Shiitake Revisited...

Time had passed it had been over a year with no development on the fungi front.  Enough time passed that the sting of failure wasn't going to be an issue, sure the inoculation process was a laborious one but that was over a year ago.  There were no signs of Shiitake mushrooms sprouting from my logs but I wasn't heartbroken. Not every backyard venture is going to prove fruitful.    

Then one day in August I happened to wander over to the dark corner of the yard where I had my stack of oak logs setting, sure enough there was progress.  It was plenty exciting to have two whole mushrooms sprouting from the one of the eleven logs I had mostly given up on. With the time, labor and money inputs, these mushrooms may have been the two most expensive ones I'd ever had a chance to eat.  

08/07/13

A month and a half later another cropping of the tasty mushroom appeared.  This time 11 mushrooms, not nearly the 'I shall have more mushrooms than I'll know what to do with', that I proclaimed in my first post on mushrooms. They found their way into my my next three meals: Egg Scrabble, Homemade Pasta Sauce, and Eggs with Fried Mushrooms and Onions. Finally this may have been enough mushrooms to write home about.

09/28/13

One last mushroom appeared two weeks ago, larger than my cereal bowl.  This one ended up being a two meal-er in it's self.

10/29/13

Since this was minimal input hobby, I half expected failure.  There are additional steps that can be taken to ensure a greater crop, some people even water their logs, I stacked them and left them lay.  The integrity of the logs is still intact, so it's my understanding I shall be reaping benefits of this project for years to come. 

An Oral Recipe...Kusa

This meal was a long time coming.  At the farm we grow a special variety of summer squash; it is a white zucchini called Kusa/Cusa.  Spelling depends on where you look it up, we've been growing this variety for a segment of the Lebanese population in the area for at least two decades.  We don't nearly sell as much of it as we did ten years ago but we still plant a few for the remaining customers who still cherish the vegetable.

For years I have been explaining this odd colored zucchini to other customers, how it can be used interchangeably with other summer squash and adds another color to your dishes.  I would go on to describe the dish that it is used for by the descendents of immigrants that we started growing it for years ago. "They hollow out the zucchini and stuff it with a lamb and rice mix, and cook it in a tomato sauce." Yet this week is the first time I or anyone in my family have ever prepared the dish. 

I have never been one who needs much of a recipe to cook a meal.  Most often the meals I prepare are an ever evolving process in the kitchen. This meal was no different, I asked one of our customers to send me a copy of the recipe they use, he said why don't I just tell you.  This is what I ended up with:

 No measurements or proportions but I had somewhere to start from, and often I feel vague directions gives me a desired freedom to play in the kitchen. One time I was chatting with the grand-daughter of one of our main kusa buyers and I told her that I really wanted to try to make the dish sometime.  She quickly asked if I had a corer to hollow out the zucchini, because you can't make it without the right tool.  I had thought to myself that I would be able to figure something out, I've always considered myself pretty good at problem solving.  

With the zucchini hollowed out with the aid of my drill and a 3/4" bit and the handle of a dinner spoon, the creation of the stuffing was next.  Lamb, Rice, salt and pepper and a touch of cinnamon, I also added some of my tomato sauce for moisture in the stuffing. (I used 3/4 cup of rice to a pound of lamb, which next time I would cut back on the rice.)  The tomato sauce was a few tomatoes and peppers run through the blender with a few cloves of garlic and oregano and chili powder. 

 I was cooking down the sauce for a while before the stuffed zucchini was ready, placed the kusa stuffed with lamb and rice in a soft boil and preceded to let them cook for probably twenty-five minutes.  After making sure the meat was cooked through and the rice was ready, the dish was ready to eat. 

I chose to go with a stuffed theme and also prepared cream cheese, bacon, and chive filled sweet banana peppers.  It was a mighty tasty meal, those fortunate to share the meal with me, said the recipe was one I should make again.  I was honored that this man agreed to share his recipe with me and the fun of this spoken recipe is there will be plenty of room to tweak and play when I try again. 

Fish bowl

This spring has been full of trials, I can't imagine one that has had as many stressors weighing on my mind. The spring  weather was difficult, mentally and fiscally.
There has been relief in the summer heat, the absent rays in May added to my dismay.

I've had many posts just swimming around my mind, but as the weeks progressed into summer these goldfish have been forgotten or found floating belly up.  Others remain, waiting to be transformed from scattered thoughts and into some form of linear prose.

There's been some mighty good; this winter was full of great adventures. West coast visits, mountain heights, broomball in the rain, and an escape to an air mattress in NYC.

I dedicated quite a bit of time into having a functioning garage. I've continued to bike to work, something I started in the fall. It's a short ride, but one can always take the long way home. My kitchen continues to make me happy, though it doesn't always make me dinner. The barstools were added a year after construction completion and are a stool you can truly sit on. I still enjoying the occasional home brew, even though I haven't ventured past the first batch. Judging by the growth of the hops this season, there will be more than enough for a couple of batches this fall.
The yard is a work inprogress, I just try and keep it a forward progress, though that's not always in my control.

I need to make more time to jot my thoughts down.  The process of writing it out is like catching one of those fishies from the crowded tank and letting it go... Free up some space and clean the waters.

Nature's Columns; Redwoods

I entered the woods with a high level of naivety and wonder.

The only goal was to see some Redwoods, which ones and where we didn't know.  At the info center, being closed that early in the morning, we made our decision off of a kiosk map to find 'the tall ones' first.  We had been told of 'Fern Valley' by our hotel clerk but opted for the alluring title of 'the tall ones'... I figured they'd be as good as any and hopefully tall.  Looking at the scale on the map I assumed it was around two miles of trail to get us into the woods where we'd find the trees, a 4 mile trip or so. Easy enough, leaving more time in this short winter day for other sights. Once at the trail head the sign said 5 miles one way, with a much unaccounted for change in elevation. For two Minnesota farm boys this had just become our one activity of the day.  Since we were traveling off season the option of taking an automobile path much closer to the site was not an option, not that we'd have considered before we arrived at our trail head.

Here we were on the top of the valley over-looking Dolason's Prairie Trail leading us down into the forested valley below, with five miles of trail ahead of us, ten if we planned on making it back out of the forest.  We had our cameras, a few bottles of Gatorade, a packet of dried cranberries, street shoes and our leather jackets.  Probably not your typical hikers, but who was to know, we were the only two on the mountain. 

For those six hours in the Redwood National Park that mountain was ours, at no point did we pass anyone else on the trail.  The only evidence of people was the narrow foot path that wound in and out of the prairie leading us down the the valley and deeper into the forest.  On this walk I marveled in Nature's beauty and acknowledged the greatness in man.  I have always been drawn to the Greek and Roman histories. I've dreamed of visiting the land of stone columns and here in the wilderness amongst these massive columns of virgin timber, it was not man's ability to create that inspired me. Here in the woods it was the foresight to allow these natural temples to stand, untarnished by man's innovation.

 

I recalled something I read of John Steinbeck just two days prior in a cafe on Cannery Row in Monterey: 'Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope'.  As there is a proliferation of man and his creations, we must employ a conscientious effort to allow Nature's majesty to flourish. Allow may give illusions of grandeur to mankind, rather we must limit our interference and indifference of the natural world.  I am grateful for the members of world that have found worth in what some would call underutilized land.  These pockets of wilderness throughout the world have an important role, and must grow for generations to come. 

Spending any amount of time in the forest you begin to see that death is just a platform for life.  A fallen tree left where it lays, becomes a welcoming host to a multitude of life.  Each as important as the behemoth trees.  There is no true end in the forest, in its design there is a natural re-purposing.  Death itself is not the end, it is just one more beauty of the forest, a continuance of life.
 

 
I set out on a West Coast pilgrimage to see the the tall trees; truly I have never felt more reverence amongst these Giants. I felt a bit silly proclaiming awe over a different tree every few steps, but it was sincere.  The adventure was limited by day-length and other seasonal limitations, that comes with the territory of a traveling farmer. For our time in the woods with the rain clouds scattered and the sun's filtered rays finding their way amidst the cool damp air of the forest canopy, I have never been filled with more energy and life.