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.