Trumpet Fan Fare

It doesn't look like much of an indulgence, 

but these Black Trumpet mushrooms 

dried and mixed with course salt give everything from scrambled eggs to your 

bloody Mary glass rim the flourish to take them from ordinary to extraordinary.

When this is gone we'll have to wait for quite awhile until we can make more.

 Trumpet salt definitely gives added incentive to next fall's foraging!

Eating Locally

It doesn't get much more local than your own kitchen tabletop.

Look what we got on sale!

What else would a mushroom company have on Black Friday special?

Field and Forest Products, a Wisconsin company, offers tabletop fungus farms.

They are entertaining and delicious!

The block yielded about 20 mushrooms in its first fruiting.

After it rests a bit we will ask it to do it all again.

Breakfast just won't be the same until the shiitake crop comes in.

Fall Fungi Foray

Through the Cable Natural History Museum organized by Emily Stone 

and under the leadership of Tavis Lynch

of Tavis's Wild and Exotic Mushrooms of Cumberland, Wisconsin.

This is some of what we found. 

Chanterelle, Black Trumpet, Wolf Fart puffballs, Oyster, Shrimp of the Woods, 

and Bear's Head Tooth.

A participant who is already an experienced forager brought Lobster and 

Chicken of the Woods for us to try. Both were excellent.

We sorted and IDed them.

And then we cooked them up.

The Black Trumpet mushroom is easy to identify and has a very interesting, truffle-like taste.

The group found enough of these that we each got to take some home. After sautéing some for breakfast I made this. It was great.

Wild Foraged Black Trumpet Mushroom Spread

1 tablespoon ghee or butter

2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic scapes or shallots

1⁄2 cup coarsely chopped black trumpet mushrooms(cleaned)

8 ounce cultured cream-cheese

1 pinch sea salt (real salt) to taste

1 pinch white pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a skillet over medium/low heat, sauté garlic scapes in ghee until soft.

Add in black trumpet mushrooms continue sautéing until mushrooms are cooked through and any liquid is evaporated.

Reduce heat to low, add cream cheese (cut or scooped into roughly 1 tablespoon sized chunks). Stirring constantly until the cream cheese is melted and mixed thoroughly.

Transfer to an air tight jar or container and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours prior to allow the flavors to come together.

Remove dip from at the refrigerator roughly 30 minutes prior to serving to allow it to warm to room temperature. Serve with crackers, toasted bread or raw vegetables.

Recipe Notes:

Use 1 ounce dried black trumpets that have been reconstituted in warm water in place of the fresh.

This recipe makes 16 servings

Chlorociboria aeruginascens

Chlorociboria aeruginascens (say that five times fast) AKA Green Elf Cups.

Spotted by a keen-eyed nature lover while on a blackberry picking foray.

The rainy summer has brought out some amazing fungi, but this one is particularly charming. 

 9 out of 10 elves agree.

What We Foraged on our Summer Vacation

Every now and then when we are at the lake doing the thing we most love to do of a summer day, we do occasionally get up out of our deck chair. Usually it is just to refill a drink or make room for the next one, and then right back down we plunk into our spot. On one occasion however, we noticed, out of the corner of our eye, something brilliant orange in the woods just below our perch.

The warm, damp weather had made so many unusual fungi appear could these be chanterelle mushrooms? We knew they grow in Wisconsin.

We took some into the local museum naturalist who also thought they were chanterelle. But to be on the safe side she offered to send a photo to her Mushroom Guy.

He gave this reply: "Beauties! That's the "rainbow chanterelle," Cantharellus roseocanus. I can

even tell you where the visitor picked them, roughly, as they grow with

conifers only. Definitely safe and choice edible!" Bingo!

Well who can you believe if not the editor of Fungi Magazine? So we picked some more.

Fried them up in butter and ate them!

And did so four or five more times before the end of August. And no one asked to share them. We did offer. 

Not really surprising as some family members have been know to remove with surgical precision an errant mushroom on the pepperoni side of a pizza and treat it as if it were biohazard. 

So sad. 

More for us!

Micro Greens

Before there were fairy gardens there were even smaller, more precious, button gardens.

Agnes, our button collector friend,  made this one.

This book from our button club library is available for check out.

We see bits of moss greening up on the shady side of the yard. They would be prefect for a project like this.

Perhaps today is the day to get out our tiny trowel and do a (very) little gardening while we wait for Spring to (truly) arrive.

Carol's Garden Revisited

Since we last toured Carol's Garden some new things have been popping up.

Large, cheerful mushrooms.

More welded flowers.

And some very inviting, throw-back seating.

We wonder if we will ever actually catch Carol sitting down? 

It is our observation that people with amazing gardens seldom do. The weeds won't let them.

Garten Spiel

We crossed our fingers that no one else would choose the $1 auction lot of mostly grubby miscellaneous items that we had our eye on. Fortunately the treasure within was either too well hidden or of no interest to the other bidders. This beautiful 1954 vintage Ravensburg game got to come home with us.

Marienkäfer Puck, ein flug durchs blumenjahr (Ladybug Puck, a flight through the flower-year)















Ladybug playing pieces, ceramic dice, charmingly illustrated game board. Nice.

Making Up for a Lack of Morels

Our initial search for the delectable fungus known as the common morel or morchella esculenta was fruitless so we went to our secret, fall-back location and had great success. Then, in a mushroom glamour shoot of sorts, in our kitchen studio, our artful, guest photographer captured perfectly the grotesque beauty that is the wild morel.







Unfortunately, the most alluring photo was not taken. Once the morels were sizzling in butter and had turned a beautiful golden brown the camera was forgotten. A fork was the only thing we were reaching for.


Photos: S. Plasch

Fungus Among Us

Out in the back yard, behind the toolshed we have spawn innoculated logs that sporadically produce shiitake mushrooms. The logs came home with us about four years ago after we participated in one of the best community education classes ever. We have been enjoying the fruit of the logs ever since. Field and Forest Products, in Peshtigo, Wisconsin is a great source of information and supplies for mushroom growing. We are very intrigued by their TeePee Kits for growing Oyster mushrooms on (clean) rolls of toilet paper. (You've been warned.)

It is still exciting to discover a baby shiitake, watch it mature over a few days, then bring it right in and turn it into lunch.











Backyard, barefoot, glass of wine in one hand, mushroom picking with the other. That's our idea of hunting and gathering.

Baby on the Block

It hasn't yet reached the crazed competition level of Toddlers and Tiaras, but there have been some not-so-subtle attempts by a certain mother/grandmother duo to have a certain (supercute) baby named NDL official mascot. The main strategy seems to involve parading the (supercute) baby around the neighborhood dressed in darling clothes in NDL themes while displaying heart warming behaviors, and providing ample opportunity for porch swing naptime bonding.

Well, the official judge has just one thing to say about that plan, "It is working beautifully."

Also contributing to the contestant's front-runner status - the judge has not yet been asked to change a diaper.

Competition categories already aced by the contestant include:




Sleeping like an angel. This stunning feat was performed while wearing a (supercute) garden-themed kimono and allowing grownups to shop, socialize, snack, and show off a perfect baby to friends and relatives.




Nature appreciation.




Hat fashion. This grandma-crafted chapeau features an uncomplicated, sleek design and very NDLish sayings - We are all artists. Fashion fiends(?). Winners and swimmers(?). Garden gals. Silly fun. Magic moments. Beautiful world.




Talent. Extra points awarded for dimple.




And not officially a competion category, but totally swaying the judge anyway - fungi fashion.


Unless there is a glitch in the consistent performance of the front-runner during competition in the remaining categories, I believe you are looking at your official 2010 NDL mascot.

In the Rearview Mirror

A last look.

























It was a blast (from the past).

Hokey Smoke Bullwinkle

Time out from old home week for a report on an unprecedented nocturnal event that happened in our current old home.

Guess who was gliding around the family room in the middle of the night?

If you guessed the ghosts of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers you are wrong.

If you guessed a flying squirrel, you are right.




There was a knock on the bedroom door by the only one in the household still capable of staying up past midnight on a routine basis.

"There's a flying squirrel in the house."

"Are you sure it's not a mouse?"

"It glided down the stairs."

"Are you sure it's not a bat?"

"It glided down the stairs."

"Okay. Sounds like there's a flying squirrel in the house."

A search ensued and the very cute little critter was found perched on the fireplace screen looking a bit stunned in the glare of the living room reading lamp.

A dramatic capture made using only a knit afghan and a brave young man's dexterous bare hands lead to a successful release outdoors. How did it get indoors? We don't really know, but with an old house that's holey as a sieve it's a wonder we haven't seen it or its kin before now.

Here is some fascinating information about flying squirrels. You may be surprised to learn that while they do eat seeds and fungus and are themselves a favorite treat of spotted owls, they don't typically wear little aviator goggles or hang around with moose making corny jokes and trying to outsmart no-goodnick spies.

9 out of 10 Gnomes Prefer...

Amanita Muscaria - commonly known as the fly agaric (pronounced /ˈæɡərɪk/) or fly Amanita (pronounced /ˌæməˈnaɪtə/), is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, Amanita muscaria has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the Southern Hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species. It associates with various deciduous and coniferous trees. The quintessential toadstool, it is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, usually deep red mushroom, one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture. Several subspecies, with differing cap colour have been recognised to date, including the brown regalis (considered a separate species), the yellow-orange flavivolata, guessowii, and formosa, and the pinkish persicina. Genetic studies published in 2006 and 2008 show several sharply delineated clades which may represent separate species.

Although generally considered poisonous, deaths are extremely rare, and it has been consumed as a food in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America after parboiling in plentiful water. However, Amanita muscaria is now primarily famed for its hallucinogenic properties with its main psychoactive constituent being the compound muscimol. It was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the peoples of Siberia and has a religious significance in these cultures. There has been much speculation on traditional use of this mushroom as an intoxicant in places other than Siberia; however, such traditions are far less well-documented. The American banker and amateur ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson proposed the fly agaric was in fact the Soma talked about in the ancient Rig Veda texts of India; since its introduction in 1968, this theory has gained both detractors and followers in the anthropological literature.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(that uses lots of really big words).

NDL Paraphrasipedia - A cool looking mushroom that is the favored fungus of gnomes and housewares designers. It has also been touted for its hallucinogenic properties. Our Scandinavian source reports, "that's what gave the Vikings their nerve to sail so far."




Gifts from Sweden. Napkins and silicon trivet.

I'm always willing to be in charge of mail and papers gratis while a neighbor is out of town (it's part of the NDL job) but confess that I do love trinkets from far away travels.