Learning about the Ozarks of my childhood: Cabins, slavery, pawpaw & wineries

[gfweb]

Purifying the salt might remove character. Terrior etc

 

If biological contaminants are a concern, boiling would fix that.  Boiling doesn't reliably kill spores so this stuff might not be great in food that will be prepared and then stored. 

 

Hard to know if there is arsenic or something in the spring ...this does happen...but if used in small amounts as a finishing salt it shouldn't matter. 

[gfron1]

1 hour ago, FauxPas said:

There is a local farm here that makes salt but it's sea salt. You can let it sit for a few days so the suspended particles sink and then strain the clean water above through a fine sieve or cloth. That's all I've got. But I could put you in touch with the local salt-maker. I've never made it myself. 

 

I LOVE Lexi. More Lexi. What does Lexi eat?  

I'll spare everyone my Lexi pics, but she is my baby...okay, maybe one more

Because we got Lexi so young (long story), she has a sensitive stomach. She only gets lamb formula Zignature. 

1 hour ago, TicTac said:

Awesome.  Foraging is one of my favourite things to do.  Just starting my education and sadly only know about 2 types of edible mushrooms around here - one of which is in season now (Elm Oyster).  Would love to see more 'shroomage and hear more about how you gained your mushroom hunting knowledge.

I spend a lot of time looking for mushrooms - oysters, morels, chanterelles, honeys, blewits, indigos and a number of others. The top advice I give is to find a mentor, and if you have a local mycology facebook page, follow it. As I'm learning midwest mushrooms, by following the Missouri Mycological Society page i get to see what is in season in my area, and numerous "what is this?" posts which reinforces learning.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

gfron1,

 

If you ever get chiggers again, go and get some clear nail polish and paint it over all the affected areas. It doesn't need to be fancy or expensive. It sounds crazy, but it works. I guess it smothers them, because they need to breathe underneath your skin where they've burrowed and are causing all that trouble. I suffered with them until I went to work the next day and a co-worker clued me in to this tip. Miserable bastards, they are. After the evil tiny bugs die, the polish will flake off on its own, or you can use polish remover to speed up the process if you like. You get almost immediate relief.

 

I'd also love anymore info uncovered on the old family plates your family and Shelby's has.

 

More love for Lexi. Her eyes are still so bright! Her body might have slowed down, but it looks like her mind is still back there working away. What a sweetie. I've read that dogs can be better at finding truffles than the traditional hogs. She certainly has earned her retirement, and she has a lot of well wishers.

 

I love your family's cabin too.

 

Your photo of the sign listing the levels of all the flooding Ste. Gen had suffered over the years,

 

"The second morning Tyler and I were already getting antsy - we're not the sit-around-and-do-nothing types so we decided to take the ferry to Illinois which I had never take before. On the way to the ferry, just outside of Ste Gen proper is this sign showing the numerous floods that the town has endured over the years."

 

reminded me of this painting in the NC Museum of Art. Background to the painting here. The painting always struck a chord in me, and I have been known to admire it for quite some time on every visit. It has been there for decades, and is not one of the ones that rotates out. One of my favorites. I don't like that is has become all about the one-time owner, Harpo Marx, instead of the artist. That doesn't detract from the empathy you feel for the menfolk struggling in the mud to load the mule-drawn wagon with the family's heaviest possessions, including a wood-fired stove. The womenfolk are inside, I assume, hastily putting together comestibles for their arduous journey to higher ground. The ewer in the mud behind the wagon tells of a desperate need to bug out or die. The painting by Thomas Hart Benton, is called "Spring on the Missouri" and he painted it in 1945. 

 

I also love the stuff you share about your foraging. It's humid here, and I saw some mushrooms like you picked and called oysters, but they were growing in the ground. As adventurous as I am with some things, I just don't forage mushrooms, because I've never found a mentor. Probably while I still here to make this post. 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

gfron1,

 

If you ever get chiggers again, go and get some clear nail polish and paint it over all the affected areas. It doesn't need to be fancy or expensive. It sounds crazy, but it works. I guess it smothers them, because they need to breathe underneath your skin where they've burrowed and are causing all that trouble. I suffered with them until I went to work the next day and a co-worker clued me in to this tip. Miserable bastards, they are. After the evil tiny bugs die, the polish will flake off on its own, or you can use polish remover to speed up the process if you like. You get almost immediate relief.

 

 

An easier remedy is to just move north.

 

[Kerry Beal]

8 hours ago, gfron1 said:

No, I think its very interesting too. The borders are even the same.

Andi will know!

[gfron1]

7 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

Quote

reminded me of this painting in the NC Museum of Art. Background to the painting here. The painting always struck a chord in me, and I have been known to admire it for quite some time on every visit. It has been there for decades, and is not one of the ones that rotates out. One of my favorites. I don't like that is has become all about the one-time owner, Harpo Marx, instead of the artist. That doesn't detract from the empathy you feel for the menfolk struggling in the mud to load the mule-drawn wagon with the family's heaviest possessions, including a wood-fired stove. The womenfolk are inside, I assume, hastily putting together comestibles for their arduous journey to higher ground. The ewer in the mud behind the wagon tells of a desperate need to bug out or die. The painting by Thomas Hart Benton, is called "Spring on the Missouri" and he painted it in 1945. 

That's a beautiful painting. I love that era of painting (actually the 20s-through) with WPA art.

Quote

I also love the stuff you share about your foraging. It's humid here, and I saw some mushrooms like you picked and called oysters, but they were growing in the ground. As adventurous as I am with some things, I just don't forage mushrooms, because I've never found a mentor. Probably while I still here to make this post. 

If they were in the ground they weren't oysters. Oysters are always off downed logs or standing trees, and the telltale is the stalk on one side, not center.

 

6 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

An easier remedy is to just move north.

Or back to New Mexico - I forgot chiggers, ticks and mosquitos existed out there.

[Shelby]

Yeah, chiggers suck.

 

Are you finding that there are more things to forage where you're living now, or just different things?

 

Have you been able to find cattails?  

 

We need @andiesenji to take a look at the plates--if anyone knows, she will  

[lindag]

14 hours ago, FauxPas said:

There is a local farm here that makes salt but it's sea salt. You can let it sit for a few days so the suspended particles sink and then strain the clean water above through a fine sieve or cloth. That's all I've got. But I could put you in touch with the local salt-maker. I've never made it myself. 

 

I LOVE Lexi. More Lexi. What does Lexi eat?  

More Lexi!!!

[heidih]

Great stuff - thank you!  One of our local treasures is Bernard Ibarra - of Basque origin, classically trained, and very very passionate about ingredients.  http://tastewiththeeyes.com/2014/03/meet-terranea-resorts-executive-chef-bernard-ibarra/  He started a sea salt process at Terranea. I am sure he would be receptive if you reached out to him about the salt

[gfron1]

8 hours ago, Shelby said:

Are you finding that there are more things to forage where you're living now, or just different things?

 

Have you been able to find cattails?  

Tons more. And more season to gather in. Mushrooms alone - I had lobsters and rare burn morels, but here there's at least 20 different varieties that I've served already. And yes, cattails are everywhere, but more importantly, safe to harvest cattails out in the woods.

6 hours ago, lindag said:

More Lexi!!!

Twist my arm. Here's Lexi as a pup.

[ElsieD]

Lexi is adorable.

[lindag]

38 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

Tons more. And more season to gather in. Mushrooms alone - I had lobsters and rare burn morels, but here there's at least 20 different varieties that I've served already. And yes, cattails are everywhere, but more importantly, safe to harvest cattails out in the woods.

Twist my arm. Here's Lexi as a pup.

I'd love to give Lexi a big smooch.

[gfron1]

Once I was off that rickety old ferry we were in Illinois. I learned that part of Missouri is in Illinois and part of Illinois is in Missouri. Look at the state line on Google maps and you'll see how the river has changed over the years. Little blips of land are on either side and down south - Kaskaskia Illinois is in Missouri. We wondered how they dealt with law enforcement and insurance and post offices and such.

We hit up MODOC then an old limestone fort, but mostly we saw corn ready for harvest. We were there right as the combines were doing their thing.

The old fort is deChartres which as mostly reproduction so not extremely interesting but allowed us a photo op in the cellaring room

and I thought it was interesting seeing the list of medicines in their museum which were all things that are forageable. This didn't surprise me and in fact, one of my key aids in foraging is the book Native American Medicinal Plants by Daniel Moerman. Really fascinating book that has vast amounts of ancient wisdom. In Kaskaskia we found this super old church and it didn't seem like they were being very churchly with their pecan tree.

I don't know but the Jesuits I was raised with would have encouraged you to eat those pecans if you needed them. The quirky stop of the day was at Chester, Illinois. Never saw this coming but was the home of the guy who created the Popeye cartoon. And interestingly, he didn't create Popeye as the cartoon, but rather Thimble Theatre which was about Olive Oil's family and at some point Popeye entered the scene and took over the show. Now the town has something like 20 different Popeye themed statues around town. 

After the day of driving we got home, I foraged some shiso and wild ginger. Tyler made a wild ginger simple syrup, muddled the shisho, added bourbon and a splash of club soda and we settled in for the night around the wood burning stove.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Part of New Jersey belongs to Delaware.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

1 hour ago, gfron1 said:

We wondered how they dealt with law enforcement and insurance and post offices and such.

 

 

Here's an article about a move of the state line to put South Carolina homes and businesses into North Carolina because some trees fell down years ago. A river did not even have to change course for this to become law. It's not pretty, and in some cases where elderly folks' health care has been put into limbo, heart wrenching. The government response is callous by any standard, I would think. 

 

It was wise of you to think of these repercussions, gfron1. I wish we had more wise people making decisions for us.

 

It looks like you're having a lot of fun on your vacation. Thanks for taking us along. 

[IowaDee]

There was a very interesting show on the History Channel some time ago called. "How the states got their shapes"  It was based on a book of the same name by Mark Stein.  It is full of little known and often quirky facts. The story behind the Missouri bootlheel is one......Last time I checked it was available from Netflix..

Okay, sorry to derail this 

Edited January 21, 2019 by IowaDee (log)

[sparrowgrass]

More, more!!  I am in Ironton, just down the road.  

[TicTac]

If possible - would love to see some foraging shots of your mushroom and other edibles in their natural environment.

 

I think for anyone into food, Hunting and Gathering has to be one of the most rewarding activities imaginable.

 

 

[kayb]

17 hours ago, gfron1 said:

Tons more. And more season to gather in. Mushrooms alone - I had lobsters and rare burn morels, but here there's at least 20 different varieties that I've served already. And yes, cattails are everywhere, but more importantly, safe to harvest cattails out in the woods.

Twist my arm. Here's Lexi as a pup.

Sweet baby.

 

[munchymom]

Re: the list of medicines - I wonder what happens if you take "Epson Salt" - does it refill your paper tray?

[gfron1]

5 hours ago, TicTac said:

If possible - would love to see some foraging shots of your mushroom and other edibles in their natural environment.

Patience grasshopper. Coming in 3, 2, 1...

[gfron1]

I spent an average of three hours a day gathering, and with a recent cool spell many mushrooms had popped. There were these guys which I didn't even bother with because there weren't enough to care about:

Maybe a Lacaria

And plenty of Turkey Tails and False Turkey Tails:

And Honeys (Armillaria mellea) which I left:

And these pretty Mycenas:

But of course the best was the most unexpected because of the dryness, and it was these perfectly young oysters:

The Honeys I wanted to confirm the ID since I had not seen these before in person, so I did spore print. The spore can either be white or if its one of the lookalikes (jackolantern) then the spores will be cream. To my eye there's no confusing the two but just in case...and the spores were white, so Honey. But I also wanted to show how I spore print when the options are lighter colors - I put half on a white paper and half on something darker.

Also found some milkweed - too late for these guys but I know where to get the next year!

You already know about my pawpaw success

and because I found some super loaded bushes I gathered Spicebush berries even though I may have enough. I'm working on a new use - making a fermented drink from them.

All of this was gathered on private land in the Mark Twain National Forest. I had been gathering chanterelles in the area but I had never dug this deep on the land before. I already told my sous chef that he's coming with us next year and we'll go two weeks earlier when even more will be prime for picking.

 

Later that day, however, despite my final words to Tyler being, "Watch out for deer. They're really thick in this area at dusk." 

Which led me to decide to go to the shooting range the next morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2017 by gfron1 (log)

[ElsieD]

Beautiful shots, @gfron1.  I didn't realize there were so many different mushrooms.   I am really, really, enjoying your posts and looking forward to many more.

[PattyO]

This is wonderful!  More, more, more! 

[curls]

Sorry about your car but thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. Hope you get into your own restaurant space soon!