It’s a Little Seedy

Are you thinking about your summer vegetable garden? I am. Gardening, according to Andy, would be a “serious leisure” pursuit for me. That’s a phrase I’d never heard until last week, when Andy casually mentioned he’d be writing about that in today’s Andy’s Corner.

Early Fortune Cucumber and Capitano Yellow Romano Bean seeds have just arrived from Territorial Seed Co and Seed Savers Exchange. But I don’t have room in our raised beds for pumpkins…though I do love pumpkin seeds!

I’m not going to revisit Old Mother Goose tales today; we’ve covered that before. But I would like to reiterate that Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater was NOT a nice guy. Why was his wife smiling on that Ferry’s Seeds package?

I may not like that Mother Goose rhyme, but I love pumpkin seeds in salads, in granola, with nuts, in dips, in tacos, or roasted and salted by the handful. The only kind of bread we routinely eat is Pumpkin Seed Bread from Della Fattoria in Petaluma, which is sold at our Sonoma Market. For cooking I’ve been buying packages of USDA organic unsalted, unroasted pumpkin seeds from Aurora Natural Products – based in Connecticut. It was many months after I first started buying them that I happened to read the small print on the package: “Product of China.”

Since I use and enjoy sunflower seeds almost as much as pumpkin seeds, I did a little research into where they are commonly sourced. Voila. Ukraine. Not surprising, given that the sunflower is their widely-referenced symbol.

To Aurora Natural Products’ credit, they labelled the country of origin for the seeds. Not every producer does that – because they don’t have to, apparently.

According to the U.S. Dept of Agriculture, Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is a labeling law that requires retailers, such as full-line grocery stores, supermarkets and club warehouse stores, to notify their customers with information regarding the source of certain foods. Food products covered by the law include muscle cut and ground meats: lamb, goat, and chicken; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts; and ginseng. 

Interesting, right? Peanuts, pecans and macadamia nuts must be labelled. But not seeds? And not almonds? What about pine nuts? And why ginseng?

Back in 2014 NPR’s All Things Considered did a segment on “Love Pine Nuts? Then Protect Pine Forests.” It’s a fascinating look at the forests that produce our pine nuts: “China has its own pine forests. And it is the world’s biggest exporter of pine nuts. Pine nuts also come from North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Look at that list and you realize that good food can come from troubled places.)”

I love that last line – “…good food can come from troubled places.”

A quote from Ezra Klein’s recent piece in the NYTimes says it all: “The West is going to think harder about depending on autocracies for crucial goods and resources.”

My garden plans may be changing. It turns out that I don’t need or want ginormous Halloween-type pumpkins to produce my pumpkins seeds (more correctly known as pepitas). I need Styrian (SE Austria) pumpkins – which produce seeds that don’t need to be shelled. I wonder how many Styrian seeds I need to plant to get my yearly pumpkin seed quota?

In case you’re wondering what to do with the seeds you may (or may not) have, consider the following:

– Crunchy Pepitas, Sweet Potatoes and Black Bean Salad
– Sunflower (or Pumpkin) Seed, Apple, and Kale Salad
– Deb’s Granola
– Spiced Pine Nuts, Pecans, and Pumpkin Seeds
– Mayan Pumpkin Seed Dip (Sikil-P’ak)
(I haven’t mastered Pipian Verde (green pumpkin seed mole) yet but intend to try Rick Bayless’ version)

If you want to try your hand at a yeast bread, here’s a simple, seedy recipe.