Cherry gleaning and an afternoon tart

July 10, 2010
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Foraging, or gleaning means gathering leftover, extra or abandonded crops. Forage Oakland is a really cool organization that uses gleaning as a means to develop community ties.

Forage Oakland is a project that- at its core- works to address how we eat everyday, and how everyone can benefit from viewing their neighborhood as a veritable edible map, considering what is cultivated in any given neighborhood and why, and what histories influence those choices. The gleaning of unharvested fruits; the meeting of new neighbors; the joy of the season’s first hachiya persimmon (straight from your neighbor’s backyard, no less); the gathering and redistribution of fruits that would otherwise be wasted- can be powerful and can work to create a new paradigm around how we presently think about food in our collective consciousness.

Foraging and gleaning fruit is literally the cherry on top of living in the Sierra Foothills. Joe and I have located a network of trees all over the county that we visit at certain times of year with a promise of filling up our cloth bags and boxes with beautiful, fresh and FREE fruit! Thursday was cherry day. We left the house with Felix in tow at 8 am while it was still cool and we could get a head start on the day.

We grabbed an iced coffee and headed into downtown Grass Valley where we pick our cherries in an abandoned lot. We picked a full flat on beautiful Bing cherries in about 20 minutes. The tree was totally weighed down with little red orbs of sweetness! When we were satisfied with our spoils, we drove back to the kitchen.

While Joe watered the garden, I made a tart dough so it could rest in the fridge before rolling it out to make a tart later in the afternoon.

I use Alice Waters’ tart recipe. The dough is very flaky and moist and it is an easy process. Here it is.

Tart Dough Recipe

• 1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 1/2 Tbs. chilled water

To make dough, mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl; add 2 Tbs. of the butter. Blend in a mixer until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining butter; mix until biggest pieces look like large peas.

Dribble in water, stir, then dribble in more, until dough just holds together. Toss with hands, letting it fall through fingers, until it’s ropy with some dry patches. If dry patches predominate, add another tablespoon water. Keep tossing until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk; refrigerate. After at least 30 minutes, remove; let soften so it’s malleable but still cold. Smooth cracks at edges. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Dust excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush.

Later I pitted about 2 lbs of cherries and finished taking the tart. I loosely followed a recipe but I improvised on the filling. I make a puree of almonds and candied ginger as the base and then layered the cherries on top of it.

My afternoon tart adventure was a success!

That evening we attended the Bluebird Farm potluck and shared the tart, complete with whipped cream!

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IN THE KITCHEN, blog, edible garden, farming, local food in california, recipes, seasonal food by Wendy Van Wagner

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