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22 minutes ago, johnnyd said:

Some old pals came to visit from Virginia and brought me a ripe pawpaw.  Apparently they were George Washington's favorite dessert. They don't come to market, they said, because they ripen too fast to stay on the shelf.  They have several stones in each fruit. They remind me of custard apples (fruta de conde) I had in Brazil - tastes like banana/mango but smelled like pears. Delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

"Beyond the Paw Paw Trees" was a childhood favorite I give young readers now.  A native North American fruit. Never personally tasted- jealous :)

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Pawpaw-Trees-Anna-Lavinia/dp/1590174615

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45 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

  A native North American fruit. Never personally tasted- jealous :)

 

I planted two paw paw this year.

So in 8 or so years, if I live that long, I'll give you one. 😉

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2 hours ago, johnnyd said:

Some old pals came to visit from Virginia and brought me a ripe pawpaw.  Apparently they were George Washington's favorite dessert. They don't come to market, they said, because they ripen too fast to stay on the shelf.  They have several stones in each fruit. They remind me of custard apples (fruta de conde) I had in Brazil - tastes like banana/mango but smelled like pears. Delicious!

 

Earthy Delights, here in Michigan, sells pawpaws and pawpaw products. Not cheap, unfortunately.

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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  • 4 weeks later...

Question to those who forage for mushrooms...

 

When you find mushrooms with little worms in them, what do you do with them?

 

I am wondering, in situations where I find ones with just a few wigglies, whether the worms themselves pose any health danger.  I am past the point of caring if I eat a few bugs that have been fried up to crispy golden deliciousness, but am more curious/concerned about any potential health risks.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I am definitely not foraging these at all, but today while out in my yard I noticed I have strange mushrooms growing in what is often my tomato patch. I did not plant anything in it this year.  Does anyone recognize these and know if they are poisonous? They smell like dirty feet.  There is another kind I have never seen before out there too, but it started to rain before I could take a picture. 

 

953C2A31-AEF0-4DCC-A497-017C01086602.thumb.jpeg.2eb7e143434668f4c172cdcca1e63acb.jpeg

 

2A292062-C29E-4BF1-86EA-6F76790A1A3A.thumb.jpeg.dddf6192d87a05be58e2511e8efb5b0e.jpeg

 

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15 minutes ago, nonblonde007 said:

You have the Stinkhorn, I was infested with them myself this year.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus_impudicus

 

Thank you!   I did mulch that plot this year since I was not planting it. Since they are not poisonous I will tell the landscapers to dig them up when they do the fall clean up. 

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3 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Since they are not poisonous I will tell the landscapers to dig them up when they do the fall clean up. 

 

As noted in the  Wikipedia article @nonblonde007linked to, very closely related species grow here in China. We eat them, but when younger than your example.

 

mushrooms.jpg&key=c5ab42f7f048edf9e94fa4

 

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found a patch of prickly pear cactus loaded with fruit (tunas) and have harvested some for the juice.

 

20191111_092120.jpg

 

20191111_100859.jpg

 

I picked about 30 and froze them, with the intent of following instructions given me on the Camping, Princess Style topic here and here. Now they're rinsed and draining for the second step.

 

20191113_110107.jpg

 

@lemniscate chimed in with a steaming operation for the juice instead, here. Next time I'll try that for comparison purposes.

 

So far, the things I've learned are:

1. use metal tongs, not silicone, to harvest the tunas if possible; otherwise you'll spend precious time removing glochids (very, very fine small spines from the fruit) from the silicone when you're done;

2. immediately discard the plastic bag (or box, if you use that instead) into which you collected the tunas, instead of reusing it for something else; otherwise, you'll spend precious time removing those glochids from your fingers.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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4 hours ago, Smithy said:

immediately discard the plastic bag (or box, if you use that instead) into which you collected the tunas,

 

also, never set down the collection bag or box anywhere near the plant.  The glochids are also on the ground around the plant and will ride along on the bottom of the bag/box.   You will hold the bag/box by the bottom and grab glochids.   Ask me how I know, LOL.   Also a good practice to wash the bottoms of the shoes you wore to collect before entering a living space, to avoid future barefoot surprises.

 

Prickly pear is not designed to make harvest and consuming easy for humans.

 

edit, I am related to someone not local who decided on a hike to try "these desert pears" growing out there.   Apparently picking glochids out of your tongue is a memorable experience.

 

If you do get them in your finger, Preparation H will ease the skin inflammation around the glochid and help it out faster.   Who knew Prep H was so versatile.   Every serious mountain biker in the area carries some due to run-ins with cholla and all other spiky things.

Edited by lemniscate (log)
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1 hour ago, lemniscate said:

 

 

If you do get them in your finger, Preparation H will ease the skin inflammation around the glochid and help it out faster.   Who knew Prep H was so versatile.   Every serious mountain biker in the area carries some due to run-ins with cholla and all other spiky things.

 

  wish I knew that last yr  :)   I even knew they had em too.  I thought for sure I could grab in between them.  Those things hurt so bad,  I was in New Mexico.. I found an artist that had sand paper that I used on my finger tips.. gave me some relief

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Its good to have Morels

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OK, so after a day of weighted pressing I haven't got much juice out of the frozen, now thawed, tunas. Should I squeeze harder? (I don't know what I can do, if so.) Should I refreeze and rethaw, on the possibility of more cell breakdown? Or should I steam in the Instant Pot? Or pressure cook in the IP? Or boil, or, or, ...?

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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