Recently in Natural Concord Category

By Mark Cotreau, Concord Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director

I thought I would pass along a synopsis of what we are hearing regarding hurricane Earl.

Although there is still a historical error of 75 to 100 miles on the track of the storm at this juncture, there is growing Faith in the present forecast. In a nutshell, the prediction for Concord is for rain to start after noontime tomorrow. Rain and wind will become heavy late in the afternoon until about midnight. We are forecast to have a maximum wind of 40 mph for our area and rain fall of 4 inches in a six-hour timeframe.  Obviously, the track and conditions could change this either way but this is how we are looking so far. Please see this link to safety tips from Massachusetts emergency management agency.

If we get the maximum wind they are forecasting, we may indeed have an issue with trees and wires down. Please be careful if you have to venture out during the storm.

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.  

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.

Ah, Autumn!  The air is bright and dry. The crops are coming in... the pumpkins and winter squash are ripe...  wait!  It's only July 30th. Bright and dry, yes, but what is with those ripe pumpkins and winter squash??! 

To review the unusual high/low points of the weather thus far intn 2010: No hard frost in the ground here since early March. 15" of rain in two storms over the last two weeks of March. Dry, dry, DRY weather most of the time since. Bloody stinking hot summer, too. Pumpkins startied to ripen in early July, and now they've been picked nearly a month later. What next?? Snow in August? Daffodils blooming in January? It's shard to know what to think.

In fact, we nearly got two crops of pumpkins this year, but I goofed.  See the two green ones at top, left? I didn't realize they were attached to the same vine on which the oldest of the pumpkins was growing.  The vine got damaged in the process of picking the ripe one, and I had to pick the rest green. We will grill them like a summer squash, which I did last year with some prematurely picked butternuts and delicata squashes; they were delicious.

The calendula oil in the photo was made over a few weeks.  Into olive oil, I put the petals of calendula as the flowers opened.  The sun "cooked" it.  Calendula is great for the skin, so a topical oil is a wonderful way to go. I chose to grow a variety with the highest amounts of medicinal resins for this very reason (resina calendula from Fedco). 

Ahhh... life is good.  True, it rarely rains and the tendonitis in my left wrist from hefting full watering cans has become a complete pain in the tush.  And it's unusually hot, too, only magnifying the effect of the dryness.

But we have 15 varieties of ripe and ripening tomatoes!  And five kinds of basil!  Life is very good! 

Forget about the news reports of late blight -- the scourge of last year's crops.  It's not here in eastern MA.  It's been too darned dry since April!  Yes, this is the up-side of the lack of rain. That nasty stuff doesn't get a head start.

Why, it's been so dry that early blight (which is normal and present in our soil) got a late start this year!  It didn't show up until about 10 days ago, when the lowest leaves of people's tomato plants started looking yellow and spotty. Early blight is in our soil and usually starts sometime in June, not mid-July.  Nonetheless, some people panicked, thinking they had late blight and started tearing their plants out of the ground. 

Early blight and all the blossom end rot (photo at right) we've had due to the dryness only magnified how sure folks were that "we really had a problem."  I'm not going to be cocky and say we will never have late blight again, but so far this year the weather conditions are just not conducive to it. Praise be!

Have you ever read seed catalogs and moaned in anticipation at how wonderful the tomatoes you're planting are going to be, only to find them to be bland and uninteresting?  Well, it's not just the fault of overenthusiastic catalog writers -- tomato varieties will vary in different places. Like with grapes, terrior (the combination of local soil and climate) will make certain varieties truly shine and others pale.

As always, our "Big Cherry" tomatoes are stunningly delicious.  The Rutgers and Martino Roma -- well, this will be the last year we'll grow them if that's any indication.  From the new varieties we've tried this year, Marmande is truly a gem.  Jaune Flamme, Beam's Pear, Sungold and Amish Paste are delightful. Sasha is nice, but I found it neither particularly early nor fabulous. Costoluto Genevese is a visual work of art, but not as exciting as I'd hoped. The jury is still out in Riesentraub, Aunt Ruby's Green, Polish Linguisa Italian Giant, Goldie and Black Plum. And then there's the mystery tomato I am certain I didn't order: pink with green shoulders, and so susceptible that even if I loved it I don't think I'd grow it again. 

Of the basil varieties, they are all going great.  Sweet, Genevese, Aromato, Ararat and Thai -- can't decide which are best. Also love them combined.  Yes, live is good. Very, very good.   

There has been concern expressed around Concord about some of the language in the draft of the state's updated bottle bill.  Seems what we think about bottles here takes on added weight in many quarters: we are now seen as a source of moral direction following our vote at Town Meeting in April to ban bottled water sales here.

Two of the concerns about this draft bill are that it seems to cover only bottles over 16 oz, and those less than 2 liters.  A concerned Concordian wrote to our State Representative, Cory Atkins about this, and her office sent along the inquiry through the proper legislative channels.  The reply is below: at least the 16 oz concern seems to be the result of a typo!  No idea what the corrected language will be, and no response on the 2 liter max issue. But the inquiry seemed to get the right attention!

From: "Hornby, Kathleen (HOU)" <Kathleen.Hornby@state.ma.us>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:35:41 -0400
Subject: RE: bottle bill question

Brad Putnam in Representative Atkins' office came to me with your question about the new draft of the Updated Bottle Bill, S. 2547, because Representative Wolf is the lead sponsor in the House.

Actually, I'm very glad that you brought this to my attention!  I completely understand your concern about the language setting the minimum redeemable beverage container size at 16 ounces.  I've asked about this language, and have been assured that it is a typo and will be corrected.  We will be keeping an eye on it.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Best,
Kathleen M. Hornby
Staff Director
Office of Representative Alice K. Wolf
State House Room 167
Tel: 617-722-2810
Fax: 617-722-2197

I've had some questions about how to use amaranth in cooking. Here follows not a recipe, but some notes about the delicious dinner we had tonight: Red Tampala Amaranth/Callalo and Curried Potatoes.  I was thinking "potato roti" the whole time I put this together, which I used to eat in a little Trinidadian family shop in West Palm Beach, FL when I lived there a few months in the late 1980's.

The term "callaloo" both refers to a cooked dish found in many of the Caribbean islands as well as in parts of Africa and in a few other parts of the world. As a prepared food, it is made of cooked, stewed, braised or pureed greens.  However, the plant called "callaloo" is different in different places.  In Jamacia, Trinidad and Tobago, Gyana and the Phillipines it is amaranth.  In most other areas, it is the leaves of the taro plant.  In either case, these are plants of the African diaspora, arriving in the Caribbean and US along with the African slave trade.

We had some Red Tampala Amaranth (at right) to slice into ribbons and cook. I braised these with some chopped yellow shallots -- also called "mulitiplier onions" or "potato onions" -- a bit of coconut milk, a splash of water, cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt. The mixture was a fun green and purple! 

In the meantime, I cooked up an approximately equal amount of those potatoes we dug a over the past couple of weeks (I boiled the first batch, got distracted and boiled the pot dry... I microwaved the second bath hoping the chickens will eat the burnt ones!). I roughly mashed them with a little more coconut milk, some garam masala, turmeric, a splash of lemon, and a pinch of salt.

I heated two large whole wheat tortillas in the micro for 10 seconds, and then I spread first the potatoes down the center of each wrapper, and then the amaranth.  Rolled them up, and took them outside to each while we watched the chickens eat their dinner, and they watched us eat ours.