not far from the tree

Last Monday I arrived early for a tour of The Stop’s Green Barn. My tour guide, greenhouse coordinator Lord Abbey, hadn’t come in yet.  Another employee greeted me, inviting me to make myself comfortable and wander around. It wasn’t hard to do; The Stop’s space is very inviting. I poked around checking out the books, gazing out the window at the melting ice rink, looking in at the kitchen.

But peering through the doors that lead into the greenhouse is what really stopped me in my tracks. It was hard to look away. Looking through those glass doors was like looking into another world. When Lord arrived he gracefully introduced himself and led me through the doors.

Walking into the greenhouse is like being transported to the tropics. It’s warm, the air is moist, and the landscape (food) is a lush green. There are avocados growing in one corner, cassava in the other, and…oh yeah - oranges, grapefruits and lemons!

Yup, a little piece of paradise (minus a beach), hiding out in Toronto’s Hillcrest neighbourhood. Ok maybe not hiding, it’s a pretty big greenhouse, but still not a place I had visited. Although my first visit will definitely not be my last, more like the first of many.

Lord Abbey is the greenhouse coordinator and has extensive knowledge and experience working with plants.  He holds a PhD in Plant Science, is a Professional Agrologist registered with the Ontario Institute of Agrologists, has conducted research in plant eco-physiology at the Crops Research Institute in Ghana, and further research in the UK. This guy knows plants! And now he’s sharing his knowledge with the The Stop community.

When the greenhouse started, green crops were the primary focus. About a year and a half ago, that changed a bit.  Lord decided he wanted experiment with fruit trees. So he did. He began with what he knew. He had experience growing blood oranges, ruby red grapefruit, and meyer lemons; all fruit he likes! It’s probably safe to say they are fruits everyone likes. There are also the fruits that travel many miles to reach our tables. Well, now they’re being grown in Toronto, and they are growing well!

So how, I asked, did this happen?

Grafted seedlings originally came from Humber Nurseries. Grafting is a technique by which one plant is selected for its stock and another selected for its fruit. A mature bud is taken from the fruit plant and fused with the stock. The technique is used to help accelerate growth and production. Once the bud and the stock have fused, the bud should start to produce leaves.

The seedlings have performed extremely well in the greenhouse. They are now approximately 3 to 4 feet tall, and are producing anywhere from 8 to 18 individual fruits.

With the success of these trees, Lord has been able to start his own set of seedlings grown from the seeds of the mature fruit. From here he and his volunteers will perform their own grafting experiments. There are interesting possibilities. One idea is to graft one or two different fruits to the same stock, possibly creating an orange lemon tree.

Seeing these trees and hearing about the possibilities was/is amazing. The kids in The Stop’s after-school programs are already cooking with the ripened fruit, and there is more production in the works. Papaya is next, and hopefully – fingers crossed – a cocoa tree will be planted down the road (there are permissions needed to grow cocoa). In the meantime we can dream that one day in the not too distant future the greenhouse will be offering up its very own brand of chocolate!

Throughout the winter months, I find oatmeal to be one of the loveliest breakfast dishes. It’s warm, hearty, and delicious. The greatest pleasure of this winter morning meal is to add a few tastes of summer into the mix.

When the first summer pears were ready last year, I set some aside to make into pear sauce. I didn’t add any sugar as they were sweet enough on their own, but I did throw in a little bit of cinnamon and ginger to spice up the flavour. Then, taking a cue from a friend who made her own pear pucks, I froze the sauce in ice cube trays. This makes individual portions that are perfect for dropping in oatmeal. Once they’re frozen, I transfer them to freezer bags so that I can have my ice trays back.

The other taste of summer I have stored away in my freezer is serviceberries. Harvested from my recently-planted frontyard tree, these little berries (similar in size and shape to blueberries) freeze really well. Sprinkled atop my oatmeal, they add a nice fruity flavour and a splash of colour.

The final touch in preparing my morning oatmeal is to add some maple syrup. This year it’s stuff I bought at the grocery store but with the launch of our latest program, who knows what I’ll be using next year?

I also froze some pear sauce directly in freezer bags so that I could use medium-sized portions for baking. Lately I’ve been using them to make jae steele’s oatmeal raisin muffins (minus the raisins, but with lots of other goodies that I’ve found in the cupboard).

Tags: baking, cooking, maple syrup, pears, serviceberries, winter

Think the urban forest can only feed us in the summer time? Think again! Not From From The Tree is pleased to announce a new project we’re launching this winter:

We’d Tap That!
Syrup in the City

Tags: maple syrup, We'd Tap That!

Ok Ok…so I’m entering the preserving season a little late, but I decided I could rationalize it by saying I’m preparing myself for next year.  With this logic, I’m really just a keener getting super excited to start picking fruit again.

Last night I prepared my first jar of apple jelly.  I meticulously followed the Old-Fashioned Apple Jelly recipe and canning instructions from the Bernardin “Complete Book of Home Preserving”, an excellent book for beginners.  I didn’t think it would take that long (25 minutes as suggested in the book).  Not bad, I thought.  I could easily get this done tonight and sneak in another episode of ‘The Wire’ (HBO’s highly addictive Baltimore cop show, indeed).

Right…. it took 25 minutes once my apple juice and sugar mixture reached a hard boil, but it took about 25 – 30 minutes to get to that stage.   Regardless, it was worth it in the end.  I learned how to make jelly!  I also learned that I should have used tart apples, not ‘Empire’ apples.  The Bernardin recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar to every 4 cups of apple juice.  When paired with a sweet apple like Empire, this makes for a very sweet treat.   Live and learn.   I think the trick to making good jelly is experimentation and persistence.

Getting Started:  Gotta get the juice!
I started with 16 apples.  Cut off the tops and bottoms.  Quartered them, leaving the core and peel.  I placed them in a large stainless steal pot, and covered the apples with water, approximately 1 cup of water per 1lb of apples.  I then brought it to a boil and mashed the apples once soft.  When the apples were sufficiently softened and mashed (I waited until they had turned a light brownish colour) I strained the mixture using a strainer and ‘a lot’ of cheesecloth.  The result was apple juice (pg. 107).

Ready to get cookin!
The Bernardin’s recipe is as follows from page 120 of the book:

• 4 cups of apple juice
• 2 tbsp of lemon juice
• 3 cups of sugar

This recipe produced exactly one 500mL jar of jelly.

The process is to combine all ingredients in a stainless steal pot and bring to a boil.  The sugar dissolves quickly; it is important to stir frequently.

Eventually it reached a hard boil, meaning it was boiling and creating some foam.  I continued to stir and frequently conducted a gel test.   Learning the gel test is really what made this venture successful.

Gel Test:
Dip a cold spoon in the mixture after it has been at a hard boil for approximately 25 minutes.  Horizontally lift the spoon and allow the mixture to drip off.  At first it will drip quickly but will soon slow and you will see two drops dripping off the spoon.  Once those two drops join together, the gel stage has been reached (see pg. 21 for a more detailed account).  Once the mixture has reached this point, you’re ready to can.

After preparing the jars, funnel the mixture into the jars.   Bernardin’s suggests taking a spatula and lightly stirring the mixture to release any air bubbles that could impede the sealing process.

Then attach the lid and screw top and submerge jars in a large stainless steal pot (make shift canner) filled with water.  Make sure the bottoms of the jars are lifted off the bottom of the pot.  I just used a pasta pot.

Bring the water to a boil and process for ten minutes.  After ten minutes I turned off the heat and left the jar for another 5 minutes.  Ta Da! , my first jar of apple jelly (super sweet apple jelly).

Note:  I read a couple of recipes that had added cinnamon, or curry.  Once you get the basics down, I think experimenting with flavours is the next step to really making the jelly your own.

For the complete recipe and instructions take a look at Bernardin’s “Complete Book of Home Preserving”.  The Old-Fashioned Apple Jelly recipe is on pg. 120.  Instructions for Apple Juice are on pg. 107.  Further instructions for preparing jars and canning are on pgs. 409 – 420.  Gel Test pg. 21

Enjoy! Let us know how it goes, or if you know of other recipes and ingredients that have helped you perfect apple jelly!

Just before the holidays I had the opportunity to visit Wychwood Open Door, one of Not Far From The Tree’s partner organizations in Ward 21.  Wychwood Open Door’s mission “is to reduce social isolation, boost nutrition and help develop life skills among homeless and socially isolated people.”  One key component of the program is to serve three full meals every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  During the harvest season Not Far From The Tree provides fresh fruit to the program’s participants.

It was a very memorable experience and an honour to meet and chat with volunteers and participants.  I was invited to stay for lunch and enjoy some of the amazing food being served up.  The Open Door program is truly open to everyone.  Some of the volunteers and participants travel across the city to meet with friends, receive home-cooked nutritious meals, and enjoy some company.

Some of the stories I heard over lunch were difficult tales of what it means to be homeless in Toronto, while others were uplifting stories that inspired hope.  What was more than apparent was the need for community and for people to feel a true sense of belonging.  The coordinators, volunteers, and participants have accomplished that sense of community.  Wychwood Open Door is a place that brings together people and organizations from the neighbourhood and beyond.  It is a place that creates partnerships, not just to help its own cause, but also to help other organizations and groups.  The neighbourhood fruit, and the community building inherent in Not Far From The Tree’s work, has made our project a welcome partner to the Open Door’s longstanding work.

Wychwood Open Door Trivia Night!

If you would like to learn more about Wychwood Open Door and meet some of the folks, the organization is hosting a Trivia Night fundraiser at the Wychwood Barns on February 6^th, 2010.

The Event:

“Compete with your friends and neighbours in six rounds of family-friendly pop culture trivia to see who has the biggest brain. CBC’s Kevin Sylvester will emcee the evening while a different local celebrity calls each round of trivia. Prizes will be awarded to the top teams, and everyone will enjoy live music, a cash bar, snacks and a silent art auction.”

To purchase tickets or read more about the evening please visit:

www.wychwoodopendoor.org

In 2009 we harvested a few treats that we hadn’t harvested in 2008: plums, sumac drupes, black walnuts, ginkgo nuts, and my own personal forage for quince. It’s amazing what the trees in the city can provide for our food needs. But the urban forest has even more to offer, including non-foodstuffs from its plentiful bounty.

We were lucky to connect with Toronto artist Jason Logan and his curiosity to make art materials from urban trees. He was especially interested in using some of our harvest to make natural dyes, particularly black walnuts. So when Marc was finished the gruntwork of hulling our one tiny harvest of black walnuts, the husks were handed over to Jason to see what he could make of them. I’m told the exchange happened in a very seedy fashion: deep in the bowels of the subway system, the husks were handed over in an unmarked garbage bag.

Despite the small harvest, Jason was able to distill a bottle of ink from the black walnut husks that Marc offered him. To our great delight, he appeared at the End-Of-Season Celebration with three very playful posters to demonstrate what the ink could do. Here they are! Aren’t they lovely?

And next year he hopes to try out even more dyes, like elderberry and sumac. If you have an idea for an artistic collaboration, send us a note!

In the spring of last year a friend pointed out a blossoming quince bush just a few blocks from where I live. “Quince?” I asked. I had never heard of the fruit before, let alone be able to recognize its blossoms. Nor did I know the first thing about how to harvest the fruit or prepare it. But learning something new about food in the city is the premise upon which Not Far From The Tree was started. At our very first pick in August 2007, I had never picked fruit from a tree before and now the organization has picked over 11,000 lbs collectively!

This fall I noticed a few fruits hidden amidst the foliage of this unassuming frontyard shrub. At the same time, I had bought myself a book about preparing fruit and encountered a recipe for quince tart tatin. While we don’t yet have any quince trees registered with Not Far From The Tree, I figured this could be a good experiment to see if it was worth actively soliciting quince tree owners to sign up their trees. Plus I had a dinner party coming up where I dreamed of serving quince tart tatin.

A little bit of research helped me understand that:

• Most varieties of quinces need to be cooked before they can be eaten as they are too sour when raw;
• They can often be confused for apples and pears and, indeed, these ones looked like small granny smiths;
• Turkey ranks first in world quince production by producing a quarter of the total; and
• While quince is fairly common in Mediterranean regions and quince jelly is popular in Great Britain, the fruit doesn’t have a large following on this side of the Atlantic.

Talking up my own courage, I approached the house to seek permission to nab a few quinces. The guy who answered the door didn’t seem so surprised at my request and went on to explain that an older Italian woman had already come by and harvested a few herself. Ah, so I was not alone in my quince foraging quest! And last year at the farmer’s market I learned that Surkl used neighbourhood quinces in some of their baking.

The fruits were still a bit under-ripe – more green than yellow. But they came off fairly easily and ended up cooking up beautifully. The pale yellow flesh of the quince transforms into a bright ruby red when simmered slowly with some water and sugar. Even though I had read about this colour change I was still surprised to see how dramatic it was.

And you, what are your experiences with quince (if any)?

Tags: quince

This is Safiya leading the way to our first Not Far From The Tree pick in 2008.  Safiya is my five-year-old daughter, and if you’ve been to a ward 31 pick, you’ve most likely met her.  She has been my right-hand girl all season, and I’ve been privileged to have found meaningful work to share with her, and privileged to have her help.

We are a homeschooling family.  One of the reasons why my husband and I have chosen this path for Safiya (and if one day she wishes to choose another, that’s certainly her decision), is that, as a friend of mine put it; “we homeschool to expose them to more of life, not less of it”.

She saw a lot of life this season: connecting with her food, learning how to pick the differing harvests, what happens to that fruit after you pick it, properly storing it, why we need to be gentle with it to prevent bruising so it lasts longer, subtraction (weight of person + bag of fruit) – (weight of person) = amount of fruit in bag, respecting other people’s property, experiencing work with others, preserving to extend the harvest, practising patience (ahem – mine), working joyfully, working hard…

Sometimes I wondered about the wisdom of dragging her along, as there were a couple of instances when her enthusiasm waned (to put it politely), and I found the discussion turning to “obligation” and “this is just part of what we do as a family” and “commitments”.  That was the exception rather than the rule, as she happily trudged along, chatting with the volunteers, sorting fruit and memorably showing off her aptitude for the word “foliage“.

There were signposts along the way that let me know this was the right path for us; for her.  Like the picture above that she drew during an apple pick.  It’s her, picking apples with an apple picker, and that’s a ladder beside her. I like how all the apples are on the inside of the tree – so hard to get when you’re five!

And final reassurance came at the last team meeting with Laura and the other hub coordinators when we discussed plans for next year.  As I’m due to have another baby just before the season starts, I was chatting about how to stay involved in some capacity other than a hub coordinator, when we all heard Safiya’s rather distressed voice from the other part of the room, where she had been quietly preoccupying herself; “but what do you mean we can’t be the hub coordinator next year? don’t I get to do any more picks – will there be more picks?!”

Don’t worry honey, there will be many more picks, for you and any other kids who want to come and help – under the apple tree is the best classroom anyone could wish for.

Tags: education, kids, ward 31

Not Far From The Tree now has t-shirts for sale! They come in kids, babies, and adult (women’s and men’s) sizes. Aren’t they so adorable? Can you believe you can be so fashionable while supporting a great initiative? Don’t you want one for yourself and for all of your loved ones?

They make a great holiday gift, and come with a gift tag that explains the great charity that your purchase has helped to support.

You can order yours online or send an email to store@notfarfromthetree.org.

Twelve eager preservers arrived at The Stop’s kitchen at the Wychwood Barns last Tuesday with dreams of crabapple jelly in their heads. They came armed with peelers and glass jars, small and large. Our mission – to take about 10 lbs of raw crabapples and create a marvelous jelly of deliciousness. Luckily, we had on hand several jelly-making pros. Special thanks must go out to Pam Bonnycastle for her knowledge, skill, snacks, and her totally cool jelly bag!  So crabapple jelly making. Sounds complicated? Not so much, in fact.

Having been washed and sliced, the crabapples were ready for some cooking after which they were strained through a jelly bag or a cheesecloth. Some people, we were told, strain the fruit overnight.. We had considerably less time and were ecstatic to have a few litres of juice after an hour, so we squeezed the bag a bunch of times to hurry things up (a practice that is somewhat frowned upon by jelly-making purists who like their jelly to run clear).

While we waited for the crabapples to strain, we had over 50 lbs of red delicious apples to peel, core, slice and cook. But our team was up for the challenge. The result was delicious applesauce!

Yum! So, back to the crabapple jelly. After an hour of straining, the crabapple juice that remained was brought back to the stove and sugar was added. Within 15 minutes, the first jars were filled with the most gorgeous colour of sunset red jelly.

The kitchen was quickly filled with a lovely fragrant scent. Having worked very hard over the evening, participants were deservedly rewarded with jars of apple sauce and crabapple jelly to take home. As we parted ways, we vowed to make preserving a more regular event in Ward 21. Next year, we’ll start with cherries!

Tags: jelly preserving apples crabapples "Ward 21"