Green Options

Apple harvest time arrives at the best and worst time on our Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity. As four bushels of apples sit on my front porch, I’m reminded of all those right reasons: the crisp flavor of fresh apples, appreciation of the harvest bounty and the tempting aroma of a pie baking in the oven.

Apple pies baking in the oven. That’s where I remember the “worst of time” mantra: apple season, like everything else on the farm this time of year, arrives during that crazy-busy, over-abundant time of year called “fall.” The final bounty of garden booty needs harvesting, along with a mile-long laundry list of farm chores that need wrapping up before the winter winds start to blow. Not ideal timing to be in the kitchen rolling piecrust. Actually, I can’t even see my counter top to roll a crust this time of year, as it is overloaded with tomatoes, zucchini and everything else in need of processing.

But don’t think this chaos of fall causes me to give up on pie making. The secret? Simplify the process. Our Inn Serendipity house favorite from our Edible Earth cookbook, Oat Apple Pie, serves up a good example of super simple pie making, as it doesn’t call for a rolled piecrust. Rather, the crust is pressed oatmeal dough, kind of like apples wrapped in a big, chewy oatmeal cookie. By rethinking the traditional pie model, you now have both cookies and pie wafting from the oven. Priceless.

Here’s the recipe, made from basic ingredients you probably have in your pantry right now. I easily adapt this for vegan B&B guests by substituting vegan margarine for the butter. This is also a great recipe for beginning pie-makers (and folks like myself with produce piling up on the counter) as there is no rolled crust.

I confess, I’m slow to change.  At least when it comes to cooking.  A devout recipe follower, I measure my cups and teaspoons and follow recipe direction as if they were sent from above.

Until this week, when I finally took our new solar oven out of the box.  We bought this Global Sun Oven last winter to use at our farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity, with all good intentions.  No plug in required, just open it up and heat up and bake.

Which is where I got stuck, as I would not only be cooking out of my box, I’d be cooking out of my kitchen.  But my husband, John, helped by setting it up for the first time, conducting a mini-science project that even our seven-year old could handle of angling it to garner maximum solar gain.  I had one of my new favorite pies ready to stick in the oven (“Strawberry and Rhubarb Streusel Pie” – recipe below), and took it outside instead.

Mission Pie is a corner café, bakery, and neighborhood gathering place in the SF Mission District that brings the flavors of local farms into the city and tells their stories. Mission Pie encourages urban folks toward intimacy with their food through live relationships with the people and places that grow our ingredients. With pie as our ally, we create a warm environment that encourages exploration of our choices and values, and where, as neighbors, we can find support and friendship in our pursuit of healthy and sustainable lives. We celebrate farmers, bakers, chefs, and all who work together toward a healthful food system.

Mission Pie is a business venture in collaboration with the non-profit Pie Ranch, a diversified small-scale educational farm that is just one hour south of San Francisco.Through “hands-on work and collective reflection at Pie Ranch, San Francisco teenagers discover new competencies and insights” that truly benefit them as individuals and in community.

Pear pie. Pear ginger muffins. Pear cordials made from aging pears, sugar and vodka. Pears canned in sugar syrup. Pear jam.

When Mary calls me every year at the end of August with her annual message of “The tree is ripe – come pick,” I turn into the Bubba Gump of pears, gratefully using the four bushels of pears I harvest off her abundant backyard tree.

As the country whines about escalating food prices, there’s often rotten apples falling from some tree near you. Or pears, plums – name your fruit. You know the tree I’m talking about – the one you pass by every day in someone’s yard that is practically falling over with ripe fruit and you think to yourself, “Someone needs to do something with that.” How true – and that “someone” is you.

Talk about a sustainable homerun: By connecting with and harvesting a local fruit tree, you not only garner more organic, fresh, local fruit booty than you know what to do with – and put something to use that would otherwise have gone to waste. You build community by connecting with others. We’re talking community at its core, most sustainable essence, sharing abundance with others, relishing the gifts of the land.

Step up to the plate – or bushel – and tap into these unwanted fruit on trees in backyards across the nation that could be making the world a better place through more pie – or jam or cobblers or muffins – you get the picture.

Here are three tips for foraging a fruit tree near you:

“Free organic fruit. Perfectly ripe. Locally grown. Yours for the taking.”

Your ears perking up yet? If this showed up on your local Craig’s List or Freecycle would you be frantically e-mailing, “When can I come over”? Amazingly, such an opportunity probably exists right now, perhaps right down your road, as fruit trees ripen and – too often – fall to the ground and rot.

Like an archeological remnant of a past generation, industrious homeowners often planted these fruit trees several decades ago, before our era of mega-supermarkets and the universal concept that we can, and should, buy everything 24/7. Seems these trees tend to fall into two categories: either they belong to senior residents who can’t physically pick and process the fruit, or newer residents who bought the house with the tree and don’t have the time to pick, much less know what to do with four bushels of pears. Other folks even go as far as considering these trees a nuisance, as overripe fruit falls to the ground and attracts bugs and rodents, eventually chopping the tree down.

Don’t anger the Lorax, make pear pie instead. By connecting with these untapped fruit sources, you cook up something bigger than your private food stash – you will be an ambassador for building community, one bite at a time. I made my annual pilgrimage yesterday to local seniors John and Mary’s house to raid their pear tree, coming home with three five-gallon buckets of fruit. No secret invasion needed; Mary calls every year right before Labor Day to let me know the pears are ripe and we’re welcome to harvest.

Here are three tips for foraging a fruit tree near you:

The roots of the “Life is just a bowl of cherries” proverb go back to a song from the 1930’s of the same name with the opening lyric: ” Life is just a bowl of cherries; Don’t make it serious; Life’s too mysterious.” A good reminder for me during peak cherry season — to remember to stop, savor and enjoy the cherries– especially when they are transformed into pie form.

Cherries, especially during this peak summer season, remind us to step back and relish the moment — something I definitely need reminding of as I continually journey toward eating more consciously and sustainably. Fresh sour cherries are here — then they’re gone till next year. Relax, eat and enjoy. This recipe blends sour cream with the tart bite of sour cherries, resulting in a creamy juxtaposition of flavors. Best eaten cold and within a day of baking.

As we previously reported, New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman was officially “pied” last week, while giving an Earth Day Lecture at Brown University. Friedman was ambushed just as he began his talk, entitled “Green is the new Red, White & Blue.” The group that claimed responsibility call themselves “The Greenwash Guerillas.” In a statement issued today, they said they targeted Friedman…

“Because of his support for U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, neo-liberal economic policies that harm the world’s poor, and especially for promoting bogus solutions to the global climate crisis.“

“We sought to expose the hypocrisy of allowing Friedman, who is known for his influential support of U.S. wars for oil in the Middle East, to call himself an environmentalist,” said Margaret Little, the Brown University student responsible for the creamy projectiles.

Editor's note: We're pleased to welcome Colleen Patrick-Goudreau to the Green Options writing team! Colleen has taught vegan cooking classes in Oakland, California, for seven years, and is a columnist for VegNews magazine, and a contributing writer for KQED radio's Perspectives program. Her first cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Recipes for Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets, will be published

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