From Gene Logsdon
Garden Farm Skills

I live in the wrong climate to be a peach lover. But after many years of trying to outwit or out-wait winter freezes and spring frosts, I have learned how to enjoy at least a few peaches almost every year and in some years, lots of peaches. Strangely enough, the hen house that you see in the picture behind the blossoming peach trees is part of the key to success. Actually, the chickens you see under the trees are the secret, not the hen house itself.

It’s a long story, dating back to when I was a child playing with my cousins on their farm across the fields from ours. My aunt had a big white clingstone peach tree in her chicken lot. We boys would hide up in the tree where Aunt Stella couldn’t see us from the house and gorge on her precious peaches. The fact that there might be some connection between the peaches and the chickens never dawned on me until years later.

All of my early efforts at growing peaches failed not so much because of late frosts but because the trees would become infested with peach tree borers by the time they started bearing, and I could find no effective way to control them organically (and not much better luck using poisons). That’s when I wondered about how Aunt Stella could enjoy a peach tree that had to be at least 30 years old. When I read that chickens can control peach borers by eating the eggs and larvae that the adult borer insects lay in the soil and debris around the peach tree roots and trunks, I slowly made the connection.

I actually didn’t even plant the trees you see in the picture. We had been feeding the leftover skins from canning purchased peaches to the chickens and threw out the pits with them. Some of pits sprouted and grew— and still do. I did not expect much from these trees, since they were seedlings, not grafted varieties, but about half of them eventually produced very nice peaches indeed. Those that didn’t I cut down and new seedlings eventually took their places. There are seven bearing trees presently. I could have more, but that’s enough. I have learned that when the blossoms are large, pink, and open up widely, the fruit will be better than from the trees whose blossoms are redder and do not open up fully.

Because the hen house sits in the woods, the area right around it is partially protected from late frost by woodland trees hovering nearby. Sometimes even a degree or two of temperature can make a difference. I feed the chickens their grain and the table scraps under the trees in summer and so they scratch around there, finding the borers and keeping the soil partially bare, which peach trees like. The chicken manure makes good fertilizer too. Water off surrounding buildings also provides a little free irrigation during dry summers. I’ve never sprayed these trees with anything, organic or chemical. They get a fungal disease called peach leaf curl in the spring sometimes, but grow out of it by midsummer. They start bearing in their fourth year usually.

I am tempted to philosophize. We have essentially provided ourselves with peaches for free. My favorite advice to homesteaders has always been not to do anything that can be put off until tomorrow because tomorrow you might not have to do it at all. Add to that the following: Don’t do anything that you can get nature to do for you.
~~
Gene and Carol Logsdon have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio.
Gene is author ofThe Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse (Culture of the Land)
and The Last of the Husbandmen: A Novel of Farming Life
Photo Credit: Gene Logsdon
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From Greg Atkinson

Oyster lovers are supposed to prefer their oysters as simply as possible, preferably dressed in nothing more than the drop of seawater inside their shells, and I do like oysters that way. But I am also a sucker for oysters in fancy attire, like this chi-chi arrangement of meaty-textured steamed oysters in a velvety chemise of sweet wine butter sauce with a ruffle of spinach leaves cut into ribbons. The combination of sweet wine and salty oysters is powerfully seductive.

Makes 12 appetizer servings

3 dozen live medium Pacific oysters in the shell
1 cup water
One 375-milliliter (12.7 ounce) bottle organic late-harvest dessert wine
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
Generous grind of black pepper
2 cups (4 sticks) cold unsalted organic butter, cut into 1-inch bits
1 cup shredded spinach, for lining the platter

1. Scrub the oysters and put them in a large kettle with the water. Light the burner under the oysters and cook over high heat until most of the oysters have popped open, 8 to 10 minutes. (If the oysters are ready before the sauce is finished, turn off the burner and allow the oysters to stay warm in the pan.)

2. Put the sweet wine in a saucepan over high heat and cook until it has reduced to about one fourth of its original volume. Add the sugar, salt, and pepper. Whisk in the cold butter bits to make a smooth, creamy sauce.

3. Open the steamed oysters and arrange them on a platter lined with the shredded spinach. Spoon or ladle a tablespoon of sauce over each oyster. Serve at once.
~~
Greg Atkinson is author of West Coast Cooking and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
© Copyright Greg Atkinson
Image Credit: © Robert Byron | Dreamstime.com
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From Jeff Cox

If you were asked to invent a new fruit and came up with the cherry, your fame would resound down through the ages. The ongoing process we call Nature has done just that, and though some claim the process is blind and random, I prefer to think that a genius beyond reckoning is hidden within the natural world, and through its annual spins throws out such miracles as the cherry.

This thought occurred to me one day in the favorable cherry year of 1973—one of those rare years in Pennsylvania when the Bing cherry trees bore exceptionally large crops of unblemished fruit, when the rain patterns allowed the fruit to ripen without the need for fungicides against brown rot, and when there were plenty of ripe cherries for both the birds and me. A friend bought a property where three mature Bing cherry trees grew, each a good 35 feet tall, with thick trunks and wide-spread limbs, and, that year, had its branches laden with cherries. On a visit, I climbed into one of the trees and positioned myself on a limb where it forked into two smaller limbs. All around me ripe burnished burgundy-black cherries hung thickly within reach, and I perched there happily gobbling my fill until even my gluttonous lust for cherries was sated.

It was one of those moments in life that seem so natural and usual when it’s happening, but that in retrospect seems extraordinary and singular because it afforded an exquisite pleasure that has never been nor ever will likely be repeated.

That it involved cherries is understandable. In medieval art, the cherry represented a sweet and pleasing character, as well as one of the delights of the blessed. It’s significant that the trees were Bing cherries, because of all the lovely cherries, Bings are my favorite.

I’m not alone in thinking that Bing is the best-tasting, most satisfying cherry variety. I asked Elizabeth Mitcham of the Department of Pomology at the University of California at Davis which variety of Prunus avium, the sweet cherry, she thinks is tops for quality. She said, “Most of those I have polled agree that Bing is the best variety.”

Her associate, Janet Caprile, one of UC Davis’s Farm Advisors, added, “The California Rare Fruit Growers occasionally organize fruit tastings. They did a cherry tasting…and here are their top 10, with the most popular first: Bing, Utah Giant, Rainier, Larian, Lambert, Ebony, Black Tartarian, Garnet, Sparkle, and Black Republican. I would add Brooks to the list.” I like the fact that the marvelous Bing cherry was named for a Chinese laborer by the orchardist where the variety was first hybridized. Few remember the name of the orchardist, but everyone remembers the name of his laborer.

While Bings—and other sweet cherries—are susceptible to rots, sour cherries (Prunus cerasus), also known as pie cherries, are disease resistant. I have seen pie cherry trees laden with bright red fruit sitting happily in the late spring rains, unsprayed, while a nearby Black Tartarian sweet cherry (Prunus avium) crop was nearly entirely taken by brown rot. Organic sweet cherry growers aren’t entirely at the mercy of the fungi, however. Bordeaux mixture, elemental sulfur mixed with lime, and even a weak alkaline solution of baking soda are allowed in organic culture as fungicides. These compounds do not wreak havoc in the orchard ecosystem. And breeders help by making hybrids between P. avium and P. cerasus—in fact, most modern cherry hybrids called Royal or dual-purpose cherries are the product of such natural crosses. They are valued for their hardiness, disease-resistance, and good cooking qualities.

It’s important to find organic cherries because cherries are one of the most heavily sprayed crops. Conventional growers used 650,000 pounds—325 tons!—of agricultural chemicals on cherries in California alone in 2001. And California isn’t even the biggest producer. Oregon, Utah, and Washington State are the big producers of sweet cherries, while Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York produce most of the pie cherries, although some of each type are grown in all these states.

A cherry that grows wild in the east and that is sometimes sold at roadside stands is the black cherry (Prunus serotina), also called the bird cherry, or wild cherry. The dark, reddish-black fruits are small, about the size of a fingernail, not very sweet, but intensely flavored. They are harvested and a sweetened syrup is made of their juice that’s used to flavor soft drinks, ice creams, and candies, as well as rum and brandies. The trees are sturdy-looking and beautiful, and their rich, reddish-brown wood is highly prized for cabinet making.

Another wilding worth a mention is the chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), bearing clusters of black cherries that are edible, if not particularly palatable. They have a strong astringency and concentrated, over-the-top cherry flavor, hence their name. I have not seen chokecherries for sale at roadside stands, probably because they grow like weeds over their wide range in the east.

All told, there are 900 varieties of sweet cherries and 300 of pie cherries in the world’s markets. Sweet cherries are high in sugar (about 10 percent, or brix), have good stores of potassium, but—unless they are acerola sour cherries—are relatively low in vitamin C (11 mg per three ounces of fruit). The dark cherries are high in anti-oxidants, however.

Organic sweet cherries are mostly eaten out of hand, but they are also frozen to be sold in supermarkets, made into ice cream, used in pastries, or dried. They are the first stone fruit to ripen. We get the Black Tartarian, Tulare, and Burlat varieties here in California in May, when itinerant vendors sell them out of the backs of their station wagons. Then come the so-called white cherries, usually Rainier or Royal Ann. The Bings come in during late June into July.

Sour cherries are typically sweetened and cooked into pies and pastries, but some are also made into cherry soup, and some are dried. These dried sour cherries can add some tang-zing to a wide range of dishes, but especially sweet meats like pork and duck. There are two categories of sour cherries. Amarelle are light-colored with clear juice, such as the Montmorency variety that ripens in July. Griotte are dark with colored juice, such as the Morello variety.

Cherry season always means it’s time to get out the old marmalade crock I picked up at a country flea market. It has a ceramic lid that snaps closed. I fill it with two pounds of ripe but firm, unblemished cherries—some years sweet, some years sour, depending on which look the best. You can pit them, but I think the slight almond flavor of the pits adds a grace note to the cherries, so I don’t pit them. If I’m using sweet cherries, I add a cup of sugar to the crock; if sour, a cup and a half of sugar. Then I fill the crock with a decent brandy, cover the top with two thicknesses of wax paper, and snap down the lid. It sits on the kitchen counter for a month or two, then it goes into the fridge until the holiday season. Brandied cherries over my own home-made organic vanilla ice cream (using a real vanilla bean) makes a fine finish to the Thanksgiving turkey. One Christmas I pitted the cherries, chopped them, and made cherry-vanilla ice cream with them plus a few tablespoons of the brandy from the crock (don’t use more—brandy is an anti-freeze after all). It was spectacular. Or, the perfect close to a Christmas dinner might be almonds, chocolate, brandied cherries, and a glass of well-aged Port. But no cigar.
~

Organic Cherry Pie

Best made with fresh, pitted pie cherries, which ripen in midsummer, but you can also use the sweet cherries of spring. You might pit and freeze cherries in one layer on a cookie sheet, then pour the frozen cherries into a freezer bag for later pie-making, or make several pies in season to place in sealed plastic bags in the deep freezer for use in the winter, on Presidents’ Day, or whenever you need to remember the warm days of summer. Don’t freeze until the pie has completely cooled.

Make enough pie crust dough for two pie crusts and refrigerate overnight.

4 cups fresh, pitted organic pie (sour) cherries
1 cup sugar
4 Tbl. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. quick-cooking tapioca
2 Tbl. kirsch or 2 drops of almond extract
1 ½ Tbl. lemon juice
1 Tbl. butter

Cut the dough in half and roll it out to line a 9-inch pie pan. Combine the sugar, flour, tapioca, kirsch or almond extract, and lemon juice and blend gently into the cherries. Fill the pie crust with this mixture. Dot the top with bits of the butter. Preheat oven to 450 F. Roll out the remaining dough and cut it into ½-inch strips. Weave the strips into a lattice top for the pie, trimming off all but ½ inch of the overlap and moistening the ends of the strips where they meet the bottom crust along the edge of the pie plate, squishing them together with the back of a fork. Brush the lattice with milk or an egg whipped with a tablespoon of water. This makes the lattice glossy. Bake at 450°F. for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F. and bake for another 30 minutes, or until the lattice is golden brown. Makes 1 pie.
~~
Jeff Cox is author of The Organic Cook’s Bible and The Organic Food Shopper’s Guide and lives in Sonoma County, California.
Image Credit: Cherry Blossoms © Anutkate | Dreamstime.com
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From Jesse Cool

In this recipe, any bold-tasting wild mushroom will work. I like chanterelles, porcini, or morels. If you can’t find wild mushrooms in your market, shiitakes work great, and organic ones are plentiful.

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 shallots, thinly sliced
8 ounces wild mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup small dry organic white beans, soaked overnight and drained (see tip)
2 sprigs fresh thyme
3 cups organic chicken broth
¾ pound sausage links (such as pork, chicken, or lamb), cut into ½-inch slices
3 small spring onions, whites and greens sliced into ½-inch pieces
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
½ cup (2 ounces) grated or shaved Parmesan or Asiago cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots, mushrooms, and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the beans and brown lightly. Add the thyme and broth. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 60 minutes, or until the beans are tender. Remove and discard the thyme sprig.

Meanwhile, heat another large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and onions and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes, or until browned and the sausage is cooked through. Add to the bean mixture when the beans are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the parsley. Top with the cheese.

Makes 6 servings

Kitchen Tip: Canned white beans will work for this recipe. Use one 15-ounce can, drained. Add as directed, but simmer for only 15 minutes.
~~
Jesse Cool is author of Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients, owner of CoolEatz Restaurants and Catering, and lives in Menlo Park, California.
Image Credit: © Alexander Chistyakov | Dreamstime.com
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From Lisa Barnes

Advertisers and marketers are having a field day with the going green trend and making millions on labels for everything from cheese puffs, to laundry soap, to toys. Everyone wants to buy “greener” products and we simply look for a quick “seal” or buzz words – but what do they mean? Is it eco-friendly, or sustainable, or recyclable, or animal-friendly, biodegradable or “other”?

I recently taught a baby food cooking class to new parents who were just starting to feed their children solids. They of course are very concerned about what goes in and around their babies – as they should be. I showed them how not only to read labels but decipher them and be careful about products marketed for babies and children. Brands our parents and grandfathers trusted aren’t necessarily helping the confusion.

We discovered baby teething biscuits with partially hydrogenated oils. Turkey labeled as “natural” (however it’s legal for “natural” turkey to have been raised on a diet that included hormones, antibiotics or genetically modified corn). Typical “junk foods” (cheese puffs, potato chips) labeled as “organic” (but still no healthier due to trans fats and additives and preservatives). And the biggest shock to the class was baby food packaged in #7 plastic (thought to leach chemicals in foods) – with microwave directions!

This past weekend was a helpful article in the San Francisco Chronicle about green products seals, and claims surrounding green products. We’re still so new at determining and establishing some product standards that some companies are just making them up themselves. Do we want to trust Johnson and Johnson’s “green” label conducted by an in-house team? We need to educate ourselves so we’re not caught up in the marketing tactics of large companies who just want to sell us products (healthy or not, truly “green” or not). Those of us trying to go “greener” need help as well as some time and patience to read between the lines. I found the article to be helpful which you can read here.

As far as food goes, it’s just one more reason to avoid reading labels and shop for whole organic foods at the Farmer’s Market. I know we can’t always go there and they don’t have everything, but it sure makes shopping, cooking and eating easier (and healthier). The good news is that there is a federal standard for “organic” food. However staying away from processed foods cuts down on much of the label deciphering, but if you must do it keep these things in mind for “organic” food claims.

Here’s a reminder of the organic labels on multiple ingredient foods:

~~
Lisa Barnes is author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler and lives in Sausalito, California.
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