Toss ”em? No, cook ”em

Recently in Chelsea, Mich., as people wilted and vegetables flourished in the intense heat, Anne Elder ran through some of her favorite summer ingredients: pearly garlic “rounds” that flower at the top of the plant in hot weather, the spreading leaves of the broccoli plant, yellow dandelion flowers that she dips whole into batter and deep fries.

“When kids visit the farm, we give them cornstalks to chew,” she said. Like sugar cane, the stalks contain sweet juice.

For Elder, who runs the Community Farm of Ann Arbor, the edible vegetable begins with the sprouts and does not end until the leaves, vines, tubers, shoots and seeds have given their all.

If home cooks reconsidered what should go into the pot, and what into the trash, what would they find? What new flavors might emerge, what old techniques? Pre-industrial cooks, for whom thrift was a necessity as well as a virtue, once knew many ways to put the entire garden to work. Fried green tomatoes and pickled watermelon rind are examples of dishes that preserved a bumper crop before rot set in.

“Some people these days are so unfamiliar with vegetables in their natural state, they don’t even know that a broccoli stalk is just as edible as the florets,” said Julia Wylie, an organic farmer in Watsonville, Calif. The produce she grows at Mariquita Farm is served at Bay Area restaurants like Delfina, Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse.

At some large farms, she said, only the florets are processed for freezing or food service; the stems are shredded into the chokingly dry “broccoli slaw” sold in sealed bags at the supermarket.

(A much better way to treat broccoli stalks: cut off and discard the tough outer peel, shave what remains into ribbons with a vegetable peeler, scatter with lemon zest and shards of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese: all the pleasure of raw artichoke salad with half the work.)

Mariquita Farm also runs a flourishing Community Supported Agriculture program and sells at farmers markets, where, Wylie said, she has become expert at holding shoppers’ hands when it comes to stem-to-root cooking.

At this time of year, cooks around the country haul home full bags from the farmers market or a weekly box from a local farm but also wonder how to make the most of their produce. Eating more vegetables, being spontaneous in the kitchen and celebrating the season are the aspirations that lead people to join CSAs. But many find that they don’t know what do to with boxloads of melon, tomatoes, onions and leafy greens, not to mention their stalks, tops, peels and stems.

“I joined a CSA because I wanted to be frugal and I thought it would force me to be creative in the kitchen,” said Megan Smith, a learning specialist in New York. “But it generated a huge amount of work and all this debris.”

Much of what is tossed out is edible, but not everyone greets the opportunity to recycle food scraps as an exciting food adventure.

“When you mention using them for stock, that’s when people start to roll their eyes,” said Ronna Welsh, a cooking teacher in New York, who chronicles her adventures with chard stems and watermelon rinds on her website Purple Kale Kitchenworks, in a column called “Otherwise, Trash.”

Ann Arbor, with its thriving farms, gardens and greenmarkets — including a new one that is held in the evening so that working people can shop — is a fertile source of stem-to-root ideas.

Kevin Sharp, an outreach manager at one of the oldest co-ops in the country, substitutes the palm-size leaves from stalks of Brussels sprouts in recipes that call for collard greens, cooks the leaves and shoots of sweet potatoes and battles a bumper crop of asparagus by making a sweet relish from the woody ends.

Lindsay-Jean Hard, who works at a new farm-to-table Web network called Real Time Farms, said that she chops the leaves atop celery stalks to make a pungent, fluffy celery salt.

Last year, hundreds of homeowners around Ann Arbor joined a local 350 Gardens Challenge, a global climate-change initiative that includes “visible food production” (like a garden in an urban front yard) as one of its engines for sustainable food. One of those homeowners, Erica Blom, a graduate student who says she eats everything from apple cores to potato peels, especially if they come from her own garden, has embraced the slight bitterness of her homegrown carrot tops, mincing them as a garnish like parsley and using them in salads.

And chefs are redrawing the sometimes arbitrary lines between vegetables, fruits and weeds. At Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream in Columbus, Ohio, Jeni Britton Bauer “milks” the first corn cobs of the local harvest, adding the sugary liquid to her basic ice cream mixture, and then swirls the buttery results with tart berries. John Shields, the chef at Townhouse in Chilhowie, Va., festoons plates with chickweed and makes juice from wild grass. Last summer he harvested a crop of green strawberries, curing them in salt and sugar so he could serve them as dessert with soft drifts of whipped cream, cucumbers and marshmallow.

Modern chefs have long embraced a nose-to-tail approach to meat, but recently they have been looking at the plant kingdom with a predatory eye. One of the most adventurous is Andrea Reusing of Lantern in Chapel Hill, N.C.

“It came from a curiosity about flavor, more than a need to use things up,” she said, referring to stem-to-root recipes she has tinkered with. “But of course that’s a benefit, and something our ancestors were very good at.” She has infused wine with peach leaves, toasted the seeds of watermelons and taken a hammer to cherry pits, cracking them open to unleash the kernels’ sweet almondlike perfume into panna cotta. The recipe is included in Reusing’s new book, “Cooking in the Moment.”

(This dessert should be eaten in moderation. Cherry pits, like peach leaves and apple seeds, contain minute amounts of cyanogens, compounds that can produce cyanide. Other plant parts can also contain small amounts of toxins, so be cautious. And remember: The number for the American Poison Control Centers is 800-222-1222.)

WHITE GAZPACHO WITH WATERMELON RIND

Makes 8 to 12 servings. Takes 45 minutes, plus at least 2 hours’ chilling.3⁄4 C blanched, slivered almonds1 C loosely packed parsley or mint leaves, or a combination of the two1 stalk celery, cut into chunks1 dozen cherry tomatoes1 clove garlic11⁄2 C bread cubes, like ciabatta or sourdough, hard crusts removed5 TBS extra virgin olive oilAbout 2 lbs cucumbers, preferably thin-skinned types like lemon or English (about 4)About 2 lbs cubed watermelon rind, pale pink and green parts, hard skin removed (about 8 C, from 1⁄2 a melon)1 TBS rice wine or sherry vinegar, more as needed1 TBS salt, more as needed

In a food processor, combine almonds, herbs, celery, tomatoes, garlic, bread and oil. Puree until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and return the used canister to the processor.

If using thin-skinned cucumbers, cut in chunks. If using thick-skinned ones, like Kirbys, peel and seed, then cut in chunks.

Working in batches if necessary, combine cucumbers, watermelon rind, vinegar and salt in the processor. Puree until smooth. Add to the other puree and whisk together well. Taste, adding salt and vinegar as needed. For a smoother texture, puree in a blender, in batches.

Chill until very cold, at least 2 hours or overnight. Taste for salt again before serving.

— Recipe adapted from Ronna Welsh, Purple Kale Kitchenworks

BROCCOLI STALKS WITH LEMON

Makes 6 to 8 servings.1 lg lemon1 lb broccoli stalks, thick peels trimmed off1 chunk Parmigiano-Reggiano, at least 3 oz1 ripe avocado (optional)1 sm ripe red chile, cut into thin rings (optional)Extra virgin olive oilCoarse salt and cracked black pepper

Grate the zest from the lemon and set aside. Cut lemon in half.

Using a vegetable peeler, shave the broccoli stalks into paper-thin ribbons and transfer to a bowl. Squeeze lemon juice over broccoli, toss well, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours, until cold and crisp.

When ready to serve, divide the broccoli on plates. If using avocado, pit and thinly slice, then divide on top of broccoli. Using a vegetable peeler, shave a few thin slices of cheese onto each plate. Scatter a few rings of chile on each plate, if using.

Drizzle each plate with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and lemon zest. Serve immediately.

How to use stalks, peels and such

Before you throw away your vegetable trimmings, consider some alternatives:

Carrot, celery and fennel leaves: Mix small amounts, finely chopped, with parsley as a garnish or in salsa verde: All are in the Umbelliferae family of plants. Taste for bitterness when deciding how much to use.

Chard or collard ribs: Simmer the thick stalks in white wine and water with a scrap of lemon peel until tender, then drain and dress with olive oil and coarse salt. Or bake them with cream, stock or both, under a blanket of cheese and buttery crumbs, for a gratin.

Citrus peel: Organic thin-skinned peels of tangerines or satsumas can be oven-dried at 200 degrees, then stored to season stews or tomato sauces.

Corn cobs: Once the kernels are cut off, simmer the stripped cobs with onions and carrots for a simple stock. Or add them to the broth for corn or clam chowder.

Melon rinds: Cut off the hard outer peels and use crunchy rinds in place of cucumber in salads and cold soups.

Peach leaves: Steep in red wine, sugar and Cognac to make a summery peach-bomb aperitif. (The French serve it on ice.)

Potato peels: Deep-fry large pieces of peel in 350-degree oil and sprinkle with salt and paprika. This works best with starchy potatoes like russets.

Young onion tops: Wash well, coarsely chop and cook briefly in creamy soups or stews, or mix into hot mashed potatoes.

Tomato leaves and stems: Steep for 10 minutes in hot soup or tomato sauces to add a pungent garden-scented depth of tomato flavor. Discard leaves after steeping.

Tomato scraps: Place in a sieve set over a bowl, salt well and collect the pale red juices for use in gazpacho, Bloody Marys or risotto.

Turnip, cauliflower or radish leaves: Braise in the same way as (or along with) collards, chards, mustard greens or kale.

Watermelon seeds: Roast and salt like pumpkin seeds.