Turkey Tracks: Do Yourself a Favor: Cook and Eat Dark Leafy Greens

Turkey Tracks:  June 19, 2010

Do Yourself a Favor:

Cook and Eat Dark Leafy Greens

Dark Leafy Greens are chock full of nutrients.  I’m talking Lambs Quarters, Bok Choy, Collards, Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens, Chicory, Dandelion, Kale, Parsley, Dock, Endive, and Watercress.  (Lamb Quarters and Dock are wild greens:     for dock, see http://eatingmymoccasinsnow.blogspot.com/2009/04/dock-rumex-crispus.html; for lambs quarters see http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=&=&q=lamb+quarters,+image&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1362&bih=669.

I’m leaving out spinach, chard, and beet greens because they have high levels of oxalic acid that can cause a number of unpleasant side effects:  kidney stones and the reduction of the body’s absorption of calcium and iron among them.  Though I love spinach and chard, I eat these greens sparingly and, pretty much, only in season.

I try to cook several batches of dark leafy greens in a week, and I cook enough of them at one time to have leftovers.  Cold greens are delicious drizzled with a vinaigrette or a tahini or peanut dressing.  But, my favorite leftover use is to use the greens inside an omelet–with added cheese.  An omelet of goat cheese and cooked greens is great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  And, the combination of greens, egg, and cheese is…delicious!

According to Rachel Albert-Matesz and Don Matesz, in their cookbook and guide, THE GARDEN OF EATING, kale has 250 percent more vitamin C than an orange, 4, 450 percent more Vitamin A, and more potassium, iron, phosphorus, calcium, and protein (308).  Rachel A-M has a terrific web site, too:     http://www.thehealthycookingcoach.com/.   I highly recommend the cookbook.  I’ve yet to cook something bad from it, and it has significantly expanded my ability to  cook greens and to create satisfying meals without using grains.  Her web site has the cheapest prices–it’s under $30.

These dark leafy greens need to be cooked.  They don’t lose substantial nutrients, and cooking reduces some of the bitter compounds that can hinder digestion and absorption of nutrients.  Think of cooking them for at least 10 minutes.  This aspect of dark leafly greens makes me hesitate about juicing them, too.

My favorite greens are kale and collards.  Kale comes in various, beautiful forms, and each tastes slightly different.  You might recall a picture I took of some kale forms at the Maine Organic Farmers’ and Growers (MOFGA) fair last year.  Collards are in the foreground.

There are two principal ways to cook greens:  boil whole leaves/stems or pan saute and steam greens in a large, covered frying pan or pot.  I use both methods.  I boil when I want to prep greens ahead.  I particularly like kale boiled, chopped, and, later, sauteed in butter.  In both cases, you need to strip or cut (collards) the leaf from the fibrous stem.  Kale stems are more tender than collards.  Rachel A-M cooks kale stems and chops them when tender and adds them back to the leaves.  I’ll confess, usually I give the stems, which always have a few remaining bits of leaves, to the chickens as they take true delight in them.

For boiling, bring water to boil, drop in the whole leaves, and cook until tender–at the most from 5 to 10 minutes.  Drain, immerse in cold ice water to preserve color, and chop.  If you layer the leaves, then roll them, you can slice off strips.  Turn the strips and cut off bite-sized pieces.  Refrigerate for up to three days.

To pan saute, your imagination is the limit of fun combinations for additions.  Start by stripping leaves from stems.  Roll leaves and slice and cut, again, to make squares.  Sometimes, though, I just roughly chop greens.  Here’s a picture of two bunches of  leafy green kale.  When cooked, there will be enough for four servings.  John and I eat one serving each hot and then we have an asset in the kitchen:  cooked greens to be used in other ways, like an omelet.  Or, eaten cold.  The point I’m making is that greens COOK DOWN rather a lot, so buy enough.

Kale is tenderer than collards.  And, collards, in particular, benefit from the addition of meat broth for liquid, or an extra chicken/turkey wing in the pan.  When I make broth, I always pull off several small 1-cup Mason jars to use when cooking greens.

The basic method is to start by pan frying a chopped onion in good oil/fat.  I use unrefined coconut oil, or duck fat, or saved bacon grease, depending upon what kind of flavors I want.  Adding bits of flavoring meat, like pancetta or bacon, is nice at this stage.  Add some chopped garlic just before you get ready to add the greens.

But, before that, consider what kind of SPICES you’d like to have running around the pan.  Perhaps some combination of spices–cumin, cinnamon, coriander, turmeric, for instance.  Curry powder?  Put those kinds of spices into the pan and let them fry in the fat for a moment or two–with the garlic if you’re using it.  Mustard is a nice addition.  Any of the hot pepper spices, like paprika or red pepper.  And nutmeg is lovely with greens.  Thyme or sage is nice.  Gingeroot is lovely.

You could throw in some sliced apples in the fall.  Or, a handful of dried fruit in the winter.  (Think of drizzling in some honey or maple syrup at the end if you go in this direction–with a bit of fruity vinegar to spark the tastes.)

A handful of cleaned seaweed (dulse, for instance) gives some heft and adds iodine, which I think about since I don’t eat grocery store salt.

Adding other vegetables is also nice:  carrots, mushrooms, cauliflower, daikon radish, celery, bell pepper strips.

USE WHAT YOU HAVE IN THE KITCHEN.

When your veggies and spices are sweated out/mixed in, throw in the greens.  If they have enough water from washing, you can begin to turn them with tongs until they wilt down.  If you don’t have enough liquid, add water/bone broth (about a cup) to the pan–mopre for collards–wilt down the leaves, and cover and cook for 5-10 minutes.  Collards will require longer cooking.  Remove the lid and cook down any remaining liquid at high heat before serving.

ENJOY!

Turkey Tracks: Prudy’s Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  June 15, 2011

Prudy’s Quilt

My friend Prudy Netzorg is incredibly generous!

She gave me two quilt tops last fall:  a smaller child’s quilt featuring dogs and a lap quilt of bright, lively colors.  (Prudy has a wonderful eye for color.)

I loved both, but knew that she, too, loved one of them especially, but had just lost energy around finishing it.

I had gotten the long-arm just before Prudy’s generosity, and there is a HUGE learning curve for long-arms.  So, Prudy and I agreed that we would go together to buy backs for her tops, and I would pay for those in return for using the quilts as learning tools.  Prudy would bind them and give the little one to a local fund-raising charity for auction and would keep the other.

I tried a pantograph pattern on the smaller one–and learned a lot–to include that I didn’t especially care for narrow patterns.  They repeat too quickly.  I did think the pattern looked like a dog’s footprint and a group of balloons rising–both motifs in the print.

I just finished the larger, bright one.  I think it mostly came out looking pretty good, but it is not perfect, and I like perfect.  I did, however, learn a lot, especially about using templates.

Here’s the quilt finished without the binding, which Prudy will do.  I remember a hot pink binding…

 

Here’s a detail of the border.  I special ordered a hot pink thread, which I think came out nicely.

Here’s another detail:

Another thing I learned is that it is necessary to take a picture of the whole quilt or draw a quilting pattern–especially with a pieced quilt like this one.  Once the quilt is rolled up on the back roller–which happens as you quilt the length of it–you can’t see what you did at the other end.  I got confused on which way I quilted the pieced blocks, for instance.  I put the loops on the pinwheel blocks in two different places.  And, at one end, I forgot what I did at the other with two blocks.

I did walk away with a new comfort level with templates, and the quilt is lively and fun.

Thanks Prudy!!

Turkey Tracks: Sardines For Dinner

Turkey Tracks:  June 15, 2011

Sardines For Dinner

Here’s what we had for dinner last night:

There are lots of good reasons to eat sardines.  They’re a little fish and are low on the food chain, so they don’t carry the heavy metal levels (mercury!) bigger fish carry.  They’re full of calcium!  They’re delicious!  They’re quick!  (Be sure to buy some that are NOT in soy sauce.  The ones in flavored sauces, like tomato and mustard, are usually full of stuff you don’t want.)  We had some fresh ones in Italy once–just caught and pan fried.  They were beyond delicious!

Surrounding the sardines, what you see is local carrot, local feta, local sweet radishes just coming in now, shaved spring onion from the garden, local hydroponic tomato (cut up and sprinkle tomato with salt to release the flavor), and local lettuce from our neighbors Susan and Chris Richmond of Golden Brook Farm.  The rest of the ingredients are not local:  dried lemon thyme, olive oil, lemon, balsamic vinegar, olives, stuffed grape leaves from a can, avocado, and a cuke.   At least the produce came from California–I don’t buy food from outside our borders.

The chocolate is fair trade.  One of the best of these is Equal Exchange’s dark chocolate with sea salt and toffee bits.

And, of course, REAL MILK, which is fabulous with the chocolate!

PS:  Canned sardines and grape leaves are one of the few things I eat out of a can as most cans are lined with a mixture that releases BPA–a heinous chemical that can seriously harm humans.

Turkey Tracks: Around and About–June 2011

Turkey Tracks:  June 15, 2011

Around and About–June 2011

Chive is in full bloom everywhere now.  Here’s one in Margaret and Ronald’s garden.  I have three or four now as well.  They reseed themselves all over the place.  The leaves are wonderful snipped with scissors over a salad, over cheese (goat, feta, yogurt), or soup.  But, I didn’t know until coming to Maine that the flowers are also delicious.  I kept asking people at potlucks, “what are these lavender things in the salad?”   The chive is one of the earliest herbs to come back in Maine spring (and yes it is still spring here; we don’t get summer until July 4th or so), and it lasts all summer and up to a killing frost.

Margaret got  two pigs about 10 days ago.  They’re pink, so will sunburn; thus, the umbrella.  Margaret has always wanted to see what pigs would do on their land.   She’s talked about it as long as I’ve known her.  Now she’ll find out.  She’s moved them once already, and they had completely tilled their former pen at least a foot deep overnight.   They’re now in an area filled with alders–an area M&R would like to clear out for more gardens.  So, they just cut down the alders, put the pigs in, and voila!

I’m still awestruck at how big pigs will get and how quickly they do it and how much they eat–all info gleaned from FARM CITY, by Novella Carpenter, which is a terrific read!

M&R are also raising Freedom Ranger chicks.  Here’s one–a beauty–with her tail cocked and ready to fly!

The lupines are blooming everywhere–all along the side of the roads.  It’s a glorious sight.  Maine lupine come in a variety of colors:  the most common is blue/purple, but there are also pink and lavender shades and white.   Here’s some up at our neighbor’s home, Sarah Rheault:

Here’s some on the side of a road leading west out of Camden.  Lupines line both sides of the road:

Rose and Pete have finished their bread oven, and Rose is learning how to use it and developing recipes.  Here’s a pic of some bread in progress:

Our River Birches are something to behold.  I couldn’t resist taking this picture of the shedding bark:

We went out for lunch today and came back via Barrett’s Cove–one of our swimming holes and a beautiful view.  Here it is:

This little tour does not begin to cover everything exciting that is happening these days.  But, that’s Maine for you!

Turkey Tracks: The Garden is In–June 2011

Turkey Tracks:  June Turkey Tracks:  June 15, 2011

The Garden is In–June 2011

The gardens are all planted.  Several days of rain has been terrific for all the seeds and little seedlings.  Since I took these pictures about a week ago, the beans (dragon’s tongue, haricot verte, and a dry climbing bean) and–hold on to your hats since they produce SO much–the zucchini are up.  So are the kale, the lettuce, the beets, and the radish.  I don’t see the Hubbard squash I planted next to the zukes in the front bed yet though.  And I forgot to check for the winter squashes along the driveway now that the sun is out.  The potatoes are sprouting in their tubs.  No sign yet of the carrots or the cukes.  Here are some pictures of what is now an early garden, but one that is GROWING hourly.

The asparagus, there on the left, has doubled in size now.  We got about 5 meals this year–its third year.  The peas on the trellis are now halfway up.  Way in the back you can see the very healthy garlic–planted last fall–fronted by La Ratte fingerling potatoes, which I planted in late April and am hoping to “grabble” (sneak some out early) when my children are here this summer and early fall.  La Rattes are beyond delicious!

I planted four kinds of onions.  Two kinds are a bedding onions which should get big and round.  I planted scallions, which are all up.  And the onion sets I put out last year did nothing-it was too dry last year–and when that happens we can’t water a lot or we’ll run out the well, especially if the house if full of family.  I put the sets out again–you can see some in front of the peas–and they’re doing really well.

The raspberries are starting their third year and are making a lovely border fronting rugosa roses and some struggling bayberry that lines the steep hill to the left.  (We were afraid of grandchildren falling off our hill.)  The raspberries are FULL of blossoms!  As are the strawberries, which are on a hill at the side of the house.

Our big experiment this year is planting potatoes in tubs–which we got at our local Renys (a terrific Maine store) for, I think, $4 each.  We’ll keep the dirt in them over the winter , augment it, and plant something else next year.  Maybe squash?  The potatoes are sprouting as of this morning.  There’s a selection of 5 kinds.  I put the extras in the front bed, behind the brassicas.  The dried bean vines are planted beneath the new white fencing John upgraded and painted this spring.  Doesn’t it look nice?

The front bed is planted with cabbage, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, zucchini, a Hubbard squash, leeks, extra potatoes, and, at the far end, I threw in some sunflower seeds.   In the foreground, peeking out from a daylily, are some white flowers–Star of Bethlehem–a flower my grandmother in Georgia brought up from the swamp, planted in her front hard–when I was a baby or earlier.  They now cover the front yard in the spring.   The daylilies are setting buds, and the wind chimes along the porch sing so sweetly in a soft breeze.   Beyond you can see how dense and dark the Maine woods get in the summer.  They are full of mystery and beckon one inside.  There’s an intermittent creek at the edge of the woods, and by now, Jack in the Pulpit will be blooming all along its edges.

So, there you have it, the 2011 garden.

Turkey Tracks: Rat Dogs Love to Roll…In Filth

Turkey Tracks:  June 13, 2011

Rat Dogs Love To Roll

In Filth

OK, they’re not really rat dogs.

They’re rat terriers.

Unless they’ve been over bred, they’re indomitable hunters and protectors.

They think they’re HUGE, and not much convinces them they’re not.

They love to roll in…whatever smelly awful thing they can find.  They’re always so sorry when their owners scream “no, no, go away, don’t get near me, you have to have a bath right now, why did you do it again, I just washed you yesterday, what were you thinking, come right now, no you cannot come in, stand right here until I find a towel…

   

She doesn’t look dirty in this picture because it’s her other side that’s plastered with some sort of goop–which came from–I don’t even want to know.  At the very least, deer scat.

Once washed, a rat dog has to run and roll in the grass.  If left inside, the rolling and drying would take place on all the furniture and the carpets.

Miss Reynolds Georgia, who is a highly bred babe, has, so far this year, escaped rolling and the following bath.  She is refusing to go outside unless she has a DIRE NEED.  We think she either got bitten by the black flies or dive bombed by a big bird.  She has NOT FORGOTTEN.

Interesting Information: Homogenization of Milk and Cheese

Interesting Information:  June 13, 2011

Homogenization of Milk and Cheese

Steve Bemis is a retired corporate attorney who farms hay in Michigan for local farmers.  He is also a founding Board member of the Weston A. Price Foundation’s Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund–which works to insure greater access to local foods, especially raw milk.  In the Spring 2011 WAPF journal WISE TRADITIONS, Bemis poses an interesting theory about the real need for homogenization and pasteurization of milk (http://www.realmilk.com/cheese-is-serious.html).  The real reason, poses Bemis, might be the dairy industry’s incredibly profitable cheese business.

Let’s back up for a moment.  In my lifetime, one’s milk was delivered to the door in glass bottles.  One judged the milk by the cream line at the top of the bottle–clearly visible for all to see.  But, the dairy industry wanted that cream to make other products.  Ice cream, yes, but also cheese.

So, industry begin figuring out ways to get that cream.   How they did it was to, first, convince women that milk had to be pasteurized as real milk was unsafe–a claim never proven scientifically.  Second, they instituted, over time, a process of fractionalizing milk into parts and reconstituting some of the parts back into milk–minus all the cream.  (Whole milk might not have the whole amount of cream that came from the cow.)   Says Bemis:  “Milk, milkfat, skim milk powder and other fractions of milk are processed into cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt, kefir, and other industrial component which are ubiquitous in processed and ultra-processed foods.”  Third, they successfully got the federal government to police this new terrain.  This is how industry works:  maximize profits any way possible, including gaming the information.

Processed, fractionalized milk was then homogenized, so no one could ever see the cream line again.  And, the glass bottles disappeared.  But, here’s where Bemis gets really interesting.  Once milk is homogenized, it “will go rancid within a matter of hours.”  Thus, the milk has to be pasteurized to keep it from going rancid.   “Hence,” writes Bemis, “once the dairy industry took the homogenizing step to follow the dollars, it had to pasteurize.”  Bemis continues:  “And the industry will have to stick with the gospel of pasteurizing, since their current economic structure requires it.”

Hmmmm….  Pasteurization came AFTER homogenization.  Pasteurization was NEVER about food safety.  It was about maximizing profits, fooling customers, and extending shelf life.

So, if you can’t get the whole, raw, living, healthy REAL milk, try to find a dairy that produces a cream line, even if the milk is pasteurized.  Homogenized milk is really, really processed.

Bemis then turns his attention to the cheese issue.  He asks an important question:  “Is contamination of raw milk a huge red herring keeping our eyes off a far more important reason for pasteurizing milk?”  Cheese is a keystone product for the dairy industry.  Cheese is a billion dollar business.  Cheese is probably why both the USDA and the FDA have launched even more intense, fear-based attacks against raw milk and against artisan cheese makers.

The good news, writes Bemis, is that “raw milk consumption continues to surge; FDA’s interstate ban is under legal attack, and FDA’s dogma is regularly being shown to be inconsistent, illogical and unscientific–an embarrassing and ever-deepening quandary in which the agency finds itself due to its steadfast refusal even to hold a dialogue on the subject.”

As for the USDA, one part of it promotes cheese consumption while another part (the new food guide) says its unhealthy.  How’s that for mixed agendas?  It’s time to locate any kind of government recommendations on how to eat somewhere other than the USDA and to put science back into the process.

Turkey Tracks: Chicken Update

Turkey Tracks:  June 8, 2011

Chicken Update

The Freedom Ranger chickens are 7 weeks old now.  We’ll slaughter some of them in 3 weeks time–at 10-11 weeks.  They’re beautiful, healthy birds.  The color variations are so interesting.  I’ll have a hard time choosing one of them to keep as a layer.  We can’t tell the hens from the roosters yet, though some of the roos are starting to try to crow.

 HEre they are in the shade of their tractor.  Rose and Pete move them every day, so they always have fresh grass and a new set of bugs to catch.

Here are the batch of Copper Black Marans, Wheaten Americaunas, two Barbanters, and backyarders.   We’re starting to see which of the CBMs will be roosters as their wing feathers are turning orange.  They are loose in Rose and Pete’s yard.  Below them to the right is a planting field, and behind them are some protective shrubs.  They run from their tractor–you can see the edge propped up in the back right of the picture–to the shrub.  They’re already looking for and eating bugs from the yard.   I just happened to catch mostly marans in this picture.

Here are some of the others.  The little speckled chicks are the two Barbanters.  They are a week or so behind the marans.  Look at the topknot on the one at the right.  Probably a rooster in the making.  The Wheatens and backyarders (all from blue eggs) are about 6 weeks old now.   You can see a purebred wheaten–the blondie in the front.  And that bigger backyarder is quite striking in that s/he has coloring like an eagle–with a white head.  There are 3 of them like that.   The maran in front will be a roo–see the copper coming in on his wings?

Oh what fun we are having this spring!

Turkey Tracks: Skunk Recipe!

Turkey Tracks:  May 30, 2011

Skunk Recipe!

We don’t usually have skunks around the house.

No No Penny does not allow them under any circumstances.

If we do get a whiff of skunk, it’s always been in the spring.  That’s when I thank my lucky stars neither of our girls has taken on a skunk and when I check to see if I have skunk-bath ingredients on hand.  It’s a pretty simple mixture, and Mainers swear it is better than tomato juice:  1 quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1 cup of baking soda, and 1 Tablespoon of dishwashing detergent.  Wash until the odor goes away.

So, the other night Miss Reynolds Georgia, aka The Beauty Queen, NEEDED to go out in the middle of the night.  She signals this need by crawling out from the covers, sitting on the end of the bed, and harumping in a low throaty growl–like dripping water–until you get up and put her out.  Which I did finally.  She takes her sweet time, too, and strolls about the yard smelling things in the moonlight.  I know she does because she’s so white that she stands out like a neon light.

Once back in bed, I began to realize that skunk odor was flooding through the windows at my head, though the bedroom is on the second floor.  It was so strong that I seriously wondered if Rey Rey had been skunked and in my sleepiness, I had not picked it up.  I hauled her our from beneath the covers to smell her.  No, she was good.

It was so strong that I worried I would smell like it the next day since my understanding is that “skunk” is an oil that disperses into the air.  Or, the room would.  For days!  Gradually it faded, and I fell back to sleep.

Tomorrow:  hydrogen peroxide.   Ours is a year out of date now.

And, thanks, girls, for being too smart to get skunked!

The girls are 8 and 9 years old now, and it’s hard to believe.  Here’s a pic taken last summer in June:

No  No Penny, on the left, is a Katrina rescue–when she was about 2 years old.  She is the kind of Rat Dog I grew up with–a savvy and relentless hunger, a huge protector of her people and her property, a sunny and funny personality.  She’s a bit heavier this year because she crawls under or into the chicken house–though she is terrified of the rooster–and eats whatever meat and milk they have not finished yet.

Rey Rey is on the right and has a lot of Chihuahua in her line–something breeders are doing to perfectly good rat dogs.  She is my faithful shadow throughout the day and night–except when the black flies are biting.

Both are smarter than you can believe and have huge vocabularies.    Except for Penny’s early life, they’ve never had any dry dog food.

Turkey Tracks: Chicken Update

Turkey Tracks:  May 30, 2011

Chicken Update

I went out to see Rose, Pete, and the chickens on Friday.

The Freedom Rangers are SO BIG!  It was hot, so they were resting in the shade, but you can get some idea of how much they’ve grown.  They’re about 5-6 weeks now and are beautiful birds!  I can’t wait until we can tell male from female, and I can take home one of the girls.

Here’s a picture of Rose with the other chickie batch.  That little speckled creature with the top knot on top of his/her head is a Barbanter.  This batch of chicks was born late April, so is only about two weeks younger than the Freedom Rangers–which will give you some idea of the difference in how much bigger a big old meat chick will get in a hurry.  This batch of chicks are the Copper Black Marans from Georgia and the “blue egg” chicks–some of which are pure Wheatens.   All, except for two Barbanter chicks, are fathered by William, the Wheaten roo.

Here’s a better pic of the Marans.  I love it that they’re so shaggy.  The larger hen laying down is a Freedom Ranger with an injured leg.  She’s getting better now: