Please Pass the Peas and Don't Forget About the Artichokes

Two big surprises this past weekend at the market were these amazing English peas grown at Rent's Due Ranch and artichokes, also from Rent's Due Ranch. Everything seems so big and luxurious from this farm, I can't help finding lots of great buys every week. Even Finn is impressed by the size of these pods.

Open a pea pod and the basset hounds will do anything for just one taste, and then another and another. So be sure to buy enough peas to satisfy everyone. At the market, I only loaded up one large bag, but my friend Patty stuffed two big bags. Now I wish I'd gotten more peas and so are the hounds.

Mostly I eat English peas like a snack, right from the pod. One important thing to remember is you must eat peas quickly or they begin to lose sugar, so don't toss them in the produce bin for later in the week and think your peas will taste the same as when they were picked. Fresh English peas are never very sweet when you find them in grocery stores, so visit a farmers' market for these sweet tasting gems. I think JoanE and Mike's secret at Rent's Due is their giant compost pile which is pure black gold for any plants grown there.

To select peas, look for pods that are vibrant green and big with peas. Buy them within a day of picking. Early and mid spring are usually the best times to look for shelling peas in the Northwest.

I never seem to generate recipes for peas because they're so good straight from pod to mouth and they often disappear long before I think about adding them to anything. And the dogs look so pathetic if they don't get just a few peas and then a few more. This week, I actually managed to save a few to add to a rice pilaf.

Another great find this week was artichokes. (Early in May a chef who teaches cooking classes at PCC Natural Markets insisted she was getting baby artichokes from Rent's Due Ranch for her local seasonal cooking classes in May. I don't know what she ended up using for her classes, but the weather is the boss when it comes to seasons and artichokes even in Oregon were late this year.) And since the season for artichokes in Washington is fairly short, hurry and get yours at the U-District market before they're gone. I got four small and two large.

I hate to say it, but no matter how many fancy recipes for artichokes come my way, I still like artichokes best cooked in a pressure cooker and served with lemon and aioli. For the small ones, JoanE says you can eat the entire artichoke, but don't drown them in some fancy sauce, you'll lose the subtle fresh flavor.

Tom usually pressure cooks artichokes at home. If you don't know about pressure cooking and want to try it with artichokes (which can take up to an hour on stove top) start with Lorna Sass's Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure.

I wrote about artichokes for Marlene's Market and Deli in the July issue of The Sound Outlook where I have new monthly column called Take 5. Bok choy, Celery, Kohlrabi and Turnips are the other vegetables in my new column. Check the July issue of the newspaper on their Web site.

When choosing artichokes look for specimens that feel firm and have tight leaves. I like the big ones, but the little artichokes are so tender you can just peel some of the outer leaves off and eat the entire artichoke when cooked. I love to dip artichokes in a mixture of lemon juice and aioli with a little coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

I've been wondering how to work Rockridge Orchards Apple Cider into an artichoke recipe. Maybe I'll try braising the little artichokes in it today. And this coming 4th of July weekend, maybe I'll try grilling a few artichokes.

The Shark

Shortly after Dad passed away in 2007, I found this drawing under a guest bed. It was wrapped in a dark brown paper. On the outside it said: "I'm betting on the hunter in the dark . . . There's no doubt we're talking The Shark!" At the bottom it said: "Double your take" and it was signed by Perry Hufffman, Dad's longtime diving buddy. Every Father's Day I take out the picture and think about Dad.

He was a rugged outdoorsman who learned the art of fly fishing as a boy at his father's cabin on the Frying Pan River in Colorado. In the winter, Dad went to a school for fatherless boys in Denver and when school was out for the sumer, he hitchhiked to that cabin. He told me he started doing this when he was nine. His mother dropped off groceries to see him through the summer and Dad learned fly fishing from a neighbor who took Dad under his wing. Dad perfected his fly fishing techniques and could catch trout in any stream when I was young. He often hiked to more remote rivers and I once went with him when I was older and remember watching Dad leap from rock to rock reeling in trout like a pro until he caught his limit.

When our family moved to California, Dad took up free diving off the coast and brought home fish, crab, scallops, abalone and occasionally lobster for dinner. I was sure the ocean was Dad's new treasure trove that would never go away. Freshly caught ocean fish was on our menu more than once a week, and there was always a stash of abalone in the freezer. Dad delighted in showing us how to pound the tough steaks with a meat mallet before Mom dipped the abalone in egg, breaded and fried it.

Even though I prefer vegetables over fish today, when I think about all the seafood Dad put on our table for dinners, I'm impressed. And I'm even more impressed that Dad's last dive was when he was 83. Finn is impressed by this display of wild abalone shells from dinners' past. For a fascinating comparison of abalone shells today, check out the sustainably farmed abalone in California.
A few days after Dad passed away his longtime diving buddy Perry Huffman stopped by to see my brother, sister and I as we cleaned Dad's house. Perry gazed at a large conch shell on a shelf and said, "I could tell you stories about your dad. . . ." That's how we heard the story of "The Shark."

Dad was in his 70s when he, Perry and another buddy went diving off the coast of Belize. Perry noticed a shark circling Dad, but as soon as he called to Dad, another shark had joined the first one. "They were swimming around and around him," Perry said. "I was nervous."

"Bring me my spear gun!" Dad called to Perry. So Perry grabbed Dad's spear gun and started swimming towards Dad. "What was he going to do with the speargun, kill the sharks?" Perry wondered. But suddenly as Perry got closer, the sharks suddenly swam away. "Your dad was the real thing," Perry said. "I'll miss him."

I never heard "The Shark" story while Dad was alive, but I'm glad Perry told us. Now when I think of Dad, I'm not surprised. An adventurous river and ocean forager, Dad packed a lot of fishing stories into his 87 years.

I often wonder now about the stories that got away, the ones we'll never know, and how many were hair-raising ones. When I gaze up at the stars now, I think about "the hunter in the dark." I hope he's catching his limit beyond the rainbow.

I'll Have What He's Having: Hospital Fare, Recovery, and A Great Book

I'd become used to eating from our local food basket, but "in life as in recovery, not all things are level and smooth." (Wisdom of the Last Farmer by David Mas Masamoto.)

Eggs from River Farm come from chickens that have access to all types of land, even the forest. Rich in nutrients, these eggs are health-giving. Even Finn finds it hard to stay away from them. But that's not the kind of eggs you get in the hospital.

On June 4, I had a great deal of pain and after a number of tests an emergency surgery, so Saturday morning, I found myself flat on my back in a hospital, reading the clear liquid hospital menu. I was destined to be okay but at the time I was wondering whether the apple juice I was about to order was from China. And how many pesticide residues it contained? Apples are on the top dirty dozen list of foods for pesticides. It doesn't matter where I end up, I'm always concerned about the purity and roots of my food.

When I graduated to the solid food menu, I was equally convinced nothing would be edible, but during a bout of hunger, and thinking food would make me feel better, I selected "Fluffy Scrambled Eggs."

At least Seattle isn't like Austin, Texas where a corn dog and curly fries were presented to my sister in the ICU. But I ask you: how many times have you seen eggs in a perfect yellow scoop? I imagined the chickens that gave rise to these "eggs", if they were real eggs. I shuddered at the factory conditions. And while the term "breakfast potatoes" had me picturing chunks of fresh roasted potatoes, the reality was far from my fantasy image.

The potatoes looked like a fast food product, something a person might clutch and eat in the car, something borrowed from McDonalds. On the menu, below "Room Service: excellence is always on the menu" it said "Presented by the Food and Nutrition Department." Really? If this is excellence, we're in trouble. At least this "picture of excellence" inspired me to get out of bed take a photo.

Notice the sad attempt at "presentation" with the slice of orange and squares of peppers (probably from Mexico, I thought.)

What really saved me in the hospital were well wishes from JoanE of Rent's Due Ranch, Apple Cider, the perfect gift from Wade Bennett of Rockridge Orchards, and visits from my wonderful friends Ed Haskins and Patty whose late husband Sam Fain had the exact hospital room shortly before he passed away. How brave of her to visit, probably flooded with Sam's memories yet never losing her sweet composure. Of course Tom came every day and even brought framed pictures of the dogs to keep me company for my three day stay.

Mostly, I was very sad to miss Food Lust, and had even suggested to the doctor that we wait till Monday for the surgery, but the doctor insisted surgery should done immediately. And since I was in a great deal of pain and the rather large ovarian mass had twisted, it needed to be removed. The doctor was 99 percent certain the mass was not cancerous, but still, I was thrilled when the final pathology report returned negative for cancer. That meant I could focus on getting better.

I'm generally the cook at home, so once I got home, on Monday, I focused on what's easy-to-make, tastes good and has super nutritious qualities to spur my recovery. One of my favorite soups is Turnip Greens Soup. Tom had gone to the market and had bought fresh spring turnips from Mair Farm-Taki. (Katsumi of Mair Farm-Taki is very kind, sells my book at the market and grows amazing Asian varieties of produce.)
So I made this favorite soup and guess who was way too eager food photos?

Another thing I've been able to do in this time of recovery is catch up on reading. Shortly before the "incident," a book arrived in the mail. It was Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies From the Land by David Mas Masumoto, a book I thought I'd ordered last February when The Last Farmer by Howard Kohn arrived.

Even if you aren't freshly released from the hospital, check out Wisdom of the Last Farmer by David Mas Masumoto. It's a fascinating memoir of Mas Masumoto's father and day-to-day life on the family farm after his father suffered a stroke. Each chapter reads more like a moving essay meant to be read again and again.

One of my favorites was "Hard Pan Economics." Mas Masumoto calls it the "official rock of our farm," and says, "I don't believe I will ever free myself from it's burdens." He goes into depth about the nature of hardpan, where it comes from, that it was formed in the time of dinosaurs, how it's resistant to shovels, and takes an explosive force to break it apart. He looks at hardpan from every angle, then also says that it will always be there and that "it's a symbol of survival for immigrant families who came to our valley to carve out a life for themselves."

At the chapter's end Mas Masamoto says, "Hardpan economics are the choices I made to take care of the land: opportunity costs--sacrificing potential wealth by staying in the valley. . . . A slow lesson for me, hardpan may be invisible at times, hiding just beneath the surface. To survive I must learn to live with it. Hardpan is not going away." It's a lesson for all of us to reach for something beyond our own interests and strive to add something good to the world.

For a great story, sure to bring smiles and tears, check out Wisdom of the Last Farmer.

Keeping it Simple and Easy with Eggs

Often the simplest foods taste best. And that's how it is with eggs, so don't add too many things when cooking eggs. Use the best eggs and savor the flavor.

Five years ago at the market, people lined up at Growing Things farm booth at the market for eggs. They sold out within half an hour. Now a number of farmers have eggs so there isn't such a pressure to get to the market early and the price has leaped from $4 to $8 (for duck eggs) from every farmer who sells eggs. The rising prices could be one reason many people are raising their own urban chickens.

In Edmonds, we can't raise chickens, and I don't want to raise chickens anyway, so I buy eggs--mostly from the market. (When I visit Nash's farm store or go to Bellingham's food co-op, I buy local eggs there for less than $5.)
First thing you notice about local eggs is they don't come in standard sizes. Some are giant and others tiny pullets. You can also buy duck eggs, and I hear they make great cakes, but duck eggs tend to sell out fast, hence the high price tag. I think chefs swoop in and buy many for their restaurants.

I'm not a fan of duck eggs and the kind of chicken eggs I like are the ones with the deep yellow yolks. My friend from France who grew up with vegetables from the garden and fresh eggs says the ones with bright yellow yolks are more vibrant and healthier. I love the color and River Farm has eggs with the deepest colored yolks at the market. When I asked Jerry (the farmer) why his eggs had the best color, he said maybe it was because part of their land is forested and the chickens forage there. Maybe the worms and grubs they eat there, help turn the yolks yellow.

My kitchen assistant appears to give his approval. I wouldn't leave the bowl with him for long.

Mom's old Joy of Cooking cookbook gives a recipe for scrambled eggs with sauteed onions, cream and a dash of paprika. I never use any of these additions because I love the subtle flavor of eggs. So, just scramble them up and serve (a sprinkle of salt is optional) with a side of whole grain toast and maybe a cup of coffee. (Hey Deborah Madison, this is what I eat when I eat alone!) If I had some salsa from Gathering Together Farm, I'd put a spoonful of that on top.

My assistant wishes he could have the whole meal deal but he'll settle for the crumbs.

I love eggs simply cooked. What's your favorite way to enjoy farm fresh eggs?

Fremont Place Books, Salads and Carrots

I'll be at Fremont Place Books May 30th, this Sunday, at 300pm to talk about The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook, share farmer stories and recipes. I'm bringing a treat from the book, but I'll surprise you with that one. I think I'll stop at the Fremont farmers' market before this event. Who knows what treats I'll find there?

I'm excited about sharing farmer stories that went into this "labor of love" cookbook. In the meantime, I'm refreshing my energy that gets sapped from shoe-leather book marketing by filling up on the luscious spring offerings from my garden and the market.
Check it out, gourmet salad from my own garden. I love edible flowers like these violas and Sky Nursery has a terrific supply. The pickles in this second photo are from Zoe's Favorites, a vendor I discovered at the Portland farmers' market. The tender greens are also from my garden, and the vinegar and oils are also from the market. This week JoanE from Rent's Due Ranch returns to the U-District Market, hopefully with her fantastic raspberry vinegar since my supply is dwindling. I'm including a bottle of her vinegar in a cookbook/local food basket for the silent auction at Food Lust, a farm dinner at Willie Green's Organic Farm on June 5.
Asparagus also adds a nice touch this time of year. I can't get enough of it and this week it's grilling time since I haven't grilled any yet this season. I think I'll also pick up some hazelnuts from Holmquist Orchards and toast them for my salad feast options. I wish we had Rogue Creamery here because I love their blue cheeses. I have a tiny bit of their lavender cheese and that flavor combination is heavenly, too.

There isn't any particular recipe for success when making salads, just toss in whatever fresh vegetables you like; then add a drizzle of oil and vinegar. For garnish you can shave or crumble your favorite cheese or sprinkle spiced chopped hazelnuts or walnuts over the top.

Jeff Miller of Willie Green's Organic Farm was first at the U-District market with baby carrots this spring. How does he get his vegetables so sweet? I asked. "It's the soil," he replied with a shrug.

Whatever it is, I love these treasures so much I have to buy a bunch for the food hounds because I don't want to share.

It doesn't look like Finn wants to share either. He knows this is a four star (paws-up) vegetable.

10 Things I Love about the Portland Farmers Market

Hungry for food treasures from Oregon, I went to the Portland farmers' market last Saturday. Our season lags about a month or so behind Portland and since we didn't have the usual farmers' market last weekend due to the annual U-District Street Fair, so I traveled to Portland--a local food lovers' paradise to check out their spring harvest offerings and connect with two farms featured in The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook.

• I love the first sweet strawberries of the season and though we have a few coming up in our garden, none have appeared at the U-district market yet.
• I love the luxurious feel of the shade trees and walkways on the plaza at Portland State University.
• I love Winter Green Farm in Noti. It's a biodynamic organic farm owned and run by three families and a great group of farmworkers who bring their seasonal harvest to market.
• I love the abundant variety of pantry items available at this market--like tomato sauce with herbs from Winter Green Farm, pasta and enchilada sauce from Gathering Together Farm, and nuts, jams, breads and pastas. I also love the fresh salsa from Gathering Together Farm. Who can resist chips and fresh salsa at the market?

• I love the crazy variety of foraged foods at this market, mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, sea beans, sorrel, ramps, nettles and all kinds of mushrooms. Portland is truly a foraged food lovers' paradise.

• I love Salvador Molly's tamales, the best tamales south of The Patty Pan Grill at Seattle farmers' markets.
• Love the slow-food community feel of this market. You can sit under shade trees, relax and enjoy great food.
• I love Rogue Creamery. Check out their cheese of the month---lavender cheddar. I have one friend who couldn't possibly pass that up. Rogue Creamery wins many awards for their cheeses and CaveMan Blue is winning raves this year. All I can say is "WOW!"
• I love Freddy Guy's Hazelnuts. They bring hazelnut butter, hazelnut pancake mix and even wild rice--probably the only wild rice grown in the Pacific Northwest.
• Most of all I love the fabulous market information booth. They have a lot of great local farm news and information. One flyer I picked up was a "Farmers Market Glossary of Terms" that listed terms like Certified Naturally Grown, Genetically Modified Organisms, No-Till, Transitional, artisan and dry-aged. They also sell fun "Port-land-i-vore" t-shirts and totes, for carrying all that great produce.

Friends and Foes in Garden, Field and Orchards

I gaze at these salmon carved from tree stumps at my writing group at Sheila Kelly's house in Ballard. Its a captivating picture--the salmon against the greenery with Puget Sound in the background. But lately I've been staring at these salmon a little more closely.

Look close--the biggest salmon's head is rotting away and you can see the gaping hole of nature taking it's course. While it's a sad to see this beautiful carving crumbling back to earth like totem poles in Alaska, I've been watching bumblebees flying in and out of their new home in the salmon's head.

These fuzzy, round easy-going pollinators fly like helicopters because of their big body size. Hardworking pollinators, bumblebees are troopers working in sun, breeze, and rain from dawn till dusk, early spring through fall. (Honey bees don't fly in rain and windy conditions.)

Sometimes bumblebees make their homes in rotten tree stump, living in small colonies of about 50 or so. These colonies only live for one season and only queen bumblebees overwinter to start another colony next season. The queen builds the nest and lays all the eggs.

Bumblebees are often more effective pollinators than honey bees. Bumblebees "buzz pollinate" going deep into a blossom, visiting flowers many times. Though they make honey, bumblebees don't store it like honey bee horders who continually produce more honey than they can use.

Bumblebees are often overlooked in news stories about pollinators because honey bees hog the limelight. Much has been written about keeping urban honey bee colonies lately. If you are interested in honey bees, urban beekeeping with honey bees and building your own local honey supplies, check out Amy Pennington's article in this month's edition of Edible Seattle.
While honey bees and native pollinators like bumblebees are hard at work boosting berry and soft summer fruit yields, a threat is lurking on the horizon. I read about it in

Tilth Producers Quarterly this month.

Ripe berries and soft fruits of summer attract fruit flies that can be annoying, but annoying is nothing compared to the new cowboy in town threatening berry and soft summer tree fruit harvests. A fruit fly called the Spotted Wing Drosophilia from Asia hitched a ride on some overripe fruit and well, you know what happens when fruit flies get together. . .

This little alien was never seen in the United States until recently and it has the potential to devastate future Northwest berry and soft tree fruit harvests.

The Spotted Wing Drosophilia is bigger than common fruit fly and it targets green or unripe fruit, depositing eggs on the soft fruit skin. These eggs burrow into the fruit and grow into larvae, destroying the fruit's texture when ripe.

"How would you know your fruit is infested?" I asked a gardening friend. "It would be all mushy," she replied wrinkling her nose at the thought of eating a mouthful of larvae. Tons of Northwest fruit can be ruined by these tiny pests. Right now, experts aren't sure how to deal with it, but conventional fruit growers have a solution.

How many different ways can you say new chemical pesticide?

My friend Bill Davis who works for WSU agriculture extension in Mount Vernon attended a seminar on this fruit pest, and now Bill is making vinegar traps to check for the Spotted Wing Drosophilia on fruit trees. Like all fruit flies, Spotted Wing Drosophilias are attracted to apple cider vinegar, so Bill got some clear large take out cups from a local coffee shop and poured apple cider vinegar in the bottom. Then he placed a strip of fly paper inside--half way in the cider vinegar. He snapped on the lid, put a wire on the top, and hung his apple cider vinegar trap near his raspberries and on plum trees. He has been checking his traps everyday and so far none of the fruit flies are the Spotted Wing variety. A farmer or gardener can also clean up their fields and trees by removing overripe fruit that mature flies feed on. You can remove blackberry bushes with unripe fruit around your garden.

These foreign troublemakers are most likely here to stay because of the sheer number of blackberry bushes we have growing wild in this state.

I'll be making some vinegar traps for my raspberry bushes this year.

Why does it seem like for every hopeful sign like bumblebees in a friend's yard there is a new opposing threat like fruit flies? Growing great Northwest fruit certainly isn't for sissies.

Badger and Finn with shameless product placement of The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook and Discover Cooking with Lavender by Kathy Gehrt. Also, read more about Alaskan totem poles in Voyages to Windward by Elsie Hulsizer.