Urban Foraging

dumpster donuts

Kate Ten Eyck passed along an article in the New York Times on urban foraging, inspired by the story of Asiyah Wadud, who started a neighborhood fruit share in Oakland, California. The article has links to two awesome urban foraging/neighborhood sharing websites: neighborhoodfruit.com where you can look up public fruit trees or nearby sharing neighbors by zip code, or sign up to share fruit from a tree in your yard, or register a public tree in your neighborhood. Veggietrader.com is an online market to trade, buy, or sell things grown in backyard gardens. We've been vamping up our own garden by picking up seedlings down the street at the co-op, and free seeds from the seed library, which is part of the Northeast Portland Tool Library. You can rent any number of decent tools from hammers to powerwashers, even a table saw, for FREE! All you have to do is prove that you live in the area, and sign up. It's open from 9 to 2 every Saturday and tools are due back the following Saturday. The seed library was started in March this year, and is going strong, all on neighborhood donations. Later in the summer there will be a workshop on seed saving (look for updates on the Tool Library website) so that people can collect seeds and give back to the library.

All this blogging has made me hungry. Time for a pasta snack:



a handful of fresh sage from the garden, chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 stick of Earth Balance
1 crushed arbol pepper

Cook all these guys together on med low in a large saucepan while you wait for the water to boil. Throw a little salt in the water. It makes it boil at a slightly lower temperature, which is better for pasta cooking. It also makes the pasta that much more delicious. When the two pots are simmering away, clean and chop up some

garden greens ( broccoli leaf, chard, spinach)

When the water is boiling throw in whatever pasta it is you scrounge up ( I was lucky enough to find some fancy spaghetti in the cupboard, which will certainly be a treat compared to the hamburger helper pasta we'll be eating soon enough.) and a little bit of oil. This keeps the pasta from sticking together.

Turn up the heat on the sage garlic butter mixture, (if at this point Elizabeth walks in and suggests adding the leftover spinach tofu calzone filling she made the day before, say yes) and add the greens.

Determine whether or not the pasta is ready by tasting it. Most dried pasta takes about 10 minutes to cook, fresh takes 2-3 (5- 7 for filled pasta). When it is the texture you prefer, strain and rinse with a little cold water. This stops the pasta from cooking and maintains that texture. You'll bring it back to delightfully warm when you add the sauce. Add the sauce. Call the hungry.