Hackberry-wild rice porridge

I posted about hackberries last month, and have continued to harvest more since then. It may well be the year of hackberries (for me at least) because a whole tree came down nearby in the Christmas blizzard, making the berries very accessible! I am loving my weekly treks to the fallen tree, winding my way through its downed branches to collect the tiny berries. I discovered that hackberries taste quite different from tree to tree; these ones are less sweet than the ones across the park, and are a little thinner (or have bigger seeds). I read that a traditional/indigenous way of eating hackberries is to mix fat, crushed hackberries, and ground corn to make a porridge. I tried a similar version using wild rice and butter, and it is officially My Favorite Way To Eat Hackberries.

I tried various ratios of wild rice flour to berries, and settled on the one below. The result is a right amount of crunch, creaminess, and sweet. It really is like cream of wheat (from the rice), but with some more texture. Yum. My mortar and pestle, which I'd been wanting for a long time and finally purchased so that I could grind up hackberries, is getting good use and seasoning from my exploits! *I find it is worth the extra minute or two to make sure you have really crushed all of the berries. It helps avoid too big a crunch from an un-ground seed.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 1/2 cup hackberries, ground to a paste in a mortar and pestle
• 2 T wild rice, ground in a coffee grinder (I tried mortar and pestle and it was a LONG road to get powder)
• good pinch of salt
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 T butter (salted is best!)
  

1. Put hackberry paste, salt and water in a small saucepan and bring to just boiling. Turn heat down and simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring a few times. The water will reduce slightly, and a nice froth will form on top of the hackberries. This is my favorite step in this process, because the froth and the aroma of hackberry liquid smells so good to me. 

2. Add ground wild rice, and stir/whisk well. Simmer another 2-3 minutes, stirring often, until thick. I usually stir half of the butter into the simmering mixture, and serve with the remaining butter on top, but you could go all one way or the other if you like.

I find this ratio is just sweet enough as it is, or you could drizzle some maple syrup on top.

Hackberry milk (and more)

A friend tipped me off to hackberries earlier this fall, and once I had identified a hackberry tree, I began seeing them everywhere! They are all over Lake Hiawatha Park and the golf course, most easily identified by their warty bark, and of course the tiny berries. The only problem is that the branches tend to be high, and a step ladder, if not extension ladder, might be called for in order harvest the berries. 

Hackberries are very interesting - they are mostly seed, which is hard and crunchy and maybe a bit much for the teeth. They taste a bit like dates, or prunes, I think; sort of a spicy sweetness. I have been eating a few of them as a I pass by a tree, but it's a pretty firm crunch. The seeds are edible bits of protein and fat, and the berry is very thin. It means hackberries are a good source of energy with the seed AND fruit bit, especially because they do not dry up or freeze and are thus available throughout the winter. 

I'd been meaning to bring a ladder to the park for some weeks, but when I was out walking on Christmas, I came upon some trees that had a few reachable branches. That, and the recent blizzard knocked several little branches to the ground, so I could collect enough to do something with. They are tiny, and it took me close to half an hour to collect about a cup and a half of them, so this is not going to a be a winter staple, most likely. But!! They are so tasty and unusual and I'm quite into them. 

I ground the berries up in a mortar and pestle to break down the seeds (a high end vitamix type blender would also do the job) and had to really mash to crunch them all. The berries become a paste, most of which I used to make hackberry "milk," though I saved a little out to make a little candy hackberry ball. 

The milk was delicious (especially to drink warm), and so was the by-product remains, which I mixed with a bit of cream to make something like porridge. Crunchy, grapenut-like porridge. Yum, it was really good, and I love when you can make multiple things out of the same foraged item! You can drink the "milk" plain, or I used mine on some wild rice porridge (along with butter and some nuts). I also used some to make hot chocolate.

Hackberry milk

• 1 c hackberries
• 2 c water

Crush hackberries in a mortar and pestle until the seeds are all broken up and they form a paste. Combine the paste with 2 c water, and bring to a simmer in a small saucepan (not a boil, barely let the bubbles form). Stir. Turn the heat to low and just barely simmer for 20 minutes (I set mine on the low burning woodstove, which was perfect). Strain mixture through cheesecloth and consume!

*You could squeeze the mixture to capture all of the liquid and disgard the pulp, or reserve the paste with some liquid intact, mix with cream, and eat like porridge. Drink as a beverage, or use like you would coconut milk in cooking.

"Milk" will last for a week in the fridge, and is mildly sweet. Makes about 1 1/2 c.