Ron chats with Rita 7/19/2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy, talking about yarding it as I promised.
Guess who is here? Yes, it's time for Are you
herbally experienced? You're saying, what are you rbally experienced? What
are you talking about? Well? She is our ccp CMH
Award winning syndicated journalist, Appalachian herbal scholar, member of the

(00:24):
Herbal Society of America. She's a regular contributor to Sacred
Heart Radio and our iHeartRadio as well. She's a founding
editor of About eating dot com. She's a motivational speaker,
cooking teacher. I could go on and on and on,
ladies and gentlemen, how about a big round of applause
for Rita Nader Hikenfeve. Oh, they're all here today because

(00:50):
they know it's cherry bounce day. Hey hey, hey, yeah,
you know it cherry bounce Day.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, that certainly will will draw them in, don't you think.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, anytime you have cherry bounce out there, Rita's cherry bounce,
it will draw them in. So how you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
We are doing well. The gardens, the herb garden, the
vegetable garden, you know, with all this rain, like you
had mentioned earlier, doing really well. We still have seems
like more dear families than ever. But other than that, yeah,
everything's growing pretty well. Dear, I know, but you know what,

(01:31):
we don't fence anything in, so I cannot complain. So
but Frank's corner is doing amazingly well, probably the earliest
crop we've had in years.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
In extremely straight rows.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Now, don't tell did you come past here?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I didn't say anything.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Uh wait a minute, wait, wait you were going to
You said that you were going to drop off a
butterfly blue pea plant, and I think I would love
to have.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
That, but.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I don't. I'm looking out now.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
It's not there. No, no, I was, oh no, no,
I just know he likes he likes straight rose of corn.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well they're not a straight this year because I he
administrated and I and I plant.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Oh so there's a little bit of a bow to them.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Then yeah, yeah they're a little wavy, but you know what,
you get more production, so yeah, we're good.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Good. I get good pollination that way. By the way, Uh,
I got a shout out to Tammy and Ray hughes
and Kyahoga falls. They said they sent me a picture
of their container shashiito peppers and they said that last
year you and Rita got us hooked on shashiitos and

(02:49):
they had one lon shashito plant last year and a container.
Now they have a whole bunch of them. They love
the shoshitos, so they're thanking you for getting them hooked
on shohetos.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, you know, that is such a trendy pepper and restaurants,
and it's a funny one, easy to grow. It's sort
of I don't know. They remind me of halapenos, but
they're wrinkly looking and there's always a rogue one in
the batch. They're sort of spicy, but there's always, As
I said, if you pick ten, there's one that's going
to give you a little bit of heat. But restaurants,

(03:20):
and you have told me this because you've eaten them,
they blister them in a hot cast iron skillet with
a little olive oil and then they serve it with
like a old Brenets or some sort of fun sauce. Yeah,
I'm glad. That's wonderful.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
The sea salt on top of there, absolutely I just
eat the whole thing right from the bottom of stemaw,
just pop in your mouth. One of the restaurants would
go to that. They do it. They do the best
job with it. Is they call it pepper roulette.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Oh that's a fancy name.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well, because that way about it, Like you just said,
you know, every so often you might grab into a
hot one, so you're playing pepper roulette. So there you go.
All right, we're not here to talk about peppers. We're
here to talk about one of your most requested recipes,
and that would be cherry bounce. Why is that?

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah? You know what with these heirloom old recipes, there's
always a story and how I can't even tell you
how many times I've told this before. One of my
childhood friends, and Rudloff's mother was one of those country
women who actually grew up in a suburban area much
like I did, but she carried all that country wisdom

(04:28):
with her and she would grow her own rose bushes
from like a little start and then she'd stick it
in the ground like a stem with a glass over it,
and it would root over the winter. But one of
the things she made every year she called it cherry bounce.
And in her family it was considered a medicinal. And

(04:49):
basically you have to wait for the season, which is
now for the dark sweet cherries. It's dark sweet cherries,
sugar and bourbon whisty. So basically, you take about a
pound of cherries and you take the stems off. Some
people pit them, but I don't. Some people even prick

(05:10):
each cherry so that they infuse better. I don't do that.
I just put them in a big glass jar, and
then I'll put some what now, Mary used what she
would call them little sugar sticks. It's crystalized sugar on
a string or on a stick, and you can buy those.
It's like rock candy. And she would put about twelve

(05:32):
ounces of those in her jar with the cherries. And
you can use about a couple cups of granulated sugar
or even honey in there too, And then she'd pour
in a whole bottle of bourbon whiskey, not just plain,
but bourbon. Bourbon has to be labeled bourbon if it's
made I believe here in the United States and oak

(05:53):
barrels and all that where I think whiskey can be
made anywhere, And bourbon had to have a certain amount
of corn like a green mixture in it. Anyway, long
story short, it wasn't an expensive bourbon, and you just
have to let that sit several months to and peuse
and by the time Christmas comes and you taste it

(06:15):
as you go along, of course, and by the time
Christmas comes it turns into beautiful like a burgundy crystally red,
and it's sort of syrupy, and then you can sip
it either as a cordial or as Mary said, good
for anything that ails you. And you think mister Wilson's

(06:36):
cherries have huge anti inflammatory qualities, and if you use
honey gosh, you've got lots of good antibacterial qualities there
as well. And then the bourbon, I'm not sure the qualities,
but it makes everything go down, warms you to your toes,
and so if you have a cough or cold upper respiratory,

(06:59):
I'm not saying drink a whole mug of it. We
usually do a couple of tablespoons, but now it's very
trendy to serve as a cocktail, not.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
A soup spoon. Tablespoon.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well, see, that's funny that you said that, because growing
up mom had no measuring spoon. But the tablespoon measure
was a tablespoon.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
So I bet I'm thinking you probably grew that way.
Grew up that way too.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Hell yeah, absolutely, And I think the remind folks too.
You can use you can use a top shelf bourbon
or top shelf whiskey if you want to. I mean,
that's that's it. It makes even better as far as
I'm concerned. Or you also suggest you could use brandy
or vodka. If you prefer vodka, you can do that
as well. So you can do all of them, and

(07:46):
believe it or not. Rita even has on this recipe,
which you can find at ron Wilson online dot com.
A non alcoholic cherry bounce I do.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
And you know why because I've had a lot of requests.
Now as far as what the non alcoholic cherry bounce does,
You've got a couple cups of the dark sweet cherries
and you cook that those with a cup of sugar
and three cups of water, sort of smush them down
as it goes, and then you after it's done, you

(08:17):
strain it out and add a little vanilla and lemon juice.
It's a lovely cordial. Now it's not going to make
your bounce around because it doesn't have any booze in it,
but it's nice and that's usually served chilled where the
cherry bounce, you could serve it room temperature, chill warm, whatever.

(08:37):
But I wanted to make that just because there are
folks out there who love the flavor and maybe in
you know, prefer not to have the alcohol. So either
of those I think would make lovely gifts from the kitchen.
What do you think I.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Think I would hang on to all the bottles myself.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, I've got a big batch making now, so if
you happen to stop buy, you can do some testing
for me.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well that sounds good as a matter of fact, Joe
Strekker said, and mentioned that he hasn't had a bottle
in a while. I know he would rather you bring
the lemon lemon cello.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
You know. You know I'm gonna make him some. What
I have to wait till lemons are on sale because
I use a really good lemons, the thick skin lemons.
So I will do that for Joe. Yeah, I miss
seeing you you guys. I don't know what happened after
the pandemic. Things sort of everything around, didn't they.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Went to the phone interviews all the time, so anyway,
it's all right, Yeah, talking with Rita Hikin. Found, of course,
her website about eating dot com and you'll find your
recipes also on our website at run Wilson online dot com.
Quick break, we come back. We're going to walk out
into her garden, find out what's going on out there,
including lebonese zucchini. Ever heard of it. We're gonna talk

(09:47):
about it after the break here in the garden with
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Speaker 1 (12:13):
Welcome back, talking rardening, talking uh urbal experience with our
good friend Rita Hikenfelder website About eating dot com. It's
cherry Bounce weekend and you can see that recipe on
our website at Royn Wilson online dot com. But now
we're gonna walk out into the garden. I thought of
you the other night, Carol, and I had zucchini pasta.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Oh I bet that was good.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
You know. We put that on the spinner thing and
spent out the pasta out of those zucchini.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So that's right, because you
have one of those, that's what do you have like
a lemon garlic sauce with it all?

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Now, I just had the plain old spaghetti sauce. I
was doctored up with basil and oregano and a little
bit more garlic. But here's the toper I always put
in there. You know what I'm want to say, Uh, liver,
I saute livers. Put that in it, the zucchini spaghetti
and then the sauce over the top.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Okay, you got me there. Did you say tell me again?
What else you put on?

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Sawte livers?

Speaker 2 (13:15):
That's what I thought you said, like chicken liver.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, chicken liver spaghetti sauce, and you put that in.
It's great, But this time it was turkey livers. They're huge.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I can't even imagine where you got those. I'll have
to try that. So did you you know where I got? That?

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Was from the Roses back at their original recipe. The
original restaurant on the west side of town used to
serve spaghetti, spaghetti liver spaghetti sauce.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
So that was an Italian Oh my god, it's outstanding.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
I mean, I love it. But anyway, we did the
spaghetti where you spin it out Carol Cattel, you're on
the machine, and then the saute dad a little bit,
and then uh, like I said, put the livers in there,
and a sauce on top, and pretty dark goods. So
what is Lebanese zucchini that mister Hike felt as.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Harvesting, Well, that missus Hiken felt as harvesting. He all
he does is administrate anymore. But that's okay. Yeah, it's
Sometimes it's called vegetable marrow squash. Sometimes it's called gray zucchini.
It's a real light greenish gray zucchini and it's thicker walled,

(14:21):
sort of shorter than regular zucchini. But the really nice
thing is, even if it gets really big, the skin
staysts tender and the seeds don't get huge, and you know,
it doesn't get so pulpy. But we grew up with
what we called gouza, and it's lebonese zucchini stuff with
rice and lamb and herbs and spices, onions and garlic

(14:45):
and tomatoes, really delicious. And it's the real name is
called kusa ko u s a. But when we were little,
you know how you mangle a language, we always called
it goosa with a G. So mister Wilson, I just
made it back the other day. So basically it's zucchini squash,
but it's lighter in color, and sometimes it's called Mexican

(15:08):
gray squash, and you'll know just because it looks very light,
and it's a wonderful producer and just great for stuffing.
And then the inside flesh, I'll say for zucchini breads,
So we don't it's funny, we don't use the inside
flesh as part of the stuffing like some recipes do.
But it's just something summary that we only make in

(15:31):
the summer because of the zucchini harvest. So and you
could certainly make it with regular zucchini too.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
I love it. I think I was going to say
I love your zucchini bread recipe last week because you
put the pineapple in there.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, that was different. You know, trying to find something
different for zucchini breads is sometimes a challenge. So this
year I did a blueberry and the pineapple, something a
little different, really delicious too.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Talking with Rita hikenfeunder website is about eating dot Com.
We're out in her garden right now taking a look around.
I've noticed I guess it's because everything's growing so crazy
that lavender has a great year this year for lavenders
and flower dill flowering basil flowering quickly hard to keep
up with. For folks that have lavender, both in the

(16:13):
landscape or in the herb garden, you know, you want
to harvest all of those flowers, and if you don't,
you want to get rid of all those like as
soon as they're spent.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Right, Oh yeah, yeah, That way the energy doesn't continue
to go into the flower in their seed, and you know,
compromises the plant. But lavender loves it hot and dry.
And the lavender of my herb garden along the front
part where they the stones are is doing really really
well and just huge. And I grow the Provence and

(16:46):
the hit coat and the grosso and they all do
really really well. And in the back of the herb garden,
which has sloped, this is odd because it's on the
hillier part. I don't know. The moisture seems to have
been trapped there. Don't ask me why, because it's on
the top of the hill and it's struggling a bit.
But any of your herbs, whether they're lavender or basil dill,

(17:11):
you want to start harvesting those flower heads off now
so that you have them fresh. Except let me back
up a bit with dill. If you want the seed,
you've got to let that get nice and brown. It's
in flour now, beautiful pale green, and then they'll develop
the seeds. And when the seeds start to turn like
tannish brown, and if you shake the plant just to tad,

(17:34):
some will fall off. That's when you harvest the dill seeds.
You could also save those to grow next year too,
So and I do that with my zucchini squash too,
because of the Lebanese squashed. The seeds are not hard
to find, but they're quite expensive. So think of that
when you're harvesting your herbs and you have some basil seeds,

(17:54):
save those for next year, and then you're ready to go.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Thanks. We got about a minute ago. I know this
that you are starting to harves some potatoes in your containers.
What kind did you use?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Uh? You know, I had Yukon gold that were organic
and sprouted. And I know that sometimes you always said
when you buy them from the groceries, they do something
to them and they may not sprout. But they sprouted
great and they're like this size. We had them the
other day, really tender, and yes, I put them in
a big container. You'll be proud of me.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
I'm always proud of you. But it is fun. It's
a great way to do it. And you know, if
you don't have a lot of space, you don't have
the right soil. Growing potatoes and containers are pretty darn.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Easy, actually it is.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
And then you don't have to worry about spading the mountain,
you know, breaking into them. So yeah, and the kids
love to do that too. They just upend the whole
container and they go to town looking for their little
buried treasures.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
The last, but not least, you got a late planting
of cucumbers in so you have a late crop of
those as well.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Oh and I'll be sharing some really good cucumber pickle
recipes like cloths and again, as.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
I always do, riad a nat Or Hikenfelder web about
eating dot com. Always a pleasure. Tell mister hicking Feld,
we said.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Hello, I will he's still lying in state, but when
he wakes up, I will do that. You have a
wonderful week.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
You'll have that hearty breakfast all ready for all right,
thank you. Coming up next to Gary Blachman from the
Southern Gardener Here in the garden with Ron Wilson.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Help.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
So let's do it yourself gardener at one eight hundred
eight two three talk You're in the garden with Ron Wilson.

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