The Hudson Valley is a bounty of fresh produce throughout the calendar year, but the diverse offerings that the summer brings truly can’t be beat. Summer squash is a gem of the warm months; its versatility allows for endless tantalizing and delicious preparations. A nutritious staple of the Amerindians for centuries, summer squash makes a great addition to a summer feast.

A more delicate and soft-shelled squash variety with thin edible skin and seeds, it has a tender flesh that requires only a short cooking time. Low in calories, and high in vitamin C and fiber, summer squash are often picked immature and eaten within a short period of time since they are very perishable. Take advantage of this short window of summer squashy goodness by whipping up a delicious and nutritious stuffed summer squash as the entrée, or serve it cold with drizzled olive oil, chopped walnuts, and crumbled goat cheese for a delicate and fresh starter.

Stuffed Summer Squash

• 4 long summer squash

• A few pinches salt and pepper

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 shallot, finely chopped

• 1 stalk celery, chopped

• 1 carrot, grated

• 4 Italian sausages removed from casing (Fleisher’s in Kingston has some great options when it comes to the world of fresh meat)

• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese

• 1 egg, lightly beaten

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 1/4 cup water (for the pan)

Home Cooking brings together family and friends, mends any tiff, and ads an extra kick of goodness to life. A meal featuring the oh-so-wonderful squash is sure to please, and turn simple sustenance into a work of love and art. Our bodies crave the essential vitamins and nutrients that this fruit of our valley has inside. So stray from the norm, indulge and make summer squash the star of your summer meal. You deserve it.

by Maria Reidelbach

 

This month, I have the pleasure of reviewing a new book written by clinical herbalist Dina Falconi and illustrated by botanical artist Wendy Hollender, two Rondout Valley residents. They have created a work of art. These women have amazing chops in their respective fields, and I have been eagerly awaiting this book almost since work began over three years ago. The finished product surpasses my dreams; it's nothing short of the best wild foods cookbook I've seen and the most beautifully illustrated. Certainly this is not a book about weeds.

Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide & Wild Food Cookbook is a large, hardcover book—not truly a field guide—but it is overflowing with useful information on finding, identifying and cooking native and invasive plants. This fulsome source is ever-so-timely in a number of ways. First, it's about free food! I'm an artist and have always had my eye open for freebie snacks, but with the economy the way it is, most everyone watches their spending. Second, many wild foods are more delicious and flavorful than their domesticated counterparts—and some have no civilized kin and their flavor is a wonderful novelty. Third, it shows a way to eat more local food—right from your backyard. The carbon footprint of eating food from your yard is...zero! And last, wild plants are a whole food and chock full of nutrition. Wildcrafters have known for a long time that foraged plants are extra nutritious, and now science is catching up. In the last 15 years new technology has enabled researchers to measure the amount of phytonutrients in our food. What's a phytonutrient? They are the compounds that reduce the risk of a bunch of nasty, fatal diseases: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even dementia.  When plants were domesticated and bred to be sweeter and blander, these tasty compounds were bred right out. Wild plants contain three to thirty times the amount of these essential nutrients than domesticated plants (see source below).

Don't you find it just amazing that there's an abundance of free, delicious, nutrition-packed, low-environmental impact whole foods that are, literally, yours for the taking? Mother Nature is so generous!

Foraging & Feasting will enable you to harvest the bounty and make wild plants a regular and substantial part of your everyday diet. The book comprises two parts. In a full color section, 50 wild plants each star on their own page. Wendy's drawings and the handsome graphic design make each composition a delight to behold. Plants are identified by common and botanical names and every part is depicted, and often shown in various stages of growth. Dina's annotation homes in on salient features of each plant—which parts are edible, growth habits, habitat, culinary uses and caveats. Wendy's illustrations are more helpful than photographs because they can highlight distinctive characteristics that will help you identify a plant with certainty and confidence. Even though I know most of the plants in this book on sight, I learned much from the detailed and well-organized information. And the beauty of these pages makes them a pleasure to browse and linger over. There are several detailed charts that make it easy to learn, compare and reference types, origins, habitats, harvest times, and culinary uses of the 50 featured plants.

In very readable introductions Dina discusses how to identify, harvest and store wild foods, and how to use the identification pages. She also describes her philosophy of cooking and nutrition—as a life-long food activist she has worked out a sensibly healthy diet. Dina has very high standards about the quality of the food she recommends, but she is also understanding about living in the real world and the compromises that are necessary to get a meal on the table.

The cookbook section is based on master recipes—simple formulae that make it easy to substitute ingredients and elaborate or simplify a recipe at will. If you're harvesting wild plants you don't know what the day will bring; a master recipe shows you how to wing it. Foraging & Feasting has over 100 master recipes that Dina has tested and used for years—anyone who has attended a potluck with Dina knows what a great cook she is! There are many recipes for familiar dishes using wild plants: herb and fruit drinks, dips and spreads, salads and dressings, all kinds of soups (green, bean, cream and bisque), sandwiches, green salads, whole meal grain salads, main dishes, and desserts. There are also recipes for dishes that are less familiar, like water kefir, agua frescas, and lacto-fermented foods. Even though this is not a book on herbal medicine, it is full of information about the specific health-giving qualities of each plant. The cookbook section is so generous and complete that it could even stand alone as a very good general cookbook.

Foraging & Feasting is currently available through the website foragingandfeasting.com, and also soon stocked at local bookstores. There is a public Book Release Party on Sunday, July 14 from 4 to 7pm at Hollengold Farm, 222 Lower Whitfield Road, Accord. Books will be available for purchase at $38 and can be signed by the creators.

Links and sources:

foragingandfeasting.com

Jo Robinson, “Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food,” New York Times Sunday Review, 5/26/13, p. 1, 6-7.

Jo Robinson web site: eatwild.com

[to box?]

Agua Frescas Master Recipe

From Foraging & Feasting by Dina Falconi

Agua Frescas, from my native Mexico, combine water, fruit, and sweetener to produce refreshing celebrations of the season. Using the least amount of sweetener allows the flavors of the fruits to burst forth.

• 2 cups fresh or frozen fruit (about 8-10 oz) cut into 2-inch pieces. Remove large pits and seeds or, if using berries or grapes, leave whole

• 3 cups water

• 2-4 tablespoons sweetener (more or less to taste) such as raw honey, maple syrup or Sucanat

Blend the ingredients well, strain if desired, chill if desired, and serve. It is best to drink Agua Frescas right after they are made, but they will keep, if covered in the refrigerator, for 2-3 days. If making ahead of time, re-blend or shake well just before serving.

Note: Straining the Agua Frescas is unnecessary if the fruit you are using has only a few small seeds and you enjoy drinking a more textured liquid.

Makes one quart.

Illustration caption:

From Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook, by Dina Falconi, illustrated by Wendy Hollender.

Maria Reidelbach is the proprietress of Homegrown Mini-Golf. With its farm theme and all-edible landscaping, Homegrown Mini-Golf was named by MSN as one of the 10 Most Unusual Mini-Golfs in the United States.

by Tod Westlake

If you haven’t been to Shadowland Theatre in Ellenville for a while, you might not recognize it. In the past few years the theater has taken on a major capital project that has turned its faded façade and interior into a theater venue that would be the envy of any community. And with the theater’s new season in full swing, you couldn’t pick a better time to reacquaint yourself with the place.

“A little over two years ago we set out to raise one-million dollars for, essentially, what has become a four-phase project,” says Shadowland’s artistic director Brendan Burke. “The first one was to build actor housing. We achieved that a couple of years back.”

Shadowland then turned toward fixing up the theater itself, which Burke says was broken down into two main phases.

“First, we did the front half of the building, so a new façade, a new roof, the marquee, offices, and the lobby. We finished that up last summer. We also added 22 seats in the theater.”

This past winter, the group took on the renovation of the rest of the building, which consisted of the main auditorium, the main roof of the building, the walls other than the front wall, and the backstage area, which includes green rooms and dressing rooms.

“We also rebuilt the entire stage,” says Burke. “And we revamped the sound system and the lighting.” Burke says that, at first, this endeavor didn’t have the large scope into which it eventually grew, but once the theater got started on the first project, it seemed like a good idea to just keep going.

“Originally I don’t think our plans were to do that much to this building,” Burke says. “But we did. We did it all. And we completed the project on the Tuesday before we opened for the season.”

Folks will also be interested to know that, from now on, the theater will be able to operate in the winter months, as it now has a state-of-the-art HVAC system. In prior years, the building would be temporarily mothballed.

“We’ll be thinking about what kind of programming we want to fit in there [during the winter] that will suit our mission,” Burke says. “A good part of it will be family oriented with our kids’ shows, and the kids’ classes and their performances. But it also offers us the opportunity to do some one-night stands with musical acts and things like that.”

The theater also recently acquired the storefront situated on the corner across from Cohen’s Bakery on Market Street that will eventually be turned into a 99-seat ancillary theater.

“It’s currently serving as our rehearsal space and our classroom space,” Burke says.

The board of directors for the theater, according to Burke, had formulated a 15-year plan as to where it wanted the theater to go over the next decade-plus, and that one of the constant conundrums it faced was a lack of rehearsal space when the stage is in use.

“If we have a show onstage, where do we have the kids’ classes?” Burke says. “So we looked around at the various places in the village, and this seemed like a really dynamic spot.”

With big picture-windows, the rehearsal space will have the effect of inviting the public to check out what is going on in the interior. Burke says that he especially wanted to thank Hal Brill for donating it to the theater.

“Hal Brill is a big supporter of the theater, and he was interested in having the space used, so he donated it to us,” Burke says. “We now have all the plans [for the second theater] sketched out, but we won’t be able to start that construction until we pay off the construction of the main building.”

As for this season of performances, Burke says that it’s off to a terrific start. The season’s opening play, "The Outgoing Tide," recently finished up its run, with terrific reviews. Next up is "Love/Sick," a romantic comedy written and directed by Tony Award-nominated auteur John Cariani, whose earlier play, "Almost Maine," has become one of the most-performed plays in the country. Then, beginning on July 12, Burke himself will direct the farce "Boeing, Boeing." For details on performances at Shadowland, call 845-647-5511 or visit shadowlandtheatre.org. Either way, be sure to stop by and check out Shadowland’s transformation the next time you’re in Ellenville.

“Aesthetically, the space is really remarkable when you walk in right now,” Burke says. “It’s a big transition that respects the Art Deco history of the theater, but also moves the Art Deco forward with a more industrial feel. It’s really a beautiful space.”

Wheat has been grown and domesticated ever since our species has been growing and domesticating. It’s such an ancient and ubiquitous staple that it’s mentioned 39 times in the Old Testament of the Bible. And in the early 20th century, wheat was still being grown and milled in the Northeast.

“There used to be mills all around the Hudson Valley region,” says Community Grain Project founder Don Lewis of Dutchess County. “But that part of the food system collapsed long ago, before big growers started modifying wheat strains for higher yield and longer shelf life. This is an extreme climate for cereal grains, and when the Erie Canal opened, farmers began moving to the Ohio Valley, where there was better soil. Mills went with them, and the ones around here were abandoned.” Later in the 20th century, selective breeding by farmers produced wheat designed to maximize profit.

When Lewis began working with wheat over a dozen years ago at Wild Hive Farms in Clinton Corners, he very nearly had to reinvent the process. “There were no resources and there was no one to teach me; I made a lot of poor flour in the beginning,” he recalls. “And there was no consumer base. Local grain was basically a lost part of the food system.”

The wheat produced by agribusiness doesn’t just lack food value—an issue the industry attempts to remedy by “enriching” flours, breads and pasta with chemical vitamins—it can actually do harm. The 2011 book Wheat Belly by cardiologist William Davis implicates wheat gluten in a host of ills: obesity, arthritis, asthma, and even mental and emotional issues.

But while Davis advocates complete “wheatlessness”, even he admits that modern wheat is the biggest offender. “It’s the product of 40 years of genetics research aimed at increasing yield-per-acre,” he notes on the Wheat Belly website. “The genetic distance modern wheat has drifted exceeds the difference between chimpanzees and humans.”

The 1% of people who suffer from celiac disease must indeed avoid anything wheat-related. But many others who experience lesser ill effects from eating standard wheat may find that the kind of strains Lewis is working with—ancient cultivars such as spelt, emmer, barley and rye, stone ground to retain the germ and bran—produce products they are able to enjoy without ill effects. “I have customers who are gluten-intolerant who can eat my products,” Lewis says. “Especially fresh. All protein gets rancid as it gets old—fresh-milled flour causes many people fewer issues.”

The milling process is an extremely important part of creating healthy grain products. “Mechanized roller mills are much faster than milling with stones,” says Lewis, who nevertheless manages to mill 120 tons of grain a year these days. “But when you roller mill you completely lose both the germ and the bran, which contain the amino acids and minerals. Supermarket bread that’s advertised as ‘stone ground’ comes from running flour that has already been roller milled through stone mills—you still end up with something with no nutrient density and no flavor.”

In restoring density and flavor to the local diet, Lewis found an ally in Eli Rogosa, the woman behind the Heritage Grain Conservancy (growseed.org). For the past two decades, Rogosa has been journeying to the Middle East and Europe, gathering up ancient strains to protect them from extinction. “I maintain hundreds and hundreds of samples from all over the world, and the ones I sell are chosen as the healthiest grains and most likely to thrive,” she says. “I started doing this first because I am originally from the Fertile Crescent and I got fascinated. I am as much an anthropologist of wheat as anything, although I also have a bakery.” The varieties Rogosa collects are the landrace cultivars—strains that have evolved to suit various growing conditions spontaneously, rather than being selectively bred by humans to suit our purposes.

Rogosa’s work is supported by the European Union, Israel, and the USDA; collaborating with the University of Massachusetts Research Farm, she’s been able to experiment with a range of heritage grains. “Modern wheat contributes to the increase in gluten sensitivity. Einkorn is actually not genetically related to [modern] wheat; it doesn’t cause gluten allergic reactions. It’s safe, ancient gluten. I have a problem eating gluten, but I can eat ancient wheat just fine.”

“Since I began, there has been an enormous increase in interest,” Rogosa observes with satisfaction. Lewis agrees: “Demand is tremendous—the main thing is to get growers to start growing again, and there are hundreds of acres potentially being added this year,” he says. “Consumer awareness is at a completely different level than it was fifteen years ago. I started the Wild Hive Bakery knowing that I had to get this wheat into people’s stomachs. I closed it because my energy needs to be going into the Community Grain Project. It’s really coming to fruition, but it needs to keep getting bigger and wider, with more outlets.”

Interest is spreading: on the website of the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s New York website are announcements of upcoming workshops entitled “Producing Heirloom Wheat for the Personal Homestead” and “Diversifying Your Farm with Value-Added Grains.” Rogosa says that growers in Vermont and Massachusetts and at Cornell University have begun working with heritage wheat. But it’s not quite as simple as growing your own tomatoes: the hand-harvesting process involves stages like threshing that are labor-intensive and no longer a part of common knowledge, and then there’s the necessity of having a nearby mill that will grind your crop into flour.

Thanks to Lewis and his Community Grain Project, the growers of the Hudson Valley have the milling piece of the puzzle in place. And food-aware chefs and consumers have taken notice. Celebrity chef Mario Batali uses Wild Hive products extensively at his Eataly NYC artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace, and at Bread Alone in Boiceville, Sharon Burns-Leader uses Wild Hive flour to create a spelt bread described as “sweet, earthy and good for customers with digestive issues.” Hudson Valley outlets for Wild Hive’s flours include Mother Earth’s Storehouse in Saugerties; Woodstock Meats and Sunfrost Farms in Woodstock; Adams Fairacre Farms in Lake Katrine and Poughkeepsie; New Paltz Health and Nutrition Center and Taliaferro Farms in New Paltz; Red Hook Natural Foods; Rhinebeck Health Foods; the Beacon Natural Market; and Nature’s Pantry in Fishkill.