Did You Ever Eat a Pine Tree?

I have always been  fascinated by the idea of eating  cambium.

When I was in the 4th grade, Mrs. Kokila read to about our local tribes of Native Americans.   She read us books like 'Ishi in Two Worlds' and took us to museums to see Native American baskets and beads and cooking utensils.  And some where along the line, someone mentioned eating acorns and cambium.  I was hooked.

Eating cambium is nothing new.

But what do you do with it?

If you come to my classes, we harvested buckets full last year.  We did the 'normal' things with it.  Baked it.  Fried it.  Boiled it.

(yawn)

It was bland.  It was boring.  It was dull.

But then I read that the Finns used it as a flour.

Perfect.

I used Pinus sabiniana, harvested in February. We had a warm early spring and I was able to get some early.  Otherwise, I would have waited another few weeks.  P sabiniana (or Gray pine) is probably not the most flavorful of pine.  In fact, there aren't many uses for any part of the Gray pine.  It's so full of knots that you can't get a straight board out of it.  It's messy and drips pitch all over whatever is under it.  And every once in a while, it drops one of it's huge cones and takes out a car windshield.  It does have a nice seed, but it's (cough.cough)...a tough nut to crack.  But it's fast growing and I have tons of it.  I'm trying to open up the meadow and increase the edges.  So these are trees that are coming down any way.  I don't recommend cutting down a slow growing,  beautiful, useful pine just for the sake of eating it.

I ground up my cambium and started experimenting.  I wanted to see how far I could take it.  And this was extreme.  I made junk food.  Yep.  Junk food.  But yummy junk food.

Doughnuts.

I wish I could say that using cambium made these healthier, especially the fried ones.  I would have an excuse to eat more of them.  But alas, they probably not any healthier than doughnuts bought a really good doughnut shop.  Tender on the outside   Moist on the inside.  A soft glaze that sticks to your fingers...but no taste of pine.  Anywhere.  Just pure, sweet doughnut.  I did cut the sugar down on the baked version a bit, and baking cuts down a few of the calories.

Cambium doesn't have gluten, so you always have to add something to make it stick together.  I used wheat flour and almond flour in these two recipes   I added the almond flour in the baked version to cut down on the sugar and make them slightly healthier.

If you decide to work with cambium, my experiments showed I could take it to about a 50:50 ratio with flour.  Your mileage may vary.  I thought I could go higher actually, but I cannot bring one more doughnut into this house for a few months.  Yes, I made that many batches and ate that many of them.  I do not want to see another doughnut for a very long time.

Baked Cambium Donuts
These are the healthiest of the two.  I cut down the sugar a little, with the addition of almond flour.
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup pine cambium
3 heaping tablespoons almond flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons milk
1 egg (beaten)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a doughnut pan.
Scald milk and melt the butter in it.
In a large bowl, mix flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Stir in eggs, vanilla and butter.  Beat until blended.
Spoon batter into doughnut pan.
Bake 10-15 minutes, until doughnuts spring back when touched.  Slightly cool before removing from pan.
I thought these were fine without glazing, but if you want to frost, glaze, sprinkle with powdered sugar, whatever, knock yourself out.

And now for the 'fat pills'...

Raised Cambium Doughnuts
1/2 cup warm water
2 pkg active dry yeast
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar plus 1 teaspoon for yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour (plus extra for kneading)
2 cups cambium flour
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs

Soak yeast in warm water, add the 1 teaspoon of sugar.  In a small saucepan, add the shortening to the milk and scald.  In a large bowl, mix sugar and salt together and then pour the scalded milk over.  Stir until dissolved.  Let cool until the mixture is warm.  If too hat, your yeast will die.

Add 1 cup of flour, eggs and yeast mixture.  Beat until smooth.  Add remaining flours and mix.  Dough will be very, very soft.  Keep your hands floured to keep it from sticking.  When dough begins to leave the sides of the bowl, turn out onto a lightly floured board.  Knead until dough becomes smooth and elastic, working in extra flour if needed (I worked in about another half cup of flour to get a dough that had enough body to roll out.)

Place dough in a greased bowl, turn over so top is coated with oil.  Cover with a towel and place in a warm spot until doubled (about an hour).

Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness and cut doughnuts out.  (I used a doughnut cutter, but you could use a glass and a bottle cap, a 32 can and a small canape cutter, pill bottle, whatever works for you).

Let rise until very light (about 40 minutes.

Drop into hot fat (325-350 degrees) and turn when doughnuts are just barely brown.  Turn once again when doughnuts are browned sufficiently.

Drain on absorbent paper.  Glaze while still warm, or roll in sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Glaze
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup confectioners sugar

Mix together, add a few more drops of water to thin if necessary.  

A glimpse of morning

I never knew the difference between Dementia and Sundowner's Syndrome.  And even if I did, I would have thought 'Sundowners' started at sundown.

Boy, did I have that wrong.

My mother greets me every morning with a joyous 'Good Morning!'.  It is genuine and she is happy and that makes me happy.

I change her diaper and lift her out of bed.

She begins asking about 'cafe au lait'.  I give her a cup (which is actually coffee flavored 'Insure').

I usually feed my mother her meals.  My husband was injured in Iraq when an IED hit his vehicle.  Because of his injuries, repetitive fine motor movement is difficult.  Holding the spoon hurts his hands. I don't mind.  I enjoy it.   There is something about feeding another human being that is nourishing to both parties.  I can look at her and she focuses on me.  That doesn't happen very often.

I fix her breakfast.  Today it was oatmeal with a fresh peach off the tree mashed in.

I struggle with keeping my mothers weight on.  Most of her calories are consumed at breakfast.  Once the Sundowners kicks in, she won't eat. A glass of prune juice, more Insure, pudding, bananas, whatever I can get in to her during this brief period that will increase her daily calorie count.

It's a race.

We talk about the peaches in her oatmeal.  I ask her if she remembers when my father planted the trees so very long ago.  She remembers, but doesn't really remember when.  She has forgotten my name so she just calls my 'pretty lady'.

And then, at 11:55 am, she is gone.  She begins to shout.  Mostly in French.  She yells at dead people.  She yells at me.  Her eyes grow dark.

And I know that my time with her is over and someone else has moved in.

I meant to get up early to pick blackberries, but something, probably a bobcat and hopefully not a mountain lion, was after the geese last night, so the priorities changed a bit.  Sleep before berries.

The annual summertime war with the kitchen-ants has begun.  Pies, sugar, honey, jelly, cobblers.  I would want to live here too if I were an ant.  I don't like to use poisons because of the pets, so I deal with the ants manually.  I had to throw out a box of powdered sugar this morning, but it was my fault for being sloppy.  I get hurried and forget to screw tops down tight some days.  Ah, well.  I can live with the loss of one box of sugar.

As far as the restaurant goes, I'm still waiting to open.  It sure seems like I spend a whole lot of time 'waiting' these days.  I'm waiting for the parts to come in for the prep bar.  I still have to scrub the floors and hang the menu black board.  And get the final inspection from the county.

One thing at a time, I guess.

Cattail Pasta, Great with Lentil Lasagna or any sauce...

I’ve been seeing Euell Gibbons mentioned a lot lately. He really was a pioneer. No, he didn't 'invent' eating wild, but he did publish and 'live the life' and took a lot of heat for it. I remember back about 30 years ago, reading his books for the first time. I was mesmerized. It was the first time that I felt someone else understood my some of my interests. How to make food from the wild that tasted good and had appeal. I was young and very poor and ‘free’ food was a necessity. I remember the ‘knitting needles’ left on the plate after eating cattails. (lol) You needed a lot of butter!

So, in a salute to old Mr. Gibbons, here is my recipe for cattail pasta. I especially like it in a lentil lasagna, but it’s equally good with your favorite sauce. If you already have a favorite pasta recipe, try cutting the flour in half and adding cattail pollen. You may have to experiment to find the best ratio, but it’s worth it.

Pasta is easy to make and economical. If you have a pasta cutter, good on you, but I just cut mine into shapes using a knife.

To make one pound of pasta, you need 1 cups of unbleached flour, 1 cup of cattail pollen 3 large eggs, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Place the flour on a table in a mound and make a well in the center. Put the eggs and salt into the well. Mix the eggs together with a fork without disturbing the flour. (This is not as tricky as it sounds…)

Using a fork, gently incorporate the flour into the egg mixture a little at a time.

Once you have incorporated all of the flour together with the egg using a fork, use your fingertips to blend the mixture together well.
After the wet and dry ingredients have been combined, form a ball. If the dough seems to dry, add a little more egg mixture. If the mixture is too wet and sticks to your fingers, rub your hands with flour.
Knead the pasta dough for about 7 minutes until the dough is smooth.
Divide the dough into 3 equal sized portions. Cover the dough balls with a towel or bowl and let rest for 15 minutes.

If your using a pasta machine, put it to work.

If you don't have a pasta machine, a rolling pin will work just fine. Roll each ball about 1/16th inch thick, or as thin as you can.
Fold the rolled dough into a square. Cut the open end of the square a quarter inch at a time, into what ever width you choose. Skinny for ‘sketti. Wide for lasagna noodles.

Immediately after cutting the dough, hang the pasta on a dowel or other object (a clothes drying rack works great). You can also lay the pasta flat on a towel, but it is more likely to stick together.

The pasta can be used right away or will keep up to a week.

Enjoy!
Heather