For the love of Produce...

Mushrooms aren't plants, but I still count them as produce. The USDA does too, so here's my mushroom report.

Last year wasn't so good. We had a very dry autumn. No rain of any significance. By the time we got rain, we had already had some frost. I did find just a few chanterelles and some lobster mushrooms. Well, actually I found a cauliflower mushroom, so that was actually really great! But I love chanterelles, and I found oh so few.

I had been thinking this might be a good year since there wasn't much above ground last year. Then we got some rain a couple times late summer and again early fall. I went out to a local area a few weeks ago and found some. This is an area I used to find LOTS, but mushroom forays have become way more popular. This is an area not far from town, so everyone and their aunt & uncle go look there. I go farther from the trail and sometimes find them, but I also find plenty of evidence that people have been there before me and picked what is there. I found a BUNCH of lobster mushrooms and a decent amount of chanterelles which I ate.

Well, yesterday I got inspired to go out to a patch of forest I like to visit once a year to look for chanterelles. I was deciding whether to go yesterday or today. There was LOTS of rain in the forecast both days, but today was supposed to be much heavier, and the sooner you go the more likely you'll get there before other folks. Back when I was working, I had Mondays off. I always got there after other folks had harvested. Now I can go on Thursday or Friday or any day! I got there after a couple hiccups (was about ten miles from home when I realized I had left my boots in my living room and came back to get them, then realized I had the wrong rain pants when I got to the woods...). I got dressed and headed out.

I knew it was going to be good when I started finding them in the road bank before I even went into the forest.

I have two other areas nearby I usually also foray in, but I never got over to them because I got my fill in the first area. I would find one, pick it, clean it up, put it in my bucket, and then look around before I got off all fours. Most of the time I just crawled a couple feet and picked one, two, or four more. Then I'd look again and sometimes stand up and take two or three steps to pick more. Then I'd move and find another patch.

There were so many I could be very choosy about which ones I picked and which ones I left. There were some of all sizes. Most of the larger ones were already kind of slimy. The one pictured below weighed over a half pound and while it was moist, it was firm and will dry a bit before I process it or put it in a paper sack to cut up and eat soon.

I love mushrooms! I set them out to dry since they were pretty soggy from all the rain. With their vase shaped caps, they hold water. They are all still firm so they'll dry up nicely. I will save some in paper sacks for use fresh. I will give some away (I already gave some away last night). The rest will get sauteed and then vacuum sealed and frozen so I'll be able to enjoy chanterelles all year long.

I thought these were interesting. “Dracula” blood oranges from Australia.

Went to a farmers market today.. they had a bushel of Jerusalem Artichokes ! I rarely see them. Also.. really pretty mushrooms. @mtaratoot - thought about ya!

I will never make butternut squash gnocchi again. Despite roastig them in the air fryer they retained a lot of water. It made the sticky dough extremely hard to haandle, so I had to incorporate quite a lot of flour making them both tough and too tasteless for a brown butter and sage sauce. Bok choi was good at least.