Since moving to Northern California, we've been looking for places to forage wild food. We're definitely beginners at this practice, but it feels amazing to find something you can eat just out there in the wilderness, without it having been deliberately planted and tended. Wild food tastes great, and if it's not growing in a ditch beside the freeway, it's safer and healthier than its conventional, monocropped, pesticide-soaked, slave-picked, flavorless cousin. So far we've found untended fig, plum and walnut trees, as well as a quarter-mile stretch of blackberry brambles. (You can see photos of our blackberry discovery
here.)
It's hard work gathering blackberries. Some of the brambles were taller than us while others were spread out on the ground. However they were arranged, they were so laden with thorns that I couldn't pick a single berry without getting stuck. And it was so frustrating to see all the perfectly ripe, fat berries that we could not reach. For some reason, any area that I am stuck or scratched with thorns (from any plant) rears up in red itchy welts that bother me for hours. It was hot and humid and basically just a complete pain in the ass to gather those blackberries. But it was worth it, truly so worth it.
There seemed to be a few different varieties of blackberries. Some were large, plump and easy to pick and resembled the fruit found in supermarkets (though it definitely tasted better). Most of the blackberries were small, seedy and hard to pick as they easily dissolved in our fingers. They might have contained a lot of seeds but those berries tasted amazing, like nothing I've had in my life.
I made a raw blackberry tart when we got home, but the crust needs some work so I decided not to post it. I didn't know what to do with the other berries. I posted a request on Facebook for blackberry recipes that were not pie (because I didn't have enough berries for pie) (and I don't really like blackberry pie) (and I hate making pie crust) (and did I mention it was hot?). Lots of suggestions sounded great, including cocktails, frozen yogurt, muffins, syrup, salad, cake, compote, and coulis over blancmange. I wanted to make something that would really highlight the intense flavor of the berries, but I'd used the big berries for the tart. So I also needed a recipe that could hide their seediness.
I thought about it...and thought about it...and thought about it. And meanwhile, the blackberries sat in a basket on top of our refrigerator and got drier and smaller. Finally, I knew I'd have to use them or throw them out, thus wasting our effort. So I decided to put them in pancakes.
I'm having problems with wheat again, probably due to my week in Utah that I spent completely broke, living on bagels. So I'm trying not to eat too much of it. But I really wanted to make pancakes. More, I thought my family
deserved pancakes, especially my love, who started teaching his third-graders this week, and our kids, who started their own first week of school
ever. A pancake celebration seemed in order.
I made these pancakes using minimal whole-wheat flour. The rustic texture of the cornflour was a perfect choice to pair with the seedy berries. I didn't notice the seeds at all. I sprinkled blueberries over the top and drizzled them with maple syrup, and they were absolutely perfect.
This was also my first experiment with
coconut sugar. I've been trying to stay away from cane sugar, mostly using maple syrup, agave nectar or, rarely, honey for sweetening (and just generally reducing my sugar intake, which is APPARENTLY A LIFELONG PROCESS DEAR GOD), but sometimes you just really need a granular sweetener. (I'm also interested in trying date sugar, so you might see a recipe for that soon.) Whole Foods has coconut sugar in bulk now, so I decided to try it. (I will try anything from the bulk department. I am an absolutely whore for the bulk department.) Coconut sugar is not cheap - it's even more expensive than the fair-trade, organic Sucanat that's been my dominant sweetener in the past. So I only bought a little bit.
I enjoy its caramel flavor and it has a great texture. It's definitely not as sweet as cane sugar, but that's a good thing. And its high cost will encourage me to restrict its use even further. I'll definitely be buying it again.
Of course, this means that coconut byproducts are dominating my kitchen the way soy once did. Coconut is just so incredibly versatile and easy to use. We use coconut milk for cooking now that we've eliminated soymilk, and coconut oil, and shredded, dehydrated coconut, and coconut kefir, and fresh young coconut flesh, and coconut water, and now coconut sugar. Days go by without using soy, but we use coconut every single day. The only soy products we eat regularly are tempeh, which we have perhaps twice a week, and plain, unsweetened yogurt, which my kids eat almost every day. And we use miso and Bragg's as condiments.
I feel healthier since eliminating soymilk and other forms of unfermented soy. I do admit, however, that I continue to use Silk creamer in my coffee, even though I hate the Silk company. I just haven't found something I like better - other non-dairy milks separate in coffee or just taste weird. Luckily, we've cut way back on our coffee consumption so we only go through one small carton a month. I wonder if our extensive use of coconut is healthy. I can't wait for the backlash!!
ingredients 1 1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. whole-wheat pastry flour
3 T. coconut sugar, or another sweetener
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 1/4 c. milk (from now on, you can assume I'm using
this milk unless I say otherwise)
1/2 c. plain yogurt
2 T. ground flaxseed + 3 T. water
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. blackberries
instructions 1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Combine the wet ingredients, except the berries, in a smaller bowl, then combine with the dry ingredients without overmixing.
3. Fold in the berries.
4. Heat a skillet over medium-low heat and brush it with oil. When the pan is hot enough that you can feel the heat with your hand held a few inches above it, form small, thin pancakes with the batter.
5. When the edges appear dry, flip the pancakes and cook through the other side.
6. Drizzle with your favorite syrup and sprinkle with additional berries.
Since moving to Northern California, we've been looking for places to forage wild food. We're definitely beginners at this practice, but it feels amazing to find something you can eat just out there in the wilderness, without it having been deliberately planted and tended. Wild food tastes great, and if it's not growing in a ditch beside the freeway, it's safer and healthier than its conventional, monocropped, pesticide-soaked, slave-picked, flavorless cousin. So far we've found untended fig, plum and walnut trees, as well as a quarter-mile stretch of blackberry brambles. (You can see photos of our blackberry discovery here.)
It's hard work gathering blackberries. Some of the brambles were taller than us while others were spread out on the ground. However they were arranged, they were so laden with thorns that I couldn't pick a single berry without getting stuck. And it was so frustrating to see all the perfectly ripe, fat berries that we could not reach. For some reason, any area that I am stuck or scratched with thorns (from any plant) rears up in red itchy welts that bother me for hours. It was hot and humid and basically just a complete pain in the ass to gather those blackberries. But it was worth it, truly so worth it.
There seemed to be a few different varieties of blackberries. Some were large, plump and easy to pick and resembled the fruit found in supermarkets (though it definitely tasted better). Most of the blackberries were small, seedy and hard to pick as they easily dissolved in our fingers. They might have contained a lot of seeds but those berries tasted amazing, like nothing I've had in my life.
I made a raw blackberry tart when we got home, but the crust needs some work so I decided not to post it. I didn't know what to do with the other berries. I posted a request on Facebook for blackberry recipes that were not pie (because I didn't have enough berries for pie) (and I don't really like blackberry pie) (and I hate making pie crust) (and did I mention it was hot?). Lots of suggestions sounded great, including cocktails, frozen yogurt, muffins, syrup, salad, cake, compote, and coulis over blancmange. I wanted to make something that would really highlight the intense flavor of the berries, but I'd used the big berries for the tart. So I also needed a recipe that could hide their seediness.
I thought about it...and thought about it...and thought about it. And meanwhile, the blackberries sat in a basket on top of our refrigerator and got drier and smaller. Finally, I knew I'd have to use them or throw them out, thus wasting our effort. So I decided to put them in pancakes.
I'm having problems with wheat again, probably due to my week in Utah that I spent completely broke, living on bagels. So I'm trying not to eat too much of it. But I really wanted to make pancakes. More, I thought my family deserved pancakes, especially my love, who started teaching his third-graders this week, and our kids, who started their own first week of school ever. A pancake celebration seemed in order.
I made these pancakes using minimal whole-wheat flour. The rustic texture of the cornflour was a perfect choice to pair with the seedy berries. I didn't notice the seeds at all. I sprinkled blueberries over the top and drizzled them with maple syrup, and they were absolutely perfect.
This was also my first experiment with coconut sugar. I've been trying to stay away from cane sugar, mostly using maple syrup, agave nectar or, rarely, honey for sweetening (and just generally reducing my sugar intake, which is APPARENTLY A LIFELONG PROCESS DEAR GOD), but sometimes you just really need a granular sweetener. (I'm also interested in trying date sugar, so you might see a recipe for that soon.) Whole Foods has coconut sugar in bulk now, so I decided to try it. (I will try anything from the bulk department. I am an absolutely whore for the bulk department.) Coconut sugar is not cheap - it's even more expensive than the fair-trade, organic Sucanat that's been my dominant sweetener in the past. So I only bought a little bit.
I enjoy its caramel flavor and it has a great texture. It's definitely not as sweet as cane sugar, but that's a good thing. And its high cost will encourage me to restrict its use even further. I'll definitely be buying it again.
Of course, this means that coconut byproducts are dominating my kitchen the way soy once did. Coconut is just so incredibly versatile and easy to use. We use coconut milk for cooking now that we've eliminated soymilk, and coconut oil, and shredded, dehydrated coconut, and coconut kefir, and fresh young coconut flesh, and coconut water, and now coconut sugar. Days go by without using soy, but we use coconut every single day. The only soy products we eat regularly are tempeh, which we have perhaps twice a week, and plain, unsweetened yogurt, which my kids eat almost every day. And we use miso and Bragg's as condiments.
I feel healthier since eliminating soymilk and other forms of unfermented soy. I do admit, however, that I continue to use Silk creamer in my coffee, even though I hate the Silk company. I just haven't found something I like better - other non-dairy milks separate in coffee or just taste weird. Luckily, we've cut way back on our coffee consumption so we only go through one small carton a month. I wonder if our extensive use of coconut is healthy. I can't wait for the backlash!!
ingredients
1 1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. whole-wheat pastry flour
3 T. coconut sugar, or another sweetener
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 1/4 c. milk (from now on, you can assume I'm using this milk unless I say otherwise)
1/2 c. plain yogurt
2 T. ground flaxseed + 3 T. water
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. blackberries
instructions
1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Combine the wet ingredients, except the berries, in a smaller bowl, then combine with the dry ingredients without overmixing.
3. Fold in the berries.
4. Heat a skillet over medium-low heat and brush it with oil. When the pan is hot enough that you can feel the heat with your hand held a few inches above it, form small, thin pancakes with the batter.
5. When the edges appear dry, flip the pancakes and cook through the other side.
6. Drizzle with your favorite syrup and sprinkle with additional berries.