Foraging for favorites

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

12 hours ago, chromedome said:

A friend gifted us with a large quantity of those from his own trees. We canned some whole, and cooked down most of the remainder to make jelly. I ran out of time before leaving for NS (I'm down visiting my mom) so we just poured the juice into Mason jars, refrigerated the ones that didn't self-seal, and the rest can wait until I get home.

 

I suppose this could/should have gone under "unexpected food gifts"...

Those old crab apple trees hold a lot of apples. It took about 5 minutes to collect that pail full (as I do check for wormholes and rot).

My BIL made a large batch of applesauce from apples, crab apples, sour cherries from the old tree and peaches. Sent me over a sample and it was pretty good. Good apple flavour with good acidity and barely sweet.

We've been debating having a go at making a test batch of cider. I'd have to drop into a local cidery and sweet talk them into selling me some yeast.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

First edible king bolete of the season. Not a very pretty specimen however the damage is superficial. 218 gm.

I found four a few days ago but they turned into mush when touched.

 

[TicTac]

Question about those crab apples - A neighbor has a tree with tons of them, I tried one, but as mentioned, it is SO tannic - what's the point and how does one defeat said tannins!?

 

 

[chromedome]

9 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Question about those crab apples - A neighbor has a tree with tons of them, I tried one, but as mentioned, it is SO tannic - what's the point and how does one defeat said tannins!?

 

 

The ones I got from this particular friend were very tart, but not tannic. In my (limited) experience - and I'm sure others can augment this or advise you better - with the really tannic ones, you have to harvest them late in the season after they've had a frost or two. There was a tree near my old apartment that had really tannic apples (like chewing on an old teabag) which magically became sweet and wonderful after a cold snap.

[sverreef]

5 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

First edible king bolete of the season. Not a very pretty specimen however the damage is superficial. 218 gm.

I found four a few days ago but they turned into mush when touched.

 

 

I got lucky and caught the back end of a decent Boletus edulis "fruiting" about a month ago. Ended up with over 2 kilograms, including a few bay boletes (Imleria badia), which was a first for me 🙂

 

 

 

Not that I really need more boletes now, but I'm hoping for a second fruiting later this month or early October.

 

[heidih]

13 minutes ago, sverreef said:

 

I got lucky and caught the back end of a decent Boletus edulis "fruiting" about a month ago. Ended up with over 2 kilograms, including a few bay boletes (Imleria badia), which was a first for me 🙂

 

 

 

Not that I really need more boletes now, but I'm hoping for a second fruiting later this month or early October.

 

Wow. Lovely setting. Where approx are you located?

[sverreef]

Approximately, somewhere along the west coast of Norway...😋

[MetsFan5]

It’s wild to me how many mushrooms there are this year in my neighborhood. Mostly all under some type of pine tree that is losing its needless and throwing pine cones around. 
 

  I am curious— just through my basic experience looking at various varieties, it seems like COTW is highly desirable. How come they aren’t commercially sold? 

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, MetsFan5 said:

It’s wild to me how many mushrooms there are this year in my neighborhood. Mostly all under some type of pine tree that is losing its needless and throwing pine cones around. 
 

  I am curious— just through my basic experience looking at various varieties, it seems like COTW is highly desirable. How come they aren’t commercially sold? 

Well, they're a bugger to cultivate for one. Also their preferred substrate is oak trees, and those have LOTS of other commercial uses. Somebody will crack the code one of these days, I suppose, but some mushrooms are just not well suited to cultivation and they may prove to be one of them (a discussion of the difficulties here... https://chickenmushrooms.wordpress.com/about/).

 

The do turn up from time to time at farmer's markets and such.

I thought I'd finally spotted one on our little acreage here, but it turned out that our mastiff (or perhaps one of the grandkids) had left her rubber chicken chew toy on a rotting stump. Which you could almost kinda-sorta call similarly themed, I suppose, but it wasn't at all the same thing.

[liuzhou]

How to grow Chicken of the Woods on Logs

 

https://www.fieldforest.net/product/chicken-of-the-woods-on-logs-instruction-sheet/instruction-sheets

[MetsFan5]

Has anyone cultivated chicken if the wood? Does I actually taste like chicken?  
 

 I find it fascinating that mushrooms can take on an almost meat like flavor. 

Edited October 21, 2023 by MetsFan5 (log)

[chromedome]

14 hours ago, liuzhou said:

How to grow Chicken of the Woods on Logs

 

https://www.fieldforest.net/product/chicken-of-the-woods-on-logs-instruction-sheet/instruction-sheets

Yes, I probably should have phrased it as "difficult to cultivate at commercial scale in a controlled environment."

We actually tried COTW this year, as part of our mushroom experiment. The ganoderma and trametes versicolor (reishi and turkey tail) produced moderately, the winecaps went gangbusters, but the shiitake, oysters and chicken did not give us anything past a few false starts. Those we'll try again next year in slightly different conditions.

[chromedome]

2 minutes ago, MetsFan5 said:

Has anyone cultivated chicken if the wood? Does I actually taste like chicken?  
 

 I find it fascinating that mushrooms can take on an almost meat like flavor. 

Reportedly it does indeed taste something like chicken, though you should probably consider all the other things that have been described that way and take it with a grain of salt.

Sadly I haven't had the opportunity yet to try that one for myself, but I can tell you confidently that lobster mushrooms (a plain ol' bland russula or lactarius mushroom that's been parasitized by another fungus called hypomyces lactifluorum) does indeed have a whiff of lobster-like flavor about it, and its red exterior and white interior even recall the appearance of cooked lobster meat.

 

That ability to form flavor interesting flavor compounds is part of the reason why several faux-meat startups are focused on fungi (usually mycelium, as opposed to the actual mushroom itself). Another, of course, is that the filaments of mycelium can be tweaked to mimic the muscle fibers in whole-cut meats, which is frequently described as the "holy grail" of faux-meatery.

[Kerry Beal]

15 hours ago, liuzhou said:

How to grow Chicken of the Woods on Logs

 

https://www.fieldforest.net/product/chicken-of-the-woods-on-logs-instruction-sheet/instruction-sheets

Just need an industrial sized autoclave and Bob’s your uncle 

[dcarch]

4 hours ago, MetsFan5 said:

Has anyone cultivated chicken if the wood? Does I actually taste like chicken?  
 

 I find it fascinating that mushrooms can take on an almost meat like flavor. 

 

I have a few cans which say "Chicken Of The Sea"

 

dcarch

[Duvel]

9 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Just need an industrial sized autoclave and Bob’s your uncle 

I don’t know about Bob, but uncle Duvel could support …

[gfweb]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/01/australia-mushroom-poisoning-deaths-arrest/

 

Maybe foraged, maybe not

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I went out on a chanterelle hunt but no luck (it's been a weird summer as I have not seen any mushrooms).

I've been monitoring things and the blackberry, raspberry and blueberries look very promising.

 

Blackberries.

 

 

Raspberries.

 

 

Wild blueberries and one of many very productive patches.

 

 

Saskatoon or service berries. Mostly over and most eaten by the birds.

 

 

The sour cherry tree (again mostly go to the birds).

 

 

No chanterelles but some sour apples (golf ball sized), a few cherries (ones that made it home) and a few Saskatoon berries.

 

 

A few flowers and something new.

 

 

 

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Some foraged sour cherries.

I ended up freezing these and using later on in the season, if I get some good habaneros and reapers, as a component of a hot sauce batch or two.

 

[MaryIsobel]

On 7/16/2024 at 11:09 AM, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

I went out on a chanterelle hunt but no luck (it's been a weird summer as I have not seen any mushrooms).

I've been monitoring things and the blackberry, raspberry and blueberries look very promising.

 

Blackberries.

 

 

Raspberries.

 

 

Wild blueberries and one of many very productive patches.

 

 

Saskatoon or service berries. Mostly over and most eaten by the birds.

 

 

The sour cherry tree (again mostly go to the birds).

 

 

No chanterelles but some sour apples (golf ball sized), a few cherries (ones that made it home) and a few Saskatoon berries.

 

 

A few flowers and something new.

 

 

 

 

Blackberries are rampant here - I have a love hate relationship with them! In the second to last photo in the above post, do you know what the plant with the pink/purple flowers is? I have one - it attracts bees like crazy but I have not been able to successfully identify it.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

16 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

Blackberries are rampant here - I have a love hate relationship with them! In the second to last photo in the above post, do you know what the plant with the pink/purple flowers is? I have one - it attracts bees like crazy but I have not been able to successfully identify it.

 

I don't know what that plant/flower is named and there is a lot of it around. I'll ask my neighbor if she knows.

It does attract a lot of pollinators and the blueberry patches near are very productive.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

On 7/28/2024 at 1:46 PM, MaryIsobel said:

Blackberries are rampant here - I have a love hate relationship with them! In the second to last photo in the above post, do you know what the plant with the pink/purple flowers is? I have one - it attracts bees like crazy but I have not been able to successfully identify it.

 

We believe it's gold mound spirea (Spiraea japonica).

Don't know how it got there.

Cheers.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Blueberries and apples from this morning's walk.

 

[Duvel]

16 minutes ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

Blueberries and apples from this morning's walk.

 

If I come back from my morning walk with that bounty, my neighbors would egg my house …

[rotuts]

@Senior Sea Kayaker

 

nice haul.

 

how can you find apples in Aug ?

 

did thy winter over ?  probably not.