Backyard bounty
Many gardeners have experienced it at least once: a glut of zucchini or tomatoes or squash, or an overladen fruit tree. We eat the abundance in as many ways as we can devise, and then start giving it away to friends, if they aren’t suffering from a similar problem.
Or, feeling guilty for the waste of good food, we leave it to rot.
In Moscow and Pullman, new organizations exist to remedy this, connecting those with extra produce to those who can use it. The Backyard Harvest started in 2006, and its sister project, the Town Orchard, followed in 2007. Both are official projects of the nonprofit Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI) in Moscow.
The Backyard Harvest and the Town Orchard Project are labors of love for their creator, Moscow resident Amy Grey.
“The Backyard Harvest began with a $1.89 packet of lettuce seeds. I started my first ever vegetable garden by planting all the seeds in the packet, all at once,” Grey recalled. “My young sons, Tom and Sam, were ‘helping’ me and having a good time, so I did not stop to think just how many heads of lettuce I might actually be growing.”
It turned out to be over 200.
“We do have friends in town, but not that many, so I made what was the first of many trips to the local food bank. They were really excited about the lettuce, so I just kept on planting entire packets of seeds for the remainder of that first season,” Grey said.
By the time fall brought production to an end, Grey alone had donated nearly 400 pounds of produce to the Moscow Food Bank and the Community Action Partnership Food Bank in Lewiston.
It is an impressive amount of food, especially considering that Grey was new to gardening.
“I was born and raised in Chicago to decidedly nongardening parents, but my first career was as an archaeologist, so I have actually been playing in the dirt for a long time,” Grey joked. After a career as a map maker and artifact illustrator on archaeology sites in Europe and the Middle East, Grey returned to the United States. She worked as the senior book designer for the University of Idaho Press and now has her own design business.
“I couldn’t help but think there must be other gardeners who shared my leafy predicament or at least had some giant zucchinis lurking about,” Grey said. She approached PCEI with the idea of creating a program that formally connected local gardeners with food banks and senior meal programs.
Fortunately, PCEI already had a Community Food System Program in place, focused on issues related to food security, sustainable growing practices, and community.
“The fit was perfect,” Grey said.
In its 2006 pilot season, Backyard Harvest collected and distributed over 4,400 pounds of produce to nine area programs serving seniors and low income families. The program sends volunteers to pick up extra home produce, and also has collection boxes at Moscow and Pullman’s community gardens.
The Town Orchard project got under way later in the 2006 season when people with extra fruit started contacting Backyard Harvest for help.
“Some people would say that they did not garden but had an old fruit tree in their backyard that I was welcome to come and pick from,” Grey said. “By the end of the summer, offers such as this had led Backyard Harvest volunteers to glean over 300 pounds of apples, pears, plums, cherries and grapes from backyards in both Moscow and Pullman.”
Martha Klontz, a longtime Moscow resident, heard about the program through her work with PCEI. She picked apples from her own tree until she had all she needed – then let volunteers harvest the rest.
“I was tired of picking apples and then throwing them away,” Klontz said. “So it was wonderful to have them come.”
The gleaned fruit was very popular, Grey said, both with seniors and for families visiting local food banks.
“But our efforts to harvest fruit last year were also very stop gap,” Grey said. When she got a call in July from Moscow resident Marilyn Johnson wondering whether they would like to harvest some cherries before the heat got to them, Grey and her family went straight over to harvest that afternoon.
“Well, we got to this hillside just south of town and there before us stood over thirty beautiful Bings and Lamberts and Queen Anne’s laden with fruit. Needless to say we only made a dent as the sun crept below the horizon,” Grey said. “I asked Mrs. Johnson if I could call her again next season and this time bring enough people to harvest all the fruit. She graciously agreed, and so the tree database that is the basis for the Town Orchard project was started.”
The programs have expanded to include the “Grow More to Share More” initiative, which provides free seeds and plant starts to people wanting to contribute to the program, and the “Garden to Kitchen” initiative, which provides recipes and food preparation tips to be distributed with the produce.
“To date, we have had over forty volunteers help glean fruit trees, transport produce, distribute free seeds and plant starts, create container garden kits, help care for and maintain our ‘anchor’ gardens, and share their expertise in fundraising and grant writing,” Grey said.
Last year the programs served nine food banks, shelters, and senior meal sites in Moscow, Pullman, and Lewiston. Grey will expand the program this year to include programs in rural Idaho towns such as Potlatch, Deary, and Troy.
“While I was initially driven by a desire to get fresh produce to people in need,” Grey said, “the longer I work on developing these projects the more I realize that it has less to do with gardening and more to do with sharing with one’s neighbors.”
For more information about the Backyard Harvest and the Town Orchard projects, visit www.backyardharvest.org.
Enjoy those abundant veggies and fruits with some new recipes:
Rhubarb Salsa
1 cup finely diced rhubarb
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 or 2 minced chili peppers
1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
Dash of brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Blanch rhubarb for 10 seconds in boiling water. Place immediately in ice-cold water. Combine with peppers, onions, and cilantro. Stir in lime juice with brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Serve with fish, chicken, or baked tortilla chips. May also use as a marinade.
Yield: about 3 servings
Approximate nutrition per serving: 26 calories, less than one gram fat (6 percent fat calories), 1 gram protein, 6 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams dietary fiber, no cholesterol, 90 milligrams sodium.
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Submitted by L. Dart to www.allrecipes.com
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour milk (see note)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/4 cup ground walnuts
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cream together butter, vegetable oil and sugar.
Add eggs, sour milk, and vanilla. Blend well.
In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together.
Blend dry ingredients into the butter mixture.
Add grated zucchini, and mix well.
Spread in a greased, floured 9-by-13-inch inch pan. Sprinkle walnuts and chocolate chips on top.
Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 45 minutes.
Note: This cake can be frozen for up to 6 months. To make sour milk, mix 1/2 cup milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice and let stand 10 minutes.
Yield: 12 pieces
Approximate nutrition per serving: 389 calories, 20 grams fat (6 grams saturated, 46 percent fat calories), 5 grams protein, 50 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams dietary fiber, 67 milligrams cholesterol, 219 milligrams sodium.
Plum and Pear Cobbler
From Diana Rattray at http://southernfood.about.com
Thinly sliced pitted plums, about 4 cups
Sliced peeled pears, about 2 cups
3/4 cup granulated sugar (less if plums are sweet)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Combine sliced plums, pears, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Toss together and let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Cut in butter until mixture is mealy. In a cup, whisk together 1/4 cup of milk and the egg. Blend milk mixture into dry mixture until moistened, adding more milk if a softer consistency is desired (the stiffer dough can be dropped on the fruit and will hold its shape, but you might prefer a softer and more spreadable dough).
Pour fruit mixture into an 11-by-7 or 9-inch square baking dish. Spoon batter over fruit and spread out, if desired.
Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for about 40 to 50 minutes, or until fruit is tender and topping is browned.
Yield: 9 servings
Approximate nutrition per serving: 302 calories, 6 grams fat (3.5 grams saturated, 18 percent fat calories), 4 grams protein, 60 grams carbohydrate, 2.6 grams dietary fiber, 45 milligrams cholesterol, 166 milligrams sodium.
Insalata Caprese
Use only ripe homegrown tomatoes for this Italian salad, and don’t let it sit too long and get soggy. Serve with rustic bread for a great lunch or appetizer dish.
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/4-inch thick
2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 cup fresh basil leaves
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons drained capers (optional)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
In a circular design around the side of a serving plate, alternate fresh mozzarella slices on a large platter (or on individual plates if you are doing individual portions) with sliced tomatoes, overlapping for effect.
Tear fresh basil leaves and sprinkle liberally over the slices. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Sprinkle capers over the top.
Just before serving, drizzle on some good-quality extra-virgin olive oil.
Yield: 4 servings
Approximate nutrition per serving: 307 calories, 27 grams fat (9.5 grams saturated, 77 percent fat calories), 12 grams protein, 6 grams carbohydrate, 1.4 grams dietary fiber, 44 milligrams cholesterol, 520 milligrams sodium.