April 2013 - Skagit Valley Food Co-op

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Spring! is in the The Cleaning Bug Hits Using Baking Soda and Vinegar Green Cleaning How-To’s Try these easy recipes for non-toxic and low cost household cleaners: • Make an all-purpose cleaning spray by mixing 1 part vinegar and 2 parts water to clean most surfaces, including glass, tile, linoleum, and hardwood. • Clean toilet bowls by pouring pure vinegar into the bowl and letting set for at least one hour to remove unsightly rings. Scrub the bowl. • Remove stains from stainless steel, wood cutting boards and oven tops with a dusting of baking soda and some good scrubbing. • Sprinkle baking soda over a cut lemon half and use as a scouring pad for laundry stains, dirty dishes or countertops. Grind lemon peels for a natural freshener in a kitchen sink garbage disposal. by Claire Harlock Garber It’s officially springtime! The chill drops from the air as increasing sunlight helps turn our thoughts to renewal. In many homes part of recharging and recovering from the winter season involves cleaning. For millennia families have used simple and natural products to clean and rejuvenate. As increasing evidence suggests, many conventional commercial cleaners contain harmful chemicals while homemade cleaners are effective and environmentally friendly. Few things are as effective at natural cleaning as vinegar and baking soda. These two substances form an elemental combination. They are complimentary, affordable and versatile investments. You can buy a gallon of vinegar and a box of baking soda for under ten dollars and clean your house for weeks. It all begins with a bit of basic chemistry. All substances have a pH, a measure of acidity and alkalinity. Acidic substances have a low pH, neutral pH is 7, and basic substances have a high pH, such as baking soda and ammonia. When acidic and basic compounds interact, a powerful chemical reaction neutralizes the qualities of both substances and creates salts. In the cleaning world this involves breaking down dirt and grime, which can then be washed away with water. All of this can be done safely and naturally, and entirely with vinegar and baking soda. Vinegar is an acidic solution comprised mostly of acetic acid and water. It can be sourced from many different materials, including apples, barley, coconuts, dates, grapes, rice and sugarcane. All vinegars are made in a chemical reaction where microorganisms such as yeast and Acetobacter convert sugars into acetic acid. Many naturally made and unpasteurized vinegars, such as Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar, contain a “mother” of vinegar, also known as Mycoderma aceti, a somewhat slimy membrane composed of yeast and bacterial cells that develops on the surface of alcoholic liquids undergoing acetous fermentation. An important cautionary note: be sure to dilute vinegar before you clean with it. Pure vinegar can potentially stain surfaces and eat away tile grout. Avoid using it on marble surfaces. When using homemade cleaners it’s always a good idea to test clean a small area to be sure it won’t cause damage to whatever you are cleaning. Baking soda is highly basic and will bubble and froth when mixed with vinegar – remember that old science fair volcano project? Baking soda is an excellent deodorizer, as well as a scouring and whitening agent. Add an open box of baking soda to your fridge and freezer to absorb unwanted odors and remove stains. Or use in laundry as a brightener and fabric softener. When cleaning with baking soda, be sure to rinse thoroughly, as it can leave a white film if not completely removed. Enhance your cleaning routine by using plant essential oils. Add a few drops of lemon, mint, rosemary or naturally antibacterial tea tree or thyme oil for a bright and fresh fragrance. Sources: 1. The Daily Green’s Cleaning Tips – http://www.thedailygreen.com/greenhomes/latest/green-cleaning-spring-cleaning-460303?click=nav#slide-1 2. Encyclopedia Britannica Online “Acidbase reaction” – this definition is quite thorough - http://www.britannica.com/ EBchecked/topic/3719/acid-base-reaction 3. Mother of Vinegar definition and More. Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriamwebster.com/ 4. Versatile Vinegar - http://www.versatilevinegar.org/faqs.html - a site for basic information on vinegar 5. http://www.vinegartips.com– a website with 1001 tips for using vinegar in cleaning, laundry, health, pets and automotive situations 6. “World Health Organization’s Study on Hormone Disrupting Chemicals” – a recent study on the prevalence of harmful chemicals in common household products - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/ news/releases/2013/hormone_disrupting_20130219/en/index.html Happy Gardeners Gather at the Co-op for Workshops Please visit pages 5-6 or our website for more information Please pre-register for these classes with Jill via email: jill@ skagitfoodcoop.com or phone: 360- 336-5087x139 Uncommon Edible Plants for the Northwest With Casey Schoenberger Tuesday April 16 6:30pm Herbal Medicine Series: Supporting Mental Fatigue in Adults with High Cognitive Demand Lifestyles With Kelly Ann Atterberry Saturday April 20 6pm Backyard Chickens With Linda Zielinski Tuesday April 23 6:30pm Seed Bombs with Ian Sunday May 5 2pm How to Grow Heat Loving Plants in the Northwest With Nick from Sunseed Farm Tuesday May 14 6:30pm Herbal Medicine Series: Supporting the Digestive System, Where All Health Begins With Kelly Ann Atterberry, Clinical Herbalist Saturday May 18 6pm photo by Claire Harlock Garber 8 Skagit Valley Food Co-op The Natural Enquirer April/May 2013
Air When . . . Nettles Are Popping Up All Over by Sarah Stoner I thought everybody knew about nettles. At least, when it comes to their sting—the burst of tiny hypodermic-like needles punching histamine chemicals into your unsuspecting skin—they are hard to not notice. Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) grow throughout North America, and they are especially abundant in the wet coastal forests of our Great Pacific Northwest from where my family hails. So I thought I knew nettles. When I was 10, I knew them along the path through the understory forest that leads to Beacon Rock outside of Vancouver Washington where my parents’ families lived. I knew them as a teenager visiting my cousins in summertime Bellevue, when the Bridal Trails area was actually a network of trails for horses. I knew nettles in my twenties, on long overnighter hikes into one national forest or another, free and easy me, boots stirring up a mud path, grateful for the long pants I chose to wear. But I only knew them as an outdoorsy “nature lover’s nuisance.” I never thought about them as a food. Somewhere along the path of my 30s, I must have read about how good stinging nettles were for the body. I lived in the city and scooped a bunch of dried nettles from a bulk bin, sprinkled them on my salads or into my soups. They tasted fine and mostly I liked knowing I was doing something good for myself. But I never quite developed the nettle “habit.” Then I moved to the country, to a lush land along Walker Creek in the Skagit, and my nettle habit hit hard. That first spring, I noticed a nettle patch near the woodland border of our wide yard. Something about the plant’s quiet vibrancy, its leggy push through soft wet leaved ground, call to me. I pull on garden gloves, grab a pair of simple red scissors, and snip carefully at the prong-edged leaves covered in tiny spikes like a cat’s tongue. Inside my kitchen, I wash the leaves with water in a low bowl, swish them around with tongs and listen to their glass-like rustle. I have heard that nettles lose their sting after soaking or 30 seconds of cooking, so I throw them into a medium-hot pan ready with coconut oil with the tiniest pinch of salt. Added to my yesterday’s dal and rice, lunch gives me a rush of taste—nutty, thick with flavor yet fluffy. Delicious. Now I know. I’m hooked on nettles. Each year, I can hardly wait for spring’s early bounty of flavor and nutrients in the form of the stinging nettle. Stir-fried nettles, nettle chips, and nettle soup are my favorite ways to eat them. Other culinary options are nettle Tiny wildcrafters make perfect companions in the woods. Here, Katherine Isabella, age 2, keeps me company—and keeps our nettle harvest in her back-basket—at our favorite spring nettle patch. She knows this means a favorite snack, nettle chips, will be ready to eat soon! Photo: Sarah Stoner lasagna, nettles as a pizza topping, fresh pasta made “green” with nettles as a base, and any recipe that calls for spinach. Several friends swear by their nettle tea infusions, for flavor and for a variety of remedies, which is next on my nettle list to taste and master. Sarah Stoner lives and writes and harvests spring-time nettles in the Skagit Valley area. She can be reached at sarah. stoner@earthlink.net. Read about her experience as an American girl raised overseas in the anthology The Chalk Circle: Prizewinning Intercultural Essays, available at the usual online retailers and at our friendly Mount Vernon library. Nettling Bits Collected from Wikipedia “After the stinging nettle enters its flowering and seed setting stages the leaves develop gritty particles called ‘cystoliths’ which can irritate the urinary tract. Harvest plants no taller than kneehigh for the same reason.” “Nettles are rich in vitamins A, C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium— and are one of the highest in protein for a leafy green vegetable. Young plants were harvested by Native Americans and used as a cooked plant in spring when other food plants were scarce.” “The growth of stinging nettle is an indicator that an area has high fertility (especially phosphorus) and has been disturbed.” Salty Nettle Chips My veggie-averse children munch happily on nettle chips each spring. My husband loves them as a “bar snack”—like a bowl of peanuts, they go well with beer. Nettle or kale chips are simple to make—once you master the cooking time specific to your own kitchen, which can vary from oven to oven. Take the time to try this tasty spring snack, packed with protein, vitamins, iron and calcium. 20-40 freshly harvested nettle leaves 1 Tbsp olive oil (no need to measure—a good glug will do) Small finger pinch of salt 1.Using tongs, rinse your nettles in cool water and drain in a sieve or spinner. 2.Transfer nettles to a mixing bowl using tongs. Toss leaves with olive oil and salt. 3.Spread nettles on baking pan in a single layer. Place in oven at 200 degrees. Check your nettles every 5 to 10 minutes until they lose sogginess and become just crunchy. Be careful not to let them char and turn dark brown or black. Total cooking time can vary between 10 and 25 minutes. Experiment with other seasonings as you please! Creamy Nettle Potato Soup The ratio of potatoes to nettles in this nourishing soup is completely up to you. I pack a lot of nettles in, and I love it. But you could use less, if that’s all you had or you wanted to “start small.” Consider a few dashes of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar for more tang. The recipe versions I’ve used are relatively similar—this one comes from The Nourishing Gourmet.com 1 onion, peeled and chopped 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced or put through the garlic press Olive oil or coconut oil 8 cups of broth (I used chicken broth) 4-6 potatoes, peeled and cubed (more potatoes- thicker and more creamy, less-thinner) 6-8 cups of packed and washed nettle leaves In a large soup pot, heat oil until hot, and add onion. Sprinkle in a little salt and sauté until onion starts to soften (about 5-7 minutes). Add garlic and sauté for minute or two more. Add broth and potatoes and bring to a simmer, turn down heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Now add the nettles leaves, and cook for about five more minutes. You can just mash up the soup a bit with the back of a wooden spoon for a rustic soup, or you can puree it into a smooth soup which I prefer in this case. Salt and pepper to taste and serve. Skagit Valley Food Co-op The Natural Enquirer April/May 2013 9
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April 2013 - Skagit Valley Food Co-op

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