Happy New Year’s Eve 2012!!!!

What a great year for us at Food Under Foot, and I hope for you, too.

The Community Supported Foraging dominated our year last year, that’s for sure! We foraged full shares of wild produce for 20 weeks, from April to September. And we didn’t give measly weekly shares of dirty roots and twigs, no way! Our ten families got celebrity wild edibles such as ramps and morels, sweet juicy mulberries, gorgeous flowers, and luscious greens - from notorious stinging nettles to tasty garlic mustard and succulent nutrient-rich purslane. Over 70 different wild edibles in all, including 8 kinds of wild mushrooms. To slightly rephrase a Whole Foods grocery bag, “You say ‘mushroom’, we say morel, dryad’s saddle, oyster, chanterelle, chicken mushroom, reishi, puffball, hen of the woods.”

Here were some highlights:

• Dryad’s Saddle - We’d tasted this mushroom before, but it must have been too old. I almost passed it up for the share because of my previous dislike of it. Dave convinced me otherwise and I harvested it for the share, and then of course had to cook up some myself - YUM!!! Now one of my favorite wild mushrooms.

Dryad's saddle

• Similarly…we found very young reishi this year….before it turns shiny red it’s still white and only slightly yellow. Fried up this mushroom is unbelievable good. When you get the older red reishi, it becomes quite bitter, but makes excellent medicine. We put dried reishi in the share this year.

Medicinal Reishi (Ganoderma tsugae)

• All the new yummies I tasted for the first time this year, such as:
  • Serviceberries (also known as Juneberries) - so good! How had I never tasted these before?!
  

  serviceberries, aka juneberries

  • Cornelian cherries (Cornus mas) - so good! How had I never tasted these before?!
  

  cornelian cherries

  • Shrubs - these drinks, made of fruit, vinegar and sugar then consumed cut with water, seltzer, or  alcohol, were fun to make and delicious to have around. This year I made shrubs with hawthorn and elderberry (separate ones!)
  

  elderberries drying in the sun
• Cattails! Also cooked up for the first time, AND wove the leaves into placemats.

Placemat woven out of cattails

• Chicken Mushroom “Chicken Wings”

Hot "chicken wings", made with chicken mushroom

• All the walks this year. Here we are with in Frick Park.  In 2013 will have MANY MORE walks and workshops scheduled, stay tuned!

Wild Edibles Walk, Frick Park, April, 2012

• The new mushrooms we learned about (and tried this year) thanks to hiking with the Western PA Mushroom Club: Aborted Entalomas and Blewitts.

aborted entoloma (edible)

We are looking forward to an AMAZING 2013 with all of you!

This year, we plan to focus on EDUCATION, and will soon put up the list of walks and workshops…so many I think you’ll all be pleased. We have some surprises in store as well…to be unveiled early in the new year so please stay tuned! To make sure you are the first to hear about our walks, workshops and other great events and news, please make sure you are signed up for our newsletter (green box in right margin, which says “Join the Family”.)

Happy New Year!!!

Lots of love from

The Folks at Food Under Foot (Melissa, Dave and Jason)

Harvest of Oyster Mushrooms (with Trish)

Some things to know about Oyster mushrooms:

• Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) are found in late fall and winter. Other varieties of oyster (P. pulmonarius and P. populinus) can be found year round.

• Oysters grow on wood: hardwood, either live or dead trees, stumps or branches.

• They have gills., which are white to cream colored, and can descend a bit down the stalk (if a stalk is present.)

• They usually grow in shelf-like overlapping clusters.

• If a stalk is present, it will be off to one side, not in the center.

• Spore print is white to cream or possibly lilac.

Oyster is a gilled mushroom. Gills are white (to cream) and can descend a bit down the stalk (if there is a stalk, which is sometimes absent, and if present is off to one side.)

It is important to take a spore print when identifying mushrooms. The deadly galerina, which also grows on wood, will have a rusty brown spore print. (The deadly galerina also has a center stalk.)

Taking a spore print of the oyster mushroom. Since we expect it to be white, we are using non-white paper.

Poisonous mushrooms to distinguish:

The oyster grows on wood and has gills. Poison (from toxic to deadly) mushrooms which grow on wood and have gills are: Jack O’Lantern, Deadly Galerina and Angel Wings.

Jack O’Lanterns are  yellow-orange, with yellow-orange flesh and yellow gills and a whitish cream spore print.

Deadly Galerina is a smaller brown mushroom with creamy to brownish flesh, gills are yellowish brown, and spore print is rusty brown. It has a central stalk. This mushroom can cause death.

Angel Wings: Smaller, white, grows on evergreen wood not hardwood. Spore print white. Inconsistently reported as edible, toxic, and deadly, so I think is best to avoid.

Reference Books for Mushrooms

I use a couple of mushroom books as my main references. One is Good Mushroom Bad Mushroom by Western PA Mushroom Club member John Plischke III, and the second is National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms.

Oyster mushrooms are delicious. They sell them at stores. If you buy them there make sure to smell them and memorize the smell; that will also help you identity them in the wild. Oysters have a distinctive sweet smell.

Remember, when eating wild mushrooms you need to be 100% sure of identification. Wild mushrooms can be deadly! Oyster mushrooms always grow on wood, have white to off-white gills, white flesh, and white to cream spore print. These facts are so important when identifying!

To learn more about wild mushrooms from local experts, join a mushroom group for a lecture, hike or foray. Local groups will be listed on the North American Mycological Association website. If you’re in or near Western PA, check out the Western PA Mushroom Club.

Festive Foraging!!

~Melissa

It’s mid December in Western Pennsylvania and no snow on the ground. Though it has flurried a couple of times nothing has stuck. It may drop below freezing at night, but during the day it is in the 40s and 50s and there are many wild edibles all around. So many nutritious greens to add to soups and salads!

I took these photos on a walk around the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Brookline. Besides these edibles I’ve seen lots of deadnettles and garlic mustard all around.

Dandelion in bloom mid-December

Lots and lots of mallow everywhere

It's hard to get a good photo of the wispy onion grass

Deliciously sour and fabulously healthy sorrel...one of the ingredients in the anti-cancer herbal formula Essiac.

The oyster mushrooms were found with my friend Trish just outside Pittsburgh, in Bellevue. They are delicious! More tomorrow on identifying oyster mushrooms.

Harvesting oyster mushrooms with Trish

Happy harvesting!

~ Melissa

Wait, is Thanksgiving next week…already?!? How exciting!
We can get all sorts of wild edibles on our Thanksgiving table, from mushroom to plant…but in our case we are going to let the wild turkeys roam (we are vegetarian foragers!)
So lets have a vegan gluten-free wild Thanksgiving!

I’ve been seeing lots of prime edibles:

• Burdock root
• Burdock leaf stalk
• Dandelion leaves and root
• Sassafras and Spicebush twigs and root
• acorns
• black walnuts
• hickory nut
• garlic mustard
• dead nettles
• nettles
• creeping charlie/ground ivy
• hen of the woods
• blewit mushrooms
• abortive entaloma (mushroom)
• bears tooth or lion’s mane

…so many possibilities!!!

And what about Vegan Gluten-Free Entrees and sides for the Thanksgiving table?

Try stuffed squash, like the delicata squash above with a wild mushroom stuffing with acorn flour biscuits, burdock leaf stalks in gravy and white bean and nettle soup. For a dessert drink: dandelion root coffee pumpkin latte.

Recipe for Wild Mushroom Stuffed Squash

• Delicata (or your favorite stuffing squash: butternut, acorn) - cut in half lengthwise, seeds scooped out AND SAVED FOR ROASTING!
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 2 cups wild mushrooms, chopped (I used hen of the woods)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup seeds (I used sunflower seeds and pepitas which are shelled pumpkin seeds)
• Optional: 2 cups chopped greens such as nettles, deadnettles, dandelion greens or spinach
• 2 Tbsp gluten-free tamari
• 1 Tbsp dried sage
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

To Prepare Squash and Roast Seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Slice squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds.
3. Clean seeds and place on baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and salts and mix thoroughly.
4. Rub oil on the cut side of the squash and place face down onto cooking tray.
5. Place Squash and seeds in oven.
6. After 15 minutes remove seeds and mix again so they cook evenly. Replace in oven and cook 10 to 15 minutes more until done.
7. Check squash: depending on size/thickness it should take about 40 to 60 minutes to cook. It’s done when it is soft when the top is pressed.
8. Remove from oven, flip right side up and allow to cool.

To Make Stuffing:

1. In pan on stove, saute wild mushrooms in olive oil for at least 15 minutes, until thoroughly cooked. Remove from heat.
2. Saute onion in olive oil with sea salt until translucent.
3. Add garlic, mushrooms, celery and spices and saute at least 5 minutes more.
4. If using greens, add them now and saute until wilted.
5. Add seeds and saute another couple minutes.
6. Add cooked rice and tamari and mix while heating through.
7. Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.

Fill Squash with stuffing and serve.

I’ll continue planning our Thanksgiving table and keep you updated.

I made a recipe for White Bean Nettle Soup which I will share with you soon as well.

What other things can you think of for the wild table?

Please add your comments below.

Enjoy the fall!!

~ Melissa

Late October...Deadnettle reemerging

Lamium purpureum!

Whether it is because the weather is getting cooler or the days are getting shorter or both…this little wonder - who I haven’t seen since the end of April - is back! And Deadnettle/Purple Archangel will be around all winter, even when it snows, so if I have a hunkering for fresh greens midwinter I will be able to satisfy the urge!

This and chickweed are coming back now, and I’m so glad!

Love,
Melissa

We’ve had so much fun today creating a cafepress store! We’ve got aprons, journals, t-shirts, sweatshirts, totebags, teapots, waterbottles…!!

Everything in three great designs: Mushroom Hunter (with a Morel photo), Eat Weeds and Thrive (one with a yellow dock seed heart and the other with chicory flowers.)

I love the journals:

Mushroom Hunter Journal

…but the tote bag is also cool:

Eat Weeds and Thrive Chicory Tote

…and the apron is awesome:

Eat Weeds and Thrive - Yellow Dock Seeds Heart

All of the above with any of the designs, check out the whole store:

Enjoy, my friends!

Love and yellow dock seeds,

Melissa Sokulski

Vegan, Caffeine-Free Pumpkin Latte

This drink is just so good. Made with Dandy-Chicoffee* (”Coffee” made by simmering roasted wild dandelion and chicory roots), it is caffeine-free and thoroughly kid-friendly and kid-approved!

* As far as I know, I just made up the word Dandy-Chicoffee. Don’t ask for it at the grocery store…you’ll be met with a blank stare.

The creamy base is cashew milk, which I made by simply blending 1/2 cup raw cashews, 2 - 3 dates, pits removed (depending on how sweet you like it), 2 cups water, in the Vitamix. Cashews are a soft enough nut that the milk does not need to be strained, it blends so smoothly.

To the cashew milk I scooped out the pulp of a half a cooked acorn squash (you can use cooked pumpkin - or even canned pumpkin I suppose, to make it more authentically pumpkin. I cooked it by cutting it in half, scooping out seeds (which I salted and roasted - yum!), placing face down on an oiled baking sheet on 350 degrees until soft, about 40 minutes. It will depend on the type and size of squash/pumpkin you use for how long to cook it.

simmering roasted chicory and roasted dandelion roots

I had some dried chicory roots from this summer, but I went out and gathered some fresh fall dandelion roots which I washed and chopped. (I put the leaves in the dehydrator…I’ll be using those this winter!) I put the chopped fresh dandelion roots and dried chicory roots into the oven at the same time and roasted them for about an hour at 350 degrees. The fresh dandelion were chopped much smaller than the chicory, so they dried and turned brown in the same time the chicory root roasted. I took about 2 Tbsp roasted dandelion root and 2 Tbsp roasted chicory root and simmered in about 2 cups of water, maybe a little more water. (You can use a lot more water…I made this coffee three times using the same roots each time!)

To the blender with the cashew milk and cooked squash, I added the strained Dandy Chicoffee, a bit of pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove), and possibly a bit of agave (depends on how sweet you like - the first time I added the agave, when I made it again I left it out…I found it was sweet enough with just the dates.)

I blended again until it was nice and frothy.

I sprinkled a bit of pumpkin pie spice on top of each mug and we have been enjoying this drink for days now. It’s just so good.

Love and Pumpkin Lattes,

Melissa

Hunting for mushrooms is a lot like birding. In birding, there is often what is known as the “spark” bird, the bird that stimulates interest in birding or birdwatching for someone. It could be any bird, even common birds like blue jays or cardinals. I think morels are spark mushrooms for a lot of mushroomers…the mushrooms that draws people in.

There’s another birding term: nemesis bird, for a bird that is regularly seen by others but for some reason eludes you. For me this is perhaps the snowy owl.…there was one which dropped in to a farm not far from Pittsburgh this winter and stayed for quite a while. But by the time I heard about it and raced immediately up to see it, I missed it by a day. People saw it the day before but no one had seen it that day….it had flown back north. But really I haven’t tried enough for it to be a nemesis yet.

However, there is one mushroom that despite years of looking, of other people regularly finding huge amounts, I have yet to spot: the hen of the woods (maitake.)

hen of the woods (maitake) - I did not find this one, though I did photograph it.

Luckily Dave is able to find it a bit, so we have been able to get some and experiment with it. It is Dave’s favorite edible mushroom, and possibly mine too (close ties: chicken mushroom and morels.) It also stores well: you can fresh freeze it (simply chop it into the right size pieces and put in a plastic storage bag in the freezer. Don’t thaw before using, just throw it from the freezer into the pan or pot.) or dry it (it rehydrates very well for soups or chili.)

So far my favorite thing to do with it is make chili. The recipe I used below makes a delicious chili, though I did “cheat” and used a can of kidney beans and a can of black beans. Be a real pioneer and use dried beans that you soak and cook yourself! (or not…) I adapted it from a Giant Eagle recipe for Hen O’The Woods Chili, believe it or not. (Giant Eagle is a local supermarket chain for those that don’t live in Pittsburgh.) They actually sell hen of the woods in their produce department sometimes. So, if you’re like me and the hen is your nemesis ’shroom (or you’re not quite confident in mushroom ID skills yet) you may be able to find it in your supermarket and still make the chili.

Hen of the Woods Chili (Vegan and Gluten-free)

hen of the woods (maitake) chili

• Hen of the Woods Mushroom, chopped into bite sized pieces (I don’t know how much, how much do you have? Probably 2 to 4 cups chopped is good.)
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 chopped jalapeno pepper (or bell pepper if you don’t like spice, or omit)
• 2 chopped celery stalks
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can black beans (or use your own soaked and cooked beans!! Any kind you like for chili. I was being lazy.)
• a bunch of tomatoes blended in your high powered blender, (or a can/jar of tomato sauce) - we still have lots of tomatoes from our garden! So I’ve been blending them in the Vitamix and cooking them down into sauce or putting in soups. With the vitamix you don’t need to worry about peeling them
• 1 - 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• salt, pepper
• olive oil, for sauteing
• 3 - 4 cups water (or broth…I just used water.)

In a big pot: saute the hen of the woods, onions, garlic, pepper and celery in olive oil. Add some salt while cooking. I actually cooked the hen a bit first so it could release it’s water and then cook a bit, but I think all together would be fine. You can add the spices now (chili powder, cumin and basil) before adding beans and water, and then add more if necessary once you’ve added the water, giving it a more “layered” flavor.) Once the onions are all cooked and translucent add beans, blended tomatoes, and water.

Let it simmer to blend the flavors. Adjust salt, pepper and seasonings to taste. Let cook at least 45 minutes to an hour. At least. It’s often even better the next day.

I served it over brown rice with a little hot sauce.

Enjoy!!

What was your spark mushroom? What’s your nemesis mushroom?

And now, I’m off to search the woods….maybe I’ll find a hen of my own. I just finished the rest of this chili at lunch…

~ Melissa

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