fifi

jackal10 . . . I will definitely try that. Many thanks. I think the flowers I have seen so far need a few more days. Just for grins, I am going to use the same technique for honeysuckle. I can sure find plenty of that and it is very aromatic.

Thanks for the drying info. I was about to ask about that. Also thanks for the picture. The ones I can find are all more white than that and the pictures that I have found so far are more purple. I think that is just natural variation. Nice picture, too.

Well, I am back. Yesterday's Plan A didn't materialize. I had to go into town for some unexpected business. I did pick up my sister for a late lunch, and in honor of our dear Blog-Czar we went back to The Hobbit Cafe. This was the first hippy-dippy, granola totin' establishment in Houston at least 25 years ago. (Then I just now figured out that with the server upgrade, the old IP address didn't work. DUH!) It was the first time I had ever heard of something as outrageous as an avocado sandwich, The Gandalf (sp?). I get it just about every time I go there. On the short walk back to my nephew's office I checked on the passion vines growing on a fence at a British style pub called "The Mucky Duck." The purple looks like our native Maypop. Then there is this beautiful red variety. I remember that one year it had lots of fruit that was bright golden yellow. As it was still blooming at the time it was absolutely gorgeous with all of those bright fruits and flowers on the same vine. I actually took the above pictures a few weeks ago. (I didn't have my camera with me on this trip.) We did get the same sandwich today and the vines only have a few little nubs of fruit so far. I will continue to watch it and invoke the "outside the fence" rule. (Good thing the nephew is an attorney.) We went by the calamondin tree. This crop is still green so no infused vodka and calamondin vinaigrette this week. But Kroger has pork loin on sale so I may repeat the orange pork roast over the weekend with my salt preserved stuff. I am thinking of adding some horsemint to it. I did take a meandering route back home. I confirmed that the wild onions are still growing by the roadside at my old exit off the freeway. They are really weird. They are the kind that has the little bulblets on the top of the stalk. But, these are more purple than green and have these coiled tips that make them look like a medusa head. I remember seeing something like that sold in one of the bulb catalogs as an oddity not long ago. I could actually find a place to stash the car and walk to them, even though it is a busy intersection. However, I am not sure what all has been dumped on them where they are so I may give them a pass. There is another interesting story about that intersection. The high sloping sides of the overpass are coated in concrete but have some holes in it. A good friend of mine would sometimes ride home with me. He was the department champion tomato grower and was having trouble that year. Well, in one of the holes in the concrete cover there was this tomato plant. God only knows where it came from. This was the most beautiful tomato plant known to man. The tomatoes looked absolutely gorgeous. Over the weeks he would have to see this marvel produce dozens of beautiful tomatoes and grouse that his pampered pets never looked like that. I took a couple of detours to go by some more or less fresh water marshy areas looking for cat tails. One of those is by my favorite nursery and friends at Maas Nursery in Seabrook. He has these elderberries in his fence line that must be 15 feet tall or more. The things are huge. The day wasn't a total loss. I did have some of the elderberry fritters with my scrambled eggs this morning. They heated up nicely in the DeLonghi. I am seeing a lot of grape vines but no grapes. Any hints, Judith? Does it count that I almost ran over a duck? I can see the headline now . . . Muscovy Murder by Mercedes.

Central Texas opens up a whole new habitat for exploration. I am envious of the wild persimmon. I think it is too humid here or something because it is not all that common. I had spied one a few years ago in an open field on the north side of Clear Lake City. I was going to keep my eye on it and they cut it down to build more houses. Funny you should mention horsemint. I saw a good stand of it on the way home yesterday. I was not in a position to pull out of traffic at the time. It is pretty common here on the drier parts of roadsides and fields. We have used the flowers sprinkled on salad. I have braised chicken on a bed of it with onions and it was delicious.

Is this what you mean by trumpet vine? We don't recall ever doing the nectar thing with it. It was always considered suspect (toxic-wise) for some reason that I can't substantiate. It could be that it lives around and among poison ivy growing up trees and such and is suffering from guilt by association. We used to stick the flowers on our fingers and call them "witches fingernails." Our wild lantana get to about four or five feet in favorable circumstance. Elderberry is a bit taller and more columnar. Thanks for asking about the poison ivy. I forgot that the berry leaves are also in threes. The berry leaves are the ones that look like strawberry leaves. The poison ivy is in the bottom left corner and bottom just right of center in the picture.

That's it! Where in the world did the Okies come up with the name sheepshower? That is what we called it. ← Now all we need is the recipe for that wine.

Yes . . . That was years ago but I still remember it well. We preferred it as a rather sweet after dinner drink. We would also make wine spritzers with it. The fizz water seemed to spread the joy of the flavor and it was very refreshing. What we didn't try was the wine made with the flowers. Odd fact: Elderberry flowers are known as "elder blow" among wild food enthusiasts. Heads up to those in south Louisiana . . . many years ago, the absolute mother lode for elderberries was the roadside along the old road from Hammond to LaPlace. I have seen impressive stands along I-10 through that swampy stretch just west of LaPlace as well. South Louisiana is a forager's delight. The crabapple trees (mayhaws) were everywhere just north of Lake Ponchartrain. While living in Hammond, I took an ecology course just for fun and my love of the professor. North of the lake is a fascinating area if you look at an ecosystem map. Many zones are compressed within the few miles to the Mississippi border. The northern part is even a remnant of Appalachian habitat.

Lone Star, you have me baffled. After spending some time in Google-Land, I am about to conclude that sheepshower might be a really local name for the wood sorrel that Pan alluded to. Is that it? (The Google hits on sheepshower were pretty funny, unless you are a sheep. )

I had forgoetten about that. We have the yellow sorrel. It does end up in our salads. My sister is really the more skilled one for gathering the salad makings. I don't remember if it is a cool season plant here. I will see if I can find it. Well, it actually isn't a tree. It is an herbaceous plant that reaches maybe 6 or 7 feet in height. I remember reading about that in one of the books. I will see if I have it. That would be a good thing to do if I hit the mother load. Then some of that syrup would be available for making the drinks when the hot weather sets in. I remember reading that it is very refreshing. Funny you should mention that. Last night I got to thinking of ways to pick a bunch of the flowers, maybe whack them up a bit and infuse them in . . . what? Very light syrup? Actually, for me to really fit in around here, I should be driving a Hummer. This area has a soccer mom infestation. They moved from mini-vans to Hummers a couple of years ago. My baby German sedan has been with me for 15 years and many trips to the beach, woods and country places. I still love it, but alas, it too may have to retire. I slept late. I love doing that. Yesterday was a long day. I may not be able to be as ambitious today but I do have a plan. Stay tuned.

Elderberries: I did score some elderberry flowers. These are pretty young and tight yet but Euell Gibbons has a use for these, fritters, so what the heck. They were growing along an old fence line next to the hardware store. I was so glad to find them. Elderberries have been hard to come by this year for some reason. They are really hard to spot until they bloom or have berries because the plant itself looks a lot like a bunch or other plants. To make the fritters first you cut the flowers off of the larger stems. Then you make a typical flour/egg/milk batter with some baking powder in it. You can add some sugar and eat them dusted with powdered sugar or serve them with jam. Or you can add salt to the batter for a savory side. The batter should be rather thick. You add just enough batter to the flowers to stick them together. Drop by spoonfuls into the fryer. I found that 340 degrees F (about 170 C) was about right. Serve hot. I cut one open so you can see what it looks like on the inside. So, what does it taste like? Actually, not much. I think it is a texture thing. If I do this again, I would go lighter on the egg. Euell uses 2 eggs to a cup of flour and a half cup of milk. I find it a bit bready. I would also maybe use masa harina instead of flour. I have had the elderberry flower crepes which is what we usually make. For that you need to catch the flowers when they are fully open and ready to drop. You shake them off into a bag, make a rather thin crepe type batter and mix in enough flowers so that the mixture will form a pancake on the griddle. Probably because of the maturity of the flowers, there is more of a flowery flavor. You can also make wine with the flowers. I don't think my dad, the wine maker, ever tried that. I think I know where some more mature specimens are so I may get a chance to make those crepes for you. Of course, you don't pick all of the flowers. You want to come back later for the berries for a legendary jelly or wine.

As a digression, here is something that you may or may not have done as a kid. Mixed in among the dewberries across the street, the ones without the poison ivy, there are some honeysuckle vines. We used to while away the time sipping up the drop of nectar that is at the bottom of the flower. The technique is to snip off the end of the blossom, grab the bottom of the pistil and pull the pistil through the bottom. It acts as a reamer of sorts and a drop of nectar appears at the end. That is what you sip. It is mildly sweet and actually tastes like honeysuckle smells. The vine itself can be a noxious weed. I have seen areas on the backside of Galveston Island where it has taken over acres. If someone could figure out how to harvest the stuff it would be really interesting. The drop of nectar is on the leaf just under the pistil. In this same area, I also found some grape vines. I couldn't find any green grapes yet but I will keep an eye on it. I heard about green grape pie on another thread and I have never had it. My sister says that she has made it before but you have to catch them before the seeds really form. This is an example of keeping your eyes open to the possibilities and checking back for new developments.

Dewberries: Dewberries are the staple berry in our area. Sometimes you find blackberries but usually a bit further north. We discussed them briefly on this thread and there were similar questions about The Snake Stick. A few weeks ago, when the brambles were in bloom, I found this patch right across the street. The dewberries are white. The pink and yellow blooms are some lantana gone wild. You spy out your berry patch at this stage. You see the drifts of white and make a mental note. Hope springs eternal. The blooms are really kind of pretty. And here we are a few weeks later . . . hopes dashed. The few that are ripe are little nubbins and they are still mostly red. ARG! So, on to plan B. During bloom time I also spied the grandaddy of all berry patches. I head over there. These are growing in and among some rather youngish tallow trees. I don't expect them to be any riper but the patch is big enough that I may be able to get a small batch to play with. I found it again and hopped out of the car to see what I might have. I am peering into the shade, yep, red berries. Then I saw it! See those three leaved vines? Yep . . . poison ivy! The whole damn patch is infested with the stuff. And here I am standing in a patch of the evil weed. Of course I didn't have boots on. Of course I had on my Topsiders with no socks. Of course I hightailed it home and bathed my ankles in rubbing alcohol. There is one more place I know to try that gets more sun. If I can't find any ripe by the end of the blog, I am thinking about picking some red ones, juicing them and making a vinaigrette. I have always wanted to try that.

Years ago, when my sister or I would drive Grandma to Gonzales from the country place, she knew where there was marijuana growing in a ditch. We always had to stop on the way home for her to pick some. (She said it helped her arthritis. ) You can bet we drove the speed limit on the way home.

Not so far, but we are pretty careful. I get kind of suspicious of plants that look like Queen Anne's Lace. Hemlock looks a lot like that. I would hope that everyone knows not to mess with mushrooms if you don't know what you are doing. If in doubt, we leave it alone.

To answer your question (although belatedly), lexy, I am not sure how this all started. I grew up with the seafood catching and eating. Then my sister started with the Euell Gibbons books. We had already been into identifying wildflowers for years. There are other books out there now. We also get into conversations with folks that are into such things and pick up a pointer here and there. You also might check with your local Natural History museum and see if they do foraging trips locally. Many do. Googling will bring up some interesting sites. Try "wild food."

Well . . . I am back. Today was not all that successful, but then I am still sticking pretty close to home. I am late because I ran into friends and we decided to assuage my dissappointment with a bean burger at Tookies. The picture below shows some typical foraging equipment. In the colander are the scissors and a bottle of bug repellent. More about that later. Also note the shovel and The Snake Stick. My nephew made that for me about 25 years ago. There was this rampant woody plant growing where they lived. He cut it into lengths, stripped the bark, varnished it and drilled a hole for the lanyard. He was about 12 at the time. It is one of my favorite possessions. Various containers and zip bags, my Linda's Fishin' Hat. The hard hat is left over from my previous life. I keep it around in case of hail storms. The cooler is inside the car with cool packs. Another good trick is to freeze bottles of water. As it melts you have water to drink. The one essential tool that is missing is my machete. I can't find it. As you might expect, I have a story. In early spring, about the time the bluebonnets show up, we usually go up to my sister's country place in the middle of bluebonnet country. It so happens that at that time of year a couple of foraging possibilities converge for salad. The chickweed is still around, it is a cool season plant, and the dandelions are still nice and tender. The inevitable salad is served. My kids took to calling this seasonal treat "Cat Pee Salad." I have a bunch of pictures to process and will get as much of that posted as I can before I fall over. Stay tuned. Tomorrow I will go a bit farther afield and head for the bay.

Hi there Lone Star. Yes, loquats are edible. They make a rather pleasant jam. We don't have a tree of our own at the present but we do consider that anything hanging outside of a fence is fair game. I can't think of the name of the cemetary where the bay tree is but I think the entrance to it is on Washington. I may be wrong. I will ask my sister. I was raised in the Heights until I was in the fourth grade. My family had a compound at the end of Oxford street on White Oak bayou. We had to move out when Flood Control came through and "cemented" the bayou. (Gee! That worked well.) The actual property is now under I-10. Along that bayou was some of my first experiences with foraging. Mother and Grandma would have me tag along while we went down to the bayou to gather poke sallit and other herbs. There was a big bay tree on the slope down to the bayou and I was often sent to gather a few leaves for the gumbo or whatever. The bayou water was clear and there were white sand banks. To keep me away from the water, I was always told that there was quicksand there. Back in the 50s there were several horror films about folks being swallowed by quicksand so the deception worked. I do remember my older cousins catching perch in the bayou. Grandma would fry them up. I liked the tails. My dad kept bees there for a while.

Well, I keep the masa harina on hand at all times. It is useful for breading shrimp and fish. It keeps. You make the masa para tamale by adding lard and chicken broth. Especially around Christmas, I find fresh ground masa at the Fiesta Mart stores for example. We can get it at the big HEBs as well. There is nothing to be gained by trying to make your own IMHO. Nixtamalization (soaking the corn in lime) is messy and a PITA. I let others do it. Also, you can't use our wimpy, insipid sweet corn for masa. It doesn't have enough starch and doesn't even taste like corn from what I can tell. Go to Mexico City and buy an ear of corn from a street vendor in Capultapec Park. Now that is corn. Breakfast. This is a biscuit with some of the marmalade that my sister made from our "found" calamondin tree. (NOOOO! I didn't make the biscuit. lovebenton0 intimidated me in my biscuit making. I have to get back to that.) The story of the tree is here. So you don't have to read the whole thread, the short version of the story is that my sister spied the tree across an electric line easement, found her way to it and we have been using it ever since. Come to find out, it is a calamondin. Anyway, it makes killer marmalade and anything else orangy for that matter. I have used the salt preserved ones with pork. The juice is very tart. I may get into town this week and see if it has any ripe ones. It puts on about three crops a year. My nephew is requesting that I get some and make some more orange infused vodka. If I do that, I may make some seviche with the juice. The picture of the biscuit has this odd blue background that is actually a white plate. I think that is because I was sitting out on my balconey and it is reflecting our blue-sky-morning. Someone asked earlier about our weather. Typical temperatures are mid 80s (F) in the day and mid 60s (F) at night. Humid, of course. Every few days we have some whomping good thunderstorms come through. I love thunderstorms. This is what my balconey looks like in the morning. It is wonderfully shady and cool in the morning. But it does get the western sun that doesn't bode well for my pots of herbs that I am going to get around to one of these days. Yes, that is my beloved Weber Bullet. I am thinking it needs new grates this year. For your amusement while I get my . . . stuff . . . together for today's adventure, my sister and I did a bit of foraging in Hawaii a couple of years ago. You can read about it here. edit to add a quote from the Hawaii thread: edit again to fix the link to the calamondin tree post.

Good morning all. I am going to probably go back for a brief nap but I do need to answer Pan's question. The hoja santa leaves are eaten. For the tamale pie, they are eaten as part of the dish. They are very tender, not at all like bay leaves and the like. In the case where we use them as a bed for chicken or fish, they are used as a side dish sort of like cooked greens. In Mexico, I understand that they are also used as a wrapper for baking fish. I wouldn't compare them to file, powdered sassafras leaves. To me, file doesn't really taste like sassafras. Actually, it doesn't taste like much of anything. It is primarily used for its thickening powers, sort of like okra in texture. Hoja Santa actually tastes like root beer and it is not very subtle. edit to add: I missed part of the question. Hoja Santa isn't related to sassafras at all. It just happens to have safrole in its chemical warfare arsenal against the bugs. Sassafras is a small understory tree and the safrole is found mainly in the bark of the roots. What we do when we find it in the woods is dig the roots to make the tea. As far as I can tell, the whole Hoja Santa plant has the flavor of safrole.

The leaves taste like root beer, or sassafras. The flavor component is safrole. It is supposed to be a carcinogen and true sassafras (the original source of safrole in root beer) was banned from root beer some years ago. I dunno. I have drunk sassafras tea since I was a pup and I am still here. The leaves imparted a wonderful, but subtle flavor to the masa. So, I guess you could say that they just added a fragrant wrapper. However, now that we have this rampant source, we have taken to doing a rough chiffonade of the leaves to make a bed for baking a large batch of chicken thighs or fish. The leaves from under the chicken or fish are eaten like a green. If you find us dead in a ditch from safrole induced cancer, we would probably think it was worth it.

More on our environment: Here is a link to some aerial photos of the area. South Galveston Bay My place is in the photo fourth from the left, top row. North Galveston Bay Where I live now is in the Clear Lake area, first and second photos from the left on the bottom row. I can't figure out where they got the blue color for the water. It ain't blue.

Smithy, you ask a good question about the long shore current. One of the reasons that our water is not as clear and blue as that of the Alabama/Florida Gulf coast is that the Yucatan current comes up and hits about at the mouth of the Mississippi river. It splits and some then heads west along the coast, along with all of the sediment that it contains. Another component of the current heads east and eventually joins the Gulf Stream. To the east of the Mississippi, there aren't many rivers to add sediment to the mix. Therefore the waters are clearer. To the west of the Mississipi, there are other rivers that add sediment, the Sabine at the Louisiana/Texas border, the Trinity that flows into Galveston Bay and the Brazos that flows in at Freeport, for example. Our waters are not as pretty and blue as some of our neighbors to the east but the nutrients that are brought in to the ecosystem make for the exceptional productivity of our estuary environment. During the cooler months this year, I understand that the Galveston Bay system oysters were outstanding. edit: to correct east and west that I can't keep straight.

Yesterday (Monday) I had to shepherd my sister through some out-patient surgery so I was at her place later in the evening to get her drugged up butt home. I took the opportunity to avail myself of some of her Hoja Santa or Rootbeer plant. A couple of years ago, my nephew was dove hunting in South Texas and saw this plant growing up a power pole and along a fence. Asking one of the Mexican guides about it, he found that it is a culinary treasure. He brought some pieces of it home and my sister was successful in getting it started at her house. Actually, it may swallow her house. Granted, this is second hand foraging but it does have the advantage of introducing folks to this great plant and if they happen to see it beside the road in South Texas they can go for it. I have chosen to use it in a version of a recipe that I read in Zarella Martinez's book, Veracruz. It is a version of a tamale pie wrapped in Hoja Santa leaves. First, a bit about Hoja Santa . . . The legend is that the Virgin Mary had washed the Baby Jesus's diapers and that she was looking around for a place to hang them out to dry. The Hoja Santa plant popped up to give her a place to dry the diapers and give them a clean aromatic smell. Think sassafras or root beer. The first thing to do is to poach some chicken for the filling. The chicken is poached very simply with onion, garlic, and bay leaves. I do have to relate that the bay leaves come from a very large tree in a historic cemetary in Houston. My sister spotted it some years ago while stopped in traffic behind a wreck. (That is what I mean about keeping your eyes open.) It took us a while to wind our way through the roads in the cemetary to actually find the tree. Once we did, we have gone back from time to time for a supply. We once got caught, loppers in hand, and made up a story about "Great Aunt Mabel" that was buried beneath it and that it was actually our property that dear Auntie intended us to take advantage of. The cemetary security guard actually bought the story so we have access to the bay tree whenever we want. OK . . . I digress. But if you are going to forage in questionable places, you need to get your act together or get arrested. Then I "foraged" some tomatillo salsa from the freezer, added some freshly chopped jalapeno and white onion to it, fried it in some lard and added the chicken. Now we have a tamale filling. Now we have to assemble the pie. I chose to go with the dried masa since the fresh ground at the store wasn't all that fresh. I also had some home rendered lard and the broth from the poached chicken so we are good to go. The KitchenAid processor was a fine substitute since I can't get to my stand mixer right now. The Hoja Santa leaves are arranged in a baking dish, a layer of masa is applied, the filling added and another layer of masa applied. Then the uncovered leaves of the Hoja Santa are folded over on the tamale pie. The whole thing is baked at about 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes. It came out looking like this. And here is what we have, served up with some crisp radish. My first impression is that this thing is absolutely delicious. My second impression is that I need to get my arms around depth of field with the new toy.

Oh dear. More good food I will have to miss because the place is too loud. I refuse to patronize places, when I am paying or planning, where I can't have a decent conversation. There is NO excuse. Cramped tables with bumping waitstaff would put me off as well. It isn't the poor waitstaff's fault. I chalk it up to inconsiderate management that would rather get one more table in there, the comfort of the patrons be damned. One more crossed off my list.

Me? Show off? Never! I would never bring my signature black bean and mango salsa to a party with the thought in mind of showing up those that bring the jar of stuff. I would never bring my smothered cabbage to a New Year's Day party with the thought in mind of the participants hovering over the big pot snarfing it up like pigs at a trough. And, God Forbid that I should accompany the cabbage with my black eyed peas. There are other dishes that I would never bring along to humiliate the Velveeta coated masses. (Well, except for Tex-Mex.) BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!