Substitutes for greens in summer cooking?

[Shazzie]

Hello, all,

I live in Florida where greens don't grow from about now through September. I'm very keen on my usual breakfast: brown rice or oat porridge, barley miso, a scattering of roasted seeds, and steamed greens.

I can buy organic greens at my coop, but they're grown far from here and don't really suit my climate. Does anyone have suggestions for me for veggies I can center my summer eating around?

Thanks!

s.

[Klara]

do you get broccoli? cabbage? leeks? scallions? radish greens? or other vegetable greens (carrots, kohlrabi, cauliflower), do you get endives? at least lots of parsley and chives??

What is growing now in your area?


Klara

[azulparsnip]

Know whatcha mean Shazzie - I love greens but right now nada in the garden and storebought greens are sooo tough.
I've been subbin' with wakame sauted with cabbage&/or onions.

And always, always chop up some parsley

[azulparsnip]

and yeah, Klara - broccoli is always in the store

[azulparsnip]

made Pasta with peanut sauce recipe here last night - it was really good. I didn't have seitan so I tossed in some sauted , soaked arame .

[Klara]

I'm sorry to hear of all the storms down in Florida.

I have so much kale growing now wish I could share some with you. But they are going to seed - I keep cutting off the part with the seeds, but know can't keep doing that forever.

Along with my kale I just picked some nasturtium - I don't eat them that regularly - don't even remember seeing it in mb cookbooks - but do love it, so picked some and also noticed what I hope is dandelion, and I'm braving it - cooking them all together - if you guys don't hear from me for a long time, guess it wasn't dandelion - but I'm not worried

Klara

[azulparsnip]

We have grown Kale for the last two years and they never did go to seed?????
Maybe it was a deadend hybrid

You are valiant soul to eat dandilon cooked - I have never tried it cooked or fresh in an appreciable quantity. But the health benefits of dandilon are legend.

What about lambs quarters???? We used to stir fry them in a little oil with onions..
But I think I remember reading that they are kin to spinach which has oxalic acid (I think that is what it is) that is taxing on the liver.

[Klara]

how strange no seeds - but I thank you for telling us, because now I appreciate my kale even more. Try finding some organic kale seeds - there is Seeds of Change in America - that's where I used to buy - usually can be found in health food stores - at least, they were in Erewhon's.

I didn't eat loads of dandelion - just one plant, a few leaves, amongst the many kale and several nasturtium. I"m guessing there's a reason why wild greens aren't in the mb cookbooks - either people don't know how to forage and identify what is edible, or maybe, at least I know for purslane, they are considered quite yin - (my purslane is coming up now also) but it seems to me to have occasionally, if one is in good health, can't hurt. otoh, when I took a wild foods class, we were told also of the different properties of the weeds, which is good to know!!!! but like you said, only good things about dandelion. Sure, lambs quarter was one of those weeds we picked - I'd have to look up my notes to recall anything special about it.

Aveline Kushi in her Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking has a short chapter on Wild Vegetables (p. 202) -here's a little of what she says: "Wild vegetables (I, Klara, call them edible weeds) begin to appear in the early spring, often while the snow is still on the ground. They have a very strong upward energy and are traditionally good for diseases such as tuberculosis, which is most common in spring. Wild foods are much hardier than cultivated plants and should be eaten only occasionally and in very small amounts. Of course, as with any unfamiliar foods, care must be taken to make sure the plants are edible and not poisonous." Then she goes on to list a few (far from exhaustive list) and includes some recipes for using them.

If mb is based on how traditional people ate, then I don't see a problem with eating wild foods.

Klara

[azulparsnip]

Thanks, Klara - it is easy to forget to put a few of those weeds in stuff..