Month: April 2013

The Sweet Spot

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Before long my meals and drinks will turn cold, no more oats and hot coffee when it’s already climbing towards 90* first thing in the morning.  But for now, in that glorious sweet spot of Spring, I am enjoying throwing on another shirt in the evening and relishing the weight of a heavy blanket on the bed.

And eating hot soup!

This soup was inspired by one that my mother-in-law made the other night while we were visiting her home deep in the wilds of West Virginia.  It was approaching dark, we’d all been out all day, Tate and I had just walked out of the woods with a big bag of ramps, and it was time to eat.   She made this soup with what she had on hand, kept it simple, and we all devoured it.

I arrived home the next day, big bag o’ ramps and a handful of foraged morel mushrooms in tow, and attempted to recreate the soup.    The special ingredient is the coconut milk, which brings out the natural sweetness of the potatoes and ramps (yes, potatoes, especially organic Yukon Golds, have a bit of sweetness to them).

If you don’t have access to ramps some nice fresh, local leeks will sub well, as will fresh shiitakes for the morels.

I’m calling it Sweet Spot Soup.  Spring is the sweet spot in weather in Central Virginia.  Under those Ash trees in the hills of West Virginia where we spotted morels popping up, despite being camouflaged with last years leaves, was the sweet spot.  The combo of earthy mushrooms, sweet and pungent spring onions, hearty potatoes, and unexpected coconut milk definitely is a sweet spot.

Sweet Spot Soup
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 6-8 organic Yukon Gold potatoes cubed
  • 2-4 tablespoons coconut oil or butter
  • 2 small handfuls of ramps or 1-2 leeks cleaned and chopped, greens and all (if using leeks use as much of the greens as possible without getting into the tough part)
  • ~cup mushrooms (I used foraged morels, I also recommend shiitakes but any mushroom could do)
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 2 pinches crumbled rosemary
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Place chopped potatoes and the rosemary in a large pot and fill with water until just covered, set on stove to boil.
  2. In a large saute pan melt coconut oil/butter over medium heat and add the white parts of the ramps/leeks. Gently saute but do not brown. After about 5 minutes add the greens and mushrooms to the pan and stir regularly to cook evenly. Once all the greens are wilted turn off the heat.
  3. Cook the potatoes until completely soft then stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to start to break them down a little. The desired end result is a medium-thick potatoy soup base with plenty of chunks of potatoes to bite into.
  4. Add the leeks/ramps, mushrooms, and the coconut milk to the potato pot and continue to cook over low-medium heat. Start adding salt and pepper and tasting to adjust. I used a lot of salt. It kept tasting bland until I got to that right salt level and then all the flavors popped. The sweet spot!
  5. Stir vigorously to breakdown the potatoes or grab a potato masher and give it a few go’s.
  6. When you have reached the desired taste and texture it’s done!

Disclaimer: I am pretty anti-recipe in general and especially for soups, which I think should as a rule never be exactly the same twice.  This is a suggestion for a combination of ingredients, go forth and experiment!  Let me know if you hit the sweet spot. 😉

Super Local

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I’m a lifelong lazy environmentalist.

I learned the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) at an early age and my family brought canvas bags to the grocery store even before “paper or plastic” was in the vernacular.   In those days the cashier would just look at us like we were nuts and proceed to plastic-bag our goods anyway.

Overtime I’ve made lots of small changes to reduce my impact, like making my own laundry soap, switching to a natural deodorant, switching to ‘green’ companies, making my own kombucha, yogurt, and cooking beans from scratch, holding clothes exchanges, growing a garden, and bike commuting.   I enjoy all of these things (except the laundry soap, after a few batches I went back to the store-bought stuff) and they often save me some money along the way.  That’s where the lazy part comes in, I stick with changes that suit me, ones that enrich my life from many angles, including the reduced environmental impact.

Forget the paper or plastic quandary, the latest question many environmentalists, lazy or otherwise, ask themselves is “how far did my food travel?”.

 

Looks like I need to do some weeding, eh?

Right into the salad bowl!

Foraging is the act of searching for food, any food, but is often used in the context of seeking and picking wild food.

The above salad contains violet flowers and leaves, redbud flowers, and dandelion greens, all of which grow wild in my yard, along with some wintered-over arugula and kale from my raised beds.

Doesn’t get much more local.

The large and lovely redbud tree in my front yard.

The blossoms are a little bit sour with a nice “pop” when you bite them.

I’ve only eaten them raw but think they could be fun and gorgeous baked into a dessert like my coconut flour lemon muffins.

One of the fun things about foraging for wild food is that the seasons are fleeting.  The redbud blossoms are already drying up and giving way to lush leaves and soon the dandelions will be too tough and bitter to enjoy eating.

If you are interested in foraging for wild food it’s important to pay attention to a few things,

  • make sure the area your picking is free from heavy pesticide spray and/or, in the case of low-growing plants, animal poop
  • if the land is public than certainly respect any laws surrounding picking and always leave some for the other foragers and the health of the plant
  • know what you’re picking!!!
  • pick what you like to eat, it’s way more satisfying that way

The lazy (and thrifty!) environmentalist in me loves walking out in my yard and picking beautiful, nutritious produce.

Do you forage?

Happy Earth Day!