The Big Apple

October is always apple crisp making time for us. Although I aspire to be a pie maker, I must admit that is it the quick crisp that draws my knife and time.

My favorite apple variety to use is an old beauty called the Wolf River. You can't much find it in the western part of Wisconsin where we live, but head east along the Wolf River where it originated and still grows, and the apple is readily found at farm markets and a few orchards.

My mom used it on occasion and she said my Grandma Loch did too. We all three liked it for it's fine tartiness in baking. But I suspect we also love it because you don't need to peel many to make that pie or crisp. These babies are huge, running from a half pound up to a pound each. Just three will fill an apple crisp pan and one can fill a pie! Since peeling is my least favorite part of the process, I make sure to get over to my old stomping grounds on the east side of Wisconsin in October to pick up a bag for baking.

For my recipe, I go to an old Betty Crocker cookbook and use this for the topping:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 5 1/3 Tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.

I mix that up by hand and sprinkle about half over the cut apples in a greased 8x8x2 pan and pop it into a 375F oven for 15 minutes.  I take it out and sprinkle the remaining topping on* and bake for 15 more minutes or until the apples get melty good.

A little ice cream on it while it's still warm and our perfect fall dessert or snack is ready to go!

*I learned this little half-and-half topping trick from the June/July 2002 issue of Fine Cooking Magazine. It keeps the topping from getting dark before your apples are done the way you want!

Garlic and Me

It was a tool catalog that taught me how and when to plant and harvest garlic. Lee Valley, a mail-order company based in Canada, was a go-to catalog for my wood-working wonder of a partner. Years ago, while touting some gardening wonder implement or another, the company included a half page on garlic growing.  I can do this!!

Garlic is the last thing I plant each season. I start thinking about planting around the fall equinox.  I look over the garden and plan next year in my mind's eye and then decide what small space (about three yards square) I will choose to bed the garlic in over the winter.  I have until frost to get them in so I am leisurely about this.

I have saved back a few robust garlic heads from my July harvest. I have also pestered the garlic seller at farmer's market to share his favorites for me to try. And then in a whirl of activity, I break the heads into individual cloves, push them about an inch deep and 2-3" apart and ten minutes later, my year's worth of garlic is planted.  I put a thick mulch about 12" deep on top of them and mark the area.

The garlic sleeps the winter away.

By the spring equinox, the shoots are up; by summer solstice the scapes are ready and by July the stalks are brown and sere and my garlic is ready to come out of the ground.  A quick tug, a rub to get off the clinging dirt, a gentle braid of three heads with a loop at the top and they are ready to dry.

Our old rake handle (seems appropriate given where I learned to grow garlic) will hold the harvest under a protected roof to dry for a few weeks. Then I'll cut off the stems and put them in the pantry. I dream of meals ahead.....

No Escaping Scapes

We've been growing garlic for quite a few years now. We break apart the garlic into cloves and bury it closely together about an inch deep in fall.

It's a favorite because it's a winter sleeper - it goes into the ground in October with a nice foot-thick mulch and we forget about it until it's leaves poke up. We always enjoy a little mild spring garlic in April and May when our stored garlic from the previous season's harvest has given it's last gasp.  But we like to wait for most of the crop to mature.

In June (usually right around the solstice) on it's way to maturity, the garlic puts out it's flower.  The lovely "scape" curls around with a hooded flower at it's end. If we left the scape on the plant, it would draw power from the growing garlic. Gardeners just snip off this scape to keep the energy directed to the growing garlic bulb.

But oh those scapes!  They can be refrigerated and then added to foods just like a clove of garlic.   Although we use a few like that, we go crazy for garlic scape pesto. We make it and freeze it for cold winter meals where, combined with pasta and veggies, it brings a warm remembrance of solstice and summer when we looked for it's distinctive curl.

The recipe below was shared by Cate and Mat, our CSA from Ridgeland Harvest*

Garlic Scape and Almond Pesto

• 10 garlic scapes, finely chopped
• 1/2-1/2 c. finely grated parmesan (or to texture/taste)
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds (toasted lightly if you'd like)
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• sea salt

Put about 1/3 of the scapes and almonds in a blender or food processor with some of the olive oil and mix. Continue to add these until these three ingredients are blended. Scoop into a bowl and add the sea salt and cheese.

If you don't use it immediately, press a piece of plastic against the surface to keep it from oxidizing. It can be stored for a couple of days or frozen for a couple of months (though we've been known to discover a tasty frozen chunk the next spring!)

*This year we got the sad news that their garlic crop hadn't made it.  Difficulty in obtaining the winter mulch and an over-wet spring has taken it's toll. We know how much their garlic harvest means to the farm's livelihood.  So we thank them for their efforts when the weather brings drought one year and too-frequent and too-heavy rains the next.

Mmmmmm Morels

Hunting for morel mushrooms is a time-honored forager's pleasure.  Wet woods and rain followed by hot temps usually bring these tasty fungi up and out. Lately, weather patterns have been disrupted and so the predictability in the appearance of these early May treats is hard to pin down. 

One is simply forced to head out to the woods and enjoy the spring flora and fauna day after day...how we suffer.

Our old hunting grounds of ten and twenty years ago are pretty well consumed by the spread of garlic mustard. So we have tramped alot over the past few years looking for just the right new spot. When we don't find morels, a kind neighbor shares or, if worse comes to worst, a stop at farmer's market to buy a few at a dear price is still fine with us. We crave the season's fruits and fungi!  This year, we supported a local farm family who found bushels of morels and paid the price for some amazingly big yellow beauties.

We usually get enough to put in some scrambled eggs or to saute lightly and put on toast.  Rarely, we still have some hoarded ramps and then we make our absolute favorite spring treat - ramp and morel pizza!

We saute the morels and ramps lightly. If we're lucky, we still have a chunk of garlic scape pesto (those lovely curlique greens that grow on your garlic as it strives to flower) saved in the freezer to spread over the pizza dough to create the foundation for the pizza. 

Garlic Scape and Almond Pesto
Blend together into a fine pesto paste.

• 10 garlic scapes, chopped fine
• 1/3-1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted if you like
• sea salt to taste
• up to 1/2 cup olive oil

We add goat cheese and mozzarella, perhaps some slices of roasted fresh asparagus, a little Italian sausage on Lloyd's homemade dough and pop it on the grill.  The tastes are unique and sublime. Spring is encompassed!

And if we don't happen upon more morels this year in our hunt, we'll be back tramping again next spring. The woods invite us to enjoy them no matter what the result of our quest (I will say we found one lone stalk of tasty wild asparagus on our latest morel tramp so all is not lost in the tasty treats department). And that makes it all the more special!

Singing Sorrel's Praises

In the spinach family, sorrel has a tangy bite and pokes its head up early to greet the spring. Tender leaves are great in salads or added fresh to yogurt to make a sauce.  When they are cooked down, they turn a less lovely shade of green, but their tart taste stays true.

I've planted it in the garden and am happy to see it in spring (hint: I plant this perennial in the ground in a pot to keep it's spreading ways under control). We love to add it to our first greens - watercress and spinach - when we make our spring salads.  It is delicate and doesn't keep well so with my own plant,  I just pick what I need when I need it.

We recently came across a beautiful soup recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy. She breaks out vegetables into their larger families (mint, carrot, knotweed, thistle, cucurbit, lily, sunflower, morning glory, legume, grass, goosefoot, nightshade and cabbage) and then talks about how to use foods within the same family. Like all her cookbooks, it is a rich and wonderful source of information and savory recipes that is a delight to read for research and for finding good foods to make.

 Ramped Up Spinach Soup with Lovage and Sorrel
(translated into Marge-ese)

2 c. chopped ramps (about 3 oz)
big handful of sorrel leaves (about 2 oz)
8 ounces of spinach leaves, w/o stems
2 T butter or delicate olive oil
3 c. ramp broth, water or light chicken stock
2 lovage leaves (we didn't have that and skipped this)
freshly ground black pepper
heavy cream or thick yogurt (optional)
toasted bread crums

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the ramps and cook for 2 minutes. Add sorrel, spinach and 1 t. salt. Coat the veggies with the butter. Then add the broth, bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. At this point, if you have it, add the lovage.  Cool slightly and puree in blender. Gently re-heat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with a smidgen of cream or yogurt swirled in. Add a few pinces of breadcrumbs if you want.

Simple and delicious as a spring rain!

Ramping Up for Ramps

And the spring food continues!  We are late this year for ramps - the wild leeks that grow in swaths in just the right spot. They usually spring up in late April and then literally fade away soon after. While we do some foraging, all our tramping this spring never revealed a good spot for these oniony short-lived treats. We don't worry about it though. Our friends at Harmony Valley Farms sustainably harvest these alliums and sell them at farmer's markets and the Viroqua Food Coop.

We always try to get our hands on 5-10 bunches during the season and cook with abandon. Stir-fries, added to scrambled eggs, sauteed and added to soups and stews, made into a pesto, on pizza. Theses are all wonderful ways to use these roots.

We were first introduced to ramps through our CSA on the eastern side of the state. Our May shares often contained ramps that our farmer Steve brought over from this area. We fell instantly in love with them. We were the CSA pick-up point for our area and I always hoped that members would take one look at these and put them in the "Anybody can take these" box for unwanted veggies. I would even leave an oh-so-casual note, "If you don't want your ramps, we would be happy to have them". One friend, a cook of some reputation though unfamiliar with ramps, took that as a ringing endorsement for these treats...and I didn't get his share!

Locally a Ramp Festival has started (invitation only..and no, we aren't on the list) in a forest that boasts fields of ramps. Last night Lloyd and I met some friends at the Rooted Spoon Culinary for a spring ramps dinner featuring ramps dug Thursday from those fields. The menu was delightful and included:

• Chicken and ramp terrine
• Ramp pesto and goat cheese crostini
• Pickled ramps (to die for)
• Pea shoot salad with ramp dressing
• Trout stuffed with ramps
• Couscous with wild mushrooms, carmelized ramps and watercress
• Maple creme brulee

We wondered if we would be overwhelmed but our chefs knew how to weave the strong flavors throughout the meals in a way that had us savoring the offerings.

The fleeting season of ramps is almost over but we feel like we honored it well. And there are still two more bunches in the fridge to play with!

Watercress Time

The coulee region of Wisconsin is full of bluffs, hills and valleys. Spring-fed streams are everywhere and in many of these streams grow the peppery, piquant watercress. The variety in these streams tastes nothing like the bland product sometimes available in grocery stores.

Cress can be available during fairly cool months if the stream is running and not frozen over. March and April often bring an abundance of this green. Family lore has it that only in months with an "r" in them can it be gathered. In the other months, water bugs find this leaf just as tasty as we do and cleaning becomes a chore as well as a lesson in aquatic zoology.

I've been lucky enough to enjoy it for years from the stream that runs through the farm that is still in the hands of Lloyd's relatives. Sometimes our food co-op has some, sometimes the early farmer's market. We look forward to eating it in spring with a roaring anticipation. The first greens of the season speak to us of the bounty ahead. A quick spread of mayo on Lloyd's homemade wheat bread piled high with the fresh cress makes a sandwich that tells us that spring has really arrived.