Last Pick of the year- Ginkgo Nuts!

Yesterday I did what is likely my last pick of the season with Not Far From The Tree and the object of the pick was a new one for me- ginkgo nuts! Which we prompty decided should be renamed stinko nuts - oh boy do these things reek!

I got a crash course on ginkgo today. First off, nuts are only found on female trees (I can think of so many inappropiate remarks here but lets just stick to the part where trees have gender- who knew?)The term for this is dioecious, from Greek meaning "two households" and only the female trees give off that overwhelming stench - maybe to attract the male trees?

Secondly ginkgo nuts aren't really nuts. They're more like an edible pit. The fruit surrounding the pit is also apparently edible but since that's what emits the odor there's no way I'm attempting it. There's also the fact that the flesh contains an oil known as urushiol, the same substance that causes some people to react to poison ivy and similar plants. Thankfully I am not one of those people but since picking ginkgo fruit barehanded can result in an irritation that ranges from a mild rash to full blown contact dermatitis, I decided to don those lovely gloves just in case.

If all of that isn't enough to scare you off, the nuts themselves contain MPN (4-methoxypyridoxine) which is toxic. In small doses (10 or less nuts /day) it's considered harmless but larger amounts can cause nausea, cramping, vomiting, convulsions and even death (although you'd have to consume an awful lot of them!)

Even the process of making them edible is tricky.
First you have to clean off the gucky fruit (while not getting any on your skin).

Next you crack open the shell and remove the nut.

Then you need to remove the membrane

And finally you have to cook them.


Instant gratification they are not! It took me a few hours to prepare a mere handful.


So why would anyone want to eat them? Well they are very nutritious, containing potassium, phosphorus, folate and vitamin A, and traces of zinc, copper and manganese. They also have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and vasodilatory properties and in traditional Chinese medicine they are used for a variety of ailments, particularly for conditions concerning circulation, heart and lungs. Which is great but not really enough incentive to go through all of that if you aren't sick. Luckily they also taste delcious!

I boiled the first bunch with salt until the water evapourated and they turned bright green.

They taste bit like edamame, which they resemble, but more chewy and rich. I would have liked to eat the entire batch but decided to stop at a few to make sure I didn't over indulge. I think I'll roast the next batch with oil and salt; the cooked nuts can also be added to soup and other dishes.

Once cooked the nuts can be also be stored in the fridge for about a month. And thankfully they no longer smell like rotting milk!

Now if only my house didn't.

Wordless Wednesday- This Week's Foraging

Clockwise from the top:
Black Walnuts, Toronto Island.
Yellow Plums, Not Far From The Tree pick
Green Grape Tomatoes, Sorauren Market, (bartered for some Una's Heartstock)
Mixed Unripened Tomatoes, left in a basket on the sidewalk after someone cleared their garden

Adventures in Urban Harvesting

Guess what my second NFFTT pick was?

If you guessed mulberries, you'd be half right! I actually went to a sour cherry pick, from a very tall tree located right downtown. Sadly most of the cherries were tauntingly out of reach, even from an 8 ft ladder. My share of the volunteer's split was about 2 lbs- not a great haul but free sour cherries are never a bad thing. Luckily there was also a mulberry tree in the alley right behind the house we were picking from and they were the biggest juiciest mulberries I've ever seen!
After gathering a bagful of mulberries (and staining my hand a very vivid deep purple in the process), I set out to do the rest of my errands for the afternoon. Walking to the subway, I stumbled upon a line of people waiting to receive something that was being handed out of black van parked on the sidewalk. On closer inspection I realized it was cans of beer! Molson's was giving out samples of their new brand 'M' and all they required was a swipe of your drivers license. So I lined up and walked away with a bag containing 4 cans of beer!

I continued on with my plans with my purple stained hands now carrying a bag of cherries, a bag of mulberries and a bag of beer. Some of the mulberries had leaked through the bag and I had purple smudges on my shorts and legs as well. I had to pick up a package from a hotel and I also stopped for a bit of shopping on Queen St. No one even gave me a second glance!

On my way home I was a bit hungry so I stopped at a snack wagon for a plate of chips (yes I know they're called fries but I grew up on chip wagons and if it's big chunks of deep fried potatoes served in a paper dish with a toothpick and doused with salt and vinegar, they're chips to me.) I got a bit carried away with the vinegar and it was just as I boarded the streetcar home that the paper dish began to leak. No napkins handy, I had no choice but to let it drip all down my arms and legs. I must have been quite the picture- hands dyed brilliant purple, fruit juices and vinegar dribbling all over the place- the only thing that wasn't leaking was the beer thankfully! For once I was the person no one wanted to sit near on the streetcar.

But I made it home with all my bounty- the fruit is in the fridge waiting to be canned and the Russian very much appreciated the beer. And the best part? Vinegar removes mulberries stains like magic! Who knew?

First Pick of the Year!

I went on my first pick this season with Not Far From the Tree today and came home with not one but two types of fruit- serviceberries and red currants! Serviceberries (also known as saskatoon berries) closely resemble blueberries in looks and taste, except that they grow on trees. Here in Toronto serviceberry trees are quite common, being a very popular choice of the municipal native tree planting program a few years ago. Today's pick wasn't exactly spectacular, yielding a scant 4 lbs from two trees. Half went to PARC a local community kitchen and the other half was divided between the volunteers - we were 7 in total so my share was about a cup total. The currants were an added bonus; not part of our assigned pick , the homeowner who I know from the Sorauren Market allowed me to pick them as well since he doesn't do anything with them. I ended up with just about a cup of them as well.


I debated just eating them fresh but now that I have free time again, the urge to can them won out and I hunted around until I found a recipe that suited both. What I came up with was an combination of a few different recipes, mainly based on a red currant and blueberry jam recipe found here


Small Batch Serviceberry Red Currant Jam
I used equal amounts of the berries and a matching amount of sugar -in my case 1 cup of each. With both I included some underripe berries (about 25%) to help with set since there's more available pectin.

Heat currants in a non reactive pot with a small amount of water until berries are soft and release juice. Strain through a sieve, pressing down with the back of a spoon- since it will be jam not jelly it doesn't matter if the juice is cloudy. Add juice and sugar back to the pot, heat over med high until boiling, stirring regularly.


When juice is thickened,about 5 minutes, add serviceberries and continue to boil. I also added a few cloves and allspice. Heat while stirring until serviceberries are softened, then mash with a potato masher. Stir well and check for set if necessary- I didn't have to because it was already setting in the pot. Pour in sterilized jars and process for 5 minutes in a hot waterbath canner.

I ended up with two x scant 125 ml jars which I didn't bother to can, intending to put them in the fridge. The jam turned out fantastic- sweet yet tangy, and pretty too. One jar didn't even make it to the fridge but was devoured with some brie.

Looks like I need to do some more picking!

Sugar Snow

I had to be up early this morning and I woke to world blanketed with snow. It's been a long, cold, snowy winter this year and another round of the white stuff wasn't exactly something to cheer about. Until I walked outside in the early morning hush and realized it was sugar snow!

Sugar snow may appear to be just like regular snow to the untrained eye but any one who's ever spent any time in sugar bush will tell you that sugar snow is special. It occurs in late winter when the temperatures hover around freezing which is the ideal sap collection weather as well. Sap needs temperatures below freezing at night but slightly above in the day in order to run. Sugar snow requires similar conditions- too cold and it's just regular snow; too warm and it's sloppy and slushy and heavy with moisture. Sugar snow is large fluffy flakes that drift down like feathers and land ever so gently on anything solid. Clumps of snow clinging to branches tipped with buds makes my heart sing; the slightest movement or breeze will send it cascading down, resembling cherry blossoms in spring.
Living in a big city I sometimes miss the cues and natural rhythms of the seasons. With all the heated indoor spaces and easy transportation right at my door, winter can be one long blur of running from one shelter to another, and snow is something I see through a window. Sugar snow reminds me that spring is at long last on it's way, and things are changing even when I can't see them yet. Forget the robins and the crocuses; sugar snow is my first sign of spring! And even in the city you'll know it's sugar snow when you see the little old ladies out sweeping their sidewalks- no need to shovel this stuff!

Because it's so light and airy, sugar snow acts as insulation where ever it lands and a good sugar snow late in the season can extend the sap run. It also makes an excellent surface to pour molten maple sugar on to make maple taffy.

Best of all it's a good indicator that the sap is running hard and fast right now. Not Far From started tapping last week and with near perfect temps this week, we should have plenty of sap for our Sugaring Off party in Dufferin Grove Park on March 13! So grab your spiels and buckets- it's time to make syrup!

Will Work for Squash

I've never been one for wasting food. Growing up the eldest of 13 kids made eating everything on my plate a necessary survival skill and a lot of the ways I approach food to this day has much to do with my upbringing. How to preserve seasonal produce is one important thing I learned from my dad but he was also a savvy shopper with a keen eye for a bargain. We ate a lot of day old bread, learned to cut the blemishes off less than perfect produce, and made a lot of soup from chicken necks. Some of this I abandoned as soon as I moved out; I still have an aversion to store bought bread to this day. But other techniques I have kept or adapted for my own. I still make soup stock from bones, I always check the bargain bins at groceries stores and I take advantage of free food whenever possible (with the exception of dumpster diving- I draw the line at being a freegan!)It's not much of a stretch to see how easily I added gleaning to my tricks for eating well on the cheap, and lately I've become pretty proficient at bartering too. But even I had never considered getting paid in vegetables - at least not until I ran into Emma, one of the organizers of the Kawartha Ecological Growers. Just recently I happened upon Emma and her truckload of wonderful fresh from the farm produce while walking down an alley. She was delivering the weekly CSA order and in a hurry to unload so she could park the truck. I was full of curiousity and not in a rush to be anywhere so I jumped in and helped unloaded crates and baskets while peppering her with questions. I left with a new appreciation for the cooperative nature of their collective and some lovely potatoes and a squash!



The Russian is getting used to me dragging home bags of free produce and has even joined me on a pick or two. Since I began volunteering with Not Far From the Tree last year, gleaning has become a common past time when the weather is good. I can't help but look for potential pickings as I walk around town and I'm not the only one. At last count we'd picked almost 20, 000 lbs of fruit with Not Far From the Tree this year in just 5 neighbourhoods! Most of that would have ended up in compost or green bins or left to rot on the ground, Instead it fed volunteers like me, as well as hundreds of people who access community kitchens all over the city. I participated in picks of cherries, grapes, plums, apples and pears in various neighbourhoods around the city. Recently, in our last pick of the season we harvested a backyard pear tree that produced 248 lbs of sweet, picture perfect pears; my share ended up being 20 lbs! I did a few 'renegade' picks on my own this year as well- 55 lbs of sweet cherries back in June and 50 lbs of apples in the last week - both from trees that grow right on my street, a main thoroughfare that hundreds of people walk daily. I also rescued a boatload of abandoned tomatoes - all with permission from the homeowners of course!


This bounty of fruit can be overwhelming at times- at various points my kitchen has been overrun with fruit flies so thick they looked like smoke. They seemed to particularly appreciate grapes and must have invited a multitudes of friends and family- we had colonies that lingered for weeks! But from this abundance of fresh fruit I made jams, jellies, pickles and preserves, dried some and froze some for later. I've also begun to market some of my preserves under my Backyard Farms label and lately I've been swapping jars for farm fresh veggies and locally made bread and cheese. It's very satisfying to see the rows of preserves put away for colder weather, and smell the scent of apples permeating from the sunporch. It will be even more comforting in the dead of winter when we don't have to venture out in the cold to buy ridiculously overpriced produce flown in from god knows where!


Speaking of Not Far From the Tree, we'll be holding a FUNdraising party next Wednesday, November 10. Featuring edible treats concocted by Jamie Kennedy, Mark Cutrara and Carole Ferrari and an open bar featuring our signature Elderberry cocktail, this will be the shindig of the season and we'll be whooping it up at SHAMBA Space, 48 Yonge St, Toronto until they kick us out! Hope you can join us!