Franklin County Fair

Franklin County Fair, which is held in Malone,  begins on August 7th and ends August 15th. I will be putting a "Truly Wild" display in the 4H building with a "Name the Wild Food"  challenge for the public. On Wednsday, August 11th, I will be preparing and sharing Wild Carrot Funnel Cakes which will be sampled by people attending the fair. We will also have free locally grown baked potatoes with locally produced flavored butter. Hungry yet?  If  anyone would like to help with the display, making or serving the funnel cakes, let me know! I will get you free passes to the fair for the day. The fair theme this year is "Exploring our Agricultural Roots" . Stop in!

Milkweed Jelly

Milkweed is a favorite of the Monarch butterfly larvae. Please remember the forager's rule and leave much more then you take! Do not harvest from roadsides, near polluted water or near heavily sprayed farm fields.

Milkweed Jelly

3 cups of fully opened, fragrant milkweed blossoms – cut stem off (see photo)

Piece of cheesecloth big enough to tie flowers in loosely

4 cups water

2 1/2 cups sugar – Honey may be used
Directions:


Remove blossoms from stem. Rinse, drain and tie up in cheesecloth loosely  to allow the water to circulate through the cheeseclot bag.

Bring water and sugar to a full, rolling boil. (Do not use aluminum pot) Drop in blossom bag

Reduce heat, but allow mixture to simmer actively until reduced by about half.  Check jelly by placing small drop on cold surface or in ice water. It should become tacky and jelly-like.
Remove from heat. When cooled, remove bag of flowers and allow to drain into pot.  Squeezing the bag will make the jelly cloudy.

Pour into sterile jars. Cover tightly. Stores in fridge for 3 weeks.

Milkweed Jelly, Queen Anne's Lace "funnel cakes", Day Lily hors d'oeuvres

Stuffed Day Lily Hors d'oeuvres

Ingredients:

1/2 cup onion- wild onion, leeks or chives

1/4 cup garlic scapes

1 cup cooked greens (save the liquid)

(I used lamb’s quarters, day lily flower, rose petals, milkweed buds)

Olive oil

1/3 cup Vegetable broth

1 8 oz container of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

1 package cream cheese

Preparation:

1. Pick day orange and/or yellow lily blossoms in the morning, rinse off with cold water, refrigerate until needed.

2. Chop the onions and garlic scapes.

3. Cook onions and garlic scapes in olive oil until well browned.

4. Parboil greens, save liquid.

5. If using milkweed buds, steam separately - Prepare first by dropping into boiling water for 2 minutes. 

6. Combine the cooked greens to the onions and garlic and stir.

7. Add half the vegetable broth, lower heat and cover.

8. Simmer 10 minutes, add remaining broth, cook until tender and most of the broth is gone.

9. Beat cooled veggie mixture into softened cream cheese and sour cream.

10.  Chill filling.

11. Remove day lilies from refrigerator. Pull the stamens.

12. Wipe blossoms with a damp paper towel.

13. Stuff mixture into each blossom and arrange on a plate.

14. Arrange on a plate with greens. Keep cold until served. 

*Cream cheese and sour cream may be ommited. Use just the green mixture for stuffing with chopped tiny shrimp.
( Will take a photo of the finished product tonight!)

This dish is pretty, tasty and definitely was a hit with both adults and 4H youth!

Dandelion Flower "flour"

Has anyone noticed that one of my all time favorite "weeds" is the dandelion? I have utilized this free-range vegetable in Jelly, syrup, fritters, salads, teas, greens, pasta, stir fry and even in bread.

Dandelion Bread

Spring dandelion blossoms. Amount? As many as you like. The dehydrated blossoms store well in jars.

• Rinse in cold water. Drain.
• Cut the yellow petals off using kitchen shears. I suggest doing this while watching a good movie.
• Dry the petals in a 1/4 inch layer on a drying rack . A clean, recycled fabric type window screen works well! Placing the petals on a screen in a vehicle with the windows closed will cut the drying time down and keep the petals from blowing away. Electric food dehydrators also work well. The dehydrated flower petals can be used as a thickener, tea and as a "flour" in pastas and breads.

Bread Recipe

5-6 Cups assorted flour

1 package Rapid Rise yeast or 1 1/2 Tbs bulk yeast

1 Tbs sugar. May be brown, honey, molasses, maple syrup

1/2 Tbs salt

2 cups warm water water

Directions:

Pour 2 cups warm water in bowl. Stir in yeast and sugar util dissolved.

Add 3 cups of flour one at a time and beat until smooth(whole wheat, spelt, unbleached white-your choice) beat well.

Add salt, stir.

Add 1-2 cups dandelion "flour". Stir.

Add 1 -2 cups additional flour to from a ball. If dough is too dry, add olive oil or softened butter. If dough is too moist, knead in more flour.

Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic.

Place in lightly oiled or buttered bowl and cover. Allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled in size.

Punch dough down. Form into round loaves and place on baking stone or oiled cookie sheet. May also be place in oiled bread tins or made into rolls. Cover and allow to rise until almost doubled.

Bake in 425 degree oven 25 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. 15 minutes for rolls.

Remove and allow to cool on wire rack. Freezes well!

Eating "Local"

The Truly Wild 4H group that met in Lake Placid braved the rain to discover Jerusalem artichokes (aka sunchokes- not from Jerusulem & not artichokes but a native relative of the sunflower), the visible and scent differences between Queen Anne's Lace and hemlock, spotted jewelweed, mayapple, stinging nettle, thistle, day lily, burdock, and other plants in their early summer stage of growth. Luckily Gail brought extra umbrellas and the rain stopped before we were done.

Dinner was Truly Wild & Truly Local!

Salad-fresh spinach, self heal, red clover, day lily, wild strawberry, thistle celery, chickweed and wood sorrell. The dressing was local honey, with the only item not local-balsamic vinegar. Next time we will use all local products in the dressing!

Bread- Dandelion & Violet

"Flour" made from dehydrated dandelon blossoms & dried violets make this bread unique. Recipe will be in the next blog edition.

Milkweed & Rice Casserole- Everything but the brown rice was local.

Truly Wild Soup with Dandelion Pasta - Everything was locally grown or produced. The eggs were free range, blue/green and brown. * What kind of chickens lay blue/green eggs? The flours used in the pasta were locally milled. The soup was made from a vegetable base of : Lambsquarters, thistle root, burdock root, young burdock stem, thistle celery, evening primrose root, dandelion, and a handful or spinach from my garden. Frozen leeks, local garlic, frozen fiddleheads, daisy leaves, all sauteed in butter added extra flavor.

The Chateaugay Rec Park Truly Wild group also braved a rain storm to gather cattails, and other additions to our meal.

The tender center stem of cattail gathered from unpolluted water, is a very tasty addition to any stir fry, soup or salad. Pull the outer tougher leaves to expose the white "celery", rinse in cold water, slice and enjoy. Cattail root, stem, green "tail" and pollen were a staple of the Native American diet.

Milkweed Stir Fry - Milkweed buds, cattail celery, day lily, lambsquarters, and many other items were stir fried and served over dandelion pasta. We also enjoyed milkweed blossoms topped with butter! Milkweed was definitely a hit.

The boys nearly finished an entire jar of dandelion jelly with their dandelion bread! There will be a dandelion jelly making class in the spring just so Josh can have his own supply.