focusing on foraging

A few weeks ago I collaborated with my friend Julie on an article about foraging for the latest issue of Joie Magazine.  We wanted to share a bit of our collective knowledge and encourage others to consider adding foraged foods to their menus from time to time.   Putting my thoughts on the subject to paper has kept foraging in the front of my mind and I've been having a little mental conversation with myself about it.  It's obvious that I love it, but why?  And why is it important to me that other people try it too?

For one it makes me feel closer to nature.  Feeding myself from food I've harvested by hand is an intimate act, one that inspires a sense of thankfulness and wonder in me that a microwave burrito doesn't.  I like having access to special food that I couldn't otherwise afford.  Not to say that foraging is so much of a frugal thing.  Yes I may be able to find lobster mushrooms for free in my woods but it takes time and effort to find them, clean them, and cook them.  Do I still think it's worth it?  Yes.

I think people should understand where their food comes from, and too often we don't.  I also think that people are moved to protect things they love.  If people loved dandelion jelly perhaps they wouldn't be spraying their lawns with chemicals trying to kill them.

There's a lot to think about, for me, and I don't want to get political or preachy.  I'm just sort of thinking out loud today.

If you haven't, please stop by the latest issue of Joie - issue 5, and have a read.  The entire mag is beautiful and I think you'll enjoy it.

wordless Wednesday

a mushroom winner!

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by my wee giveaway.  The stories, anecdotes, and recipes you shared really knocked my socks off.  I loved reading each of them.

Many of you talked about family trips to the woods to look for mushrooms and I love that.  That's a memory I'm trying to create with my own children.  I remember finding a giant puffball in jr. high that was large enough to let everyone in our school have a piece of it.  Our science teacher cooked it up in butter and it tasted like french toast.  It wasn't until I was past the teenage years though that I got really interested in mushrooms.  It started with a few morels I found while walking with my dog.  I went home, identified them, cooked them up and that was the beginning for me.

One of you had a question for me and that was, how do I know which mushrooms are okay to eat and which are to be used for dyeing.  First let me say that I only eat mushrooms that I can positively identify.  There's a tendency to want to identify something as the edible you're searching for, but that urge must be resisted.  Only eat something you can positively identify.  When it doubt, throw it out.  Check the shape, size, color, spore color, habitat, season, everything before you commit to eating it.  When starting out eating wild mushrooms it's nice to start with those that don't have any poisonous look-alikes.  There are a lot of good books on mushrooms and I usually tote my guide book from the National Audubon Society out in the woods with me.  There is also a lot of good information online.  David Fischer's "basics" page is a great place to start.

As for mushrooms that are good for dyeing, there are books out on this subject but I haven't gotten any yet.  My experiments with dyeing are largely just that, experiments.  Last year when I noticed that the rotting Lobster mushrooms were giving off a red color I was curious if they were used for dyeing and searched online for the answer.  Just in the past few weeks a similar search led me to Shroomworks' blog which is a helpful and interesting read.

I hope that helps a bit.

Now on to other business...(drumroll please)...the winner of the wee mushroom scene is

Marilyn!
from Room on the Left

Congrats, Marilyn! You'll be receiving an email from me shortly.

Thanks again to all of you that took the time to leave your comments.  I wish I had a mushroom to give each of you.

Have a great Tuesday.

an end to mushroom week

I thought I'd end the week with a wee giveaway.  After continuing with the mushroom theme this week, it only seems fitting that today I sat down and needle-felted a small sculpture from some of the mushroom-dyed wool I talked about this week.  As a thank you for tuning in, I'd like to offer it to one of you.

 The tops are a lovely raspberry color from Lobster mushrooms, dotted with french knots dyed with the same.  The underside is that great mustard yellow from the Phaeolus, and the stem is a cream color from the Sulphur Shelf.

The little piece is about 5" tall from the top of the tallest mushroom to the bottom of the cedar stump.

***this giveaway is now closed***

***To enter, talk to me about mushrooms.***

Tell me in the comments what interests you about them, or why you don't like them, or ask me a question about them, or give me your best mushroom soup recipe...something about mushrooms.

***One comment per person please.***

I'll draw a name on Monday evening and announce the winner on Tuesday morning. (Sept. 13 2011)

I'll ship worldwide, but do keep in mind that the piece of cedar branch has its shaggy bark still attached, so while this giveaway is open to everyone please understand that if your country doesn't allow natural materials (like bark) to enter, your mushrooms may get stopped at customs.

Thanks so much, everybody!

It's been a fun week for me with all the mushroom talk.  I hope you enjoyed it too.

dyeing with Phaeolus Schweinitzii

"Mom!  I found a mushroom!  Come and look!"  My little ones are often calling me from across the yard to check out their finds.  It isn't often that my oldest, the teeeeenager, does so when he beckoned me the other day, I was curious as to what he found.

He showed me a large yellow and brown mushroom at the base of a pine tree.  I stood there thinking "I know this mushroom, I know this mushroom..."  I hadn't ever seen one in person before but a quick look online confirmed that the boy had found a Phaeolus Schweinitzii, or the Dyer's Polypore. 

I quickly finished my chores so I could chop this mushroom up and put it in the dye pot.  I simmered the chunks in water for about an hour while I mordanted some wool with alum.  When the dye seemed ready to go I let my wool, some silk, and a length of cotton floss steep in the hot dye.  After it had cooled I pulled from the dye pot an amazing mustard yellow that I love.

I did a second batch and got wonderful results once again.  I ran out of dyeing time so I froze the rest of the mushroom chunks to try again later.

I read that it's possible that the Dyer's Polypore may fruit again in the same spot so I'll be watching that pine again next year.  The presence of the mushroom is also bad news for the tree so it's likely that it will soon be firewood.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Sulphur Shelf aka Chicken Mushroom

I found my first Sulphur Shelf mushroom last year.  I almost walked right past it, as it was high in a tree, and I was looking down for mushrooms.  We cut down that first mushroom and marveled at how good it tasted and I've been keeping my head up looking for another since then.

On my way out of the woods the other day a flash of orange caught my eye and there it was, right at hip-level.  Thanks Mr. Sulphur Shelf, that made for much easier harvesting.  This guy was nice and young and tender.  He was bright orange on top and bright sulphur yellow on the underside.

I cut off about half, thanked him for his sacrifice, and skipped to the house to cook them up.  This was a smallish harvest so I planned to eat them right away, rather than cook and freeze them like I might do with a larger flush.

And speaking of larger flushes...

My mother in law spotted this huge one on a dead oak while taking a walk and shared pictures with me.  Having the poker face that I do, I squealed and frantically emailed her asking if I could come and harvest.  She agreed and I came home with about 10 pounds of mushrooms.

This specimen was a bit older than my first one and I had to trim a lot of woody and buggy bits.  Those I tossed in the dye pot.  The rest was sauteed in butter and frozen in serving sizes for this winter.  Sulphur Shelf is one of those mushrooms that freezes really well and it truly does taste like chicken.  It doesn't have any poisonous look-alikes but if you harvest, be sure to leave any that are growing on pine or hemlock.  Look for those growing on dead Oaks, to be safe.  (You can read more here).

Yesterday seemed like soup weather so I pulled out the mushrooms I had sauteed from my first find and tossed them in to a tortilla soup recipe.  Oh so good. 

The results from the dye pot were decidedly ho-hum, so much so that I didn't photograph them.  I'm sure this is because I was using older mushroomes.  I think that with a fresher mushroom the yellow would have been brighter.

So if you see a flash of yellow and orange in the woods this fall, check it out.  It could be your next chicken tortilla soup calling.

wordless Wednesday

I know this is supposed to be a wordless Wednesday post but I had to share my sense of abundance, verbally.  I went on a short walk in our woods the other day and within 5 minutes had seen a dozen different mushrooms.  By the end of my walk I had taken over a hundred photos of mushrooms.  The ones you see here are a fraction of what I saw, and I'm imagining that I saw only a fraction of what is out there.  Aren't they amazing?

As always, click on the photos to see them a little larger.

dyeing with lobster mushrooms part III

This weekend, after dyeing wool with a different mushroom (more to come...) I sat down at the computer to find more information about what I had just worked with and came across an incredible blog that has changed the way I look at mushroom dyeing.  Shroomworks' blog is amazing and I read it front to back all in one sitting.

She mentioned in one of her posts about lobster mushrooms that she used washing soda in the dye bath.  She was getting lovely colors, much deeper than the pale peach and yellows I've gotten, and I was inspired to try again.  Our lobsters are now past-prime for eating (eating mushrooms trumps dyeing with them, for me) so I gathered up the mushy and bug-eaten for the dye pot.

I started by cutting just the orange outer skin from the mushrooms, another of her tips, and put them in my dye pot with some water.  I let the pot simmer while I mushed up the mushroom chunks with my pastry cutter.  When things started looking soupy, I added a few sprinkles of washing soda and kapow! Color!

I was so excited at the colors I got that I did several exhausts, resulting in various shades of pink and fuschia.  I dyed large pieces of silk and fine merino with the hopes of making a nuno scarf, because how cool would that be?!  I also dyed a small amount of cotton floss and a piece of vintage doily.  I love them all.

Even though I'm not much of a pink person, I am beyond thrilled with these results.  I've frozen the lobster mushroom chunks as I think they have more color to give, and I'm sure to revisit this again.  I can't wait.



the lovely green-stain fungus

September is National Mushroom Month and it's starting off with a bang here in the north woods.   While my patch of woods doesn't produce much in the way of mushrooms in the spring, it is abundant in fall.  This weekend I took over a hundred photos of mushrooms, ate mushrooms, and dyed with mushrooms.  I figured as my tribute to favorite forest floor-dweller, this week my blog posts will all include something fungal.  (like they don't usually...)

Today I'll show you the green-stain fungus.

These little cup fungi discolor their wood host, leaving it with streaks of teal green.  I usually spot the green wood but rarely get to see the actual fungus responsible for it.  This weekend though I saw it in several spots in the woods, which was pretty exciting.

I began collecting bits of this lovely green wood a few years ago and tried dyeing wool with it, unsuccessfully.  I then read that woodworkers have prized the green-stained wood for centuries, using it in detailed inlay work, and was intrigued.  The wood I had found was really decayed and soft, unusable for woodworking, but I still kept collecting bits as I found them just because I think they're pretty, and I'm a magpie.

One day I found a piece that wasn't decayed and I nearly jumped for joy.  I picked up the piece and literally went directly to the saw and started cutting.  What emerged were some small pieces for some natural-dyer friends of mine, including this little pendant.

Thank you Sonia, for the photos!

I have a small amount of this wood left and I hope to make a few more pieces from it.

In the meantime, I'll keep picking up pieces of green, just in case.

Have a great week, everyone.  Happy Labor Day to my friends in the US.

pocketed placemat tutorial

If you find this, or one of my other tutorials, helpful and would like to make a monetary contribution to help me keep wool in my basket and ideas flowing, I'd be so grateful.  By clicking the "Buy Now" button below you can choose your own price for the tutorial.  It's completely optional, but oh so appreciated.

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It has been a while since I've spent time crafting for myself.  I decided to change that this week and do something with the canvas dropcloth I've been tripping over in my workshop.  I love the almost linen-like look of the untreated canvas and decided to use it on my tabletop.  A few cuts, a few stitches, and some collaboration with my little ones and I had myself some placemats.

Placemats with cute little pockets!

They were incredibly easy to make and here's a little how-to if you'd like to give them a go yourself.

Materials

canvas

sewing machine threaded with your choice of thread color

paint - acrylic or fabric paint

leaves

waxed paper

You'll need to cut two pieces of canvas for each placemat.  Mine are 11" x 15" which fit my plates and silverware nicely.  When determining the size I laid out my dish and the silverware pocket to check for a proper fit.  You'll want to adjust the size to fit your own dishes as needed. 

Cut a piece of canvas roughly 3" x 4" to act as a pocket on your placemat.

Enlist the help of children to do botanical prints on your pocket pieces.  If you don't have any children laying around, then go on and do it yourself.  Instructions for making nature prints are here.

After your leaf prints are completely dry you'll want to sew across the top of each one to stop the fabric from fraying too far.

Pin the pocket to the front of your placemat and sew down the side, across the bottom, and back up the third side.  Be sure to back stitch at the beginning and end so your pocket holds securely.

After your pocket is sewn on, pin the top layer of your placemat to the bottom layer.  I'm going for a simple look with an intentional fray around the outside.  None of that turning inside-out fanciness for me today.

Sew the two layers of placemat together, keeping the stitches 1/4" from the outer edge.

Fray the edges of the placemat and the pocket by removing the threads running parallel to your stitches.  Be careful not to tug the stitches out in the process.

Give your placemat a good shake or a once-over with a lint brush and there you have it!

Ready to serve.

My kids think the little pockets are super cool and the younger ones were eager to set the table.

Eager.

To set the table.

That alone makes this project totally worth it for me.

If you're so inclined you could also treat these to make them more stain-resistent.

I think these would be cute made from denim too, maybe with pockets made of bandana material or leather?  Or made of felt perhaps?  Or recycle a thrift-store raincoat and make placemats that can withstand a storm of peas and carrots, that would be cool.

If you try it, I hope you'll share the results.  I'd love to see where your creativity takes this.