The Foraged Crumble

Foraging for food is by far one of life’s greatest and underrated pleasures. It’s not only a great excuse to get outside, connect with your environment, and get to know your local flora, but whatever you find is organically grown and free! Could it get any more gratifying than that? I doubt it.

The edges of the bike path below my apartment here in Copenhagen, are lined with hundreds upon hundreds of wild blackberry bushes. Be still my heart! I have been dreaming about the day when the juicy little jewels turn from a deep pink to almost black, their juicy weight bending the thorny branches of their tangled mess of a home.
“Isn’t it a little early for blackberries?” a man asked me as I was poking around in the brambles this morning. Au contraire, my Danish friend. An avid forager will know exactly the right time to strike, especially if she wants to get to the goods before everyone else does. There were certainly enough ripe berries to pick; I just left the pink ones to sunbathe a little longer.


By now the strawberries have come and gone, raspberries have seen better days, but blackberries are making their way into the spotlight. Choosing the ripe berries is relatively easy: they should be very dark purple (almost black, imagine that), firm, and bulging with juice. In fact, picking them should involve little more than a slight brush of your hand – if they require tugging of any sort, they are not ready to come home with you. Unripe berries will not ripen once picked, so leave those ones for a few more days and they will taste far sweeter.

When I got home with a full basket and a full tummy, I had the overwhelming urge to bake something sweet and decadent. I am, after all, having a Canadian friend come visit me, and baking is the best way I know to make guests feel welcome.
I came up with this simple, whole-foods recipe from several unhealthy ones I found online, and the results are insanely delicious. Please make this, I beg you.

Blackberry Crumble
Ingredients
2 apples
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
6 cups blackberries
1/4 cup Sucanat or organic raw sugar
2 Tbsp. whole grain flour (spelt, kamut, wheat etc.)
3 tsp. cinnamon, divided
1 cup rolled oats or spelt flakes
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup organic, cold butter
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
pinch of sea salt

Directions
1. Peel apples, chop and stir in lemon juice.
2. Submerge blackberries into a large bowl of water and gently turn to remove any dirt, leaves etc. Drain and combine with apples.
3. Sprinkle sugar, flour and 2 tsp. cinnamon over top of the fruit and mix.
4. In a separate bowl, combine rolled oats, maple syrup, walnuts and remaining cinnamon. Cut in cold butter until crumbly. Spread over fruit. Add a sprinkling of raw sugar on top, if desired.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.

You could serve this with ice cream (made from goat’s milk, obviously) – but alas, I could not find any here in Copenhagen.

Blackberries abound in antioxidants, such as anthocyanin pigments, responsible for the purplish-black colour of blackberries and may impart health benefits because of their antioxidant properties. Additional antioxidants in blackberries are vitamins C and E, and ellagic acid; all may provide protection against cancer and chronic disease. Cooking does not seem to destroy ellagic acid, so even blackberry jams and desserts retain ellagic acid health benefits. Crumble anyone?

I'm So NOT in the Dark

What gives? They say that Scandinavia is the land of the midnight sun, but I have discovered that this is just a cute little euphemism for the land of sleepless nights. Since being here I have been unable to fall asleep with ease, or sleep soundly without waking. My daytime hours have been spent in a serious Danish daze. It’s not jet lag. It’s the fact that it never gets dark!

When someone comes to me with sleeping problems, the first thing I like to do is assess their bedtime patterns and sleeping environment. Many people watch television towards the end of their day to unwind and some even have a TV in their bedroom and fall asleep watching horrible made-for-TV movies starring Tori Spelling. Some people write emails with their laptops inches from their face, the bright monitor lights blaring into their tired eyes. My stepmother falls asleep reading with all the lights on and wonders why she wakes up an hour later, the rest of her night completely sabotaged.

See what I am getting at here? The dark matters. Think about what the world was like before electricity: I know, that was like, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but back in the day, humans’ sleep cycles were totally (and naturally) dependent on the day’s light cycles. They rose with the rising sun and slept when it got dark. And it was really dark. Do you think they relied on Ambien? Halcion? Lunesta? I doubt it.

Here’s how it works: Exposure to light stimulates a nerve pathway from the retina in the eye to an area in the brain called the hypothalamus. There, a special center called the supra-chiasmatic nucleus (SCN) initiates signals to other parts of the brain that control hormones, body temperature and other functions that play a role in making us feel sleepy or wide awake.

The SCN works like a clock that sets off a regulated pattern of activities that affect the entire body. Once exposed to the first light each day, the clock in the SCN begins performing functions like raising body temperature and releasing stimulating hormones like cortisol. The SCN also delays the release of other hormones like melatonin, which is associated with sleep onset, until many hours later when darkness arrives.

Melatonin is a natural hormone made by your body's pineal (pih-knee-uhl) gland. This is a pea-sized gland located just above the middle of the brain. During the day the pineal is inactive. When the sun goes down and darkness occurs, the pineal is "turned on" by the SCN and begins to actively produce melatonin, which is released into the blood. Usually, this occurs around 9 pm. As a result, melatonin levels in the blood rise sharply and you begin to feel less alert. Sleep becomes more inviting. Melatonin levels in the blood stay elevated for about 12 hours - all through the night - before the light of a new day when they fall back to low daytime levels by about 9 am. Daytime levels of melatonin are barely detectable.

Of course, there are other reasons that people cannot sleep besides their bedrooms being too bright. Stress and anxiety, drug side effects, noise, jet lag, physical pain, or simply being uncomfortable in bed can contribute to a poor night’s sleep. However, making a few small changes to your sleeping routine, instead of resorting to drugs is always the preferred method in my books. Here are some tips for making your night as restful as possible:

1. Try to go to bed at the same time every night to establish a routine.

2. Ensure that the room is dark and quiet.

3. Ensure that the room is a comfortable temperature; not too hot or cold.

4. Invest in a comfy bed.

5. Address any physical problems or discomfort (e.g. heartburn, menopausal hot flashes, arthritis, headaches or back pain) that make sleeping difficult.

7. Exercise during the day, but not within three hours of going to bed.

8. Do not drink alcohol before going to bed.

9. Do not drink caffeinated beverages in the afternoon or evening.

10. Do not work in bed or just before going to bed.

11. Do not watch television or use the computer at least one hour before going to bed.

Even though I always suggest to others that they ensure their sleeping environment be totally dark when they go to bed, sometimes I forget to take my own advice. My boyfriend handed me a sleeping mask last night, and today I feel like I am back to my old self again. Now that I'm back in the dark, I can finally see the light.

resource: http://www.sleepfoundation.org

Super Rye

It must be the rye…after spending a week here in Copenhagen, I have concluded that these are the healthiest, happiest people in the world and the only thing that sets them apart from us is a dense, little loaf of malty bread.
Although wheat bread reigns supreme in North American supermarkets, choosing whole rye products more often has multiple benefits (obviously)!

For one, rye bread is an excellent source of dietary fiber, starch, protein and a significant number of essential vitamins (Bs and vitamin E) and minerals (iron, magnesium and zinc).

The greatest thing about rye however, is that it contains both insoluble and soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber helps keep you “regular” by increasing bulk, softening stools (sorry, I had to use that word) and shortening the transit time through the intestinal tract. Insoluble fiber is the predominant type of fiber in bread, which plays an important role in keeping you regular and helps to eliminate toxins, which help to maintain a healthy digestive system.
Soluble fiber undergoes metabolic processing via fermentation, yielding end products with broad, significant health effects including helping to maintain heart health and manage blood glucose levels. Lately, there has been a lot of hype surrounding pro and prebiotics. The Probiotic talk I will save for another post, but I will say that the soluble fiber in rye bread is considered a prebiotic. Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients found in foods such as leeks, onions, garlic, bananas, asparagus, chicory and whole grains (including wheat, rye, barley and oats). Because prebiotics are fermentable fibers, they help maintain gut functions.
Most importantly, prebiotics remain undigested until they reach the colon where they become an important food source for the friendly bacteria (probiotics) in our gut, helping them to flourish and grow in numbers. This is a very good thing.

Because of its high fiber content, rye bread is incredibly filling and quickly gives a feeling of satiety. This would be a great addition to anyone’s diet if they were trying to lose weight. Look for the darkest rye bread you can find and make sure that it does not contain any caramel colour! Many commerical bakeries add this to the dough so that the bread looks like rye, but the ingredient list will reveal wheat is the main attraction.

The typical Danish way to eat a rye bread sandwich is in fact, open-faced with fish, pâté, or sliced meats on top. I certainly prefer hummus or avocado and a little sea salt myself, but the possibilities are endless. I also like the open-face sandwich concept because it’s like you get to eat twice as much! They even have these cute little wooden boards in all homes that are specifically for rye bread sandwiches, to use instead of plates, whose raised edges would not allow for spreading. So clever!

I thought that it was just a stereotype that the Danes eat a couple slices of rye bread a day, but you know, sometimes stereotypes are true. And as it turns out, they even have blond hair.

Well ya’ll, I’m off on another vacation. I am going to Denmark for the next month but I will absolutely be updating My New Roots while I’m away. I am not sure what I will be writing about, but as always, my travels are full of food and environmental adventures.
Goodbye! And as the Danes say… Farvel!

Summer Reading

I have been plowing through books since I finished work for the summer. Admittedly, I’ve been struggling to stay on top of “new releases”, so the following recommendations may seem like old news to most of you. However, for those of you who are planning on curling up in a park or on the dock in the afternoon sunshine, make sure to take one of these exceptional books with you.

The first one is called The 100 Mile Diet, written by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. This couple living out in Vancouver decided to abandon the conventional diet based on food that travels an average of 1,500 from farm to table, in favor of local foods that are produced within a 100-mile radius of their downtown apartment.
Their journey is truly remarkable, filled with many failures and successes. I was amazed at how difficult this task was, and I could not help but be inspired by their commitment and unwavering dedication to their cause. Their experiment demonstrates how disconnected we are from our food, our environment and the problems that this separation causes. I fully agree with their message. I know that eating locally is an undertaking I find particularly daunting in our chilly climate, but one that I know would bring me far closer to my food community and deepen my appreciation of the environment (if that’s possible!).

The book I am currently reading is Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. The message behind this “eater’s manifesto” is simple:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. I love it!
Pollan proposes how and why to get back to eating real food – not the processed edibles in pretty packages that seem to dominate North Americans’ dietary repertoire. This new (and very old) way of eating is informed by the traditions and ecology of our land and will only help to strengthen our health and the food chains of which we are part.
There are even more simple rules that act almost as mantra in the final chapters. Some of my favorites are: Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. Pay more, eat less. Eat slowly. Do all your eating at a table (no, your desk is not a table). And my personal favorite (this one goes out to my dad…) Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does.

Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a work of non-fiction that I actually purchased, as I am such a fan of hers, I couldn’t resist the idea of her writing about my favorite subject. After about 10 pages I could not put this extraordinary story down. Her descriptions of food and farming and eating are hauntingly beautiful, and she tactfully weaves factual elements into this lyrical account of how her family chose to eat local foods for one year, not unlike Smith and MacKinnon. It’s totally addictive.

All three of these books are page-turners in their own right. Although they are not the juicy novels that most of us endeavor to devour when we have a little extra time on our plates, I assure you that they all teach and inspire about the one thing that we all have in common.