Thursday, November 28, 2024

Happy Thanksgiving/Indigenous People’s Day (2024)

 

About two pounds of Lion's Mane Mushrooms, which since they grew from and Oak will have a Oak whiskey Barrel kind of flavor which is amazing in a gravy.

On the list of things I never thought I would write or say.. I had to go elbow-deep in this Water Oak to get the Lion's Mane Mushrooms deep inside it's tight crevasse. Yeah, get your laughs out now because the picture above this one shows what I got out of this and the scratches, bruising and, muscle strain was worth it.

These four bags were infested with Tricioderma, a type of fungus that in grow bags goes cannibal and eats any other fungi present. However these Blue Oysters and Lion's Mane ended up killing and consuming the infestation instead. The bags while sealed sat in my field int he full sun for a few weeks and then when cold weather came I saw the intended mushrooms pinning and opened the bag so they could breathe and grow. Salvage Mushrooms for the win.



Because of the holiday I've decided that there will be no normal post here. I've done the same on NextDoor and Bluesky as well. Today I've got a Mushroom Gravy recipe for you and more detailed information that could not make it to the other media sites due to character limits. So lets start with Mushroom foraging (the first two pictures). Late October into November is usually when Lion's Mane emerges in my area and finding it is somewhat of an adventure. I have a few secret patches where I know it's more likely to turn up and for several weeks I use every possible excuse to go there just to check. The weather has to be just right, with rain being important and if I time it right I get the goods. The second picture despite my intentionally humorous phrasing high lights one of the difficulties of harvesting these mushrooms. Some times they aren't outside of the tree and readily visible, sometimes they are in opening in the host tree and sometimes that puts them out of reach. Sometimes they are too high up and you just have to wait until next year. In this year's case as I noted in the caption I pretty much had to give a Water Oak a cavity search. The reward was about two pounds of Lion's Mane which is worth it because I know it will taste amazing. Grocery store bought mushrooms are severely lacking in the flavor department and they also have a bland fungus smell if they have any aroma at all. Plus most of what is sold is either White Button, Cremini or Portabello mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) which are three growing stages of the same species. If you're lucky you might see Enoki, Maitake (hen of the woods), or Shiitake, but even those aren't as good as home grown or wild foraged mushrooms. So the aroma is a almost sweet fungal scent punctuated with strong oak overtones, while the flavor will have a strong oak essence that I liken to oak whiskey barrels. This flavor holds up in cooking and you immediately know you're eating something amazing when you do. Local-grown Mushrooms are vastly superior to store-bought because they have the aroma, and the flavor and haven't been sitting in a refrigerator for who knows how long. This is not to say that I'd turn down store-bought mushrooms on the discount rack, as friends of mine have seen my 'Jackpot!' texts with pictures of me clearing out the discount vegetable rack of obnoxious quantities of heavily discounted mushrooms. No, what I'm saying is if I have the choice between the two I'll go for the fresh local ones every time. This is to a point that searching for Lion's Mane and Bear's Tooth fungi is a yearly activity and making food with them for the holidays is tradition. For me it's not Indigenous People's Day if I'm not consuming native fungi as part of the meal and the same goes for New Years and Christmas. 

With all of that said, we have the third picture. Those were contaminated Mushroom blocks that were handed to me by Sandhills Mushroom Farms for recycling into Mushroom Compost. Each of them was deemed contaminated and the most likely culprit was Trichoderma, though there was a possibility it could have had Neurospora which is commonly called Orange Bread Mold. Respectively we called them Barf Mold (Trich) and Cheeto Mold (Neuro). Neither is desirable but at least in the environment Trichoderma can form mycorrhizal bonds with plants and be a net benefit. As I noted in the caption these contaminated grow bags sat in the full sun in a field for weeks at my farm waiting to be ground up and turned into mushroom compost. But sometimes the cultivated strain wins, and out of 180 bags, about 20 saw the intended fungus win the war and start pinning. Pinning by the way is the term for when a fungal mass starts producing growths indicating it wants to try and produce fruiting bodies. The fruiting bodies are what we think of as the capped mushrooms but they also come in a variety of shapes and forms besides the traditional one we think of. Bags found to be pinning were brought in cut open to allow oxygen in and if they persisted then the backs were fully opened to let the fungus mature it's fruiting bodies to a harvest-able state. Sometimes this worked and sometimes I got weird fungal mass that had parts and pieces that looked right but was basically a spongy blob. I've taken to referring to these blobs as 'Fungal Blubber' and they are still edible just not pretty.  After salvage-harvesting, the blocks are ground up and turned into the usual unsterilized mushroom compost and that's the in and out of the process behind that third picture.

 As for the recipe I promised you, I’d like to share a recipe that is a tradition at my house. At thanksgiving the first batch of wild forage mushroom gravy is made with as many wild foraged mushroom varieties as I have on hand. However, the one I use the most of is Bear’s Tooth and Lion’s Mane because this is the time of the year they naturally emerge and are the absolute tastiest. Generally I find them on or in Oak trees and they take on an oak whiskey barrel kind of flavor that lends itself to savory brown gravy. Since brown gravy is a must-have at thanksgiving dinner in general it blends in well and adds an extra bit of flair to food item that most just think of as a means to dealing with meat or potatoes that might be too dry.

 

Ingredients:

1 Cup of chopped Mushrooms

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 14oz Can of Broth* or 2 bouillon Cubes (This can be Chicken, Beef, or Vegetable)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder*

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

 

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.

2. Whisk in flour and stir until the mixture becomes paste-like and light golden brown or, about 5 minutes.

3. Whisk in beef broth gradually.

4. Cook and stir until no lumps remain or about 2 minutes.

5. Add Mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper.

6. Cook and whisk until gravy thickens or, about 5 minutes.

 

Serves 4

* If you want to make this recipe a bit fancier, you can use Beef Consommé, Himalayan Pink Sea Salt, Black Garlic and freshly cracked black pepper in replacement of noted ingredients.

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Telegraphweed

 

Telegraphweed before it blooms looks a bit like a Rudbeckia, and they are related.

 

 

 

Common Name: Telegraphweed

 

Other Common Names: Silk-grass Goldenaster

 

Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Heterotheca grandiflora

 

Description & Habitat: Telegraphweed is an annual or biennial that is native to four southwestern states in the United States. Its endemic range is California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. This plant is commonly found along the roadside but also can be found in fields, pastures, and in places with disturbed soil. It is a member of the Aster family which means it has daisy-like flowers. Asters are grouped because they have a specific feature that unites them, what we think of as a single flower on them is actually a large cluster of smaller flowers. In the center of a daisy that is a tightly packed cluster of dozens or in some cases hundreds of actual flowers each with a separate ovary. Telegraphweed is interesting this regard because it’s ‘flowers; are a cheery yellow color and about a half-inch in diameter. The flowers can have anywhere from twenty to thirty petals and the florets right next to those petals are called ray florets. Those ray florets have the unique ability to produce a different type of seed than the florets in the center of the flower. The ones around the edge produce heavier seeds without a silk ‘parachute’ and fall near the parent plant but have a slower germination speed. Seeds from the center of the Telegraphweed’s flower have a tuft of fuzz which is called a pappus. This fuzz that allows the seeds to float away on the wind and they also germinate faster. The best way to identify this plant is to feel the leaves and then smell your fingers. The leaves will be fuzzy and a lot of the hairs on the leaves are glandular, they produce a sort of oil or resin that smells like Camphor or Creosote. This plant got the name ‘Telegraphweed’ because it started springing up  along railroads and places where telegraph lines were being built. It’s narrow shape and then the wide clusters of flowers also somewhat resemble a telegraph pole, so the name makes sense.

 

When & What to Harvest:  This plant does not have anything to harvest as it is not edible or medicinal.

 

Non-Dangerous Lookalikes:  None are known

 

Related Dangerous Species:  None are known.

 

Recipe:  As far as I can tell this plant is not edible.

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://naturecollective.org/plant-guide/details/telegraph-weed/

 

 

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Fresh Foods:

Soup Kit – Parsnip

Soup Kit – Turnip

Garlic Bulbs

 

Soil Amendment Products:

Live Mushroom Compost – 18 Gallon Tote*

Live Mushroom Compost – 3 Gallon Bag

Live Mushroom Compost – 1 Gallon Bag

 

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Lion’s Mane Tincture Sample size

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Lion’s Mane Tincture

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Turkey Tail Tincture

 

 

House Plants for the Holidays:

Cuban Oregano, Large Leaf

Pothos, Cebu Blue

Swiss Cheese Plant

Sindbad Begonia

-more TBA-

 

 

*The 18 gallon tote is by special order only and is delivered to any address within the Fayetteville city area.

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1): Tumeric

 

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is November 23rd at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Flowering Spurge

 

 

This specimen was seen on one of the Wild Harvest tours near the Cape Fear river.


 

 

Common Name: Flowering Spurge

 

Other Common Names: Eastern Flowering Spurge, Poison Milkweed, Tramp’s Spurge, White-Flowerined Milkweed, Wild Hippo, Wild Spurge.

 

Botanical Family: Euphorbiaceae (The Poinsettia/Spurge Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Euphorbia corollata

 

Description & Habitat: This is a native herbaceous perennial that does well in poor soils just as long as they have good drainage. You can typically find them in prairies, pastures, glades and, along roads and rail roads. It also will appear along woodland paths which is where we found the specimen in the photograph. This plant develops a taproot that can go very deep into the soil making it very difficult to transplant after it’s established in an area. While it does posess milky sap that can cause skin and eye irritation, the claims of it being outright poisonous appear to be exaggerated since it can be used as a laxative. Consuming large quantities of this plant is not advised as the latex sap may cause issues. The seeds of this plant are fed on by Wild Turkeys, Greater Prairie Chickens, Bobwhite Quails, Mourning Doves and Horned Larks.

 

When & What to Harvest:  The taproot once dried can be used as the basis for a laxative medication.

 

Non-Dangerous Lookalikes: None are known.

 

Related Dangerous Species:  None are known.

 

Recipe:  As far as I can tell this plant is not edible.

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/euphorbia-corollata/

 

You can buy seeds here:

https://www.prairiemoon.com/euphorbia-corollata-flowering-spurge

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Fresh Foods:

Soup Kit – Parsnip

Soup Kit – Turnip

Garlic Bulbs

 

Soil Amendment Products:

Live Mushroom Compost – 18 Gallon Tote*

Live Mushroom Compost – 3 Gallon Bag

Live Mushroom Compost – 1 Gallon Bag

 

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Lion’s Mane Tincture Sample size

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Lion’s Mane Tincture

Sandhills Mushroom Farms – Turkey Tail Tincture

 

 

Garden Plants, Fall Foods:

Arugula, Astro

Cabbage, Pac Choi ‘Rosie’

Collards, Green Glaze

Kale, Prizm

Kale, Redbor

Sorrel, Raspberry Dressing

 

Coming Soon:

Houseplants for the holidays

 

*The 18 gallon tote is by special order only and is delivered to any address within the Fayetteville city area.

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1): Pak Choi ‘Rosie’

 

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is November 16th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.