Mushroom Bonanza!

Disclaimer: We are amateur mushroom hunters and are by no means experts on mushroom collection. Even if we were, the photographs and descriptions in this post are not sufficient to identify mushrooms you find yourself. Please don't eat any mushrooms that haven't been ID'd by an expert. It's super dangerous.

While on a bike ride in the backwoods of VT, Tristan spotted not one, but two varieties of choice mushroom, just hangin' out on the side of the road. The first is the easy-to-ID oyster mushroom. We have grown these from a kit in the past, and there are no poisonous look-a-likes (on this continent). We gathered probably about a pound of these puppies. 

We would never have considered gathering the second find had we not just learned about them from our lovely friends in Ithaca. Lobster mushrooms are actually mushrooms that have been parasitized by a fungus. The fungus parasitizes a few different varieties of mushroom, all of which (to man's knowledge) are edible. The parasite causes the host mushroom to turn orange and red, and curls the cap upwards into a flute. This combination makes the mushroom resemble a cooked lobster claw. They even smell a little like seafood. These mushrooms are just gorgeous and are supposedly a real delicacy. We didn't harvest any today because we weren't 100% sure we had ID'd them properly. Better safe than sorry. 

I did take some pictures, though, and we called our friends at the Dacha Project. After giving them a description and showing them our photos, we were told that nothing else resembles lobster mushrooms and that we had indeed found a jackpot. Hooray! We'll return tomorrow to see if any are still worth harvesting. 

By the way, I promise to write a thorough post about the Dacha Project soon. These folks are simply amazing, building an off-grid community near Ithaca, NY and doing all sorts of amazing workshops and community building activities. They have a website about their endeavor with a beautifully written blog. Check it out! You will love it.

Aaah, Summer

We have been enjoying the bounty of the Vermont woods on our visit to my parents' new place. While exploring the property with my mom, we found many, many blackberry bushes with ripe berries galore. We picked about 2 cups of berries, enough for three delicious turnovers, which were enjoyed with tea at breakfast.

Farmers' Museum

From Ithaca we traveled to my Grandmother's house in Oneonta, NY. Having a few days in the area gave me the chance to take Tristan to one of my favorite childhood places--the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown. The Farmers' Museum has a wonderful collection of 19th c. tools and household items, along with a "village" of historic buildings and a working farm with a heritage breed program that reflects the crops and methods used in the early to mid  19th century. The Farmers' Museum is really a people's history museum--it celebrates the ingenuity and creativity of regular folks. Yay for that.

We had lots of fun learning about the heritage breeds they raise at the museum, the hops they cultivate (hops was the most popular cash crop in the area at the time), and seeing how homemade cheese turns out when you can't cool it for aging (it comes out hard as a rock, like a parmesan). My favorite part of the day was watching a demonstration of how flax is turned into linen. It was astonishing how quickly and easily the craftsperson turned dry raw flax into a soft fiber that felt much like horsehair. I think we will try to grow flax next year and see if we ca figure out the process. Sadly, most of the books we found on turning flax to linen are out of print, so we'll have to do some digging for guidance.

Goodnight, Moon

Wagon and Moon. Ithaca, NY.

Counter Refinish #2

My attempt to refinish the kitchen counter using beeswax and mineral oil was a dismal failure. Even before we left Santa Fe, the counter was riddled with water, soap and rust stains--the more natural finish just wasn't waterproof enough for such a heavily used surface. While in Ithaca, we were able to borrow a sander from our friends at The Dacha Project and refinish the counter a second time. The remnants of that nasty black stain remained after a thorough sanding, so we opted to stain the wood before applying high-gloss urethane to the surface. Much less environmentally friendly, but the surface is protected now.

Lake Michigan

We stopped for a dip in Lake Michigan while we were in Indiana. The water was lovely and so were the dunes, but what's that in the background? Oh yes, a nuclear power plant. It made for an ominous swimming experience.

Perc

My grandmother gifted me an enamelware set for the gypsy wagon, including a percolator. The perc came with a plastic top, which meant that the hot coffee was getting run through plastic every time we used it. While we were at Lehman's, I happened to notice this one-size-fits-all percolator knob on the shelf. $3 later we have a glass knob and the plastic knob is history. It's so great to find items like this that allow you to improve or extend the life of your stuff. And a cool retro, plastic-free package to boot!