(The first photo shows the meal, except for the fruit dessert. The second photo shows the dessert in the serving bowl, before adding the blackberry liqueur. Click on the photos to see a larger image.)

Menu

Salad–Tomatoes (two varieties), cucumbers (two varieties) and purslane, dressed with vinegar and oil.

Entreé–dry beans, cooked, then sauteed with garlic and leeks.

Vegetable side dish 1–string beans.

Vegetable side dish 2–summer squash (three varieties).

Vegetable side dish 3–mixed greens (brocollini and beet greens)

Vegetable side dish 4–beets (boiled, chilled, then dressed with olive oil and vinegar).

Dessert–mixed fruit (apples, blueberries, apriums (pulled from the freezer) and pepino dulce) topped with homemade blackberry liqueur.

Pisgah View Community Peace Garden now includes a productive vegetable area, a small orchard and a greenhouse, complete with chickens. I didn’t make a complete inventory of crops that they grow, but here are the ones I noted: collards, cabbage, asparagus, garlic, potatoes, figs, apples, kiwis, persimmons, grapes, blueberries, Asian pears and raspberries.  The garden now provides fresh food to garden participants and surpluses are sold at market. Robert has recruited neighbors to help with the garden, using it as an educational opportunity for everyone, himself included. One of the ladies pictured above is now teaching nutrition classes in the neighborhood.

In addition to the neighbors, others from the wider Asheville community have been supportive with both their time and money. The garden has grown rapidly in just a few years and has received grant monies to aid in its development. This is a powerful example of what motivated people can do in a very short time, converting underused urban lands into productive farmland.

Robert’s efforts are part of a larger trend in this country to convert urban lands to use in food production. This trend is partly a result of recognizing the benefits of local food production, and partly due to recognition that our current food production system is not sustainable and that growing our own food will become more of a necessity in the future. I admire Robert for making this a community effort. Community gardens provide one way for people to obtain access to land for growing food when private land may not be available. Community gardens also provide ways to teach others, to improve garden security and to simply have fun working together. Robert has clearly tapped into a need with the Pisgah View garden, underscoring what people are discovering everywhere about underused urban lands: Unbuild it and they will come.

My recipe follows. It was based on a recipe in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions. Of course, I altered the ingredients somewhat, adjusting to what I had available and to what I thought would taste good. I encourage you to be flexible and experiment, too. Fermentation is as much art as science. Below the recipe are some comments on what I did and how long it took for a nice flavor to develop.

Bob’s Fruit & Nut Chutney

3 chopped Fuji apples

2 lemons (juice and grated peel)

2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup raw walnuts

1/4 cup whey (strained from yogurt)

1/2 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. fennel

I used a half-gallon glass jar, with a lid modified to hold a standard beer-brewing airlock/bubbler. I simply mixed the ingredients in a bowl, put into the jar and mashed them down to try to cover everything with liquid. The above recipe filled the jar a little more than half full. There was a little fruit left uncovered, so I added extra water. I was in a hurry, so wasn’t thinking carefully about adding the water. As a result, I added a full cup of extra water, when I only needed about 1/3 cup extra. This probably diluted the whey and salt enough to slow the fermentation process somewhat. Despite this mistake, it worked. I think lactofermentation is a pretty forgiving process.

I wasn’t able to see any noticeable fermentation taking place. That is, there was no obvious bubbling in the airlock. So, it was a slow process. After four days, it was reasonably edible, although at that point the salty flavor was stronger than I would have liked. I put it in the refrigerator to slow the process. Ten days later, the flavors had mellowed, with the salty flavor diminishing and the sour taste increasing. In the future, I think I should let it go two to four days longer before refrigeration.

However, if you’re the kind of person that likes food fads, or scientific justification for everything you eat, this article in the New York Times may be of interest. Apparently, scientists are discovering that some berries, notably raspberries and blackberries, have cancer fighting characteristics.  Whoopee! Go wild! I’ll just keep growing, harvesting, foraging and eating them because they taste good.

It’s been a long time, about 30 years. In fact, you may not remember me, but you will live in my memory for a very long time. Way back then, you did me the honor of teaching me how to bake an apple pie. You didn’t just tell me how; you didn’t just show me how; you stood there and instructed me, making me get my hands and mind working on mixing everything up and learning the secret of your crust. It is that crust that has garnered attention over the years and which, with the great filling, has given me bragging rights to making The World’s Best Apple Pie.

The first time I tried it on my own it worked, but barely. I forgot to use wax paper to roll out the crust, so my wine-bottle rolling pin (my college kitchen wasn’t very well equipped, so I improvised) stuck to the crust. I haven’t made that mistake since! But, it was Thanksgiving and my family was both appreciative and forgiving.

Since then, I’m made many, many pies following your instructions. One year I had a boss at work who thought he made the world’s best apple pie; I begged to differ and we had a showdown. He didn’t have the courage to bring his pie in on a day I was there, but I know I won that one, hands down. But, most of the time, my pies are for Thanksgiving and various Christmas-season potlucks. Sometimes that is a caroling party potluck, sometimes that is a kayaking group holiday party or, this year, it will be the Scottish Country Dance holiday potluck. They all deserve to try your great pie and they always love it.

Of course, I’ve altered the recipe slightly over the years. I always substitute one cup whole wheat flour. Occasionally, I throw in a handful of raisins. I’ve reduced the sugar level a tad, since I like the tartness of the apples to come through. I ALWAYS use Granny Smith apples. They’re the best. I usually throw in an extra dash of cinnamon and a little ground clove, too. And, of course, I’ve upgraded my equipment. I have a real rolling pin now. My big score a few years back was a slick little device that cores, slices and peels apples all at once. That sure saves some time. But, at heart, it’s still your recipe and your method and your crust secret that makes the pie. In fact, you can see that I still work from your original handwritten recipe, although it looks like parchment now from all the apple juice stains.

Given the ecological purpose of this blog, another change should be mentioned. I now don’t waste a bit of the excess crust I cut off from the pie; it gets baked with sugar and cinnamon to make little crispy treats. The apple peels and cores no longer get thrown out; they get tossed in my worm bin. Of course, you would understand all this. You were thinking ecologically at the time, writing the original recipe on the back of a scrap of paper from where you worked at the time, the Sacramento Children’s Home/Cowell Children’s Center.

It’s Thanksgiving again, tomorrow, and I’m reminded once again of how grateful I am for this lesson in pie making you gave me. So, it seems apropos to thank you now. (In fact, as I write, tomorrow’s pie is baking in the oven.) Yours was a small gift, but a good one, producing results which I’ve been able to share with many people over the years. Every time I bake a pie, I wonder where you are, where you’ve taken your life and want to thank you. But we didn’t keep in touch, so I’ve never been able to thank you. Now, this blog seems like the best way to say thanks, so here it is: Thanks, best wishes wherever you are, Davida, and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Warmly,

Bob

I’m now producing food year-round, so I am changing my eating habits to match what I produce. I notice what I use in my Saturday scrambled vegetables changes, from greens to string beans to squash to tomatoes and back to greens again. It’s also something I notice in dishes I make for potlucks or dinners.

In mid-September, I made a tomato and cucumber salad for a house concert potluck (see Scotland reprise), and in early October I prepared spaghetti, a squash side dish, another tomato and cucumber salad, and applesauce when I hosted my men’s group (see My Michael Pollan Meal).

This past weekend, I made an amazing (if I do say so myself) salad for a monthly potluck a friend recently started (see picture). This salad had all homemade ingredients: six varieties of lettuce (my first harvest of the winter season), three varieties of tomatoes (my last ripe ones, except for the orange globe tomatoes, which will keep going for a few more weeks), semi-ripe red sweet peppers (my last harvest of the summer season), end-of-season cape gooseberries and beginning-of-season figs. The day after Thanksgiving, I’ll be stopping to visit friends on the way back to the Bay Area, and will contribute fried green tomatoes for dinner, cooked from the  plentiful but unripened tomatoes from bushes I pulled out last weekend.

Now that my winter crops are beginning to produce, I look forward to future potluck dishes made from my rapidly growing kale and cabbage. How about some cole slaw or sauerkraut made from the coming season’s cabbage? Or, perhaps, some Mandarin oranges, ripening in the new year? Eating seasonally is an ever-evolving pleasure.

When I’ve finished eating and sharing this batch (about three gallons) I’ll make another batch and start experimenting with other recipes that have more than just cabbage on the ingredient list.

It was fun. Her approach is traditional, that is, she doesn’t measure how much salt she puts into the mix, she simply tastes it to see if it tastes about right. I like that approach, but had no experience to guide me. Now I do. Since I’m a numbers guy, I did measure roughly what we used. The 2.5 to 3 pound heads of cabbage were salted with about 2 tablespoons of salt each, more than I used last year. The carrots she used in her ‘kraut provide extra sugar for the lactobacillus bacteria that make the ‘kraut, so her batch should be ready slightly sooner.

She is also traditional in that we simply put the vegetables into a wide-mouth half-gallon jar and she will weight them down under a coaster and let the brine spill over into a pan. By filling the container to the top and making sure the vegetables are covered with brine, the “scum” (or “bloom” as fermentation expert Sandor Katz calls it–see Resource 1, below) simply spills out and over the top as the vegetables ferment. This is because lacto-fermentation produces water as a by-product. Her approach is a variation on the method illustrated in Resource 1.

My crock is designed differently, with a lid that fits into a water-filled trough. Carbon dioxide is also produced as a by-product of lacto-fermentation. This bubbles up out of the brine, creating pressure that lifts the lid, causing the air in the crock to bubble out. The CO₂ produced dilutes the air, reducing oxygen so that very little scum is produced in the crock. In both methods, the vegetables are weighted down to keep them under water, so they can ferment away happily in the anerobic environment necessary for fermentation. But, I digress. Right now, all I care about is that my cabbage is fermenting away, evidenced by my gurgling crock.

Besides the salt taste test, there are two other things I learned from Tamara that should make my ‘kraut better than last year’s first attempt:

1. When mixing salt and cabbage in a bowl, squeeze it to force out cabbage juice. The salt will dissolve in the juice and speed up the osmotic process of pulling water out of the cabbage cells to create the brine. Doing this resulted in a surprising amount of brine, enough to cover the packed down cabbage from the start, requiring no additional water.
2. Let it ferment for just a few days before checking it or slowing down the process. She will refrigerate her batch after only two days. Sandor Katz recommends starting to sample the product after just a few days. Last year I didn’t do this, and kept the crock going for a couple of weeks before refrigerating the sauerkraut. Katz’ comments (Reference 1, below) are that letting it go too long makes the texture soft and gives a poorer flavor. Both these characteristics suggest that letting it ferment too long was one of my mistakes last year.

I’ll let you know how it turns out in a few days.

A final word on how healthy homemade sauerkraut is. Our digestive system is the natural home for many species of bacteria that help us digest our food. One type of bacteria is Lactobacillus, a genus of bacteria that produce lactic acid as part of the fermentation process. These bacteria are what produce yogurt and sauerkraut, among other things, and the lactic acid produced is what gives them their sour flavors. Commercial varieties of sauerkraut from our industrial agriculture system are usually cooked to kill off the bacteria to stop the fermentation process. Thus, all the bacteria that you would eat and which would aid your digestive processes are killed off. While this may help the product’s shelf life, it doesn’t help you. When you eat live-culture sauerkraut (like you make at home), you get all the living bacteria that go with it, which improves the natural flora of your digestive system, aiding digestion.

Resources:

1. Sandor Katz’ Wild Fermentation book excerpt on making simple sauerkraut.
2. University of Wisconsisn Cooperative Extension’s Make Your Own Sauerkraut guide.

While working on these berries, I glanced down at my “regular” raspberries, first planted over two years ago. Last year I got nothing, but I noticed a few flowers and berries for this year. Then, moving a branch, I spotted a couple of deep pink, ripe raspberries. I hope to get lots more of these berries! They are so light and delicate, I think they are best savored by themselves, not eaten on cereal or ice cream like I usually eat berries.

But, that’s not all. Last year I planted some stone fruit trees and, in the busyness surrounding my trip to Scotland, I never did knock all the blossoms off a couple of plums. (I try to keep fruit off new trees the first couple of years so all the growth goes into the tree instead of the fruit.) But, I just didn’t have time, so, now I’ve got a small harvest of plums. The past few days, I’ve been snacking on small, melt in your mouth (melt in my hand, if I’m not careful!), juicy, sweet red plums. Another tree, with yellow plums, isn’t ripe yet, so they will be coming along in a week or two. This actually is planned. When I planted my trees, I selected varieties that would, hopefully, ripen at different times, to spread out the harvest over a longer period. At least with these two trees, it’s working. My other stone fruit aren’t doing as well, but I’ll keep experimenting.

It gets better. Several years ago, I planted an apple tree and have been letting it grow. This year I let about 40 blossoms stay on the tree, and now have apples getting ripe. I picked a couple tonight to try them out. They’re not quite ripe, still a bit tart. But, there’s enough juicy flavor to complement a couple squares of dark chocolate and make a fine dessert. With the apple, I’m also hoping for a staged harvest. The tree is a Fuji, but when I planted it, I grafted two varieties (Gravenstein and something else, maybe Gala) from an old tree in my yard. So, I now have three varieties on the one tree. Hopefully they will ripen at different times, extending my harvest.

The past few years, as I’ve gardened more and more, the tradition has evolved so that now I usually have veggies growing in the garden I can use. In the summertime, I always have tomatoes, sometimes with squash or corn. I’m transitioning from my winter to my summer crops, so I’m a tad short on veggies, but this morning I found a few remaining buds of brocolli, some chard and a leek, and tossed in some of last summer’s winter squash from the freezer. All in all, it made a nice breakfast.

My diet has also evolved. The past few years, and especially the past few months, I’ve been reviewing dietary information and have found that my low-fat, high-carb diet may be one of the reasons I’ve put on a few pounds over the past 10 or 15 years. I’m making a few minor tweeks to my diet, which is generally pretty healthy. Mostly, I’m just reducing my carbohydrate intake, especially refined sugars and flours. I’m also eating more eggs now, once or twice a week having boiled eggs midweek for a quick breakfast, instead of cold cereal. Instead of cooking oatmeal from rolled oats for Sunday breakfast (another tradition) I’m having oatmeal cooked from steel-cut oats. (The steel-cut oats have a lower glycemic index, i.e., they metabolize more slowly.) I don’t expect to see any quick changes to my waistline, but if I lose an inch or two over the next couple of years that would be great.

I really use these traditions as habits to try to maintain a healthy diet. Habits can play a great role in managing diet. Once we’ve selected the diet we want and start preparing and eating food that way, we can stop thinking about it. But, it helps to review our habits occasionally, both to update our knowledge about diet and to be sure we haven’t picked up some bad habits along the way without consciously thinking about it. Traditions are also a great way to share social activities and to build relationships with family and friends. All cultures, ancient and modern, integrate eating and social activities. Used this way, food traditions can become a way of multiplying the pleasures of food.