May 05, 2007

Barbara Kingsolver kicked off a book tour for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life this week at the Washington Cathedral, and she had some interesting things to say.

The popular novelist was born in Maryland, raised in Kentucky, and has an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s in science. Then she moved into creative writing and published her first novel, The Bean Trees in 1986. She and her family moved to Southwestern Virginia in 2004, she said, for work and extended family reasons, but also to answer the call of food.

Kingsolver wanted to start "eating decisively and paying attention to the sources of our provenance". She wanted to know the people who grew what she ate, and the "project" was born: to eat for one year from local sources (with a few exceptions for fair trade items like spices and coffee). They ate fruit, vegetable, dairy, eggs, and meat from "their own county", and ended up raising quite a lot of food themselves, including chickens, turkeys, Icelandic sheep, fruits, and vegetables.

She had to change her way of thinking, she said, to integrate family values with food culture and to ask herself not what she wanted (wouldn’t cashews and soda from the convenience store taste good?) but what she had to choose from - what was fresh and ripe and already there.

The book is a departure for her, because she doesn’t usually write about herself or real people at all. However, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle promises to improve on real life with her telling of it - her practical sense and her sense of humor deliver a message about sustainable living both enjoyably and believably. I haven’t read the book yet, as it was just released May 1, but what she read aloud to us was informative and compelling, not to mention funny (particularly the particulars of turkey sex)..

She said listeners that most of us can make broader choices than we do. We have to decide what’s important and how to make those choices. One story she told illustrated how it’s not enough to accept things without question but to ask for the story and to be really aware of what’s going on our plates. The farmers in her county, she said, raised organic tomatoes but couldn’t sell their ripe crops to the local supermarkets, because the stores had flown in organic tomatoes from far away and were selling them cheaper. Those tomatoes were shipped on fossil fuels across the country by large companies that received government subsidies so that the tomatoes could be marketed to consumers for less. The local farmers’ crops piled up and rotted outside the packing plant. Shoppers may think they’re doing the right thing when they walk into the market and load the tomatoes under the "Organic" sign into their plastic bags, but the unseen expenses of those fruits -- to the local economy, at the cost of supporting enterprises that market commodities that become high fructose corn syrup or feedlot grain, to a planet in the grips of ecological misuse -- need to be considered.

"How we eat determines how the world is used," said Kingsolver. I think about that.

Don’t spend to long lying in bed thinking about saving the planet, though. I didn’t rise with the early birds and get to the market last week, and I missed all the good stuff. Asparagus is just coming into season, and Musachio Produce Farm, Red Rake Farm, and Westmoreland Berry Farm had it, among others. But it went fast, as did the few strawberries Westmoreland listed on its sign. This week I’m setting my alarm, so try and beat me to that asparagus!

I amused myself imagining how beautiful Nguyen Orchids must be, judging by the exotic potted flowers on its stand. One called a purple dragon almost came home with me, though my brown thumb would have required a lot of guidance from the grower, who was busily chatting with other fans.

Desperate to cook something, and not yet ready to buy potted herbs or even tomato plants for my yard (see "brown thumb", above), I turned to EcoFriendly Foods, where Bruce, I am convinced, knows everything about this market - and a lot about the pasture-fed ("grass-grown") animals whose meat he sells. The beef, pork, lamb, poultry and eggs come form Emerald Family Farms, a consortium of small family and young farmers who use ethical and humane practices and have a USDA-certified processing facility. Thus, products from EcoFriendly can be safely stored in your refrigerator or freezer, but there’s no reason not to eat them at once.

Unsure what to try, I sought help, and Bruce asked me what kind of meat I liked and, intuitively, "What kind of cook are you?" Considering my answers, he proffered some Red Devon round steak dry-aged for 100 days and "good for a quick sear", as well as a packet of fresh ground turkey. I was extremely happy cooking with both these selections!

That fresh ground turkey? Here’s a great thing to do with it that you can serve in larger portions as an entrée (with stir fried vegetables) or as an appetizer. Substitute any ground meat you like -- pork is good, beef works, haven’t tried it with lamb, but I’d swap out the seasonings for that.

Steamed Dumplings

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 1/2 cups Napa cabbage, minced
• 1/4 cup minced celery (use water chestnut with pork)
• 1/4 cup minced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons minced green onions
• 1 tablespoon cilantro, minced (may omit if you don’t like this flavor)
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry (I’ve substituted balsamic vinegar with fine results)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• ½ teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon Thai chili paste (1/2 teaspoon of chili-garlic paste works great)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 36 won ton wrappers

Finely chop cabbage, sprinkle with salt, place in strainer, and drain for 15 minutes. Squeeze excess moisture from cabbage. Combine with remaining ingredients, except wrappers, and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Cut the corners off wonton wrappers and keep the stack moist with a damp towel. Place 1 tablespoon filling in center of each wrapper. Make a circle with your thumb and index finger, place the filled wrapper over it, then punch the filling down through the circle to bring the top edges together. Squeeze slightly to seal. (Alternately, leave the wrappers square and just fold into a triangle and seal edges. Or attempt to crimp them the way you’ve seen at the dim sum place. This takes practice, but is easier with homemade wrappers. Recipe below).

Steam in a bamboo steamer - or a lightly oiled strainer placed in a large, lidded pot - for 10-12 minutes. (If you know how to pan-fry potstickers and have sealed the edges thoroughly, that method works, too.)

You may also freeze the uncooked dumplings on a sheet pan overnight, then store them in a sealed freezer bag. They keep several months and can be steamed straight from the freezer - just add three or four minutes to the cooking time.

Makes 36 dumplings

OK, if you like a challenge, if the words "gather wild yeast from the air" don’t deter you from attempting a bread recipe (you know who you are), you can make your own dumpling wrappers. It’s not that hard. Really.

Wrappers

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Put flour in large bowl and make a well in center. Add boiling water and mix to make firm dough. Knead it until it feels smooth, put in a bowl, and cover with a damp cloth. Let stand for 30 minutes.

Roll one-third of the dough into a long sausage, then cut in 1-inch pieces. Flatten each piece to a ¼-inch round with your hand, then roll out to form a round circle about 3 inches in diameter. There’s your wrapper. Repeat.

Alternately, roll one-third of the dough out as thin as you can, then use a biscuit cutter to cut 3-inch circles, lift off the counter with a spatula, and fill.

• Want to put your indoor plants outside among the flowers for summer? You can set those in clay pots directly in the ground so the soil is 1 to 2 inches below the pot rim, allowing moisture to go through the porous clay. If your plants are in plastic or glazed containers, repot them in clay containers or check frequently for water because moisture will not move through the plastic. Don’t put houseplants without drainage holes outside, because rainwater might drown and rot them.
• It’s safe to move your house plants outdoors when the night temperatures stay above 50°F. Avoid sunburning the foliage by moving the plants gradually from the relative darkness of the house to their bright, summer location. Start by putting them in a well-shaded location and progressing to increasingly lighted areas.
• Check for pests in outdoor containers. Weeds may develop from seeds blown into the pot, and insects need to be controlled using appropriate measures. (Spider mites can be partially controlled by frequent spraying with water from the garden hose.) Watch out for chewing insects like caterpillars and loopers, which can do a lot of damage in a short time.
• Go ahead and plant that Easter lily outside - it might flower again in late August. Transplants are less stressed when you set them out on a cloudy, calm day. Strong sun and wind are hard on new transplants, so set out plants in the late afternoon when there’s less wind and they will have overnight to acclimate. Provide shade and wind protection with berry baskets, small crates, or screens. Mulching helps since it lowers the rate at which water evaporates from the soil and controls the soil temperature.
• Grass clippings can be used as a mulch in flower beds and vegetable gardens if you let them dry well first. Fresh, damp, grass clippings will mat and may attract pests. Never use clippings from a lawn that has been treated with herbicide.
• Before mowing that lawn, make sure your blade is sharp; dull blades can pull grass seedlings from the soil instead of cutting them. Sharpen lawn mower blades monthly.
• If your lawn is bluegrass/fescue, resist the urge to fertilize now. Fall is the time to fertilize these grasses. Fertilizing now will keep you behind the lawn mower all spring and increase the chance of injury to your lawn from summer disease and drought.
• Don't over-water your lawn this summer. Too much water leaches nitrogen from the soil, encourages weeds, and invites disease problems.
• Do regularly water newly planted trees and shrubs during the first year or two after planting to help establish a good root system. They need at least 1 inch of water each week. It’s better to water deeply once a week than to water lightly every day; the former practice encourages deep, drought-resistant roots while the latter practice encourages surface roots that may suffer during dry spells. Mulch to conserve moisture and control weeds.

Remember that you can stop by the Master Gardeners’ booth at the market to ask your own questions in person or pick up some of the ample literature they’ve got on all things green.