Foraging Report 9/14/2011

Black walnut

I am unhappy to report that there is not too much gathering or foraging going on right now. After we missed some fruits like elderberry (Sambucus nigra) and black cherry (Prunus serotina), we are still keeping our eyes out for grapes (Vitis species), maybe some crabapples, and nuts like hickory (Carya ovata), chestnuts (Castanea species), and black walnuts (Juglans nigra). It is an off-year for the white oak acorns (Quercus alba), which makes the nuts in 2 or 3 year cycles. Usually the grapes are so plentiful and fragrant by now, we find them by using our noses. This year, I am afraid the grapes have succumbed to the dry early summer months and lost the fruit early.

We are very busy preparing for our letterboxing party, Foraging For Letterboxes, this weekend. We have lots of letterboxes planted using foraged foods and animals as themes. We will be preparing several potluck items using our foraged foods: sumac-ade, venison stew, ramps greens biscuits with kielbabsa, pine pollen biscuits with sweet cream cheese, and shortbread-jam dessert bars. At 2:00 PM I'll be leading a short Wild Weed Walk at an alternate location, talking about several common edibles we are familiar with. It is shaping up to be a fun day with our letterboxing friends.

I am also starting to gather some specimens for an educational display we are pacing at the Otis Library here in Norwich, CT for the month of October. There are two glass cases in the entrance lobby that I will fill with information on foraging here in southeastern Connecticut. Last year I placed the display for the first time, and it was very popular. I added some photos, dried plants, nuts, and our jams along with labels and informational cards about who we are and what we do. This year I hope to do more with mushrooms and showcase the recipes we cook with our wild foods.

Autumn olives

Northern bay laurel

While we are on the subject of cooking with wild food, I am excited that we will be a participating forager for a meal at La Laiterie Restaurant in Providence, RI in honor of Hank Shaw and his book tour on October 2. The menu is wide open right now, and we hope to provide several items. Seasonal foods like rosehips, nuts, sea beans, autumn olives, grapes, and flavorings like spicebush berries, sassafras roots, and northern bay laurel. We also have several preserved or dehydrated foods like milkweed flowerbud capers, dried chicken mushrooms, and frozen ramps greens to offer.

Honey mushrooms

Black trumpets

Last, but never least, mushrooms! The recent tropical storm that drenched the area provided ideal conditions for a large flush of mushrooms, and the recent cooler nights are bringing out the autumn mushrooms that we love- chicken mushrooms (Laetiporous sulphureus), honey mushrooms (Armillaria mellea), Hen-of-the-Woods (Grifola frondosa), and our first black trumpets (Craterellus fallax). The chickens are still slow to come, but Robert brought home a 7 pound sack of honey mushrooms yesterday, and they are drying in the dehydrator now. No Hens yet for us, we'll start looking in earnest this week at every oak tree we pass for the large polypore. The black trumpets are a happy accident. I don't know if we would have ever found them if we had been looking for them, but we have stumbled on maybe a pound or two completely by accident this past week. The Northeast Mushrooms Group on Yahoo has been buzzing with news and photos of a banner year for trumpets. We dried them and powdered them, and the aroma is decadent, I can smell sweet hints of fruit and a bit of the mushroom muskiness. I made a small batch of bagels with the powder, and we'll save the rest for something else. Robert is interested in a soup, but not a puréed soup or cream based soup, so we will continue to look for recipes and inspiration. This past Sunday was a potluck party with the Connecticut Valley Mycological Society, and some people made black trumpet pizza, and added it to pasta salad. The array of mushroom dishes was spectacular, and the company matched the food as the potluck followed the Sunday foray. I cooked up some mini Sumac Meringues for potluck dessert. Robert looks forward to each foray for the education and opportunity to find some wonderful edibles.

Puffball Recipe - Puffball Piccata

Milkweed capers

To keep our 6 year old daughter's interest in mushroom hunting for hours on each Sunday, Robert has devised an incentive program she can't resist: money for mushrooms. For each mushroom she finds she gets a quarter. Her proximity to the ground and her natural curiosity gives her an edge that we don't have. This past weekend while picking nectarines at the local orchard, Gillian spied a large purple-spored puffball (Calvatia cyanthiformus) under a nearby pear tree, and promptly collected her bounty. We took it home, read up on ID information, and sliced it thinly to make Puffball Piccata, using the capers we made from milkweed flower bud capers earlier this summer. The texture of each puffball filet was tender with a bit of a crispy exterior, and the sauce was tart and briny.  The puffball we found was about 4" wide, so your servings will be based on the size of the puffball. I got about 10 filets from the mushroom, each slice was 1/4" thick. We'll be happily looking for more puffballs to eat this one again.

Puffball Piccata                          Makes about 4 servings

about 10 puffball filets
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 T olive oil
3 T butter
2 T minced sweet onion
1/2 c. white wine
3/4 c. vegetable broth
3 T capers
2 T lemon juice
3 T chopped parsley
lemon slices

1. You need to moisten the puffball filets, I used a water bottle to spray them lightly.
2. Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a flat dish. Dredge the moistened puffball filets in the flour to coat.
3. Heat the oil in a sautée pan until hot, then add the butter. Quickly fry the filets in the hot fat until lightly browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Place the cooked puffball filets on a covered platter.
4. Using the leftover hot oil and butter in the pan, sautée the minced onion until translucent. Add the white wine and simmer until reduced by half.
5. Add the vegetable broth, capers, and lemon juice and continue to simmer until the sauce thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and adjust the salt and acidity with lemon juice if needed. Add the chopped parsley and pour the sauce over the reserved puffball filets.

Acorn Recipe - Acorn Cupcakes with Wild Grape Cream Cheese Frosting

We made this early this spring, and brought them as a "taste" to a wild weed walk we took with Blanche Derby in Massachusetts. She gives samples of prepared dishes along with her tours to really show people what they can do with the wild food they just learned about in the field. We made something completely out of season for spring, but we used wild food we had gathered and preserved last autumn.

Robert cold leaches the white oak acorns (Quercus alba) by placing the shelled nutmeat in a gallon jar of cold water and letting it sit overnight. In the morning, he pours off the now-amber water which has leached out some tannins from the nuts. He will repeat this process until the water no longer stains tea-colored. This way we save energy by not using the stove, and hopefully retain more nutrients by not boiling the nutmeats. The next step is to dry the nuts in the dehydrator, on the dashboard in the car if it is warm and sunny outside, or in a low oven. Finally he grinds the dry nuts in a coffee grinder into a flour. We keep the flour in the freezer to prevent it from going rancid. I cobbled together a few different recipes that usually call for walnut or almond flour for the cupcake.

The wild grape (Vitus species) jam was also produced last autumn from various species of wild grapes that we find growing along field edges and near water. It is the tastiest jam we make, along with being the most popular. I say it is an adult grape jam, although there is no alcohol involved. The flavor is so much more intense than the stuff you get at the store, and the flavor improves with age, like wine. The jam was added to a softened cream cheese and butter mixture, along with a bit more confectioner's sugar to make the frosting, and I also hollowed out the cupcakes and added a dollop of straight jam for an intense flavor burst.

This recipe is available in our book, available Spring 2016.

http://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/book/?GCOI=60239108626260&

Foraging Report 08/31/2011

One might think there would be large amounts of harvesting going on right now, but there is not. Our cold, late spring and very dry, hot summer has messed up our usual schedule of picking and preserving. The recent abundant rains have provided us with a large distraction of mushrooms to hunt and learn about, but we have missed several fruits. One discussion thread I have been following with interest on Yahoo groups, Forage Ahead, is about the poor autumn harvest as a harbinger of a hard winter to come. It seems that many fruits were damaged by bad weather in spring and drought in summer, and nuts are absent or empty in several parts of the US. Animals have been observed nesting earlier, and deer are already fat and losing the velvet from their antlers. Some birds and insects are already absent. Is the fauna aware of a problem with the flora for the season?

elderberries from last year

We somehow completely missed the elderberry (Sambucus nigra) and wild black cherry (Prunus serotina) harvests. We gathered flowers of the elderberry to eat, but never saw any berries. I can find very few black cherries, maybe a handful for an entire tree. The birds seem to have gotten most of them, and the stems are all bare. We have been out searching for some beach plums (Prunus maritima) at the shore, but have seen very few. It also seems to be an off year for white oak acorns (Quercus alba), the less tannic nuts they produce are what we like to gather.

Glasswort

Some of our recent foraging successes have been with glasswort (genus Salcornia), also known as sea beans or samphire. Robert has found them on several occasions, and we have brought them home for pickles, and he is trying to lacto-ferment some with cabbage. They are quite salty, so a little goes a long way in a recipe. This late in the season, they can be tough and only the very tips are tender enough to eat. They compliment a salad or dish with a nice, salty crunch when used raw.

Spicebush berries

Black walnuts

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is producing berries, although they are not red yet. We are trying to make an extract with the leaves, twigs and grain alcohol. It is strong and deep green, but I think it may be too alcoholic and not spicy enough. We'll wait for the berries to ripen, as they are the spiciest part of the plant. Robert may end up adding it to his black walnut (Juglans nigra) liqueur that he made with the green hulls for a more herbal taste. One good thing to come from the recent hurricane is that most of the black walnuts were blown from the tree next door already, making it easy to gather a few bucketfuls.

Surf clam

Another timely success as a result of the same hurricane was our windfall of surf clams (Spisula solidissima). We went back to Horseneck Beach in Massachusetts and came home with a 5 gallon bucket full of the 5" wide clams in mere minutes. The beach was littered with them, freshly tossed up by the high surf. After a quick rinse and freshwater purge, I cooked them up, cleaned them out, and made some delicious clam chowder. I ended up freezing another pint of the chopped meat and about a quart of the clam juice for future use.


Our upcoming days will be filled with preparations for our own letterboxing party, Foraging for Letterboxes, in mid-September. We are keeping our eyes open for grapes, apples, nuts, and more mushrooms. We can still gather rosehips and look forward to a second flush from some of the greens like lamb's quarters and dandelion.

Our Long Letterboxing Weekend in Maine



Thomas Point Beach stage

August 10-14 found us in Maine and surrounding areas for a letterboxing gathering. This was our second year, and we finally are well equipped to camp, with a machete, hammocks, a hammock mosquito net, tent, home-made tripod, bogracs (a Hungarian pot for cooking over the campfire), and excitement. We were located at Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick for most of our time, with some letterboxing in Topsham, Freeport, and Orr's Island.  The event was held by Mudflinginfools, a hopefully annual gathering of insane letterboxers and their talents and personalities. The site letterboxes were fantastic, getting us to visit our fellow campers and their sites. The theme was Dream Vacation Spots: Tropical, Foreign, and U.S. We carved Tahiti, Ireland, and Alaska for our site.





Maine is a new environment for us to explore. We love that letterboxing takes us to places most people would not find, including preserves and nature trails throughout the area. On one of the hikes to find The Lights By the Night in Harpswell, we came across many mushrooms on this trail, along with a bonus of ripe and delicious huckleberries (genus Vaccinium) at the end of the penninsula. We picked several handfuls, and ate them on the spot, sweet and a bit tart, crunchy with their large seeds, or technically nutlets, it was a quick and simple snack.



Wintergreen

Driving to Orr's Island, we noticed the abundance of red chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) trees and crabapples lining the roadways. We picked a few branches of cherries and some small apples, making a cooked compote for our morning oatmeal back at camp. Gillian loves the tart and astringent cherries, I wish we had planned ahead and brought some buckets! While hiking in Topsham for the wonderful series Nautical in Nature, we disturbed a trio of female pheasant. We also came across thick carpets of wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) and partidgeberry (Mitchella repens), and dense thickets of blackberries (Rubus discolor), with a few raspberries mixed in. These we brought back to eat with the next morning's granola.

Meadow mushroom spore print

At Thomas Point Beach, the foraging was great. Robert dug for steamers two days in a row in the tidal mud, providing an appetizer to grilled dinners. We also came across more chokecherries, blackberries, and meadow mushrooms (Agaricus campestris) . Robert recognized these as a variety that is commonly gathered in Hungary. We picked a few, very young with still-pink gills, from the lawn, spore printed them for verification, and skewered them over the fire for dinner. There were several available due to the recent rains, and we obseved them is different stages of growth over the 5 days.

Painted suillus

Another mushroom we came across was the painted suillus (Suillus pictus). We found several along a trail, with their distinctive veil, yellow pores,and red cap. We brought several specimens back to camp to spore print them, and the results were brown. Robert sautéed them up and ate them as an appetizer while I chowed down on the steamer clams. Gillian had a great time playing with the multitude of children, laying trails with dried cattail seed-heads and blowing bubbles. We love to see our fellow letterboxers and their families, and spend time outdoors. Here's to next year!

Mushrooms Identified - Oyster, Cinnabar Chanterelle, Sulfur Shelf Chicken Mushroom

Here is a trio of lovely, edible mushrooms we have found and happily consumed. We consulted several books and again had some guidance from the CVMS on the Cinnabar chanterelles and oyster mushrooms. The photos of the sulfur shelf were taken last autumn, and that mushroom was eaten in several dishes. Robert's main interest is the edible mushrooms, and I am finding all the mushrooms fascinating to learn about.

Pleurotus ostreatus is known as the oyster mushroom. Robert found several clusters growing from a black birch tree trunk in Norwich. It mostly grows from dead deciduous trees throughout North America, often all year under favorable conditions. The oysters that grow in summer tend to be pure white, while those that grow in autumn are more grey or light brown. The caps are 2"-8" wide when mature, semi-circular or elongated. A stalk may or may not be present, and the gills will descend the stalk. The spore print we took was light, white or maybe very light lilac. Oysters are a choice edible. Robert sautéed some with salt and pepper to eat. I oven roasted the rest and topped a pizza. The mushrooms he found were very young, so there were very few bugs present that we simply washed away.

Cantharellus cinnabarinus is a brightly colored, small mushroom known as the cinnabar chanterelle. We have come across these mushrooms in varying numbers at every location in Connecticut we have hiked. They grow on the ground, often in beds of moss, and are common in eastern North America. They can be found from late June through October. The caps can be 1/2"-2" wide, slightly convex, with a smooth, dry, and bright red-orange top. The gills are lighter colored, and the whole mushroom fades to pink with age. The stalk is solid and usually curved. The spore print we took was light pink. Cinnabar chanterelles are edible, and we sautéed up a bunch to eat, with good results. Each mushroom may be small, but there are often great numbers of them to be found in an area. We also accidentally dried a few, and they seem to hold up well.

Coconut and sulphur shelf soup with lamb's quarters

Laetiporus sulphureus is one of our favorite edible mushrooms, and it is known as a sulfur shelf, or chicken mushroom, for it's texture and similarity of taste to chicken. Sulfur shelf mushrooms grow on dead logs or stumps, and is common in North America. It is found between May and November, and does not require rain to stimulate it's growth, as it is growing from a tree. Sulfur shelf mushrooms grow as clusters of overlapping orange-yellow caps 2"-12" wide and fan shaped. The underside has pores, and is often yellow. When young, the color can range from bright orange to yellow and the caps are very wet and heavy. As the caps age, the color fades and they caps dry out. The spore print is white. When young, most of the mushroom can be gathered and chopped to use in dishes like chicken. Even on an older specimen, the very edges of the caps is often tender enough to eat. We chopped and froze an enormous mushroom we found last autumn, and still use to cook a pot pie or soup. Recipes for pot pie and stuffed bread can be found on this blog.

Fried chicken mushroom with onion strings

"Chicken" pot pie with ramps greens