Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Intro: Besides our personal trials and tasks, we’ve been working such long hours on the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference that I’ve been tardy in getting Loba’s following story – and resulting recipes – to you like I promised.  With all due respect to the sensibilities of our earth-loving vegetarian readers, this is a tale of fang and claw, hunter and gatherer, flesh and feast.  It is inevitable that we intimately and corporeally share with the rest of life, share in its body and force, then one day share in turn the nutrients that are us.  In death we are without exception a precious gift to the all, even if we never give ourselves enough credit for the gift that we are when alive. -Wolf

The Lion’s Elk
by Loba

Anima Wilderness School: www.AnimaCenter.org

Rhiannon and I were out near the third river crossing picking grape leaves early in the morning for a special morning adventure. We were picking from vines that wrapped all the way around a big oak tree. She had gone around one side of the tree to pick and wandered off a little ways, and came back to me all excited. “Mama Loba, there’s an elk that’s been half eaten, pretty recently!” Of course I had to investigate. We went through the forest a little bit, and there right under a juniper tree in plain sight were the remains of a young elk. The skull had been picked clean, the guts eaten, and the hindquarters were perfectly intact. Barely cool, it had been, I guessed, only a very few hours since the elk had been killed. Claw marks showed where she had brought the unfortunate animal down… marks that remind us how in the long run the lions bring a gift of strength and awareness to the elk tribe!

We picked some more grape leaves, then walked back to tell Wolf and Kiva about Rhiannon’s discovery. Kiva drove out in the jeep with me to gather up the hindquarters. When we came back to the site I went looking for tracks, and was able to find some very close to the elk that were, indisputably, lion tracks!  Later Wolf pointed out the clean, knife like, nearly surgical cuts, typical of a cat and not a coyote or wolf.  He told us that the lion had most certainly been interrupted by us in the act of eating, as they tend to cover and hide any remaining meat for later.  No doubt she was very close by, watching us the whole time!

Once discovered, I knew she wouldn’t go back to eating, so there was nothing to do but bring the undamaged portions home!  We far prefer to eat wild meat to any other, for flavor as well as to be getting chemical free, wild hearted protein, so this was a real boon!

I was so excited, I wasn’t even finished skinning the hindquarters when I had to heat up a pan and fry up a bit of the meat. It was as juicy and tender and mild flavored as any I’ve ever tasted.  This Wolf tells me is not only because the elk was so young, but probably because the quiet stalk, sudden rush and incapacitating bite to the neck happened too quick for hardly any adrenalin and fear vibe to kick in!

Needless to say I had to give Kiva a taste right away, too, and she was just as excited about it as I was. Altogether there was at least 15, maybe 20 pounds of meat to freeze at a friend’s house and can for storage at home. We were all so proud of Rhiannon for finding us so many wonderful suppers-to-come!  She’s learned so much about nature as well as herself, and Wolf’s awareness training has really paid off!

For those of you omnivores who might hunt, discover a truck killed animal still warm on the side of the road, or be given the gift of wild meat, below is my favorite way to serve it up fresh.  Note that this works equally well with deer and other red meats. Very easy!  And by preparing it so well, and appreciating it so much, we help honor its mortal blessing and gift!

Elk with Fennel and Garlic

1 pound elk meat
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, ground in a mortar and pestle OR 1 tablespoon fresh sage, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons mixed dried veggies (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Butter or bacon or lamb fat

Slice the elk meat across the grain in pieces about 1/2 inch thick. In a medium bowl, rub in the fennel seed, garlic, dried veggies, salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet to medium-high, add the fat and then the meat as soon as it’s hot. Fry the meat until lightly browned on one side, then flip and quickly fry the second side. The meat should be done cooking in about 5 minutes. Serve with sauteed wild greens or with other green veggies.

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(photo of lion in the act of pouncing courtesy of Scientific American Magazine.  All other photos by Kiva Rose)

(For more homesteading and rewilding tales, stay tuned for our upcoming new online magazine site this Fall)

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Grape Leaf Suppers

by Loba

To walk the canyon in early Summer is to saunter through waves of the most beguiling scent I’ve ever known– the grape vines are flowering! It comes at me from a distance, just a hint of sweetness, then it grows and grows until it I am completely drunk on grapeflower. I lean against the rocks under their vines, surrendering moment upon moment… forgetting all the things I have to do, and deciding that picking grape leaves for supper is at least as important as any of them. Now the grape flowers have become fruits– the little grapes are swelling with the wonderfully welcome monsoon rains! And the grape leaves are still perfect for picking.

There’s not many foods that don’t take kindly to being wrapped about in a grape leaf. It’s refreshing to realize that we don’t need bread products to have the fun experience of piling complementary foods together and eating them with our hands, as in a sandwich, or a burrito. The extra fun of stuffing your own grape leaves is that every single leaf can be filled differently! Their tartness perfectly complements rich meat dishes or simply grilled steak or chicken, baked yams, hummus and other bean dishes, creamy nettle dip, even simply steamed or sauteed vegetables, especially mixed with any of the above. They’re also wonderful wrapped around certain fresh vegetables, especially fresh red peppers, with a bit of cheese and/or an olive and a bit of pesto. One of my favorite ways to serve supper this time of year is to arrange a beautiful, large platter of different foods, sometimes all of them cold, if it is a very hot day. I go through the pantry and coolers and find whatever scrumptious little treats and leftovers might be hiding in there, and slice up some fresh things, and decorate the whole creation with little piles of fresh grape leaves. Their bright green is so beautiful with all the other colors, it’s enough to make me hungry even when it’s almost too hot to think about eating! It’s beyond fun to take each leaf and fill it with any assortment of mouth-watering yummies! Don’t forget to admire each one before you eat them! We also have a lot of fun informing each other of particularly good bites. Suppertime conversation often goes like this, “Oh, I just had the best thing! It was a bit of yam, with some goat cheese, preserved lemon and some olive paste, and a bit of that elk!” “Oh, I have to try it!” “Did you try the roasted garlic with the chard and some eggplant yet?” “Yeah, it’s even better if you put a little hummus in there.”

If you don’t have lots of lovely little treats hiding in your pantry this time of year, you can go to the natural foods deli and get some olives and smoked meats, and marinated things, and delicious cheeses. But here are also some very easy dishes or condiments for you to consider having around for a inspiring summertime grape leaf feast! Some of them do require using an oven, which I suggest either doing in the morning if you have cool mornings where you are, or using a solar oven, which I am most likely to do whenever it’s not cloudy. I also tend to cook any sauteed dishes in the morning, whenever I can make the time.

Roasted Garlic
Gingered Eggplant Relish
Wild herb (or basil) Pesto (see recipe in a previous blog)
Baked Tofu
Delphi Chicken
Elk with Grape leaves
Simple Sauteed Kale with Lemony Leeks
Fresh Corn and Nettle Saute

Roasted Garlic

What a delight it is, to squeeze tender roasted garlic cloves from their papery shells and add this magic substance to just about any meat or vegetable or bread-like treat. If you use a homemade chicken broth with plenty of fat to roast it in, you won’t need to add any olive oil to the pan. But it will come out delicious either way you choose to make it, as long as it has just enough time in the oven.

To Roast Garlic in an Oven:

Several heads of Garlic (4-6, depending on size)
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons chicken broth or water
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or rosemary oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
pinch or two of thyme

Place the whole garlic heads in an 8 inch pan. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan, and swish the pan around a bit to mix things around. Place in about a 350 degree oven for about 60-90 minutes, or until the garlic cloves have darkened and shrunk a bit, and are quite soft when you squeeze or poke at them.

coming soon– how to roast garlic in an open fire!

Baked Tamari Tofu

You can buy good packaged baked tofu at any whole foods store, but it’s much more fun to make your own.  This home baked tofu is so irresistible that I have a hard time not devouring the entire batch as it first comes out of the oven.  If I hope to share any with Kiva and Rhiannon, I make sure to double the quantities.

(serves 2)

8 oz. package raw tofu, firm or extra firm
1/3 cup tamari
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger, minced
4 or more cloves garlic, minced

Slice the tofu into 1/2” pieces.  Put the tamari, ginger and garlic in a wide shallow bowl, or a loaf pan, letting it soak for at least a half an hour, turning once.  Preheat the oven to 375˚.  Remove the tofu from the marinade and arrange the slices on a greased pan.  Bake for about 20 minutes, watching carefully and rotating the pan if needed.  The slices will shrink and firm up considerably, but should still be moist inside.  Enjoy straight from the oven, as a garnish on soup, pasta, or rice, or as party to my Udon Noodles With Tofu and Peanut Sauce (see p. ?).

Gingered Eggplant Relish

This one’s great so many ways, with chicken or fish, in burritos, on polenta, in sandwiches, mixed into scrambled eggs and on and on!  I’ve made many variations on this theme, but the onion, ginger and garlic are always a constant.  I suggest that you try it without the dill and coriander before you try it with…. it’s so good both ways!  I love eggplant so much, it’s always on my list when someone offers to bring me treats from the city.

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (or butter)
1 medium eggplant
1 large onion
6 medium-large cloves garlic
2-4 tablespoons minced grated fresh ginger (to taste)
1 teaspoon ground coriander (optional)
1 tsp dried dill (optional)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Chop the onion into small pieces and cook with the grated minced ginger, in a skillet until halfway tender in the olive oil.  Chop the eggplant while the onion is cooking, in chunks a little bigger than the onion pieces.  Add the eggplant, and stir as often as you can while you are mincing the garlic.  Add the garlic, and the dill and coriander if you like, and stir frequently until everything is tender but not mushy.  Do you have any homemade sesame crackers around?  I hope so!  If not, you’d better try it immediately on some good bread!

Delphi Grilled Chicken

What evokes summertime more than lemony grilled chicken, redolent with fresh herbs?  With fresh corn-on-the-cob and a big Greek salad, this is the perfect meal for clan get-togethers on those sultry Summer evenings.  I like to put on some extra sticks of juniper on the campfire where we grilled, to delight the kids and light up the faces of our friends.
We prefer dark meat, as it’s more flavorful and juicy, so we often buy packages of nothing but thighs.  If not, we purchase a whole chicken that I cut up into quarters. The chicken soaks in the marinade overnight, which is also used to baste the bird during cooking.  Served as is and hot, or mixed with some plain yogurt or sour cream, it makes a scrumptious sauce!

1 whole chicken, or 6 thighs, rinsed in cold water

Lemon Rosemary-Thyme Marinade:

Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup canola or olive oil
2 tablespoons honey, warmed (optional)
2 teaspoons fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary, (or 1 tsp. dried, ground in a mortar)
6-10 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Mix up the marinade in a nonmetal bowl large enough for the chicken to fit comfortably. Combine all ingredients with a whisk or a fork, put the washed chicken in the bowl and bathe it with your hands in the marinade. Cover the bowl with a plate and put in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours, turning at least once.  Remove chicken from marinade and grill 4-6 inches above medium coals, turning as needed, for 30-40 minutes or until the juices run clear when a knife is poked in close to the bone.  Careful not to overcook it!
Marinade Variations:

•Spicy Caribbean Marinade
Omit rosemary, increase honey to 4 tablespoons, add 2 jalepenos, seeded and minced finely, plus 1/4 teaspoon each of ground allspice and nutmeg.

•Mexican Marinade
Substitute the juice of half an orange and one lime for the lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro for the herbs.  Add 2 teaspoons ground chile powder and 1 teaspoon cumin.

•Sesame Ginger Marinade

Instead of the herbs, substitute 3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger and add 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil.  Add up to a teaspoon of cayenne if you happen to like it spicy.

Elk and Grape Leaf Stew

Mediterranean flavors complement stewed elk meat in this earthy, hearty dish. I like to serve this with a salad or a simple dish of sauteed greens or green beans. It’s also lovely on corn tortillas or any flatbread, with scrambled eggs, or even as a simple snack, served cold with some fresh grape leaves or other greens suitable for stuffing. Try it with some Red Chile or Paprika Sauce and homemade piima cream for an extra special treat! And do be sure to try it with the fresh mint or pickled mint garnish– it’s sooo good! If you can’t get elk meat, both buffalo and lamb would be worthy substitutes.

1 lb. elk stew meat (or 2 pint jars Home Canned Elk)
1 onion, diced, sauteed in 1-2 tablespoons butter till golden
3 cloves garlic, minced, sauteed with the onion
1 1/2 cups chopped grape leaves, fresh or preserved
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons sweet paprika or Aleppo pepper
1/3 cup sesame seeds, toasted in a skillet
1/3 cup Homemade Olive Paste, or chopped kalamata olives
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves, or 1/4 cup chopped pickled mint leaves

Pickled Mint:

Simply pour apple cider vinegar over whatever amount of fresh mint you can get into a jar. Be sure to cover the mint completely. Ready to serve after 1-2 days.

If starting out with fresh elk meat, cut into small pieces, heat a skillet to medium-high and brown in a tablespoon or two of butter. Place in a medium sized pot, barely cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer until tender, usually about two hours.
If starting out with Home Canned Elk, simply empty the contents of 2 pint jars elk meat and broth into a medium sized pot. Add the rest of the ingredients except the mint, and simmer until the grape leaves are tender. Time will vary depending on the thickness of the grape leaves, usually somewhere between 20-45 minutes. Garnish with the chopped mint leaves before serving.

-Love, Loba

(Excerpted from Loba’s upcoming cookbook — Share freely so long as credited)

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Intro: One’s kitchen need not be simply a utilitarian space where dutiful chefs meet familial responsibilities.  Decorated to reflect our spirits as well as passions and tastes – featuring comfortable chairs as well as working space – it becomes a special environ that nourishes us just sitting and visiting there… as well as an enchanted workshop for co-creating, affecting, healing and nourishing our world.

THE KITCHEN:

Place of Empowerment and Healing

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

Anima Lifeways and Herbal School

Loba, Kiva, little Rhiannon and myself all love food, whether it be gathering it, eating or preparing, but no one focuses on cooking more or gets more satisfaction from it than Loba.  For many years now she has nourished and delighted guests from all around the world, many of whom are amazed that the finest meal they may have ever had would be found far from an urban center, in an out of the way canyon seven river crossings from a road.

That said, it can be hard to believe that she actually arrived in this remote mountainous county without knowing how to cook, or that I had to teach her everything from frying eggs to baking bread.  Arriving from a famously politically-correct West Coast metropolis, she had been stunted by a fear that cooking was disempowering, reserved for servants and well behaved but humorless housewives who consider themselves tied to the oven.  Not yet, did she see cooking as an empowering practice instead, connecting her to her senses, increasing her confidence, and providing such a beautiful way for her to be able to give to others… but it didn’t take long.

Within the first few weeks, in fact, she had already begun to adopt and to feminize the Anima kitchen, prompting me to repaint it in Spring pastels and add decorative vines, draping every window with torn antique lace.  I even screwed a friendly metal dragon over the glass pane in the kitchen door, furthering its increasingly fairy tale appearance… although not so much as decoration for Loba, as in a valiant if inconclusive effort to discourage the local bears from shuffling in and eating our fresh made bread once again.

These days its outer walls are dressed in the colors of ripe peaches and salad greens, roofed in brown metal, rimmed by a smiling rain gutter.  The door opens with a characteristic creaking sound that Loba prefers I don’t oil away.  Guests’ shoes are left on the threshold, a matter of household intimacy and respect, and one barely sets foot before she being asked if they’re thirsty or hungry.  Her inquiry has nothing to do with cultivated manners, by the way, she genuinely hopes that the answer is “Yes!”

A tour of the kitchen begins with its core element, her hard working wood cookstove from the early 1900’s with its ornate chromed trim and “Loba’s Lovin’ Oven” painted on its white enameled door.  She had gone from not knowing how to start a fire, to being a full-on master of the intricacies of wood-fired cooking, able to discern the best species and size of wood for various projects and desired temperatures, when to rotate the pans and which side of the oven gets hottest.  As a result, I’ve come to measure the piles of split juniper piled by the stove not in inches, but in hot meals and fresh biscuits!  We love to tell folks how wonderfully thick the crust on her breads are, how crisp and juicy the roasts when baked inside of a wood burner instead of an oven heated by electricity or gas.  When it really gets going, one can hear the deep, rhythmic, thrumming sound providing the relaxed bass beat for the burning sticks’ staccato song: the “hearth-beat” of the home.

The rough-cut pine floors and counters are recently covered with beautiful ceramic tiles provided by a most-caring friend, and rows of cookbooks greet the visitor’s eye, arranged in categories like “Wild Foods” and “Decadent Desserts,” “International Flavors” and “Nostalgic Americana.”  Nearby we can see “Spatula Row,” numerous vintage utensils dangling from bent nails, including hand carved wooden spoons with handles in the shape of hearts.

Those of you over 5’ 8” are likely bending over by now in order to clear the unusually low ceiling.  Partly because of this, you may find that it reminds you of a grandmother’s attic, entered only with permission, filled one end to the other with tempting secrets from the past.  Here we find, polished with regular use: my Grandmother Beulah’s flour sifter.  Graters, grinders, and a hand-cranked food mill.  A rack of old Forschner knives that were once my Papa’s, next to a cast iron knife sharpener and a 1920’s frosting knife advertising the “king of cakes.”   To your left, a tortilla press and 1940’s Juice-o-Mat lemon squeezer.  And to your right, a line of hanging cast iron pans all seasoned with oil, just down from our sizable porcelain sink.

For Loba, something as simple and plain as a kitchen sink functions as a playpen for her most special dish ware, and a skating rink for hand-holding soap bubble couples celebrating their silver anniversaries.  She sees in her sink a magic ivory mirror whose stories are read best when it shines.  It was once a favorite nap spot for our cat Pumpkin-Sigh before this property was an official wildlife sanctuary, the furry buddha attracted for whatever strange reasons to the siren smell of bleach.  And it continues to serve as a wintertime bathtub for our daughter Rhiannon while she can still fold herself into it, washing her head and scrubbing her back in front of a window overlooking a magical canyon scene topped by a brilliantly blue Western sky.

Kitchens are where the alchemy of converting base ingredients into priceless glinting meals happens, not a factory but a place of magic and spirit.  They’ve traditionally been held to embody the soul of one’s home, a nutritive environment that feeds us in more ways than just with food, a place where people have long been more comfortable gathering in to talk and commiserate instead of in well appointed but less inviting sitting rooms.  In the Hispanic households of the American Southwest, males are typically dominate in all affairs, yet we find that la cocina is the one place where the power of the womenfolk reigns supreme, and where the males of the family are on their very best behavior in hopes of a taste of what their tantalized noses have been smelling.  And the real top-boss of the Old West ranch was the cook or “cookie” whom nobody wanted to cross, and whose god-like pronouncements and not always reasonable demands few cared to challenge.  For the migrants from every country, the American kitchen has proven to be every bit as special and emblematic as it had been on the continents where they came from.  And for everyone reading this, it can be not a place of chore and necessity but of personalized nutrition and ecstasy, an easily re-sculpted representation of the things that please, feed and inspire us most.  If it does not already speak both of you and for you, your kitchen can be your opportunity to redraw and recolor your relationship to both it and yourself, to reclaim joyful responsibility for your body and what goes into it, to own the role of the empowered cook and devout sensualist, to re-envision a relationship with life filled and life giving food and re-create a place in the house that makes possible, promotes and reflects it.

Over the ensuing years, our kitchen has evolved into not only a creative foodstuffs workshop and imbued presence that we all love, but also into a colorful character in its own right.  First time visitors ask if they’ll get to meet it, as if it were a old woman of whom many stories had been told, who might rise from her rocking chair on the porch if only we are attentive and respectful enough, as if the structure might rouse to shake their hands or give them a kitchen hug.  Perching atop a mesa’s vertical cliff side, it can seem a little like a treehouse that any sadly un-enchanted adults might find hard to climb, like a tree-cradled nest woven of plant fibers and dried flowers, embroidered napkins and hand tatted doilies.  For some of you, it may bring to mind an enchanted toy shop where – late at night and while everyone’s away – the toys come out to play!  When the winds at their stillest and its door left ajar, I sometimes think that I can hear… her hand-painted ceramic figurines, whispering to each other that “All is clear!”.

I picture the pots and pans perhaps moving about cautiously at first, nevertheless alarming any resident house-mouse or burglaring squirrel who might be there to witness.  It’s then that a smile spreads across my face, and my foot taps out a rhythm of its own accord, as the well-worn implements begin to chop and peel under their own power, and Grandma Beulah’s beater twirls faster and faster to the musical strains of our culinary canyon Fantasia.

—————————–

(The essay above will be one of many by Jesse Wolf Hardin appearing in Loba’s upcoming cookbook, possibly to be called The Enchanted Pantry: Recipes for  a More Flavor-Full Life.  If you would like to be put on the new waiting list for this book, send us your name, snail mail address and email addy, and you will be among the first to receive a copy when its released next Winter: mail (at) AnimaCenter dot org)

(Copy and post freely)

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ZOMBIE CATTLE HELL:
An Argument for Sentient Food & a More Sentient Life

by Jesse Wolf Hardin
Anima Lifeways & Herbal School

www.animacenter.org

It seems terrible to me, to think of ingesting any creature or plant that wasn’t in its own natural way enlivened: vital, alert and responsive.  And for centuries among many indigenous, land based societies the belief has been that we take on the energy of whatever we consume, gaining some of the strength of the bear by partaking of its flesh, or the litheness of the deer, the courage of the lion, the awakeness of the wide eyed hare.  Such people may likewise insist on avoiding eating much beef, in order to keep from becoming either slowed or borderline oblivious like a majority of domestic cattle.

To the contrary, a growing number of food industry researchers and managers hope to assuage the guilt feelings of empathetic consumers by developing and promoting meat sources that are increasingly dulled, denatured and deadened.  These “knockout livestock” as they are sometimes called, would potentially be unaffected by the worst that was ever done to them, normal looking in every way yet clearly somehow not quite right.  They’ll be just a little too accepting of indignities, and a little too much like the glib, easily appeased, conformist, unaware, barely feeling and unnaturally obedient human populations, stumbling from their own metaphoric feedlot to slaughter house under the influence of calming drugs and the “helpful” control of Big Brother regimes.

Welcome to the world of Frankenburgers, from Zombie Cattle Hell!

Throughout most of my lifetime the line seemed more clearly drawn, with the bulk of conservationists and ecologists, spiritual types, liberals and those into alternative culture have all tended to be vegetarians, and with meat eaters largely either stereotyped or self-stereotyped as redneck right-wingers with no regard for their own cardiovascular health let alone the health of the planet and the suffering of their fellow creatures.  While there were always exceptions, today the dietary divide is more blurred than ever.  For decades I’ve asserted that strict vegetarianism – while well intentioned – is both unnatural and unhealthy, with our ancestral, low carb omnivore diet actually being the closest to an optimum diet for us even today, but these days I am joined by thousands of adherents of high protein and so called primal diets.  The result is an increasing number of consumers of meat who insist on healthy grass-fed animals, raised under cruelty free conditions, cleanly dispatched, and the rise of small farms devoted to compassionate husbandry.

Meanwhile, the few multi-national corporate conglomerates controlling the entire food production of the United States, were seriously stung by criticism that has followed the public exposure of the horrific conditions of corporate farms and factory slaughterhouses, mostly clandestine video shot and released by animal rights activists.  Most anyone who views this sort footage is turned off at least temporarily to eating anything but free range creatures, after the seeing the disregard with which our sources of pork chops and beef steaks are treated, and after witnessing the degree of sheer terror and sometimes acute agony of livestock as they are automatically but clumsily terminated.  Management’s solution, needless to say, has not been to improve the conditions the animals are raised in or to improve the methods and means of the slaughter, but to assign their industry funded laboratory researchers the goal of genetically lowering the animals’ threshold of pain!  Why go to the expense and trouble of increasing the size of enclosures, they reason – reducing the incidences of illness, or improving the methods of killing – if the livestock has been altered to no longer feeling any discomfort or anguish?
To these industry heads, what matters is not vitality but product viability, including the perception of potential buyers.  They recognize that image and marketability are the main impediments to future consumers purchasing muscle tissue grown in cell cultures, providing them with animal protein that has bizarrely never thirsted for water and gone into heat, never known the feel of sunshine, pranced in the grass or even stood up on four feet.  This would satisfy the desires of the industry to produce quantities of a product with as little effort and cleanup as possible, while simultaneously meeting the animal rights groups’ goal of ending the suffering of other lifeforms… at least those which have been engineered to be something less than alive.

It’s been known for some time that the brain has two different pathways for perceiving pain, a sensory avenue that registers the location, kind and intensity, and another “affective” pathway that translates the same impulses as unpleasant.  The reason why people under the influence of opium poppies and their chemical derivatives don’t suffer this unpleasantness, even when being operated on by a physician while awake, is that the opiates chemically disable this second route, resulting in little or none of the normal arousing of what is called the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex.

Neuroscientists from the universities of Washington and Toronto have more recently discovered how to genetically manipulate animals without the peptide proteins necessary for the operation of this cortex.  Livestock engineered in this way would still be able to sense a cut or heat, but it would no longer be experienced as something to be avoided.  Industry heads remarking on this developing technology, have already gone to some length to assure the public that the steaks and chops from such animals would be plenty safe to eat.

Anyone partaking of even burgers and hot dogs, should rightfully have at one time or another killed their own food with their own hands, and have experienced what it’s like to take another creature’s precious life.  Even if the vast majority of someone’s meat intake continues to come the form of disembodied, furless and largely formless factory cuts sold in styrofoam and cellophane packages, we would still do well to have on at least one occasion held the fried chicken prior to its being dispatched and plucked, dismembered and fried, and to have personally stared into its ancient dinosauric eyes, extending its neck over a block of firewood and chopping its head off with the wings continuing to madly flap as it fitfully dies.  Or else we need to have been at one point or another anointed with the spattered blood of a wild animal, a beautiful beast more noble than many people that we nonetheless dropped with a rifle shot, filled with equal measures of awe and sadness, profound gratitude, alliance, and something closely akin to love.

Only in this way can we possibly know deep in our hunter-gatherer souls what it feels like to give the pain of death, the way that mothers give the gift of life… or to empathize in the moment while taking full responsibility for the act, the result, and our inherent place in the food chain.  Only then can those of us who are practicing omnivores begin to grasp at a gut, bodily level the price that is paid by other beings in order that we might survive.  And I believe it is only through a deep awareness and sense of connection, responsibility and gratitude, that we’re made worthy of the decades of nourishing meat that makes it on to our plates.

When it comes to this taking and remaking of life, it’s certainly incumbent upon us to do all we can to lessen the suffering of those sensitive creatures we eat.  I’ve watched as a coyote showed neither mercy nor concern for a crying young elk calf it had wounded and dogged, one example in nature that I’d rather not follow.  Instead, I’ve always went out of my way whenever I hunted to make quick, one-shot kills, stalking stealthily until in close range, or leaning on a branch to consider and steady my aim.  That aim was always to pierce a skull or bust a backbone, immediately disconnecting the wires connecting wound to brain, saving the meat from the bitter hormones released by fear, but mainly going to such extremes out of an intuitive awareness that animals can hurt every bit as poignantly as people.  And when I partake of vegetables, it is with respect and gratitude grounded in the certainty that they, too, suffered in the process of taking its life into mine.

For all of us non-engineered beings, plant and animal alike, painless simply isn’t an option.  Nor would it necessarily be a benefit to either us or our foods.  After all, the intermittent experience of pain stretches and expands our capacity to feel and to intensely take note of what we are feeling, just as do occasions of extreme ecstasy and moments of inescapable bliss, serving as measures of our sentience and hence as indicators of just how truly alive we each are.  Pain can awaken our ability to empathize.  It informs our compassion, adds weight to our mistakes and importance to our decisions.  And it helps us to identify and then either resist or move away from those things that are harmful to us.  In the case of us humans, without struggle and distress it becomes all too easy for us to take things for granted, whereas we can be sure that whatever we do at the risk of suffering is something that we must feel very strongly about, taking more certain satisfaction from whatever we accomplish in the face of – and regardless of – any pain.

The spirit of the child, at home in its body, not yet suppressing pain or denying the causes of deprivation, mishap or suffering, thoroughly celebrating the pleasures of sensation in every non-traumatic moment between.  This is the spirit of wildlife, acutely aware of their surroundings as if their lives depended on it, because indeed they do.  The spirit of plants that have been proven to flinch from trauma like cuts and burns, but that by their very nature remain committed to fulsome growing, expanding, fruiting and bearing seed in spite of of any painful fires, drought, flood, mowing, fires, grazing and pruning.

It is this spirit that we might better look for in the foods that we draw nourishment from, but also in the fabric and experience of our day to day existence… the evidence of, condition of, and intensity of life wholly and sentiently lived.

(Forward and post freely)

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Hello Friends!

And a Happy Autumn to you all!! I have been enjoying myself so much these past weeks, reveling in the growing crispness of the air, the incredible glowy light, the magic of so many multicolored leaves blowing through the air. Each afternoon after Rhiannon and I take a chilly dip in the river we stand and watch the leaves and the light on the cliffs and exclaim to each other about how amazingly lovely everything is! Yesterday it was mostly cloudy when we went for our dip, and I was so impressed that she was still brave enough to get in the water with me! I had gotten a fire going up at the kitchen and supper was warming up on top of the woodstove, and with warm robes to put on, it made it a much easier to think about getting a little cold! We had a very special supper, using fresh pomegranate (a sweet gift!) a chicken I’d roasted that morning, a very delicious squash (another gift, from our friend Marc’s garden), some wild mustard I’d harvested from a parking lot in town, Chardonnay and pine nuts from Resolute, farmer’s market apples mailed to us from dear Steve and Val, homemade elderberry wine Kiva made from elderberries the same friends harvested themselves, freshly made kefir cream, also made by Kiva,  and some incredible apricots and goat cheese, yet more gifts, from our recent quester Rebecca! What thankful hearts we all had, sitting down after a day of much work, to this feast of so much gathered love and caring, and harvestime abundance!

Harvesttime Celebration Chicken

roasted chicken, free-range organic if possible!
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
1 butternut (or similar) squash
1/2 cup Chardonnay
5-6 cloves fresh garlic, minced
5-6 leaves fresh sage, minced
a bunch of fresh mustard or other flavorful greens, wild or domestic, rinsed and chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
about 12 unsulphered turkish apricots, chopped coarsely
2-3 golden delicious or similar apples, cored and medium diced (about 1-2” pieces)
some fresh plain kefir, or sheep’s milk feta, to garnish (optional)

Strip the chicken and chop or break into bite size pieces about 2-3 cups of meat. I save the rest for making soup the next day. Peel the squash using a vegetable peeler, and remove the seeds (and save for roasting!) and chop into medium dice. Saute the sliced onions in a large skillet with the olive oil over medium-high heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until they turn translucent. Add the garlic as you’re stirring, with a tiny bit more olive oil. Push the onions to one side of the pan, add the squash and a little bit of water to the pan, reduce the heat a bit, and cook covered for a few minutes, or until the squash begins to soften. Stir everything together and cook uncovered until everything begins to get golden-brown. Add the chicken pieces and the wine, sage, apricots, salt and pepper. Let everything come to a simmer, then taste, and adjust things as you like.

This is fantastic on its own, especially with the kefir or feta garnish, and even more fun to serve with whatever accompaniments you like! Perhaps some fresh sourdough bread, some special cheese, more fresh greens, special olives or some Preserved Lemons (have I given you the recipe before?), buttered wild rice or quinoa, and if you really want to make it feel like a feast, try making the Green Olive Pomegranate Relish! If you could imagine a Mediterranean cranberry sauce, without the cranberries, this is it!

Green Olive & Almond Pomegranate Relish
This relish is an Enchanted Pantry twist on one of the more unusual Mediterranean recipes.  You can eat it right away, but it gets even better overnight.  It’s great mixed with some goat cheese or feta and eaten with pita or other fresh bread, with maybe a little hummus alongside.  Carnivores will especially enjoy it served with any wood grilled cuts, wild meats, a pork roast or chicken, or even atop a perfectly seasoned meatloaf. Feel free to experiment will the ingredients, and the amounts of things– it’s a very flexible, fun recipe! Just don’t leave out the pomegranate seeds or the olives!

1/2-1 cup good quality green olives, pitted and chopped (kalamata olives will work too)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup minced toasted walnuts
1/4 cup chopped parsley or watercress
1/2 -3/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup finely chopped crisp-tart apple
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses (available at Mediterranean stores), or 1-2 teaspoons brown sugar, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 tsp. allspice

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight. Return to room temperature before serving. Enjoy the magic! I highly suggest taking the pomegranate out into the sunshine to sit and enjoy its jewellike beauty as you fill your bowl with seeds. I sat on my kitchen stoop as I filled mine, and was really glad I was wearing an apron (a red one!), getting pomegranate juice all over me! A special autumnal pleasure to celebrate!

Hope you’ll try these, and let me know how they turn out! And don’t worry, those of you who are awaiting the Green Chile recipes I promised, I haven’t forgotten, they’re still coming!!  Feel free to share this recipe as always.

With Lots of love and happy autumn hugs to you all!,

Loba (www.animacenter.org)

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Our beloved apprentice and supporter Resolute has been with us this past week, what a joyful thing! Yesterday we all went on an adventure up to the high country in search of elderberries, rose hips and more. Kiva drove the jeep up the steep mountains for miles, while we searched the mountainsides for Oregon Grape, which she found in a few places, and dug up some of the bigger plants’ roots. It’s always amazing to get up into the higher altitudes, where the spruce trees laden with usnea and the miles of aspen trees feel like a fairytale forest. Once we reached the top, we unloaded our hefty picnic cooler, our gathering baskets and such and began the search for plants. We were able to harvest a bunch of perfectly ripe rose hips, but unfortunately the birds had already beaten us to the elderberries. With the lack of our normal monsoon rains, some things were looking a bit dry. There was lots and lots of yarrow, however, which we were really excited about! Resolute and I had a lot of fun picking the dear little yarrow leaves that were covering the trail to the spring, while Kiva and Rhiannon explored the steep slopes, and Kiva returned with happy hands full of treasures.

Our picnic was incredible! Rhiannon was so excited, she had made lovely invitations with special calligraphy that she learned and practiced especially for the event. And at each guest’s place on the picnic blanket there was a beautiful hand-lettered invite.  We were celebrating not only the joy of being all together, but Resolute’s birthday! She had brought us a bunch of rock cornish hens from the city, which I had stuffed with green chiles and onions, and roasted over a fire the day before, along with some peppers and onions. I’d also made a lovely cheese dip with goat milk and a variety of cheeses, blended with red wine, chiles, garlic, and toasted pecans. We brought preserved grape leaves, fresh green beans, crisp apples, cucumbers, red onion, olives and more! What wondrous combinations we made for ourselves as we mixed and matched ingredients in our grape leaves and in our bowls. But of course we had to leave room for the grand finale, Kiva’s Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie! Covered with real whipping cream, it was totally irresistable! We also enjoyed some wonderful mulberry tarts that Rhiannon had made, and some Prickly Pear/Grape Cordial that Kiva had made. And we sang Happy Birthday to Resolute, who got all teary eyed at one point cause she was so happy to be in such a beautiful spot where she could see all the mountains below.  It made her feel very wonderfully owl-like, so we decided to name the spot Owl Mountain.

Grilled Stuffed Cornish Hens with Green Chiles
Saute 10 medium-large mild green chiles (I used Anaheim )in olive oil until browned and tender, mix with diced raw onion, and stuff inside the cavities of 5 Cornish Hens. Grill about 5 inches away from a bed of wood coals until cooked all the way through, about 30-45 minutes (depending on how hot, and how many coals you have!)

Goat Cheese Dip with toasted Pecans and Red Wine
1/2 cup Merlot
1/2 cup goat milk
2/3 cup soft goat cheese
2/3 cup semisoft cheese, extra sharp cheddar or goat cheddar
1/3 cup toasted pecans
1-3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 or 2 roasted chiles (optional)
Put all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour into a glass jar and refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy with roasted veggies, meats, etc.

Hope some of you may be inspired to have a picnic of your own, to celebrate the harvest, someone’s birthday, or simply the beauty of the day!
love, Loba

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Dear Friends,
Okay, after lots of prodding from you readers, here’s another taste from The Enchanted Pantry — the first recipe that appears in the  “Summertime in the Canyon” section of my long-time-upcoming cookbook!  Enjoy your tomatoes, and your what’s left of your yummy Summer!!! Love, Loba

The Tomatoes and Basil Meals

by Loba

www.animacenter.org

   This one’s not so much a recipe as a way of eating that to me is the very epitome of Summertime. It was after a huge monsoon flood that we landed the epic tomato bonanza that had us eating this way every night for weeks. Our friends up the river with the gigantic garden had let it be known that their tomatoes were out of hand. It had been raining and raining every day for over two months, what joy! The only problem was, how to get the tomatoes from the first river crossing to our homestead, just past the seventh river crossing– two miles down the river, with no chance of getting a truck through. Kiva and I had already hauled multiple seventy pound backpacks full of monster squashes and onions down the steep mountain trail, but we anticipated instant salsa should we attempt to haul in the tomatoes that way. Wolf had the brilliant idea to carefully pack them in boxes, and float them down the river in our inflatable kayak. Of course there would be no room for us in the boat, but that really wasn’t a problem. It was a blissfully sunny day, with enough clouds to make us want for more sun. Kiva and I swam alongside the boat, which was full of about 200 pounds of tomatoes and huge bunches of multicolored basil that dear Jane had thrown in for good measure. We each held one end of a rope, controlling the boat as it eased down the river, and miraculously, didn’t topple over! When we made it to the seventh crossing, we howled for Rhiannon and Wolf to come help us bring the bounty the last several hundred yards up the rocky hill, which seemed particularly vertical that day for sure! When we finally made it back up to the kitchen, we were so hungry we ate some version of this meal, mostly standing over the counter, ecstatically dripping tomato juice everywhere as we tore into the bag of basil, and ripped open a package of our best cheese. I remember us grinning at each other between slurpy bites and at some point one or both of us said, “you know, it just doesn’t get any better than this.…”

Essential Elements:

Garden fresh tomatoes
Some really good cheese, especially local goat cheese if possible
Fresh Basil or Rosemary
The freshest, stickiest garlic you can find, or some roasted garlic
A handful of fresh, peppery greens (like arugula and/or watercress)
Sourdough bread, preferably homemade & with unsalted butter and/OR some softly scrambled or boiled farm-fresh eggs
3 (or more) olives apiece, (preferably kalamata or oil cured black olives)
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Negotiable embellishments

A juicy garden bell pepper
A little mound of hummus and/or babaganoush
Some toasted pine nuts
A little mound of grilled or roasted meat
Extra virgin olive oil

To Assemble:
Cut the tomatoes into large wedges and put a huge pile of them in the center of each plate. Arrange the rest of the accompaniments around the tomatoes in any way that shows them all off, contrasts their colors, and makes you feel good just looking at it! Sprinkle with salt and grind a bunch of freshly ground pepper over everything, or let everyone do their own. Offer a cruet of your best olive oil as well.

To Enjoy:
First dig in to the tomatoes, and revel in their glory. Then try combining the tomatoes with the other treats, in every conceivable way, and enjoy little nibbles of things on their own. Smear the juice of a cut garlic clove on a tomato and top with a leaf of basil and a glob or sliver of cheese. Wrap an olive with some tomato flesh in a piece of arugula. The possibilities are endless, and I wouldn’t dare spoil all the potential surprises! This is truly my favorite way to eat on a warm night. It’s like getting to play with your food the whole meal through!

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Soup!

I got to make my  first soup two days ago! It was very exciting, I had been wanting to make my own soup for a long time. Mama Loba had asked me if I wanted to help her make some chicken soup, but I started talking about how nice it would be to just throw things in and make my very own soup, and she said I could make it that very day and it was delishous! We also cooked on the our old wood stove  we have which was wonderful. After that we went to the river. It was so nice to come all cooled off from the river to get to eat the soup. Soup always seems so soothing when you’re cold or sick.

Here are some of the ingredients:
rosemary
leaks
redwine
onions
celery
turnips
thyme
lovage
apples
lemon juice
ground beef
It was a bit sour  when we tasted it so we added:
more ground beef
egg yolk
demi glace
The next night I wanted to make it a little different, so we added:
tahini
sauerkraut
chedar chesse
more apples
and a garnish of creasy greens.

Swimming!

Just yesterday me and Mama Loba went swimming in the beaver dam we have. It’s so nice knowing how to swim!  Mama Loba had gone far ahead of me, and left me swimming around. I know how to swim but I swim to hard and use a lot of energy so I swam for a log sticking out of the water and hung on to it for a while calming my self down cause the water had gone over my head more than once, and I would have to remind myself that knew how to hold my breath under water. So Mama Loba said she’ll try to teach me how to swim with out useing up to much of my energy.

I’m Learning!
I’ve been getting so much better at spelling and math!  I’ve finally learned how to write knowledge and column without any problem at all. Also my drawing have been getting so much better!  I have been drawing a lot too! I love drawing.

Yucca Blossoms!
The yuccas are blooming right now. We are going to have a yuka blossom party soon! I love parties. So would every playful otter like me!  We have been very busy so it’s been hard to get to spring clean, but we’re trying to get time.:) Every thing is getting so green!  I pause in my writing every now and then to look down at the now green covered cottenwood  trees. Our blackbearies that we’re trying to coax to grow here have thorns and are sprouting out of the ground, and my strawbearie plant I have is making straw bearies. Yaya! Happy spring day!

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What an incredible week of beauty it’s been! The mulberry tree is sprouting leaves and tiny green berries, currant and sumac berries are coming out, and it seems like all the little critters are running around with extra excitement! We’ve spotted many playful young squirrels and rabbits, chipmunks and even some precious little baby rats scrambling around near the river and in the woods. What a delight it’s been to go to the river several times a day and enjoy the welcome warmth of the sand on our bare feet, as well as the shade of the many trees that are fully leafed out. The wind has been absolutely delicious, rising and falling in lovely patterns all day. We love to dance with our sarongs out in the wind! And I love to lie down near the river, close my eyes and just listen to the song of the water mingle with the rustle of the cottonwood leaves. The riversides are covered with pockets of nettles and clover, watercress and mustard– a forager’s dream! Rhiannon and I went for a swim up the beaver dam just before sundown today to check for recent tree damage (which was thankfully minimal), and we were amazed that the deep water was such a pleasant temperature for swimming! We’re looking forward to teaching her some new swimming strokes this summer, and climbing the lookout rock together, and having our annual Yucca Flower Festival very, very soon!

Yesterday, our friend Marc was here and I was so excited for him to get to see the new lodge improvements, and to feed him and give him hugs and so much gratitude for all the amazing help he’s been lately!  And today, we celebrated the happiness of a non-native seasonal plant whose presence I’ve been very eagerly awaiting in my kitchen for quite a while. Kiva brought home the most incredible pile of RHUBARB I’ve seen in a LONG time (actually I’ve never had this much in my kitchen at once!) We were babysitting our friend Steven’s adorable 1 1 /2 year old boy while he cut wood for us and worked on shelves for the kitchen, and so it seemed like a perfect day to make pie, while the kids slid around the kitchen floor on pillows being ridiculously cute. Kiva took a break from her student work and emails at just the perfect time, coming over just as I was getting the fruit mixture just right, to give it her official thumbs-up. We liked the pie filling so much, even uncooked, that I made a little extra so we can use it for a topping for yogurt or whatever… or maybe just eat more of it straight from the jar! Highly recommended!

I don’t make these kind of double crust pies that often anymore, but once in a great while, if there’s some crazy amount of peaches or pears or blackberries or rhubarb or something around, the urge to put our beloved rolling pin to use becomes pretty irrepressible. Whatever you do, don’t buy those pre-made poor-excuses-for crust you can buy at the store. Making a good homemade crust is an art, but it’s a very simple art. Not to mention how it ends up looking- and tasting- when mingled with bubbling fruity juices that, in this case, turn into the most joyful pinky-red-rose color imaginable! What could be better? I made a lattice top for the pie, painted it with beaten egg, and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar before baking it in the woodstove oven. I have to say, eating a warm piece later in the day with real whipping cream, enjoying the incredible color of the fruit on my plate, and the sweet-tart wowie-zowie flavor that seemed to sink into my soul, I felt as close to nirvana as any human could ever be.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Filling:
3 cups sliced strawberries
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, cut fairly small
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons flour

Extra-Flaky Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup butter or coconut oil, or a combination
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup water

Make the filling, tasting carefully. You may want to add a little sugar if the strawberries are not very tasty. This amount of sugar works very well for strawberries that are flavorful. But feel free to vary it as you like, substitute honey or whatever. Add the lemon juice slowly, tasting and making sure it seems just right. For me, when it becomes very hard to stop eating the filling, I know it’s done!

For mixing the crust, combine the salt and sugar into the flour, cut the butter or oil into the flour with a pastry cutter or a fork, add the vanilla and water, and gently toss the mixture first with the fork or cutter, then with your floured hands. (if you live in a humid climate, start with 1/4 cup of water, and add more slowly if the dough seems crumbly) Form the dough into a ball and gently roll out, then cut into fourths, pile the pieces on top of each other and roll out again. Repeat a few times if you enjoy that sort of thing, and then divide the dough and roll it out as usual. Or you can just form the dough into two balls and roll out once if you prefer, it will still turn our lovely! Pre-bake the bottom crust for about 10 minutes at about 375 degrees. (Until it’s just shy of being entirely done) This prevents a soggy bottom crust– very important! Then add the filling and top with the second crust, latticing the top crust if you like and/or adding little decorations with bits of dough scraps. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with 3-4 tablespoons of sugar mixed with a slightly heaping 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Bake till the filling has bubbled for at least ten minutes and the crust is golden brown and perfectly irresistable-looking!

Enjoy! And tell me how your pies turn out!
Love, Loba

(Feel free to share this and all posts.  Photos (c) 2009 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

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 We’ve been wildly busy this week, and Kiva sends her apologies for delayed email responses.  Besides hosting valued student guests, we have doing the final layout of the kid’s book “I’m a Medicine Woman, Too!”, adding additional resources and art, getting it ready for release in one month!  A big welcome to our latest Correspondence Course students, and love to everyone from all of us!

Wild Nettle Season:

Savory Buckwheat Cakes with Nettle Yogurt Dip

by Loba

(www.animacenter.org)

Despite their somewhat scary reputation, Stinging Nettles are beautiful and healthful plants. Packed with Protein (more so than even beans!), Iron, Calcium, Magnesium and vitamins A and C, these glowing native plants are one of the most nutritious and tasty greens available anywhere. Native Americans knew about the bounty of the Nettles and used them for fiber as well as food.  Each Springtime, Rhiannon, Kiva and I can all be found excitedly watching the young Stinging Nettles come up beneath the oaks and willows. The moment they’re big enough we pick a bagful for this delicate and flavorful dip! We’re always sure to pick the young Nettle shoots with sturdy gloves on so as not to be stung by the formic acid (the same substance that fire ants contain) that is released by the tiny hairs that cover Nettles. Don’t worry, the sting in Nettles disappears completely when they’re boiled. We love Nettle Yogurt Dip on homemade challah toast with cheese and toasted almonds, whether for dinner for breakfast… but also try it on a hot baked potato, topped with a poached egg.

It’s truly been a wonderful year for nettles!!!  We’ve been harvesting and eating them like crazy! What an incredible joy it is to spend the afternoon crouching under the juniper and oaks, soaking in Spring’s sweet sunshine and the glorious green magic of the nettle plants, who seem to be growing taller with every moment that passes by! As soon as we get enough for a giant potful, we go for a splash and a dunk in the crisp cold river, and then plan the evening meal all refreshed! We’ve been cooking up the nettles over the fire, sometimes outdoors, or inside on the wood cookstove when it’s too windy. Some of the cooked nettles get bagged up to go to Ryan’s freezer, and many others get eaten!

Right now, here in the canyon, it’s the ultimate time to harvest. The plants are incredibly abundant and about 6-8 inches tall. At this height, the stalks are still tender enough to enjoy as well as the beautiful leaves, and can even be used in the following very tasty dip. I’ve been using a hand blender to make sure the stalks are thoroughly ground up. Here’s the recipe for you, from that eternally-in-progress cookbook of mine!

Nettle (or Spinach) Yogurt Dip
(Serves 2 or more)

1 cup of steamed nettles (or cooked spinach)
3/4-1 cup yogurt (or goat milk yogurt, or a mixture of yogurt and cream cheese, or sour cream and soft goat cheese!)
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, minced
Lemon juice, fresh, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Steam the nettles or spinach leaves until they’re tender, usually about  15-20 minutes. Place the nettles with the yogurt in a bowl and blend well with a fork, or mash in a mortar with a pestle. It’s hard to get spinach soft enough to blend with a fork, so you might want to use a blender or a food mill. Cook the garlic over low heat in a buttered skillet until barely golden. Add the garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. After working everything together, taste and adjust salt, pepper, and lemon juice to your taste.

This morning we had the most delicious breakfast! I had made a double batch of nettle dip some days ago, and remembered a wonderful-looking recipe in Sandoor Katz’s incredible book Wild Fermentation. He uses homemade kefir in making these great savory pancakes called Drawoe Kura, from Tibet. I thought, how great these would be made with nettle dip instead of kefir! We ate them this morning with some extra nettle dip and melted butter, a bit of warmed-up leftover red wine-braised chicken, with a mug of today’s freshly boiled nettles in their cooking water served on the side. Homemade chutney and some kalamata olives were very nice with all of that, too, but entirely optional! Rhiannon was enjoying her breakfast so much she said wistfully, “I wish I could eat this forever”.

Savory Buckwheat Cakes with Nettle Dip:

1 cup Nettle Dip (or yogurt or kefir)
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup water
olive oil, for cooking

With a whisk or a fork, combine all ingredients. Heat a large skillet to medium-high, and pour about a tablespoon of oil in the pan. (I used some homemade Rosemary Oil). Ladle a small amount of batter in three or four places in the pan, for small pancakes. Let brown on one side before flipping and browing on the next. Serve with butter and more Nettle Dip, some fresh ground pepper, and whatever else you might fancy.  Enjoy!

P.S.

If you think you don’t have a nearby Stinging Nettle patch look again, they’re more common than you probably think! Try searching for them in shady spots near a river or where there’s moisture. In the event that there really isn’t any in your area spinach makes a good substitute.

-Love, Loba

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