Flower Power

This sixties' slogan, used to express passive resistance, perfectly describes the organic-garden flower. Flowers in these gardens are more than mere eye-candy. Companioned with other plants, they are part of a seemingly innocuous force working diligently to create a holistic environment.

For me, the most delightful things about certain flowers are their culinary prospects! Sweet or spicy, mild or bold flavoured, flowers add colourful zing and exotic flair to any plate. Just be certain the flowers come from a safe environment. Foraging is fine, but don't use plants found along a busy highway where exhaust fumes contaminate them, or city parks where chemical treatments are frequently applied. If you use pesticides or herbicides in the garden, then, for goodness sake, don't eat your daisies!

Some edible flowers have the brilliant ability to repel garden pests, too. Anise Hyssop keeps cabbage moths away, and its flowers add a delicate licorice flavour to dishes. Nasturtiums add vibrant colour and pepper to salads but, in the garden, aphids and squash bugs avoid them. Calendula or marigolds, poster-children for passive pest resistance, repel mosquitoes, moles, tomato horn worms and bean beetles, to name a few. Edible flowers beautify the garden while defending against most garden nibblers...all except the gardener who enjoys their spice and colour on the dinner plate.

Not all flowers are repellent to pests; some just taste good. Alliums lend a mild oniony-garlic flavour to the breakfast scramble. A salad gets a colourful pop and flavourful zing with a few violets or rose petals Edible flowers, whether mild, sweet, peppery, savoury or bitter, take an everyday dish and elevate it to the extraordinary. Some flowers, such as squash blossoms, will even stand up to cooking. Others, like hibiscus blooms, are best when brewed into teas. Many edible flowers are those of the edible herbs, including basil, chervil, cilantro, dill, fennel, mint, oregano, rosemary and sage. These herbal flowers, though tasting similar, are more delicately flavoured than the leaves or seeds.

The paradox of garden flowers is their ability to either attract or repel. Flowers like delphiniums or honeysuckle attract pollinators like hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. The poisonous delphinium should never be eaten, but the beautiful creatures they attract are necessary to any natural habitat. Those critters do little to control harmful pests, though. For that purpose there are flowers, such as those in the daisy family, which attract the innocuous ladybug, who then dines on destructive mites and aphids. Asters or black-eyed Susans attract lacewings which gobble aphids and caterpillars. Sunflowers attract insect eating birds. Sweet smelling peonies will attract predators of root-eaters such as grubs. So, by strategically placing certain flowers among vegetables and herbs, gardens can flourish without using pesticides.

The third quality of the flower power trifecta is their nutritional and medicinal properties. The effects of some flowers are subtle, while others can be very potent. For this reason, it's advisable to thoroughly research the flowers you plan to consume to better understand their active properties and applications. Some can be ingested while others are used only topically. Your research may prove surprising: Echinacea is commonly known to have medicinal properties, but did you know day lily tea is also therapeutic? It's surprising the number of common flowers and herbs – and some weeds, too – which have healing and/or soothing qualities. There are even flowers higher in anti-oxidant vitamins (like Vitamin C) than commonly eaten fruits and vegetables.

So liberate your flowers from their ornamental status. Put them to work in your garden and kitchen. Their passive resistance to pests of all stripes will at least reduce or at best eliminate the need for pesticides. Then, while enjoying their floral beauty, you can count your savings, dine on the fruits of their labour, and perhaps even attain healing. Now that's flower power!

Wild Thing, I Think I Love You

Foraging is seasonal eating at its most primal. It's also a gastronomic dividend for hiking the wilderness. Not only can foraging provide fresh foods at their peak, those foods (if sold commercially), sell for premium prices. Fine dining restaurants pay top dollar for morel mushrooms, fresh brook trout, tender ramps, or wild strawberries. So, for the eager forager, a day's hike and exploration can yield culinary gold.

Fishing and/or hunting provide one of the costliest items for many grocery budgets: meat for the table (or freezer.) Licensing and fuel costs can be off-set by the successful enthusiast who brings home a catch of fish, a brace of fowl, or fresh game. But, these activities aren't for everyone.

For those who don't hunt, nor enjoy flaying the water for fish, there are other foods to forage which don't require a gun, rod or license. Wild vegetables like onions, leeks (ramps), dandelions (roots, greens and flowers,) pigweed (also known as Lamb's Quarters), fiddlehead ferns, horseradish and skunk cabbage are all exotic ingredients which bring powerful flavour profiles to the larder. Various berries and nuts grow in different regions, and are available from spring through fall. Mushrooms, too, have a range of seasons and locales, though you'll want to use extreme caution when picking the wild varieties. Know exactly which mushrooms you're picking – if you don't, they're not worth the poisoning risk. Spruce buds, rose-hips, and other herbage and flowers, fresh or dried, can be used in tasty and nutritious teas and tisanes, or as cooking ingredients. Some have medicinal properties so you'll want to carefully research your foraged foods to be sure of their effects. Wild honey and honeycomb are rare and golden treasures, but only for adventurous scavengers who don't suffer anaphylaxis.

Most local governments (provincial, state, and regional) offer informational web-sites on native foods, where they can be legally gathered, how to properly identify them, when they are in season, and what their ideal environs are. Here's a web-site I stumbled upon (Herbal Odyssey) which offers several books by Jim Meuninck on foraging and other related topics, and provides links to comprehensive information on a wide variety of edible plants. Once the research is done, you can mark your calendar with the various scavenging opportunities you've discovered for your area.

So, if you enjoy the wilderness, enjoy getting out into the back country for a hike, try foraging during your next outdoor adventure. Not every scavenging hunt will meet with success, but when you do find forage, you'll bring home some very exclusive culinary delights for your pantry.

Marinade Magic

Whether you are vegetarian or a meat-eater, marinades are one of the easiest and cheapest ways to enhance foods. These magical liquids not only impart flavour, they frequently reduce cooking times, and can also tenderize tougher cuts of meat.

Acid and oil are the basic ingredients, the yin and yang of most marinades, carefully balanced depending on the food and the purpose for its curing. Acid is not entirely accurate. Sometimes alcohol is used as the chemical component of the marinade but its cooking and tissue-softening effects are similar.

1. The acid used most frequently is some form of acetic acid: white, red wine, rice, or balsamic vinegars; or, highly acidic fruits such as lemons, limes, and some tomatoes. Beers and ales, dry wines like sherry, and grain alcohols like Saki or bourbon work best in marinades for tougher, more robust-flavoured meat proteins. The alcohol will cook off, but its tenderizing effect and aromatic flavours remain.
   
2. The oils can be anything from common corn or canola oils to specialty nut and olive oils. Herb-flavoured oils have delicate flavour profiles and are better suited to light-flavoured contrasts with vegetables, low-fat seafood or pale meats. Butter, though rarely used, should be clarified.
   

Generally, vegetables are marinated to impart flavour before grilling or braising and, because they contain no natural fat, their marinades often include a more generous ratio of oil to acid and marination will be brief (15-30 minutes.) Recipes intended to chemically-cook vegetables (e.g. sauerkraut) generally use marinades with a higher acid to oil ratio and require a longer marination – 24 hours, at least.

Seafood proteins which are low in fat – like cod, trout, or sole – will require marinades with more oil than acid and, because the delicate tissue is quickly affected by the acid, a short marination time (15-30 minutes) is best. Shell fish and other higher fat content seafood can handle a more acidic marinade but even these tougher fish proteins will breakdown and become unpalatably mushy if marinated too long.

Animal proteins are the costliest portion of many grocery budgets. Of the few ways to control this expenditure, one is to choose a tougher, so-called "lesser" cut of meat and treat it with a little marinade magic. Prime cuts might cook faster and without the aid of marinade, but there's a prime price to pay at the check-out for their convenience. Utility grades, however, can be transformed into melt-in-your-mouth good if allowed some quality time in a flavourful infusion. Beef and pork generally require longer marination – anywhere from 6 to 48 hours – but the savings will merely be the bonus to a very tender and tasty meal.

Marinades, themselves, cost very little to make. Depending on the type and quality of ingredients you choose, they can cost mere pennies to an extravagant few dollars. With a few culturally specific ingredients marinades can turn an ordinary meal into international cuisine: olive oil with red wine vinegar, garlic and oregano adds an Italian flare, while peanut oil with Saki, soy sauce, ginger and garlic brings flavours of the Orient.

Most marinades can be cooked after the soak is completed, to become a complimentary sauce for the meal. If the marinade is used on raw meat proteins it must be brought to a boil and cooked a few minutes to ensure safe eating. So, if time constraints prevent this cautionary step, simply set aside some of the untainted marinade for later use as a dipping sauce. If reducing your concoctions, be aware that concentrating the sauce will intensify flavours, including salt, so use high-sodium ingredients, like soy sauce, sparingly. If saltiness might be an issue, you can thicken the marinade with a little corn starch instead of reducing the sauce.

Whatever you're cooking, be it a vegetable medley or flank steak, marinades add a gourmet touch. Apply their magic and your grocery budget will gain value, too!

Recall

It's been two months since the initial recalls of foods containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) were issued in Canada and the United States. During that time I've received several updates (via subscription) from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Their list of contaminated products grows with each bulletin. HVP is used in prepared foods as a flavour enhancer, so most of the affected foods are ready-made products such as soups, dips, sauces, dressings, snacks, and seasoning blends. For many households, the recall resulted in the loss of hundreds of dollars of groceries. Our damages totalled $3.69 – a seldom used taco seasoning which wasn't listed for recall but, because it caused symptoms of salmonella poisoning, was tossed just to be safe.

Simply because we don't buy ready-made foods anymore, our pantry was spared a great purge. Soups, stews, sauces, and gravies are made from scratch using home-made stock. We blend our own spices and rarely eat processed meats. We've sworn off most snack foods and prefer the recipes we've gathered for making dips and dressings. With complete certainty, we feel our home-cooking lifestyle is the reason our larder was scarcely touched by one of the biggest food recalls in history.

It began small but we've expanded our home-cooking repertoire over the last ten years. While I've always baked cakes, cookies and some bread from scratch, we once used "convenience" foods frequently. Having (literally) bought in to advertising hype, we thought they were "time-savers." It was my sensitivity to high sodium content that first spurred a change in our food purchases. Next, hubby's growing intolerance to lecithin (a common stabilizer in most bread and broad range of other prepared foods) became cause for concern and a few more items were dropped from our shopping list. Then "middle-aged spread" demanded we examine the sources and types of fats we were consuming, and that analysis led to another change in buying and cooking habits. Each modification resulted in fewer processed and ready-made food purchases. Surprisingly, the difference in our overall cooking time amounted to just a few minutes more. However, the return on our investment turned out to be a huge boost in flavours.

One completely unexpected result of eliminating our consumption of processed foods has been our increasing repulsion of them. This distaste grew in direct proportion to the number of prepared foods struck from our diet. Products we once enjoyed, that smelled fine and tasted good, now smell and taste awful, their odours and flavours repelling rather than attracting. For that reason, eating out has become a challenge, too. Smells wafting from fast food diners make us grimace and it's getting harder and harder to find family-style restaurants that use real, fresh ingredients. Fine dining establishments are one of the few places using good quality ingredients but, since their pricing keeps them on our "treat" list, we rarely eat out. Instead, we're learning to prepare gourmet dishes ourselves. The plates aren't styled as beautifully, but we eat fabulously and for much less cost.

Without getting into the nasty detail of age, I'll just say I was raised in a time when home-cooking was the usual way meals and snacks were prepared. Sure, my mother kept a boxed cake mix on hand just in case unexpected guests dropped in but, mainly, she made meals from scratch. Most mothers did. What really concerns me is that manufactured food is now becoming the norm. Home-cooking is the exception, not the rule. According to cooking shows I watch, fresh produce is unidentifiable by many children today. This can't be good for society as a whole. It seems corporate interests have overpowered government controls and the result is diminishing regulation of the food industry. And, "industry" is an apt description for the chemical concoctions on offer.

Is this recall merely a harbinger of worse to come? Is home-cooking in danger of extinction? Is the slow-food revolution merely a flash in the pan? Sorry for that pun but I truly fear a time when meals may come in pill form. Yum.

Seven Ways to Stretch Shopping Budgets

We've heard rumours of economic recovery. No matter how eagerly this tale is propagated by merchants and politicians, in our household, it remains an urban legend. It may well be our "recovery" is happening slower than most, but we're still carefully monitoring spending and keeping all variable expenses to a minimum. On the front line of our tactical plan are a few shopping strategies. It's ironic that savings are most often realized when spending. Here's our list of seven ways to stretch the budget:

1. First on the list are lists: lists for groceries, lists for household items, and lists of stores and other tasks. It may sound obvious, but shopping without lists often leads to important items forgotten and/or unnecessary purchases, neither of which respects valuable time nor budgets. We buy some groceries from a chain-store grocer (one that offers "club shopper" savings and air miles,) and bulk groceries from a wholesaler. We also frequent our favourite Green Grocer and Butcher. Each vendor provides a specific quality or quantity of product we prefer. So, we keep separate lists for each store, and will often list the same food item on two or more lists if we intend to shop for best price or a particular quality. By listing the stores and tasks, shopping can be done in the most efficient manner with regard to routes taken and time spent in each store. For people like me, who rank shopping alongside root-canals, there's high merit in planning the day ahead. Or, if you live rurally, as we do, and must travel considerable distances to do your shopping, having comprehensive lists will help save money, time, and fuel.
   
   
2. A day or two before you intend to shop, peruse your collection of coupons for relevant savings. Coupons are a great way to save on products you normally use. I stress that because using coupons for products you don't like often ends in wasted product, and there are no savings in waste. Coupons are, however, a good way to test a new product or one you're unfamiliar with: if you find you don't like the product, at least you haven't paid full price for it. I use an accordion file to sort all coupons, and a coupon wallet to carry with us on shopping excursions. When it's time to shop, I sort through the coupons in the accordion filer for products which correspond to the lists I've created, making sure to use coupons with the closest expiry date, first. Some shopping trips, we have no relevant coupons. Other trips we'll have a handful. Savings may seem small at the till, but they add up over the year -- I estimate we save, on average, about 1-2% solely through tendering coupons. That adds up to savings of between $35 and $150, depending on the year and coupons we receive. Those savings have helped us buy a few "extras." In the past, grocery stores used to have coupon bins – a place where customers could share coupons they won't use and pick up another person's surplus vouchers. This option, if it's available to you, is a terrific way to get the products you need, without discarding coupons which could be of value to others.
   
   
3. Check store flyers. The weekly deluge we receive is sorted at the post office, where most are sent directly to recycling. The only flyers we bring home are for stores where we regularly shop – running from store to store for a few cents off on certain products costs more in fuel than any potential savings. A day or two before shopping, we compare the current week's flyer to our shopping list. If there are sales on items we commonly use and we have room to store (or freeze,) we buy it in bulk if the sale price is persuasive enough. This process may result in scratching off an item from one list and adding it to another, but the time you save while shopping will make the messy lists worthwhile.
   
   
4. On shopping day, check stock in the refrigerator, cupboards, storage, and freezer. Add to (or deduct from) the lists as needed. I do a rough calculation of costs and, if that sum is greater than our budget, I'll put a single line through the items that can be "bumped" to the next shopping list.
   
   
5. Eat just prior to shopping. A full stomach will make it much easier to resist impulse purchases of junk and convenience foods which are all too conveniently stacked on bunk ends and surrounding each check-out. If you're shopping for clothes, being full will ensure the fitting makes allowance for that larger state.
   
   
6. Shop with a calculator. It's surprising how quickly prices add up. By keeping a running tally on a calculator, it's much easier to stay on budget. Often times, we spend less than my (purposefully high) rough estimate and can afford some items that were crossed from the list for budgetary reasons. Occasionally, in-store offers (for which my estimate did not account,) will allow a "scratched off" item to be purchased – this is the reason I cross off things with a single line; it keeps them legible.
   
   
7. Watch for in-store specials, club savings, and member-only offers. These are often the most lucrative offers but, while they seem alluring, they might not always save you money. If you have an over-abundance of product or the inability to safely or properly store the item, then "savings" are reduced or nullified. Check the featured items against your lists – some may actually coincide with your current needs and/or budget. There are offers which will require a greater amount spent than your budget allows or excess product bought to achieve the savings. You'll need to decide whether the budget deficit or storing more product make the savings, reward, or rebate worth redeeming. Clubs are a great way to save, but some cost to join. These clubs often pay percentile rebates on your purchases and, depending on your shopping habits and store preferences, savings from this sort of club could well pay for the cost of membership. Some memberships, however, may cost more than the savings you'll achieve, particularly if you don't shop there frequently. Those choices will require your own calculations. The wholesaler we frequent sends us a yearly rebate on our purchases which nearly covers our cost of membership. We aren't losing, though, because during the year we realize significant savings by purchasing certain foods and household products in bulk. Those savings more than make up for the deficit between our rebate cheque and the cost of renewing membership.
   

While it's not always feasible, aligning shopping around your favourite stores' restocking schedules has benefits, too. We like to shop on Tuesdays, whenever possible, because that's when two of our grocers get their fresh produce. Fridays are their best day for fresh baked goods. Different stores have different schedules, so check with department managers in your favourite stores. Most will be happy to tell you when they have fresh product available.

I've heard people say they don't have time for all this. They can't be bothered with all the preparations and calculations. It's true this system takes a little more time and energy, but we consider it time well-spent. Like many others, we work hard to earn a living; it only seems fitting to put reciprocal effort into spending that money wisely.

Do you have a shopping strategy or tip you'd care to pass along? Please leave a comment, sharing your idea(s).

Re-Barring Soap

I can't help myself. If an item has potential for reuse or recycling, I save it. It's an old habit – very little was ever wasted in my mother's home! I'm not in need of a hoarding intervention, though. Whatever I save is (usually) used promptly, sent to recycling, or discarded if some viable purpose can't be found.

Bar-soap slivers are one example of items which don't get used promptly, but their container takes up very little space under the sink and, when it's full – which takes a few months – I make a new bar right away. I developed the process because I was unable to find instructions elsewhere.

There's information on how to make your own gel soap. The problem is, the gel soap was so gooey the pump got bunged up. When I added more water to prevent that, the gel wouldn't suds up enough.

I found another handy hint which suggests using those leftover soap slivers in an old stocking, then hanging that from an outdoor tap, or using it as a home-made soap-on-a-rope when camping. I'd never use the outdoor tap to wash my arthritic hands – the cold water wash would be excruciating! And, since we haven't gone camping in a few years, this idea has no practical purpose for us.

With a little experimentation, though, I came up with is a very simple process to make Re-Barred Soap. If you'd like to make your own, here's what you'll need:

• Leftover bar-soap remnants
• Tin can, clean and dried, with rough edges pressed down.
  
• Narrow pot with high sides
• Box grater
  
• Glycerine
  
• Stir stick
  
• Glass dish to "form" the bar

First, shave the soap chunks with the grater, the finer the better. Put these shavings in the tin can, and place the can in the pot. Add water into the pot to the same level as the soap inside the can. Careful, though. The can may float and tip over if too much water is used – that's why a narrow, tall-sided pot works best. Bring the water to a high simmer. Add a teaspoon of glycerine to the soap shavings. More may be needed, depending on the amount of soap you're melting, but I add only as needed, and in very small increments. The glycerine helps the soap liquefy and adds a skin-softening attribute to the Re-Barred Soap. Too much, however, and the bar won't set. I use a long, trussing skewer to stir the soap. The trussing end makes a perfect mini-whisk and stirring helps ensure all the soap pieces melt. When the soap is melted, coat your glass "form" with a generous dab of glycerine – this will facilitate the removal of the bar, once it has set. Pour the liquefied soap into the form and smooth the surface as much as possible with a glycerine-coated spatula. Let cool. The bar, once completely set, should pop out of the form quite easily. If it doesn't, simply put the form in a dish of hot water for a minute or two until the heat affects its release. The soap may look a little glossier than usual, but that's merely the glycerine which coated the form.

For the purposes of this blog, I made a batch of Re-Bar Soap but, instead of using the simple round dish I usually use, I tried a leaf-shaped dish instead. I thought it might produce a nicer looking bar. It didn't. In fact, the bar was more difficult to remove from the form because of the unusual shape. Next time, I'll keep it simple and use the round dish.

Collared Greens

No, that's not a misspelling. This blog isn't about that leafy green staple of southern cuisine. Not specifically anyway. Today, I'm talking about a simple – and biodegradable – means of defence for bedding plants.

As the growing season begins in our new neighbourhood, hubby and I are thinking of little else but this year's garden. We're both keen on natural gardening techniques, anything which helps us achieve a pest- and disease-resistant garden without the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides. We've bought gardening magazines to supplement our book collection, and are researching these and online sources for new seed varieties and planting techniques.

While we make plans, impatiently waiting for warmer weather, some preparations begin. One, given our gardening zone, is to start certain plants indoors. Many long growing season plants (like most of the cabbage family) benefit from a head start. To save a little money, we grow our own bedding plants downstairs. Our other preparation is to save toilet paper rolls. They'll be the first line of defence for those bedding plants.

Seedlings face many dangers. Eventually they must be transitioned outdoors and, if the shock of the transplant isn't enough to wither them, they'll endure changes of temperature, humidity, sunlight and wind. Then there are pests, like cutworms, who are eager to nibble those succulent sprouts. Cutworms are responsible for the destruction of a variety of seedlings and are the bane of many gardeners (Ontario Govt factsheet on Cutworms).

Years ago, we found a simple and effective safeguard. Those aforementioned toilet paper rolls. For weeks now we've been saving those little tubes, much as I once saved newspapers for a larger garden. Toilet paper rolls make perfect little biodegradable protectors against cutworms and, conveniently, they blunt the effects of wind and cool over-night temperatures seedlings face when first transplanted.

Here's how to use the tubes. When it comes time to plant your seedlings into the garden:

• Remove bedding plant from its germinating container
  
• Carefully feed the sprout, top first, into a tube
  
• GENTLY feed leaves out the top as you push the soil ball from the bottom until the top of the root mass is mid-way through the paper roll.
  
• Plant tube upright, buried halfway at the soil line. The roots will have some protection from underground pests, and the sprouting vegetation is surrounded by a short wall that deters cutworms.
  

Or, if you've seeded the garden directly, you can also insert toilet paper rolls into the (loosely-packed) soil around small plants. Wait until the first thinning and then insert tubes around the remaining, heartier plants.

These collars may look a little funny for the first couple weeks, but soon foliage obscures them. Once the plants have grown robust, with strong stems and roots, the tubes are dissolving into the soil. By this time, the worst threats are diminishing.

So, you may just want to collar your collard greens, or any other vulnerable vegetables you plant. Start saving those paper tubes now. It's one way to defend your precious seedlings, give them a fighting chance to grow up and become the healthy crops you envision.

Do you have any home-spun, non-chemical gardening tips and ideas? Please share those suggestions with us!