eG Foodblog: fifi - Foraging the Texas Gulf Coast

[Lone Star]

[...]And sorrel ... heh. Seemed like whatever part of our family's lawn that wasn't crabgrass, was sorrel. I used to pick and chew on it occasionally. My mom told me it was the main ingredient of an Eastern-European Jewish soup called schav, but we never made the stuff--even though picking enough sorrel to make the soup might have solved my dad's lawn problem.

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I believe that shchav is usually made from another type of sorrel, sheep sorrel, which has bigger, floppier-looking leaves and a stronger taste but isn't as common as wood sorrel.

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That must be where the Oklahoma pronunciation of "Sheep Shower" came from. They say alot of other things funny too.... I will see if I can get the wine recipe from my father.

[fifi]

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.

[fifi]

. . . . .

absolutely delicious in a lamb stew also. and it holds up well once dried if kept in an opaque container.

hope you don't mind, fifi. but i got a request to post a pic of the horsemint.. and i had one from last year... maybe more folks will discover this fine wild herb in their areas. 

shame i did not get a close up of the flowers, which are lovely. so not the best shot as i had just gotten the camera recently, but here it is, jsolomon. 

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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.

[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.

[jackal10]

Hmm... Honeysuckle is mildly poisonsous, or at least the berries are, so proceed with caution. I think the petals are OK, and honeysuckle syrup has been used as a folk remedy for sore thoats

[fifi]

Hmm... Honeysuckle is mildly poisonsous, or at least the berries are, so proceed with caution. I think the petals are OK, and honeysuckle syrup has been used as a folk remedy for sore thoats

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I had never heard that. A bit of research is in store. We would go through dozens of blossoms sucking the nectar out like I alluded to above. I don't remember ever having any bad effects. I was intending to use only the flowers. Also, oddly enough, seeing any of the berries here is not all that common. I think that the usual pollinator isn't here though it does get "done" by hummingbirds from time to time. The variety that I showed above is not a native plant. I forget where it came from but it is one of those things that came in and took over. When I make my Galveston excursion I will see if those infested acres are still there. It is an amazing sight.

[Varmint]

Here's a recipe that has been adapted from Bill Smith's creation of honeysuckle sorbet (and this will be included in Bill's upcoming book, Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crooks Corner and Home.

5 2/3 cups cool water

4 cups honeysuckle blossoms, tightly packed but not smashed

2 cups sugar

1 2/3 cups water

Few drops lemon juice

Dusting of cinnamon

Add the cool tap water to the blossoms and let stand in a nonreactive container at room temperature overnight. The following day, make a somewhat concentrated simple syrup by heating sugar and 1 2/3 cups water over low heat until the mixture is clear, then boiling it for a minute or so until it slightly thickens. Remove from heat, adding a couple drops of lemon juice to prevent the sugar from recrystallizing, and let the syrup cool. Strain the honeysuckle infusion, gently pressing the blossoms. Combine the two liquids and add a very small pinch of cinnamon. Churn in an ice cream freezer, according to the manufacturer's directions.

Makes 1 generous quart.

[fifi]

Oh my goodness, Varmint. You are a doll. I will be doing this forthwith. You have added a new dimension to my family foraging adventures.

[little ms foodie]

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.

Could this possibly be green garlic? I've been buying this and the bulb is at the top.

Fifi, great blog, it is really interesting to me and I feel like I'm learning a few things along the way!

[lovebenton0]

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.

i do well remember the Hobbit Cafe, and that luscious Gandalf sandwich brings back memories too... my fav there to be sure!

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.)

ah, i miss the abundance of passion flowers in Houston. and my fruiting pfs here do not produce the fleshy fruits, but i did make some syrup out the thin-walled fruit that was prettily pink and tasty... was very nice generously drizzled over shaved ice and fruit salads. i'll make it stronger this year if the pfs decide to return. i'm afraid hubby may have gotten a bit over-zealous with the weedeater.

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.

the lemon horsemint sounds like a great idea with that!

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.

i have bunches of these onions and the other white flower-topped variety here, right in the yard. we do eat a lot of them. those and the garlic plug up all the spots in my rockwalls...

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.

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roflmao! love the headline!

about the grapes... has it been cooler there than usual this spring? we had several cooler nights, down into the 40s, as recently as 10 days ago, very late to be that cool for us and that delayed the grapes here slightly. they may be a bit later this year. seems they mature here starting in June and continuing until around the first week in July for the end of the crop...

for some reason they seem to doing an odd thing now. i just went to check ours after reading your post... some of the smallest grapes are ripening, way too tiny to be of any use! but i have hundreds of green grapes up to marble size that look healthy and firm, not a spot on them i could see. so looks like a good harvest coming up here. the later grape variety (muscadine?) which are much smaller are looking promising also, but that can be deceptive as i usually don't get half the amount of those as the mustang grapes.

also, no matter how small these grapes are they have a soft seed, which develops into multiple hard seeds.... well, at least by the time they are big enough to even split open at all, say an eighth of an inch.

[Susan in FL]

Hmm... Honeysuckle is mildly poisonsous, or at least the berries are, so proceed with caution.

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So maybe that's what's wrong with me.

I had never heard that, either. Actually, I'm not sure what honeysuckle berries are, but like you Linda, I've sucked many a drop of nectar from the blossum as a kid. Nice memories!

[Behemoth]

Oh wow, I definitely need to try the honeysuckle sorbet. The flowers are in full bloom behind my house, the smell makes it hard to focus on my work. (Yeah, that's the reason...)

This reminds me of when I was a kid in Lebanon. I went foraging with my grandmother all the time. I still pick mullberries, purslane and dandelion greens around here when I get out of town limits on my bike. But there is nothing like the variety of stuff you'd find on a rocky Lebanese hillside. Wild fennel, asparagus, oregano, sumac, onions, chicories...sigh.

Looks like you are enjoying your D70 -- beautiful photos!

jackal: Would post the recipe for the woodruff cordial? My mom grows tons of the stuff and never knows what to do with it. Aside: Once in Germany I asked what the green stuff was that they were putting in the beer. Trying to come up with a translation of "Waldmeister", woodruff will forever in our household be known as "Forest-Master" Could the cordial be used as a beer "Schuss"?

Edited May 21, 2005 by Behemoth (log)

[Behemoth]

Speaking of, erm, interesting botany...many of our friends in the Bekaa valley plant hashish around the perimeter of their garden because it supposedly keeps away mosquitoes. The vast expanses of the plant we saw as we drove over the mountain, however, were probably not just for pest-abatement purposes. (I'm just guessing.) Still, this was about 15 years ago; it's probably different now.

[fifi]

Well . . . Another day in the weeds. I didn't come up exactly empty handed. Onward to the bay. A couple of blocks away from where I live I found some horsemint that I could get to. You can see that it is whiter than the picture that Judith posted. Nibbling a leaf, I get a nice well rounded oregano taste with a touch of pepperiness. I will probably make a chicken salad for lunch tomorrow with the leftover chicken I poached for the tamale pie. I think this would be quite nice in that. I will dry the rest. Luckily, the DeLonghi has a dehydration setting that works quite nicely.

I made one more try for ripe dewberries along the abandoned railroad track. Not a berry is in sight. Harrumph. I stopped by the VFW hall to drop off a case of grill brick. (My beloved housekeeper's husband is the commandant there and I had picked it up for her on my last trip to the restaurant supply.) She told me that the railroad track berries were ripe a week or so ago and the locals cleaned them out. Going back to my car, I spotted wild onions growing in the ditch!

Now to my new place to check out the pecan tree. Note that there is no house yet. The house is planned to avoid and not damage the pecan tree and the big water oak behind it. Not a pecan in sight. Of course it is too early but I was hoping to get a picture of the babies. I have some from last year that we shelled out to make my dad's signature Scotch Raisin Bread that he used to bake every Christmas. My sister and I try to do this every holiday. There was a pretty good crop last year and we stole enough from the squirrels to put in the bread. We thought that would be fun to use pecans from my tree. Something happened and we never got around to it last year and we put them in the freezer so I can use them for something else. I think I will do the Texas Sheet Cake that everyone has heard of, except for me. My neighbor tells me that the tree goes on strike every other year.

Walking toward the water, I found that I still have hydrocotyl or penneywort growing. Someone told me that the Indians had some use for it. There is an Asian green that is in the same family but looks a bit different. I can't find the reference to that right now. This plant seems to have some medicinal uses. One reference mentions its use as an anti-seizure medication and that it is being investigated for treating Alzheimers. Hmmm . . . Maybe I should cultivate more of it. The Indians were probably onto something.

And here is my ultimate grazing ground, Galveston Bay on a still day. (It is getting hot, too.) The bay is shallow and it isn't unusual to see wade fishermen out past the ends of the piers. They are usually only waist deep. The bottom is firm sand and a hangout for blue crabs, stone crabs, red drum (the Redfish that Paul Prudhomme made famous, and scarce), spotted sea trout (speckled trout or specks). There is a big oyster reef just beyond the piers. That makes this strip of the bayfront a popular fishing spot. The predator fish cruise the edges of the reef when the tide is running. There are barnacles on the old pilings that attract sheepshead. We always considered them trash fish but I understand that they are quite good and have been sold as "bay snapper" lately since red snapper has gotten scarce. You can check out our local creatures here and more here. The good news is that I can rebuild the pier without the totally insane permitting process since I am "repairing" an existing pier. I have dreams of pecan crusted trout or redfish.

I spent too much time yakking with the neighbors and lost the light. I will have to do some backtracking to get to the wild roses that I found just down the road.

[fifi]

I slept late this morning. Went out to the car to get the horsemint and wild onion out of the ice chest. 10:30 or so and it is already HOT!

I put some horsemint and wild onion in my scrambled eggs. To use an eGullet phrase . . . This does not suck! This batch of wild onion is wonderfully mild. I minced some of the bulblets. Now that I know where it grows, I will be revisiting the source. I will also probably go back and get a bunch to possibly freeze.

I checked the weather and it doesn't look promising. It seems we are going to have some record heat today. That doesn't bode well for standing in the sun gathering tons of flowers. As it is now 97 degrees F (about 36 C) with a heat index of about 104 degrees F, I will be waiting a while to go out.

I am beginning to see a theme here. I have been finding stuff but some of it will have to wait or I was too late to partake. That's ok. I at least know where it is. That is to be expected when getting a one week snapshot. The theme, though is that I now have a source for three kinds of flowers; honeysuckle, wild rose and elder flowers to make something with. That coupled with the excellent recipe suggestions has been worth the whole exercise.

[fifi]

I can now absolutely affirm that it is too hot for hound doggies. I went poking around locally and returned after about an hour with no water left in my body. But . . . I didn't come up empty handed.

The first goal was to go ahead and pick the red dewberries and make a vinaigrette. No go. The damn things don't have enough juice to mess with. A couple out for a walk stopped to chat. They have been to numerous berry patches and have found about the same thing. The theory is that they hit a dry spell at just the wrong time. The alternate theory is that Mother Nature is a bitch. I voted for the alternate theory.

But I continued to poke around and low and behold, I found a bit of sorrel. It is in a bowl of cool water to freshen it. There is also the issue that it was growing in dog pee territory. There isn't a lot but on consultation with my sister, we think there is enough for a small batch of pesto. I can use some of the pecans in that.

Then, the grape gods came through. Thank you Dionysius. I turned a corner to a previously unnoticed grape vine and hit pay dirt.

In some of them the seeds are a bit far gone but I can cook them up and then push through a strainer, extract the pulp and make jam. Does anyone have a recipe? Googling was less than successful but I think I can wing it if no one has ever made jam before. I am not inclined to make pies or tarts or anything like that since I don't eat much in the way of sweets. Something preserved, like jam, is usually more useful for me.

I am glad I didn't take the camera outside. I would have dripped sweat all over it. If I am going to get flowers, I will have to get up early. If you are going to pick flowers, it is usually best to do so early in the morning before the heat of the day dissipates their perfume.

[Jinmyo]

Very interesting, fiifi, thanks.

[jackal10]

Great blog, and I hope I'm not intruding to answer the question up thread

Woodruff. The leaves make a sort of ruff around the stem.

Use the elderflower syrup recipe above, but infuse the leaves in the hot syrup like making a tea or tisane. Wonderful flavour like fresh hay with vanilla. Makes a great sorbet.

Grape Jam or Jelly?

Jelly is the usual 1lb sugar to a pint of juice; you will need to add acid (lemon juice) and maybe pectin (or apple) if the grapes are ripe.

Jam is the usual 6lbs sugar to 4lbs fruit, but again you may need to add apple or pectin.

Oded Schwartz has a grape jam with slices of lemon, pecans and brandy. Very pretty.

Christine Ferber gives recipes for Muscat grape jams and jellies; she adds 1 3/4 lbs apples to 2 1/4 lbs grapes or uses 7oz of apple jelly. One recipe adds 3 1/2 oz of Honey; another recipe adds 2 cups of wine made from the same grape

Edited May 22, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Pan]

Jack, have you foraged a lot in your area of England?

[jackal10]

Only in my garden; brambles, sloes, hawthorn, rowanberries, rosehips, wild garlic, elderflowers and berries. Various flowers, like wild violets, cowslips, primroses, mostly to decorate salads with as you need so many to do anything useful with...

[fifi]

Jack, thanks for the picture of the Woodruff. Since it came up, I have been searching for a similar thing here. I have probably missed something but I am not familiar with it.

Also, many thanks for your proportions on the jam and jelly. That confirms to me that I am on the right track.

What you say about having enough to "do anything useful with" is really telling about what foraging is all about. I went through a phase of dismissing anything that didn't yield a pantry shelf of jelly or whatever. I think that I have now progressed to enjoying the tidbits. For instance, I now have probably a tenth of an ounce or so of dried horsemint. It isn't a lot but it will grace a dish or so until next year and I will relive the thrill of discovery every time.

[ludja]

When is the season for glasswort aka samphire?

I remember you mentioning that this was another item that you can find on the Texas coast in this thread.

This is such a fun thread Fifi, thank you very much!

Edited May 22, 2005 by ludja (log)

[fifi]

Well . . . Now that I have beaten back some computer problems, this morning I went after some more green grapes and horsemint and have been beavering away processing them. One last trip to the beach and I will see if there is any samphire. It should be up and growing. The trip will have to wait until it cools down or until the morning. I have to spend time processing some of my finds before they go off. Since it is air conditioned in here, that seems like a good plan. I am trying to remember how we survived without air conditioning. when we lived on the bayou, we didn't have it and I don't remember being miserable. We had big window fans and they pumped in air from over the trees that lined the bayou.

I am really hoping that there will be coquinas. Having spent a couple of hours researching the subject, the best I can come up with is that they are in the surf "in the summer." Well, if this isn't summer, I don't know what is. It has been 97 degrees F again here today. They magically appear in the surf line "in the summer" then "disappear" in the fall. What I want to know is . . . where do they go? I haven't searched the scientific literature but I wonder if they produce some sort of cyst or something to overwinter. This is beginning to bug me. I will probably have to call Texas A & M. Or maybe someone out there knows about the life cycle of Donax variabilis.

Pictures later.

[mizducky]

I am really hoping that there will be coquinas. Having spent a couple of hours researching the subject, the best I can come up with is that they are in the surf "in the summer." Well, if this isn't summer, I don't know what is. It has been 97 degrees F again here today. They magically appear in the surf line "in the summer" then "disappear" in the fall. What I want to know is . . . where do they go? I haven't searched the scientific literature but I wonder if they produce some sort of cyst or something to overwinter. This is beginning to bug me. I will probably have to call Texas A & M. Or maybe someone out there knows about the life cycle of Donax variabilis.

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Howsabout this for a nice scientific article on coquinas?

On longer time scales, Ruppert and Fox (1988) report a seasonal cycle of migration across the beach zone, down into the shallow sublittoral in fall, and returning onto the beach as juveniles in the late winter. This rather nomadic lifestyle, combined with its supreme ability as a rapid burrower, has enabled this species to colonize the sands of exposed beaches that otherwise are fairly devoid of macrofauna (Wilson 1999).

(Note: fixed what I figured had to be a typo in the article--it had "clown" instead of "down"--while these little clams are cute, I don't think they're given to clowning around. )

[fifi]

Very cool, mizducky! Many thanks.

And now a progress report.

Its all green stuff.

That is a quart of green grape pulp to be turned into jam shortly. All I did after cleaning and destemming the grapes was put them in my grandmother's enamel jam pot and boil them until tender. Then I worked out my dewberry aggression with a masher and put the stuff through a strainer using the back of a small ladle as a pusher. (I don't know where my ricer thingy is.)

Upper left is the sorrel pesto made just with pecans, olive oil and a touch of salt. This stuff is outstanding. I had some with a cheese quesidilla a while ago. You can really taste the sorrel and the pecans and they go well together. That took a bit of fiddley clipping to avoid the wiry stems, though.

Bottom left is dried horsemint. There is more in the drier. This is the easiest. The DeLonghi is doing and excellent job and the flavor is still there. Then you just rub it in your hands over a bowl.

Gee . . . almost 6:30 here and we are down to 90 degrees.