HAWAII: Poha / Cape Gooseberry

I found a scrap of paper saying that Cape Gooseberries are in season during September, when the Norwich Meadows Farm has them at Union Square and various other greenmarkets around and about New York City.  (I sent an email to Norwich Meadows Farm, and indeed they do have them.)

Well, that's nice, but what are they?  Cape Gooseberries aren't so named because they grow on the cape of any state.  They are called that because they have little paper capes.  About the size of a nickel, if they are ripe, they're a golden yellow color with or without the dry husk.  If you cut one open, it has seeds similar to a tomato, that you can eat, and it is said to be distantly related to tomatillos.  It seems to go by a confusion of names: Goldenberry, Husk Cherry, Peruvian Ground Cherry, Gooseberry Tomato, Husk Tomato.  I've also seen the names "ground cherries" and "clammy ground cherries", in passing, although I think this fruit is only related to those.  The larger varieties of fruit are supposedly Cape Gooseberries.  Here is a picture of a ripe Cape Gooseberry (care of Wikimedia Commons).   You can see it doesn't seem to be related in anyway to European gooseberries.

What seems to be different about them is their flavor. I haven't yet had the pleasure of tasting one, but I'm going to try to go to the Greenmarket just to get one. (Well, actually, you probably can't just get ONE to taste. Maybe you can't eat just one either.)  This is how Chef Ed Matthews at One Block West in Winchester, VA describes their flavor: "caramelized pineapple brûlée custard" . . . mmmm!  How can you get better or more intriguing than that!  He also said they make a great chef snack.  (Check out Chef Ed's wonderful blog, by the way.)

Trying to find out more about Cape Gooseberries took me -- virtually, that is -- to one of the places in the US I know least about, and have never thought to go -- and that's Hawaii.  (All of you who know me, know that I was brought up under a rock and burn rather than tan, and that I don't care so much for hot climates, either).   The Cape Gooseberry is grown extensively there, and has become a part of Hawaii's cuisine after having been brought there in the early 1800s by explorers.  It spread to all of the islands after being introduced, and even became wild in some places.  In Hawaii, it is called the poha or poha berry.

Wait . . . this fruit has too many names!  It originally came from Brazil and settled in Peru, where it is called the uchuva.  It grows wild in the Andes.  Brought back to London by the late 1700s, from there it spread to Australia and Hawaii.  I guess those English explorers who went to Hawaii took their snacks with them -- gin and tonics with Cape Gooseberries, maybe chocolate-dipped Cape Gooseberries, at that.

Poha might grow best in mountains, but you may be able to grow them in your own backyard.  One expert said they seem to thrive on neglect.  That's my kind of fruit!  Probably it doesn't get too far from the raw stage, because it evidently tastes so good just as it is, you might not have enough left over to make anything.
 
For more than you wanted to know (and here's a tip -- don't eat the cape):

Plant information: poha
Plant information: Cape Gooseberry
Cape Gooseberry Website 
Nutritional information (low in calories!)

Beautiful cake from India, where it goes by yet other names

Other Recipes:
Cape Gooseberry Recipes
Poha Fruit Recipes  (Note: If you want to search for poha, be sure to search for poha fruit.  Poha is also the name of an Indian snack.
Uchuva Fruit Recipes 

STATE: Pennsylvania (PA)

THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
"The Keystone State"

Pennsylvania's Specialties in this Blog:

• Whoopie pies (Oley)
• Penn State Stickies (State College)
• Punxsutawney Phil (Punxsutawney)

Pennsylvania Fun Facts

Pennsylvania was named for Admiral, Sir William Penn, father of the Quaker William Penn. The land was granted to him in 1681 by King Charles II, and means "Penn's Woods". Since six colonies were above, and six below, Pennsylvania acted as the "keystone" to hold them all together.  It contained the first capital and was the seat of government until about 1800. As one of the original colonies, Pennsylvania entered the Union on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Residents call themselves Pennsylvanians.

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Motto: "Virtue, liberty and independence"

Slogan:
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Flower: Mountain Laurel
Bird: Ruffed Grouse
Tree: Hemlock

Animal: White Tail Deer
Song: "Pennsylvania"

Webcams . Map . Harrisburg (capitol) . General Info . Gov

Counties (scroll down below the map to the List, or table, which is quite good)

Cities and Towns:

A
Abington . Akron . Aliquippa . Allentown . Allison Park . Altoona . Ambler . Ambridge . Annville . Apollo . Ardmore . Aston . Avondale

B

Bala Cynwyd . Bangor . Bath . Beaver . Beaver Falls . Bedford . Belle Vernon . Bellefonte . Bensalem . Berwick . Berwyn . Bethel Park . Bethlehem . Birdsboro . Blairsville . Bloomsburg . Blue Bell . Boyertown . Bradford . Bridgeville . Bristol . Brodheadsville . Brookhaven . Brookville . Broomall . Brownsville . Bryn Mawr . Buckingham . Burgettstown . Butler

C

Camp Hill . Canonsburg . Carbondale . Carlisle . Carnegie . Catasauqua . Chadds Ford . Chalfont . Chambersburg . Charleroi . Cheltenham . Chester . Chester Heights . Chester Springs . Clairton . Clarion . Clarks Summit . Clearfield . Clifton Heights . Coatesville . Collegeville . Columbia . Connellsville  . Conshohocken . Coopersburg . Coplay . Coraopolis . Corry . Coudersport . Cranberry Township

D
Dallas . Danville . Darby . Delmont . Denver . Devon . Dickson City . Dillsburg . Douglassville . Dover . Downingtown . Doylestown . Drexel Hill . Du Bois . Duncansville

E
East Stroudsburg . Easton . Ebensburg . Edinboro . Elizabeth . Elizabethtown . Elkins Park . Ellwood City . Emmaus . Enola . Ephrata . Erie . Everett . Export . Exton

F
Fairless Hills . Fairview . Feasterville Trevose . Fleetwood . Flourtown . Folsom . Ford City . Fort Washington . Frackville . Franklin

G
Gap . Gettysburg . Gibsonia . Gilbertsville . Girard . Gladwyne . Glen Mills . Glenolden . Glenshaw . Glenside . Greencastle . Greensburg . Greenville . Grove City

H
Hamburg . Hanover . Harleysville . Harrisburg . Hatboro . Hatfield . Haverford . Havertown . Hawley . Hazleton . Hellertown . Hermitage . Hershey . Hollidaysburg . Homestead . Honesdale . Honey Brook . Horsham . Hummelstown . Huntingdon . Huntingdon Valley

I
Imperial . Indiana . Irwin

J
Jamison . Jeannette . Jenkintown . Jersey Shore . Jim Thorpe . Johnstown

K
Kane . Kennett Square . King of Prussia . Kingston . Kittanning . Kutztown

L
Lafayette Hill . Lake Ariel . Lancaster . Langhorne . Lansdale . Lansdowne . Latrobe . Lebanon . Leechburg . Leesport . Lehighton . Lemoyne . Leola . Levittown . Lewisburg . Lewistown . Ligonier . Lititz . Littlestown . Lock Haven

M
MacUngie . Malvern . Manheim . Mansfield . Marcus Hook . Mars . McConnellsburg . McKees Rocks . McKeesport . Meadville . Mechanicsburg . Media . Mercer . Mercersburg . Middletown . Mifflinburg . Mifflintown . Milford . Millersburg . Millersville . Milton . Mohnton . Monaca . Monessen . Monongahela . Monroeville . Montgomeryville . Montoursville . Montrose . Morgantown . Morrisville . Moscow . Mount Carmel . Mount Joy . Mount Pleasant . Mount Pocono . Mountain Top . Muncy . Murrysville . Myerstown

N
Nanticoke . Narberth . Natrona Heights . Nazareth . New Brighton . New Castle . New Cumberland . New Holland . New Hope . New Kensington . New Oxford . Newport . Newtown . Newtown Square . Newville . Norristown . North East . North Versailles . North Wales . Northampton . Northumberland

O
Oakdale . Oakmont . Oil City . Old Forge . Oley . Olyphant . Orwigsburg . Oxford

P
Palmerton . Palmyra . Paoli . Pennsburg . Perkasie . Philadelphia . Philipsburg . Phoenixville . Pittsburgh . Pittston . Plymouth Meeting . Pottstown . Pottsville . Punxsutawney

Q
Quakertown . Quarryville

R
Reading . Red Lion . Richboro . Ridgway . Ridley Park . Rochester . Royersford

S
Saint Marys . Saylorsburg . Sayre . Schuylkill Haven . Scottdale . Scranton . Selinsgrove . Sellersville . Sewickley . Shamokin . Sharon . Sharon Hill . Sharpsville . Shavertown . Shenandoah . Shippensburg . Shrewsbury . Slatington . Slippery Rock . Somerset . Souderton . Southampton . Spring City . Springfield . State College . Strasburg . Stroudsburg . Sunbury . Swarthmore

T
Tamaqua . Tannersville . Tarentum . Telford . Temple . Titusville . Towanda . Troy . Tunkhannock . Turtle Creek . Tyrone

U
Uniontown . Upper Darby

V
Vandergrift . Verona

W
Warminster . Warren . Warrington . Washington . Waterford . Wayne . Waynesboro . Waynesburg . Wellsboro . West Chester . West Grove . West Mifflin . Wexford . Whitehall . Wilkes Barre . Williamsport . Willow Grove . Willow Street . Wind Gap . Windber . Wynnewood . Wyoming

Y
York

Z
Zelienople

Oley, PA: Whoopie Pies

It seems that almost every place in the US has its own sugar cream-filled cookie or cake treat, whether dipped in chocolate or not. (We'll be looking at this form, again, when we come to moon pies, scooter pies, etc.) In parts of Pennsylvania, these are made with soft cake and called Whoopie pies. They have even started to invade New York City, as witnessed by a recent article in The New York Times. (Just in case they make me delete the link, it appeared on March 18, 2009.)
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I went to Pennsylvania not too long ago with my friend, Dr. Deborah Klens-Bigman, who hails from Lock Haven, PA and who is very familiar with the surrounding area.  It isn't Lancaster, but quite a few Amish folk farm around there, and it is quite normal -- as opposed to touristy -- to run into them in the course of the day.  Deb grew up with Amish folk around; she always waves to the people in the buggys, and guess what -- they wave back!  To someone who lives in NYC and has forgotten how to make eye contact even, this is amazing.
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We went to Glick's to get fresh vegetables to take back to the gritty city. Glick's started as an Amish farmer's roadside vegetable stand, and has grown into a sizeable veggie operation while still retaining that farmstand feeling.  (I was really impressed by and almost fell into the huge barrel to hold plastic bags people bring.) Anybody who deals in veggies will sooner or later deal with pickles, jams, jellies and the like in an attempt to use unsold produce.  From there, it's relatively easy to wander into baked goods, and sure enough, there was a pile of zucchini bread and Whoopie pies by the register.  In addition to veggies, I also bought strawberry jelly, pickled (hot) peppers -- and a Whoopie pie filled with peanut butter filling! Woo hoo!!  (. . . um, er . . . I guess I mean -- Whoopie!!)   I had been introduced to the Whoopie pie on my last trip to PA with Deb, but that was a commercial product purchased at a rest stop en route, and this one was clearly homemade.
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A Whoopie pie is essentially, a chocolate cake shaped like a hamburger bun, split in half like a hamburger bun, and filled with some kind of sugar cream or marshmallow fluff sweet filling.  Deb went for the classic version, but I opted for peanut butter, which I adore in any form.  We went to the Clinton County Fair, and when Deb parked the car, finally we couldn't stand it any longer.  Off came the plastic wrap.  We fell upon the Whoopie pies and consumed them slowly, with a lot of "ummmm"-ing going on!
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In the course of researching this entry, I've found that Maine also claims the Whoopie pie.   Did it crawl there on the back of a lobster?  We'll add a link to this entry on Maine's state page, too.  When I looked at many, many pictures of them, many of the Maine Whoopie pies seemed to have a little more filling than cake, while the original Amish version seems to be more cake than filling.  That would make sense if the Amish version did indeed come from using leftover cake batter, and the Maine version came from Marshmallow Fluff.  (Here's that recipe.)  I hear there's something similar -- I know, I know . . . but different -- called "Gobs", and we'll investigate those on another entry.

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Just for the record, Deb said she had never and would never eat one with marshmallow on it.  I'm not fond of marshmallow myself, except for the ones grilled over a fire on sticks (sometimes I think I could eat charcoal briquettes), and certainly, I've never tasted homemade marshmallow.  So Whoopie pies appear to divide down two lines:  marshmallow versus non-marshmallow, and flavored cake/frosting versus traditional. 

Thanks for this beautiful photo of Whoopie pies, kindly provided by King Arthur Flour from their blog, Baker's Banter.  They actually have two Whoopie pie articles: here is a Whoopie pie recipe in pictures , and here is "The Big Whoop", from the Baker's Banter.  Both have marshmallow, but even if you prefer traditional filling, you can look at the pictures to see the how, and use your own recipe for the what.

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Whoopie pies themselves, are morphing into an all-American gourmet treat.  Amish folk also appear to make a pumpkin version, an oatmeal version, a gingerbread version, I've seen a red velvet version, and there appear to be all kinds of fillings being invented.  They can be dressed up by dipping the edges in sprinkles or applying a stripe or two of icing on top.  You can also pipe the center in with a decorative tip, but that kind of takes away from the artisanal look and feel of a generous spoonful of cream being blopped onto the cake. When does a Whoopie pie stop being a Whoopie pie?  Probably when you stop saying, "Whoopie!!!"

For more than you wanted to know: 
Amish Whoopie pie recipies

Whoopie pie history
The Yummy Book that may have started it all for Maine
Maine Whoopie pie recipies

How to Use this Blog

This blog is a little unusual.  I'm using it more like a database than as a true day-by-day blog. Does that mean it's a "datablase," a "datablog" or a "blogbase"???  Here are some ways you can use it:

• On Roll Call of the States, you can find every state in alphabetical order.
  
• Each state entry will point to the official state website, to the state tourism website, and to a State entry in this blog.
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• Every State entry has information about the particular state, including links to each blog entry referring to that state.
  
• To find a State page quickly, search for the State abbreviation in parentheses, for instance: (VA)

 I'm thinking of making a Tools page, and I'd like to do "What's in Season this Month" but it might not be do-able before harvest time.  I'm sure I'll think of more things as we go along!

Fairy Stone State Park, VA - Fairy stone crosses

. . and you thought this was a food blog!!

When I was a kid, I remember having a Fairy Stone cross necklace. Fairy stones are the nickname for Staurolite, which naturally twins its crystals under great heat and pressure, like the forming of the Appalachian mountains. There is also a theory that they came on an ancient meteor. Fairy stones come in one of three kinds of crosses: St. Andrew's cross in the shape of an "X"; the Maltese cross shaped like a plus sign "+"; and the Roman cross, shaped more like a "t".

I don't remember how I came by it, or where it is now, but I remember mine seemed to be polished smooth, and a brown color Maltese cross. Fairy crosses must have been more popular when I was growing up, because you hardly hear about them anymore. Maybe that's because I haven't lived in Virginny for many a year.

At the park, you're allowed to pick up any that you see loose on the ground, but you can't dig for them or bring any digging tools.

The various legends are a little to syrupy for my blog, but you can read them at one of these websites. I had a Pocahontas tear, too, which is different, even though tears are mentioned in the various Fairy Stone cross legends. What is interesting, though, is that the location is also called the old Cherokee meeting place.

Fairy Stone State Park
Roadside Geology
Staurolite Crystals of Patrick County, VA (probably the better photos are at this site)

Portsmouth, VA - Fresh Limeade and Orangeade memory

There's another memory of Portsmouth, . . . about the drinks that used to be found at the corner of Airline Boulevard and High Street (I think) . . . . at Karp's Pharmacy. Unfortunately, these treats are no longer available. I heard Karp's was bought by a big chain pharmacy, and although you might find Orangina, you won't find fresh orangeade anymore.

My brother has a vivid memory of the ice they used at Karp's. It was to ice what slate is to rock -- in very thin smooth shards. It seemed quite different from the ice we crushed by hand; I don't know how they made it. Does that mean I forgot the recipe for ice? Hmm . . . I remember enough to make ice for gin & tonics. Speaking of gin & tonic, I wish I had one of those limeades now. I can only imagine how good one would be with a little gin added! (Maybe not . . . tonic is so good with gin.)

At Karp's, they made limeades, which were my personal favorite, and great big orangeades, both with fresh citrus. Karp's might have been the last place to make them fresh. And we acquired such an ice chewing addiction, but it could get pretty hot and muggy in Portsmouth, and probably still does. Really, . . . I try not to chew ice anymore.

They might have used simple syrup as a sweetener -- so-called because it's about as difficult as the recipe for ice: boil equal parts sugar and water, then let it cool.

The big question is, how many fruits did they use? They made each order fresh using the manual citrus squeezer (great technical term). I can still remember the lady pulling the arm of that down. I'm pretty sure at least one whole fruit went in to each cup. The orangeade cup was a LOT bigger than the limeade cup, and that's why I think so.

Here's one recipe that seems reasonable, but I have to try it to be sure:
2 tablespoons simple syrup (it seems a lot)
1 1/2 tablespoon juice of freshly squeezed limes -- maybe just squeeze one lime in there
ice and soda water to fill the glass

I'm wondering, though, if the orangeades had a touch of vanilla in them. I'm thinking maybe so! There was a touch of something, and although many recipes mention adding a little bit of lemon, I don't remember that as the taste.

I came across this website: Fountain Fruit Ade Recipes from Yesterday

They do have two recipes that use one whole citrus for each drink, but instead of using simple syrup, they use confectioner's sugar. This Outrageous Orangeade recipe mentions vanilla. We'll just have to do some taste testing to find out.

Please let me know what you remember, or if you have any photos of Karp's.