How to Can Beach Asparagus

"Beach Asparagus" is an inter-tidal green plant that grows on some beaches profusely in Southeast Alaska ( I have also seen this plant growing in California beach marshes). In Port Alexander there is along tradition of harvesting this plant and canning it for future gourmet feasts ---preferably served with plenty of fresh caught fish. Yesterday, my friend Sue and I set off on a beach asparagus harvesting expedition.....

The first step (after rising at 5:30 am to take advantage of the low tide) was to get into this little punt and row to the head of the trail---we planned to hike about 15 minutes to a secluded beach---locally called "Ship's Cove, because there are the remains of an old minesweeper lurking there...visible at low tide.


Here are some views of Ship's Cove-----


We used scissors to cut the beach asparagus

filled our bucket and hiked back---rowed back to the dock, and took the harvest home....we were back at the Lodge by 8:00 am....

Of course, then we had to find the canning jars, wash them and then after soaking the beach asparagus in fresh water (since it grows inter-tidal--beach asparagus can be quite salty if you don't thoroughly rinse it in fresh water)---we filled the jars, packing the greens down firmly....

loaded the jars into the canner---and "canned"them--ie: first let the canner steam awhile, then sealed it---and raised the heat until the gauge was at 1o pounds and then adjusted the stove so the canner stayed at this place until we were done....

and viola! 25 pint jars of canned beach asparagus greens for future consumption...

Although I had not done this--(or canned anything!) for about 6 years or more...the whole process was familiar to me from many years of doing this each summer...I also used to also regularly can salmon, halibut, and crab. There is something special about eating food you harvested in the wild yourself....somehow it tastes better.

“Some sensible person once remarked that you spend the whole of your life either in your bed or in your shoes. Having done the best you can by shoes and bed, devote all the time and resources at your disposal to the building up of a fine kitchen. It will be, as it should be, the most comforting and comfortable room in the house.” ---Elizabeth David (1913-1992) French Country Cooking

Northwest Spring : Portland Farmer's Market

A sure sign of spring in the Northwest : last weekend the first spring farmer's markets opened in Portland! I found the market to be a feast for the eyes as well as for my tummy ;-) I wandered around the Hollywood area Farmer's Market and snapped these photos.











I am very thankful to live in a community where I have farmer's markets to shop at ---bought the best fresh fish, and local strawberries...and more. If you can't grow your own food, shop at a farmer's market!

Quote for the Day: "Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." ~Orson Scott Card

Of Turkeys and Cranberries

I live in a (small) city--surrounded by more cities---Berkeley, California. There are hills---called the Oakland hills--on the edge of our neighborhood ---which are pretty much wild and overgrown. This past fall, a flock of wild turkeys wandered down from the hills and traversed our neighborhood for several weeks....yep, here in California we do have wild turkeys--but it was rather weird to see them in our city neighborhood....and they seemed rather nonplussed to find themselves on the cement sidewalk or street--"where is the brush?" you imagined them asking each other.

They were not really afraid of us humans, though---and we could approach fairly close to the flock. After awhile we got used to them, and would patiently stop our cars to let them cross a busy street, and hardly bat an eye when they invaded the sidewalk in front of the house. Then---after becoming part of the hood, no longer talked about much--just one of the crowd---one day they just disappeared---they went back up into the hills, we supposed.

Now--bear in mind, I was raised in Alaska in a hunting family---hunting for meat on the table was serious fall activity in my family. Also butchering and wrapping (for the freezer) the game you shot was a fall activity. So I just could not help myself--every time I saw those wild turkeys I thought, "There goes dinner!"

Another Alaskan fall and Thanksgiving memory for me involved visiting the local "wild cranberry" patch. Actually, I think they were lingonberries--but in Alaska we called them "low bush cranberries," and they grew in a bog or wet mossy area---termed the "muskeg." One crisp, cold blue sky fall day my Mom would get the berry picking pails, tell me to put on my rubber boots and off we would go to pick cranberries--so we could have fresh cranberry sauce/relish (to go with the wild goose my father had shot) on Thanksgiving Day.

Aurora's Cranberry Relish

4 cups fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
1/2 to 1 cup fresh apple or orange juice
3 oranges
1/2 cup candied ginger
1 cup raisins

Put cranberries, sugar, juice, ginger, and raisins in a pan on the stove. Slice one orange and chop the slices in small pieces and add. Grate the skin of the other 2 oranges and add. Cook on medium heat until the cranberries pop ---stir frequently so is doesn't stick---simmer about an hour. Cool slightly and pour into a nice serving dish--best if refrigerated overnight so flavors may mingle.

Note: Any or all of these ingredients may vary--I usually make this with what I have on hand--sometimes I add other dried fruit if I don't have raisins, or a chopped fresh apple. Don't worry about this not being sweet enough--taste it---if it is too sour for your taste, just add more sugar.

Holiday Cookie Recipes

"Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day." ---Kent Nerburn



Over the years, I figured out the very best cookie recipes are ones which have been handed down through a family from generation to generation. This makes perfect sense--the best tasting cookies would be the ones you would want the recipe for and you would remember with the most fondness, and yearn for when the Holidays came around--right? Most families (at least the ones that still cook) have these secret family recipes---and mine is no exception. In fact, my maternal grandmother was a great cook--and really did ALWAYS have homemade cookies in the big fat cookie jar on her cookie counter. When I was about 12--one day she told me, "You come over next Saturday--it is time you learn how to bake a pie." When I dutifully showed up at her home the next Saturday, she taught me her method of pie baking. Since she lived close by, I visited her frequently and as I grew up, she taught me much of what I know about baking and cooking. She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, so her cooking reflected that upbringing and farm life.

So, here is her old fashioned recipe for CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES---which my (now grown) children always request we bake during the Holidaze--a family favorite, for sure. A curious fact about these cookies---they have no fat of any kind in them--but still are delicious! Enjoy!

CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES

1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger (best if this is fresh---not ginger you have had on your spice shelf for months)
1 teaspoon salt (or less, if you prefer)
about 3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

Heat molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan--but do not boil, remove from heat. (I think the idea here is to melt the sugar). In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a wire whip; mix the soda, ginger, and salt with 1/2 cup flour and add to the beaten eggs---mix well. Now add the warm molasses and sugar to the egg mixture gradually, stirring all the while (at this point, you do not want the eggs to be cooked by the warm molasses mixture). Then stir in enough flour to make a soft dough--about 3 cups.
Roll out cookie dough on a well floured board--cut out with cookies cutters and bake. Don't roll the dough too thin---the rolled out dough should be rather thick. This dough will be soft and somewhat tricky to handle--but use as little flour as possible in rolling, as too much flour makes the cookies hard (not chewy). Bake on a well greased cookies sheet--with plenty of room between cookies---at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. (if you over bake them they will be hard, so don't wait for them to brown)
If you prefer, instead of rolling and cutting the dough, roll the dough with your hands into balls, place the balls on the greased cookie sheet, and flatten with the bottom part of a glass dipped in butter, then in sugar. My Grandma would place a small slice of fresh apple in the cookie jar with these cookies to keep them soft and chewy.

If you have a favorite family cookie recipe--I would love it if you shared it by leaving it in the comments...

Solstice and the Return of the Light

This evening it is the Solstice---the day with the least daylight, and the sun has its lowest arc in the sky. Once I visited Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice. The builders of Newgrange aimed the light to shine into the structure on the Solstice and illuminate a large rough carved stone basin. Although not much is known about how Newgrange was used by its builders, marking the solstice was obviously of considerable spiritual importance to them, and the place still invoked awe in me and the many other visitors who travel to see it. Growing up in Alaska we always celebrated the Solstice with winter bonfires or lighting candles---where the daylight was so short in winter, it seemed doubly important to celebrate the return of the the light each year.

Here in California, we plan to welcome the return of the light by lighting a few candles tonight, and enjoying our annual dungeness crab feed potluck with friends and neighbors. Right now in Northern California it is crab season--which means fresh dungeness crab is abundant, and even reasonably priced, so we consume it often. A simple meal of fresh crab to crack, salad, bread and wine...and a thank you prayer to our Mother Earth and Oceanus, to mark the day and honor the sun, the sea, and the land's contribution to our lives.