It’s been an awful year for edible mushrooms so far in the Mid-Atlantic region. But poisonous ones are out in force. Can you identify these?
Eatmore T.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Eat More Crabcakes… But Not With These Mushrooms
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010My Pickles Failed
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010The cucumbers were completely underwater in a brine with grape leaves, dill and other herbs for 3 days. They became mushy. I haven’t had that problem with other lactic fermentations lately. The kitchen is pretty hot right now. It’s been a miserable August. Could this be the problem?
A few days later: yep, I’m pretty sure this was the problem. No more pickles until it gets cooler.
Eatmore T.
I’m a Slacker
Saturday, July 31st, 2010But few people are buying from my advertisers through my site, so I don’t feel obligated. And it’s been another poor summer mushroom season so far, although I do have a few photos. I’ll also pay a return visit to kombucha tea, which I have been making thanks to Mark Nolt, who gave me a mother wort. It’s not the greatest tasting drink in the world, but it hasn’t killed me yet.
Maybe it will all go up this weekend. Maybe not. Meanwhile, it’s beer thirty.
Eatmore T.
Smut
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Got some already. It doesn’t look pretty, but it tastes good.
Eatmore T.
Interesting Wild Fermentation Website
Friday, June 25th, 2010http://www.wildfermentation.com has lots of information and help with your wild fermentation.
Eatmore T.
Some of My Advertisers
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010Buy something. Or join something. Then scroll all the way down and see what I hiked a total of 8 miles for.
One lone reishi on a dead hemlock.
Eatmore T.
Finally a Few Morels
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
This post got lost in the pile. I stayed at Michael’s house in Greene CO, PA after Morel Madness and before I went north to McKean CO. Michael had morels in his backyard. Pretty much the only morels I picked all season. Thanks, Michael.
Eatmore T
Ramps, Wild Onions and Fiddleheads
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010Once situated at a motel in Kane, I called the lovely Cat (http://www.thecatseye.biz) with whom I had made plans to go foraging. We agreed to meet at her house the next day and she would take me to some of her sites.
So I drove to her house the next morning, where I was fed a great breakfast and then I was taken to dig leeks and wild onions, and pick fiddlehead ferns. The fiddleheads do not taste quite as good as the ones that grow farther north. However, the wild onions were a great surprise. They were mild and tender, albeit a lot of work because they are so small and hard to clean. Cat fed me supper, using some of the woodland treasures we harvested.
We also looked for chaga and investigated a few small apple “orchards” for morels. I have never seen a morel in McKean CO, PA, and I probably never will.
Cat picking ramps.
Eatmore T. picking fiddleheads.
Eatmore T., posting more than a month after the fact.
On the Road to Wild Food
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Think twice about going here:
Definitely go here:
While driving from Greene CO to McKean CO, PA, I stopped at a small grocer in a small town to buy some homemade sauerkraut. I asked the guy behind the counter if I could use his bathroom. He started yelling and cursing at me. I then brought the food up to pay for it and I told him I’d buy it even though he wasn’t very hospitable. He yelled and cursed at me again. So I left without buying anything. Maybe he has Tourette’s, maybe the owner is doing a good deed by hiring the handicapped. But I don’t need that kind of disrespect.
I proceeded down the road, stopping at the Allegheny National Forest Ranger Station. I inquired about morels. The ranger in charge told me he had never seen any in those woods and he was from a part of PA where they are reasonably common. So much for morels in this part of PA, where I have searched in vain for decades.
I then drove to Kane, PA, where I stopped at Jack Bell’s store (http://www.jackbellsmeats.com). Jack is a pro fisherman turned shop owner and is a genuinely nice guy. The only quarrel I have with him is he recommended a motel that had pretty much non-existent internet service, which is why I am still catching up with blog entries. But the other choices may have had similar problems, and the one he recommended was definitely clean. I have had trouble with hotel/motel WiFi throughout my travels in recent years, as sometimes noted in this blog.
Jack also told me where to dig plenty of ramps. I never got there because Cat (next blog entry) took me to some of her locations. Maybe next time.
Eatmore T.
http://eatmoretoadstools.com
Morel Madness… More Madness than Morels
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010Continuing my search for morels, I headed for Mingo Creek Park in Washington County, PA on May Day. There the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, together with the Washington CO park staff, hosts a weekend morel program with camping in the park. Mingo Creek Park is loaded with dying elms, a favorite morel habitat. Some years they find Avogadro’s number of morels. But some years it is just madness. Like this year when it was too dry to bring forth quantities, yet some of us were mad enough to walk for hours in the woods in the pouring rain on Sunday for very few mushrooms. I guess we shoulda been there last week and shoulda been there the next week. This is not to say that nobody found any. Some trees had pounds of morels beneath them, but these trees were few and far between. However, the club’s program was excellent, especially for beginning mushroomers. Put it on your calendar for next year.
A lucky picker.
John Plischke III with a handful of choice edibles. Oh wait! Maybe not! Not everything that looks like a morel is edible and some will even make you sick. Can you identify these mushrooms? If not, be very careful out there. The stomach you save may be your own.
Eatmore T.
http://eatmoretoadstools.com
Note: I do not always give full names of those people I mention on this site. But John is a well known amateur mycologist and mushroom photographer. If you look hard enough online you can find photos of him with bushels of morels.