FALL X URCHINS
During the spring and summer, leaves act as power plants of a tree, producing the majority of fuel required for growth. This process occurs in cells that contain chlorophyll, a photosynthetic pigment that gives a leaf its green colour. Chlorophyll absorbs energy from the sun to transform carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates such as sugars and starch, which is its fuel, and releases oxygen into the atmosphere as a byproduct.
Along with the green pigment are yellow to orange pigments, such as carotenes and xanthophyll. However, for majority of a leaf’s life it is green because these colours are dominated by great amounts of chlorophll.
LIFESTYLE MEDICINE
Like the transformation of leaves, our bodies must also change to acclimatize to less sun and colder weather. In the fall we move from the external, expansive nature of summer, to the internal, contractive nature of autumn; a time to become more introspective and to cultivate ones body and mind.
The shift in seasons can leave the body more vulnerable to illness. So also focus on restorative practices and optimization of immunity.
QUALITY SLEEP
Sleep is the time of day that our bodies heal and regenerate. Adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night - but simply going to bed is not enough. The body needs to spend a certain amount of time in a certain type of sleep.
Sleep is divided into REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM sleep. We begin with non-REM sleep, then REM sleep, and back to non-REM, rotating through multiple cycles throughout the night. During REM sleep is when we dream. Non-REM sleep is made up of 4 parts:
Phase one: the body begins to slow down but the mind is still in a wakeful state. It’s easy to be woken up.
Phase two: the body continues to slow down, and brain waves slow.
Phase three and four: the body and mind are at their slowest. It is at this time, we are in whats considered deep sleep. It is difficult to awaken from these phases.
Our bodies prefer to spend at least 1/4 of our sleep in deep sleep for regeneration.
During deep sleep, glucose metabolism in the brain increases providing energy to the mind, supporting memory and overall cognitive ability. It is at this time, the pituitary gland secretes important hormones such as human growth hormone, which promotes growth, repair, and development of the body.
Benefits of deep sleep include:
cell regeneration
replenishment of energy
growth and repair of tissues including muscles, and bones.
optimizing the immune system
To promote optimal sleep, avoid use of screens at least an hour before bed. Do not keep or use electronics in bed. Our bodies like routine, so create a regular bedtime routine that includes practice of unwinding and relaxation (consider deep belly breathing or meditating, reading, yoga) and ideally going to sleep by 11PM.
DEEP BREATHING
Lungs take in clean, crisp, fall air, filling our body with oxygen required to function and think clearly. It also acts as the first line of defence against airborne viruses and bacteria for our bodies, protecting us from getting a cold or flu.
Optimize lung function by deep breathing.
Shallow breathing prevents the lowest portion of the lungs from being fully oxygenated. In addition, some studies have shown that oxygen concentrations in and around major cities are as much as 30% below normal. If you are breathing poor-quality air, you starve your body of oxygen, too.
To practice diaphragmatic breathing, place one hand on your chest and one hand below your rib cage on your abdomen. Take a deep breath in through your nose and into your abdomen so that your lower hand moves outwards. This causes your diaphragm to drop down, allowing the lungs to expand and fill with air.
Then exhale slowly through your nose and mouth and contract your abdominal muscles. Your diaphragm presses back upward against lungs, expelling carbon dioxide.
Benefits include increased oxygenation, engagement of the parasympathetic nervous system which promotes relaxation, reduces stress, and helps to regulate heart rate and blood pressure.
DIET
Our bodies adapt to seasonal changes, and so should our diets to reflect changing nutritional needs.
Autumn and winter require warming, nourishing foods, rich in fuel found in carbohydrates to keep us warm, and proteins suitable to our slow metabolism. Foods that provide nutrients to build, for storage of energy and to enhance immunity.
Like leaves, seasonal foods transition from cooling green vegetables and herbs of the spring and summer, to autumn’s fibrous fruits and vegetables like apples, broccoli, and cabbage, starchy, carbohydrate rich root vegetables and gourds such as sweet potatoes, beets, and squashes, and are rich in carotenes and anthocyanins, that are brightly coloured yellow, orange, and red.
Carotenes are an antioxidant, that act to improve cognitive function, reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, reduce blood pressure, anti-cancer, prevent alcohol induced liver damage, and are neuroprotective. Its medicinal properties are highly suited for the needs of autumn and winter when we are more sedentary, require warmth, and are more introspective.
Foods to harvest and consume in autumn are:
garlic
sweet potato
ginger
onion
cabbage
pears
walnuts
radish
rice
leeks
miso
beans
sourdough bread
apple cider vinegar
These foods are often suitable for storage and can be put away for winter.
Lung health in the fall is a priority as it acts as the first line of defence from airborne pathogens. Consider reducing foods that are mucus producing and may prevent optimal lung function, such as processed foods, refined sugars, and dairy. Improve lung health by consuming more garlic, onions, ginger, mustard, pears, apples, figs, pumpkins, nuts, mushrooms, which are hydrating and support the lungs.
Preserved foods, fermented and/or pickled, dominantly sour and acrid in flavour, help the body preserve hydration as the atmosphere dries.
The tides shift and the life cycles of the ocean align.
As air temperatures fall and tides shift with the change of seasons, fish and other seafood feast on phytoplankton to fatten for spawning.
SEA URCHINS
They have a spherical body with five equal body segments, covered in long movable spines. These spines are used for movement, trapping food floating by, and as a passive defense against predators. It has tube feet located between the spines that are extendible and sucker-tipped, used also for movement, capturing food, and for attaching to surfaces. They’ve been known to use their feet to attach to bits of shell, rock, and seaweed as a defence mechanism from prey.
Its mouth is a complex dental apparatus referred to as Aristotle's Lantern, consisting of a five-pointed jaw. Sea urchins use this to scrape food off of rocks, but in some occasions can use their jaw to excavate hiding spots in rocks. Powerful!
The mouth is referred to as Aristotle's Lantern, because it reminded Greek philosopher Aristotle of horn lanterns, lanterns that had five panes of thin pieces of horn to allowed light to shine out while protecting the candle from wind.
The smallest of commonly available urchins are green sea urchins.
Join me as I forage the coasts of eastern Newfoundland.
Video by Assignment TV and sounds by AXG (Alex Edkins of Metz and Graham Walsh of Holy Fuck).
FORAGING
Green Sea Urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis)
Traits: Urchins are in the shape of a slightly flattened globe, up to 9cm in diameter, with its diameter less than twice its thickness. They have five paired rows of podia (tube feet) that are visible and run between its spines from the anus to the mouth. They are covered in short (up to 2.5cm long) movable spines that vary from pale green, to green tinged purple or brown spines. Its feet are purplish, darker than the spines.
Season: October - May
Habitat: Sea urchins have circumpolar distribution. Its range extends into the Arctic regions of both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. On the east coast of North America, green sea urchins are commonly found from Baffin Island, south to New Jersey.
They primarily feed off of kelp in rocky costal areas.
Technique: Harvest by picking only those that are at least 6cm, and no more than 12 per day.
May require diving with mask and goggles, a mesh bag for your bounty, and gloves to protect you from their spines (though are not considered poisonous).
They are not filter feeders so red tide is not a concern, however it is still key to ensure clean water quality.
Lifecycle: Green sea urchins are a relatively fast growing sea urchin. Its age is generally calculable based on its side: one year for every 1cm.
Sea urchins, sea otters, and kelp all intimately coexist. Sea otters feed on urchins, and urchins on kelp. So when otters are absent, urchins rise to levels that are devastating to kelp populations, and essentially “deforest” the ocean floor, known as “urchin barrens”. Sea otter population have been reduced due to overhunting in the 18th and 19th centuries.
HEALTH BENEFITS
Sea urchins are good source of easily digestible protein and healthy fats, while being low in calories. They are also rich in vitamins and minerals, including potassium, selenium, zinc, and carotenes such as vitamin A. These nutrients are supportive to the health demands of autumn and winter.
RECIPES
SEA URCHIN + CHANTERELLE
Served on a crispy rice cake and seaweed paper
UNI
Sea urchins are full of salt, sugar, and amino acids, giving them an umami-salty-sweetness. Like oysters, they tend to taste like the ocean they came from and the seaweed they feed on. They are buttery, melt in your mouth texture, appropriately nicknamed the Butter of the Ocean.
DIRECTIONS
Turn it upside down with its mouth facing up. Use scissors or a sharp knife to cut away the mouth, careful to not poke the uni inside. Then use a pair of forks or scissors to pry the shell in half and reveal the gonads.
Invert the urchin and remove the liquid.
Flush the opened shell in salt water, to cleanse the urchin’s insides and the edible reproductive organs.
Scoop the organs out of the shell with a spoon and place onto a clean kitchen towel until ready to enjoy.
QUICK PICKLED CHANTERELLES
INGREDIENTS
1 lbs chanterelles, cleaned of dirt and bruised spots.
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat cast iron pan on high heat. Dry sauté mushrooms until they release their juice. Sprinkle with salt, until most of their moisture is removed.
In a sauce pot, bring water and apple cider vinegar to a boil. Dissolve sugar and salt in liquid and turn off heat.
Put mushrooms into heat proof containers (preferably glass such as a mason jar) leaving at least 1/2 inch of headspace. Place a bay leaf in each jar.
Pour water, vinegar, sugar, and salt liquid into containers to cover mushrooms.
RICE CAKES
INGREDIENTS
1 cup sushi rice
1 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
DIRECTIONS
Put rice, water, apple cider vinegar, and sugar into a sauce pan, cover, and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer until water has evaporated, approximately 20 minutes.
Remove from heat, mix and fluff rice, and let rest.
Season with salt.
Bring a cast iron pan and 1tbsp grapeseed oil to medium heat.
Form small bite sized globes with cooled sushi rice.
Place balls in cast iron pan and press, slightly flattening into the shape of an urchin, and fry until golden brown. Approximately 4 minutes.
Flip and cook until other side is golden brown. Remove from heat.
To serve, cut 2 inch squares of seaweed paper. Place a cake on a square of seaweed and top with urchin and a chanterelle. This tasted delicious with Windswept’s Cyser.
SEAFOOD SUSTAINABILITY
In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the negative impact of common industrial animal farming practices has had on our health and our planet.
This has resulted in a shift away from the consumption of animal proteins, primarily chicken, pork, and beef, and towards wild food, more plant based diets, and seafood as a primary source of protein.
It is important to remember that all our food, whether it is sourced from land or water, are subject to the negative impacts of poor practices.
Roughly 90 per cent of the world’s fish stocks are now fully fished or overfished, while our water temperatures are rising and becoming increasingly polluted.
We must ensure populations are abundant and resilient to fishing pressures, are well managed based on current research, harvested in a method that minimizes by-catch, and limit damage to the surrounding habitats.
When considering these criteria, it is demonstrated that responsible sourcing is not as simple as “wild is better”, and that best sourcing practices change with each ingredient.
Mussels eat primarily plankton which they obtain by filtering up to 20 gallons of water a day. So we must consider water quality. If the water quality is poor, riddled with toxins or bacteria, the mussels accumulate these, so when we consume the mussels, we also consume the toxins and bacteria.
In fact, they are so effective at sequestering toxins in polluted water that scientists are looking at mussels as a form of bioremediation.
Wild mussels from clean water are great, but if unable to determine the source, buying sustainably farmed mussels is a far better choice.
Mussel aquaculture is zero-input, meaning that the mussels don’t need added food or fertilizer so as long as they are grown in clean water, the mussels will be low in toxins and high in quality.
The most common approach to sustainable mussel farming is to collect wild young mussels referred to as seed, and place them into mesh sleeves called socks, which are attached to rope and suspended in deep subtidal water. The sock ensures the mussels have access to nutrient rich seawater. This also allows for control of water quality.
This method also benefits the consumer by reducing labour in the kitchen. Since farmed mussels are suspended in water rather than attached to rocky ledges or sandy ocean floors like their wild counterparts, they accumulate less sand and grit, aren’t covered in barnacles, and have less beard, making them much easier in the kitchen to prep and clean.
So when shopping for mussels, rope-grown, farm-raised are best choice.
They would adapt to a balanced harvesting strategy, by diversifying their target species and distributing impact more evenly across the underlying marine ecosystem, mitigating the adverse ecological effects of fishing.
Some seasonal seafood to look forward to this season:
Mussels
Oysters
Sardines
Scallops
Squid
Bream
Cod
Crayfish
Halibut
Haddock
I was excited to make a Newfoundland take on a Vietnamese favourite: bún riêu, a rice noodle soup flavoured with tomatoes and seafood - in this case, mussels, and cod.
Enjoy!
Dr. Cristina Allen ND