We love to forage for the CSA boxes when we see something fun in the fields - and this week we found one of our favorites out there! Elderberry bushes are flowering all along the creeks out here - and probably all around you, too. We've picked a small elderberry bouquet for you to play with, but we hope you'll go back out and get more if you like the recipe.

This is definitely a once-a-year treat for us, not only because the flowers will disappear, but because this is a very rich and fattening treat! Not your typical CSA-box-type recipe, that's for sure. But you just really have to go for it once or twice this year because strawberries and mulberries are also in and they go so well together! This is basically a delicate version of a funnel cake:)

ELDERBERRY BLOSSOM FRITTERS

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
oil (for frying) - I used Driftless Organics Sunflower Oil because it's pretty tasteless
4 or so elderberry flower clusters

Beat ingredients 1 thru 5 together. Let sit for about 15 minutes to let clumps dissolve. Pour into a pie plate. Heat oil in a skillet - you need about 1/2 inch deep - to 375 degrees. Wash and pat dry elderberry clusters. Grasping by stem, dip the cluster into the batter, reaching deep enough to surround the flowers. Submerge flowers in the oil until golden brown. Remove carefully and drain on paper towels. Serve warm on a plate, cutting the stems off where the batter begins. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and pass a strawberry/mulberry sauce for dipping forkfuls. (Strawberries and mullberries can simply be macerated in a few tablespoons of powdered sugar the night before  - creating a chunky sauce.)

Oregano (see above). Mint. Sorrel. Lemon Balm. Chives. Lovage. These perennial herbs all grow like gangbusters in early spring and if they aren't cut regularly, they flower and stop producing for the season, thinking they've completed their job for the year by making seed. Problem is, their job for us here on the farm is to grow lushly all season long so we can add them to every dish we make. So early season gardening involves preserving a lot of cut herb material. What's a busy farm girl to do when faced with armfuls of such aromatic, precious stuff?

Well, I turn to my trusty farm-aid food processor. Truly a terrific gift of modern technology - I never owned one until I grew basil and wanted to convert mountains of the robust leaves into pesto to freeze for the winter. The tool is indispensable for the spring local food kitchen.

This month I'm blitzing my herbs almost daily to make into pastes that I can add to desserts, cheese spreads, jams and butters. It couldn't be easier and the sky is pretty much the limit when it comes to making up recipes. The basic idea is to fill the processor bowl with leaves, add some sort of glue-ish substance like sugar, olive oil, shredded cheese or honey, and pulse until you've got your paste. The great thing is, when you are using a food processor, you can use a lot of the stem of the herbs - right up to where it becomes woody - since it's all getting ground up and has the same flavor as the leaves. 

Here I've got oregano. I've pulsed it with spring garlic and scapes and added it to goat cheese, below. Thanks very much Bessie and Mochi, my sweet milking does!

Very nice on rye crisp bread, carrot slice chips or pear slices. Wonderful in an omelette!

I did another oregano blitz (I do have a lot of oregano at the moment) with a very hard parmesan cheese. I froze it in little baggies to use in pastas later.

Chocolate mint is one of my favorite flavors, but that mint absolutely has to be cut constantly if it's to be kept from flowering. So I've been making paste with sugar in the blender and using it in coffee, cakes, brownies, shortbreads, icings and cocktails. See this recipe from a former blog post for Boozy Mint Brownies.  Lemon Balm is also good blitzed with sugar or honey and saved to add to jam or scones or tea.

Store your pastes in the fridge if you will use the in a week or so (oil and sugar are both good preservatives) or in the freezer if you want access to herbs late in the season or through winter. Bon appetit!

Fresh herbs, pea shoots, spring garlic, rhubarb, strawberries... lots of spring treats that really shine with a light hand and gentle touch. We had a mostly-raw lunch with the crew today. Shaved asparagus salad with strawberries (sorry, no asparagus in the box, but we should have enough for that June Field-To-Table Dinner!), pea shoots and pears with pine nuts, crunchy radishes and salad mix with flowers. Most of what we packed this week doesn't really need a recipe, but we've included a few of the things we've enjoyed experimenting with recently. Scroll down and take a looks at our previous post for Boozy Mint Leaf Brownies. That's been a favorite!

2 2/3 cups of all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2/3 cup rye flour
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 oz. (1 packet) dry yeast
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 large bunch fresh oregano, stemmed and chopped
1 1/4 cups of warm water

Mix 1 cup of the water with the yeast and let sit for 4 minutes. Place everything except for the water and the yeast into the bowl bowl of your stand mixture fitted with the dough hook. Slowly add the water/yeast mixture to the bowl and mix on low until everything has been incorporated. Add the additional 1/4 cup of water. Increase speed to medium and let mix for 10 minutes. Let stand for 2 hours. Meanwhile, prepare a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter, split in half and shape each half into a ball. Dust your hands with flour and lightly flatten each loaf. Use a knife to carve a shallow design on the dough, put the loaves on your prepared baking sheet and let them rise for 1 more hour. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the loaves are a golden-brown color. Let cool on a wire rack.

1/2 c. unsalted butter
zest of one lemon
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp heavy cream
1 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c grated parmesan or asiago
3 tbsp fresh oregano, minced or cut finely with a scissor
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil to brush

In a bowl, whisk butter and lemon zest. Add the yolk and whisk until smooth and mixed. Add heavy cream and whisk again. In separate bowl, add flour, cheese, oregano, salt and mix. Pour flour mix into the butter mix a little at a time and whisk. Continue until all flour and butter is incorporated. Cover bowl and let sit for 30 min in fridge. Then remove and knead briefly, make small balls and flatten them onto a parchement-lined baking sheet. Brush olive oil on top for browned cookies. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or so. Turn and bake for another 5. Check often. Let cool and enjoy!

1 bunch radishes (save greens to add to a saute later)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1 bunch sorrel leaves
2 Tbsp chopped fresh spring garlic, including tender greens

Trim, rinse, and dry radishes. Slice radishes thinly and put in a bowl. Add rice vinegar, ginger, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Toss to combine. Lay sorrel leaves in a stack and slice them crosswise into thin ribbons. Toss sorrel with radishes dressing and sprinkle garlic on top of each serving. . Add additional salt to taste. Serve immediately.

Well, it's been all winter since I've posted a recipe. Guess I'm just not one for inspiration unless I'm foraging out of the gardens. Today's fit of culinary creation came from the syrup-y fragrant Chocolate Mint we've been picking by the handful out of the front perennial beds to liven up our kombucha on its second ferment. But I think maybe it also came from the two books I'm somehow simultaneously reading in the middle of the busiest time of the garden year. Stress reading? It's entirely possible. My daughter Maggie does it all the time - subscribing to new magazines on her i-phone in the middle of finals week - and realistically she likely caught the habit from me, without me knowing I had it!

I've hidden both of these books in our new vintage camper and when the list of to-dos in the field and greenhouse gets to be too much for me, I pop out there for a coffee and a chapter. The fabulous Ruth Reichl has written a first novel, aptly called "Delicious" and  as full of sumptuous food porn as her restaurant-critic memoirs, and I'm reading it alongside food blogger Molly Wizenburg's first cookbook/memoir "A Homemade Life." Both are wonderful in their own ways and both are relentless when it comes to descriptions of recipe origination.  Reading about others' culinary impulses finally drove me into the kitchen to work this recipe out today.

So it started as a gift recipe from my friend Pat who dropped it off one day when she came to pick up her CSA box. Chocolate Basil Cake.  It was already a genius concept when I  added bourbon to the chocolate sour cream frosting. This held its own at various parties and events for several years, and grew moister and richer as I continued to increase the ratio of pounded basil. But this morning I could just about taste mint flecks between my teeth as I read my chapter-a-day and finally got the mint - now 4 times the original amount of basil leaves - into the food processor this afternoon. The cake became a brownie last year when I wanted to thin it out and stretch it to take it for organic-farmer-food samples at a food festival I was working at in Madison. Tomorrow I'm representing the Wisconsin Farmers Union at a farmer's market in Monroe, WI, so I need tiny treats again.

I have Reichl to thank for the addition of a brush of rye whiskey over the finished brownie before adding the glaze. When her character Billie brushed bourbon over an orange gingerbread in Chapter 1, I immediately thought of revisiting my Basil Cake recipe. I have Mark Emberson, my town grocer, to thank. I planted his flower boxes with edibles this year, and asked for payment in booze. he thus introduced me to the lovely Templeton Rye that I brushed on the brownies and folded into the glaze. And I have Wizenburg to thank for the glaze itself. Her recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes recommends a simple glaze of melted bittersweet chocolate rather than the over-the-top ganache bombs we've been moving toward in the past few years.

I couldn't be more pleased with the finished product. In fact, after a few tastes, I had to remove it from the house entirely. It's in my summer kitchen fridge because I need it for an event tomorrow and there won't be any left if I leave it close by me. CSA members - take note. You'll be getting a generous bouquet of Chocolate Mint in your first share boxes that come next week.

BOOZY MINT LEAF BROWNIES

Ingredients
1 c. sugar
3 c. packed fresh mint leaves, preferably chocolate or another sweet mint variety
5 T butter, melted and cooled
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1/2 t. baking soda
2 t. vanilla
1/4 t. salt
3/4 flour (white whole wheat works fine)
1/2 c. hot water (or leave cup short and top off with a bit of rye whiskey)
1/4 c. bittersweet or dark chocolate pieces
1 tsp. half and half
1 T rye whiskey, plus a bit more to brush the top - Templeton is recommended

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 by 13 pan with coconut oil and dust with flour. Wash mint and add with sugar to food processor. Blitz to a wet paste. In large mixing bowl, whisk or use a whisk attachment on a mixer, to combine melted butter, sugar/mint paste and cocoa powder until  well blended. Add eggs one at a time until blended and smooth. Stir in baking soda, vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour to the mix, stirring just until blended. Add hot water with rye all at once and stir just til combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake 15 minutes or so, removing while still quite soft. Cool slightly on rack and brush with about a tablespoon of rye.
Melt chocolate and half and half in a double boiler, stirring constantly. Remove from heat when melted and add rye. Spread thinly over brownie and allow to cool before serving if you can bring yourself to stay out of it.