Surprise cauliflower mushroom

August 9th 2013

Amanda and I went out to our chanterelle spot knowing it was probably too soon.  Didn't find any chanterelles, but we did find this cauliflower mushroom (sparassis crispa).  Cooked it in olive oil.  Delicious!

April: Morel Mushrooms: Theyyyy'rrrre Heeeerrreee

There is nothing like spotting a morel mushroom in the woods.  This little guy was one of three that we found on Saturday (4/20).  We were looking for black (grey) morels, but found this small yellow (brown).  Each of them was about the size of my thumb.  I'm hoping there will be more as it warms up and if there are, I will post our culinary experiments.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding this little mycological wonder mushroom.  Attempts to grow them in captivity were unsuccessful until pretty recently.  In my experience, they love tulip poplars and elms and despise pine trees.  I have frequently found them near the edge of a collection of pine trees, but they stop short of entering.  

A friend claims that the brown morel starts on hillsides near water and then moves up the slope and away from the water over the course of their short season (end of April-May).  I haven't seen this growth movement myself, but I did find these little guys near a stream on a southern facing slope near a dead elm.  

Beekeeping: Salvaging hives

This past Christmas I received perhaps the most personalized gift I have ever been given.  My sister-in-law paid to send me to a one-day beekeeping school so that I could get started keeping bees.  I don't think everyone would be as buzzing with excitement as I was to get such a gift.  

The class was great and I learned a great deal that I am excited to try out.  Above all, I learned that there are as many ways to keep bees as there are beekeepers. 

I came back excited to begin and met with two friends, Andy and Ben, who were also interested.  Then we looked at the startup cost.  Buy the hive and all of the equipment would cost us about $700 and then we needed to buy the bees.  Disappointed, I mentally started to put off beekeeping until I could afford it.  I've already taken on too many hobbies this year.

However, just when I was giving up hope, luck struck.  

As many things happen here in PA, a friend of a friend knows a guy who...used to keep bees but stopped and had several old hives that he was willing to give us to get started.  The only issue was that they had been sitting under tarps outside for several years and needed some care. 

So we headed out and picked out enough boxes for at least 4 hives.  One interesting thing about this beekeeper was that he only used deep hive bodies for his hives.  Most keepers use these boxes for the brood part of the hive.  That is, the bottom two boxes that contain the eggs of the hive.  Then, they use honey "supers" on top for the honey.  Supers are not as deep and fill with honey faster.  We may invest in them or see if this method of deep supers works.

All in all, the hives were in good shape once we cleaned them up, sanded them, and then put a fresh coat of paint on them.  I found a website that recommended this method of putting the boxes on boards across two horses so that you can rotate them and paint all four sides.  

Probably the most pain staking process was removing the comb from the old frames.  Many of the frames were beyond salvage unfortunately, but we were able to get enough for at least two hives.  

The previous beekeeper had used wax foundations wired into the frames.  This, it seems, is ideal because the bees smell the wax and feel at home.  However, it takes more work to install the individual frames with wire.  

We decided on wax coated, plastic foundation for this first hive.  Hopefully, we can eventually try out both and compare.  

You can see in the picture above that we saved the comb.  I tried melting it in an old crockpot to see if we could use the wax.  All I got for the trouble was a kinda nice smelling black mass of disgusting goo.  We dumped it and Andy made a joke about an shame-faced bear getting caught eating it..."Don't judge me..."

The next step will be installing the bees.  We ordered a nuc (5 frames of eggs with bees and a queen to get the hive started) from Green Mountain Apiary and it should be ready mid-May.

Dandelion Wraps

It's that time again.  Last year, I learned that I really enjoy the bright and slightly bitter taste of dandelion greens (especially cooked as a substitute for spinach).  

I've also started to have lettuce from my home aquaponic system and sprouts (Mung and Alfalfa currently) from my sprouter.  

Together this means salads and wraps for me.

I love wraps and I am always surprised by the calorie count.  So I decided to make them myself to cut down some of the fat.  I was surprised by how easy and delicious these turned out. I chopped up 2 cups of dandelions (freshly foraged), added flour, and cooked them on an ungreased skillet.  

I'll definitely keep working on this recipe.

Here's the recipe I used for this first experiment.  Next time, I would cut back the expensive high gluten flour.  I added it because I hate when wraps break open when bent.  It definitely worked.  I have never used high gluten flour before.  It is very, very sticky.  I would cut it back to 1 cup next time and replace it with all purpose.  

Ingredients

2 cups high gluten flour 

2 cups all-purpose flour

2-3 cups fresh dandelion greens

 1/4 teaspoon salt

 1 tablespoon butter ( unsalted) 

1/2 tablespoon olive oil 

2/3 cup water

Directions

1. In a cup, microwave water, butter and oil for a minute or two (enough to melt butter). 

2. Meanwhile in food processor place flour, sprinkle with salt and add spinach leaves. Chop until flour

turns green and there are no longer large leaf pieces.

3. Transfer green flour to a bowl and pour water mixture over top.

4. Knead with hands. If dough is too dry add a little water, if too wet add a little flour. (however this shouldn't be necessary).

5. Now form small balls and set them in back in the bowl.

6. Cover with a damp cloth/ paper towel. 

7. Let rest 15­30 minutes. 

8. Roll out your tortillas as thin as you can, over wax paper. 

9. Heat up your griddle or skillet over low heat. Do not grease.

10. Carefully peel your tortilla from the paper and place into hot skillet. 

11. Flip repeatedly to prevent burning. Allowing about 5-­8 seconds per side until golden bubbles appear on the tortilla ­ this means they are ready! 

12. Remove from heat and enjoy them warm or let them cool.

These were amazing and the dandelion flavor was very subtle after they were cooked.

Cider: Sumac Cider

Last year in February, I was intending to create a raspberry cider, but I had a quart jar of dried sumac berries, so I decided to give that a try.  

Staghorn Sumac grows everywhere here.  Growing up, I would see it along the road with these characteristic red spires.  Smooth and Staghorn sumac get a bad rap because of their loser cousin the poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix). 

Poison sumac has white berries and grows in more swampy areas.  I have never seen it first hand, but I know the red spires are safe on either the furry Staghorn or the smooth varieties.  Sumac can be made into tea as I described here and it can also be used as a spice.  

Later I will post our experiments with cider from scratch, but this was my first batch and I used concentrated apple juice.  

Here's the recipe I used and a review:

One quart of sumac berries

13 Great Value cans of 100% apple juice

2 Old Orchard 100% juice apple raspberry

1 cup Wild flower honey

1 cup Corn sugar

1 lipton tea bag

2 Cote des Blancs yeast packets

Blended sumac berries in water and filtered through lined funnel.

Filled brew pot with water passed through berries

Brought to a boil

Briefly steeped the tea bag

Skimmed sumac berries off surface

Added honey and corn sugar

Also added 1 can of AJ and 1 can of AR

Boiled and then mixed with rest of cans and water

OG at 78 degrees = 1.058

After two weeks: 

SP at 64 degrees = 1.001

Full, rounded taste with a tartness.  

Cloudy with a bit of a pinkish hue.

Week later:

Added 1 can of Apple-Rasperry + 1/3 cup corn sugar to prime

Bottled.

Al./vol: 7.57

One year later:

A year later and the cider is very drinkable.  It is very dry and very carbonated.  In the future, I would increase the sumac content (it gave the cider an excellent red color and the tannins created a great base to add complexity).  I will also use 4-5 tea bags.

Also, I am looking to experiment with two methods for sweet, carbonated cider.  You can either pasteurize by adding more than priming sugar and then killing the yeast in the bottle (potential for bottle bombs) or you can sweeten with an unfermentable sugar (like Xylitol). 

Finally, now that I have made fresh, homemade cider, I will be retiring the concentrated apple juice.