June's Blog

Big Cuddly Paws of Change

2010-02-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

According to the Chinese Calendar, tomorrow begins the year of the Tiger. This tiger's an aggressive one and is already batting me around with his big furry paws and the year hasn't even begun. I'm determined, however, to coax it into a rumbling purr-cat before long. After all, it's my year and I'm a tiger too. Read on to find out how this Tiger is changing my life and the life of the farm this year...

So, just when I thought I'd be settling into my third year here at Fawnwood, raising food for another round of CSA members, summer camps and weddings, David and I were given a beautiful opportunity to buy our own land. In the very short time it's been since we were given this gift, I've been swimming in dreams and possibilities, sometimes getting caught in emotional eddies along the way. This gift is changing everything.

It means that some time this year, we'll be moving away from this beautiful place we've loved for years and will start our lives somewhere new. Where? Not sure yet. Probably Sandy or Scappoose. I've grown into this idea in the last few weeks, but it hasn't been easy. Fawnwood is like family, so there's a sadness that goes along with the excitement of change and moving on.

What all this means for Fawnwood is that this massive transition will take energy away from the farm. We've decided to redesign this growing season around our two community weddings and TrackersNW summer camps. We're scaling down and calling the remaining growing space the "Celebration Gardens". Shaun and Kirsten will be transitioning into lead caretakers throughout the next year and may resume the CSA in 2011. We realize this turns out to be short notice for folks interested in subscribing to our CSA this year and we hope it is still early enough for you find a happy home with another local farm. Our apologies for the sudden change everyone.

To all of our incredibly supportive flagship members from 2009, we wish you all the best and we still welcome you to Fawnwood anytime you'd like a place to "get away". Just give us a ring or drop us a line! Thank you for a beautiful year!

Wilder's Guild Summer Camp at Fawnwood!

2010-01-20T09:12:00.000-08:00

This coming August, we're partnering with TNW to run two summer camps for 8-13 year olds. We're really excited about it and think they'll be incredibly rich experiences. So, spread the word! Check out the link to their website above for more information.

Happy New Year, Oregon!

2010-01-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

It's 2010 and I've only recently returned from a remarkably good time with family in Michigan. With that said, I'm really happy to be back in a warmer, wetter world where wild and locally cultivated foods are loved and appreciated.

We're in pre-season gear around here, with part of our days indoors designing, updating and finessing the growing season master plan. Our seed orders are in, we're filling our supply list, and dreaming up recipes to go with our veggies. Outside, we're working on landscape projects, revamping the greenhouse, mulching, gathering trellis materials and stakes from the woods, and myriad other projects.

Wild Spring greens are peeking up through the forest floor and it won't be long until we are able to start gathering them again. It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by since I started this blog last Spring. I've put together a Flikr slide show in the left hand column for folks interested in viewing a few highlights.

Thanks to everyone who supported us through 2009, and welcome to a new year!

Autumn Surprises

2009-11-21T14:26:00.001-08:00

This Autumn has been full of beauty. Along with our new neighbors, Kirsten and Shaun, we have been putting much of our 2009 farm beds to sleep, deeply mulching and planting cover crop seeds. Our Fall and Winter "To Do" list just keeps getting shorter, that is, it is now two pages instead of three. We are just recently finding time to feed the little creative fires inside us as we look forward to letting them blaze this winter.

I gathered a flaming yellow and green branch from our stand of hickories the other day and placed it in a river rock vase in front of the shower house. The hickories were planted by an early homesteader, clearly someone fond of the east coast natives. We just discovered a month ago, however, that there are two large American Persimmons peeking out from the west side of the hickories. Another East coast native, I assume they were planted by the same folks. They ripened in small supply over this last month but just last week, I was able to make daily trips to pick a handful each time. It was like bringing David sweet, mushy treasures. It turns out that several persimmon seedlings have made their way into the world in the past few years. We'll probably transplant them this winter, finding a spot where they can be near their East coast friends but in fuller sun where they'll develop more lushly.
We also discovered that our patch of edible lepiota mushrooms had expanded by 500 percent this year! They span the entire length of our stand of firs. It was like coming downstairs at Christmas and seeing 5 Christmas's worth of gifts under the tree! We wondered if letting our chickens free range under the trees in the late spring this year had anything to do with it? Spreading the mycelium around or adding nutrients? A mystery...

Cayenne Peppers

2009-10-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

We strung bundles of cayenne peppers to keep the kitchen colorful and our CSA members warmed this winter. Our members should hang them to finish drying and then use them as you see fit. You can crush them and use them as hot chili flakes, include them in a pickling recipe for added bite(I like to do this) or hit the internet for other ideas. There are many health claims out there about the curing powers of cayenne but you'll have to do further research on this.

Here's an interesting recipe with good reviews for Fettucine with red peppers and cayenne sauce.

Wild Geese

2009-10-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of flocks of geese have flown over our place this week. Since we here everything though the walls of this little yurt, I feel even more connected to their seasonal presence than I have in the past. So, of course, it reminded me of a poem I love so much. Happy Autumn to you!

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver

Shelling Bean Ideas

2009-10-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

Shelling Bean Salad...easy one...

New York Times Shelling Bean Recipe

Wild Sodas and Winter Spirits Class

2009-10-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

In just a few weeks I'll be teaching a class for a local company called TrackersNW. It was so much fun when I taught it two Autumns ago, and this time I'm adding two extra elements: wine & sodas. Below is the full text from the website. If you're interested in signing up, click on the link above and it will take you to the page you need.

"Join June Rzendzian for an afternoon of sipping and creating wild-crafted beverages the whole family can enjoy. You’ll be guided through the basics of wine-making, berry soda and cordial-concocting, plus experimenting with some holiday classics.

June’s classes are designed to be fun, hands on and scientifically informative, preparing students to practice in their own kitchens with an understanding of the dynamics of each process. She also chooses recipes that suit the spectrum of patience levels, from drinks ready to enjoy the same day to wines reaching full maturity in a year or two. Come prepared to be gift inspired for the winter holidays!"

Pumpkin Streusel Recipe from Octoberfest

2009-10-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Pie with Ginger Streusel
I received a few requests for this recipe the other night. Please note the following changes...I baked it in a long baking dish, doubled the recipe and didn't use candied or powdered ginger. Instead I used about one teaspoon of fresh and finely grated ginger in the topping because it's all I had on hand. I bet it would be even better with the other two gingers but I didn't have them on hand. The ginger taste was very mild.

Octoberfest II

2009-10-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

Octoberfest II has come and gone, leaving me deeply satisfied. It was a small, more intimate group thant last year...a perfect 35 or so friends, family and acquaintances. The Stumptown Jug Thumpers entertained us for a second year in a row and I must say they do a mighty fine rendition of G&R's Paradise City.

So many times during the evening, I stood back and breathed a deep breath as I watched so many people I care about lost in conversation and laughter, or raving about the amazing meals people brought with them, or singing songs that harkened back to our teens. Eleven folks spent the coldest night of the year(went down to 31º last night) in their tents or bivy sacks. It all ended this morning with cold and frosted overnighters straggling into our toasty yurt for coffee, breakfast and more conversation.

Dial F for Fish

2009-10-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

I've stood in front of a fish counter at my local grocery store many times and wondered what I should choose. Is this fish over-harvested? What about mercury levels? Is this a safely farm-raised fish or should I avoid it? So many environmental factors weighing in on the decision. Usually, I feel good about the information that my favorite store, New Seasons, provides but sometimes I choose to avoid fish altogether because I'm just not sure.

Well, there a new nifty tool for folks who run into this and it's called the Blue Ocean Fishphone. It's a handy cellphone tool that allows you to text a number with the name of your fish and you'll receive an immediate response. Tonight, I texted their #: 30644 with "Fish Chinook Salmon" and received the following response in two parts:

"farmed salmon (RED) significant environmental concerns; US west coast (YELLOW) some evn concerns; Alaska (GREEN) very few env concerns. MSC certified as Sustainable."

You could argue that folks should stop eating Chinook salmon all together under the current circumstances so that Alaska doesn't become over-fished as well. However, the Marine Stewardship Council considers sustainability of the fishing industry too. We'll have to see how it plays out and in the meantime use the FishPhone to help us vote with our dollars.

Asian Greens Recipes for Cold Season

2009-10-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

Autumn is upon us and word on the street(not to mention in the media, if you choose to believe it) is that it's going to be a brutal cold and flu season. What I've heard from a teacher in one of Portland's High Schools, is that it's already a serious one for their students.

Cold season and our burgeoning bed of Tatsoi and Dwarf Pak Choi have inspired the following recipes. If you're not a ginger lover then these recipes may leave you a bit disappointed.

Young Pak Choi with Ginger and Garlic
This site guides you through working with Pak Choi, things to consider when storing, etc...

Hot Pak Choi Salad with Ginger and Sesame Dressing

Chilled Sesame Ginger Tatsoi

Thai Style Steamed Fish
Please see my previous blog on "Dial F for Fish" to find out what fish the Marine Stewardship Council deems environmentally responsible. It's a nifty cell texting tool that you can use while standing in front of your local grocery fish counter.

Meet Our New Neighbors

2009-09-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

Our Portland friends, Shaun and Kirsten, are in the process of moving out to the farm this month. This is good news for many reasons. It means we will have more help on the farm next year, more company on those long country days, and the plants will receive more individual attention. We'll be able to continue creating our vision of a garden of eden-esque acre of mixed annual and perennial forest garden, while guilding and spending more time with our little fruit and nut orchard.

Sean has a successful bike hat business and Kirstin just finished school at PSU. She has a strong interest in children's gardens and the edible schoolyard movement taking place throughout the country right now. Both are serious bikers and the picture above was taken at Fawnwood in July. We were their first overnight stop on their bike trip to Alaska.

Check out Shaun's Blog if you'd like to read about their bike trip or more details and pictures on their move to Fawnwood.

It should be an exciting year ahead!

Building the Yurt

2009-09-27T10:20:00.001-07:00

Fawnwood's End of Summer Salad

2009-09-22T08:27:00.001-07:00

It's almost the end of peach season here in the Northwest and the salad that seemed to garner the most attention at Lara's wedding was the End of Summer Salad. It was a mix of mild greens and our spicy mesclun lettuce, which is mostly mustards like Tah Tsai, Arugula and Purple Kale. We added toasted hazelnuts and August Lady Peaches, then tossed it with a peach dressing. Add a little salt and pepper and viola!

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Fawnwood Flair at Wildwood Wedding

2009-09-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend, David and I were part of a "thinking local" catering team for a friend's wedding. Lara and Grant had a vision for celebrating their special day with family and friends. It included being married at Wildwood, a park important to Lara as an environmental education site where she taught nearly 1000 times, if you can believe that! Their vision also included supporting friends, small start-ups and local producers by inviting them to create what they loved most for the day. We were honored to make three beautiful salads made mostly from Fawnwood Farm ingredients. The salads were accompanied by Ancient Heritage Dairy cheeses and mixed crackers. Other folks provided beautiful cakes decorated on site with edible flowers and mints, homemade wines, cordials and homemade preserves. Finally, Grant found a small local company that provided pulled pork for sandwiches from responsibly raised pigs.

All in all, it was a beautiful and very Northwestern Oregon day. The rain, not often welcome on wedding days, was much loved and appreciated by this couple. When I first arrived at the site, Lara said, "What a beautiful day!" and she meant it. How great is that? And about as local as it gets!

Featured Salads: Super Slaw, Thai Cucumber Salad
& Fawnwood's End of Summer Salad

Winter Squash Medley

2009-09-14T12:18:00.001-07:00

Our CSA members will be receiving a variety of winter squashes over the next several weeks.
Varieties will include Acorn, Delicata, Butternut and Sugar Pie Pumpkins. At home, if we plan to store our winter squash for a few months, we wipe the outside with a little cider vinegar to kill bacteria and then cure them in a 70 degree room with ventilation for a week or so before putting them in a dry, cool place. Ventilation during curing and storage is key or you could end up with mold issues, which we learned last year.

I dug up a few recipes from my own collection, plus visited some of my trusted sites. Let us know if you have some favorites by emailing me and we'll post them for other members! Thanks!

Homestead Farm's Winter Squash Recipes and Storage Tips
I haven't tried these recipes but they sound good and there are many to choose from.

Nut-Stuffed Delicata Squashes
I made these last season and they were rich and delicious. Fantastic Fall and Winter food, and it was this recipe that kicked off my love of sage.

Another Stuffed Delicata Recipe
This blog includes a whole menu of delicious items that correspond with some of our CSA grown produce. I like this stuffed delicata recipe because it includes turkey in place of the nuts. I'll be trying this sometime in the near future.

Ay, Calypso...

2009-09-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Calypso Beans are going home with half our members this week and the other half next week. They're beautiful heirloom beans and sometimes known as Ying Yang because of their unique markings. They are similar to Pinto Beans, mild flavored and a little starchy in texture, but related to Kidney beans.

We've left the shelling to our members, not just because it would take us a very long time to shell all the beans for our members this year but because it is part of the fun of getting them straight from the farm! Sitting around with friends while shelling these beauties or while watching the tele is quite satisfying. We're often found inside doing these sorts of things each Fall and it's one of the reasons we're looking forward to the upcoming season.

If you're unused to cooking with dried beans, please check out the useful site below. It's pretty thorough and straightforward:
Preparing and Cooking dried beans for use in recipes.

Recipes:
Calypso Beans, Tomatoes and Poblano Peppers Stew
Calypso Bean Salad
Past the long-winded commentary on this blog, you'll find a Mediterranian style dish that uses a lot of non-local ingredients found for a reasonable price at Trader Joe's. Sounds intriguing if you're willing to go the distance.

Family Visit

2009-09-14T11:34:00.001-07:00

Last week, my Uncle Bob and Aunt Chris drove up from California. they spent four days with us, helping us in the garden, harvesting blackberries, chopping wood for the winter and myriad other farmsteading tasks. Monday, we had a chance to head down to Deer Island proper to walk along the Columbia River. It was a beautiful Northwest day, moody and unpredictable. I loved it!

Recipe for all those tomatoes!

2009-09-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Tomato and Corn Pie
So, this recipe is from a food blog called "Smitten Kitchen" sent to me by friend Heather Tucker. It was worth the work it takes to make the crust or better yet, save yourself the time and just buy a good one from your favorite local grocery. I highly recommend it! My camera was out of juice this weekend for both of these dishes so you'll just have to trust that it gets my seal of approval!

Bucatini All'Amatriciana with Smoked Mozzarella Meatballs
Don't be intimidated by the name above! It's a fantastic dish by the Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis and also well worth the time to make the meat balls. We used our ground elk instead of beef and veal, we also used smoke gouda instead of mozz because it's cheaper. You can also get away with using parmasian for the entire recipe instead of pecorino romano. Oh, I also used linguine noodles because unless you go to Pasta Works, you may have a hard time finding bucatini noodles. Have fun!

A Needed Vacation

2009-09-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

David and I just returned late last night from a trip to Olympia and Mt. Ranier. We visited friends Adrienne and Arly in Oly and then headed up the mountain to Tom and Julia who are Rangers at Sunrise and Ohanapecosh. We even traveled outside the park briefly to gather nearly 30 lbs of blue elderberry, which we're still processing(separating from their umbulled stems) and freezing for wine, soda and jelly later this year. Yesterday, we took a dip in a Panther Creek swimming hole(burrrrrr!) after gathering enough huckleberries for cordial(nearly 2 quarts). All in all, a great trip.

Melons

2009-09-01T08:54:00.001-07:00

I can't tell you how pleased I am to be harvesting my first melons here in the PNW. They taste like home! We harvested four Bender's Surprise cantaloupes last week. I chose this variety from Victory Seeds since it was an old, open pollinated one. I have to admit, I'm a Futurama fan so the name didn't hurt. Three were sweet and delicious, while one was just a bit bland. We are patiently waiting for our heirloom Moon and Stars watermelon to ripen fully. The big yellow spot on the watermelon is the "moon" with many little yellow "stars". I love it! David has been trying to talk me into harvesting it and I think it's ready but am a little nervous since I'm new at choosing perfectly ripe ones. I'll take a picture and post when I do.

Blackberry Time

2009-08-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

It's true, and we have the purple fingers and prickled limbs to prove it! This week, our CSA members will be receiving half pints or whole pints of very perishable Himalayan blackberries. They are an old world blackberry introduced to this region and thriving in every neglected area of our farm and field. We have two other wild blackberry varieties growing out here as well. Our native variety is the Trailing Blackberry which already fruited earlier this year and is much loved by the local wildlife. The Cutleaf is also an introduced species, so the story goes, and it has a longer shelf life, is a little firmer but has a more mellow, almost heavy taste. These may be going home with our CSA members in the future if we have enough for everyone.

Right now, we're picking and freezing for future projects like blackberry wine, smoothies and fruit leather. mmmm...and cobblers of course!

One Simple Recipe

2009-08-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

Roasted Potatoes with Shallots
From Epicurious.com

Simple. Delicious.

Pics of the Week

2009-08-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

Big and Shiny

2009-08-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

This is our first year growing eggplant. I had to talk David into it since he's not a big fan, even though his mom makes one of the best Mediterranean dishes using them. I'm glad we did because it makes me so happy to see those gorgeous globes emerging from big purple blossoms. One thing I didn't expect, however, is that they're prickly and protective of their fruits. Little thorns, even on their stems and caps remind me to slow the heck down.

We just harvested the first of the year from our greenhouse. They are shiny and the most beautiful deep purple. Their flesh can be bitter, depending on their age or how long they've sat in the fridge after being harvested. So, what many people do to amend this is soak them in salt water or just salt them and let them sit in the fridge or on the counter for a half hour after slicing them. This will help leach most of the alkaloids that give them the bitter taste.

You'd be amazed by the number of eggplant recipes that exist, since most people only think of Eggplant Parmigiana. My friend Teresa looks forward to her eggplant Parmigiana-fest every year, since she and her husband Stephan make a huge batch of it and freeze it for the winter.

Below, I've included a few sites that will help you come up with the right recipe and I'm going to work on a recipe or two of my own over the next couple days. I'll report back!

Eggplant Recipes from EatingWell Magazine
This site excites me the most since it includes wholesome, healthy meals that are often used by David's Mom, who is a personal chef and one of the best cooks around!

Eggplant Recipes.net

Grilled Eggplant Salad with Yogurt from NYTimes

Grilled Eggplant with Chevre and Tomatoes

More Recipes, Yes it's True...

2009-08-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

This Summer Squash Pasta recipe includes many of the ingredients our CSA members have been receiving lately. It's also a good step-by-step recipe with pictures for those who need it. I, however, would add a generous portion of Romano or Parmasian Cheese. Ancient Heritage Dairy makes a fantastic young Romano called Rosa. It's aged 5 months, is creamy, salty, and delicious! And local. Portlanders can find these guys at the Saturday downtown market, Sunday Hillsdale or King Markets, New Seasons and Whole Paycheck(ehem...Whole Foods...sorry).

I had the good fortune to try this Thai Cucumber recipe at a recent NoPo block party. It was very tasty. I loved the mint it includes...and I believe it was spearmint instead of wintergreen. It's creator omitted the peanuts as a precaution, since so many people have peanut allergies these days. It was good without but I suspect better with.

For the Love of Cukes and Toms

2009-08-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

Tomatoes and cucumbers were a regular side dish to all our summer meals when I was growing up. Today, they're still a symbol of summer and especially on hot days, they make the perfect ingredients for a cool meal. Last week, when the mercury went above 100 for several days out here, we made a couple dishes I want to share with you.

The picture above is of our Tomato, basil, nettle pesto and Mozzarella Sandwich on Fred Meyer Harvest Bread. I can't tell you how perfect this was! I used two of our frozen nettle pesto cubes from this spring as the sandwich spread and added a little ground finishing salt from The Meadow in Portland. The rest is basic. You could make your own basil pesto if you didn't get the chance to freeze the nettle earlier this year.
We also enjoyed a Corona and wedge of lime with a Cucumber Salad. I added two cucumbers, several Sungold and Yellow Pear tomatoes, Scio Feta Cheese from the wonderful Ancient Heritage Dairy, a little balsamic vinegar, spot of sugar and pepper... viola! We dipped harvest bread into olive oil, sat back in the shade and enjoyed our sunshine salad.

Finally, just before the hot weather set in, I whipped up something I'll call Sage Butter Noodles with Summer Squash and Kale. This one involved sauteed patty pan squash, kale, and shallots tossed with buckwheat soba noodles and pine nuts. This is all topped with a brown butter sage and feta dressing. The squash is just perfect in this...firm, fresh tasting and the sage/feta butter gives it a richness that's making my mouth water just writing about it. I'm a big butter fan, however, so...
The way I made the dressing is pretty simple. I threw 4-6 TBS butter in a small pan(serving four), added the finely chopped sage leaves and stir until the butter starts to brown. Then I quickly add finely crumbled feta for about 10 more seconds, just to allow some of the feta oil to blend with the butter. I spoon it over individual plates and top it off with a little fresh feta. Like I said, rich!

Food Rich and Grateful

2009-08-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

I may not be rolling in money these days, but I'm feeling grateful for the many meals I've made with the ingredients we've wild harvested, grown, traded for, and preserved over the last year. These meals have been possible through the work of many people I know a little and others I know well, and many living in the Portland area.

And, of course, they wouldn't be possible without folks like bees & pollinating wasps, healthy bacteria & fungi, bug eating frogs & birds, millipedes that munch the decaying fir needles, grasses & alfalfa that feed the elk and sheep, our beautiful chickens, the water that flows deep beneath my feet, and SO MANY other powerful and essential folks.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! It's times like these when I feel rich and thankful that we are able to share the abundance with others.

"The Sun is Trying to Kill Me"...

2009-07-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

...was printed on a tee shirt worn by Patrick of The IT Crowd, a British sitcom. It about sums up how I've felt the last couple days.

It's unbelievably hot here and like it or not, it's time to cook very little if you don't have air conditioning. So, here is a list of recipes our members may want to try this week using some of their weekly produce.

Potato Salad with Avacado Dressing sounds good...

If you're looking for a way to use up your purple/red cabbages, David's Mother, Peggy, tried this Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage with Plums yesterday. It was an easy, tasty, and attractive dish. The tangy bacon goodness reminded me of my grandmother's German Potato Salad.

Strawberry Sorbet
This recipe uses apple juice instead of sugar and doesn't require an ice cream mixer.

Potatoes and Kale! Yay!

2009-07-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

So it's going to be a hot week if everything goes the way they predict it will here in the Willamette Valley. I've decided to dig up a few recipes that will require as little cooking as possible, maybe a little grilling outside in the shade and breeze. Good luck and stay cool!

Baby Red Potatoes and Pesto Butter
This recipe includes our basil, parsley and red potatoes.

Mediterranean-style Potato Salad
It has a feta, mint and our new red potatoes...plus, only about 12 minutes of boiling.

Red Potato Skewers with Garlic and Mustard
I love mustard dressings!

Kale Recipes Galore!
So, someone out there has already done the hard work of trying kale recipes and listing their favorites on a special blog dedicated to their love of kale. The blog is called "I Love Kale". Check it out. It also connects you to all their favorite food blog sites, if you need more ideas.

Spicy African Kale with Yams
You could experiment by subbing our red potatoes in for the yams. This recipe might help you use up any of your extra purple cabbage.

Kale and Ricotta Salata
This recipe will use our delicious shallots!

CSA Recipes for Week 5

2009-07-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

This week will be a little weak in the recipe department for my CSA members. I have been traveling with my sister, Beth, since last week and am just getting my roots in the ground again here at the farm. She lives in Michigan and I only get to see her once a year these days. So, we try to live it up a little.

Below are a couple recipes I found that might suit some of our CSA member's taste this week. Have fun!

If you're a bacon lover, use our CSA's Benning's Green Tint Squash in this Stuffed Patty Pan Squash recipe. They're attractive and how could they not be good? They have bacon in them!

And because I know a few of you could use a new twist on an old favorite:
Double Dutch Mac and Cheese with C hard

And finally, something very easy and basic. It calls for swiss chard, but the rainbow will work just as well:
Sauteed Chard and Onions

Have a great week everyone!

A few more recipes...

2009-07-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Zucchini + cukes are coming on strong this week. Check out the zucchini recipes at epicurious.com. I may be trying the Summer Salmon Cakes and Fennel Slaw or the Grilled Zucchini Pasta with Pecorino Walnut Crumble this week.

I'd also like to share what Mary and Dean Warner, two of our CSA members, did with their beets a couple weeks ago. It sounds delicious! Beets are back this week.

"Last week I made a yummy fritatta with the chard, beet greens and onion sauteed in olive oil and garlic. I had some leftover whole wheat rolls and crumbled them into the pan too then sprinkled in some shredded swiss cheese and added about 4 eggs whisked up with about 1/2 cup of milk. After the eggs were cooked at the bottom of the pan I put it in the oven and broiled it for about another 7 minutes until the top was puffed up and the eggs cooked (I cook with cast iron so it goes into the oven without consequence). Ohhhhhh that fritatta was so good. Thanks for growing this beautiful food."

Thanks for doing such beautiful things with it, Mary!

Here are a few beet recipes I found that sounded good. One uses tarragon and chives, so I'll be including those in your boxes this week or in the free/trade bin at your pick up site. The recipes below include roasting your beets but if anyone has suggestions for raw beet recipes, please send them to me and I'll share them in the next newsletter! Also, if you want a good beet salad when you're out on the town sometime, try Pambiche's! It's a Cuban restaurant in NE Portland.

Charcoal Roasted Beets and Red Onions
Roasted Baby Beet and Carrot Salad(this is the one with Tarragon and Chives. Also, this calls for sherry vinegar but I wouldn't let that stop you if you don't have it!)
Simple Roasted Beets Recipe

Apollo Wonder?

2009-07-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

I've been itching to tell this story for several weeks.

Last month, I found this stunning butterfly floating legs up in a pail of water inside the greenhouse. A little sad, I scooped it up, showed it to David, took a couple pictures, and then set it on a piece of paper. I placed the paper on a table.

The next afternoon, I looked him up on the computer and concluded that he was probably an American Apollo Butterfly or Clodius Parnassian. I thought I'd better be sure by checking out the real thing on the table, but when I went to retrieve him, I found him MIA. I started looking under everything, assuming that a good wind probably blew him under a chair or into the corner .

A fluttering sound against the screen of our yurt window caught my attention, however, and that's when I saw it. An Apollo Butterfly, just like the one I pulled from the water! He let me scoop him up and carry him outside. When I opened my hands, he stood there for a minute or two, not licking salts from my hand, just standing and staring. During this time, I was tempted to go inside, grab the camera and snap a couple pictures. I knew I'd risk losing him to the captivity of the yurt, however, so I just sat in a chair on the porch and watched him. He eventually flew away.

That was a good day and I've never found the butterfly I scooped from the pale of water.

Land as Family

2009-06-29T17:15:00.001-07:00

I apologized out loud to one of my eggplants recently. I felt like I had handled him a little too roughly and he deserved an apology. Talking to plants is not an irregular occurrence around here by any stretch of the imagination, especially when I'm left alone in the garden for extended lengths of time. This time, however, it sparked a memory more than 20 years old.

During junior high, the neighbor kids and I worked on a melon farm about 2 miles from my house. Our town was known for its yearly Melon Festival and we all spent many summers planting, weeding and picking cantaloupe and watermelons. On one of these humid August days, I was in the field filling baskets when I stepped on a ripe cantaloupe. I automatically turned and apologized to it, then realized how silly I sounded. Farmer Knight's daughter thought it was endearing, but I thought it was just plain embarrassing. How silly to talk to a plant!

Even though I talked to animals of all kinds while growing up, spiders and bumblebees included, I never saw plants in the same way. It wasn't until I nursed an African Violet back to good health in college that I really began to see plants differently. It was the first time I ever felt affection for a plant, talked to it, encouraged it. When I moved to Portland, I left it with a good friend but I always looked forward to visiting it when I returned over the holidays.

These days, I feel more at ease talking to plants, encouraging them, feeling concern for them, and even singing to them on occasion. Although, I'm a little shy about the singing. I'm even learning to listen to them as they tell me what they need in their own plant-like ways. I may not hear them in the same way that I hear the coyotes howl in the ravines or the way David shares a story from the daily news, but when I'm paying attention I can sense what's up.

Early this spring, in a TrackersNW newsletter, founder Tony Deis asked people whether they lived like the land was a member of their family. I thought this was an interesting question because family relationships are so complex. Sometimes they are filled with unconditional love, compassion and support. Sometimes they're destructive, selfish and controlling. Often, they're a complicated mixture of all these qualities. Nevertheless, they are people deeply connected to us, made of the same air, water, minerals, flora and fauna until they return to the earth again and become countless bugs, fungi, raindrops and new people on this churning planet. Even if we choose or haven't been taught to acknowledge their affect on us, effects they have indeed.

Sometimes it takes years of searching, inside and out, to finally figure out the many ways we are affected by our families. If we're lucky, however, someone teaches us at an early age to listen, watch, and communicate without violence to the members of our family, finding ways to love and respect each member as a unique influence on the world. Hopefully, this love extends to ourselves as well.

I was asked recently, by a fellow PSU instructor, if I anthropomorphize the plants in my life. Feeling a bit put on the spot in front of students, I answered "yes, I suppose I do", and then spent some time thinking about it later. I came to this: I want to treat the land like family, which includes attempting to understand it and love it in my own simple human ways. Storytelling is a useful tool to help illuminate and develop this connection. But it's not just about telling stories or dropping simple metaphors. It's remembering that our bodies share the same earth, our ancestor's bodies shared the same earth, and that if I pay attention, they all have something to say. Summed up in academic terms, this may be called anthropomorphism. I'll call it familial love and respect. So I may botch things up with my family once in awhile, fail to listen, do something I wish I hadn't, but I'll always strive for more gentleness, more love, more understanding. And I'll go to bed knowing I've done my best to help all our descendants share the same earth one day.

Fennel and Carrot Slaw

2009-06-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

I found a recipe for Fennel and Carrot Slaw with olive dressing at www.epicurious.com, our favorite recipe website. It just seems like a delicious summer salad and includes a few items we'll be sending our CSA members this week: carrots, fennel and parsley. I'll be trying it on Tuesday night when we stay with the Cohens in Portland.

Also, our members will be receiving purple and green cabbage, green onions and carrots this week. These are all in one of my favorite salads called Super Slaw. It's a delicious asian-style salad with peanut sauce, ginger, peppers and cilantro. It gets rave reviews at gatherings!

Have fun trying these out!

Return of the Earthy Root Vegetable!

2009-06-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

We're so happy it's beet time again! The earthy-tasting, vibrantly colored root and its gorgeous top are supposedly chocked full of nutrition. But we just love the taste of them for salads, roasting and pickling, too! We pickled so many last year, we're still using them on salads.

I found a Health and Nutrition feature in the New York Times on beets. It includes info on vitamins and minerals, recipes and more. Check it out! There's a great recipe for Risotto with beet greens and roasted beet roots. We're going to try this one Tuesday night after we drop off our CSA member weekly shares! Other recipes include sauteed tops with garlic and olive oil, borscht, and more...

Eye on things to come...

2009-06-15T22:21:00.001-07:00

Pillow Spinning

2009-06-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

What? No salad spinner at home? Grab a clean pillow case, fill it with washed greens, take it outside and give it a good spin. I have a pillow case on reserve just for the occasion. I turn it inside out between spins and hang it up to dry. It gets a good wash about once a week. Low tech and fun for the whole family;)

The Love Salad

2009-06-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I wasn't much of a salad eater before I started farming. Then, one day I discovered that 1) fresh greens grown with care and attention taste significantly better than store bought; 2) that I can add just about anything I can dream up to make them more interesting(see Spring Salad Post); and 3) I love to make my own dressings.

Lately, David and I have been mixing our lettuces from the garden with all kinds of ingredients from the farmers market or grocery store. I've started calling them the Love Salads, because *&#%, I love them! We'll be providing some of the ingredients found below in our future CSA boxes. In the not too distant future, in fact.

What's in The Love Salad
Giving you exact proportions of the following ingredients would take some of the fun out of it, unless you hate experimenting. When it comes to the dressings, I'll give you some guidelines, the ingredient list and then encourage you to do the dip test(dipping your finger in to see if it works for you). If you're not into experimenting with this, I'm sure someone's written a recipe online somewhere you can try.

mixed greens, cabbage, snow peas, carrots, red onion or shallot tops, fennel, avocado, fat free feta, pine nuts or cashews, flax seed meal and orange vinegarette or honey-mustard-thyme dressing. And my new favorite addition, a friend egg, yolk still runny, over the top! This was an adventure for me last week after my friend, Heather recommended it. I never would have thought of it myself!

Orange Vinegarette Dressing
In a jam jar or cup, mix:
Zest of one orange...I'm careful not to grate the white, bitter part found underneath
Juice of the same orange...I like to use tangelos, blood oranges or valencia when available
Virgin Olive Oil
Vinegar...rice wine, pear-ginger infused or cider, although I imagine that balsamic could be good, too.
Salt, pepper
Tumeric if I'm feeling saucey

Toss it with the salad.

David's Honey Mustard and Thyme Dressing
Yellow or Brown Mustard
Honey
Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Sprig of Thyme...my suggestion is go easy on the thyme

June's Back!

2009-06-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

What a May we've had! I am not your usual sun-loving gardener, even though I have great appreciation for it. Twelve to thirteen hours a day of working in the sun, however, sort of changes your perspective on attire. I'm not going for the beach tan of my youth. Give me a long, breezy shirt and a larger than real sun hat and I'm happy. When the days are hot like these, breaks require laying around under the hickories or dips in the local swimming hole.

You may have caught my reference above to the 12-13 hour days we've been working lately. We've been in full gear and that leaves me very little time or energy for sitting down at the computer, hence my blogging negligence. Heck, I'm lucky if I can get my shoes off before climbing into bed. We've found our rhythm though and the bulk of our late spring planting and winter bed prep/planting should wrap up in the next two weeks.

I've put together a few pictures to show you what's happening around here:

mounded Yukon Gold potato bed;
cicada exoskeleton found on a pepper plant in the greenhouse;
at least once a week, one of our chickens lays a monstrous egg with a double yolk. As you can see, we can't even close the box it's so big!;
our leaf lettuce bed, aka the divas of the garden since they like to be shaded and misted in the hot weather(ah, what we do for sweet sweet salad greens);
David mulching around the pimento peppers in the greenhouse;
David with big smile(caught on camera! boy, I'm good!) planting tomatoes.

Keeping things moving...

2009-05-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a beautiful, busy spring and we've each been following our own rhythms as we move resources from place to place. We move crushed local clam shells and hay from our field to the chickens, then chicken hay to future beds, grass clippings nestle around the plants, mole mound soil to our greenhouse pots while more greenhouse pots come from friends, family and local nurseries. Resources just keep moving and we're trying to keep them as close to home as possible. We've reduced our imported compost and mulch by half this year and by next year we should be able to stop importing it all together. On a related note, I know we're coming close to the end of our rainy season, but I've been thinking about all the new surfaces we have available to collect rainwater. This is a system that I hope we'll be able to work on this summer or early fall. I look forward to watering our strawberries from the shower house rooftop and keeping the chickens watered from their house run-off. I love water...in fact, I'm sure it's possible to grow up in Michigan or the Northwest without loving water, but I suspect these people may be of reptilian lineage;)

Praise for Spring Showers

2009-05-04T16:16:00.001-07:00

We've appreciated the sunny, warm days that have come and gone so far this spring. The plants and our spirits perked up a little more as we soaked them in. The rain is back for awhile however, and has brought us a few gifts. Besides the beautiful rainbows over the Columbia and morels popping up in the front yard(which we included in our miso soup the other night), it seems to be keeping the pollens down. My allergy symptoms have been greatly reduced since Saturday. It also saves me the time I would usually take watering the beds, freeing me up to do other needed work that often gets neglected by higher priority, dry-day activities. So, welcome back showers! Thanks for visiting!

Spring Shots

2009-04-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

Time to pick(and weed) the asparagus.

Nice view of Mt. Hood this week.

Bed of Oregon Sugar Pod II peas.

Welcome Back!

2009-04-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

"...winter's come and gone
a little bird told me so."-Gillian Welch

It's been a little over a month now since the vultures started coming home to Fawnwood from their winter stay down south. For the last couple years we've had 11 residents who travel the air currents through the ravines, over the neighbor's clear cut, and often over the garden. Even if my nose is buried in a garden bed, I know when they pass overhead. Their massive bodies cast huge shadows on the ground. I can't help but look up.

Like many of the migrants, I miss them when they're gone and hail their return. Shouts and cheers erupt in the Spring as one of us announces the first birds that return after the long winter. This year, we were able to give the 3 returning vultures a real welcome home gift. Only a few days after their return, David, Terry and Tom shot an elk on Terry's family ranch. After processing everything we could, we placed the elk carcass below the barn in the ravine. It became a raven and vulture hang out for many days. I have to admit that I've never seen ravens act the way they did that week. They made so many different sounds, sometimes like eagles, while doing spiral dives and what looked like dancing or air acrobatics.

Sandhill cranes have also passed by in droves over the last couple weeks. They have the sweetest, oldest sound. I consider myself pretty lucky to hear them nearly every day between April and November here. This area of the Columbia River is a staging ground for them on their way to breeding spots in the north and south.

Finally, Violet Green Swallows or Tree Swallows(not sure which ones because they look almost identical when flying around) have returned this week. I've been faked out twice as little flocks have passed through on their way somewhere else. They are a huge presence here in the summer until the fields are hayed in July. They cruise by us at head or shoulder level, snatching bugs out of the air while we walk around the garden. They're stunning and I'm happy they're finally back! Plus they probably help keep the mosquito population down. Thank you!

I patiently await the return of the Goldfinches. They are good company in the garden and we like to grow the seedy flowers for them so they stay late into the fall.

Ah, the birds here are so many to mention. They do bring me happy moments every day.

Spring Salad

2009-04-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today, while preparing a winter bed, I dug up several overwintered daikon radish roots. They were huge, juicy and crisp, and inspired me to throw a little spring salad together. I grabbed a basket and headed into the closest ravine for wood violet leaves, flowers and miners lettuce. Next, it was back to the farm for dandelion greens, baby kale leaves and florettes, chives, and carrots(also found hiding under the soil in a winter bed). I added last year's spring pickled beets, a bit of feta, pine nuts and made an orange vinegarette. I have to say, not only did it taste like spring but looked like spring too! Yum!

Meet the Girls

2009-03-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

David and I can now put the title "Chicken Wrangler" on our resumes. We have been wrangling them every evening from the greenhouse to the hen house and back again in the mornings. It took an hour the first two nights but we've finally figured it out and tonight managed to move them in about 15 minutes. They are helping us prepare our greenhouse bed for peppers and eggplants while they wait for their run to be completed. They are loving the dry soil, dust baths and warmth they get during the day. As you can see, David enjoys the warmth inside the greenhouse, too. The resident cat Stubby, aka Crazy Eye, has been captivated by the girls but hasn't attacked them yet. Fingers crossed.

Although they all have names bestowed upon them by their previous stewards, we have been giving them nicknames that go with their personalities and behaviors. The two below are Queen Sentinel and Miss Social or, depending on the situation, Escape Artist. We'll introduce you to the 6 others in a future post.

Build it and they will come...

2009-03-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Chickens were not on the agenda for this year, that is until my friend Shauna called 3 weeks ago and said she needed a new home for her overcrowded city girls. So, thanks to the Spier Family, and especially Maya who probably misses them most, we have added 8 sweet hens to our Fawnwood Community.
I began planning the coop as soon as I hung up the phone. Although a mobile coop for pasturing the hens would've been the ideal, it had to be something we could put up quickly as this is a busy time for us here. I also looked at it as an opportunity to pick up some building skills since I'd wanted to learn how to use the power tools in the wood shop. Here was a chance to fool around, make mistakes and learn how to build something useful but not too overwhelming. The mantra, "hey, it's good enough for a chicken coop" was repeated many times throughout the last few weeks.

All in all I feel pretty good about it. Just don't look to closely at the details...um, toe nailing...not my strong point. But it's level(mostly), squared(sort of) and sturdy enough for a chicken coop! I have to thank David and Terry for teaching and helping in so many ways but being kind enough to step back, let me make mistakes and wait for me to ask for help. They're the best!

Broadfork: David's New Tool

2009-03-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

David's parents bought him a beautifully hand-forged broadfork from Red Pig Tools for his birthday this year. It's helping us move into our next stage of preparing beds without the use of a tiller. David was able to prep a no-till bed in half the time he usually is able to with a shovel. It's long tines are slightly spaded at the ends which helps dig into the soil when you stand on it. Then you rock backwards and it aerates the soil, breaking it up a bit, but with less disturbance to the delicate flora and fauna already well connected there. Two of the several things I dislike about tilling is the ways it breaks apart soil communities and injures or kills worms along its path. The broadfork is much more gentle, and you get the added benefits of leaving the soil layers in place and breaking up the hard pan created by earlier tractor tilling.

David did a lot of research before deciding to go with Red Pig Tools. We visited their shop in Boring, Oregon before making the final investment. It was well worth it and it feels good to know that if anything ever happens to it, we can take it to Bob and he can service it there in his shop. Thanks Bob and Rita!

Nettle Ravioli

2009-03-27T12:47:00.001-07:00

David has found wild food inspiration in a blog called Fat of the Land by Langdon Cook of Seattle WA. The following recipe was time-intensive but delicious and well worth the extra time it takes to make your own pasta. I think it would make a good 2nd course or side to a meat or protein dish. David changed a few things in the recipe, as he usually does. He omitted the egg in the filling, used black pepper instead of white, and didn't whip the 1/4 cup of cream cheese. Also, he used the pasta recipe found in our Herbfarm Cookbook. I'll include the pasta recipe below but direct you to Fat of the Land for the rest. It's an interesting site!

Fresh Egg Pasta
by Jerry Traunfeld's Herbfarm Cookbook

Makes 1 pound

2 c. unbleached bread flour
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
about 2 Tbs water
Rice flour for dusting

1. Dough. Pulse the flour,eggs, salt, and live oil together in a food processor until the mixtre looks like cornmeal. Add 2 TBS water and process briefly. Take small piece of the doug and squeeze it. If it stays together in a firm dough that feels like an earlobe, you've added enough water. If it barely comes together and seems crumbly, add another teaspoon of water. Continue to process the dough until it spins itself into a ball that bounces around the workbowl, about 1 minute. If it doesn't come together, add more water 1 tsp at a time. Wrap dough ball in plastic wrap Let rest or at least 15 minutes at room temp. ***We haven't done it this way but I'm sure you can do all this in a bowl with your hands, you know, old school.

2. Rolling. ** We don't have a pasta machine so I'll skip that part.** Divide the dough in half, keeping one half in plastic while rolling the other. Shape it into a rectangle roughly 5x4 inches,dust it lightly with bread flour and roll in all directions until it is about the thinness of a CD(everyone has one of these to compare). You'll need to dust a few more times as you roll.

3. Cutting. For ravioli, cut into strips of your desired width.

4. Filling. David put about 1 tsp filling every couple inches along the strip. See Langdon Cook's Fat of the Land Blog for filling recipe.

Greenhouse Ahoy!

2009-03-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the helping hands of The Cohens, Tom Prang, and our neighbor Ed Parshall, we were able to get our greenhouse up yesterday. We started erecting it a couple weekends ago, and waited until the windiest day to add the plastic. I'm not joking when I say that it felt like we were on a ship during a storm with all the shouting as we anchored the sail. When I heard Terry shout through the wind and pelting rain from across the greenhouse "Get the door!", I could have easily heard "Secure the bow!"

Thanks everyone! We're moving in over the next couple days. We'll start some of our seeds in pots on one side and the chickens will help us prepare the beds on the other side. Did I mention we're adopting chickens? Check back for more on that subject...

Nettle Feta Turnovers

2009-03-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

David whipped these up the other night. They were delicious! We're going to make them again soon, but instead of baking them right away, we'll freeze them raw on a baking tray. Then, we'll bag them and use throughout our busy planting season. Sometimes we just need something that doesn't take any thought or preparation during a long day of farming. I'm sure many of you reading this know what I mean, no matter what work you do!

I'm also going to try out a gluten free version using Bob's Red Mill GF Pizza Dough flour for some of my GF friends out there. I'll let you know how it goes.

Use:

2 large eggs
10 ounces steamed nettle tops
3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese (about 3 ounces)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint(use if you have it handy)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 10-ounce tube refrigerated pizza dough
or use your own favorite pie crust, which is what David did(see his recipe below)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease heavy large baking sheet. Steam nettles for 10 minutes. Whisk eggs in large bowl to blend. Transfer 1 TBS beaten eggs to small bowl and reserve for glaze. Mix nettle, cheese, mint, garlic and pepper into remaining eggs in the large bowl.

If you use pizza dough, unfold it on prepared baking sheet. Gently stretch dough to 11-inch square. Cut dough into 4 equal squares. If you use your own pie crust, separate into 6 balls of equal size. Roll them each into a circles of equal thickness. David's were about 3 millimeters thick, but he would make them a little thicker next time. Spoon nettle filling into center of dough squares or circles. When you've used it all, fold dough over filling to opposite corner or side of circle. Press dough edges together tightly with fork to seal. Using sharp knife, cut 3 small slits in top of each turnover to allow steam to escape. Brush tops of turnovers with reserved egg glaze.

Bake turnovers until filling is cooked through and tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

David's Pie Crust Recipe
1 stick unsalted butter, 1 1/2 c. flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 3-7 Tbs water

Cut the butter into flour and salt. I like to use my hands, but you can use a food processor or two knives. David likes to use his new food processor. Next, add 3 Tbs water. Mix and if it doesn't hold together, shaped into a nice ball, add more Tbs's of water slowly until it does. Let rest in the fridge for 10 minutes. Then it's ready to use.

Stinging Nettle

2009-03-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

How my relationship with Stinging Nettle has changed since the days I called it "Sting Weed" and ran off cursing it for giving me rashes as a kid growing up in Michigan. I ran through the fields of with an absolute disregard for their existence until, yeowch! The ones I grew up with in the Great Lakes were a little different variety than the ones I now step gingerly around in the forest, along trails and in my yard. They share the same characteristics, however, and are now a welcome presence for so many reasons.

Their lush green and purplish leaves have become a verdant symbol of Spring. I just want to reach out and pet them...and if you must know, I sometimes do. Clearly, there's a right and wrong way you can do this. You know when you've done it wrong.

Nettles are nutritious and medicinal. According to several sources(Schofield, 1989; Moore 1993; Brill 1994) they are packed with iron, calcium, vitamin C, D and B-complex, chlorophyll and trace minerals. They are also higher in protein than any other green vegetable found cultivated and at the market. It can be dried for tea, steamed, stewed, powdered, used as a diuretic or spring tonic, as well as for various ailments.

In the Fall when they are tall and fibrous, we can use them for cordage or leave them standing for the birds. The Juncos love to sit on the 4' to 6' tall stalks.

We've been harvesting Stinging Nettle, which grows wild around every corner here, for a little over a week now. So far, we've enjoyed it as a steamed side and in a cheesy-potato hash. David also makes a delicious nettle soup, homemade nettle pasta, and nettle lasagna. I'll be posting these recipes as we make them again this year, since we've prepared them from a healthy blend of memory and good fortune. Posts to look forward to!
Sources: Michael Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Pacific Northwest; "Wildman" Steve Brill, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants; Janice Schofield, Discovering Wild Plants