Grow it, cook it, eat it ! @osstellaa - Tumblr Blog

Golden raspberries , perfect eat right from the source. Evening nibbles.

Summer reds. What do you do with all that red? Pizza.

Harvest is early.

#Sonoma #harvest #pink lady apples #grapes #eggplants

Early spring supper: quick sautéed apricots on arugula with burrata. Olive oil of course. Sprinkling of fresh picked peas.

#apricots #burrata #arugula #peas

Zucchini time in Sonoma county. One even grew in the compost pile.

#Sonoma #summer squash #zucchini #summer

goodaesthetic

Let us suppose a wheat farm in western Kansas is abandoned, not an unusual event over the last 100 yr. For the first year or two after abandonment, the fields are covered with massive stands of sunflowers and Russian thistles (Salsola kali L., vr. tenuifolia Tausch). These two species, the former native and the latter alien, are on everyone’s weed list. But, the people have left and gone to town; there is nobody around to dislike them. Have they stopped being weeds? As a matter of fact, the weeds have now become useful plants in stabilizing the soil, preventing wind erosion, and reducing water erosion. It is true that weeds are often unwanted, but that is not what makes them weeds… Indeed, Homo sapien is perhaps the weediest of all species, and the more he dominates the landscape, the more he seems to thrive. If we confine the concept of weeds to species adapted to human disturbance, then man is by definition the first and primary weed under whose influence all other weeds have evolved.

Jack Harlan from Crops and Man

Do not call something a weed in front of a crop evolution expert you will get clowned!

(via goodaesthetic)

Thanksgiving is the symbol of fall. Fall foods, tastes and colors.

Easter, particularly Greek Easter, is the beginning of the spring and summer. Fresh cheeses, fresh salads, fresh flavors. Dill, mint and parsley.

It looks like I cheated but we have a local grower of hydroponic tomatoes, Parson's Homegrown. When you cannot wait for a tomato, this will do. I will not buy the tomatoes from hundreds of miles away, grown in the desert. But, until, mine come in, Parson's is the way to go.

Of course the lamb was splendid. Three ways with lamb, keftes, roasted and slow roasted with five heads of garlic. Thank you Williams Ranches.

Fresh ricotta with a bit of olive oil. Nothing more. Bellwether Farms fresh Jersey Cow Ricotta is sublime. Eat it as a starter, or have it for breakfast with some honey, or fresh fruit on a great slice of bread.

Together all the flavors of spring. The promise of the coming growing season.

#Parson's Homegrown #W #Williams Ranch #Belwether Farms #Greek Easter #Spring

jesus-montoya

Tel Aviv-based artist Shay Aaron constructs incredible miniaturized food sculptures at 1:12 scale that look almost completely edible.

via

osstellaa

Inspiration for portion control.

Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice combine together to create the smells of winter and the winter holidays. In the Eastern Mediterranean, two additional spices are used: mastic and mahlab.

Mahlab or mahlepi is an aromatic spice made from the seeds of the St Lucie Cherry (Prunus mahaleb). The cherry stones are cracked to extract the seed kernel, which is about 5 mm diameter, soft and chewy on extraction, but ground to a powder before use. The flavour is similar to a combination of bitter almond and cherry.

Mastic: is a resin obtained from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus). In pharmacies and Nature shops it is called "arabic gum" (not to be confused with gum arabic) and "Yemen gum". In Greece it is known as the "tears of Chios," being traditionally produced on that Greek island, and, like other natural resins is produced in "tears" or droplets. Originally liquid, it is sun-dried into drops of hard brittle translucent resin. When chewed, the resin softens and becomes a bright white and opaque gum. The flavor is bitter at first, but after chewing releases a refreshing, slightly piney or cedar flavor.

Here is a simple recipe for Vassilopita, the Greek New Year's Bread, I use both of the spices. You may to choose just one the first time so that you can see which one you like. It may seem foreign and odd at first.

If you have a scale, it's best to use the scale. If not, use a handy dandy measurement conversion application.

Ingredients:

260 grams orange pulp

250 grams olive oil

400 grams sugar

500 grams all purpose flour

5 eggs

1 teaspoon baking poweder

5 drops of mastic oil, or 1 teaspoon powder

1 teaspoon mahlab.

Directions:

Boil the oranges whole for about one hour. Wait till they are cool. Cut in half and remove the seeds. Process in a food processor and then let them sit in a strainer till the water bits come out.

Combine the olive oil and orange pulp.

In a mixer beat the eggs and sugar till they are airy and seem fluffy.

Add the orange with olive oil mixture.

Combine the dry ingredients till they are nice and smooth.

Bake for one hour at 350.

When cool, sprinkle powdered sugar.

If you are making for New Years, when it cools, take a coin, wrap in foil and insert in the bottom.

It's a wonderful seasonal easy sweet bread. Works like a fruit cake. You can eat with feta, marmalade, or just plain.

#mahlab #mastic #oranges #olive oil #vasilopita #cooking #baking

thingsorganizedneatly

SUBMISSION: For his latest exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, German artist Wolfgang Laib poured over 30,000 piles of rice and seven piles of pollen to create one of his largest installations ever entitled Unlimited Ocean.

osstellaa

Pure admiration for the precision and patience. Food in art.

#rice #art

Figs

by D.H. Lawrence

The proper way to eat a fig, in society,Is to split it in four, holding it by the stump,And open it, so that it is a glittering, rosy, moist, honied, heavy-petalled four-petalled flower.

Then you throw away the skinWhich is just like a four-sepalled calyx,After you have taken off the blossom, with your lips. But the vulgar wayIs just to put your mouth to the crack, and take out the flesh in one bite. Every fruit has its secret. The fig is a very secretive fruit.As you see it standing growing, you feel at once it is symbolic :And it seems male.

But when you come to know it better, you agree with the Romans, it is female.

Every fruit has its secret.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Honey-white figs of the north, black figs with scarlet inside, of the south.Ripe figs won’t keep, won’t keep in any clime.What then, when women the world over have all bursten into affirmation ?And bursten figs won’t keep ?

***************************

That was the poet, this was my memory:

The proper way to eat a fig in Alexandria, was to steal it from the neighbor. Climb the tree and look for the ripest fruit. Hide under the tree while eating. Slither away with a satisfied smile.

We had to be careful of the milk, my mother said if you touched your eyes, you could go blind. It never stopped us.

The sweetest ones were on the ground. You had to get them before the worms and ants.

#figs #DH Lawerence #Alexandria #Egypt #fruit #fruit secrets

thingsorganizedneatly

SUBMISSION: 100 pomegranate seeds, organized neatly.

osstellaa

Man orders the seeds, yet the pomegranate bursts on the tree. Dropping seeds and attracting the late comers to the garden.

thingsorganizedneatly

SUBMISSION: pomeganite seeds organized by color

— ‘Maybe the night that split open, a blue pomegranate,

a dark breast, and filled you with stars,

cleaving time.

‘Thrush’

BY GEORGE SEFERIS

#California #November garden #Santa Rosa #Sonoma #pomegranates #George Seferis #Poetry Foundation

Right under my eyes. Forgot to buy the prepared jar of grape leaves. And in my non sustainable stupor, I did not see the grapevines in my garden.

So, I cut the leaves. Parboiled for 3 minutes. Prepared the stuffing: rice, onion, dill, parsley, mint and pine nuts. Do you see the theme? Spring, spring, spring.

Lay them in a nice circular pattern. Put a plate on top for some weight. You don't want them to unfold and fall apart when cooking, then you would have rice soup.

Cook till rice is done. It will take about on hour.

Eat with Greek yoghurt.

Now, if you want, you can make them with the standard Greek stuffing mixture by adding some minced meat.

Enjoy.

#dolmas #dolmathes #stuffed grape leaves #grape leaves

Pretzels were traditionally a lenten bread. Lenten foods basically were vegan, no animal products. A number of European nations claim to be the inventors of the Pretzel.

As such, there are just as many stories about the symbolism of a Pretzel. The Italians, used it as a treat for children who learned their prayers, the crossing of the arms depicting prayer. It was a way of ridding the world of pagan bread styles, sun breads by the church. No German will ever acknowledge that the Italians had the Pretzel first.

The Swabian Germans, around Stuttgart, have told me multiple stories. Apparently, a lord from Urach, asked the drunkard baker to bake a bread where he could see the sun rise three times and he would be released from prison. So the clever baked, made the Pretzel, three holes. I don't know how, this trick saved the baker's life and got him out of jail.

Since the Swabian pretzel is the best, not bread doughie, but has the distinctive lye/laugen flavor I will believe their story. Before baking, it is dipped in lye. Hence it gets the shiny appearance. Lye was a powerful cleanser for the baking equipment. I wonder if it would pass current day standards for food safety.

The chubby upper part is big enough to slice and butter. The crossing part, is crispy. Two such pretzels in the morning with a cup of coffee make about the best fast breakfast. Just don't tell your local carbophobe.

I am not fond of the Bavarian pretzel. The crossed part is bready.

Be careful, if you eat one Swabian Pretzel, you will never eat another kind. Luckily, Whole Foods makes a pretzel baguette with the laugen flavor that will give you a glimmer of the taste.

Oh, yes, and that thing we call a pretzel with dastardly flavors, it's something, but it's not a pretzel.

#food #bread #pretzel #laugenpretzel #swabian #lent #food traditions #history

Rain Vs. Bees

La Niña brings lots of rain to California. This time of year, the storms and winds are a danger to our fruit trees. The bees have no chance to pollinate. The fruit and nut growers of California have issued a warning. Planting of row crops will be delayed. I know, the soil is pure mud at this stage. All the early preparation helped a bit, but will not be able to plant tomatoes.

This was my garden last year about this time. No bees yet.

So, prepare for higher nut and fruit prices. Add that to higher cotton prices, clothes more expensive. Higher wheat prices.

My dear bees, come out, come out and do your work. I want apples, peaches and plums. Almonds. I want lots of almonds.

#bees #food politics #cost of food

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