination syrup. Not Farm From the Tree, a non-profit organization in Toronto, sells "I'd tap that - syrup in the city" t-shirts and coordinates groups of volunteers to help with tapping across the city. They largely tap Norway maples, which, although producing a lower ratio of sap to syrup, are more hardy in the city than sugar maples.

More links for urban maple tapping projects - read these exciting stories:

http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/779756--urban-maple-tapping-project-pays-off-in-syrup

http://www.notfarfromthetree.org/archives/1219

http://themapletap.com/urban/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/aunt-jemima-no-more-foodies-make-their-own-maple-syrup/article1510312/

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/urban-harvesting-maple-syrup.html

I’d Tap That t-shirts (proceeds go to Not Far From the Tree)

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=41332279

100-Mile Thanksgiving Feast...in Manitoba, AND the Landless Farmers Collective

I had the fortunate opportunity to travel out west to see family over Thanksgiving. Manitoba is a province that is proud of its farmers, having always been supportive of their local growers and producers. The 100-Mile / eating locally / locavore idea has caught on quickly, with many more tasty options available than would at first have been imagined in a province with long winters and shorter growing season than Ontario. In particular, I found there are many more locally grown organic grains available, as well as some exciting urban farm initiatives going on in Winnipeg.

My family has been happily growing, picking, sourcing, and preserving local foods all season and treated us to an amazing harvest feast. Here's what we had...

From my parent's garden: fresh garden tomatoes, and grapes saved from the last grapevine,
From a friend's organic farm and preserved by my mom: homemade crab-apple sauce, pickled cucumbers and beets, apples and lentils for a vegetarian salad, peas and corn,
From a local organic grain farm and baked by my mom: homemade bread (made of local grains - rye, spelt, wheat, flax), with local butter,
From my sister's partners urban farm (an very innovative project called the Landless Farmers Collective): potatoes, herbs, kale, and homemade apple cider from wildcrafted apples,
From another nearby farm: for the carnivores a free-range turkey,
For dessert of course there were homemade local apple and pumpkin pies, with whole wheat crusts, and a taste of maple syrup from urban tapping of 10 downtown maple trees,
and I brought along herbal tea from our garden. Mmmmm...

More on the Landless Farmers Collective - they are a group of 4 people who had been farming with an organic CSA just outside of the city. They decided to do an urban farm (market garden and CSA) this season, and be able to deliver the produce by bicycle, trailer and cargo bicycle. They approached the city about using a large parcel of downtown land, just infront of the Pan Am Centre and near a highschool. They received approval to till up the land, and set up about 1/2 an acre of raised beds in permaculture style. The garden is gorgeous, with curves and spirals, and not many straight-lined rows to be seen. The group received several grants to help with capital costs (trailers, storage bins, tools), including money from the city, province and also Heifer International. Not a small feat, to be planning a huge garden, marketing your sales, working with volunteers and the community, and also applying for grant money! That's another reason why a collective of four people works well, using each of their strengths in different ways to get the various aspects of the project done. The Landless Farmers Collective also values education, and worked with teachers at the highschool to bring the students out of the classroom and into the garden throughout the season. The week I was in Winnipeg, the group had their last session with the students, showing them the final harvest, talking about winter gardening, demonstrating hands-on seed saving, and reiterating the problems in our global food system, the importance of local food security (and what we can do about it locally). A very inspiring project!