Visitors to Amanda Pike’s 2-acre farm in Jupiter are met with a sweet surprise. “My son, Wesley, created this recipe for ice cream,” says Pike, a board-certified therapist and educational leader. “It’s mostly bananas and it has no cow milk and no added sugar. He serves it to everyone who visits, and everyone says how delicious it is.”
The recipe is just one of 400 entries in Pike’s new cookbook, Florida’s Food Forest Cookbook. Featuring 20 recipes that use 20 perennial plants, the tome is Pike’s latest initiative to promote healthier, more natural eating to enhance physical, mental, and emotional health. We caught up with Pike to learn more about building a food forest—and a healthier diet.
Q: How did you become interested in permaculture and food forestry?
A: I had exposure to forestry on my maternal grandparents’ side, and traditional farming on my paternal grandparents’ side. My fondest childhood memories are being out in nature; that’s what I am trying to replicate here.
Q: What motivated you to start a permaculture farm?
A: My husband and I were both working corporate jobs. We were starting to have symptoms of high likelihood of eventual disease. We were gaining weight and had vitamin D deficiencies (which is ironic in Florida). We decided to start a food forest to balance our tech-centered life. We are now designated as a permaculture farm.
Q: Why did you decide to write a cookbook?
A: We had planted over 200 species of edibles and medicinal plants, and it quickly became obvious that some of these plants were creating tsunamis of food. The biggest challenge was coming up with different ways to eat them. I would see I had
200 green bananas and think “now what?”
Q: What can you do with 200 green bananas?
A: Green banana is a staple crop for people all over the world. It is preferred to potato in many countries and can be used as a potato substitute in any recipe. Bananas can also substitute egg or oil when they are half ripe, and sugar when they are ripe. You can use the leaves as a parchment or as a muffin pan liner. The stem is an endive substitute, and the blossom can be used as an artichoke substitute.
Q: How did you decide which recipes to include in the cookbook?
A: I wanted to create a cookbook with my top 20 plants and 20 recipes for each of those plants. For each plant, I did five main courses, five appetizers, five desserts, and five other uses; I tried to use every part of the plant. Then I indicated universalities, like showing that even though this is a potato salad recipe using green banana, you can substitute green banana for any potato recipe.
Q: What are your favorite recipes in the cookbook?
A: Wesley’s banana ice cream, my husband’s banana waffles, and my chocolate cake.
Q: Have you had any recipe fails?
A: I made lasagna with green papaya and I cut the papaya too thick and I didn’t boil it long enough. It was extremely crunchy!
Q: Where can people source ingredients if they don’t grow them themselves?
A: Food Town [in West Palm Beach]. It does take an adventurous heart, but it offers a very ethnically diverse selection of foods and fellow shoppers. As long as you are walking in with the mindset of this being a cultural experience, then Food Town is the way to go.
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