Elderberry Flowers...Much less sinister than the Elder Wand

This week's pick up included elderberry flowers. They're commonly used in Eastern Europe for desserts because of their sweetness. We smelled them and Kristin had the genius idea to make an apple crisp. The smell of them seemed like it would go well with apples so we thought we'd give it a try.


We started by peeling and cutting up Gala and Golden Delicious apples (my mom always says it's best to use more than one kind of apple for baking). We piled them in a baking dish and mixed in the elderberry flower blossoms with a sprinkle of cinnamon and several pats of butter on top.

We mixed up the crumbles for the top using cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, a combo of wheat and white flour, and butter (or the butter substitute of your choice). We intended to put oatmeal in it too, but forgot...whoops! It was sprinkled on the top and baked at 325 for about a half hour. 

It turned out fabulous. The elderberry flowers give the apple crisp a delicate, flowery taste. If you can get your hands on some elderberry flowers, I'd definitely recommend making an apple crisp. They're also commonly used in pancakes, crepes, compotes, and teas, which I'd love to try next time though. 


For anyone wondering about my nerdy reference in the title of this blog, you can go read up on the Elder Wand. 

Classic Carrie

It's crucial to get a bite with everything on it

I made this salsa recently and thought I would blog about it even though it doesn't actually have any ingredients from the farm. Many of them could be from our farm, but it's still too early in the season. Anytime I need a dish-to-pass, this is what I bring. I'm not completely sure where it originated, but I've adapted it over the years. Among my friends, it's often known as "Carrie's Salsa," but if you find a new group of people to share it with, maybe you can get it started as {insert your name here}'s salsa. It's literally so good that my college roommate Jenna and I had to start a "two chip" rule for whenever we made it for something, meaning we were only allowed two chips each to taste it. Otherwise, there was a good chance we'd never stop! Occasionally, we'd run out of tortilla chips and still have some salsa left. My other college roommate Becky started eating it with saltine crackers. At first I thought I was too good for that, but desperate times call for desperate measures! 

It's easy to make and hard to mess up. I've tried all sorts of variations over the years and it's always turned out great. The only mistake I ever made was adding too much onion and even then, it was still decent. First, chop up 2-3 tomatoes, about 1/2 of a medium-sized red onion, and an avocado. Put them all in a bowl, add a can of corn and a can of drained black beans, and mix it all together. I recommend adding chopped fresh cilantro to taste, but it turns out pretty well without it too. 

The last step is to prepare Good Seasons Italian dressing (or Meijer brand -- a little cheaper and tastes the same) according to the directions on the box. You'll need 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Mix that up separately and then pour it over the salsa. It's best if it sits for a little bit so the dressing can soak into the veggies (if you can wait that long). Serve with chips and it's an instant party favorite. 

Lessons from the Farm

I spent the better part of my growing up years (3rd - 12th grade) in small-town Hudsonville. They claim their fame as "Michigan's Salad Bowl." A lot of farming still goes on around there in the muck fields, despite the growing suburban feel. Our house was in a subdivision that was separated from a small farm by a little strip of woods. They had corn and later cows. As kids, we'd run through the corn rows and cross-country ski in the winter. In spite of these experiences with rural America, the things I managed to learn about farming up to this point are only three-fold: 

1. It perpetually smells like onions in Hudsonville, especially on a hot day.

2. If you drive by a certain spot in the right season, you can buy an enormous bag of onions for only $1.

3. Muck will always find its way into your house on a windy day, even if you keep the windows closed.

Admittedly, not a whole lot. Lately though, I've been inundated with new farming knowledge. I've got farming metaphors coming at me from all sides. In light of this interest I have in farming, I thought I would spend the next few posts sharing a few of the things that I've learned while we wait for our next CSA pick up. A lot of this is inspired by new knowledge from the farm and from the current series at Radiant Church: Roots, about maturing and becoming rooted in Christ. 

Farming takes patience!
The farming process takes a lot of up-front work before any crops are harvested. Farmers have to plant, cultivate, till, and all sorts of other verbs that I vaguely understand the meaning of. This idea of putting lots of time in before seeing any sort of reward runs counter to our tendencies as a culture to want to see results NOW. I recently joined the smart phone club, which lends itself to a growing inability to wait for anything because all information is available at my fingertips at 3G speed (except for when I'm in Grand Rapids and can use 4G). This CSA experience has the opposite effect. Every week, we have to wait and see what's ready to be harvested. It can't be rushed. I'm discovering it's not all bad to wait for things that are worthwhile. Fresh veggies are just one example. Spiritual growth is also a process that requires patience. My relationship with God doesn't come all at once. It grows and deepens over time. From the moment the seed of God's word was planted in my life, it began to grow. I can't just leave it and forget it. I have to invest the time to get to know God more, to cultivate the faith that is growing and maturing in me. The Bible talks about people who "bear fruit." Just like it takes time for plants to bring forth their harvest, it takes time for the "fruit" of my life to develop. I have to press into God and trust him to work out the process in me. 


John 15:4-5 "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Things my mother never fed me

My mom suffered through all manner of vegetables and gross things (liver...eewww!) as a kid. As a result of all of those scars on her gastronomical palate, she never exposed us to the same things when we were growing up. From time to time, I find something that has a bad rep, but I've never actually tried before. This week one of our items from the farm was turnips. I have to admit I've never actually tasted one. It must be one of those things my mom avoided. I tried it raw and found it to be similar to radishes (which I don't like), but better. It wasn't as bitter of a taste. My roommate Kristin and I boiled them and added a little butter (actually it was a soy-based butter substitute, but who can tell the difference in something like that) and I LOVED them. Who knew? They remind me a little bit of cooked cauliflower. They were especially good with some of the greens left on them. I highly recommend turnips! Maybe kids can even try them and not be scarred for life...

Opa!

Before I go into the details of my Greek inspired meal from this week's harvest, a little note on my overall cooking style: I consider recipes to be suggestions. I don't really measure when I cook (baking is a different story) so when I tell how I do things, I will rarely give precise measurements. I hope you will consider this inspiration for your own cooking experiments and modify things to your taste. 

Our veggies for the week: 

Grape leaves

Pac choi

Tatsoi

Salad turnips

Today's recipe uses only the grape leaves. Our pac choi and tatsoi started to get wilty really fast. I'm not sure if I can revive it. I may have to make it into a stir fry or something later, which will have to be for a later post.

I wanted to make stuffed grape leaves as soon as I saw that they were an option at the pick up this week. Farmer Pete promised that with fresh grape leaves, we wouldn't have the sour taste that I've noticed before with grape leaves. 

First, I had to remove the stems from the grape leaves and blanch them, meaning briefly submerge them in boiling water (3 minutes-ish). This softens them and changes the color. Then, I made the rice mixture to stuff them with. I started by sauteing diced red onion, about 1 1/2 cups of long grain rice, fresh mint, and fresh parsley (dill or tarragon might also be good) in a saucepan. After the onions were starting to look ready, I added enough chicken broth to cook the rice in (about 1 cup; vegetable broth would work too) and squeezed out a lemon into the pan, letting it simmer together. Once the rice was cooked through, I wrapped a spoonful of the mixture into each grape leaf at the base where the stem had been connected. It works well to put the shinier side facing down and fold both sides in before rolling it up. I had about 12 grape leaves and I had plenty of rice mixture leftover. I put the rolled grape leaves into a saucepan and covered them with more chicken broth and the rest of the lemon juice that I could squeeze out. Then I let them simmer on low for about 30 minutes. At first, I had the heat too high and some of them burst, so make sure you keep the heat low enough. I was able to save most of them and they looked and tasted great - lots of flavor! As a bonus, they're only 1 weight watcher point for 2 stuffed grape leaves.

I was lucky enough to have a sous-chef (Nathan visiting all the way from Omaha!) who made a fabulous Greek salad to go along with our stuffed grape leaves.

So far, many of the ingredients are still coming from the grocery store, but we're hoping and praying for bigger harvests as the season progresses. Hopefully soon I can make some recipes that are heavier on the CSA ingredients. Until then, the challenge of an interesting new ingredient is still pretty fun in itself.

The opposite of fresh vegetables...

Monkey Bread

Sadly, there was no pick up at the farm this week. I guess the harvest is a little behind due to recent weather conditions. The people at DeLano were so nice and called us to tell us not to come out. They also sent us a coupon for some free eggs and a discount on meat for later in the season. While it's disappointing (my first thought was..."what will I blog about this week?"), I totally understand that growing conditions play a big role in the harvest. There are some things you can't rush. I'm loving being a little closer to the source and understanding more about what goes into farming. Normally, I would just drive over to Meijer and take it for granted that any vegetable I might want is available in any season. Instead we're learning the patience of farmers.

Since we weren't going to get any fresh veggies from the farm this week and it got a little chilly today, I decided to make some monkey bread. Monkey bread is super easy, especially if you use Pillsbury biscuits like I do instead of making the dough from scratch. All it takes is breaking the biscuits up into pieces and rolling them in cinnamon and sugar, piling it all into a greased pan, and pouring a mixture of melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon over the top. I baked it at 350 for 35 minutes. Flipped upside down on a plate, it's perfect for a chilly-ish June day.

Summer Lovin'

My prototype

This next post isn't so much related to the CSA project, but is a fun activity I did with my students. In honor of the last day of speech and pending summer vacation, I came up with a cookie decorating activity to practice following directions and celebrate the year of hard work in speech. 

The goal was to make cookies that look like watermelons. I used store-bought (Meijer brand) cookies and frosting, because it seemed like way too much work to make enough for 60 kids, but they would probably be even more delicious if they were homemade. I used red and green food coloring, added to vanilla frosting, so that I had pink, green, and white frosting. The watermelon seeds were chocolate-covered raisins. I found someone online that used chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, but that seemed just a tad too healthy. I had enough trouble getting the kids to eat chocolate with a raisin in it. 

The kids loved it! We had some varying degrees of success in their ability to make the cookie look like a watermelon, but regardless, they had a sticky good time. 

The middle cookie was the only one to hit the floor all day...

This kid knows how to make a watermelon...hardly any rind

She might not be competing with the cake boss...

First Harvest

Our trek out to DeLano farms this week yielded a small harvest, but one that ultimately turned into a delicious breakfast for 3 hungry girls. Although it took some work getting Alme and I out of bed in time to cook breakfast before work, we managed and it was a success (though probably not one that we'll get in the habit of repeating, thanks to our snooze buttons). Maybe Kristin should think about being the official breakfast chef around here since she's up anyway...just a thought, KP. 

 

So, here are the details of our breakfast  extravaganza. 

Our fresh from the farm ingredients for the week:

Spring onions

Marjoram

Spinach

French breakfast radishes

We mixed 4 eggs, some milk, salt, and pepper. Then, added in the onions, marjoram, and spinach, mixed it all together, and cooked it up into an enticing omelette. We decided to go without cheese so we could taste the flavors of our farm fresh ingredients and in the end, we didn't even miss it. The radishes made the perfect garnish, skillfully crafted by the lovely Kristin Porter. As it turns out, she's also the only one of us that will eat plain radishes. They're too bitter for me, especially in the morning!

 

All of these amazing photos are courtesy of Almendra Duran and her fabulous photography skills.

It tasted as good as it looks

Hopefully next week we'll have even more fresh produce thanks to all this sunny weather we've been having. I think this is the first time in my life I've connected the weather with my menu planning for the week, but I don't hate it.

What it's all about

As a recent proud, partial-owner of a share in a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, I'm looking forward to a summer full of fresh produce. But, since this little project occupies a substantial portion of the monthly grocery budget, it will take some creativity to come up with recipes that use the harvest from the farm, but don't put me in the red. In the spirit of a new challenge, this summer I plan to chronicle my journey into fresh, local produce and delightful new recipes.

Bring on the rain!

We discovered the DeLano Farms CSA through my roommate Kristin's not-so-secret obsession with the Kalamazoo Nature Center. They were offering shares for this inaugural season of the farm. In exchange for supporting the farm financially, shareholders get to stop by the farm weekly to pick up our portion of the bounty. It took us all of a long bike ride on the first sunny Sunday afternoon of the season to decide that this was for us. We took a little trip out to the farm to check it out and the crops were already on their way. I, for one, am looking forward in eager anticipation to something called a fava bean (forever in my mind known as the flava flav bean) that was promised to be coming soon. I can only assume that nothing but good things are in store for us from here on out.