Elderberry Wisdom

by Herbalist Greg Monzel, General manager, Pogue's Run Grocer (Indy Food Co-op)

The elderberry grows throughout the world and is considered sacred over its entire distribution, hence the name Elder. It is said in America that elder, if disrespected, will curse the person with bad medicine.

Pick the oddly bitter, nutrient-dense berries just before they're fully ripe (now), or the birds will beat you to them. If using them for the first time, try eating a couple dozen sprinkled over vanilla ice cream for dessert. Eaten in excess, the raw berries have a laxative effect, so only take a handful or so at a time.

Elderberries are eaten fresh, dried, made into jelly and jam, juiced, tinctured, and made into syrup, wine or excelsior. The richest antiviral and immune stimulating properties are found in the berries and skin, so I like to throw them in the blender. To preserve the blended berries, add 95% grain alcohol (Everclear) in a ratio of 1 part alcohol to 4 parts elder juice, and they will last all winter in the refrigerator. Use liberally when viral illness first comes on, especially flu symptoms at first onset.

Some elderberry extracts have shown activity to disable virus' ability to bind to human cells, effectively sterilizing the cold and flu virus: this is why one must take it at the very onset of symptoms. Often, by the time a person feels the symptoms of cold, their body has already destroyed the virus. The symptoms are a result of the inflammation response to the viral replication; elderberry also has inflammatory properties related to its antioxidant effects that modulate inflammation in the immune response, reducing cold symptoms. In influenza, elder speeds the course of the virus and reduces the agony. (Note: Dr. Oz includes the elderberry among his five superfood immunity boosters.)

The blended berries, once strained, may also be frozen into ice cubes for preservation. In therapeutic use, I prefer the syrup with echinacea, lemon and ginger juice.

You can cook the berries without compromising their virtues; I suggest a low simmer, and using honey to make a syrup.

While the berries have mild fever reducing qualities, the fever reducing quality is stronger in the flowers, which are safe for infants and geriatrics and may be taken internally or made into a bath. The flowers are also made into a champagne. The flowers bear their own naturally occurring wild yeasts. Elder tincture is best when made in the spring with the flowers, then used to extract the berries in fall.

Elder stems are hollow, and are traditionally fashioned into pipestems. The leaves are fairly toxic, but not deadly. The plant loves wet soils, and I planted these in almost every project I worked on with the Plantsmen nursery in upstate NY. We put them along drainage areas with native echinaceas, geraniums, and goldenrod.

Photo by Greg Monzel, who will be sharing his wildcrafting know-how at the SkillShare.

Who's Your Farmer?

I was recently talking with a friend who is heavily invested in the slow food/real food/local food movement. He’d happened to catch a news story about the egg recall, in which a CDC expert assured people how to make sure they were consuming eggs in a safe fashion. “It was all about cooking the eggs till the yolks were hard,” he told me in frustration. “They missed a phenomenal opportunity to tell people that the best way to avoid salmonella poisoning is to just know their farmer.”

It’s not that you can’t possibly get sick from a local farmer’s egg. And the advice was sound; it just left out a whole story about the way the vast majority of chickens are raised, and how unsurprising it is that an unhealthy food system produces chickens that are infected with salmonella. Here is one urban farmer's perspective: backyard flocks are key.

Fortunately for those of us who aren't in a position to keep our own chickens, there are plenty of small farmers who raise them for us and offer their eggs at farmers markets all over town. When I went to Binford Market last weekend, a long line stood in front of Homestead Heritage Farms’ table. I heard the apple-cheeked Amish(?) proprietress tell someone ahead of me, “They just need to get the chickens back on grass the way God intended.”

“People I’ve never seen before are buying eggs today,” she told me.

I responded that those folks were probably going to get hooked and start turning up at her table every week. Pastured eggs, with their rich orange yolks, are a far cry from the sad, anemic eggs the grocery store carries.

For my part, until I am able to tend my own little flock (possibly never) like our SkillShare presenter Beth Harp, I am making a point to buy from local small farmers whose hens are happily raised on pasture.

Tomato Abundance

by guest blogger Dan Hess, Irvington resident and urban farmer

Our Irvington lot is heavily shaded, so there's not much room for sun-loving vegetable plants. This year we have limited the garden to three tomatoes, one eggplant, six onions, parsley, cilantro and basil. Elsewhere I planted summer squash and green beans. Fresh tomatoes now cover the kitchen bar.

Our favorite tomato is an heirloom, carefully bred over decades by my wife's father in Pennsylvania. He sold seeds under a brand name, but the family saved one variety known by the code name GL-18.

This year I planted early, under a plastic tent, so that we could pick our first tomato in June. I know, however, that tomatoes have a mind of their own; they prefer to grow in hot weather.

Each tomato stalk was given four square feet. We trained the stalks up a wire fence. When squirrels began to eat green tomatoes, we retrieved bags of hair from a local barber and scattered blonde, brown and grey tresses under the tomatoes. The squirrels, I suppose, feared animals of prey.

Now we have more tomatoes than we can eat. We share with neighbors and freeze tomato sauces for later use.

I hear that many tomato growers are disappointed in this year's crop. We did not have blight or fungus rot, but I did immediately cut off stems that began to wilt. We have an abundance from three stalks.

Presenter Profile: Linda Proffitt

A Conversation with Linda Proffitt, founder and executive director of Global Peace Initiatives

What will you be presenting?

We will have a prototype home-sized model for a polyculture growing environment. [Note: Polyculture refers to growing more than one species at a time. In this case, plants and fish are cultivated together in a recirculating environment.]

Why should people be interested?

Many people may be interested in growing herbs and fish in their own home.

How did you get started down this path?

Global Peace Initiatives is engaging with our partner organizations to create polyculture growing systems. We want to make these food systems available to people in their homes.

What resources are available in this cutting edge field?

Global Peace Initiatives and our partners at Manual High School STAR Academy for Agricultural Science and Business are your polyculture growing environment social entrepreneurs. Contact us for more information at (317) 222-1556.

Presenter Profile: Patricia Waters and Joe Harding, Beginning Home Beekeepers

A Conversation with Patricia Waters, Beginning Home Beekeepers

What will you be presenting?

I'll be sharing my experiences and resources as a beginning backyard beekeeper "assistant" to my husband, Joe Harding, the primary beekeeper in the family (shown below).

Why should people be interested?
I think this will interest others who like to garden organically and are interested in supporting beneficial insects, and harvesting and using products of the hive.

What resources do you recommend for aspiring beekeepers?

I would heartily recommend the Indiana Beekeeper's Association Bee School and membership resources, as well as the Purdue clinics AND contacting and networking with other local backyard beekeepers.

What are some of the rewards of beekeeping?

I have learned enough in the last couple of years to be able to work easily in my garden with the 2-3 hives we have installed in our backyard. I have sooo much to learn about hive management and helping to keep the bees strong and healthy, but I was pleased to have assisted with our first honey harvest. We extracted 4.5 pounds of honey for home use and processed enough beeswax to make container candles for the year.

Introducing Wendi Garringer

Another of our awesome presenters!

What You Will Find at the SkillShare

Irvington SkillShare "Feast"ival Topics/Presenters

 

Winter

    Garden

Vermiculture - Alan Archibald, The Growing Community

Aquaculture - Linda Proffitt, Global Peace Initiatives

    Kitchen

Soups, Stews, Grassfed beef - Jane Hagenauer and Anna Chase, Artesian Farm

Kitchen sprouts - Anna Chase, Artesian Farm

Sneaking Healthy Fare into your Family's Meals - Rosie Bishop

  

Spring

    Garden

Cold frames - Wendi Garringer, Irvington resident

Backyard Chickens – Pepper Partin, Irvington resident

Beekeeping - Patricia Waters/Joe Harding, Beginning Home Beekeepers 

Edible landscaping - Amy Mullen, Spotts Lawn and Garden Service

Rain barrels –Tyler and Laura Henderson, Growing Places Indy

    Kitchen

Wildcrafting/foraging/herbalism - Greg Monzel, Pogue's Run Grocer

Fermenting - Mark Cox and Joshua Hensen, Fermenti Artisan

Summer

    

    Garden

Small Space Gardening - Darren Chittick and Frank Dennis, Little Flower Farms

    Kitchen

Solar Cooking – Judy Hostetler and Shawndra Miller, Irvington Green Initiative

Autumn

    Garden

Composting/Leaves – Terry Spotts, Spotts Lawn and Garden Service

Seed Saving – Kay Grimm, Basic Roots Community Foods

 

     Kitchen

Canning – Alan and Betsy Bernstein, Alan's Catered Events

Bread - Matt Groshek, Irvington resident

  

 

Resource Tables (partial list)

Native Plants/Backyard Wildlife Habitat – Pat Brown, Irvington Garden Club

 

Native Pollinators – Sara O'Brien, Irvington resident

 

Starter Steps to Going Local - April Hammerand, Indianapolis Food, Farm and Family Coalition

    

The Importance of Eating Joyfully

by Guest Blogger Matthew Jose of Big City Farms

One thing that I have noticed over the past few years is how little time I take to prepare elaborate meals during the summer months – I simply don’t have the time or the energy and, oftentimes, sandwiches become my default meal of choice. This is one reason why I have felt particularly fortunate these past few weeks to be invited and participate in wonderful meals with friends and acquaintances. Some of the gatherings have been quite small, with just a few close friends. Others have been larger affairs where I seem to know perhaps half of the folks attending. It was at one of these larger, pitch-in events that something was said that continues to crop up in my mind, even weeks after the fact.

My son and I, along with two close friends, had driven to another friend’s family farm where her parents still lived and still raised a relatively small number of cows. We were there for a large dinner that included a few local chefs we’ve worked with, as well as their families, and other assorted folks. Needless to say, we were looking forward to a brief respite in the country, surrounded by good food.

Once we arrived, everyone was soon busy – either prepping items for dinner or exploring the pastures and trying to find the cows. Eventually, everything was ready and we gathered around a collection of mismatched tables, covered with bowls and platters of delicious-looking food. Before we began eating, the unassuming patriarch of the family, the man who now spent much of his time gardening and looking after his beloved cows, rose to offer a toast. He mentioned how happy he was that we could all be there, and reminded us of the importance of enjoying food in the company of good friends. Soon after, we began passing around the food, helping ourselves, and began the meandering and lovely experience of long summer dinners.

The thing that stuck with me was that this gentleman, who is an active participant in his own food sources, did not even mention the notion and importance of ‘local’ food. Instead, he emphasized the experience of eating with friends, of preparing and enjoying foods that we each offer to our community with pride and love. I couldn’t tell if he felt like the ‘local-ness’ of the food was inevitable or an afterthought, but I appreciated his viewpoint.

Within our small world of local food producers and advocates, we tend to think of the food’s origin as the end-all, be-all. We ignore the other steps that naturally accompany that experience – preparing and sharing that food (with ourselves or in the company of others). And those steps are just as vital and filled with possibilities (probably more so) as going to a farmers’ market or picking up a CSA share. It is in those moments that the majority of us (those who do not necessarily grow their own food) have a chance to demonstrate what joyful eating can look like - what lessons it can impart to other generations, and how it can honor ourselves and our community.

I hope that all of you are able to enjoy many meals this year – by yourself, with friends, or simply with acquaintances. Whether it is with our produce, food from other farms, or food from far away matters little. It is that act of preparation and sharing that, in my opinion, takes precedence. For with those experiences, ties can be renewed - to the land, ourselves, and our communities.

Excerpted from Big City Farms' CSA member newsletter

Introducing Fermenti Artisan

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Consider the Cookprint

by Shawndra Miller, Irvington Green Initiative co-founder / Radical Homemaker

Driving back from Northern Indiana Sunday, we happened upon the public radio show The Splendid Table, which is always a sweet listen. Host Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s absolute thrill in all things food comes through in her voice. I was salivating over her description of all the ways she used green beans and potatoes fresh from the garden.

One of her guests this weekend was a writer of a new book, Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen, which concerns ways to “shrink your cookprint.”

It's a familiar refrain: the average meal travels thousands of miles before it hits an American's plate. The local food movement has brilliantly highlighted the eco-importance of buying from small farmers within a small geographic area: less fossil fuel in transportation, less environmental harm as most are able to farm with few chemicals.

But what we don't always think about is the impact of what we do with the food after we get it home. Anyone who gardens or belongs to a CSA knows that procuring the food sustainably is only the first step. Once you have all that produce staring at you, you've got to do something with it. Except for salads, cold soups and the like, this task generally involves using some form of energy - turning on the burner, heating up the oven, setting up the crockpot.

The author offered some tips for lowering cookprints, one of which had Kasper a bit chagrined: boiling water for pasta and then turning the burner off once the pasta is in the closed pot. Apparently this is sacrilege in Italian circles, but it does work. (I tested it out last night and can attest that even with whole wheat penne, you don't have to keep the water actively boiling to reach that perfect al dente texture.)

My cherished solar cooker is another way I keep my "cookprint" under control, at least in summer. I'm also a fiend about using the entire oven if it's hot, and will actively create work for myself in order to use both racks. (Roasting a chicken? How about baking squash and making a cobbler at the same time! Never mind the dirty dishes mounting in the sink.)

I intend to buy a pressure cooker in time for fall, so that when my solar cooker is retired for the season, I can replace its efficiency with an appliance that supposedly cuts cooking time by 70 percent.

I haven't researched how much energy a crockpot uses in comparison to a gas burner, but with IPL's green energy option, my crockpot is powered by clean, renewable energy sources. Guilt-free crockpot chili!

What’s your cookprint, and what are some ways you are making it smaller?

Learn more about solar cooking and other environmentally friendly food skills at the Nov. 7 Irvington SkillShare "Feast"ival, 1-5pm at Irvington United Methodist Church.

Introducing the Irvington SkillShare "Feast"ival

Back in chilly February, a few of us confirmed locavores, foodies, and homesteader types got together to talk about producing an event for the 15th annual Spirit and Place Festival, which had announced the tantalizing theme of "Food for Thought." We conceived the idea of a "skillshare" - a sort of marketplace for skills, all centered around food in some way. Putting out feelers in our community led to an immediate and enthusiastic response, and we realized we were on to something.

Six months and countless conversations later, we are deep into the planning of our program, the Irvington SkillShare "Feast"ival. And it seems that everywhere we turn, there's somebody excited to hear about what we're doing. Not only that, but the depth of talent we possess right here in our community continues to be humblingly impressive.

Some of us could be called experts, but really we are regular folks - neighbors, small business owners, do-it-yourselfers - hailing from the eastside Indianapolis neighborhoods of Irvington, Little Flower, and beyond. What we have in common is a desire to share some down-to-earth ways of becoming more self-sufficient with regard to our food.

On Sunday, Nov. 7, we invite you to join us in a sensual journey through the seasons. Come ready to see, taste, and experience what it means to be more self-reliant from garden to kitchen, following the example of some 20 presenters in this SkillShare "Feast"ival. Drawing from the knowledge of everyday people, we will offer demos on such kitchen arts as canning, fermenting your own sauerkraut, and home brewing (beer!). The outdoor side of food production will be well-represented too, with presentations on garden plotting, square foot gardening, composting, and more.

We also invite you as participants to share your own insights and ideas, because we envision the SkillShare as a true exchange, not a one-way street. This blog and our Facebook page offer two ways to do this virtually, and in fact we have big plans for this space as a way of documenting the day itself. In the meantime, stay tuned for profiles of presenters and collaborators, as well as more details about the program.