Adventures in foraging....Wild Leek Edition

WILD LEEK PICKING

Three years ago, a family friend showed up where to go and how to pick wild leeks.  It was such an amazing experience that we've continued going each year since.  I can't tell you where we go....or I'll have to kill you.  Seriously.  Its a well guarded secret location. 

This was the first year I noticed WHY its such a well guarded location.  The leek crop seems to be less and less.  When I discussed this with my hubbie, we talked about how the conditions were substantially wetter than previous years.  That could be a factor as to why there are less leeks on the hillside than before.  I read an article in Reader's Digest about the foraging phenomenon.  The article discussed the fact that in Quebec, you are no longer allowed to legally pick leeks.  Its actually against the law now, the leek population was in such decline.  We try to leave at least one leek per bunch, just to keep out little secret place going year after year. 

I thought I would blog about our trip this year...so you all know what to look for and what to do with them!

WARDROBE:

Bug protection, long pants, and a bunch of bags.  Thats really all there is to it.   The time of season you get to pick leeks are when the black flies are at their worst and when the mosquitos are just starting to suck blood.  Its not an ideal time for humans in the woods, but its definitely prime for leeks.  The kids always get the bug jackets...just for convenience sake.  If this is your first time picking, you may not want to look this dorky....but trust me...its WELL worth the one-time expense.  Bug spray is key as well.  Sturdy shoes for hiking in the woods are also helpful and proctect your ankles from pesky bug bites.



Owen sports the latest in leek picking fashion

LOCATION:

You'll want to look in an area where you can see trillium flowers.  You know, those white, pink or purple flowers you CAN'T pick?  Yeah, those areas in the woods where the canopy of maples and birch stretch tall and the forest floor is covered with dark mulchy leaf matter. 

Look for broad leaved plants with a small crimson flower bud (as shown below).  I think leeks disguise themselves as trilliums, as I think that's what I always mistook them for.



 

HOW TO PICK THEM:

Brush the leave matter away from the base of the plant...shown below...



Sink your fingers right into the soil...you'll feel some bulb like things under there.  If its too early in the spring, the bulbs will be deeper.  The later on in the season, the closer to the surface you'll find the bulbs!



The earth is loose and moist, so it should be no trouble at all.  Sometimes, we've found leeks growing out from under thick roots or big rocks.  Those we tend to leave behind.  Its not worth the struggle when there are ususally so many more readily available leeks nearby.





Voila!



Another telltale sign you've been picking leaks is the smell.  Shortly after you pull a few wild leeks, you'll start to notice a distinct garlic aroma around you.  You'll wonder if someone just started cooking a fantastic Italian meal right there in the woods.  Its amazing really!  We always bring snacks on our foraging trips, mainly to keep the kids busy when the thrill of digging in the dirt has worn off, but sometimes its because WE get hungry smelling the lovely garlic! 



A gorgeous bag of leeks ready to come home with us!

One of the big surprises this year was finding my first Morel mushroom!  I've never come across one in the wild, but I've done lots of reading about them in hopes that someday I might.  I was so excited!  Its like finding treasure!  (The gold colour helps with the illusion)  My step son was wondering why I was so stoked over a weird looking thing I grabbed out of the dirt.   When I explained that they are expensive in stores because they are so hard to find...his eyebrows went up!  When I told him I'd never seen one in the wild in all my 35 years on this earth...his whole face changed.   Thats when he stopped leek picking and started his adventures in morel hunting.  (hunting...like they're going to get away on you or something)


 

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR WILD LEEKS:

When you get these leeks home, be sure to soak them in cool water.  Snip off the green ends and the root base.  We composted our greens and discovered that our compost bin has never smelled better!





Fresh wild leeks ready for picking and the freezer

I really enjoy taking my kids out on excursions like this.  Its truly an experience I appreciate, coming from a childhood in the city myself.  Exploring the woods is always a good thing, even in an urban environment.  Once you discover the hidden treasures the forest has to offer, you'll never look at it quite the same.

At one point, during our picking session, I noticed Owen became very quite.  I looked around to see what he was up to.  I was suddenly struck by how serene he was.  He was standing on a fallen tree, looking out into the wooded valley.  I could hear a million spring birds.  I could smell the lushness of the forest.  I could hear chimunks, squirrels and other critters telling each other about our presence.  No planes, no cars, no sirens.  It was divine. 

I could tell that Owen was soaking up every second of it.

Next post - the wild and gathered spring feast - BBQ'd chicken breast with fresh asparagus and fried leeks and morel mushrooms.

Planning your garden....part 2

Its almost too much to bear....waiting on spring to finally arrive....waiting for the last of the dirty snow to leave this earth....and wanting to put shovel to dirt...

I thought I would share something I implimented last year...after attending an Intro to Gardening seminar with key note speaker Cam Mather!  (I promise I will probably have a couple of posts that don't mention the Mathers...some day...haha)  He showed the group how to plan your garden using a map of sorts...

This is something I have never done, but after doing it for a season, it proved to be a real learning experience.

I drew a very rough idea of our main garden patch.  Then added in the things that are fixed, such as rocks, logs and fencing (and our asparagus which doesn't move from year to year).  See image below for a bird's eye view of last years main garden patch.



Cam suggests you keep the map taped to a piece of cardboard with 2 pencils attached to the board
with string (that way when you're in the garden, the chances of losing it are far less). 



I make sure to mark my path way through the garden to our compost bins (this path changes every year).  I mark where the large container planters go.  At the bottom, I list which plants I want to grow, as a reference.  When I find a good spot for them, I cross them off the list.  That way I am sure to have room for everything I want.  Nothing gets left out!

My husband always laughs at me, because I space everything out WAY TOO MUCH.  In my defense, I try to envision what the plants looked like last year....how tall, how wide they became at the peak of their growth.  I try to alleviate crowding as much as I can, naturally.  What is it they say?  Quality not quantity. 

South of the asparagus you can see a path way that trails off this map.  I do have a second map that goes with this plan....its what Ches and I affectionately call the "pepper fence".  We plants single stalk things there like eggplant, peppers and everything else that doesn't get viney.  Sort of a knee high divider between our property and the neighbours without the need for proper (view-disrupting) fencing.  The pepper fence includes more than just peppers...its home to the plants we have never grown before as well.  I may not know how they will perform in our soil...but after one successful season, I integrate them into the main patch depening on their sun and growth requirements. 




The Pepper Fence (now with more than just peppers!)




I take into account that the sun rises from the asparagus side and glides over the garden throughout the morning....and there is a metal shed on the right hand side.  The cherry tomatoes have a tendancy to take over everything when we plant them in the soil...so we put them in large containers and place them next to the metal shed.  The heat absorbed by the metal acts like an insulator.  The tomatoes just love it.  Everything on the left hand side of the map is planted directly into the ground and doesn't grow much taller than 1.5 ft, mostly our root veggies.  Everything on the right hand side of the map is grown using tomato cages (like our peas) or on trellises (or is it trelli?  hmmmm) and tend to be viney. 

I tried including as much info about the planting as I could fit into the map.  I tracked which row was planted when, so that I knew approximately when I could harvest them (according to the seed package predictions).  Its also agreat reference for when to plant things the following season.  When everything is a small wee sprout...it also helps to remind you what you planted and where!  Remember I stagger my planted rows, meaning I plant one row, then 2 weeks later I plant another row of the same veggie.  That's a sure-fire way to avoid being swamped with 25 lbs of carrots all at once.  When you have limited time to prepare or store these yummy treats, you'll want to maximize every second you have.  The only draw back I've found to the staggering method is this:  when your gut instinct tells you to fill your garden up on May 24th weekend...you'll have to exercise some restraint.  Patience is definitely a virtue in this case. 

The mapping method also gives you a chance to look at last years garden in the winter time and see what changes you might want to make depending on the success or failure of each plant type from the previous season.

Our cukes didn't do so well last year...so I will definitely be finding a new place to grow them this year.  That's ok though.  Like everything in life, gardening is a learning experience and this mapping method gives you a perfect opportunity to reflect on lessons learned.

Make a map of your own this year!  See if this method works for you...

This year's mapping experiment?  Varieties!

We'll be trying to list which varieties we're planting...hoping that if we keep track, we just may select wiser the following season.  Check back in 2012 to see if what we discovered! 

Butternut Squash Love....

We have been eating a LOT of soup lately....its kind of a soup time of year....

You know that feeling, when you've been outside shovelling snow, or playing with the kids, or ice fishing on the lake?  Perhaps thats just our lifestyle...but even if you're just going from your car to your home, its still nice to come in from the cold and enjoy a nice steaming bowl of soup.  Even better when you've grown the vegetables yourself!!!

We tried growing butternut squash this year, and I will admit that I am still waiting for the taste of squash to grow on me.   I figured, why not?  Grow them and the recipe hunt will begin.  I will not spend money at the grocery store on items that I have no idea whether I or the family will like them.  There is something widly emancipating about growing something...and if you don't like it...it just goes right back into the compost bin!  WIN WIN!



Butternut Squash soup with home made biscuits

The one thing I really enjoyed growing butternut squash, is that they arrive and ripen when the rest of the garden has long since died off.  You get these beautiful, waxen lovelies that produce wonderous flowers.  Their vines take over all other areas.  It was growing these lovelies that made me think about late season foods and also their ability to store well.  I didn't get a chance to start a root cellar this past year...so I didn't get to expertiment with the old school method of storage.  We did cube and freeze them though.  It was the late season aspect that made me love them.  This past year I did get to experiment with staggering my veggies.  Its a wonderful method to avoid the common gardening ailment of having 10 tonnes of anything all at the same time.  This method allows you to enjoy each crop for several weeks instead of getting flooded with them all at once (which makes it almost impossible to eat everything or have enough time to properly prepare and store everything - trust me!  I've learned this one the hard way).  You wind up sick of whatever it is thats ripening...and you waste the rest.
 

close up on soup with cracked black pepper

So here is the mouth-watering recipe that I cooked up in the fall.  I frozen the whole lot that time.  All I had to do was freeze it and add cream when ready to serve! 

Butternut Squash Soup

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, chopped (from our garden, dried and stored in the basement)

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped (from our garden, kept in the crisper with dirt on)

2 medium potatoes, cubed

1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed

1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock

1 tsp nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
2. Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 305 | Total Fat: 6.8g | Cholesterol: 21mg

Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 305

• Total Fat: 6.8g
• Cholesterol: 21mg
• Sodium: 1248mg
• Total Carbs: 59.7g
•     Dietary Fiber: 9.5g
• Protein: 6.9g

That was the original recipe I used...from allrecipes.com but I'm a sucker for a rich soup, so I swirl in heavy cream just prior to serving.  You can also add some cinnamon to taste. 


while Owen loves the biscuits...he's still not a huge fan of the soup



Prepping the ground pt 2

Soil

So on the last post I showed you how we add leaves to our compost and gardens to add lightness to the soil...which the plants love as they have loads of nooks and crannies to grow huge root systems. 

Now its time to talk about other ways in which you can help keep the nutrients in your soil.  We actually add soil directly into our soil....does that even make sense?  Ok, I'll illustrate...



top left: planter soil, top right: end of the season plants, bottom: more leavings

Planter Soil
We have a lot of planters around...we use them for herbs and cherry tomato plants, but we also have a lot of houseplants.  Sadly, our houseplants do very well all summer long on the back porch, but they barely survive indoors in the winter time.  Between the lack of direct sunlight on a lot of our windows and our menacing cat called Buster...they don't stand a chance.  Usually I need to make tough decisions in the fall.  Which plants will I save and which will I use for compost?  Once I've decided...I dump the soil from the planters directly on our garden patch (as shown in the top left hand picture)

End of Season/Leavings
Once the plants in your garden are spent (meaning not giving you glorious fruit or veggies any more) then you can leave the stalks and leaves right in your garden!  We pull ours up to speed up the decomposition process.  Pull and leave then directly on your garden patch.  Easy!  (as shown on the top right hand picture)

The bottom picture shows our main garden patch with the leaves from our parsnip plants.  It this time of year that everything else is spent in our garden, but we still have parsnips to dig up!  We wait for the first few frosts, then dig them up for the best flavour. 

Since we use a roto-tiller in the spring time, there is no reason why the composter must do all of the work with the heavy parts of plants.  The stalks are tough to break down..so we let the winter and the tiller do the work for us.  Keeping in mind that the plant parts themselves must be free of parasites and other harmful things...if they do we burn them in our burning bin...(I like to play it safe, but this is overkill....and if you have an urban garden, this may not be allowed).  Healthy plants parts still contain nutrients that will break down over time and again leaving room for the roots of next years plants to grow strong.

Next post:  MANURE! 

Prepping the ground...

This time of year can be kind of depressing for gardeners...most of the crops are either harvested or dying.  The garden itself is a barren version of the lush, vibrant area you tended so lovingly all summer long. 

It may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but there is no shortage of things to do!  Preparing the soil for next year is just as important as the planning and planting you'll do in the spring.  So here is a pictorial post on the kinds of things we do to stimulate the soil right now.

Leaves

I'll talk about our composting efforts in a subsequent post, but for right now I'll discuss our leaf situation.  As we live on a fairly tree-less lot in the country, we have had difficulty in getting our soil light and airy.  We keep garbage bags in the trunk of our cars in case we happen upon a stash of leaves.  We'll bring them home and add the leaves to our compost bins (of which we have 3 now).  The nice thing about the garden being empty is that you can just dump the leaves right on the garden plot!



(dumping leaves and grass cuttings directly on our patch)   

We do have some trees on our property, but luckily we have neighbours and sons.  The neighbours have the trees and they love that our sons will go and rake away those pesky fall leaves for free!  Its also hilarious to see the two boys operate the wheelbarrow and make the biggest pile they can...for jumping of course!  After the leaves have lost their jumping value...we mulch them with our lawn mower and add to compost bins or directly on the garden patch....depending on how soggy the leaves are.



my 3 yr old son Owen and our 'borrowed' leaf pile

We scavenge leaves from nearby neighbours (because we don't own a truck and because kids running through the whole town with wheelbarrows is funny) and vacant lots.  We live next door to a mechanic shop with a large parking lot lined with trees....so we clean up the town and also fill our composters too!  Its a win/win situation.  If you live in a city, the leaves are so conveniently left out at the curb on 'leaf day' for pick up from the city waste services...but why not help yourself?  Our family has often caught a neighbour filling those paper bags with their leaves...we ask nicely, take the leaves and return with the paper bags (because they aren't cheap!) AND its neighbourly!

If you start to look around, you'll start to see a leaf opportunity EVERYWHERE!

My only problem with leaves....is the endless trail of them entering my house...on little shoes...

Next post:  Soil sources for your garden...