It’s strawberry season, which in my view officially kicks off the season of fresh fruit–finally! I have issues… with fruit. Up until now only a select few in my close circle have been aware of my…what should I call it: Fruit phobia? Fruit antithesis? Fruit nemesis???
Ron Swanson trying to eat a banana perfectly sums up how I feel about fruit. What is all this sticky crap???
The truth is, I have fruit trust issues. Too many times have I been burned by the tasteless, so-called “fruit” gleaming innocently in grocery store displays. Strawberries are a perfect example. At most times of the year, they taste like slightly moist pieces of cardboard. So now, I only like strawberries during 2 weeks of the year, when they are ready to pick from the garden and so juicy that you need to eat or preserve them immediately. Compromise I shall not!
After rhubarb, strawberries are the first really colorful fruit to splash on the gardening scene. Below are some of my favorite ways to eat (and preserve) strawberries.
Strawberry jam (duh) But what kind? Strawberry balsamic jam and strawberry orange are divine combinations.
Speaking of balsamic, this might sound surprising but it’s really good: Strawberry mozzarella salad with fresh basil or mint
Combined with vinegar and seltzer for a refreshing strawberry shrub
And if you can’t eat them right away, freeze them for smoothies, or slice and dry them for using in tea blends. You’ll thank yourself later when it’s winter and you are faced with nothing but grocery store cardboard strawberries!
Here I am with my boss and serious strawberry lover, Jean, picking the goods on a really hot day. Their brilliant red matches the flaming red of the temperature that day: 90+ degrees!
Strawberries are a New World fruit bred from a cross between the eastern North American Fragaria virginiana and the Chilean Fragaria chiloensis. Before breeding programs produced this modern hybrid, people ate wild strawberries such as the woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca).
Wild strawberries are extremely cute. Although the animals usually get to them first, they are worth seeking out solely because they are so adorable and eating one is like tasting the essence of strawberries.
A final question: Why are they called strawberries? Rumors abound: The berries look like they are studded with straw, they look like they are “strewn” on the ground, and so on. I will note that they do really well with a layer of straw spread under them as mulch. This gives the berries a nice bed to lay on and prevents rotting and nibbling bests.
Ephemeral: something that lasts for a very short time
Fresh: new or recently made, as being not spoiled or not preserved, or as being energized or not tired.
Spring is a time like no other. After the utter desperation of winter, we are starved for vibrant life and color. I have heard the season described as “holy” which I think is an apt description of the feeling (the … passion?) that comes over those of us who live in four-season climates when the first blooming flowers and bright green shoots emerge after so many dark months. And then, as if in the blink of an eye, it’s all gone and the days are sweltering.
A carpet of snowdrops (Galanthus spp.)
Aside from the reawakening that spring excites in us, there are some treats that this season offers which can be found at no other time of year, from tender green edible herbs and greens, to flowers that bloom for only a few days, to lawns carpeted in snowdrops and then squills within the span of a few weeks. Lawns you would have thought to be simply lawns can carry amazing latent beauty ready to spring up and die all within the span of a few weeks. In this post I highlight some ephemeral spring herbs and flowers and their preparations that you don’t want to miss – before they’re gone.
Squills (Scilla spp.)
Fresh Spring Herbs
Lovage
Most herbs taste best when they have only just emerged: the stems and leaves are young, tender, and fresh. Lovage is an early, classic spring herb that is not to be missed. Although it tastes fine later in the season, it is at its best early in the season with its delicate, slightly pinkish stems.
Lovage is a close and underrated cousin to celery, but much easier to grow and its a perennial. Why do I love perennials? In the context of a climate that basically shuts everything down for a significant portion of the year, perennials are great because they outlive that brutal cold and require far less work and maintenance.
Lovage has somewhat of a licorice or anise flavor compared to celery. I dry the leaves both alone and with salt to use just as I would celery leaves or celery salt. The stems have more of that anise flavor which makes an interesting addition, in small quantities, to soups and other green situations. It also makes a (surprisingly) good simple syrup whether for cocktails, teas, or lemonade.
I made a genius discovery recently which is that marmalade is basically concentrated lemonade.
Marmalade Lemonade
Ingredients: 1 half pint of marmalade Juice from 6 lemons and 4 oranges (honestly I made this up, you could use more or less or any combination of citrus juice you want, including store bought because hand squeezing sucks) 2 quarts water Optional: rosewater or orange blossom water Optional: 1 tbsp lovage syrup
Directions: Shake the marmalade up with the juice and water. A few drops of the rosewater or orange blossom water make it divine. Depending on the fineness of the marmalade you get, this will be pulpy. If you aren’t the pulpy sort, then don’t make this. If you are, make this and be sure to shake it up before you drink it.
Fresh Bitter Spring Greens
Radicchio
I have already proclaimed my love of greens in Eat Your Greens. In that post, I mentioned bitter greens in passing, but I think they deserve far more attention because they are healthy, diverse, and easy to grow or forage.
“Bitter” is a flavor that is not commonly represented in American food preferences. Bitter greens are popular in Europe and especially the Mediterranean, where it is common to see radicchio and chicories in grocery stores and market produce stands. One look at the “chicory” section of one of my favorite seed companies, Seeds From Italy, will blow your mind as to the diversity of this type of plant and how valued it is in this region of the world.
Italiko Rosso dandelion, a really nice dandelion you can grow yourself that will reseed every year.
If you see a field like this, it’s too late. The leaves will be too tough now as the plant concentrates its energy on reproducing seeds. You’ll have to wait another year! Womp womp.
Many bitter greens can be harvested in the wild or easily grown at home; some have gained in popularity and can be found in American grocery stores (namely chicory, radicchio, endive, and sometimes even dandelion greens). They often taste best when just emerging…. Wait one week too long and the stems and leaves become tougher and less palatable.
Mustard and chicory greens wilted with a hot bacon dressing based on this recipe
Every year, my amazing boss, friend, and Greece native, Jean Creighton, fulfills a springtime ritual: She descends upon her front suburban yard, lops off those pesky dandelion greens as her neighbors gaze on from their lawn mowers in disbelief, and cooks the fresh young leaves into what she has described to me as a decadent and illusory part of her springtime meals. According to Wikipedia, people in Greece cook up “at least 80 different kinds of greens … depending on the area and season, including black mustard, dandelion, wild sorrel, chicory, fennel, chard, kale, mallow, black nightshade, lamb’s quarters, wild leeks, hoary mustard, charlock, smooth sow thistle and even the fresh leaves of the caper plant.” Sounds fun and healthy to me.
Jean’s Greens
Directions: “Trim the root and wash the dandelions (ideally so that the stems remain intact). In a large pot put 1-2 inches of water at the bottom and bring the water to a boil (you don’t want them drowned but they do better in water than in just steam). Put dandelions in for 5-10 min. I check them in 5 minutes to see if they are tender. The earlier in the season the less time they need to cook. When I am happy with the doneness, I remove them from the water and add salt, lemon, and olive oil. Yum.”
Fresh Spring Tea
It’s a treat to pick young, newly emerged herbs and fresh flowers to make a nice piquant spring tea. Use it as an excuse to go flower and herb hunting as you begin to reawaken your senses after a long winter drought. Bring a jar, go for a walk in the woods, add your (edible) specimens, and fill with water. Spring in liquid form!
On your walk, you might find many options for your spring tea bouquet: catmint, wild bergamot, spring beauties, purple deadnettle, chickweed, strawberry or raspberry leaves, creeping Charlie, catnip, nettle, violets. These are just things that I am familiar with where I live. What about where you live?
Catnip
Violet syrup adds a pretty color and unique flavor to your tea.
Getting into my vibe in the desert mountain scrub of SoCal
I’m obsessed with peppers. Perhaps it’s because I spent my formative years in the southern California desert. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in southern California AND my favorite band was the Red Hot Chili Peppers (sorry, not sorry). Perhaps I have a lot of supertaster buds. Perhaps it was the tour of the Louisiana Tabasco Factory at an early age (imagine those cute little jars going by one by one)…
Whatever the reason for this peculiar passion, it has nothing to do with an urge to engage in capsaicin contests (capsaicin is the chemical compound in peppers that makes them HOT). What I really like about peppers goes much deeper than seeing how many Scoville units I can ingest. For one thing, peppers have a fascinating transformation story, developing from a wild South American plant eaten by birds into thousands of varieties that are now the backbone of cuisines around the world. Each one with a unique personality, and they all add spice to our meals in countless ways whether it’s salsa, pickles, chili, curry, and more.
From Bird Food to World Food: The Fascinating History of Peppers
Peppers began as small berries in Peru eaten by birds, who cannot taste hot stuff. Since the Columbian exchange wherein the Old World colonized the New World, peppers have spread worldwide to serve as cornerstones of major cuisines across Asia, Africa, and Europe. This happened to the extent that world cuisines prior to 1500 would be unrecognizable to us today. What would going to a “Thai” or “Italian” restaurant in 1490 have looked like without peppers (or tomatoes or any number of other New World crops)?
As they spread across the world, peppers transformed into the numerous varieties we know today. The most widespread pepper species is Capsicum annum, which includes the bell pepper and most other peppers found at the grocery store. However, there are actually five distinct cultivated species (plus many other wild species). Capsicum chinense, which includes the habanero, is one of these, and it has some of the hottest peppers in the world. The other three species are even less common and aren’t typically found in grocery stores: Capsicum frutescens, Capsicum baccatum, and Capsicum pubescens. Capsicum frutescens peppers, of which the famed Tabasco pepper is a member, tend to be smaller, resembling the original wild varieties. The ají (C. baccatum) and rocoto (C. pubescens) species are common to cuisines of Peru, Bolivia, and surrounding regions. The book Peppers of the Americas is an amazing resource for those interested in learning more.
Thousands of Unique Varieties
This brings me to the second thing I love about peppers, which is their diversity. Some are sweet, some hot, some big, some not. Although many peppers can be used interchangeably, there are important distinctions in heat and size. Scoville units measure the capsaicin content in peppers. The higher the Scoville rating, the hotter the pepper.
From Sweet…
Orange bell peppers
Paprika peppers
Sweet peppers have had the capsaicin bred out of them. Some are good for fresh eating (bell peppers), others for roasting (various red peppers, poblanos) or blistering (shishitos), and others as part of the base of a meal (banana, paprika peppers).
Shishito peppers
…To Hot…
Among hot peppers, the heat can quickly get out of hand. Milder hot peppers with low Scoville ratings, like hot wax and jalapeno peppers, add moderate heat and flavor to recipes.
As the Scoville units increase, we get red hots like cayenne, Thai, and many varieties that are popular across Asia.
Dragon cayenne peppers
Thai hot peppers
Gochujang Korean peppers
…To Very Hot!
Even hotter peppers often have a heat that kicks in gradually or cumulatively, like habanero. Hotter than this and you get peppers with names like death reaper, Trinidad scorpion…you get the picture. These tend to be common in African and Caribbean cuisines.
Habanero peppers
Lemondrop peppers
Chocolate ghost peppers
An important thing to consider is that the heat or capsaicin is highest in the seeds and inside membranes of the pepper (except for sweet peppers, which have none). So the heat levels of your dish will depend on the extent to which you remove the seeds and insides of the peppers.
How to Use Them
Admittedly, I put hot stuff on everything. But even if you are not a pepper person, you likely already experience them in ways you didn’t realize. Or, perhaps you could add more of them to your diet not just for flavor but for nutrition: Peppers, especially red ones, are high in Vitamin C and B6. Moreover, some studies have shown their ability to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. They are also one of the easiest plants to grow, perhaps because their hot capsaicinoids defend them against fungal pathogens. Another fun fact: The leaves are edible too, although bitter.
Where would Thai cuisine be without Thai curry paste?
Peppers form the base of many dishes around the world, whether as part of sofrito, paste, stew, or sauce. They also play a key role in many condiments, like salsa and hot sauce, and toppings, like dried spices and pickled peppers. Below are some of my favorite ways to use (and preserve) peppers, both sweet and hot.
Dry Them
The simplest thing to do with peppers is to dry them whole and store them in your cupboard. Add whole dried peppers to soups, stews, or beans for flavor, or grind them into powder to add as a seasoning alone or in combination with other spices. Make your own chili powder!
Cayenne peppers drying on my porch.
Dried cayenne peppers ground into seasoning with other spices.
You can also rehydrate the whole peppers in hot water and blend them into a sauce (think paprika for paprikash or poblano for mole sauce).
My other favorite use of dried peppers is hot salt. It’s perfect for situations where you want heat but not in the form of hot sauce (also see: pepper jelly). What do you do? You add hot salt.
Hot Salt Recipe
Ingredients: 1.5 cups sea salt 3 hot peppers, such as habanero (more or less, depending on your hotness preferences)
Directions: First: Make sure you’re wearing gloves. Hot peppers leave an oil on your fingers that will burn them and anything you touch (such as your eyeball…. ask me sometime about my extensive experience making this mistake). Combine the chopped, seeded peppers with the salt in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Spread that on a sheet pan in the oven on the lowest heat setting (mine is 175) for about an hour, checking every 20 mins to stir the salt around. Once the mixture is dried or almost dry you can turn off the heat and leave in the oven overnight to cool. Pulse everything again the food processor to a fine texture (or leave clumpy if you prefer). Add herbs, citrus zest, pepper, or whatever else comes to mind to your hot salt. You can also blend the mash left over from making hot sauce (see below) with salt. Waste not, want not!
Sauce ‘Em
Peppers are, of course, a key ingredient in various sauces from salsa to hot sauce and beyond. The great thing about salsa and hot sauce is that 1) you can easily make your own and 2) once you have the basic technique down, you can combine different peppers and other ingredients to make a hot sauce or salsa that suits your preferences.
Fire Salsa Verde from Tart and Sweet is one of my go-to salsa recipes. I like it because, unlike a lot of salsa recipes, it is made entirely with peppers whereas most other salsa recipes include tomatoes or tomatillos.
The same book also has another of my favorite recipes, carrot habanero hot sauce. The possibilities are endless!
It’s fun to experiment with different pepper types and other additions to get unique flavors. On the left is a Vietnamese hot sauce (tuong ot) recipe that tastes a lot like sriracha. On the right is a red hot sauce with more of a Cholula feel.Peppers can also be made into a chunkier, relish-like condiment. This is a southeast Asian pepper garlic sauce from the very awesome and comprehensive book, Joy of Pickling
Pickle ‘Em
Who doesn’t enjoy a pickled pepper? Pickled peppers can range from sweet (roasted red peppers) to hot (pickled hot banana rings).
Sweeten Them
Hot pepper jelly has become my secret weapon. Imagine a spicy honey. Add it to sandwiches or bagels or combine with cheese or charcuterie, crackers, and herbs for a real smorgasbord. Oh lord, I’m fancy and I will not apologize. Once you include pepper jelly in your life, you will be fancy too. Check out these 8 Ways to Use Pepper Jelly for more ideas.
Roast Them
Roasted sweet red peppers probably deserve an entire article on their own because of how versatile (and delicious) they are. They can be served as an appetizer, blended into soup, added to hummus or pizza sauce, combined with walnuts or eggplant in a dip, or made into any number of piquant condiments like red pepper paste, ketchup … the list goes on. And, of course, they can be stuffed with all sorts of goodies and roasted for a complete meal.
Beyond Food
Peppers are not just a culinary catalyst. The same chemical compound that gives them their spice, capsaicin, is also a pain-relieving topical analgesic. They are used in organic herbicide sprays and are the subject of numerous research studies. The New Mexico Chile Pepper Institute is a leading center for pepper research. Peppers are even being grown on the International Space Station! As one of the investigators of this project stated, “Growing colorful vegetables in space can have long-term benefits for physical and psychological health . . . growing plants and vegetables with colors and smells helps to improve astronauts’ well-being.” I would argue that peppers improve non-astronauts’ well-being too, which is the final and probably ultimate reason for why I love these prolific, colorful plants so much.
Wisconsin, where I’ve lived for nearly 20 years now, isn’t exactly pepper land. Nonetheless, I strive. In 2021, I started a Pepper CSA. I’m trying my best to spread the pepper gospel across the land of the mild, potato-loving Midwest, one pepper at a time!
Part of the Eat Your Greens series. See all the delicious ways you can eat your greens!
We’re supposed to eat our greens. As the Popeye tune goes, “I’m strong to the finich cause I eats me spinach!” I think greens are fascinating. They are universal: people worldwide use and appreciate greens in the various forms they take. Those in North America may be familiar with spinach, lettuce, mustard greens, or collard greens. But there are SO many more.
Wherever they are used, greens are often a symbol of nutrition and health. To some, that implication of “health” is precisely what turns them off—we’ve all heard of the person who refuses to eat anything green. If only they knew all of the delicious ways to enjoy greens! Not only are these some of the most nutritious plants, they are abundant, versatile, and used in endless though familiar ways across cuisines, whether in salads, soup, condiments, and more.
What are Greens?
Spinach
Lettuce
Spinach and Swiss chard
GREENS ARE: Green* leafy plants. Leaves from plants. That’s it. According to Wikipedia there are “nearly one thousand species of plants with edible leaves.” There is a clear distinction between raw greens and cooked greens. Raw greens are eaten in salads or as raw toppings for other dishes; cooked greens become fillings for pastries, ravioli, and so on; additions to stews or soups; or side dishes all on their own.
*I make exceptions for some greens that are technically not green, such as red lettuce, amaranth, radicchio, and so on.
Spring salad……
…..Winter salad
Greens appropriate for salads tend to be those that taste good raw, such as lettuce, spinach, baby greens, certain mustard greens, and fresh herbs like dill, parsley, and so on. But salads comprise a small portion of the many ways that greens are eaten worldwide.
Greens in the mustard family are a major category of greens. They are most commonly represented by collard greens or mustard greens, but it doesn’t stop there. The leaves of many popular mustard family vegetables are edible, such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, and gai lan or Chinese broccoli (ALL of which are the same species, Brassica oleracea). An interesting relative is Ethiopian kale, a recent addition to my garden. Asian cuisines use mustard family greens abundantly, including turnip leaves; napa or Chinese cabbage, bok choy or pac choi, tatsoi, mizuna, mibuna, and komatsuna to name some (all of which are the species Brassica rapa).
This dwarf ruffled kale survived the snow in my backyard.
Ethiopian or Amara kale is much more like mustard greens but grows on a stalk like other kale. It has a pleasant but not overpowering garlicky taste.
Bitter greens comprise another major greens category. They are most popular in Europe and particularly the Mediterranean, where people are familiar with all kinds of (often wild) greens. In Greece, “at least 80 different kinds of greens are used, depending on the area and season, including black mustard, dandelion, wild sorrel, chicory, fennel, chard, kale, mallow, black nightshade, lamb’s quarters, wild leeks, hoary mustard, charlock, smooth sow thistle and even the fresh leaves of the caper plant,” according to Wikipedia. In Italy and elsewhere, mixtures of boiled greens are used to stuff ravioli or added to frittatas and minestrone-style soups.
Clearly, “greens” are a worldwide phenomenon. Thus, it is no wonder that you can use greens interchangeably (as you can alliums, greens in their own right). However you define them, leafy greens are among the most nutritious things we can eat and are packed with nutrients. They are especially notable for their Vitamin K content, are high in protein (per calorie), fiber, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and manganese. In many cultures, green vegetables are prized for their nutritive content. Think of greens as the dressing, the color, the nutrients—the special guest to your meal.
Cooking Your Greens
Across cuisines, cooked greens make familiar appearances in lots of places, whether in soups, as sauces or pestos, or as fillings in tasty dumplings, pastries, pies, and so on. And it is often the case that you can substitute one for the other. You can make a green sauce or pesto that has practically any type of green you like.
Stinging nettle is a soup green that grows abundantly in many wild places. Nettle is famed for its medicinal uses but is a nutritious addition to many edible dishes as well.
Green Soup
Ingredients: 1 lb diced potatoes A few young lovage stalks (or 1 stalk of celery to substitute) Handful of chopped chives 1 lb greens such as stinging nettle, spinach, sorrel, or others ½ cup chopped onions, shallots, garlic 1/3 cup cream or half & half 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock 2 tbsp butter Few sprigs of dried thyme Juice from one lemon Salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Blanch the nettles to get the sting out. Blanch in boiling salted water for a minute and strain; let cool. Saute onions, shallots, garlic for a few minutes. Add in the chopped potatoes, stock, thyme and simmer until potatoes are soft (5-10 minutes). Add in chopped nettles and chopped lovage (stems only) and simmer a few more minutes. Blend everything to a smooth consistency; add in the lemon juice, cream and chopped lovage and chive leaves. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Mustard and chicory greens wilted with a hot bacon dressing
Stir-fried Ethiopian or Amara kale
Batter Greens
Greens are also chopped and folded into various batters and starches. For example, greens are added to egg dishes like omelets and frittatas or to starches like corn (greens cornbread), potatoes (colcannon, spinach patties, onion pancakes), and rice (spinach rice) not to mention green pasta.
Frittata with spinach
Fillings
Greens make a great filling for all manner of tasty, flaky, crispy, fatty pockets, whether they are dumplings, crusts (tarts, pies), or pockets (pasties). Perhaps it’s all just an excuse to eat delicious things in puff pastries with cheese. Anyhow, you might as well fill them with greens.
Pierogi with green filling made with Pierogi Dough Recipe #1
Condiments, Sauces, and Pestos
The real greens lovers cannot be sufficed with hiding their greens in a soup, filling, or batter. They want to pour the greenness all over their food, and they will have nothing less than green sauce. Look no further than the endless variety of green condiments, sauces, and pestos. Examples include green purees such as spinach or lamb’s quarters, spinach sabzi, green sauce, and various pestos like the tasty kale pesto or scallion pesto. Many greens can be made into a “pesto” aka blended green, nut, cheese, and oil. Marc Williams demonstrates this well with his pesto video: At its most basic level, pesto requires garlic (or other pungent alliums like wild onions or shallots), greens, nuts (think pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, walnuts), olive oil, and cheese.
Sorrel is an interesting, lemony green herb that is easy to grow with a variety of uses
Lemon Sorrel Cream Sauce
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped sorrel leaves (or spinach, chard, or other greens) 1 cup cream or half & half 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock 2 tbsp butter Juice from 1 lemon Salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Simmer cream and stock on low heat until reduced by half. Melt the butter and sauté chopped sorrel until wilted. Puree in food processor with cream-stock mixture. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Add to pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, or other starchy foods.
Have I convinced you of the Power of Greens? Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email!
Part of the Eat Your Greens series. See all the delicious ways you can eat your greens!
alliaceous
: resembling garlic or onion especially in smell or taste
For Wisconsin gardeners, spring is a tumultuous time of year full of excitement and dashed hopes. It’s also a time when little is growing, making the things that are growing take supernatural significance. In that sense, nothing proves their worth more than alliums.
Alliums are a group of plants you need to know. They include familiar favorites such as garlic, leeks, chives, onions, shallots, and scallions as well as less familiars such as walking onions, ramps, wild onions, and more. Most of them form bulbs that reproduce yearly, making them easy-to-grow perennials, and most have edible leaves and bulbs.
Garlic
Leek
French ‘Zebrune’ shallot
Alliums are interesting on several levels (see Garlic, Onions, and Other Alliums). Not only are they among the first things to eat in spring, but they are packed with beneficial nutrients when we need them most after a long, dark winter. Although my background in science generally prevents me from taking most “home remedies” at anything but face value, I swear by eating a few cloves of raw garlic when I feel a cold coming on. Garlic and Other Alliums is a fascinating book about all things allium including research on promising medicinal and dietary uses for this group of plants. In addition to cruciferous vegetables, alliums are likely to be the most effective of all the raw vegetables at cancer prevention (Eating on the Wild Side). What works for people works for plants as well: Allium oils and extracts are purportedly effective as natural pesticides, and planting alliums with other vegetables can repel pests.
I tend to think of alliums interchangeably, to some extent. Not only are there many similarities that make them easy to substitute for one another, they can actually be difficult to distinguish. This is because the boundaries between the species are often unclear even to scientists—who identify anywhere from 200-1,000 allium species. In any case, often some oniony-looking thing comes up in my garden and, though I’m not sure what it is exactly, I know I can use it in something that needs a kick.
That garlicky kick we love comes from the sulfurous chemical compounds which give alliums their alliaceous aroma and bite. The flavor varies according to the sulfate content of the soil they grow in; in the absence of ground sulfur, they lose their bite entirely.
How to Cook with Alliums
The bite of alliums makes them a natural seasoning for both raw and cooked dishes. They pair well with starches like pasta, bread, and potatoes and effectively cut through the fat of meat dishes. In my view, there’s nothing better than loading handfuls of chopped chives on some mashed potatoes or pasta; frying up onions, leeks, or shallots as a base for literally anything (or even eating them just on their own); or liberally sprinkling a dish with allium salt (see recipe below).
Chive blossoms
Allium leaves lend themselves best to raw or lightly cooked dishes—chives, scallions, and garlic or onion leaves can all be used interchangeably here. The bulbs—such as onion, garlic, and leek—can be cooked as part of stir fries, as the base of soups, or cooked in fat and eaten on their own.
Allium medley frittata. Chive leek garlic all of the above?! I can’t even remember! It doesn’t matter. Just eat alliums.
Interestingly, the sulfurous compounds that give alliums their bite behave in different ways. Chopping garlic intensifies the pungency, but chopped onions quickly lose their pungency. Moral of the story: Chop garlic first and let it sit for 5-10 minutes but use chopped onion (and leeks) immediately. If you are only using part of an onion, consider sautéing the remainder in oil or butter to better preserve its flavor rather than sticking the remaining bit of raw onion in the refrigerator.
Finally, preserve the seasoning yearlong with a dried allium salt!
Garlic leaf lemon salt
Allium Salt Recipe
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped allium leaves (e.g., garlic, chives, ramps) 1 cup coarse kosher salt 1 cup sea salt Zest from 4-5 lemons
Directions: Combine the chopped allium leaves with the salt and lemon zest on a baking pan. Place in the oven on the lowest heat setting (mine is 175) for about an hour, checking every 20 mins to stir the salt around. Once the leaves are dried or almost dry you can turn off the heat and leave in the oven overnight to cool. Pulse everything in a food processor to a fine texture (or leave clumpy if you prefer). Yields about 3 cups of salt.
Allium Relationships
For those who want to know more, here’s a quick breakdown of different allium species. Their relationships may surprise you; for example, elephant garlic—the big garlic often found at grocery stores—is more closely related to leek than to true garlic!
Common varieties
Leek, elephant garlic, pearl onion, kurrat or Egyptian leek (A. ampeloprasum)
Onion, shallot, scallion or green onions (A. cepa)
Garlic (A. sativum)
Chives (A. schoenoprasum)
Less common varieties
A. chinense (Chinese onion or rakkyo)
A. fistulosum (Welsh or Japanese bunching onion)
A. tuberosum (Chinese or garlic chives)
A. stipitatum (Persian shallot)
A x proliferum (tree or walking onion)
Tree or walking onion bulbil forming.
Tree or walking onions are among the easiest alliums to grow and can spread rapidly given the unique way they grow. They multiply via little bulbs or “offsets” that weigh down the stalk, drooping its leaves to touch the ground where the bulbils “walk” and grow into a new plant. These cute little bulbils can be eaten fresh or pickled.
Wild varieties
Ramps (A. tricoccum)
Wild onions of various species (for example, A. acuminatum, A. anceps, A. angulosum, A. canadense, A. cernuum, A. ramosum)
Ramps just growing wherever like they could care less.
Ramps with bulbs; this is before I learned that it is best to harvest ONLY the leaves so that the bulbs can multiply in subsequent years.
Ramps are among the easiest edible things to forage in the wild. They are quite strong and best used in small quantities, say in ramp salt or buttermilk ramp biscuits.
Indigenous people throughout North America have used different species of wild onions available in their location in ways that echo many of the uses described above, most commonly as a seasoning or spice to flavor foods. For example:
Raw leaves and flowers used as a garnish for salads, soups, and potatoes
Chopped and/or dried bulbs used to season dishes, soup, sauces
Leaves cooked into a relish or condiment
Cooked bulbs (often roasted in pits) pressed into cakes or cooked in fat
Bulbs pickled
Bulbs and leaves preserved in salt
Bulbs and leaves stir fried with meats and other vegetables
Alliums aren’t just good for eating: There are many, many ornamental varieties that add something special to gardens with their starbust shaped flowering heads.
It may not seem like much of a plant, but sorrel deserves a chance in any garden. This easy to grow perennial herb requires little maintenance and produces tasty leaves useful in cooking. You may be surprised to learn about the varied uses of this plant and its interesting relatives.
Quick Facts
Sorrel is a member of the Buckwheat (Polygonaceae) family, a relative of rhubarb in the Rumex genus, which consists of the docks and sorrels. You are perhaps familiar with Curly dock (Rumex crispus), a common roadside “weed” deadly to animals but edible by humans, who traditionally ground its seeds into flour, roasted seeds into a coffee-like drink, or used the leaves as a nutrition-packed spring herb much like other sorrels.
Common sorrel (Rumex acetosa)
Sorrel is easy to grow and propagate; its basal growth form is easily divided at the roots. It has no major insect or disease problems and can even be grown in containers. The leaves produce all season long, though it prefers shade. Cutting back in spring or when the flower stalk emerges stimulates growth, as does clipping the leaves regularly throughout the growing season. Many cultivated varieties are available.
Sorrel has the unusual trait of being dioecious, which means that male and female flowers grow on different plants. This trait is rare in flowering plants, only 10% of which are dioecious. The rest produce male and female flowers on the same plants.
Uses for Sorrel
Sorrel, which is pollinated by wind, is a fun, interesting flower for the garden.
Sorrel is among the many wild green herbs long harvested for food and medicine throughout history. The sour, lemony-tasting and nutritious leaves are used in cuisine applications spanning Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, often in combination with other greens. The acidic flavor comes from the presence of oxalic acid, which is toxic at high doses. This same high oxalic acid content is what makes rhubarb leaves toxic. Cooking or blanching sorrel leaves reduces the oxalic acid considerably. Mature leaves are best cooked, and young raw leaves are OK (in moderation) in salads or sandwiches.
Lemon Sorrel Cream Sauce
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped sorrel leaves (or spinach, chard, or other greens) 1 cup cream or half & half 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock 2 tbsp butter Juice from 1 lemon Salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Simmer cream and stock on low heat until reduced by half. Melt the butter and sauté chopped sorrel until wilted. Puree in food processor with cream-stock mixture. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Add to pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, or other starchy foods.
Sorrel has many applications: Herbal preparations, dyes, salads, soups (particularly sour soups), sauces, pastries, stuffed grain rolls akin to stuffed grape leaves. The leaves quickly lose freshness and should be used soon after harvesting – yet another reason to grow it in your garden, because you won’t find it at the grocery store. The roots have been used in folk medicine preparations; for example, “Drinking sorrel water flavored with a bit of honey was believed to bring down a fever and help clear sinus infections (Bello et al. 2019)” (Korpelainen & Pietiläinen, 2020, p. 240). Research studies have identified compounds within sorrel and related species with antioxidant and other biologically significant properties.
Sorrel Relatives
Other close relatives of common sorrel are worth mentioning:
Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella) usually considered a weed but the small leaves are edible
Red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus) considered more of an ornamental because the leaves are not considered tasty
Spinach dock or patience dock (Rumex patientia) has a good flavor similar to spinach
Spinach rhubarb (Rumex abyssinicus) leaves can substitute for spinach and ribs can be used like rhubarb; native to tropical Africa where it is used for medicines, as a wild potherb, and for dye
French sorrel (Rumex scutatus) used as a spinach substitute and in salads and soups; preferred by some over common sorrel
Red-veined sorrel in my garden. I have used the leaves in cooking and salads and thought the taste was good in moderation.
References
Korpelainen, H., & Pietiläinen, M. (2020). Sorrel (Rumex acetosa L.): Not only a weed but a promising vegetable and medicinal plant. The Botanical Review, 86, 234-246.
What is a community garden? Before we ask this question, we should ask: What is a community? I had no answer for this until my mother and I began renting plots at Alice’s Garden in Milwaukee’s Lindsey Heights neighborhood.
Alice’s Garden represents an intersection. Not only is it physically at the center of Milwaukee, broaching diverse and segregated neighborhoods, it is a social intersection where many different people enjoy a shared appreciation of life, food, and plants in a welcoming space.
Alice’s comprises over 2 acres of a city block that was originally the center of a thriving neighborhood before being razed in the 1950s to make way for the ParkEast freeway project, which was ultimately never built. The empty city block became a UW-County Extension community garden in 1972 and named Alice’s Garden following the passing of longtime urban community program advocate and Milwaukee County Extension Executive Director, Alice Meade-Taylor. In 2014, Venice Williams became Executive Director of Alice’s Garden. Much of what goes on at Alice’s Garden stems from the drive and passion of Venice, who, along with her husband, Demetrius Williams, builds on a legacy of community outreach and ministry.
Most Alice’s gardeners rent one or two plots to grow some produce and flowers for themselves. Others grow for market, such as Ning, a regular at the West Allis Farmer’s Market. My mom and I are often referred to as the “farmers” because of our many vegetable, herb, and flower plots.
My mom and I working on our garden plots.
Gardening is not new to many of the Alice’s gardeners nor the neighborhood residents. Many bring gardening and cooking expertise from a home that is not Milwaukee, whether it is the American South or a different country. Passersby of our fence-side plots offer stories of their home gardens or plants they grew in their youth. We have exchanged many plants with other gardeners. We don’t always share the same language, but we communicate through frantic gesturing at plants and smiles.
Alice’s Garden, however, is much more than rented garden plots: It is a meeting space for numerous groups and events. The Labyrinth, for example, invites visitors to walk a spiral path invoking solace and mental clarity. The Herbal Apprenticeship Program and youth entrepreneurship groups bring Milwaukeeans together to learn about agriculture, plant applications, teambuilding, and networking. At the height of summer, events are happening at Alice’s Garden practically every day (and often all day). These events range from book clubs, cooking demos, markets, potlucks, workshops, community discussions on topics such as racial healing, musical performances, yoga, and more.
Yoga in the garden. Credit: Alice’s Garden.
Alice’s Garden poses a compelling example of how gardens and gardening can bring people together in a shared space and promote not only gardening but so much more, such as cultural awareness. Many people who may not normally engage in gardening are exposed to it by participating in community events at Alice’s Garden.
What does it mean to participate in a community? Where people meet at the intersection of things that humans share in common: A love for plants, a love for food, an appreciation for beauty, and a dire need—clearer now more than ever—for togetherness?
