Farm Share Stir Fry

It was my turn to go to the farm today to pick up the share and, well, I'm just overwhelmed with greens!

Here's the tally: 1 head of lettuce, 1 bowl spinach, 2 kohlrabi, 1 head bok choi, 4 squashes, 3 cucumbers, 6 beets with their greens, swiss chard, 1 bunch each of parsley and cilantro, 2 quarts of snap peas, 30 pods of fava beans and a quart of snow peas.  I was supposed to get other herbs and 15 flowers but it just seemed like too much.  Oh, and I got almost half a cup of mallow peas.

After extracting the mallow whites from the mallow peas, I made a salad and a stir fry for dinner.  The salad was the lettuce, some of the spinach, peas (the snow peas were older, so I just shucked out the peas as if they were shell peas) and cucumber.  To make the stir fry I marinated sliced beef in soy sauce with cornstarch, ginger and white pepper.  When I was ready, I fried it in the wok until it was just starting to get done and the sauce was thickening.  Then the vegetables were added:  garlic scapes, red pepper, snap peas, the boiled mallow peas and 2 of the squashes.  This was cooked for a few minutes until everything was tender and served over soba noodles.

In addition, I marinated the fava beans with chopped garlic scapes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  That's for tomorrow.  After dinner, I made another batch of those mallow forgotten cookies, also for tomorrow.

This leaves me with:  bok choi, spinach, chard, beet greens, beets, kohlrabi, more snap peas, a cucumber, parsley, cilantro, and leftover salad.  We have a lot to cook/eat in the next few days!

Not a Banner Year

For mulberries, at least.  Not sure why, but every mulberry tree I've encountered this year has smaller, less numerous berries that are having ripening issues.  After not being at the tree for well over a week, this is all I got!

Wild Edibles Walk

Last night we went for a walk.

There was a wild edibles guided walk at an organic farm nearby and we braved the risk of thunderstorms to go.  The storms held off.  Our guide, Russ Cohen, was knowledgeable and experienced in foraging.  We learned about several new (to us) plants and got a refresher on a few others.

The talk covered Asiatic Day Lily buds, cleaver plants, evening primrose, pokeweed and when not to eat it (which is most of the time), field mustard, sumac, black walnuts, autumn olives, milkweed, field garlic, blueberries and huckleberries, husk cherries, black locust flowers, acorns, jewelweed, wild lettuce, sweet fern, black raspberries, sheep sorrel, wood sorrel, and a few other things.  I hope my husband was taking notes.

Sheep Sorrel

I'm pretty fired up about autumn olives after eating a fruit leather he made from them.  We have permission to go back to the farm when it is open to harvest any of the "weeds" we want, so I think there will be a trip out there in our future...

"Jambalaya" and Other Things

The freezer was getting rather full so I decided to use a few things to make some room.  I found some frozen chicken andouille sausages and created a jambalaya of sorts.  I browned some diced onion and celery and then added the napa cabbage from the farm share.  Once this was all fried a bit, with salt and pepper, I added 1 can of tomatoes in thick puree, 1 pint of my homemade tomato sauce, bay leaves, thyme, a bag of frozen okra, and the sausages.  After simmering for an hour, I chopped up the sausages and put them back in the pot, with a cup of rice.  This cooked for another 45 minutes and it was excellent.  That, plus a salad of snap peas, lettuce and arugula, has almost used up the farm share.

After dinner, I made a batch of vegetable stock.  I have a one gallon bag in the freezer for veggie scraps and I boiled them for an hour in 10 pints of water with peppercorns, bay leaves, and salt.  After 30 minutes in the pressure canner, there are now 10 more pints of stock - I've decided I like using vegetable stock for risotto.  It's rich without being heavy.

Oh, and we did a taste test on the capers.  Not as strongly flavored as store bought capers, and the texture is a little bit more delicate as well.  But they are tasty and will certainly be put to good use.

Forgotten Mallow Cookies

All those mallow peas I found at the farm share Thursday were put to good use yesterday.  I boiled them, following the instructions in Edible Wild Plants by John Kallas:  for each ounce of mallow peas, 3 ounces of water.  I had 2 ounces, give or take.  This resulted in a very small amount of mucilaginous liquid.  Once cooled, I made a meringue of sorts.  The boiled mallow peas were added to a stir fry I made for dinner from some tofu and more of the farm share veggies:  bok choi, snow peas, scallions, and arugula, served over udon noodles.

In his book, he says he found he needed to use one egg white to start the process of making mallow meringue, so I did the same.  I beat one egg white to the soft peak stage, added 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar and then started adding the mallow liquid ("whites," he calls them) and 2/3 c. sugar for the cookies.  Once this was beaten to the stiff peak stage, I added a teaspoon of vanilla and some chocolate chips.  This was then dropped by the spoonful onto parchment paper and placed in a 350 degree oven, and the oven was turned off.  Overnight, they became cookies!  Mallow cookies!  

Crazy Hot Day at the Farm

Yesterday it was, in New England parlance, a "scorchah!"  At one point the exterior thermometer on my car registered 105.  And I stood in the hot sun at the farm and picked peas and strawberries.  It was grueling.  But, as always, worth it!

The share consisted of: 2 heads of lettuce, 1 bowl of arugula, 1 head of bok choi, 1 head of napa cabbage, 5 garlic scapes, 6 scallions, 1 pint strawberries, 1 pint snow peas, 1 quart snap peas, 1 quart shell peas, and herbs (I took another bunch of cilantro).  As a little bonus the mallow peas were plentiful and I picked about 1/4 cup.  I'm not sure what I'm doing with them yet, but I have them.  I kept all the veggies in the car with me so the air conditioning could keep them fresh(er) in that awful heat.

Dinner last night was a strawberry soup, made with mascarpone, mango juice, and honey, with a cilantro pesto on toast and a salad of arugula, lettuce and freshly shelled peas.  It was way too hot to cook and, on days like that, a cold meal is often best.

Update on the Capers

A couple of blog members have asked after the capers.  Just this morning I made the vinegar solution with white wine vinegar, thyme, sugar, water, and bay, and the capers are now resting in the fridge for a minimum of 3 days.  After that, I'll do a little taste test and compare them to store bought capers!

I also went and got a little more than a cup of mulberries to make a mulberry lime compote for the panna cotta I made for dessert today.  I think this is not going to be a stellar year for the mulberry tree; there are lots of berries but they seem to not be as large or ripening as evenly as previous years.  That's OK, it's not like we don't have a lot of jam in the house...

The other thing I did today was gather garlic mustard seeds.  I got a paper bag and some of the driest stalks of garlic mustard I could find, and let the seed pods shake around in the bag for a while.  I shucked the rest when I got home, and set aside about 2 T. of seeds.  While I'm not sure what I'll do with them, I think they might be an interesting addition to a pickle.  Any thoughts?