June Food Stamp Challenge: Two Degrees Of Foraged Fruit A.K.A. Turning Compost Into Fancy Hooch
Filed under Luxecycle, Noted, Sticky Acres
This morning, while waiting for my doctor’s appointment, I struck up a conversation about gardening with a guy in the waiting room. When I mentioned that I had huge loquats this year because of the bees, he mentioned that he makes a “mock amaretto” liquor by soaking the sun dried pits from his loquats in grain alcohol.
I immediately rang my friend Louis who is the proprietor of Miracle Mile Bitters, an ultra-micro distillery in Los Angeles with this information. Louis was in the middle of making a batch of nocino using the free green walnuts he scavenged from a neighbor’s tree, when I called to offer him my kitchen waste. We were both excited about the idea of taking something that normally gets thrown away and making it into something rare and delicious.
Since loquat season is over, we’ll have to wait until next year to experiment. In the mean time, we’re going to do further research to make sure that we’re not making an Agatha Christie-style murder weapon with the loquat pits. Loquats pits, like apple seeds, and stone fruit pits all contain cyanide, which is what gives amaretto and the poison their almond perfume.
The second time around scavenging of loquat pits did inspire me to make my favorite garbage turned dessert recipe: candied grapefruit peels. My father loves candied citrus peel and since I still have a grapefruit left over from the produce co-op, I’m going to whip him up a batch for Father’s Day.
Tuesday Menu
Breakfast: We both skipped it today
Lunch: Me: Grapefruit, loquats, oatmeal (from pantry) Mr. Foxypants: rice with curry sauce, 2 oranges
Dinner: turkey and apple sandwiches, chips and salsa
Dessert: vanilla wafer cookies, coffee
