Daily Archive

An installment in an occasional series on local in-season foods, this post is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade and The Bare Cupboard carnival.

Strawberries
I love strawberries. I love them so much I can’t bear to cook with them! No matter how many of these beautiful red gems come in my CSA box, I eat them all raw, freshly washed and still warm from the sun. I love how they are red all the way through, not like the ones at the store that are white on the inside. I love the smell, the taste, the color. And even though I don’t like having orange hair, when someone calls me a Strawberry Blonde, I smile.

Strawberries grow well in containers, the alpine varieties make a terrific groundcover or garden edging because they don’t send out runners. It’s a sacrifice, but if you’ll pinch off the blooms in the first year after planting, you’ll have larger yields later. A strawberry plant generally can produce well for about five years. You might need to cover your berries with netting if you don’t want to share with the birds. After harvest, rinse the berries before removing their green caps. Don’t slice them until you are ready to serve them to preserve the most vitamin C. You’ll lose some vitamin C if you cook them, too. Don’t cook strawberries in aluminum or iron or your fruit and pot will both discolor.

Strawberries are loaded with antioxidants in their natural state to keep you feeling young and healthy. They also contain folate, a very important substance for pregnant moms and heart health. Ounce for ounce, strawberries have even more vitamin C than citrus fruits. Strawberries, when eaten with cured meats, reduce the reaction that turns nitrates into a carcinogen. So, put down that orange juice and eat a strawberry with that bacon! Strawberries are one of the 12 foods most likely to trigger food allergies, so if you tend toward allergies, take it slowly at first.

Kale
You gotta give kale props for being tough enough to grow in the cold. It’s a member of the cabbage family, so you know it can take abuse. It’s often the first green available in the spring and the last in the fall or winter. It’s a medicinal food with strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It also contains sulforaphane, a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties. During World War 2, it was a vegetable often seen in the victory garden, both because of its resistance to cold and its wide nutritional profile.

Kale contains measurable amounts of oxalates, so if you are on a diet to reduce kidney stones or gout, please check with your doctor. It is also goitrogenic (can interfere with thyroid function in susceptible individuals.) But for those of us who aren’t troubled by these problems, kale has a great quantity of plant-based calcium and the precursor to Vitamin A.

I gotta admit: kale is one of those veggies I never, ever ate before my CSA membership. I was concerned it would have that sulfur taste like broccoli and cabbage. Besides, it was leafy and green, qualities I hadn’t yet learned to appreciate. But now, kale is my friend. It goes in smoothies, soups and sandwiches like lettuce. Our favorite way to eat kale is as roasted kale chips. For the very best nutrition, use an animal fat to make all the pre-vitamin A available to your body!

Roasted Kale Chps

1-2 big bunches organic kale
1 tablespoon raw organic apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon melted pastured butter or non-hydrogenated lard
sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Fold the kale long ways so you can cut out the stem with one swipe of the knife. Wash, pat dry and chop or tear into “chip” sized pieces. Spread onto baking sheet. Shake together the apple cider vinegar, butter and salt and pour it onto kale. Toss to coat. Bake for 10 minutes or until crispy. You could also spread the chips out on a dehydrator tray for about 6 hours. Using a dehydrator preserves a little more of the enzymes available and doesn’t heat up the kitchen in summer!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted today by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Okay, maybe “family favorite” is going a little too far.

Originally uploaded by principitonuevecito

But the family really did enjoy having Steak Tartare tonight for dinner. Before we dug in, I read the section aloud from Nourishing Traditions that explains how raw meat can be eaten safely. Of course I wouldn’t even begin to try this without my trusted farmer’s grassfed and finished beef! While we ate, I also read the part about all the societies that have raw meat in their diet regularly and how odd it is that Americans don’t.

I served the tartare with boiled eggs and sweet pickles (instead of the traditional caviar) and we piled it on buttered sprouted crackers. We also enjoyed a vegetable soup and some healthy Apple Crisp for dessert. I have just enough tartare left over to make a tiny meatloaf for two sandwiches later this week.

I want to encourage you to add some raw meat to your diet this week. It doesn’t have to be frequent at first, but you might develop a taste for it. And by following the guidelines in NT, I’d eat a pound of my safe raw meat before a bite of fast food burger!

This post is part of the Simple and Nourishing blog carnival, hosted by The Nourishing Gourmet.

Some days cry out for simple food. In our house, we have two parents dealing with deadlines while trying to work at home, homeschool and keep a good-sized family running. We also have three teenagers and two pre-teens who always seem to be hungry. Everyone knows how to cook, but sometimes it can be frustrating to convince them to actually do it. Keeping some simple foods around (and written down) seems to keep the whole family moving smoothly through the day. Here’s a list of our favorites:

Breakfast – Buckwheat Crispies; a sprouted bagel or english muffin smeared with cream cheese and topped with smoked salmon; a poached, boiled or scrambled egg with toast; oatmeal (soaked overnight it cooks up in seconds so I try to always keep some soaking); a loaf of bread (cooked overnight in the bread machine); leftover pancakes from the freezer warmed in the toaster.

Lunch – Italian Sausage Sandwich (italian sausage, red bell pepper and onion cooked in a little red wine and served face-up on crusty bread); Meatball Subs (meatballs and marinara I’ve frozen from a previous meal, served on sub rolls topped with mozzarella); Apple Salad (chopped apple, grapes and celery mixed together with plain yogurt and a squeeze of orange or lemon juice); A leafy green salad with a dried fruit, a sprinkle of cheese, leftover chicken from stock-making, some crispy nuts and dressed with raspberry vinaigrette; Pasta dressed with garlic that’s been simmered but not browned in coconut oil; Sliced apples and sharp cheddar cheese broiled on top of sprouted wheat bagels with a dash of cinnamon; Fruit Soup (that’s a piece of torn-up bread in a bowl, topped by whatever fruit is fresh and in-season, then ice cold milk poured over all)

Snacks – Peanut butter cookies (a cup of creamy PB, 1/2 cup rapadura and 1 egg stirred together, rolled into balls, flattened slightly and baked for 8-10 mins at 350°); Quesadillas; leftovers; fruit; creme fraiche with fruit or stirred together with peanut butter; popcorn; cheese “crackers” (1/2 cup bulghur flour, 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar, 4T softened pastured butter, pinch cayenne rolled into 1″ balls, flattened and baked 350° for 15 mins.)

Dinner – Beefy Mac (ground beef, browned with onion and garlic, chopped tomatoes and cooked pasta); Roasted Chicken and Veggies (a couple chickens with onions, carrots and potatoes strewn around the meat on a rack); Cooked penne tossed with chopped tomatoes and steamed spinach; Pork chops simmered all day in the crockpot with apple juice; burgers and grilled veggies; uncured grassfed weiners chopped up into leftover beans; an instant skillet meal combining a meat leftover, a bean leftover, and a veggie leftover simmered in stock.