Superabundant dispatch: Strawberry-linden blossom compote with vanilla-buttermilk shortcake and this week’s news nibbles

OPB’s “Superabundant” explores the tales behind the meals of the Pacific Northwest with movies, articles and this weekly e-newsletter. Each week, Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland-based culinary historian, meals author and ecologist, highlights completely different elements of the area’s meals ecosystem. This week she gives a recipe for a moist buttermilk shortcake with strawberry-linden blossom compote.

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As we wind down Pollinator Week, we thought we’d pay homage to the hard-working bees that deliver a lot superabundance to our area with a particular deal with: a zhuzhed-up strawberry shortcake. The floral perfume of a superbly ripe strawberry is unparalleled, besides, probably, for that of a linden tree on the summer season solstice. As at all times, we are saying collaboration, not competitors! Carry these two June exemplars collectively, ideally with whipped cream and a vanilla-buttermilk pound cake. Certain, you should utilize just about any sort of cake you want right here, however we love the simplicity of this pound cake — factor is, it’s not a real pound cake. 🤫 Have you learnt why not? Learn on to search out out!

Camas crops, inherited espresso cravings, summer season meals for varsity youngsters, a chat with Akkapong Ninsom and good issues in markets, gardens and kitchens

Although the primary anthropologists to go to the area might have surmised that Indigenous Pacific Northwesterners have been strictly hunter-gatherers, rising proof means that wild plant populations have been rigorously managed in methods that may solely be described as agricultural. A current examine by Oregon State College not solely substantiates this but in addition means that populations of camas — a starchy, candy root vegetable and an vital commerce commodity — have been managed with managed burns for 3,000 to 4,000 years.

Seems “don’t speak to me till I’ve had my espresso” may very well be hereditary, based on a brand new examine evaluating genetic information from 23andMe samples from the U.S. and UK. Espresso has solely been a part of the American and British diets for a few hundred years, however a style for it seems to be tied to genetic precursors for substance use and weight problems, suggesting that like bodily traits, conduct is hereditary.

Watch the Espresso episode of “Superabundant.”

With faculty cafeterias being closed for the summer season, many low-income households battle to get meals for his or her rising youngsters. Fortunately, the Oregon Division of Schooling is guaranteeing that youngsters aged 1 to 18 can have free meals over the summer season (no paperwork to fill out, so no requirement to show want or immigration standing). To discover a pick-up website close to you, go to the USDA’s Summer time Meals Website Finder, name 211 for operator help or textual content FOOD or COMIDA to 304-304.

OPB’s “All Issues Thought-about” host (and Superabundant narrator) Crystal Ligori spoke with Portland chef and restaurateur Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom final week to debate his current James Beard Award win. Take heed to it right here.

And welcome to our new phase, “welp, you’ve actually stepped in it now — you impulse-bought three total flats of [ ].” This week’s installment: native strawberries. OPB’s affiliate director of viewers improvement, Robyn El Kay, got here to “Superabundant” with this very quandary. “I actually did that and I ended up composting a pair pints. I had no concept the half-life on strawberries was like 48 hours.”

If you end up in a bind like Robyn’s, you’ve received some choices: First, bear in mind which you could at all times freeze them and cope with it later. Frozen berries aren’t simply good for smoothies, however they’re additionally nice for jam and baking. You’ll be able to dump a bunch of them right into a jar and prime it off with vodka; depart them in a cool, darkish cabinet and provides them a delicate shake day by day, and inside per week you’ll have essentially the most scrumptious, lurid-red booze for cocktails or sipping neat (and don’t chuck out these boozy berries — toss them in sugar and dehydrate them for later). And naturally, you’ll be able to attempt them on this week’s recipe.

Watch the Strawberry episode of “Superabundant”

Native cherries are popping off! However the current rains might end in a less-sweet specimen — in case you can, attempt to pattern one before you purchase. Raspberries are nonetheless as aromatic and plentiful as ever. Garlic scapes are good now, too — in fact, in case you develop hardneck garlic you’ll be able to at all times simply snip your personal (it helps the garlic bulbs develop fatter).

Lindens are blooming across the neighborhood, and we’ve been amassing the blossoms so as to add a heady floral sweetness to teas, fruit jams and syrups. And good friend of the e-newsletter Jonathan Kaufmann reminded us in his newest missive that the fronds of weedy, wild fennel are prepared for plucking (if the crops close to you’ve already begun blooming, attempt to seize a few of the pollen — fennel pollen is a type of fancy boutique elements which you could sprinkle on stuff to impress your pals). If you happen to pop a bag over the flowering heads and provides them a stout shake or two, it’s best to be capable of acquire a small jarful very quickly in any respect.

Tomatillos and floor cherries are up and starting to bloom, having volunteered from fallen fruit left within the beds final summer season; their propensity for self-sowing is excessive on the listing of causes we take a laid-back method to fall backyard cleanup (one other is that leaving particles is sweet for backyard invertebrates — an vital reminder throughout Pollinator Week!). Talking of which, the radicchio that we forgot to reap is now bolting, so right here’s hoping a few of these flowers ripen into viable seeds!

The shiso and crown daisy (aka garland chrysanthemum, tong ho choy, ssukgat or shungiku) that we seeded within the fall is developing properly and can quickly be prepared for including to lettuce wraps and noodle salads. This 12 months the apple bushes are producing far much less fruit than they did final 12 months (the 2023 bumper crop is probably going the explanation why — the bushes are nonetheless recovering!), however your fruit bushes will probably profit from a culling to reduce pest infestations and enhance the standard of the remaining fruit.

✨ To make room for the loganberries and raspberries from the backyard (it appears smarter to stash them there till the season is finished, at which level all of the jam might be made without delay), we pulled out three rotisserie rooster carcasses for making rooster inventory — strain canning the inventory additionally saves freezer room.

✨ We received a wild concept to make meatloaf parm — it’s all the things you like about meatballs, however in a loaf! — and though it seemed a scorching mess (the mozzarella heart oozed out ominously), it was fairly nice on smooth garlic bread.

✨ A good friend handed alongside a bathtub of maple sugar that he wasn’t utilizing, so we sprinkled it on slices of bacon cooking within the toaster oven. The sugar melted and caramelized fantastically, and the bacon was a spectacular addition to brioche French toast for brunch.

Recipe: Buttermilk pound cake with strawberry-linden blossom compote

We normally consider strawberries as a late spring fruit, since lots of the hottest varieties are June-bearing. Whereas Hoods and Shuksans is perhaps on their approach out, Oregon strawberry season remains to be very a lot underway. Day-neutral varieties like Seascape and Albion are nothing to sneeze at! And don’t you dare sleep on an Ozark Magnificence!

Linden blossoms, nevertheless, have a finite and slim window for gathering. Simply because the elderflowers are bidding spring a fond farewell and acquiescing to fruit, the lindenbaum start perfuming total swaths of Portland with their small white blossoms, perched on their bracts like ostrich feathers in a hat. If you happen to’ve ever parked your automobile beneath one, you recognize too effectively their expertise for attracting aphids, which convert the tree’s sap into copious quantities of sticky honeydew.

This sap is excessive within the sugar mannose which, whereas vital for human metabolism, is poisonous to many native bees and wasps. (European honey bees don’t appear affected by the linden nectar, probably as a result of they co-evolved with the bushes.) To make issues worse, since lindens are planted as city shade bushes throughout western Oregon, the aphids they appeal to create a battle (the aforementioned sticky sap-coated vehicles) that people too usually clear up with systemic pesticides. Due to this good storm of things, mass bumblebee die-offs have been strongly correlated to city lindens.

So what are you able to do about it? Decide as many linden blossoms as you’ll be able to and switch them into dessert.

Linden flowers are beautiful dried for tea — Steven Smith Teamaker’s Meadow mix makes use of them, as does the Hedgewitch and the Indignant Inch tea mix from this article’s writer. You need to use it to make liqueurs or syrups (and in flip, jellies and granitas), or you’ll be able to macerate them with berries in a few spoonfuls of sugar to lavish over buttery desserts and whipped cream, like we do right here. Serves 4-6.

Word: OK no, this isn’t technically a pound cake (which is historically made with a pound every of butter, eggs, sugar and flour) however the finish result’s fairly related — the recipe yields a moist and tender crumb whereas being barely sturdier than a sponge cake, with a delicate candy twang of buttermilk. Baking it in a loaf pan additionally offers it that pound cake really feel, however be at liberty to bake it as a sheet cake, bundt, a spherical or in a muffin tin in case you choose (alter the baking time accordingly. Since this makes a complete loaf, you’ll probably have leftover cake — it’s great with jam as a breakfast or tea snack or you’ll be able to dice it and toast it to prime ice cream.

Components

2 cups all objective flour

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon advantageous sea salt

½ teaspoon cardamom

1 cup buttermilk (or ¾ cup milk whisked with ¼ cup bitter cream, crème fraîche or yogurt)

½ cup impartial cooking oil (like corn or vegetable)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon glowing sugar (non-obligatory however good)

1 dry pint contemporary Oregon strawberries, rinsed, hulled and halved

¼ cup contemporary linden blossoms

½ cup sugar

Whipped cream for serving (do-it-yourself is good right here)

Directions

1. Bake the cake: Preheat the oven to 350o and line a greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with a strip of parchment paper. Whisk collectively the dry elements (flour, sugar, baking powder/soda, salt and cardamom) in a big mixing bowl till effectively mixed. In a separate bowl, whisk collectively the moist elements (buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla). Make a effectively within the flour combination and pour the moist elements into the middle, whisking till simply mixed. Scrape the batter into the ready loaf pan and sprinkle the glowing sugar excessive of the batter. Bake till the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clear, about 50-55 minutes, then switch the cake to a cooling rack.
2. Whereas the cake is baking, make the compote: stir the strawberries, linden blossoms and sugar collectively in a bowl, cowl with a kitchen towel and put aside.
3. When the cake is cool sufficient to be sliced, slice it as thickly as you want (an inch or so appears truthful). Give the berry compote one other stir to evenly distribute the luscious syrup that’s fashioned, and spoon a beneficiant serving over the cake. Add a dollop of whipped cream and one other drizzle of the syrup excessive.

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