Fall Finds in Nature’s Pantry

Hello, and we hope everyone is well! Stop by our next delicious Pathfinder Produce fresh market, this Thursday, September 19 from noon to 5 p.m. for the very freshest, tastiest fruits and veggies around!  Pathfinder Produce …. We’re rooted in community!

A word of welcome to our local friends and neighbors: Come over to Grant’s Field at Pathfinder Village tonight at 4:30 p.m. to cheer on our local scholastic cross-country athletes during the annual Meghan Sorbera Memorial Invitational XC meet.  Another meet is scheduled for Tuesday, September 24 as well!  To all the runners -- Good luck and go for those personal records!

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Tis’ the harvest season and nature’s bounty is all around us. I was looking out at my front yard the other morning and found the largest puffball I’ve ever seen, just waiting to be picked. I’ve never had a puffball before, but a few mushroom enthusiasts I know say they are delicious.

Of course, walking on the wild side can be a “walk on the wild side” if you ingest the wrong thing. The links below offer some tips on how to identify edible puffballs. (As stated in prior blogs, unless you 100% know what you are about to eat or touch in nature, don’t eat or touch it!):

• Mushroom Appreciation: Puffball Identification Guide
• Livestrong.com: The Best-Ways to cook Puffball Mushrooms

Wild foods were a staple in the larder and medicine chest of our forefathers, and I’m very jealous (I mean like green with envy jealous) of a friend who has a stand of elderberries near her home. She has been documenting the process of making syrup through pictures, bottling this magic elixir which is believed to be very helpful in reducing the severity of colds and flu. The links discuss how to identify elderberries and a few recipes; be aware that elderberry stems are somewhat toxic (as are non-ripe berries), so be sure to only use fully black, ripe berries if you make your own syrup.

• Outdoor Life: How to identify an Elderberry Bush
• Edible Wild Food.com: Elderberry
• Wellness Mama: Elderberry Syrup 

Lately, we’ve been watching “The Wild Chef” on Netflix, which features Chef Martin Picard’s adventures with wild game and other naturally sourced ingredients. It’s interesting to see Quebecois-inspired foods being made in non-restaurant settings, similar to our region. An ingredient he shared in one episode that abounds here is sumac: I found this interesting as I’d always been told to avoid the plant because there is a variety that creates a skin reaction similar to that of poison oak or ivy.

It turns out non-toxic varieties of sumac are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. Most blogs recommend making sumac-ade, and the berries are used as a spice in traditional Middle Eastern cooking.  Who knew!?

Until next time, be open to outdoor adventures!

Lori

Shishito Peppers

Hello everyone, and I apologize for being a tad late with this week’s post. It’s been a very busy few weeks here at the Village!  That said, our friendly Pathfinder Produce team is getting ready for this week’s delicious and fresh market at the Village Commons on Thursday, from noon to 5 p.m.

Pathfinder is transitioning into fall with the opening of Pathfinder School and Otsego Academy (welcome students!), the start of another fun and competitive community soccer season at Grant’s Field, and with the local middle school and high school students using our Community Trails to train for their cross-country season.  Fall is a great time to discover new activities too … just take a walk outside to explore the community around you.

Below, my colleague Martha Spiegel shares a tale of culinary exploration which sounds tempting!

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I discovered a new (to me) kind of pepper a couple of weeks ago—shishito peppers. As the name suggests, these peppers originated in Japan. They are green, about the length of a jalapeno, but much thinner and wrinkly looking. They are a mild, flavorful, sweet pepper, although about one in ten packs a little bit of a punch. They are healthy little guys too, containing antioxidants, Vitamin C, and dietary fiber.

A couple of my grandkids tried them raw. Jack, our 8-year-old foodie, thought they were scrumptious. Thea, the 3-year-old, said “It’s a spicy pepper,” but she said it with a smile and continued munching. My husband and son also liked them.

I am not a huge fan of any raw pepper, so I looked for ways to cook them. By far the most suggested method is to sauté them in hot olive oil until they’re blistered, and then finish them off with some sea salt and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Then you just grab them by the stem and bite the whole thing off. It’s so easy, and they’re delicious!

We did find that if you bite too close to the skin you can get a bunch of seeds in your mouth, so if this doesn’t appeal to you, bite it off a little farther down as the seeds are mostly clustered at the top.

There are some other recipes that I have found but have not tried yet. Some of them sound really tasty so I’m sure I’ll be experimenting more with shishitos.

Until next time, explore and explore some more!

Martha (and Lori)

Put your Best Foot Forward!

Hello, and welcome to September!  With the start of the school year, scholastic and youth sports, and more fall activities, rely on Pathfinder Produce to meet your busy schedule and your family’s produce needs!  We’re open every Thursday, from noon to 5 p.m., at the Village Commons.  We hope you’ll stop by this week for the freshest produce around!