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let's see your veggie garden {pics}

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ChinaVoodoo

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I made an attempt at growing mushrooms in logs. You buy dowels that are inoculated, drill holes into logs and pound them in. I think the pleurotus failed because the logs were too new. The hericium failed because the logs were already colonized by lenzites or some other crap annual decayer. You could see the mycelium growing like crazy on the dowels that were still in the bag, so I know it was my lack of effort that caused the failure. :confused:
 

skychaser

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A friend of ours picked a bunch of Chanterelle's last year and gave us some. They were delicious! So are puff balls. Just be sure to cut them in half and make sure it's really a puff ball and not a button of another species.

I've been thinking of giving these a try. Sounds like something fun to do this winter. And easy.

Oyster Mushroom Grow Kit
http://cascadiamushrooms.com/oyster-mushroom-grow-kit/
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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My friend in California bought and grew out one of those oyster mushroom kits successfully.

I'm waiting for next spring. I spotted a bunch of them growing out of a log up in our mountains. I didn't pick them because I couldn't verify the species, but I now know someone who can positively identify them. I'm still not completely sure about the 'shrooms in the picture, but at least I now have someone to take them to for verification.

One of my mushroom picking associates likes to use the phrase "Mother-in-Law mushrooms." As in, if you are not sure about the mushrooms, feed said mushrooms to your mother-in-law and see what happens.

oyster mushrooms.jpg

Photo taken near Godman ranger station. Elevation ~ 5,800' on a southeast facing slope.

Wes H.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Right habitat. Different color from ours. They are obvious here. White, juicy and soft, smelling like anise, riddled with les magôts.
 

deluxestogie

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I planted my 2019 garlic today.

Garden20181108_3982_GarlicBedPlanted_600.jpg


This bare patch of dirt was tilled with fertilizer. The cloves of 4 heads of garlic (2 Czech Broadleaf and 2 Slovenian Anka) were planted in a hex grid pattern. I'll rake up some leaves for a winter mulch. It is now critical that I totally ignore the garlic until next June.

I cook with a fair amount of garlic, and use full garlic cloves in pickling. After each harvest, I select the two largest heads from each variety, and hang them in a mesh bag in my pantry. When planting time comes (early November), I separate the cloves of each, and plant them 3 or 4 inches apart. The yield (40 to 50 heads) is consistently more garlic than I can use each year.

Bob
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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I had a pretty good idea where to go looking...

Tobacco seedlings 11-11-18 Bear's Head.jpg

Photo: Chunks of a "Bear's Head" (Aka: Hericium abietis) mushroom I found attached to a deadfall log at about 5,300 feet in the Blue mountains today. It took about 10 minutes to locate one of these among all the down logs in this area. This southeast facing hillside has been a prime area in the spring for hunting Morel mushrooms. I should have brought my camera with me, but I took my anti-bear device with me instead. When intact, these are hemispherical in shape and this one was about 8" across. My info book describes them as "edible and choice" whatever that means. I'll cook some tomorrow and find out.

Wes H.
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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I took my camera along today. I got lucky with the afternoon sun peeking through the forest canopy so I could get a decent shot.

Tobacco seedlings 11-12-18 Bear's Head.jpg

The one pictured was the only one of three that I found that I could bring home with me. Notice the little skiff of snow. Actually the "snow" is fog precipitate. I was able to remove the bulk of this one without breaking it up into small pieces. Practice makes perfect. This photo was taken about 20 miles from yesterday's prospect and about 1,000 feet lower. Maloney Mountain, approx. 4,300 feet elevation in the Blue Mountains of Washington State. I have one more place I can prospect and then I'll call it a year.

Wes H.
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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I cooked some of this to give it a try. Fried in a pan with unsalted butter. It was very mild. I had to add a little salt to give it some flavor.

This is about what I expected. Mild.

Wes H.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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It's my favorite mushroom because it's mild. I like picking mushrooms, but I generally only like eating the mild ones. I'm the perfect companion for mushroom hunting. I will help you pick, but leave them mostly for your pantry.
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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Fishing...Hunting...Rock and mineral collecting...Mushroom picking...It's all about the chase. Not necessarily the results. I seldom get skunked at mushroom picking. I was nearly skunked at watermelon growing, but I still tried. When I started growing tobacco three years ago I didn't know if I could do that either. But I have had fair success at that.

Hopefully, life will give more successes than failures. You 'gotta give it the old try.

Wes H.
 

deluxestogie

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I would guess that none of us are hunter-gatherers. We are hunting, gathering, growing-dilettantes. At least until there's no other way to obtain food and tobacco.

Bob
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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An apt observation. The hunting-gathering behavior is however, bred right into us.

Growing crops and livestock tend to be a lot more productive than hunting and gathering. I guess that's why we gave up our hunting gathering-lifestyle a very long time ago. These days, hunting and gathering is just for entertainment. Getting out into the woods is certainly more entertaining than the television!

Wes H.
 

deluxestogie

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I was at Walmart today, hunting for just a few things. I did manage to gather most of them.

I made up three dinners of Choucroute, in three 16 ounce ramekins. (One for tonight, the other two to save.)
  • Bacon (on the bottom)
  • Sliced (boneless) pork country rib
  • Coins of mild Italian sausage (slice it when still slightly frozen)
  • Sauerkraut (2 layers)
  • Diced potato (top layer)
  • A bit of cognac (maybe 1/2 tsp per ramekin)
  • water to fill each
  • black pepper and garlic powder (no added salt)
These baked at 375°F for about 90 minutes.

The meat can be any combination of wurst or sausage, chunks of meat, etc. Either bacon or a chunk of cured side meat provides a key flavor ingredient. The greater the variety of meats the better. When preparing a large dish of choucroute, I use whole, small potatoes or chunks of large potatoes. My impression, over the years, is that pork works much better than beef in choucroute.

Bob
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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Can't say I've ever heard of it. But that's what the internet is good for. Sound's good.

Which is reminding me that sauerkraut and old fashioned frankfurters and corn-bread might be a good change up.

Wes H.
 

deluxestogie

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I just finished grinding all of my Golden California Wonder bell peppers from 2018 into powder. The fresh peppers were harvested when ripe and bright yellow, and immediately sliced into thin strips. These, along with the seeds were sun-dried while assisted by a seedling heat mat. Once fully dried, they were stored in a closed canister jar, waiting for me to make the time to do the grinding.

Garden20190103_4111_GoldenCalWonder_powder_600.jpg


Today, the actual grinding was a two-step process. First I put batches into my food processor, which converted some of it into powder, while unable to do much with the harder pieces and the seeds. The batches were sifted through a strainer, then the small, harder pieces and seeds were shuttled into my cheap coffee mill, which easily finished the job.

As you can see, this is a fair amount of pepper powder (around 1-1/2 cups). It is mild and gently flavorful, particularly good for white and light colored sauces. (Besides, I no longer tolerate more piquant peppers.)

The process got a lot of kitchen tools dusted with yellow powder. But it rinses away easily.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

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30 Minutes of My Life

Garden20190306_4176_blackWalnutMeat_600.jpg


Not strictly from my "garden", the three black walnut fruits that I gathered from the lawn had been drying since autumn. One of my baby (and wild) black walnut trees had conveniently dropped them over the fence, right next to my lawn chair. Today, I decided that "one of these days" was now. With a pair of pliers and a claw hammer, I pounded away the outer husk, then managed to actually crack the nut shells. A small fork assisted in prying out some of the smaller pieces.

You can't just sit down and eat a handful of black walnuts. They are too strong and astringent, and not the satiny, yummy Carpathian (English) walnuts sold in the supermarkets. But their intense flavor is perfect as a condiment. My typical use for black walnut is sprinkling a dust of finely chopped fragments on top of a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Another way that black walnuts differ from Carpathian walnuts is their thick, nearly indestructible shells. You can't just "crack" a black walnut, and extract a half or a whole nut. I suppose a vise somewhere might succeed in breaking them open more gently. But a nut cracker is powerless against them. My 16 oz. claw hammer required multiple blows so severe that I worried for the kitchen counter surface on which I was engaging in this savagery--not that the hammer might miss the nut, but that the nut might crack the counter.

Of my three black walnuts, one was found to be moldy inside, and was discarded. What you see in the photo is the yield of the remaining two nuts. The pounding and the picking and the subsequent cleanup of all the widely scattered debris consumed about a half-hour. Gone forever.

Bob
 
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