Forage Fri- uh, Sunday?

This past Sunday 7/15 I went to a foraging class hosted by The Larder in Ohio City.  We went to a park in Portage County for a 2-hour walk around.  I declared my hopes beforehand to my wife, to learn 3 new plants while I was there.  I was worried on the ride in that I would be overwhelmed with new information.

As the class started we went to the edge of the parking lot where a staghorn sumac tree was.  Having already recognized it as we were walking over I started to look at the skirt of the lot and see what else was growing there.  I spotted 7 wild edibles, our guide Jeremy talked about 5 of them (the out-of season cattails and rose hips not coming into the discussion.)  I was glad when we got into the woods across the street to explore new worlds.  To seek out new life, and you get the point.

Did I learn 3 new plants? Yes and no.  My friend Sarah had asked if I'd ever seen an American Spicebush. I had not, though I asked Jeremy if he could keep an eye out for one.  He did eventually spot one and I was able to crush a leaf to get the scent in my brain.  I learned characteristics of a few mushrooms, and a few new uses for items I have already been collecting.

I did see a few new mushrooms but though edible I don't know that they would be a food of sufficient quantity to be worth foraging.  There were some small puffballs that I became acquainted with and learned a bit more about the family, but they were so small as to barely create a garnish.  We saw some boletes and learned about the ones that probably wouldn't cause you too many GI issues but specific species and personal chemistry may make them less than desirable.

Jeremy did spot a tree from the top of the cliffs with white stuff at the bottom he was guessing were oyster mushrooms, which were in significant enough quantity to be worth collecting.  This was a great scout on his part. A lot of times when foraging you just look for what is very near to you and don't look up to spot the bigger finds.

I and another forager on the tour collected our share from the tree, avoiding the yellow slime.  Our small parlay revealed that he was originally from NJ and that his mother, who had gone missing a bit earler, had gone to the car.

As a note you should avoid any such mushrooms growing on a dead conifer, these are likely angel wings and have been linked to several deaths in Japan (suspected to be related to radiation, so the legend goes.)  We had a good conversation about look-alikes so I feel this is a solid addition to my repoire, and he was good enough to give his phone number out so the attendants can text pictures for verification.

We also saw a mushroom whose layman's name is 'milky cap', whose coloring on the top reminded me of a peach and whose underside bled latex when cut;

These were large-ish and I imagine if you found a locale dominated by them they would be worth collecting.  The lucky spotter of these got 3 good-sized mushrooms.

Jeremy was an excellent guide.  He is certified in mushrooming (I don't know the technical term, but he's certified) and knows way a lot about wild plants.  He knew the scientific name (at least to the family) of just about any scrap of mushroom anyone held up in front of him.  I think the locale could have been better, something not dominated by giant rocks. I understand it was probably a good chantrelle location but the lack of rain   I think some flat terriain with an assortment of biomes might have helped.  The class was a little mushroom-dominant based on the area we were in, which was an older forest with little undergrowth aside from a decadent amount of poison ivy and dominated by rock walls.  Had it been rainy this week I'm sure I would have been showing off a sack of chantrelles like I did from my forage last week.

At any rate, I didn't get home until late on Sunday and after several chores finally had the opportunity to address the sack of oyster mushrooms I brought home.

You can see the miniscule puffballs in the lower right and a pot in my sink in the upper left.  I decided to blanch them to kill all the...everything crawling around inside and keep them from further deteriorating.  Today (Monday) I fried a few in the skillet along with red peeper, garlic, onions, and mugwort.

My phone has recently suffered irreperable damage so the right side of my picture is black.  Also, my framing is terrible.  I should use a real camera, but too bad.  

I feel like the gilled sections of this mushroom could soak up a lot of flavor from some sauce, and the stems should probably be cur off and chopped and used elsewhere. 

In summary, this was a great novice class.  Though I gleaned limited knowledge from it I did learn some new food sources.  I would encourage any wallflowers who are in the Cleveland area and interested in foraging to sign up for one of their classes. I could see that there were a few fellow attendees who, for lack of a better analogy, weren't at their first rodeo.  I'd be interested to see if they would offer an advanced level class.

Forage Friday IV (which actually took place on a Friday, but still took me 4 days to write about)

Here is the catnip I promised to photograph.  It has flowered as you can see.  For identification the stalks are square and it smells of mint, but when you taste it its not really great mint.  Still, its edible.

I found a small number of ripe blackberries out in an open field, but on a periphery I found these still young ones in quantity.  I expect to find some mature fruits this Friday.

The chantrelles were in abundance a week ago, but these poor little dried specimens were all I discovered this week.  Rain has been absent for probably 8-9 days.  It did rain a bit today (the following Monday) so I am interested to see if more have come up.

Some local mayapples have some large green fruits (which are at this stage poisonous.)  I will keep an eye on them and see when they turn yellow if they are worth bothering with.

Wild Carrot, alias Queen Anne's Lace, are starting to flower.  This is a biannual plant so when you see the flowers the root underneath is a stick.  If you can find smaller greens nearby at ground level those are first year plants and the root isn't hardened.  The greens look like the tops of carrots you'd get in the store.  Always smell them, your nose knows.

Here is what I brought home to cook, a small haul in comparison to what I usually drag out of the woods but I was trying not to make a giant mess this week so I kept it polite.

Left to right, catnip, a carrot root, staghorn sumac, garlic bulbs, another carrot root, garlic bulblets, burdock root. 

The mulberry tree had a few pink berries but only like 3 ripe berries.  I didn't feel like walking all the way to the previously mentioned apple tree (which is about a mile away) so my meal was light on a fruit/desert dish this week.

I found a hot pepper I had dried a few years ago and along with some garlic, black walnuts, and chantrelles made a sauce for half a rabbit I pulled from the freezer.  The walnuts/garlic/pepper were AWESOME when I tasted them, the chantrelles didn't really compliment the taste very well but that's what I added so that's what I ate/  At the bottom of the picture are the burdock roots I collected, boiled to hell for about 40 minutes. At the top (like 1:00) there are the bulblets from the garlic plants, boiled along with the burdock roots. At the right was an attempt to rehash a previous idea - after forage friday II I took the leftover roast garlic/basswood nuts and mixed it together and made a few patties that didn't hold together well, pictured below, but were nonetheless good.  I attempted to retry this but without the basswood nuts, what I had crumbled to bits (BUT WAS DELICIOUS.)  In the background is tea I made with the sumac cones I had picked.

Those are the previously mentioned patties, they were crumbly but good enough to flip and get on a bun. 

As for this week's ratings, I'd give the rabbit with walnuts, mushrooms, and pepper a 6.5/10.  I'd lose the chantrelles and probably hammer out the rest of the rabbit, the filets from the back were the only really great meat part.  The garlic bulblets 6/10, its a nice vegetable once it spends half an hour boiling away.  Burdock I'd give 5/10, its a little plain jane but its nice to have a starchy vegetable even if it is a lot of work.  The failed rabbit/garlic patties get an 8.5/10, it was delicious if not what I envisioned it should be.  Sumac tea 6/10, good but the cones aren't quite ready. In a couple weeks this tea will be exquisite.

Friday Forage III (which happened on a Thursday, and I didn't bother to write about for 11 days)

Chantrelles.  In great quantity.

My friend Matt and I went out to our 'spot' for Chantrelles on Thursday, July 5th.  There were rains the few days before, and the forest floor was virtually blanketed in orange.  In the lower right are a few black trumpets and a couple old men we spotted, but the big haul were the chantrelles.  My bag (the white one in the foreground) weighed in a 4-1/2lbs at the end of the day. 

I did not make my typical 'only from the woods' meal this week, instead I made linguini with chantrelles in white sauce.  2 weeks ago I could have told you the ingredients but by now I have forgotten.  There was definitely cheese.  It was very good, a 9/10 on the foraging scale and at least a 6/10 on the fine dining scale.

Chantrelles are a ground mushroom and thus are always a little gritty, the only real detractor from the experience.  I think if you just focused on the 'caps' you'd probably be pretty grit free. 

There was, of course, some loss when I cleaned them and weeded out all the questionable and really filthy ones. I think I ate a pound.  The rest were divided into different preservation methods - 2/3lbs dried, 1/2lb sauteed and then frozen, 1/2lb blanched for 2 mins and frozen, 1lb left in a crock pot over night then frozen.  I have yet to revive these stores but will report which method was the best when I do.