NEWS FROM THE HILLS
The showy pink blossoms on the redbud trees are forming little green beans as summer slowly slides into our hills. From hollow to hilltop, from meadow to creek bank, everything is green. The leaves on the trees grow fuller day by day, as songbirds build their nests and settle down to the serious business of raising a family.
Early gardens are being planted, and some folks are enjoying homegrown leaf lettuce and tender green onions. These fresh vegetables are unmatched, yet the lure of wild foods tempts me to roam the hills. The most sought-for mushroom, the elusive morel, seemed more elusive than ever this year.
They didn’t seem to come up in the usual secret patches, and were spotty in other places. We had one good mess of small ones, although I had a report of someone finding a plastic grocery bag full. Our neighbor at the camp found some as big as a teacup, but our luck was poor. There is always next spring.
The redbud beans can be used as food. When we were youngsters, we used these “green beans” in our playhouse, and it was a surprise when I discovered they were edible. They have to be picked at the young and tender stage, or else eating them resembles a mouthful of hay.
I have stir-fried them in hot oil with garlic, and added soy sauce. They can be combined with other vegetables to make stir-fries. There is something about using wild foods that satisfies a basic desire in many of us.
When I am up at the camp, I like to try as many wild foods as I can. I think it harks back to the game we used to play called “Survival.” We would pretend we were lost in the wilderness and had to survive on nothing but the wild foods we found. Sometimes it was pretty slim pickings.
One spring I found a new growth of cattails in a marshy place. I cut the tender new shoots in pieces and steamed them in a small amount of water. I added butter, salt and pepper and served them to a dubious husband. He had to agree they were quite good.
My wild food cookbook suggests using young cattails as you would sweet corn. Gather them when they are just forming their tender new bloom spikes and are still green— before the yellow pollen begins to show. (When that happens, you will feel as if you are eating a mouthful of cotton fibers.)
Boil as you would ears of corn, and saturate with lots of butter or margarine to overcome the slight dryness. Add salt and pepper to taste. A cattail and cheese casserole can also be made with the steamed cattail buds, scraped from the stalks. I want to try this wild food “corn” as soon as I find the young cattails.
We have had some delicious messes of poke greens, and I was reminded of a dish that Mom used to make. She would parboil the stalks until tender, then roll them in corn meal or flour. These were fried in hot lard or bacon grease—of course we use canola and olive oil now.
The common daylily is one of the most versatile wild foods in our area. Everyone can identify this flower with its lovely orange blooms. From the young shoots to the unopened buds to the fully opened flower, it can be used in a variety of ways. The young shoots in early spring are good just steamed, salted and buttered.
The unopened buds can be stir-fried in oil with onion, garlic and ginger. Add soy or tamari sauce if desired. I relish the buds steamed with butter, but to my sorrow I found that too many can prove quite a cathartic.
My cousin Ray McCune from Indiana asked me if I had ever heard of hickory syrup. He said his mother (from West Virginia) used to make it to use on pancakes when she ran out of maple syrup. He said it was not made from the sap, but from the bark. I had never heard of it, but did a little research on it.
I read that it is made with the mysterious extract from the bark of the shagbark hickory tree. My source says this tree is native only to Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. That is not entirely true, as the shagbark hickory grows here as well.
The recipe is secret, dating back at least 200 years with its roots tracing back to the American Indians who once inhabited this area. It is used in many recipes including glazes and sauces for beef, pork, fish and fowl. Also it is used in drink mixes, salad dressings, cakes and cookies, as well as poured over pancakes, waffles and ice cream.
There is a husband and wife team who manufactures and ships the syrup (and jealously guards the secret recipe.) Cousin Ray says he remembers his mother making the syrup, but he was not interested in the recipe—just the end result. Since his mother made it, someone else may know the recipe.
The Lord has provided us with so many good natural foods, and our hills have been abundantly blessed. I am grateful.
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