Ingredients

8 elder flower heads
2 or 3 organic lemons
1 gallon clean water
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 pound white sugar
1 gallon glass or crock
4 glass bottles with metal fastener tops

Remove any green leaves and cut off as much of the green stem as you can
Place the flower heads in a large gallon jar, glass or crock (do not use metal for this recipe)
Heat 1 quart of the water and dissolve the sugar into it and let it cool a bit
Pour the rest of the water over the flowers
While the sugar water is cooling thinly slice 2 or 3 organic lemons with the skin on and add them to the flowers
Add 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Pour the sugar water over and stir very gently
Cover with a piece of plastic or a lid so nothing gets in
Leave in a dark place for 24 hours
Strain off liquid through several layers of cheesecloth into 4 quart bottles with metal fastener tops
Leave these corked bottles in a dark place for 2 or 3 weeks than refrigerate till very cold and enjoy.

I hope you enjoy this
Blessings from Sage

Sage’s Extra Notes

You have to use glass bottles with metal fastener tops. Trust me on this: this recipe makes a lot of effervescence and it will blow out the corks. I get my glass bottles from IKEA but I think any kitchen store will have them.

Do not pick the elderflowers by a busy road where lead and other particles from car exhausts can contaminate them.

Do not substitute any other vinegar (including white) for apple cider or any other sweetener for the sugar.

Do not use water with sulfur in it -  if you have well water just buy a bottle of distilled water for this recipe.

by Tony from Sydney

Amaranth (Amaranthus sp. — Family Amaranthaceae) is a broadleaf plant that develops brilliantly colored grain heads producing thousands of tiny seeds. The seeds are tiny (1/32″), lens shaped, and are a golden to creamy tan color, sprinkled with some occasional dark colored seeds. It is once of the highest-protein grains and can be cooked as a cereal, ground into flour, popped like popcorn, sprouted, or toasted.

To make flour, harvest the grain when the plants are as dry as possible. Remove the seeds and bake in the oven at 200° F until dry. Fill a coffee grinder up to the blades with amaranth seed and grind to flour. Repeat until you have the desired amount.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Amaranth Flour
1/2 Cup Pecan Flour
1/4 Cup wheat germ
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg
1 Cup Milk
1 Tbsp Oil

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls before combining together. Lightly butter a griddle. Wipe off thoroughly with a paper towel.

Gently ladle the pancake batter onto the griddle. When bubbles begin to set around the edges of the pancake and the griddle-side of the cake is golden, gently flip the pancakes. Continue to cook 2 to 3 minutes or until the pancake is set. Serve immediately.

Chop 1-3 cloves of garlic (more or less according to your taste)
Chop a big handful of washed okinawa spinach
Chop some parsley or garlic chives (whatever herbs you have growing!)

Saute the garlic in little olive oil until translucent
Add 2 cups of cooked rice to the pan and turn the heat to low.
Cover for 5-10 minute to heat through well.
Optional: take the lid off and turn up the heat for few minutes if you want some (browned) crunchy bits (don’t stir but don’t leave the kitchen i.e. you don’t want it to burn).
Add the spinach with the heat up and shake or stir for a couple of minutes (no longer).

Add salt to taste and serve with chopped mangos and hot sauce!

You can add tofu or chicken to this if you want to bump up the protein.

I made these for a party last night and they were great. The purple of the leaves gave the appetizers an elegance they would not have had otherwise. Prep time is somewhat long, maybe 45 minutes, but the result is worth it.

Okinawa Spinach Tofu Wraps

Ingredients:

30 Okinawa Spinach leaves
5 pieces Sliced Provolone, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1 block extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes (press first)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Braggs liquid aminos
2 garlic cloves, chopped (okay to substitute 1 tablespoon garlic powder)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Marinate tofu:
Combine last six ingredients in shallow container. Add tofu and mix gently to coat. Marinate chilled, covered, at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature. Heat skillet (cast iron) on medium high. When pan is hot, lay tofu in a single layer. Cook for 5 minutes on each side.

Prepare Wraps:
To make a wrap, layer two pieces tofu and cheese slices and then wrap with Okinawa spinach leaf, purple side up. Pierce with toothpick to hold the item together.

Serve at room temperature.

Okinawa Spinach (Gynura crepioides) is a decorative green and purple, tall, shade-loving ground cover with edible leaves.

My friends in Hawaii tell me it is renowned there along with its all green cousin as a cholesterol lowering food but I like it just because I believe that greens need to be a part of every meal and this one grows remarkably easily. It dies to the ground each winter but comes right back in the spring. Some people eat it in salads but I’ve found I eat far more greens if I cook them with other foods I like so I made up this breakfast recipe. It would work just as well for a quick hearty lunch. This recipe is good for 1-2 moderately hungry people!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coarsely chopped Okinawa Spinach leaves
1/4 cup Yellow Corn Grits
1 1/4 cup water
1 rounded tablespoon TVP (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon margarine (or butter)
Topping (see below)

Coarsely chop a handful of Okinawa Spinach leaves to about 1/4 cup packed tight.

Microwave or simmer the corn grits in the water for about 3 minutes. They should be still soupy so adjust the time for your microwave or keep an eye on the pot if boiling on the stove! Add the coarsely chopped Okinawa Spinach leaves and microwave or simmer for another 1-2 minutes or until the grits firm up.

Garnish with some whole Okinawa Spinach leaves.

I serve this to my vegan friends (and myself) topped as shown with vegan margarine and vegetarian nutritional yeast (one to two tablespoons of yeast per serving). My non-vegan friends like it with butter and/or various shredded cheeses as a topping and without the optional textured vegetable protein (TVP).

This recipe might as easily be called “Grits and Greens” since it works with just about any green you can eat raw or partially cooked. I’ve cooked it with regular spinach, India Lettuce (Lactuca indica), and the perennial leaf crops Pacific Spinach (Abelmoschus esculentus), Katuk (Sauropis androgynus) and Moringa leaves (Moringa oleifera). I like it with Okinawa Spinach best.

The Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato has a lovely purple flesh just full of those same antioxidants you find in blueberries. Freshly cut it is a light bluish-rose with white streaks. It darkens as it cooks to a deep purple. The flavor is delicately sweet with none of the carroty taste of orange sweet potatoes. It is a favorite at Hawaiian luaus so it is sometimes called “Hawaiian Sweet Potato”. The plant grows rampant like most viney sweet potatoes (it is definitely not a “bush” type) so it is a nice ground cover.

This recipe is probably too simple to call a recipe. But then again, most everything I cook is rather simple or I wouldn’t cook it. And it is vegetarian – or can be vegan if you prefer.

Ingredients:
One large Purple Sweet Potato or a few small ones
Vegan or other margarine or cheddar cheese or vegan cheese sauce.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into cubes.

Microwave with a bit of water in a covered microwave-safe glass bowl. You can also boil them but that loses some of the antioxidants in the cooking water. Mash and serve with vegan or regular margarine. For non-vegan vegetarians melted cheddar cheese is a remarkably tasty topping for this sweet potato. You can also make a quick vegan cheese sauce that goes well with this dish. Just add some vegetarian nutritional yeast (the stuff with B-12) to vegan margarine and heat in the microwave. Pour over the mashed potatoes when serving.

You can see from the picture of the final mashed product that this sweet potato is stupendous for coloring up the holiday table. Think mounds of orange and purple mashed sweet potato side by side with maybe a tad of deep red cranberry sauce on the plate as a garnish.

I have also made purple sweet potato chips from them (slice thin and deep fry). The possibilities are endless. There are all sorts of on-line recipes for this lovely tuber since it is so popular in Japan and Hawaii. Search for Hawaiian, Okinawan, Japanese or Purple Sweet Potato Recipes. There is even an ice cream recipe that uses this instead of the tropical yam “Ube.” An interesting recipe I found recently is purple sweet potato pie with caramelized macadamia nuts at the online magazine Asiance: (http://asiancemagazine.com/nov_2006/ingredient_for_the_holidays_okinawan_purple_sweet_potatoes)
Sounds incredible but way too complicated for my klutzy kitchen skills.

I grow these anywhere I want to smother weeds and they seem to grow fine here just north of Gainesville. If I leave them in the ground too long voles eat them and all I get when I dig are big succulent empty peels (curses, voled again!)

If you don’t grow your own you can sometimes find this sweet potato locally at the Chun Ching market in Gainesville on NW 8th Avenue near NW 6th Street. It is also available by the crate from Mellissa’s Produce (http://www.melissas.com/). But the ones from these sources I’ve tried are irradiated so you won’t be able to get cuttings from then that will grow.

Some health food stores and Asian food stores offer purple sweet potato powder which is supposed to be good for the purple ice cream recipes but fresh is always better!

Campfire Dan

The Butia Capitata Palm – also know as the Pindo or Jelly Palm – grows all over Gainesville and is fruiting now (July!) Trees bear several large bracts of fruit which produce 3-5 lbs of fruit each. Refreshingly tart and sweet all at the same time – the Pindo Palm fruit tastes of pineapple and apricot in equal measures with a citrusy ‘finish.’ The flesh is a bit fibrous which means you may have to spit out the fiber after you’ve chewed the fruit, but is excellent for baking – for making jelly, fruit curds and pies! It makes an incredible, tropical tasting sorbet.

Here are my top 3 favorite Pindo Palm Sorbet Recipes of this (my first) Season! I am about to make my first sorbet of this – my second – butia season!

Pindo Palm Sorbet # 1
This is the one that tastes most strongly of the pindo palm fruit

2 cups cooked and strained Pindo palm puree/juice
1/2 cup sour orange or lemon juice
2 cups simple syrup (or more to taste)

Blend and freeze!

Pindo Palm Sorbet # 2
This is more generally tropical tasting

2 cups cooked and strained Pindo palm puree/juice
1 cup chopped fresh pineapple
1 cup chopped fresh mango
1/2 cup sour orange or lemon juice
3 cups simple syrup (or more to taste)

Blend and freeze!

Pindo Palm Sorbet # 3
This sorbet has a more dominant mango flavor

2 cups cooked and strained Pindo palm puree/juice
2 cups chopped fresh mango (or the best canned mango pulp *)
1/2 cup sour orange or lemon juice
3 cups simple syrup (or more to taste)

Blend and freeze!

Notes
Indian stores have the best mango pulp in tins. My local Indian store has Alfonso pulp in big tins. Alfonsos are the King of mangos and the fruit is startlingly intense in both color and flavor.

You can freeze a sorbet in a dish or tupperware – pulling it out every half hour to an hour to whisk it vigorously with a fork to break up big icy particles. These sorbets end up more like granitas – they are deliciously refreshing but not as smooth as a sorbet made in an electric ice cream maker.

The pineapple we used was one we grew ourselves. The miracle of pineapples is that you pop the cut off top of a pineapple into the ground and hey presto! a couple of years later it grows into a whole new pineapple! You have to live in a tropical place to get fruit of course! We were told we couldn’t grow pineapples in Gainesville because of the mini freezes in the winter but ours have grown and produced just fine!

Pindo Palm Puree
Wash the fruit in lots of water soaking it for a good 5 minutes and then swishing it about to make sure no ants or other creepy crawlies end up in your dessert!
Drain.
Cut the fruit from the seeds, place in a pan and cover with water.
Bring to the boil and simmer until fruit is soft (15-20 mins).
Blend or process until smooth.
Push though a sieve with a wooden spoon (a cup or two at a time) to remove the fiber and squeeze the balls of fiber to get every last ounce of yummy juice!

Simple Syrup
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water

Heat until sugar is dissolved. That’s it!
I like to make a big jar of it and keep it in the fridge to have on hand for lemonade or for spontaneous sorbet making sessions! I tend to use white/cane sugar or half white and half soft brown as brown sugar can cause the bright colors of some fruits to become dull.

I grew India Lettuce for about a year before I figured this one out. India Lettuce (Lactuca indica) is a powerhouse full of antioxidants including lots of quercetin which is a high-priced health food store supplement. So I had some reason to find out a good way to prepare it. I never much liked it is salads so it always just grew there waiting for me to come up with a way to eat it. Then one day I wanted to do a little stir-fry but didn’t have a real main ingredient growing in the garden and old India Lettuce just stared me in the face and said “Take me, take me.” So, here is what came about.

Some good oil (I use olive oil)
Wild onions (or elephant garlic or any onion-like thing)
Any crispy vegetable thing in the garden or fridge, such as celery, peppers, etc. (optional)
A stalk or two of India Lettuce
Soy sauce
Artificial Ham Bits (you can probably use bacon bits)
Toasted and salted sunflower seeds
Cooked rice

Harvest the entire stalk of the India Lettuce down to a couple of inches from the ground (it will grow back side stalks later). The hollow lettuce stalk will be fibrous gradually turning to crispy. Remove all the leaves below the crispy part of the stalk and put them aside. Dispose of the fibrous part of the stalk and set aside the cripsy part with its leaves still on. Add the onions and any crispy veggies to the hot oil. Let cook for a very short while then start chopping the crispy part of the lettuce stalk crosswise with its leaves still on. Stir into the onions and other veggies in the skillet. Chop up the previously set-aside lettuce leaves and add. When the leafy part of the leaves are all wilted add the soy sauce (to taste). Cook a tad longer then add the artificial ham bits and toasted sunflower seeds. As soon as possible serve over cooked rice with additional soy sauce and oil.

This recipe is infinitely adaptable. I love making it with the imitation ham bits which I get from a web store called USA Emergency Supply. But you have to buy in bulk there so a substitute would be in order for most people. I am pretty sure bacon bits would work as well or any other smokey topping. I have also used toppings such as an Indian deep fried chickpea snack called “Boondi” to replace the toasted sunflower seeds and I suspect any crispy protein snack would be as effective. The recipe also works very well with Chinese Red Lettuce which has a solid seed stalk rather than the hollow stalk of India lettuce and somewhat less leaf mass.

Vegans can make it with soy cream and vegetarians with regular cream. It tastes just as unbelievably good as it looks.