Jolar Moreka - Hollyhock: garden to table

Copyright 2013 by Hollyhock. All rights reserved. Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover photo: Heidi Scheifley Photos: Moreka Jolar and Heidi Scheifley New Society Publishers acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities. Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-727-5 eISBN: 978-1-55092-531-9 Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Hollyhock Garden to Table should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to: New Society Publishers P.O.

Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada (250) 247-9737 LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Jolar, Moreka Hollyhock : garden to table / Moreka Jolar, Heidi Scheifley and Hollyhock cooks ; foreword by Andrew Weil. Includes indexes.
ISBN 978-0-86571-727-5 1. Hollyhock (Cortes Island, B.C.). 2. Cooking, Canadian British Columbia style. 3.

Cooking (Natural foods). 4. Cookbooks I. Scheifley, Heidi II. Title. TX945.5.H64J65 2013 641.5097112 C2013-900549-8 New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

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To the inspired kitchen team, the countless devoted gardeners, the great-hearted sharegivers, the visionary board members and:To Nori, your vision, your dedication and your passionate tending of the land keeps us returning to the kitchen.A percentage of the profit from the sales of this book is being donated to local food banks in honor of you all. I FIRST CAME to Hollyhock almost thirty years ago to teach a workshop on herbal medicine. It was a small group that met under an old apple tree in the orchard behind the garden. One of the participants was Hollyhocks head gardener, Nori Fletcher.

She already knew a great deal about plant remedies, about cultivating them as well as using them. I soon learned she was also an expert cook and naturalist with broad knowledge of Cortes Islands unique habitat. Our shared love of plants, good food and cooking made us fast friends. In those early days, Nori cooked in the Hollyhock kitchen in addition to managing the garden; I marveled at her ability to turn out meals for many peoplefood that always was beautiful to look at as well as satisfying to eat. The Hollyhock garden is Hollyhock, and Nori Fletcher is its genius. She created it on land that was little more than infertile sand, subject to ocean spray and severe winter storms.

Under her sure and skillful hand, it produces a cornucopia of produce for the Hollyhock kitchen and an abundance of blooms for the flower arrangements that enliven the lodge, gathering places and guest rooms. Nori mastered garden-to-table cooking way back when. I want to acknowledge her as the source of inspiration for this book. I felt such an immediate strong connection to Cortes and the contrast it offered to my home in the southern Arizona desert that I returned the next summer and every summer thereafter. Eventually, I was able to buy land here and build a home. Nori has been my closest friend on the island.

We have traveled together, shared adventures and learned much from each other. Nori established the garden at my Cortes home; most summer nights, we harvest the freshest possible vegetables from it and make terrific meals. We like to experiment, invent new dishes, and share them with friends and guests. Many people have never eaten food made with truly fresh ingredients. Often, when Nori and I serve meals, our friends and guests marvel at the bold flavors of our dishes. Most of that boldness comes from the vegetables, herbs and fruits we use, taken from the garden and brought directly to the kitchen.

Nothing beats a salad of just-picked greenswashed, dried and tossed with a simple olive oil vinaigrette. Even crisphead lettucein such low repute with todays foodiesis delightful when it comes right out of the garden: sweet and tasty with a crunch unmatched by any other variety. A few years ago, Nori and I traveled through northern Italy in November, visiting olive oil estates and biodynamic farms, as well as learning about and eating the glorious white truffles around Alba in the Piedmont. Everywhere we went, we found wonderfully fresh produce, not only in restaurants and markets but even in roadside rest stops along the autostradas. It made us sad that most North Americans are so deprived. Last summer we went to Sicily with a group of friends.

Dining on the cuisine of that remarkable island was a main activity. Our meals featured the freshest fish, shellfish, vegetables and pasta and inspired us to recreate some of the best dishes when we returned to Cortes. Just a few days ago, at a low-low tide, Nori and I dug littleneck clams in Mansons Lagoon, a shellfish cornucopia. We filled our buckets in fifteen minutes, washed the clams, and left them to soak in clean seawater overnight. The next day we put them in fresh water for twenty minutes, which causes them to expel sand. We then lifted them out of the water and carried them directly to a deep, heavy saucepan with hot olive oil, mashed garlic and red pepper flakes, added some dry vermouth, covered the pot and steamed them over high heat for a few minutes until most of them opened.

We had a pot of linguine going; when it was cooked just al dente, we drained the pasta, tossed it with some of the clam broth in a deep platter, poured the clams and remaining broth over it and covered everything with a quantity of chopped flat-leaf parsley from the garden. It made a heavenly dinner, as good as any we had in Sicily. Over the years, I have come to realize that Nori Fletcher is more than a master gardener and cook. She is the most self-reliant person I know, with a wide range of knowledge and skills. She is at home in the woods and on the water, comfortable in wilderness, able to deal with most situations that arise in challenging environments. A good sense of humor sustains her; time has mellowed her and brought her wisdom.

I greatly value our friendship, and Im pleased that we are both contributors to Hollyhock Cooks. I hope you will enjoy the food in these pages as much as we do. JULY 2012 Dr. Andrew Weil is clinical Professor of Medicine and Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. He is the author of ten books including the international best-sellers

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