Food Porn

You know how much I love talking about, thinking about, and playing with food. Now, I have another venue for this passion.

The website (centralcoastgrown.org) where I wrote farm and ranch profiles last year is now posting my articles on different kinds of produce. The first one was on persimmons, now long gone from my orchard.

I've been busy with pieces on napa cabbage and brussels sprouts but I might have missed that season already. The fields that were packed with giant growing brussels sprouts have been cleared and are getting ready to be planted with something else.

This is the way Brussels sprouts grow.

Napa is an elegant lady...

 In between the many recent guests we've had, I experimented with different recipes, as well as food photography. I can see that I'm better at taking photos of the actual produce. Or maybe it's a problem of food styling rather than photo techniques. And I am learning that some recipes sound so good but either don't come out tasting as good as they sound, or they turn out less photogenic than desired.

I need food styling lessons.

Some bloggers are so good at food porn.

Persimmon Power

After almost all of the pommes have fallen and long after the stone fruit and berries are gone, one small tree in our orchard brings us a burst of Halloween and Christmas all at once. Giant, brilliant orange globes on a leafless tree, they are what the Greeks call "divine fruit." Diospyros. Kaki. Persimmons.

In Japan, kaki are a common fall fruit and if you visit someone's house during the season, chances are, you will be served fresh persimmons, peeled and quartered on a beautiful small plate with a rustic, rough hewn toothpick.

I hated them.

I don't use that word often with food, but no matter how I tried, I just could not like the taste of persimmons. (And I would keep trying every few years, thinking that perhaps my tastes had changed.)

"I'm so sorry. They are the one of two things I cannot eat," I would apologize. The other thing I cannot eat is offal.

One bite of our persimmon changed that forever.

Ours are an astringent seedless type and when they are fully ripe and ready, oh, boy. The soft jelly-like fruit is not only deliciously sweet, but slightly tropical in flavor, with a lovely floral note. Who knew persimmons could be this tasty!

When we came to the ranch and I saw the persimmon tree, I thought, well, at least the leaves are good for you. In Asia, the persimmon is also a medicinal tree. The calyx of the fruit is used as a hiccup remedy, as well as a cough suppressant. The leaf, with tons of vitamin C, K and B, as well as minerals and flavanoids, is a favorite ingredient in Oriental medicine. Herbalists gather leaves in May and June to make a tea which strengthens the circulatory system and acts as a general tonic. In the old days, they used to wrap food items like sushi in the leaves because of its disinfectant properties.

And now I know the wonderfully tasty fruit is also a miracle food. Along with a boatload of vitamins and minerals, it also contains high amounts of antioxidants and phytonutrients which neutralize free radicals and phytochemicals like catechin (which green tea has a lot of, too) and betulinic acid which is being used in anti-cancer research. That means it's a great preventative for things like aging, cancer, cataracts and macular degeneration.

A quick internet search brought up more benefits:

- Weight loss. The fiber rich fruit also reduces the craving for sugar and processed foods!

- Healthy eyes. Antioxidant vitamins and the phytonutrient zeaxanthin prevent retinal damage.

- Better digestive system. Yup, back to all that fiber.

- Prevention of DNA damage. If you are worried about all that radioactive contamination from Fukushima, eat more persimmons!

- Younger skin. Keep those free radicals at bay to protect yourself from aging.

- Boost immunity. The nutrients will protect you from common winter ailments like colds, flu and infections.

- Cleaner colon. It's a great detoxifier!

In Japan, there are even sayings like "When the persimmons turn red, doctors turn blue."

I don't know if persimmon health benefits had anything to do with it, but my search came up with an interesting bit of trivia, too. During the Civil War, some regiments were nicknamed "Persimmon Regiment" because they would stop to consume persimmons. The 35th Ohio Infantry lost 15 of their soldiers to the Confederate Army when they chose to pick persimmons rather than fight the Rebels. Meanwhile, the 100th Indiana Regiment who were cut off from their food supply had to live on persimmons for a while but still showed such determination on the battlefield that their nickname became a source of pride.

In Italy, during the season, you can get a perfect cachi at restaurants to end your meal. (I've often wondered why more restaurants in California don't offer fresh fruit for dessert -- it's quite common in other countries.) The waiter will remove the calyx and quarter the fruit at your table. All you need to do is scoop out the rich, flavorful fruit.

Here on the Central Coast, if you don't have your own persimmon tree, you can always find great tasting persimmons at the farmer's markets. The non-astringent types (like Fuyu) are wonderful in salads and if you have too many, you can try air-drying them like the Japanese and Chinese do. Peel them when they are still firm, string them up so that air circulates between each fruit.

I like eating ours the Italian way, but I also make a persimmon pudding which I will share with you. It has quite a lot of sugar (especially for me) but the sugar caramelizes (mmm!) during the baking and that seems to cut down the sweetness a bit. Buon appetito!

Bad Dog's Persimmon Pudding

Ingredients

    * 2 cups persimmon pulp

    * 1-2 cups white sugar

    * 2 eggs, beaten

    * 1 teaspoon baking soda

    * 1 cup all-purpose flour

    * 1 pinch salt

    * 1 teaspoon baking powder

    * 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    * 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

    * 1/4 cup heavy cream

    * 1 tablespoon honey

    * 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil or butter a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Mix the persimmon pulp with the 1 to 2 cups sugar in a large bowl. (The original recipe called for 2 cups but that was way too much for our super sweet persimmons.) 

Whisk together the eggs and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add the egg mixture to the persimmon mixture and beat well.

Whisk together the 1 cup flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir 1/4 of the flour mixture to the persimmon mixture. Add 1/4 of the buttermilk and mix well. Continue alternating flour and buttermilk, adding 1/4 each time, and mixing well after each addition. Stir in cream, honey, and melted butter until well combined. Pour the pudding batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven until set, about 1 hour. While baking, do not stir; Turn off the oven at the end of the baking time, but do not remove the pudding from the oven. Leave it to cool in the oven for another 20 minutes.

Serve with whipped cream or creme fraiche.

In the original recipe, they had something called "the sauce" which you poured onto the pudding after it had baked for an hour. I feel like the pudding is already so moist, it doesn't need this extra step, but if you'd like to try it, here it is:

Ingredients

    * 1 cup water

    * 1/2 cup white sugar

    * 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

    * 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Boil the water in a small saucepan. Whisk 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon flour together, and whisk sugar mixture into the boiling water, whisking until smooth. Boil the sauce for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.

After turning the oven off, pour the sauce mixture evenly over the pudding, and leave the pudding to cool in the warm oven for 20 more minutes.

A Japanese-y presentation of our Very Californian Persimmons

A Taste of Tradition

The second farm/ranch I visited for the Central Coast Grown website was Nick Ranch, a multi-generational cattle ranch. They do everything organically. From start to finish. And that means not just being good caretakers for their cattle, but for their land and all the wildlife on it.

They are all about coexistence. And if you were worried about the karmic effects of eating meat, this is about as good as it gets.

At $30/lb, their beef seemed expensive to me...until I thought about what beef costs in Japan. It costs this much to raise cattle the proper way, but it doesn't have to. Right now, the corporate farms and ranches get all the subsidies. To do things right shouldn't cost this much more than doing it wrong, but today, that's the way it is. Organic farmers and ranchers have to go through extra steps, not just in their operation but paperwork. Meanwhile, those who raise cows in massive feedlots, feeding them GMO corn and shooting them with growth hormones get to flood the market with cheaper meat and still get rich.

But we get what we deserve. We have what we value. If we value good honest food over CHEAP, we will be able to keep these businesses alive and thriving. And preserve a piece of tradition.

All wildlife welcome!

No Baloney!

"They eat and eat and eat and yet I have not seen one Morbidly Obese Italian," I emailed Big Dog.

It was a mystery. (Actually, the bigger mystery is how there can be so many morbidly obese people in the US!)

Everywhere around me, people seem to be eating all the time. There's breakfast, of course, though not a heavy one like you'd find in the States. It's generally a milky coffee (with sugar, though!) and some kind of bread. Then, there's the mid-morning snack. Like a pastry with more coffee. Then a substantial lunch. With wine and maybe even dessert. A gelato is good any time of day. Then, there's a pre-dinner munch with drinks. A giant multi-course dinner. More wine, more dessert. Maybe even a digestif.

No one talks about carb-free or fat-free or gluten-free. Not in this country of pasta and cheeses and olive oils.

So how can the Italians pig out like this and not get fat like Americans? Sure, there are fat Italians, just like there are fat Japanese, fat Filipinos, fat anybodies. But not like the grossly obese men, women and children you see everywhere in the US.

Here are some differences:

* People eat a lot of cured meats but they are not as salty as the processed meats of the US. And they are made the old, traditional way. Not in a modern factory with tons of chemicals. There is no baloney in Bologna.

* They don't eat fast food. Yes, there are a few McDonald's and Burger Kings but not as many and far fewer customers. (I can't help but wonder why the handful of people inside a fast food outlet are there.)

* Sugary soft drinks are not consumed much. Colas are more expensive and, like cola products in many countries, use sugar, not corn syrup.

* Most things are made from scratch and the ones that aren't are still made from scratch, just by someone else.

* The diet is varied, with a good balance of meat, carbs, vegetables and fruit.

* No GMOs.

* No growth hormones.

* People take their time eating, enjoying every bite.

* There is less car use, more walking. Lots more stairs.

* Italians love to yak. (My theory is that you have to eat slower when you talk that much. Also I believe talking aids digestion.)

It's probably a combination of any or all of the above, what as well as how you eat, but I am convinced that if we live and eat like Italians, we could end this obesity problem for real.

Eat, Eat, Eat

Just before leaving for Japan to pick up my mother and take her to Italy (yes, this is the year of Enabling Aging Parents) I picked up "Eat, Pray, Love" at Goodwill along with a black blazer I thought would be handy on the road in Italy. Maybe the "Eat" section would give me ideas for where and what to eat in Italy.

I'd avoided the book, thinking it was a silly novel. It turned out not to be a novel. It was far worse. Despite the author's introduction, explaining that the book was divided into three sections about three countries and the first one would be about Italy and the pursuit of pleasure, especially the pleasure of eating, I realized while slogging through the first section that it was all about this woman whining about her life and relationships. What a sorry excuse of a book. I thought I'd be reading something to stimulate my appetite before the two weeks in Italy. Instead, it was giving me a headache.

During my short 2 weeks in Italy, I had no time to whine. I was too busy eating. Pizzas and pastas, artichokes and fresh porcinis, parma ham, salami, dainty little clams and graceful prawns, nutty asparagus and tasty tomatoes, creamy gelatos, fluffy pastries, rich cheeses and lots and lots of wine... The prayers were thanks to the Divine for this bounty. And with all this luscious food, how could there NOT be amore in the air?

A Hill of (Bad?) Beans

I must say, I've been feeling amazingly healthy since I became much stricter about eliminating GMOs from my diet. Everyone seems to be worried about flu season but me.

"So you make your own mayonnaise?" asked Big Dog's sister, incredulously.

Well, why not? First of all, I don't use much mayo since I was never a big fan of the taste or texture, preferring to mix in a little yogurt into things that would normally use mayo. But it's so fast and simple to make your own, you can chose between lemon juice, different vinegars, etc. to suit your taste and most of all, when you do, you KNOW it has no GM soy oil in it. (Check out the ingredient list on Best Foods or Hellman's mayo. Top of the list: soybean oil. From GM soy.) Just make sure you pick the right oil.

I had no idea how bad the stuff is for you, but this article makes it sound horrific. 

If you read the entire article, you'll find out that Dr. Mercola isn't much into soybeans, period. Sad, because it's an important ingredient for me and I know that Japanese people who eat a lot of it have the highest longevity rate in the world. Someone once told me it had to do with all the other ingredients we take with soy. Like sea vegetables. And, as with anything, you shouldn't make one ingredient more prominent than others in your diet.

Variety is also key to healthy eating, so I will continue to have my soy...and carrots and kale and onions and seaweed and grains and........

Politics of Eating

One of my oft-quoted reads has been M.F.K. Fisher's "The Art of Eating," a compilation of essays she wrote on food long before the word "foodie" was in our vernacular. It has much to say about the art of eating, as well as the philosophy, psychology, anthropology, romance and sometimes just the plain fun of eating. I don't remember her saying anything about the Politics of Eating, however.

Food corporations existed when she was writing about food, of course, but I don't think corporatism itself was as diabolical. It certainly hadn't taken over the world yet. But now, in the 21st century, way too much of what and how we eat is being determined by these corporations, and the governments they own.

I've been thinking about all of this a lot.

I am enjoying my life immensely after having dropped out. I look back at my on-air days on mainstream media and shudder at how controlled (bought?) I was by The Powers That Be, which in my case were the sponsors and shareholders.

A colleague and I used to laugh about what whores we were because we could not turn down lucrative work. Another colleague looked down on us for our "extra-curricular" activities selling our voice (and later, mug) for use in Big Time National Media Ads. He pretended to have some sort of journalistic integrity for not appearing in ads (though when he re-married someone who thought it was a good idea, his voice and face were all over the airwaves selling someone's something.) But I always thought we were all whores. C and I just managed to get the bigger bucks when the getting was good.

Now, I feel I am finally independent. My own boss. Happy in my autonomy. I jealously guard it, too. But you have to make a major effort to protect your independence.

Since Prop 37 (GMO Labeling) got voted out last November, I have been extra vigilant about what I shop and how I eat. I feel like I am making a political statement every time I buy food, choose my restaurants, grow and prep my food. Every bite is a bite out of Big Ag's coffers, no?

I both envy and despise those who can live in the fog. Trust governments. Trust Big Biz. Trust. Period. Shouldn't it be that way? Shouldn't we all be looking out for one another's welfare? Shouldn't we all care about each other?

We should, but we don't. So, when you are a minority, everything you do -- even your existence -- becomes political.

I learned that from a lesbian couple in Tokyo. If you are a heterosexual person, you never think that romance could be political. Who you love is who you love, right? But once outside the borders...... everything gets politicized.

You don't have to march in the streets or wave picket signs. You don't have to buy ad space in the New York Times. Just going about your non-mainstream business is political.

How am I doing so far? Glad you asked, because I am keeping a tally. Well, sort of, anyway.

Where I Failed

Let's get that out of the way first.

On the way back to the ranch, we stopped in Oxnard for gas. Big Dog hates to "waste" time (even for basics like eating and peeing -- good thing I am built like a camel) so I didn't make a fuss when he pulled into Burger King. We are both creeped out by fast food, but there is a toilet (yay!) and food (well.....) I think we both had "fish burgers." I tried not to think about what was in mine.

Big Dog has a sweet tooth. Pre-made, packaged sweets are filled with crap like high fructose corn syrup so although I am not a sweet person, I make batches of cookies or bars or pies or cakes on a regular basic. The problem is... I bought a bag of Nestle's White Chocolate Chips. It uses real sugar, I think (or is it from GM sugarbeets?) but there it is on the ingredient list: soy lecithin. OMG! Totally GMO!

We also had several nights where friends (all Red Blooded Meat Eating Gun Toting American Males) came for dinner, bringing with them tons of raw meat which Big Dog grilled. I had a sausage (ugh) and some chicken, a few bites of rib eye. I KNOW the sausage (which came out of a plastic package) was disgusting and filled with not only GMO products but chemicals, carcinogens et cetera. I can't say anything about the chicken or the beef but they were from supermarkets and warehouse stores.

The Easy Part

I was surprised at how easy it was to find organic and non-GMO options. I suppose if you relied on packaged (factory-made) items, it will be harder, but I never trusted all those ingredients that sound like they belong in a lab rather than in my body anyway.

See the Non-GMO logo next to Flag.

One of the biggest supermarket tofu brands, House, has a non-GMO project seal!! And it's not even their organic brand!! Hurray for House! (And, for now, boo for Kikkoman USA. I wrote to them last year about their soy sauce and they wrote back to tell me that their "conventional soy was made with beans from two Midwest suppliers who do not certify their beans to be non-GMO," although in a lab analysis of 3 different batches of soy sauce made at their Wisconsin plant, "there was no genetically modified DNA detected." Now, if only they could follow House's example...)

 And I was happy to see that organic bulk items -- cornmeal, soybeans, rice, flour -- are not terribly expensive. Once it gets weighed and packaged by someone else, the price goes up. If it's processed further, price goes up again. So if you are on a budget, it makes sense to invest in a slow cooker and cook your own dried beans rather than buying a can of cooked beans, for example.

"Natural food stores are too expensive," Big Dog keeps saying, but I was able to get organic soybeans for $1.89/lb and organic cornmeal for $1.29/lb. Soy and corn being the biggest GMO culprits that we need to be careful with, it was definitely worth it.

The Fun Part

Bright orange fungus!

Being back on the ranch is the Fun Part. There is still a lot of stuff growing. Some of the apple trees still had apples and we got about 5 gallons of the best of them. There are also the mushrooms. It drives me crazy that I don't know more about them -- some of them look downright tasty.

It's great fun foraging, and I think growing your own food is the ultimate political act when it comes to Food Independence. Though I am still way behind the curve, I love to peruse the seed catalogs that have been coming in, dreaming about my Future Bounty.

A new kind of mushroom. Looks yum.

Volunteer chard everywhere.

For now, I am happy with my brussel sprouts, salad greens, leafy greens, carrots, onions, greenhouse peppers... And what I don't grow, I can find at one of the many local farmer's markets.

Edible weeds!

Lecture over. Time to chow down!

Food Challenges

"Can you find out if Chieko has any food preferences?"
Back in early July, that was a common email question coming into my inbox. Anti-nuke groups in California were getting ready for Fukushima survivor and anti-nuke activist Chieko Shiina's California Tour. A typical grassroots event, it seemed to have materialized with no budget. Volunteers were asked for air miles, accommodations, rides, etc. but that's the cool thing about grassroots: everyone is so generous with everything they have.

I had language and as one of the hosts along the way, other hosts directed this Very Important Question to me.

Things got a bit chaotic when the main organizer suddenly had visa problems and we never did get an answer to the food preference question, but they needn't have worried. Most Japanese are game for all kinds of foods and I rarely meet people with food-related issues. It's such that although so much of Japanese food is vegetarian and vegan, if you go into a restaurant, no one will be able to tell you if something has a meat products, wheat, eggs, whatever. Maybe things have changed in the decade I've lived outside of Japan now, but back then, at least, if you had food restrictions, better be able to look after yourself.

Imagine Chieko's surprise when our local translator (Japanese) ordered a special (vegan) meal at our Dinner Event. (I must say, though, I was very happy that Chieko was not shy about stating her breakfast preference to me when I asked later that night and we were able to share a lovely Japanese-Italian brunch with all the yumminess of our early summer garden. I was sorry I didn't have any natto for her, though, and have since learned to make my own!)

Americans are not at all shy about stating food preferences to their hosts. I learned this early on when I asked the DogFather why he had so many kinds of carbonated beverages in his closet even though he only drank the occasional Diet Coke.

"Oh, D only drinks Diet Pepsi, and H only drinks regular Coke, and......" He was stocked with a dozen different brands to suit all his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
"Wow. In Japan, people just eat and drink whatever's offered. And gratefully," I said.

And every time I cooked for Big Dog's niece, I learned of new things she did not eat!

Being away from the ranch for a good part of the summer, we are just starting into our Season of Visitors and our next one has presented me with a small Food Challenge: Gluten Intolerance. It still surprises me when guests are able to so casually mention something like this. Maybe it's because so many Americans are used to dealing with convenience in cuisine and don't understand that I make everything from scratch.

I've seen a lot of packaged foods that claim to be gluten-free and I know there are many baking items that are such, but why should I start buying factory-made food now?

In preparation for 4 days of gluten-free cooking, I have been trying to find information ("Okay, wheat is out. But rice is alright? Hmm. But rice is glutinous. Does that matter?") and ideas ("Desserts are going to be tricky but I can do stuff like chocolate mousse...") I still have too many questions. "What do they eat for breakfast?" "Will they be able to do a Real Japanese Breakfast?" ("Are you kidding me?" says Big Dog.) "Can they eat oat?" "Can I make a pizza dough with only rice flour?" I guess I will find out more after they arrive.

Where Have All The Cornfields Gone?

I wondered about that for a long time.

In all the years and miles of traveling throughout Mexico, we have never seen any giant fields of corn. For all the corn that gets consumed in this country, there have been very few cornfields. On our current trip around southern Mexico, we've seen mountainsides covered with corn (between Palenque and San Cristobal de Las Casas) but they were still only big enough to feed the locals. So where are the giant fields feeding the nation's appetite for corn?

Now we know. They are in North America.

After NAFTA, Mexico got flooded with cheaply grown, government subsidized GM corn from North America. It wiped out the local farmers, pushing many of them to emigrate (legally or illegally) into the US for jobs. Some states are resisting the wave of cheap GM corn, but fighting Big Ag is always difficult, so I suspect we have eaten our share of tortillas and tamales made with GM corn masa.

This is not democracy! This is capitalism and corporatism at its worst.

But the bad news didn't end there. Turns out Big Ag isn't doing this just to poor little Mexico. Big Ag's already done its work in the US and Canada. Seems that almost everything made in a factory has some GM ingredient or another. Look at the labels. If it doesn't specifically say the product is organic or GM-free, you're eating a GM item. Anything with corn -- cereal, corn oil, corn syrup, corn starch, even vinegar -- is using GM corn (the majority of it is Monsanto's RoundUp Ready genetically engineered corn.) Same with soy, rapeseed (canola oil) and sugar unless it uses pure cane sugar.

It's so disturbing. The manufacturers of GE seed are telling us how safe it is. Then why is it banned in so many countries in Europe? Why do so many countries have laws making labeling of items containing GM ingredients mandatory? (And why don't the US, Canada and Mexico have these laws?)

I've read scientific studies that point to genetically engineered foods being responsible for an increase in auto-immune disorders, liver and kidney damage, allergies, learning disorders, accelerated aging, birth defects... the list goes on.

There's a movement in California now to put the labeling issue on the November ballot. Big Ag is doing everything it can to prevent this. Because they know that most people do not want GE foods so if it gets on the ballot, it will surely be voted in. And once labeling is mandatory, consumers will stop buying the products containing GM ingredients, manufacturers will stop using them and the whole GM business (oh-so-lucrative now) will disappear. (Hurray for consumers!)

Don't believe me? Go and see for yourself.

Seafood Heaven

Dorado...sarangola...huachinango...sierra...pargo...mojarra...raya...

Camarones...pulpo...caracoles...langosta...ostiones...

Ahhhh, I am in seafood heaven! The quality of it all is superb. I tell the Japanese it's better than what you can get in Tsukiji, the famous fish market, because it is so much fresher. And the variety, while it may not match that of Tsukiji that gets its seafood from around the world, is quite good.

We can buy fish at the fisherman's coop on the beach, or...

...from the fishmongers in town.


Why can't I get this variety in the States? We live on the coast and yet all I ever see is the same cod/salmon/halibut/snapper you find everywhere. (Plus farmed catfish and tilapia, of course. I can stand to eat catfish, but there's something terribly unappealing about tilapia.) In West LA, we have the Santa Monica Seafood, an upscale fish market that has all sorts of beautiful seafood, but make sure you bring a wad of money. Same with Whole Foods.

Here on the Central Pacific Coast of Mexico, it's all incredibly affordable and unbelievably fresh. Which is why I always bring my own sashimi knife and wasabi!


If you're not into preparing your own seafood, you can get lots of tasty dishes at the local restaurants. Ceviche is ground up fish (sierra, a kind of mackerel, usually) "cooked" in lime juice and mixed with diced onion, carrot, tomato, peppers and cilantro. Trita is sliced fish that's lightly "cooked" in lime. Popular shrimp dishes include coctel de camarones (shrimp in a big parfait glass filled with a spicy tomato juice/soup, onions, peppers and avocado -- you can also get it with octopus, oysters or clams,) al diablo (spicy sauce), al mantequilla (butter sauce), al ajo (garlic), empanizado (breaded and fried) and aguachile (boiled or "cooked" in lime and mixed with peppers, onions and avocados, sometime tomato.) Fish is served in almost the same ways as shrimp but there's also a la veracruzana (green olives seem to be the key ingredient,) a la plancha (pan broiled,) dorado (a whole fish unbreaded and deep fried to a crisp, not to be confused with dorado, or mahi-mahi) and zarandeado (grilled.) I've tried them all and have not once been disappointed! (Something I cannot say about restaurant seafood in other countries...)

Local fishermen cleaning out their fishing net...

...and going out to sea.

Takes more than one to deal to a fishing net.

Our friends spearfished this batch.

It was the tastiest yellowfin tuna (and mahi-mahi) ever! We made fresh maguro sushi rolls, sashimi, tuna steaks...ahhhhhhh

Heart of the (Artichoke) Matter

It's artichoke season at The Ranch.

J&R have a pretty nice artichoke patch in one of our orchards and the McC's have some nice plants growing in their zone. So why aren't there any artichokes on my plants? And why don't the others pick and eat theirs?

It can be a little discouraging when others have harvestable fruit and you have none, but I have plenty of wild artichokes and they can be a handful to deal with.


Most of mine grow in the front pasture, on the other side of the creek. It's an uncultivated pasture filled with wild things -- fennel, bristly ox-tongue, yellow mustard, tall grasses, things I know not the names of. You want to be in long pants -- I am sure there are ticks that would just love to pounce on you at the slightest hint of butric acid. Wild artichokes are way thornier than domesticated ones, so sturdy gloves are good, too.

It's a pain harvesting, but that's the easy part. Then, you have to cut away the thorny tips of the leaves, then boil them, then strip them down to the heart. The center is mostly gnarly choke. The tiny leaves have a small nib at the bottom that is so very tasty -- much nuttier than domesticated artichokes -- but you only get a tiny nibble out of each leaf. I guess you could set them out like beer nuts to nibble on while drinking, but it's the heart that you really want.

Last year, I froze the hearts but once frozen, they seem to lose their tastiness, so this year, I decided to marinate the hearts. It was a whole day affair, cleaning, boiling, stripping, paring and getting down to the heart of each tiny artichoke.










Are these wild artichokes really wild cardoons? I have no idea, but being the ever-curious Bad Dog, I also tried boiling the big spiny outer leaves to see if they were edible. Aaaaaagh! They are the most bitter thing in the world! (Now I read that you don't eat cardoon leaves but the ribs of the leaves and the inner stalks.)

The leaves of the artichoke, I sent through a blender and strained, for use in my wild artichoke soup (so green! so nutty! so creamy!) I think I really put my poor blender to the test -- she was starting to complain and I thought she'd quit on me before the last of the artichokes were processed. But at the end of the day, I had a nice tub of marinating artichoke hearts, unlike anything you have ever tasted, and a beautiful soup for dinner.

Not Dead Yet

I had to tell you that I ate the oyster mushroom. It was the topping for my pizza today.

I'm still alive, so I guess it really was an oyster mushroom, but it did not taste very good. Not everything edible is good to eat. In fact, sometimes the chasm between the two is VERY wide.

Winter Harvest (Part 3)

The rains came back last week, and with it, the mushrooms.

When we first got back to the ranch in January, we had plenty of mushrooms, but with the warm dry weather, they'd all dried up. I had been watering the chanterelle patch near the oak swing, but something was nibbling them away, too.

"Prices are way down this year," our neighbor from down the valley told us earlier. His son had made a nice little bundle last year, but they say there's a glut of chanterelles bringing down wholesale prices. Knowing what a good mushroom hunter the son is, I got them to come look for the fungi on our ranch, promising them that I'd give them half of their haul after I dried them.

That was last month and those mushrooms are all dried and shriveled up, ready to use like dried porcini or shiitake mushrooms. (If you are interested in drying your mushrooms, it's real easy. Just wash, then spread out on a towel until they are less soggy, then onto a paper towel. Leave them out until every bit of moisture is gone before you put them away. Patience is the key. I've ruined several batches by putting them away too soon. Better if you can just forget about them for a few months.)

Now we've had several days of torrential rain and the mykos are back. A short walk through our back woods gave me a bucketful of chanterelles and a handful of what I think are oyster mushrooms.

Chanterelles are best in simple dishes, I think. You want to be able to enjoy their flavor. People around here say they saute them with garlic and butter, but I like them with just a little sprinkle of salt and pepper and a little drizzle of cream and/or a splash of white wine. If I have time, I'll make chanterelle ravioli. Serve them tossed in olive oil with freshly grated parmesan. Mmm.

Now, do I try the oyster mushroom or not???

Winter Harvest (Part 2)

I've been seeing a lot of bees these days and the hummingbirds are starting to come out. It's as if none of us can wait for the longer days of spring. The sun's out, it's warm, so let's get busy!

And so we have. Cleaning up the mess from pruning, doing a winter burn, re-staking posts, fixing fences... While doing so, I found a patch of miner's lettuce, between the garrya (silktassel) tree and Outsider Peach (named only for its location outside the orchards, not social status.) How could I have missed it all these years?

Even now, in the winter, nature keeps giving. I've been collecting and drying early spring oregano, yerba buena, mint..... Nature's such a generous lover. Will YOU be my Valentine?

The heart-shaped leaves of miner's lettuce make it the perfect Valentine's Day salad!