oyster mushrooms

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© 2023 Jonathan Clemson & Robin Crossman

Busy enough week for Blind Hog and Acorn- cutting down dead trees for firewood, cleaning up the sewing room and culling through boxes and boxes of "stuffs..."  A carload of recycling and thrift store drop offs...

Blind Hog had a great 81st birthday, even got some work in while the weather was in the upper 70's.  Now, it barely got above freezing for the high.  PLUS SNOW FLURRIES!

Oyster mushrooms have begun to fruit on firewood cut from a dead oak- it did have mushrooms before, but the last "fruiting" was pretty poor, Acorn thought it was all over.  NOPE!  May have to cook up something just to show off the  delicious fungi!

Aron and Tracie are travelling with two four-legged companions. The first leg of the trip took them to the Sunshine Coast via Chilliwack where they noted astounding flood damage. Then on to Powell River and across to Texada Island. Once on the island they foraged for mushrooms, nettles and maple blossoms making these items into a delicious stir-fry to accompany clams they dug for dinner one evening. 

The weather has been fierce. Listen to how they adjusted and gear they added to make life on the road more comfortable.

Is this pod the host Timothy Fowler mentioned he would include his recipes using Spruce tip. Here are a few recipes for using Spruce tips. These were tested last year at www.tateislandlodge.ca

Spruce Tip Jelly

• 6 cups chopped spruce tips
• 6 cups water
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 packets of Certo pectin 
• 1/4 cup of honey

Combine, boil, steep, strain, cool, package.

Spruce Tip Salt or Sugar:

Combine equal parts spruce tips and salt or sugar, blitz or pulse in a food processor using the cutting blade until the spruce tips are finely chopped. Store in sealed containers in the fridge. The spruce tip sugar makes a great sprinkle on sugar cookies and short bread. The spruce tip salt is a great precook seasoning for red game meats on the smoker. 

Spruce Tip Short Bread Cookies

• 1/3 Cup finely chopped spruce tips
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup cold butter, diced to the size of corn kernels

Blitz sugar and spruce tips until finely chopped. Add flour and diced cold butter to food processor, pulse until the texture of cornmeal. Press into a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Poke holes in the surface of the dough throughout with a fork. bake at 350F about 20 minute––just until set but not brown. Cut into serving-sized rectangles while the dough is still warm.

We’re spotlighting a new show on HRN: Fields. Fields brings you the stories of people who are working in urban agriculture—for money, for fun, to feed the hungry, and for entirely other reasons. In each episode, hosts Melissa Metrick and Wythe Marschall delve into different foods grown in cities. Moreover, they investigate the whys behind getting up in the morning and working as a farmer in the shadow of skyscrapers. You don’t need to be a farmer to enjoy this podcast, or even a foodie! With their expert guests, Melissa and Wythe break down the realities and possible futures of urban farming to their elements.

Today we share Episode 5: ‘Shrooms! Indoors, Foraged, and Friendly. Why are mushrooms so popular recently, and who is growing them—and searching for them in the wild—in New York City? To find out, the hosts interviewed a whole bunch of fungi-focused folks. Learn about the cello-inspired origins of the commercial vertical farming startup Smallhold, which grows oyster mushrooms and lion’s mane all over the city. Hear from an entrepreneur on why she started—and then sold—her mushroom farm in Brooklyn.  Melissa and Wythe visit expert forager Wildman Steve—who makes us call him “Wildman”—and try to avoid his bird. And they end with a very fun, philosophical interview of Jie Jin, a mushroom club organizer who makes them rethink our relationship to fungi spores. 

Subscribe to Fields wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS).