August 2010 Archives

I'm writing about this subject here not because it's so local, but because there's so little helpful info online about it.  I thought this might be helpful to others who want to grow this beautiful plant. Also, I think most of us have little idea how many really amazing foods we've never eaten -- or even heard about. Some just are not known to the mainstream population in the US (though are often for certain ethnic groups for whom they are "normal"). Others used to be better known, but have fallen so out of favor most folks don't know even their names, much less what to do with them. So here we are with this Hmong Eggplant, pictured above.  

I decided to grow seed sold as "Red Ruffled Eggplant" (Solanum aethiopictum, aka: Hmong Eggplant, Red [Scarlet or Orange] African Eggplant) this year among others, because this is one of the very few under cultivation in the US by 1878, the date before which I chose all varieties we would grow at Thoreau Farm (today's harvest shown below, right). However, this one was cultivated as an ornamental back then, and not as an edible; a lot of the info online now is relevant to the inedible, fully ripe, bright orange-red fruit. In that guise it's called "Ornamental Pumpkin" or "Mini Pumpkin Tree". Aren't they cute as buttons? And not much bigger, in fact.

Some of the few things I read online about this eggplant are 1) the fruit is bitter, 2) it has thorns on the leaves, and 2) the fruit is bitter.  However, I have not yet found any thorns. Oh, and had I mentioned: the fruit has been obsessively and repeatedly reported to be bitter.

All the much-reported bitterness associated with this and other eggplants has always puzzled me.  I've never eaten an eggplant that had a pronounced bitterness, and believe me, this "lazy" cook doesn't do anything like salting and draining raw eggplant before cooking to reduce its so-called bitterness.  I have so far come to think bitterness is pretty much an oft-reported myth. 

The bitterness associated with this particular eggplant comes about when it's allowed to ripen, that is: turn from green to yellow and then to orange and red.  THEN it's bitter, as well as seedy.  But let ANY type of eggplant ripen and you'll end up with something bitter.  Same with a cucumber, furcryingoutloud! Don't let any variety of eggplant ripen until it develops mature seed, and you won't have to worry about bitterness. Since this variety is also grown as an ornamental (which requires the fruit to be totally -- and bitterly -- ripe), I think this stage of its growth is conflated with the edible, green stage. 

The small size of these eggplants was a bit of a puzzle for me: how can I prepare them?  I ended up grilling the first few I picked and they were totally delicious as part of a grilled veggie platter.  I may repeat that with this load, this time incorporating them into caponata, a favorite late summer use-up-whats-in-the-garden dish (I use a recipe in the ballpark of this one, substituting fresh tomatoes for the canned sauce).

Photo: From top left: sweet basil, Hmong eggplant, Aunt Molly's ground cherries, Blue Coco beans, Resina calendula seed heads, Amish Paste tomatoes, the author's right foot, White Custard squash, Riesentraub tomatoes; center: Bullnose pepper. 

While they're slowed down for a while, through mid-week last week the tomatoes were rolling into the kitchen by the boxcar load -- or so it seemed: over 100 lbs in about a week!  After drying some first (see my article here on that project), I found two "lazy" ways to store large quantities away for future use, both fast and easy methods.

First, there was making "lazy" sauce in the slow cooker (I use a 6-quart model like this one -- the photo above is at the start of this process this morning at around 8:30 am).  And I do mean lazy: include the seeds and the peel, rough chop big fruit or halve cherry toms, toss in some herbs whole (our own basil, parsley and garlic in today's batch, at right), cover, and set on high for an hour or two.  Then stir, and replace the lid, but rotated a bit so it doesn't close to allow some of the moisture to cook off for a couple more hours on high. Once the sauce is reduced and thickened, I turn off the cooker.  Once cooled, I slash through it with the immersion blender until it's smoother, but a little chunky. I turned out four cups of cooked sauce from the batch seen at top just before cooking began (photo, below right). 

Now, let's not get fussy about the skins and the seeds still being in there.  First, they contain major portions of the nutrition of the tomato. Whoever decided they MUST be removed was part of the great international anti-nutrition, overly-processed, non-whole food conspiracy. Second, this is a lazy method, and fussing with removing peels and seeds is a no-no.

The second "lazy" method is the most lazy of them all.  It's one I've never used before this year, but that I had read about widely online starting last winter.  Core large tomatoes, and use them either whole or cut into chunks. Cherry tomatoes can be used whole or halved.  Pop them into freezer bags.  Freeze.  Use as needed for cooking. 

Yes, you read that right: freeze without cooking or any other processing.  Just take them out of the freezer and cook with them as if they were fresh.  This I have to try! I've frozen a couple of gallons cut in large chunks. After cutting and bagging, I've frozen the bags flat so that the pieces don't form one big frozen chunk with the hope that I can remove just the amount I want to use each time.  This does take up the most room of all the methods because they contain 100% of their natural moisture, But who can beat this for "I'm in too much of a hurry, and I have some tomatoes I MUST put up RIGHT NOW"?

The tomato harvest will ramp up again in about a week, and again we will be harvesting 100 lbs a week -- perhaps even more before the season is through.  But now with three good methods to preserve them, I'm ready!

"Sun dried tomatoes" have such wonderful, concentrated taste and keeping abilities. Most are not actually dried in the sun, however!  In our Concord climate (except for the bizarre amounts of sun we've had this summer) it's unlikely we will be able to successfully sun dry tomatoes, or at least not often or reliably.

I've used a little electric dryer for more than a decade, and ohmygoodness!  The dried tomatoes it produces are fabulous!  I usually dry cherry or paste tomatoes, but never whole. Either halved if very small cherries, or sliced (1/4" thick slices are good). Thank goodness there's another thing to reduce the glut of tomatoes -- something that shrinks down and stores VERY small, too!

I'm just finishing my first batch of the season. I've dried 5 varieties already, and am working on varieties 6 and 7 (for comparison's sake).  I will put them in ziplok bags, date and otherwise label, and store them all together for up to 3 years (if we let them last that long!) in a very large glass or plastic jar that closes tightly.  They are super thrown into a saute or sauce with a little liquid shortly before a dish is finished cooking... simply great flavor. 

This is the second dryer I've owned (the first one died after falling down the concrete basement steps on more than one occasion). I strongly recommend having a temperature control is extremely helpful (my first one didn't). This is the one I use, but please don't take that for any kind of gospel (not a bad idea to get a couple of extra trays, too).

I also use the dehydrator for drying peppers, including roasted/grilled peppers (which come out and keep great!), and for making dried apples, pears and bananas.   I've done mushrooms too, but two years ago I totally lost my mushroom mojo and they all went moldy. Dehydrated kale "chips" are amazing, too. 

I have tried and would not again use this method to dry berries, green beans, celery or herbs (I like to air dry or freeze herbs).  Except for the mushrooms, I've not had anything else go moldy in keeping.
 

Continuing our theme of September-in-August, I've been harvesting our flint corn grown at our community garden plot at Easter Quarter Farm.  Flint corn is sometimes called "Indian corn," and the variety I just harvested (and shown in the photo -- click on the image to launch a larger view in a pop-up window) is called Roy's Calias Abenaki flint corn. It has a Vermont heritage.

This variety is "boarded on" the US Slow Food Ark of Taste, which identifies and promotes exceptional, traditional foods that are at risk for extinction. Numerous varieties of Indian corn -- vital to particularly tribes' spiritual and food ways -- are close to or already have fallen below sustainable numbers of seeds.  The only way to keep these varieties -- high in nutrition and tradition -- going is to grow and eat them.  And then save and replant the seed. 

I had originally planned to grow this corn in the Thoreau Farm's kitchen garden, but I mixed up the seedlings (which were well-marked, but not correctly read by me until after they had been transplanted). Given Thoreau's concerns about native American rights, I thought this only fitting. Also, this corn was the only variety in New England that survived "The Year Without a Summer" (1816, also known as "The Year of Poverty"), so it was vital to New Englanders in 1817 when Henry was born.

I purchased the seeds from Fedco, which has tested the nutrition and taste of this variety, and found them both to be superior (read more about this variety here: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/ark_product_detail/roys_calais_flint_corn/). The photo at right shows about one-third of our harvest. I'd like to grind this into cornmeall. 

I would also love to nixtamalize this corn (that is, soak it in water and wood ashes or lye and make hominy, when ground known also as masa) as it is the traditional method of processing this corn -- it greatly increases the availability of certain vital nutrients. But how long do I let it dry? How do I best remove the kernels from the cob? What do I do with the parts that were eaten by insects -- do I remove them now or later?   Flint corn is hard and a cheap, hand-cranked grinder would be tough going; it doesn't make sense for me to buy a good one for several hundred dollars for so little use. Where can I find a grain grinder I can use for less than a half-hour? (email if you can help, please!)

These are skills that adults taught children for millennia, skills that were simply part of common knowledge and practice. But in 2010 they are lost to almost everyone of us in Concord.  Even Google can't tell me what to do next with the harvest -- so I'm hanging the ears to dry, hoping to find out more soon.  

From Orchard House, Home of the Alcotts

We are deeply honored to announce that famed photographer Annie Leibovitz (at right) held a photo shoot at Orchard House on July 9th.  Ms. Leibovitz is at work on a book about famous authors and the places and things that inspired them, and has informed us that Louisa May Alcott has been a great inspiration to her!  We are thrilled to be included in the new book, and look forward to working with her.
 

By Rick Wheeler, Concord Resident

Several days ago, I posted a message affirming that Debbie Bier's Concord List Serve is truly an outstanding example of a means for "bringing people together!  Today, I would like to share an account of a wonderful incident that occurred on her "List Serve" some seven years ago that serves as an excellent example of the gift that she has given to us.

It all started with a message from Japan that popped up on the list serve!  The message was from a Japanese writer, Tetsuro Takasaki, who was looking for a contact in Concord to assist him in his efforts to write a biography of Concord's William Wheeler!  Knowing about our time in Japan, Debbie called me that day and said, "You are the one, Rick!"

William Wheeler had joined with three others from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1876 to go to Japan to start an agricultural college in the northern island of Hokkaido.  He stayed for two years, came back to Concord to marry his bride, Fannie Hubbard, and returned to Hokkaido with her for two more years during which he was the President of the new College!  In 1924, William Wheeler was awarded the "Fifth Order of the Rising Sun" by the Japanese government in recognition of the many contributions he had made during his stay in Japan.  I would like to add here a personal anecdote.  When Betty Ann and I arrived in Tokyo in 1965, for what would be a four year tour with our Citibank, we kept being asked by newly introduced Japanese hosts, "Are you a relative of William Wheeler?"  This, mind you, was eighty five years after his departure!  He certainly made a difference in so many ways!  Oh, yes, he was our eighth cousin, thrice removed!

So, over the following years Betty Ann and I assisted Takasaki-San in his many visits to Concord where thanks to Alan Cathcart at the Department of Public Works, Leslie Wilson at Special Collections in our Library, and so many other members of our Concord community, he completed the Wheeler biography, which covers not only his years in Japan but his life in Concord as well.  It was published in Japanese in 2004. 

That left us with the task of completing an English language translation.  Here, Barbara Wheeler stepped forward to introduce a good Japanese friend, Kazue Campbell, a former Professor at Boston University, to lead that effort.  We brought together a wonderfully dedicated group to serve as an "Editorial Committee" composed of family members and individuals who had in various ways committed themselves to Concord's history, as well as our Sister City relationship with Nanae, and the Island of Hokkaido itself.  This part of the journey was another three years or more, however, today we can share with deep satisfaction that the English Language translation was completed in 2009 and that the book is now available for sale.

Copies are available at our Concord Bookshop at 65 Main Street in Concord.  We would like to clarify that our portion of the proceeds will be dedicated to those current and future efforts supporting our Sister City relationship with Nanae as well as the Island of Hokkaido itself.  Thank you for your interest! 

Enjoy an afternoon summer garden party at the Concord Free Public Library on Thursday, August 12 at 3 pm. Bring something to swap: a plant or vegetable from your garden, or a local recipe. Sip cool beverages and talk about books with other library patrons.

Everyone who brings something to swap will win a small prize.They  will also have their Grand Drawing for wonderful raffle prizes for the summer reading program donated by the Friends of the Library, Nashoba Bakery, Dunkin' Donuts, Debra's Natural Gourmet, and the Concord bookshop, among others.

This event will be held at the main branch of the library at the corner of Main Street and Sudbury Road. It is part of the Library's "Go Green, Think Green" series being offered to adults this summer.

Tribute Books announces the release of Thumbing Through Thoreau: A Book of Quotations by Henry David Thoreau compiled by Kenny Luck. Illustrators Jay Luke and Ren Adams lend their talents to artistically interpret Thoreau's vision. Each quote is accompanied by an original drawing.

The Concord Magazine blog is publishing some of this book's work as the quotes appear to highlight current events.

Tribute Books announces the release of Thumbing Through Thoreau: A Book of Quotations by Henry David Thoreau compiled by Kenny Luck. Illustrators Jay Luke and Ren Adams lend their talents to artistically interpret Thoreau's vision. Each quote is accompanied by an original drawing.

The Concord Magazine blog will be publishing some of this book's work as the quotes appear to highlight current events.

I'm making three blog posts about the two Concord Journal articles (here and here)
published last week about what they frame as "communication failures" between townspeople and Town government. I am going to publish them backwards for how blogs usually work (last in the series first) because they will go online within seconds of one another, and that way they will be read from top-to-bottom in order.

I know the Journal worked long and hard on these articles, and was open to many ideas and exploring where the story took them. It is NOT easy to do this type of in-depth reporting when there are only 2 people running the paper. In fact, there is a real worry on a national level about the way the economics of the newspaper business has impacted accountability reporting. These 2 pieces buck that trend. I know both Cheryl and Patrick would like to do more of this work but are seriously constrained by a lack of resources. Bravo to them for pushing themselves to do these pieces anyway! They do an amazing job putting out a weekly paper on just a shoe-string... perhaps even just half of a shoe-string! We have no idea what could be accomplished if they had a reasonable amount of staff and a managing editor who wasn't also simultaneously editor of another town's newspaper.

I enjoy that I was called "outspoken" even though the reporter said he wasn't going to editorialize. (teasing to him here). Here's what outspoken means. (Note the "blunt New England farmer"... my, my...)

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=outspoken

* S: (adj) outspoken, vocal (given to expressing yourself freely or insistently) "outspoken in their opposition to segregation"; "a vocal assembly"

* S: (adj) blunt, candid, forthright, frank, free-spoken, outspoken, plainspoken, point-blank, straight-from-the-shoulder (characterized by directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion) "blunt talking and straight shooting"; "a blunt New England farmer"; "I gave them my candid opinion"; "forthright criticism"; "a forthright approach to the problem"; "tell me what you think--and you may just as well be frank"; "it is possible to be outspoken without being rude"; "plainspoken and to the point"; "a point-blank accusation"

I can live with this. In fact I do live with it (and so does my husband, dear man that he is). As an immigrant from New Jersey/Metro NYC, I think part of my value to this community is that I *AM* plainspoken in a way that is more normal there and not here. Let's not confuse cultural
differences with inappropriate behavior, shall we? I am willing and able to culturally assimilate only so far.

And if I had fully assimilated, I wouldn't have created or run this blog, would I? I don't think so.

I'm making three blog posts about the two Concord Journal articles (here and here)
published last week about what they frame as "communication failures" between townspeople and Town government. I am going to publish them backwards for how blogs usually work (last in the series first) because they will go online within seconds of one another, and that way they will be read from top-to-bottom in order.

The Concord Journal cast these issues as one of civility. I think that is NOT the most important story here. The far larger story is one of Civil Rights: representatives of our government have been found to be suppressing the civil rights of citizens... and doing so unapologetically.

Here's the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I point out that the words "tone" and "civility" do not appear anywhere there. There are no modifiers such as "but only in cases where the government likes what's being said." No, there is NO prohibition or abridgment permitted, and are not considered optional. Are we not a nation of laws?

"Tone," I must stress, is a protected expression of freedom of speech. And I was petitioning the government for redress of a grievance. Instead, I got rebuke and denouncement for expressing my views. The article quotes the selectman who denied me both redress
and freedom of speech as doing so intentionally on both counts. I feel my civil rights were violated -- two-fold -- while the entire Board of Selectmen stood by. (And my "tone" was utterly and completely distorted into something it truly was not... but that is a totally subjective argument I feel I should leave here.)

What is our obsession with "tone" here in Concord, anyway? Tone being in the ear of the beholder, by the way. Should it really be the norm to reject the content of speech when the government doesn't like the "tone"? It seems from the article that the more Selectmen who don't like the "tone", the more justified that rejection is. What's happening here is that hyper-focus on "tone" is suppressing free speech. It is the government squelching dissenting opinion. I don't believe that to be the values our community has historically held dear and practiced famously. In fact, one way to judge the depth of a democracy is how dissenting views are treated -- and I'm afraid we're not passing in this area.

For every person unhinged by "tone" I have to ask: What do you think the "tone" was like here in Concord in the 1770's leading up to the Provincial Congresses and the Concord Fight? And the highly revered Concordian Henry Thoreau -- often pointed to as a moral compass for
the generations that followed: what about his "tone"?

Now we look back proudly at those "outspoken" folks, who were following their sense of moral right. We can't be proud of them yet shun frank or strong speech now -- at least not without being embarrassingly hypocritical. If we had been so hung up by "tone" in the past, our history would have likely turned out very differently.

If we want to really solve our problems here in Concord, find solutions to our challenges, and live into the future as the vibrant and fruitful community we have been historically, we have got to drop our worship of "tone" and start really talking about the issues -- dissenting opinions and all.

Now, I'm not calling for fisticuffs and ad hominium attacks left-and-right. What I am strongly recommending is that we stop branding and dismissing dissidents and start listening to each other. And talking together. Let's make our forbearers proud of how courageously we can sustain community with one another, even while acknowledging our differences.

I'm making three blog posts about the two Concord Journal articles (here and here) published last week about what they frame as "communication failures" between townspeople and Town government. I am going to publish them backwards for how blogs usually work (last in the series first) because they will go online within seconds of one another, and that way they will be read from top-to-bottom in order.

"Shadowy" -- Yes, that is what one of our current selectman called the 12-year old, 750 member Concord Discussion List (though he seemed to call it a blog, too) -- "shadowy". I am sad that the Concord Journal article didn't point out the fact that this list's archives are open to the public, and have always been. (If indeed he meant the Concord Blog, this too, is fully accessible to the public -- you're reading it right now, in fact!) The discussion list is more widely and fully accessible to scrutiny than is any other public meeting of townspeople. In fact, it's more accessible than the Concord Journal itself, which only has a portion of its content online -- which doesn't have these articles online. Every one of our posts can be seen by the public anywhere in the world that has internet access.

There is a direct accusation that what we do on that discussion list involves "keyboard courage," and that we are cowardly for not addressing the government in person. I want to point out that I did -- and as a result, I was publicly rebuked and called names for stating an unwanted opinion. So citizens have no other recourse than to either face that kind of treatment when they have a complaint, or talk amongst ourselves.

There is absolutely no obligation any of us have to privately or in person address our government -- and absolutely tremendous history that the opposite is a long and highly effective practice. Government officials have for millennia been the object of public
discussion and dissection, including satire, plays, street theater, public demonstrations, songs, paintings, drawings and poetry. Literature is FILLED with such examples, as are our newspaper with editorials, letters to the editor, op-eds and political cartoons (such as the one at right from 1869 -- click to see a larger view launch in a separate window). How come this is acceptable in the rest of the democratic world, but not to Concord's government?

There are a several other missed opportunities and missing facts, one of which I feel it important to point out. I am quite disappointed that the reporter of the piece did not mention that he himself was one of several witnesses to the "confrontation" of the elderly citizen by a selectman. Sources of information are important, and in fact, they are an expected standard. I am sad that the journal never reported it as a news item when it happened, because it was a very unusual, notable occurrence indeed (I have heard what happened directly from two witnesses and the person who was "confronted" and in my opinion it was more newsworthy than the reporter implied from his own single point of view).

I am grateful to the Journal for working with this topic as hard as they did. I was quoted accurately and in context, and in a complex work with many moving parts written over several weeks, that is a task. I don't want it to seem that I find the piece only to be lacking, because I don't. I am glad they worked with thin resources to produce it, because it involves some very important community issues with which we must now come to grips.