Ramp Report

I cooked the ramps I purchased at Madison's at Findlay Market for Sunday breakfast. I cleaned the ramps by snipping off the roots, rinsing them well in cold water and cutting them into two-inch sections, green leaves and all. I sautéed a couple of pieces of bacon until they were nice and crisp, then set them aside. Then I cooked the ramps in the bacon fat until they were tender, which took about seven minutes. I seasoned them with black pepper and crumbled the bacon into them, then served alongside scrambled eggs. The taste was somewhat like that of a garlicky green onion. They were delicious, but probably not eighteen dollars a pound delicious. I don't think I'll be buying them again unless it's at a proper ramp festival in the mountains, but I'd happily forage for them if I'm ever lucky enough to find them growing in the woods.

Grocery Project

I completed the first half of my grocery project on Monday. I photographed all the groceries I purchased during the month of March. I'm also going to photograph the groceries I buy in July, because that's when the farmer's market will be in full swing.

March is a little skewed because I was on vacation for almost a week and every meal while away was eaten in a restaurant. I didn't bother to include those meals in my total since when I'm not on vacation I only eat out once or twice a month at best. I spent a total of $230 on groceries for the month and I think that's somewhat under my average monthly bill, which I figure to be around $300.

This project was inspired by looking at these photos and I simply was curious to see how my purchases compared. I think my spending is on par with the average American's spending. I'm not a terribly frugal shopper when it comes to groceries though. I tend to buy what I want without worrying about price, I try to buy quality stuff and I don't use coupons. This is probably balanced out by not buying many "convenience" foods, which are often more expensive and less nutritious than whole foods.

So if you find yourself terribly bored, you can have a gander at what my groceries look like for one month. If you've done a similar project, I'd love to see it too!

Digging out

It took me twenty minutes just to clear the snow off of my car this morning. There was a good ten inches piled on the hood and the windshield, somewhat less on the rear window. Once I'd cleaned the car I drove over to Hyde Park, one of Cincinnati's tonier neighborhoods. There are always joggers in Hyde Park and today was no exception, snow and ice be damned. I saw a man jogging down the street holding what looked like a pizza box at first glance. When I got closer I realized he was jogging with a box of donuts from Busken Bakery.

The reason I drove to Hyde Park this morning was to meet a woman from Mohr's Animal Acres in Urbana, Ohio. They are regulars at the Hyde Park farmer's market and in the off season they've arranged a pre-order system and they meet their customers in a bank parking lot to drop off the orders. I picked up some lamb for my traditional Irish stew for St. Patrick's day and some smoked ham to put into bean soup.

So since I've set out on my quest for locally produced food during a Cincinnati winter I've found an untended honor system store, where you write down what you took and leave payment in a lock box, I've picked up pre-ordered winter greens from a porch in Wyoming and bought meat out of a parking lot. It seems so very clandestine for some reason and I'm having so much fun doing it. I'm really looking forward to visiting farms that will be selling peas, asparagus and strawberries this spring. Those goodies are generally in season well before the farmer's markets open, but I feel sure they'll be worth the extra effort.

Corn Mache

Lamb's lettuce
Originally uploaded by Berlinalex

I stopped by someone's porch today to pick up my order from the Wyoming Farmer's Market after hours party. I got a huge bag of corn mache and another huge bag of arugula - probably more than I can eat before it wilts. Corn Mache is a tender winter green, also known as Lamb's Lettuce or Corn Salad. It has been cultivated in Europe since the 16th century and it said to have a flavor reminiscent of mild hazelnuts.

I also ordered some indulgences from the market: a great smelling beeswax candle, an equally great smelling bay-lime handmade soap and thricely great smelling hand salve. Speaking of nicely scented extravagances, I had an email from Lush Cosmetics announcing a couple of special events at Kenwood Towne Center. Which alerted me to the fact that there is now a Lush Store in the Macy's here in Cincinnati. I'm not sure how I missed the fact that they were opening a branch here. They have lovely handmade cosmetics, mostly of the soap and shampoo varieties, but I've usually been too cheap to spend the money on shipping charges. Now I won't have to.

Thanks to Berlinalex for making this lovely photo publicly available.

Winter Greens and Bird Behavior

Today I found out that the Wyoming Farmer's Market has a few items available even in mid-winter. The market sells locally produced goods and food and they've arranged a pre-order and drop-off system for the off season. I ordered a beeswax candle, some soap and hand salve, as well as arugula and corn mache. I know I've had arugula in salads before, but I've never purchased it separately. I've never had corn mache to the best of my knowledge. I have a couple of days to learn about both of these greens before I bring them home.

Oh look, I found a lovely recipe for an arugula salad and I just happen to have most of the ingredients on hand. Perfect.

After placing my order for the farmer's market, I happened to witness some fascinating bird behavior, although I'm rather ashamed to say it was on America's Funniest Home Videos. I tried to find it on YouTube; no luck on the original but the following video shows the same actions. The Green Heron drops bits of bread in the water as bait to lure fish into striking range:



It's not the only bird that uses its brain to get at food. Crows have been witnessed placing hard-to-open nuts into roads; after the nuts are crushed by a passing car the crows help themselves to the freed nut meat. I've seen Grackles steal dry dog food from pet bowls and carry the nuggets to a bird bath, where they dunk them until they are soft enough for the bird to swallow. Bird brains indeed.

Ramps

Clean Ramps
Originally uploaded by dano272

There's a native American seasonal delicacy I've not had the pleasure of trying yet - ramps. Ramps are a member of the onion family and occur throughout much of the Appalachian Mountains. Their potency is legendary; one meal of ramps is supposed to linger for days, the odor emanating from the skin of the consumer. I'm willing to take that chance. There are many ramp festivals held in the spring across the Appalachians. It looks like the nearest one to Cincinnati is held in Richwood, West Virginia. The town hosts the Feast of the Ramson each April. I may not make it this year but it's now on my list of places to visit and things to do. In the meantime I'm going to keep an eye out for ramps on my hikes. A college professor of mine told me they do occur in Ohio, but they are scarce. I have a notion of a place to check next month; I'll have to study some photos to be sure I get the identification right. Although I imagine the smell will be a dead giveaway.

Fava Bean Love

So, it turns out I actually like fava beans, when they're prepared properly. It seems I somehow missed the fact that the beans have a tough, leathery skin that needs to be removed before eating. No wonder I didn't like them before. I'm amazed that more recipes for fava beans don't mention this rather crucial fact and I feel a bit of an idiot for not figuring it out for myself sooner. I only cottoned on after I read a thread on Chowhound regarding favas. By the way, Chowhound is an excellent resource for anyone with cooking and/or food questions. Now that they've fixed the thread search function you can get all sorts of useful information.

I soaked the beans overnight in plenty of water, then removed the skins. They came off quite easily after soaking. After that I followed this recipe for ful medames and the result was quite delicious, in my humble opinion.

Fava beans are Europe's only indigenous bean and have been cultivated since the Iron Age. In ancient Greece and Rome, fava beans were used in voting; a black bean represented a 'no' vote, with a white bean indicating a 'yes' vote. The 6th century B.C. Greek philosopher Pythagoras (he of the Pythagorean theorem) reviled the fava bean and forbade his followers from eating them. He thought that the beans contained the souls of the dead. His superstitious dread may have resulted from witnessing favism, which is a hereditary disease. Individuals who lack the gene for producing the enzyme G6PD (which assists in oxygenating red blood cells) risk severe illness and even death by kidney failure and hemolytic anemia after eating fava beans. The genetic susceptibility to death by fava bean is most concentrated in Mediterranean populations; the vast majority of people have nothing to worry about when eating fava beans. Which is fortunate, as they are quite tasty when handled correctly.

Photo from benketaro on Flickr

Look Before You Leap

Today I learned that that BASE, as in BASE jumping, stands for Bridge, Antennae, Span and Earth. I didn't know it was meant to be capitalized so I never noticed the acronym before. I just assumed "base" meant a stable platform, as opposed to an airplane, which of course it does.

Sadly, the reason I learned this is because this guy BASE jumped off the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. His jump was successful, but he'd evidently neglected to make sure he knew the way out of the canyon beforehand and died of exposure after getting lost. It just goes to show, having an exit strategy is a crucial part of any major plan.

Closer to home, we are under a winter storm advisory and it's actually snowing this time. I am mounting a defense; a hearty pot of kale and white bean ragout to stave off the chill.

Baby Broccoli

I brought home some vegetables labeled baby broccoli from Trader Joe's this week. Now, I've grown broccoli before and it never goes through a stage where it looks like this so-called baby broccoli, so I figured the name was a marketing ploy. It looks a lot like Chinese broccoli (gai lan) and I've always preferred the taste of that to our garden variety stuff; I thought it might be the same thing. As it turns out, baby broccoli is a hybrid cross of broccoli and Chinese kale. It is also sold under the names asparation and broccolini.

I steamed it for twelve minutes and served it along side some mahi-mahi with a miso sauce over both. It's really tasty and the entire stalk is edible, unlike regular broccoli, the stalk of which has to be peeled in order to render it edible.