40 miles

Ok, I interrupted myself with that last post. I still only have my camera phone for my rides so I decided to play around with some of the photos a bit on the computer after snagging them off my phone.

Last November, or possibly as late as December, I cant recall, I collected as many rose hips as I could find. The fall was short last year and froze the vast majority of rose hips before they could ripen. I milled them in a food mill and took the pulp and added an equal amount of honey and mixed. It came out to about 2 sandwiches worth. I read about this method of preserving fruit (rosehips specifically) and wanted to see if it would actually work. I just love learning about old ways of preserving, especially when no heat and sugar is involved...though I do regular canning too and enjoy tha food as well. I put it in a cabinet and left it to see how it would be in 6 months. I forgot about it until Saturday when I was thinking about what I could eat on my bike ride. No white or brown sugar so this was the only "jelly" I could think of to put on my pb&j sandwich. I dug it out of the back of the cabinet and gave it a sniff. Seemed alright. I gave it a taste. Tasted alright. I figured I'd know if it was bad if I got sick. I didn't get sick and it tasted fine so I was call that experiment a success. I hope to collect a lot more this year...maybe I can get a whole jar's worth this time. This may be the first thing that came out right on my first try.


So, after collecting enough food for a ride, I took off. I thought it would be a cooler day since it had been but summer has returned. I had no idea where I was going...it was a day for exploring. I changed my mind about where to head to and wandered around until I ended up on these dirt roads I discovered last year. Not a single car passed me the whole time and I even got to see a deer dart off into the woods.


About an hour into my ride, I stopped at a small, wooded park to eat an apple and rest. The trees were bizarre with hollow trunks, bent in weird positions and leaning precariously.


I ended up getting kind of lost and when I saw a Subway, I stopped and sat inside, ate another apple and drank as much ice water as I could manage...then napped intermittenly for about 30 minutes. I found a way home and took off down that road.

About 30 minutes from home, I saw this old, abandoned house. I had seen it years before but forgotten about it. Each time we'd pass it, I always wanted to stop to explore the house but there's nowhere to pull over so I didn't. But on the bike, you can stop anywhere you want. :o)



The front door is in the middle of the house with a window on either side. On each side of the door was a cool painted pattern. I am thinking that it may have been used as a general store or a restaurant at some point and these are the remnants of their hanging signs.

I didn't dare go in since the porches were completely dissenegrating. But I found a couple of windows that weren't boarded up and I peeked in. Look at the floor in this kitchen. I just love the way they painted the wood.

This is one side of what was once a bedroom.

And here's the other side. That was all I got to see of the inside. If only I were 12 feet tall so I could see in the upstairs windows.

This is definitely the cleanest abandoned house I have ever come across. The floors are in such good shape, the paint isn't peeling off the walls either. It's in exceptional shape for something its age.

Once I was only about 10 minutes from home, I went to make my final turn and there was an accident on that road and it was completely blocked off to all traffic, including cyclists. I rode just past the cops and went through a grassy field past the accident and got on the road. Another plus for biking. It was a fun ride but I was so glad to get home.

Venision quiche

Katie mentioned she had gotten some venison from a friend and I told her I would be interested in trading for it. I would give her a bag of pecans that I picked (still shelled) and a jar of sauerkraut I made for a pound of venison. Weeks went by before the trade was actually made because she kept forgetting to bring it when she was in town. When she actually delivered the bag to me, I was surprised to find 4 lbs of venison. She said they just weren't that interested in eating it so she gave me all that her friend had given her. I felt like I was cheating her but she said she was happy with the trade.

There was one month in Taste of Home magazine that had some vension recipes in it so I got it out and found venison quiche. Seemed like an easy way to introduce Adam to venison with enough other flavors with it. He didn't complain about it at all and even ate it two days in a row. :o)

Spinach vension quiche

1 unbaked pie crust

1/2 pound ground venison

1/2 pound sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped onion (which I didn't use, of course)

1/2 chopped green pepper (used red since that's what I have in my freezer)

1 package (10 ounces) frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (used about 2/3 of the package)

1 package (4 ounces) feta cheese (used cottage cheese instead since we both like it better)

6 eggs

3/4 milk

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

Line unpricked pastry shell with double thickness foil. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes, remove foil and bake 5 minutes longer.

Menawhile, in a large skillet, cook the venison, mushrooms, onion and pepper for 5-6 minutes until the meat is no longer pink. Drain. Spoon into crust, top with spinach and then cheese. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, pepper and salt. Pour over cheese.

Cover edges loosely with foil. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes until knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes, slice.

I had enough venison and spinach leftover for another meal I have in mind but for now, it's in the freezer until I'm ready to make it.

Bike ride to the garden

I am trying to fit everything into my schedule. It's tough. If I drive to the garden, it's a 40 or so minute round trip. If I bike there, it's a 1 hour 45 minute or so round trip. That doesn't count the time spent weeding or watering. I do drive there sometimes but sometimes, I just have to hop on my bike...to save on gas money as well as to fit in some much needed exercise time. So I do spend an extra hour commuting when I take my bike but it's time well spent to me.

When I take my bike, I put my rear panniers on to carry some clothes to protect me from the thick misquitos, a pair of shoes and sometimes a container if I think I may have some produce to bring home.



The ride to the garden is mostly more rural roads...at least compared to the roads around my house. The closer I get to the garden, the less traffic there is, except for one road I have to take for a few minutes. Then it's back to rural roads.







We had our first picking of green beans and got enough for a very hearty amount for each of us. There are a few more beans on the vine now...but they're still growing. We finally have pea blossoms and the bush beans look like they might produce something soon.


And of course the squash are trying to produce something as well.


On the ride back, I take a different route. This route has 4-5 fig trees lining the road at one point. Each time I ride past them, I stop and grab a handful to snack on for the next couple of days.


Here's the green beans after I got home and washed them. There's some kind of caterpillar eating holes in them so I have to do research to find out how to get rid of them.


Dinner that night was homegrown green beans, foraged figs, homemade sauerkraut, homemade wheat bread with honey and butter and a small bowl of lentil slaw (which is sprouted lentils, shaved carrots & diced tomatoes, with a apple cider vinigarette).

sourdough blueberry pancakes

I love sourdough pancakes and had some blueberries leftover I needed to use so I decided a large batch of sourdough blueberry pancakes was in order.

I pulled my starter out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature over night. Once it was bubbly again, I fed it enough to double the pancake recipe and a little etra.

Before you add anything other than flour and water, you need to reserve some to keep as your starter for the next stuff you'll be making. While it's still bubbly, I put the reserved starter back into the fridge.

Sourdough Pancakes

1 cup sourdough starter

2 cups water

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used a mix of white and wheat)

2 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. 
   
   1 Mix together sourdough starter, water and flour.



2. 
   
   2 Cover bowl and allow to stand at room temperature overnight.



3. 
   
   3 Whisk in eggs, sugar, oil, milk and baking soda.



4. 
   
   4 Let batter stand 10 minutes.



5. 
   
   5 Make pancakes.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Good thing I had mixed it in a huge bowl because as soon as I added the baking soda, it exploded with bubbles. It was almost spilling over...it doubled in size. As Adam put it, "The batter was very happy." ;o) I didn't have any room to mix in the blueberries so I had to make some pancakes before I had room to do that. I just dumped them in....didn't have nearly enough for a double batch.

I got about 45 pancakes by doubling it. Most went into the freezer for easy weekday breakfasts.

My brother's visit & pecan pie

My youngest brother is starting law school! He was moving cross country and stopped by here to stay for a night and have some dinner. He had a stressul trip with car problems but he's almost to his destination...then he can relax, knowing me made it. But school will keep him plenty buyy so not too much relaxing...not thaat he's done that much lately since he's been taking crazy amounts of credit hours at school and working full time. We visited, ate dinner, played a board game, ate dessert and visited some more until too late. We were both exhausted...both that night and in the morning. It was a good visit...pretty short though.


Chocolate chip pecan pie is his favorite so I made sure to make one for his visit.

He brought a box of goodies from my mom. It had my grandma's dishes in it. I've always loved these metal, enamel coated plates and bowls.


This is an afghan my other grandma crocheted for me as a baby and a dress I wore as a baby...it's hard to believe I was ever that small!


These granny squares are from my aunt. She gave them to my mom in the 80's and she never did anything with them so she passed them on to me.


And I didn't actually ask about this dish rag but I am assuming that the same grandma that made the afghan also made this. I love it!


Back to the pecan pie, The only items I had to buy was the eggs...and I always buy eggs anyway. I used some of the pecans I foraged in October. I really do need to use them up...some still taste fresh but others, not so much.

I streamlined my cracking process of cracking by sorting by size. That way, I only had to do a minimal amount of adjusting the nut cracker. It took a lot less time to crack them that way...but picking the meat out of the shells is always time consuming. (I got this really great nut cracker at a thrift store for $2 just a day after I learned what one looked like. I wouldn't have realized what it was and passed it up just a day before.)

This pie is a family favorite. Every Thanksgiving, we used to each get our own pie...that meant my mom baked at least 8 pies...but there were usually a couple other pies as well, like pumpkin and apple. I haven't had a pie to myself in years and it's too rich for me these days to eat a whole one. I ate one that night and kept a smaller piece for myself but packed the rest of it up and sent it with him.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie


3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup Karo Light or Dark Corn Syrup
2 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups pecans
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350F.

In medium bowl with fork beat eggs slightly. Add sugar, Karo, margarine and vanilla; stir until blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until the middle is no longer jiggly.

foraging and the unwelcome harvest

The sun is shining bright and the temps are rising...not unlike other parts of the country. But I remembered about all those juicy blackberries on the vine on my last bike ride. I had forgotten about them after I injured myself and hadn't been on a real ride in 3 weeks. Sadly, that season has passed but I gave it my best effort. I came across these two places on the way back from one of my foraging excursions. Someone's clothesline and really cool garden structure...and the other pic is of a large pond in someone's front yard, across the street from the other house.

I had seen this apple tree in a small, empty field. It is sandwiched between a new subdivision and an older one. Both are fenced and for whatever reason, this lone tree was secluded. I got really yummy apples from it last fall. This year they are falling off before they are ripe and they're not looking so hot. I was sad because I miss apples and was looking forward to these.

I collected the better looking ones for making vinegar. Crossing my fingers I can get it to work this time.

I also went in search of blueberries. Most are not ripe yet and when they are, the birds take off with them so I got a load of almost ripe ones. They are still really good.

This is my sad little picking of black berries. I was really looking forward to making black berry jam form them but there's not enough for one jar even.

In total, I got 2 lbs of apples, 1.5 ounces of blackberries and 1.5 lbs of blueberries.

My unwelcome harvest came from the blueberry picking...chigger bites.

So much better than last year. I had about 60-70 bites last year and only 20 this year which is making life much more bearable this go round. I can wear shoes and walk the dogs...it's not really hampering my daily life. They do get really swollen and itchy from time to time but it's not a constant. Thank goodness for small miracles. I am definitely counting my blessings on this one!

Persimmon brownies and sumac salmon

So, I am still attempting to make more using my foraged goods. Here are two of my latest.

Persimmon brownies. Actually, they are more like spice cake but that's what they were called. I didn't really taste the persimmon in them. It was just a really moist spice cake which I enjoyed.

Here they are. They aren't ripe until they look like they're rotting. They're very mushy. If you eat them before they're ripe, they suck all the moisture right out of your mouth. A very bizzare sensation that I don't like! And in all honesty, I don't actually like the flavor when they are ripe either. I tried making a persimmon sauce, like cranberry sauce but it was gross so I threw it out! Like I said, I couldn't really taste the persimmons in this so I liked it. But since I don't like the flavor of these raw, I don't think I'll bother experimenting anymore with these.

Just in case you wondered, here's the recipe:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups persimmon pulp
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. 
   
   1. Cream butter and sugar together; add persimmon pulp, buttermilk and eggs.2. Then add dry ingredients and mix well.3. Pour into 10x12 baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
2. Sumac is a berry that grows on upright bushes. They're a beautiful, deep red. They taste very similar to lemons. The white ones are poisonous though so beware. I ground them in the mortar and pestle but all the seeds stayed intact and try as I might, I couldn't sift them all out so one or two got into the dish. I have since learned that you need to pulverize them in the food processor.

Salmon goes well with lemon so I sprinkled a bunch onto some salmon filets and cooked that...no other ingredients. The juices from the salmon made it look like a red sauce had been poured over it. Simple and not too bad.


So there are a couple things I've been doing with the foods I gathered in the fall. More to come.

Yellow treat

Today I went on my first bike ride since my trip in Sept. I kept putting it off all day because I was tired. I finally got on my bike a little after 3 and decided that I wouldn't be walking the dogs today so I could put all my energy into my ride. The new rim is slightly thinner than the old one so I had to do a road side brake adjustment. I have breaking power in the rear now but it's not full power so I need to tinker with it a little bit more.

We had snow fall on Christmas and early this week, it was still on the ground. Today was 60 degrees! It was beautiful! Apparently, this dandelion plant thought it was spring because it was full of bright yellow flowers. It was quite eager to enjoy the weather like me! Well, I pulled over and plucked the flowers. I wrapped them in a cloth and put them in a pocket in my bike bag.

The bike ride was great! I really enjoyed myself and it gave me enough energy that when I got home, I ran upstairs and changed into regular clothes and walked the dogs after all.

After getting back home from the walk, I started preparing dinner. On tonight's menu were two new things to me. Dandelion fritters and beets. I have cooked with beets one time. It was used in a recipe that also used canned corned beef. Suffice it to say that the canned corned beef was the only thing I tasted in that one bite I was able to make myself eat.

To prepare the dandelions for the fritters, I had to strip all the green stuff off. Then, you make up a batter with eggs, milk and flour. Cover the dandelions in batter and fry that.

They were pretty good...and I ate half of them before I could get a picture. Whoops. They reminded me of a cross between a chayote squash and an eggplant.

The beet was wrapped inside a foil packet with a little oil and provence herbs (which contains lavender). Then, when they were done roasting, I splashed it with some lemon juice and parsley. I was afraid I was not going to like it but it was pretty good...though I think I'll try cooking it some other way next time.

Sandwich on cast iron and a weed on the broccoli

I have been reading this book about this couple who lived in the Canadian wilderness from the 40's-60's. They talked some about the wild foods they ate. This wasn't one of them that they talked about eating but it inspired me to get back outside and see what food I could find to eat. I noticed in the fall that we had garlic mustard plants growing in the side yard so I went back to see if they survived the snow we had this week. They did! There's not much left but it's still there so I grabbed a handful.

Garlic mustard plant has a garlicky flavor/smell to it though it's much more mild than garlic. I really could have used more than I got but I didn't want to use it all at once. I'll get back to that in a second.

On Christmas, Lanette told me about this cast iron griddle/grill that they had for years but they weren't sure where it came from. They never used it so were getting rid of it. I said, "Oh, give it to me!" So she handed it over thankful to have it out of her house...and I'm thankful to have it in mine! I made use of it today for my sandwich which I have named "ham & cheese pannini with a twist". The is the grill side, the other side is smooth but you've got to have the marks for a pannini. I would have liked to have had a bacon or steak press to squish this sandwich down but I don't have one so I left it its original size.

So, back to the garlic mustard...or is mustard garlic....I can't quite remember. Anyway, back to the plant. I cut it up into thin strips and threw it in a pan with a little bit of butter. After a few minutes, I threw in some cooked broccoli. I let that cook for a few minutes while the cheese was finishing up melting on my pannini.

The twist on the sandwich is that it has apple butter and sliced apples in it. I've had it before with the apples but never with the apple butter. I really liked both the sandwich and the broccoli. I was a little worried about the garlic mustard because the wild greens I've tried so far are extremely bitter but this wasn't at all. I'll definitely be using it again. But I probably only have enough for one more dish. Then I'll have to wait until spring/summer for more to grow.

Chestnuts

I first noticed these spiky balls on a tree in the spring.


Then I forgot about them until a few weeks ago when I saw some on the ground under the same tree. I wondered what was inside them so I grabbed one, like you would an apple, to pluck it and take it home where I would open it. Turns out, those spikes are hard and like hypodermic needles! I let go immediately. I thought I could get home with it cupped ever so gently in the palms of my hands. I took 5 steps before I had to drop it. So I stomped on it and these seriously deflated looking things came out. I found out they are chestnuts (well they would have been had they actually developed). I asked the owners if I could pick some to try them out. They said I could help myself. I didn't have gloves or anything so I waited a few days. When I went back they said that they weren't able to find any good chestnuts and they weren't sure what went wrong that year. They said I could still help myself but I decided it wouldn't be worth my time. She took me on a tour of their garden and gave me 2 eggplants and 3 jalapenos. I got a taste of stevia as well. It really is quite sweet! They have a fig tree and she said I could help myself in the summer time to those as well. She was a very nice lady!

Well, fast forward, I found this pecan tree on someone else's lawn. When we walk by I grab the pecans that are sitting on the sidewalk. I chat with the owner occasionally, whenever he's outside as we walk by. One evening, he was out chopping firewood for his wood stove. I asked him about the pecans and he said that they had already picked 42 pounds and I could have as many as I wanted. :o) I went back the next day for those. He mentioned he had a chestnut tree back near the barn and they never eat them so if I wanted to try some, to go ahead.

I've never had chestnuts so it's worth an experiment. The squirrels had already gotten most of the chestnuts. Note to self: collect chestnuts when they start falling, not a few weeks later. So I gathered the few I was able to find. I had to move the spiky hulls around with my shoes. I really didn't get many but I did get enough to at least find out if I like them or not.

Here's the tree...not a great picture since the sun was setting.


Here's what I collected. There's those MEAN hulls! I am learning alot about how nuts grow this year. I would never want a chestnut tree or a walnut tree on my property...but I would welcome a pecan tree.


This chestnut had the most personality. It was difficult to get out of the hull and it wanted to keep this mohawk.


Food is fun! :o)