Remembering......

I was a freshman in college when the Vietnam War was beginning. Student, marriage, children, and critical skill deferments kept me in the US during these years. I had friends who went and never returned; friends who returned physically but were never quite the same afterwards, and friends who returned to jeering crowds yelling "Baby Killer" and other epitaphs. I had tried to put these memories behind me until a few weeks ago when they were brought poinantly home.

We were meeting a friend at the Portland, Oregon airport; her flight was unexplainedly delayed. We took a seat in the waiting area and were there just a few minutes when I noticed what I thought was a motorcycle club entering. They were dressed in jeans and each wore a denim vest with embroidery on the back that I was too far away to read. Most had long hair and some had greying ponytails; several were using canes and one was in a wheelchair. Each one was carrying a furled American Flag, full size. They formed into lines along each side of the hallway from the gate area to the waiting area. They just stood there as if waiting for something to happen. My wife asked me if something had happened but I told her that if it had there would be a TV crew there.

After about 15 minutes the group unfurled their flags; the leader was looking at a printed copy of a photograph. Passengers began to enter the waiting area. A young man dressed in civilian clothes and carrying a backpack approached the waiting area and the group came to attention, saluted, and then shouted "Welcome home soldier". People in the waiting area broke into applause. Members of the group came up to him individually and shook his hand, exchanging a greeting. A lump came into my throat then even as it is now as I write this. What a different greeting than these men had received when they returned for you see - they were a group of Vietnam veterans who have committed to meeting every returning US serviceman who arrives at the Portland airport. I have later learned that there similar groups throughout the United States.

We are living through troubling times but let us never forget to honor the men who are fighting for our right to live in a free country.

Chestnut Harvesting Time is HERE

October is chestnut harvesting time in Oregon. We always go to a farm owned by the Carson family in Hillsboro, Oregon. They grow chestnuts, hazelnuts, and kiwi fruit. Today was the first weekend they were open for U-Pick chestnut harvesting. We have been the last two years and enjoy talking with the family and exchanging chestnut recipes. They have several varieties of chestnut trees, most are about 30 years old.
You need to wait for the nuts to drop off the tree and the enclosing spiny hull to dry and open. There are usually green and brown husks under the trees. You can collect nuts from either but the brown husks indicate that the nuts have begun to dry and the starch has started to convert to sugar. In both cases the nuts will need to be "dry-cured" several weeks before eating.

This year was a bumper crop as you can see from the clusters of nuts on this tree.

The pods begin to crack open when the nut is mature and will soon drop to the ground.

We had to wear gloves to protect our hands when picking up the pods or opening them. One easy way to open the pods is to step on them and release the nuts inside.

The spines are very sharp and will go through even leather gloves if you aren't careful.

Each pod will have between two and four nuts inside.

We harvested 20 pounds in about an hour. We will go again next week introducing some of Sandra's Taiwan friends to this fun pastime.

If you're interested and live in the area the farm is located at:

7110 SW Straughan Road, Hillsboro, OR 97123

So plug the address into your GPS or Google it and tell the Carsons that Michael and Sandra sent you.

Last Harvest

We have had our fill of zucchini and yellow squash, time to look towards the pumpkins and butternut. Temperatures are dropping and we decided to do a final harvest before frost is on the pumpkin. We let one cucumber grow to full size for next year's seed. Some tomatoes will remain to see just how late we can harvest. The ground cherry plants will stay to see if they winter over, it's the first year we have planted those.
We have been looking forward to the grape harvest; last year we processed about 200 pounds as raisins or a "beverage". Last week our friends said they needed about one more week to reach full ripeness. THEN, over the weekend the temperature dropped to 21 degrees and all of the grapes froze - just a lot of mush now. So, we now better understand the risk farmers take trying to provide food for our needs. Oh well, for us there's always next year.

Crabbing - Oregon Northern Coast

Our daughter went crabbing with some friends on the Oregon Northern Coast. They went out in a boat for several hours and each caught their limit. She was generous and shared with us.
First the crabs had to be cleaned and prepared for cooking. BIG DECISION - how to prepare them. We settled on stir fry with lots of garlic.

Sandra took about 8 cloves of garlic for each crab.

Chop the garlic finely, and stir-fry it in oil until it is golden brown.

Remove the garlic and add about a tablespoon of dried red pepper flakes and fry until fragrant.

Cut the crab into four pieces and dredge with flour.

Stir-fry the crab in the oil until it is done, adding some chicken bouillon powder and salt.

When the crab is done add chopped green onion and the fried garlic and heat until the onion is softened.

Serve with steamed bread.

DON’T discard any leftover garlic residue. It is great added to rice congee.

As you can see, there wasn't anything left. In fact it was so tasty that I bought a license and went out to catch our own crabs this past Friday.

We went to a jetty near Nehalem Bay on the Oregon coast. They rent the traps and I wanted to try it out before I invested in my own traps. The license which allows you to catch 12 crabs per day was $6.50 and the traps rented for $8.00/day including a rotting fish for bait. We went with another family and took the fixings for lunch and hot pot in case we were hungry and didn’t want to eat the crabs we caught “on-the-spot”. We even decided how we would divide our catch among our friends since 12 per family would be more than enough.
They even have a pot to boil your crabs if you want to eat them there at one of the many tables provided surrounding a communal fire pit.

They rent boats if you want to go out into the channel but we decided to crab from the floating dock.

Well, to make a long story short we “crabbed” all afternoon. Throw the trap out – wait 20-30 minutes – pull the trap in – inspect the catch. You are only allowed to keep male crabs measuring over 5-3/4 inches across the back of the shell.

I caught 33 crabs – and brought none home. All the large crabs were female and the males were too small to even measure. My friend and his daughter caught over 40 crabs – same results.

We thought about buying some crabs at the pier but had second thoughts. There will always be another chance; in fact my friend is out today at another location. MAYBE he will share his catch.

Ground Cherry - an elegant presentation

This is a ground cherry

We found some in a local Farmers' Market and I decided to try to grow some. I planted the seed in pots in the early spring and they soon sprouted.

They were ready to transplant into the garden in late March.
They grew like weeds, literally. I found that in some parts of the country they invade vacant property and take it over. They soon showed that characteristic in our garden.

As the fruit matures and ripens the papery covering turns brown and the fruit drops to the ground, hence the name "ground cherry".

The right plate is the ground cherry as picked up and the left is the ground cherry fruit after removing the outer husk.

The fruit has a distinctive taste, somewhat like a pineapple-flavored tomato with lots of small hard seeds. Sandra dipped some in white chocolate and it has a much different taste - even more delicious.

Recently I looked at ground cherry information on the web and found that it has been planted in Taiwan and is known as the lantern fruit. It is said to be detoxifying, an aid in controlling diabetes, an antitussive, and a diuretic. So, just eat a few at a time.

A few days ago we picked up some and gave to a friend to take home. She gave some to her children to eat. Later we asked her daughter how she liked it. She replied that it was bad, “Tasted like paper”. We found out that she had eaten the whole thing including the papery husk. When I asked her mother if she had told her to peel it first she replied, “That’s just common sense”.

Fortunately, there is information that indicates the outer covering can be used as a tea that has a detoxification effect. This incident reminded me of the time we gave our friends some jongdz; we had to remind them to remove the bamboo leaves before eating.

The Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong serves a tart with ground cherry at their afternoon tea. I don't think it can compare in elegance or taste with the one prepared by Sandra.