August’s Community Garden Stars!

Super foods are very much in demand by everyone interested in nutrition. Berries, of course, are all famous as super foods. Many of them taste great and they provide us with important health benefits. Aronia berries, pictured growing at our local community garden, are the queen of super berries and one of the stars of the August garden. 

According to the USDA, Aronia berries have the highest antioxidant score of all berries tested! (1) They are also high in fiber and vitamins C and K, (2) as well as iron. (3) Aronia berries health benefits have been well researched. The studies indicate that they may be healthful for people suffering from many different conditions. Whether you are looking for preventative foods to reduce your chances heart attacks or cancer, lower your cholesterol, help lower elevated blood sugar, improve and heal the digestive system, reduce inflammation, slow or reverse weight gain, and improve the immune system, (1) Aronia berries might be just what you need. No single food, however, is a cure all. But making good food choices is certainly a good idea. 

While you may not have heard of these rare berries before, they are native to the North Eastern United States and range up into Canada. They prefer cool moist climates, thus thriving here in Pacific County. They are easy to grow, can be started from cuttings or divisions, and they don’t require any supplemental irrigation here in the Willapa Harbor area. They are vigorous, however, and need room to stretch out, or careful attention to pruning.

Growing Together Community Garden members; Fransisco Valencia, Edna Garcia, and Norma Tapia, as well as their children love our Aronia berries as you can see.   They have also been the members providing the Aronia berry shrubs with their care this year; resulting in berries that are three times as large and twice as sweet as ever before.  

Now you’re wondering what those blueberry look-a-likes taste like, aren’t you?  They taste like a cross between blueberries, cranberries, and pomegranates.  Some people like them right off the bush, and some find them to be a little bit strong flavored and a little bit puckery.  But most of us wouldn’t enjoy a cranberry straight out of the bog either.  Aronia berries do well in jams, sauces, and pies, mixed with other fruit, and tossed into smoothies, pancakes, and muffins.  If you search the internet you will find many recipes.  Here’s a great page to get you started, ‘Aronia Berry Love and Six Recipes:’  http://deeprootsathome.com/aroniaberry-love-and-6-recipes/

You can taste test Aronia berries at the community garden on the corner of Adams and Water Street in South Bend any Tuesday between 4:15 and 6:00 PM.  The garden is also open for at least an hour on Saturdays beginning at 10:30 AM. Those who like the berries can help prune in the fall and take home cuttings to start for their own yards.  If you don’t have room, you might want to ask about a garden membership.  The garden doesn’t have any openings right now, but there may be an opening or two in the near future.  For more information contact the garden coordinator, Harvest McCampbell, at (360) 934-5792 or (707) 834-2985.

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Published in the Willapa Harbor Herald on  8.3.16, reprinted here with permission.  All rights reserved.

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Sources:  


(1)   http://aroniaberryservicesofneiowa.com/health-benefits.html

(2)   http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/chokeberry.html
(3)   http://spiritfoods.net/health-benefits-of-aronia-berries/

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 Note to readers:   I have been the coordinator of Growing Together Community Gardens for about a year and a half.  It keeps me very busy.  :)  You can check out our photos and posts on our facebook page.   Thanks!

BBQ Garden Connection

Sharing another note written for our local community garden members . . .   Some of it won't apply to the public at large, but some may prove useful!

While everyone knows there are many things we can grow in the garden that are tasty cooked on the grill or used in a sauce, some people may not have started experimenting with using garden grown natural smoke flavorings yet. Get your taste buds ready!

Rosemary at Growing Together Gardens

Rosemary is the most well known garden smoke flavoring, and we do have some rosemary to share in the garden. We have two varieties of rosemary, one is a tender version and one is more woody. The woody one is the one you want for the BBQ, and ours is a little over grown and needs cut back. It is growing in the large octagonal bed that was formerly tended by Adam and Melissa. This is the one closest to both the rows of rectangular garden beds and to Water Street. The part that needs cut back in hanging out of the garden bed. If you pruned a four inch piece, that would give you enough to try, and it would leave the rest for other people who wanted to try it as well. This is also the best rosemary for drying and grinding to use as a spice. If it turns out that no one wants it for the BBQ, maybe latter in the season someone will want to dry it for use in their kitchen. 


Another thing we have in the garden, which makes an excellent smoke flavoring is our raspberry canes! In fact, all the related cane fruits--raspberry, black berry, thimble berry, logan berry, and so on—produce a very tasty smoke. The canes themselves add fruity flavors, and the leaves which also have fruity notes, are more complex and hard to describe. If you have used fruit wood on the BBQ or in the some house, cane fruit is more like cherry wood than anything else, but really, it has a taste all its own.

I recently pruned back one corner of our overgrown raspberries in the garden, primarily to get them to resprout as more compact plants to give away through the food bank. That left a little pile of young canes with their leaves attached. Looking at that pile made me drool; however, I no longer run a little smoke house and I won’t be BBQing at anytime in the foreseeable future. If you would like to take some or all of those canes, they are on the ground between the new staked beds near the black compost bin and the berry patch. If no one is interested, once they are thoroughly dry, they will be safe to bury in a compost trench or to be clipped up into small pieces and put in a compost pile. If nothing else, they will contribute to our topsoil! Nothing need be wasted in an organic garden!

Questions are always welcome, in person at the garden or right here as a comment. In fact, if you want to share some BBQ tips on using anything from the garden, that would be grand.

Photo added 11.13.2016.  Text and photo copyright Harvest McCampbell.  Please feel free to use the buttons below to share.  All other rights reserved.

Coconut Berry Delight!

This easy elegant desert is fancy enough for the holidays and it is completely natural, high in fiber and protein, with no added fats or sugars!

Simple, Vegan, Healthy!

For each serving you will need:

Coconut, dried & shredded --  scant 1/4 cup
Allspice,  dried & powdered -- dash
Chia seeds, raw, whole -- 2 teaspoons
Berry nectar or juice -- 1/4 cup +
Optional, fennel sprigs for garnish
Individual desert cups or 4 ounce jelly jars

Mix dry ingredients (coconut, allspice, & chia seed) for each serving in individual cups or jars. Gently pour juice over the mixed dry ingredients and give it a few minutes to soak in.  Stir gently to evenly moisten coconut mixture, adding a little extra if necessary.  Cover (the little canning jars come in handy for this) and let sit for 4 - 6 hours to jell, or over night. If the weather or your kitchen is on the warm side, you may want to let it sit in the fridge, in which case the jelling will take up to 12 hours.  Once jelled, it can be refrigerated for up to 12 hours before serving.

Serve in cups or jars, or invert on to a serving plate.  If inverting, use the back of a wooden spoon to pat into shape if needed.  Garnish as desired and pour a tablespoon of berry juice over the top for that haute cuisine effect.


Go Organic!

All my ingredients (except the garnish) came from Azure Standard, and they all are organic!  Azure Standard ships by truck and UPS all over the continental US, so if you live in the 'lower 48' and can get UPS delivery you can get organic!  I use their bilberry nectar, which I really like, but any juice or nectar can be used. If you canned or froze your own fruit nectar, that would be awesome!  Concord grape, cherry, or purple plum would be equally delicious . . .


Fermentation Nation!

I pro-biotic preferment my bilberry nectar, in the fridge, right in the bottles they come in.  I started out, a number of years ago,  with a pro-biotic fermented juice product that I really liked, however it is no longer on the market.  I simply poured out 1/4 cup of the freshly opened juice, and poured in 1/4 cup of the bottled fermented juice as starter, and put it in the fridge for a couple of days. When the fermented juice product was no longer available, over a year ago, I switched to using a 1/4 cup of my last batch to start the next batch.  If you have a favorite raw pro-biotic fermented juice product and you want to try fermenting your own juice, the one you like would probably make a great starter.   If you don't have a favorite,  when visiting your local co-op or health food store ask them if they have any pro-biotic fermented juice products. There are many different strains of fermenting starters and they all give a different flavor to the end product, so taste testing is best.  However, you can also buy or order starters for home fermenting.

The only possible risk, that I know of, with home fermenting, is the possibility of  catching a wild culture that may cause spoilage. It is even remotely possible to catch something that might make you sick. With this in mind, it is important to keep your kitchen and your fridge clean and free of spoiling food, and to take the compost out frequently, so you don't have a source of mold spores or other organisms that contribute to spoilage. Reading a good book on fermenting is also a good idea for beginners, your local health food store or co-op can probably recommend something that focuses on what you want to ferment.

I use home fermented bilberry nectar to make my Coconut Berry Delight.  The fermented nectar is thicker and the flavor is more complex and intense.  The thickness allows one to use slightly more nectar and still get the end result to jell and mound on the plate. The intensity of the fermented berry flavor nearly completely overpowers the much more subtly flavored coconut. 

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Hey, I've been here twice this week!  I probably won't be keeping that up, but I will stop in once in a while.  There is really a tremendous amount of information here on gardening as well as a little on cooking and food prep. 

Guess what?  Speaking of gardening, fennel is in season in most mild climates right now.  If you don't have it out in the garden, you can probably find it on a well stocked produce counter . . . .

Meanwhile if  you have questions or tips to share, please feel free!

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