Foraging for Food

[bower]

Looks like one of those great years for winter chanterelles! I spent the afternoon picking. Just made 7 jars of pickles and the rest are spread out to dry.

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[karstopography]

Fabulous haul, there [mention]Bower[/mention] Chanterelle pickles! Do you have a recipe?

We get them here, but I haven’t ever tried any way preserve the harvest.

[bower]

[mention]karstopography[/mention] the mushroom pickle recipe is originally from Finland (posted online by M. Paavonkallio) and adapted to our simple volume measurements and vinegar products.

Winter Chanterelle Pickles
Step 1: clean and select 4-5 cups of premium fresh small to medium sized winter chanterelles
Step 2: combine in a saucepan
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 cups of sugar
1/2 tsp salt
10-12 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
and bring to a boil
Step 3: add mushrooms, which should be fully covered by the brine, and return to boil
Step 4: continue to cook on medium heat for about 30 minutes to thicken the brine a bit
Step 5: pour the hot pickle into sterilized jars and seal.
Store in a cool place.

The same recipe works well for other mushrooms, but I use a different vinegar - for example, apple cider instead of balsamic for golden chanterelles, as it matches their beautiful color.

[worth1]

After this rain I may hit the woods and look
We have some really weird fungus growing here like nothing I have ever seen in my life.
One looks like charcoal and hard.

[Tormahto]

After this rain I may hit the woods and look
We have some really weird fungus growing here like nothing I have ever seen in my life.
One looks like charcoal and hard.

Are you sure someone didn't dump the contents of their Weber?

[karstopography]

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These are very tasty. Found several of these trees, but most without any fruit. Rusty Blackhaw. Good to eat when dark purple. Taste something like grapes, plums and something else. Sweet and jammy.

[Tormahto]

Real soon, I think I'll go dig some sunchokes in the wild. And then transplant the ones I don't eat, into the garden.

[karstopography]

Foraged up some ashe juniper berries from West Texas. Juicy and delicious. Put those in some everclear for a homemade gin. Eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, grows on my lot and I nibbled on those berries, not bad. Plans are for a mead flavored with one or the other or both.

Cut some blue spruce and white fir branches from my trip to the Rockies. Froze those, put a little spruce in some everclear just as an experiment. Another possibility for a mead.

I’ve been spreading rusty blackhaw seeds around the lot. Got lots of the little trees, hoping for a banner year for fruit in 2021.

Got my daughter on the lookout for Prickly pear fruit. Another mead idea.

Lots of wild edibles out there.

[worth1]

Crap you just reminded me I need to gather juniper berries
Got a huge tree on the back side of the place.
Acorns are outstanding this year too.
Certain white oak can be eaten on the spot.
Others need to be treated with a water rinse after being crushed.
To remove the tannin.

[karstopography]

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The plan is to add these dwarf palmetto fruit I gathered today to a blood orange mead and maybe also try as a tea. Raw, the little fruit taste a lot like dates.

[worth1]

I foraged this thing close to my job site.
It was on a big truss of them behind a building being neglected.
Decided to cut one off it was as green as a gourd.
No idea if it is a plantain or a banana but going to find out today.
It's wild whatever it is.
Only three sides.

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[karstopography]

[mention]worth1[/mention] Those are pretty good when they get very ripe, maybe even a bit more ripe than in the photo. More fruity than the commercial variety.

[worth1]

The only other ripe so-called wild banana I have had came from a plant across the street from Smitharts in Clute Texas.
It was really fruity tasting

[Amateurinawe]

Now there's an interesting topic of discussion around the common desert banana (cavendish) and it's lack of genetic diversity.

[worth1]

Now there's an interesting topic of discussion around the common desert banana (cavendish) and it's lack of genetic diversity.

It my be the common desert banana comercialy PLU 4011 around the world but not the only desert banana.
There are a pile of varieties many of us never see.
It's sort of like the orange carrot or red tomato of the super market.
Long yellow bananas are what people expect to see.
All said bananas are pretty diverse.
I like bananas right before they start to rot with all the little brown sugar spots on them and the skin gets thin.
Most people aren't eating ripe bananas because they don't think the skin looks appealing.
Many have said eew you're eating a rotten banana.
I think not.

[worth1]

Just ate the thing.
Sort of a plantain type thing.
Sweet but yet tangy..very starchy.
Hard to peel.
Definitely a wild banana not comercialy sold in markets in the US.
Just another ornamental banana plant of unknown origin.
Notice I'm saying plant not tree.
Even though a tree is a plant.
Bananas are a berry I think.
Here is what it looked like.

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[worth1]

I also harvested the fruit early but a freeze was about to kill it.
In this picture you can see the seeds starting to develop.
So this plant more than likely given the right environment can produce by seed also.

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[worth1]

Here is a picture of the plant.

20201019_150140.jpg

[karstopography]

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It’s that time here. Later this year by 2-3 weeks. Must have been the freeze.

[ponyexpress]

I found 4 Morel mushrooms behind my house. May is for Morels around here so I'll keep my eyes peeled for more.