Do bought vegetables taste of anything?

No wonder people don’t eat the vegetables that they buy, tonight we had some corn on the cob, and it was completely tasteless, hey it looked really nice but that was about all. What a complete waste of food, neither of us ended up enjoying our meal, and have gone back to make something else.

The supermarkets and growers have ruined food they really have, with the mass agribusinesses, only intent of making a huge profit, to the extent that even organic food now is tasteless. That didn’t really take them long to alter organic food to taste just like the pesticide ridden rubbish that they love to grow, but then what can we expect they are experts in it!

After only a year of growing our own, and wildcrafting it has made our palette far more used to foods that have a natural taste to them, and not something which you have to cover in a sauce or condiment in the hope of your dinner actually tasting of something. It was an interesting experience really, as we both said well we just need to get a bigger space to grow in and become more self sufficient, it has spurred us on.

Another thing, just as aside, we noticed also how the wild crafted apples we no as sweet as the shop ones we buy, even though they were the same types. They were much nicer, really crisp, and fresh.

Chem trails?

Tonight was really interesting, because we think we might have seen chem trails over the place where we go walking. The cloud lines in the sky were all in a grid pattern, not at all like the normal plane trails we see and also at the time could see to compare with at the time. They were very different in the way they were dispersing into the atmosphere, and we both commented on it, also the grid like pattern just didn’t look right at all.

We are well aware of chem trails but had seen nothing where we lived and thought we were safe from this happening, but maybe not? If anyone has any ideas from the photos attached please comment.

Puffballs, Shaggy Parasols, and bitten by a Horsefly!

The title pretty much says it all! We went out to find a Giant Polypor, as you do on a Saturday, in the woods, R had seen it earlier and wanted to just show it to me! No jokes please….But it had gone, obviously someone else had gotten there first, well second to be precise, we wouldn’t of eaten it as they need slow cooking to make them palatable, so we hope someone is enjoying eating it. Shame really though because it was about the size of a dinner plate which would of been good to have seen.

Anyway we got ourselves an absolute haul this evening of mushrooms, stacks of Puffballs and Shaggy Parasols which we are busy now drying out, which as I have said before is our preferred way of consuming them. We are going to look far more into the Shaggy Parasols as they can cause stomach upsets, but we thought we may as well dry and powder them anyway.

Whilst we were out we saw what was a pile of plastic bags on the floor, we thought we couldn’t leave them there and would find out what they were covering. Whilst doing this out flew a Horsefly and bit R on the neck. So he now has a huge welt, and it is rather painful, I have said we could ginger pack it to reduce the inflammation, but he doesn’t want to do this! So he is now feeling pretty sorry for himself!

Here is a photo of all the beautiful Rosehips on one of the bushes near where we live, they are such an amazing red colour. We won’t be picking them as for us it is too much work, and we are doing quite a lot of other foraging currently, but I imagine next year we will pursue trying to use these as they are in such abundance.

More mushrooms

I think because it’s been so wet the last few weeks that it’s made it perfect conditions for mushrooms to grow. Now the weather is fine again we have been out walking and searching for mushrooms in the woodland where we live. And we have been finding alot! The latest one we have found is a Yellow Cracked Bolete, it is edible, but normally non desirable, and of little taste, but as always we have dried them and it does make them far more palatable. Also we can add it to the foods we are making like soups, or stews and use them in our powerful supergreens mixture. We have been making over the year our own green powders to have during the winter. This has meant us collecting as many natural wild edible foods, and leaves, which we have been drying out as soon as we have picked them, and then putting them into air tight containers. After years of buying supergreen powders like Pure Synergy and Inner Light, it has been a revelation to be able to make our own. Not only have we found it easy to do, but we have found them to be incredibly potent to use, improving our health immeasurably every time we take them. It has also made us understand which leaves, herbs and mushrooms our bodies need at that time, rather than just taking a a superfood with everything in it, we find we often don’t need it all!

I had at one stage stopped using my dehydrator, after years of drying out foods for salads to make my raw food diet more interesting, I had stopped using it, preferring raw fresh foods the majority of the time. But now the dehydrator has a new lease of life with all the foods we are drying. It is very easy to make these supergreen powders, but you do need time and patience and a good knowledge of what you are going out to pick. The thing is your own wild crafted foods are going to have so much more positive resonance than something which has travelled hundreds of miles, and be so much better for you.

Most of the Bolete family of mushrooms are edible, but always check our information with a good mushroom book before you try them for yourselves.

Another mushroom we found which is very rare to find is a Stink Horn, which can only be eaten in it’s egg stage, not in the stage in which you see in the below photograph.

Quince Wine

When I came home from work today R had been busy making a gallon of quince wine, yes, you read right a gallon of the stuff!

The quinces came from a friends garden we have to confess, we didn’t go foraging for them this time! I have never seen quinces before and didn’t realise that they were like pears. My friend said that she makes jam out of them normally, but R was more set on making wine out of his, so no surprises there then!

Our hallway is now full of bubbling cider drums, and another gallon of quince juice in a bucket. This is the first time we have made any kind of wine so it is, much like the cider a trial, and if R gets something good to drink, it is a bonus, hopefully the trial won’t go wrong and the fermenting gets out of hand! No explosions although we have been thinking of decorating anyway!

To make this trial batch, which i am sure I will be updating you all on somewhere in the future we did the following. The quinces were brought to the boil and simmered for 15 minutes after being grated down. It was then left to cool down and once it had reached room temperature, it was strained into a large bucket. The bucket had sugar added to it, then pectin enzymes were added, and the juice of 2 lemons.

It’s now being left for 24 hours until the yeast is added, when this is done, it’s all mixed up, poured into it’s demi john where it will be nicely fermenting alongside the cider in the hallway. If anyone comes round they will think I have opened up a brewery!

Plantains

We love plantains, earlier in the year we were picking the leaves and have dried them for use now, in fact the pigs we pass in one of the farms absolutely love them as well. They should as they are superb to eat, incredibly good for you, and the seeds are good for collecting, and you can make flour out of it. We now have quite a large amount of both dried leaf, and seeds which should last a few months.

This is how we separated the husk from the seed itself, we allowed the wind to sift as we poured from one bowl to another.

And now it is all left on the side ready for us to use and probably use in our breads that we make.

Red Ivy

Not all fruits in the garden are edible!

Hi all, R’s here again to have my say, I know I don’t write any where near as much as D does but I’m sure you’ll find my penny’s worth is just as good.

It’s that time of year when all the interesting natural stuff starts to turn up, most of the fields have been harvested, the soft fruits are on the bushes, the roots and tubers are all swollen and ready for digging up, whether these be potato’s in the garden, or burdock roots in the woods. Mushrooms are some of the most unusual fruiting bodies you’ll probably find.  I’ve been out and about looking for these elusive morsels, it takes time to locate specimens, because although you  may search a woodland one day and find nothing, the same location the following day may reveal dozens of different species.

This has happened to me the last few days, we have a large playground of woodland right on our doorstep, hundreds of acres of deciduous and coniferous woods, as well as some mixed woodland as well. I’ve been on various long walks over the last couple of days, D’s already told you about the Common Puffballs, Orange Peel and Amethyst Deceivers we’ve found, but I’ve also found a number of other edible and none edible mushrooms.

The Shaggy Parasol is a familiar sight here in the South East of England, trouble with this mushroom is it can cause digestive problems in some people, so if you’re of weaker constitution then it is best avoided. I personally have never had a problem with these and have eaten them with no hint of a side effect. These are so easy to identify, even the ones in the picture though not fully open can be identified by the splitting (shaggy) cap and when the stem is broken the sap oxidises red.

The Red Cracked Bolete is a funny little creation, it is quite common here but is of a make up which doesn’t make you want to eat it. If you touch the under side and stem, it bruises blue! And the cap itself has a feel of wet compacted newspaper, it is edible, but all the literature states it’s undesirable because of it’s texture alone. So reserve this one for survival situations only.

The Giant Polypore, though edible if slow cooked, again can cause digestive problems in some people. This is one I haven’t tried as of yet,  I was more interested in the shear size and make up of this most beautiful Fungi, it looks like something from another planet. When I first found it I thought it was a freshly cut tree stump, until I realised the patterning was actually 3 dimensional. A beauty to find and look at, but of all the books I have read, none put this down as worth eating unless you really need to, and if you do take only the youngest  and softest of the branches, slow cook in a quality stock for as long as you can stand to.

Now this last one (see the photos  below) I wasn’t 100% sure of at first, as with almost all mushrooms there is another that can look very similar. Is it The Miller or is it the Peppery Milk Cap? Now both are edible, but the Peppery Milk Cap like so many other mushrooms can cause side effects in some people along the line of digestive problems. The Miller on the other hand is a very desirable and and tasty mushroom. One way of testing is to break off a bit of the cap, Peppery Milk Cap will leak exactly what it says, a peppery milk! Now when I did this none came forth, but this does not mean it is not a Milk Cap. This is a classic example of know your mushrooms or they could prove fatal or make you very ill. In this case I believe this mushroom to be a Miller as there are other slight differences, the gills of a Miller are slightly pink, the Peppery Milk Cap are white. A lesson here for all I think.

As autumn settles around the woods more and more mushrooms will turn up,  take the time and search out what’s there as you’ll never know what’s there unless you

The Miller or is it the Peppery Milk Cap?

shaggy parasol

Red-cracked bolet

Giant polypore

look, good luck and take care with identification, dozens of people die each year through misidentifying, if in doubt even the slightest of doubts, DON’T EAT THEM.

R.

Mushrooms

Amethyst Deceiver

Orange peel mushroom

Puffball on the right is edible, leave the one on the left alone!

After the rainy weather we have been having we have both been looking forward to collecting the inevitable mushrooms that we knew would be forming, and we haven’t been let down. On every walk just lately we have been able to collect Amethyst Deceivers, Orange Peel Fungus, Smooth Puffball, False Chanterelle, and Common Puffballs, some of which we have decided to dry out, and the rest, well we are going to make wild mushroom stew. The Amethyst Deceivers are such a lovely purple colour, and you so rarely see purple foods that we are feeling pretty lucky. These are the ones we have decided to dry out, and we will do a mixture of powdering some down for us to take with our other dried herbs, or to make into a mushroom stock later on, and we are leaving some whole to add to foods when we are cooking them.

It is a shame though because we could have collected far more, but peoples ingornance in regards to mushrooms means that they have just been standing on them, and in some respects kicking them around. This is a true waste as some of these mushrooms are highly prized, and we do feel very lucky to have them, but others obviously don’t feel the same. Mushrooms are often seen as something which are dangerous to go collecting, but having the right type of book which details and shows the information it is possible to identify most of the edible varieties which can enhance any meal.

Japenese Rosehip

It’s amazing what you find whilst out shopping, as we passed Pets at Home we found that the bushes around the shopping center were Japanese Rosehips, which have much bigger fruit than the English variety. We picked 4 of the fruits so that we could bring them back and grow them ourselves as they are full of white pips. I think many of us forget that we would at one time picked fruit to save the pips to plant the following year. The fruit has high concentrations of Vitamin C, and other nutrients including B Vitamins, so not only would they make a lovely garden bush they are edible as well, they are so much larger than our native variety that they have to be easier to deal with! We wouldn’t eat today’s fruit as they were by the road, but we have said about growing these for a while and it was really opportune to find them like this today.