Lemons, Urban Foraging I

There is never any rest for the forager, especially the urban forager. Houses are sold, prior harvesting arrangements are cancelled, fences are built, trees are cut, and horror of all horrors, people start using the fruit on their trees. So, the urban forager must always seek new locations to, well, forage. Today was an absolutely glorious day here in Santa Cruz and I decided that is was the perfect day to go for a long meandering scouting expedition through the neighborhood in search of lemon, quince, walnut, kumquat, pineapple guava, fig, pomelo, and plum trees. The only real destination being West Cliff Drive, where my daughter likes to count the sailboats and watch the sea monkeys (surfers). With stroller (for the possible tired child and heavy baskets), plenty of water, and sunscreen, we set off. 

Santa Cruz has a large Italian and Portuguese population of emigrants from the 1950’s. Many are now retired and, trust me, they all like to garden and many were out today. Not only did I succeed in finding new trees for above list, but an unexpected world was opened as we were invited into gardens. So, I can now also include cherries, plums, apples, pears, asian pears, kiwis, and blackberries to my neighborhood foraging possibilites. All addresses carefully documented!

Three hours later  I arrived at my house with a basketful of lemons, pomelos, and nasturtiums. Oh, and a tired kid demanding lemon cake. This batch of lemons will be for making syrup and honeyed lemon peels. The lemon cake recipe is from Cucina del Sole by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Not to sweet, this is a perfect afternoon tea cake. My daughter could barely wait for it to cool, you can see she was very anxious for a taste!

Torta al Limone

1. 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2. 1/2 cake (pastry) flour
3. 1 teaspoon baking powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5. 1 teaspoon sea salt
6. 4 large eggs
7. 1 cup sugar
8. Zest of 4 lemons 
9. 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
10. 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
11. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
12. Confectioners’ sugar for dusting the tpo

• Prepare baking dish, preheat oven to 325 degrees 
• Combine the flours, baking powder and soda, and salt in a large bowl and mix.
• Separate three of the eggs. Add fourth egg into the bowl with egg yolks. Combine with sugar and the lemon zest.
• Add lemon juice, olive oil, and vanilla to the bowl with the egg yolks. Mix well.
• Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
• Incorporate yolk mix with flour mix, do not overwork!
• Slowly and carefully start folding in egg whites into the cake mix, a third at a time until thoroughly combined.
• Bake for 45 minutes.
• Carefully remove from pan, let cool, and sprinkle with white confectionary sugar.

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