If Fruit Trees had Robin Hood
on honeyed matcha & backyard heroes
Welcome to Matcha & Moi, a newsletter for sharing food stories over a cup of matcha. If you want this to become your newsletter, you can always subscribe for free.
The Playlist: songs that make you feel like the main character of this week’s newsletter … hint hint, press play and read on
The Recipe: honeyed matcha
…to tell the cold weather who’s boss
ceremonial matcha, about 1 teaspoon; my favorite is Nekohama
a spoonful of honey … any honey is lovely, but I especially love propolis honey which supposedly boosts immunity
a few pieces of candied ginger; I get them from Trader Joe’s
hot water - not much, only about a cup
how-to
Sift the matcha into a bowl and add about ¼ cup hot water until the powder is just barely submerged.
A note on water temp, it’s best to avoid boiling-hot water in order to prevent scalding the matcha and drawing out any bitterness. If you don’t have a fancy schmancy kettle that lets you set it to the sweet spot of 176F, try boiling your water as you normally would and letting it cool for a few minutes before using.
Using a bamboo chasen, whisk the matcha + hot water in a zig-zag motion.
If you’re not a matcha geek (yet) and don’t have a bamboo whisk lying around, I recommend using a mason jar to just give it a shake! Or a milk frother if you’re slightly more technologically advanced will do. Stay away from those metal balloon whisks - they will do zilch, except leave you with clumpy matcha!
Whisk in the heaping spoonful honey + add more water if you’d like a fuller cup of tea (I usually add in another half cup of water…no need to whisk again).
The real zinger of this recipe is adding candied ginger. Swirl a few pieces in, let them soften a little, and take a sip. By the end of the cup, you’re left with chewy, matcha-infused pieces of sweet ginger to nibble on.
The Story: If Fruit Trees had Robin Hood
Joining a Facebook group is like donning a new hat for your internet persona to wear. When I joined Trader Joe’s Meal Ideas 4 Busy Mom’s, I was really telling the world, “hey! I’m on the verge of domestic girlbossing too close to the sun, but at least all my ingredients are quirky?” My newest hat is a Facebook group called the Solano Gleaning Group Initiative. By the sound of it, it seems like I’ve gone off the deep end and joined some sort of organized theft ring with a penchant for grassroots-like names. But hang on, it’s only slightly less edgy than that.
Gleaning is the act of harvesting backyard fruit from people who have more fruit than they can chew.
So, the Solano Gleaning Group Initiative is a lovely group of volunteers in Berkeley, California who are gung-ho about harvesting extra backyard fruit to share with others.
Before I learned that fruit gleaning was a real thing, I would stare in awe at the backyard persimmon or meyer lemon trees in Berkeley bearing curtains of fruit for most of the year. No one I ever saw picked them. By the end of the year most of the trees still look untouched, so I cynically assumed that the world was a thoughtless place where people were either too busy or too evolved to harvest backyard fruit. It took so much willpower to stop myself from stealing backyard fruit that I stopped going on walks altogether and started going on runs, hoping that my legs would outrun my fruit heist ambitions. I did swipe the occasional lemon from an overhanging branch or two when no one was looking, but I had to find a better way to satisfy my unlawfulness.
That’s where the Gleaning Group comes in. Every week, someone posts a selfless announcement like:
“Fairfield lime tree and peach gleaning this Tuesday starting at 10 am. We have fruit pickers and boxes. Just show up!”
You show up, harvest fruit, and leave feeling like a superhero. Not only did you rescue those gorgeous hachiyas from going to waste, but you also rescued a homeowner who may be feeling slightly overwhelmed by their temporal backyard wealth.
Sometimes, I want to just glean it alone. No group, no baskets, just me and my spontaneity. Fallingfruit.org has become my Google Maps since it shows you all the edible plants in your area (although, back home in Colorado, I was hard-pressed to find a single edible plant since every yard has been “lawnscaped” to death). The biggest jackpot in Berkeley I found was a hedged row of perfectly edible rosemary bushes near the UC Berkeley campus, completely ignored by passersby for the most part. Why pay for a few sprigs of not-so-fresh rosemary from the store when I can just pick it myself for free (albeit, you’ll probably get a few confused glances thrown your way from non-gleaning muggles)?
Fruit gleaning feels like turning into the Robin Hood of backyard bounty, and there’s absolutely no shame in toting home a bag full of rescued lemons or rosemary to feed your budget-strapped culinary curiosities.
cheers,
Thank you for joining us on this week’s matcha date! If you had fun, feel free to give this a share to show that you care. Or if this was your first date and liked it, subscribe for a second!
Wow!! That’s really cool.. I love fruit trees
omg looking at fallingfruit.org rn and im in shock!! the middle of the city has so many fruit trees?!