I’ve talked about dilly beans in previous posts. They’re one of my favorite vegetables, especially when they’re freshly grown and prepared just-barely-ripe. They’re also one of my favorite pot luck dishes for Bunko with my good friends Nora and Diane and family. The three-page recipe for my dilly beans is on pp. 173-175 of FoodWISE….
Category: FoodWISE blog
Really Local
Returning from teaching in Italy is always a pleasure—we’re bursting with local here in the Pacific Northwest, as I write about in FoodWISE. Washington is one of the states with the highest percentages of direct food sales in the U.S. We’re particularly suited to grow berries, and Barbie’s Berries provides a bounty of the soft,…
Shaw Fest and Harvests
This small gathering of music afficianados and friends has become a beloved summer event. Family Insta accounts may reveal some of it, but a favorite of mine is the food we harvest about then. I mention blueberries in another post Basil is easy to harvest and process, just rinse and steam (very quickly), then blanch…
Sustainable fish
With everything I’ve written about factory farming and fisheries, you might think I’d caution against eating fish. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we do enjoy a relative abundance of some species of marine fish—some so fresh we can eat it as sushi. As I talk about in FoodWISE, sustainable fishing is a big issue for…
FoodWISE cheesemaking in the summer months
The recipes for cheesemaking are simple—and eerily similar. You warm milk (and maybe add microbial cultures…I get mine from New England), add a coagulator (usually rennet of some sort from a reliable company), perhaps heat the milk some more; then, after a half hour or so, cut the solidified curd that has separated from the…
A month of good food—good to think and good to eat—in Tuscany
Actually, I should say, “months” of good food in Tuscany— a week in June and several weeks in July. This year, 20 of us enjoyed the adventure—18 students, able-bodied and brilliant assistant, Chloe, and myself. The weather cooperated, and, mostly, we kept Covid at bay. We enjoyed the food—its provenance and terroir, the locale, the…
Sustainable Food–Living off the land, the garden, the ferment
Now almost a month after our Western Washington University “cook-in” and “dig-in,” our class is finally over and I’m posting a few pictures of sustainable food. Below, “natural” yoghurt drains, releasing its nutritious whey (for other lacto-fermentation projects), with soft cheese remaining (for spreads). Many recipes for this can be found in both FoodWISE and…
Sorrel soup!
Make delicious sorrel soup, sautéing spring onions, then adding freshly-cut sorrel and broth. Just salt, pepper, and a little thyme creates a delicious meal, especially with some of that bread in the previous post! Now, for a heavier version, one with vegetables and potatoes, more in the Ukraine style, see here.
Fermented bread, Tassajara style, requires a sponge first!
My favorite recipe is from Tassajara….but it’s the fermented grains that make it a whole food…..You can buy them, or just soak the wheat berries overnight, dry, then mill. The sponge is created with gentle stirring and kneading, creating a wet mixture, ready for rising. Add the rest of the rye and wheat flours, oats,…
The easiest cheese…Feta
On many small farms, practical wisdom encourages an entrepreneurial spirit, wanting to do more than the minimum required. Farmers understand the need to balance the restrictions of food safety rules (like the sixty-day minimum aging requirement for raw milk cheeses) with their other aims, like producing the highest flavor. Rules talk needs to be tempered…