From the Beginning.....for your listening pleasure.....

On the music front I have been learning three new songs on the guitar, Dust in the Wind, Blackbird and From the Beginning.  There are many hours of practice ahead of me, but I love rehearsing these songs.

I received my next cycle of Jazz Keyboard and music theory lessons and I am ready to dive into it again.

Greg Lake, 2005 Tour

I started growing a new SCOBY(symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) so that I can make my own Kombucha.

It's a beautiful one!

Yes, those other bottles that you see are Bill's Plum Liqueur, the 2015 bottling.  Bill was here with us for a few days to hunt elk, but ended up spending the last day just hunting for his cell phone which he lost somewhere in the woods.

On the garden front:  My begonias are still blooming and even though the temp was 32.2 this morning, they are still with us.

Even the fuchsia made it.

Retired Mountain Man discovered another new dahlia blooming yesterday.  It's very pale yellow with touches of pink.  I am sorry that my photo does not do it justice.  I hope it has a healthy tuber.

This is the last bowl of tomatoes.  They are not vine ripened but they still taste good.

I dried the orange roses that Dylan and Sarah sent me and they ended up pink.  They will be fun to use in a centerpiece.

I Wanna Mooch A Kombucha From You! 

(Rich is a fabulous pianist)

Rich Dworsky and The Exchange Street Band 

Take a listen as it will be a great start to your day.  

Wild mushrooms have a wide range of flavor and each variety has a deep, delicate unique taste.

If you haven't tried wild mushrooms, I would recommend it even if you have to buy the dried wild mushrooms at your local market.  In our area there are many edible spring and fall mushrooms to hunt and harvest. 

Whenever it has not been raining, Retired Mountain Man has been hunting for these little jewels.

He has found enough of them so that I can make a Wild Mushroom Orzo for the potluck tonight.

Yesterday he found a nice cluster of Coral Mushrooms.  The deer had eaten a lot of them but were kind enough to leave some for us.  These are ready for the dehydrator.

Fried Coral Mushrooms

These were dipped in Eggbeaters (to convince myself I am cutting down on the cholesterol), lightly coated with flour, and fried in butter.  Yes, they taste really good!

Mushrooms and Mae West?

Water.  I know. Again?  When I took another photo of Retired Mountain Man's Oyster Mushroom Project this morning, I started thinking about it again. 

Rain, snow, water.

The mushrooms are struggling to grow because of a lack of moisture.  He is misting them more often and keeping the door to the pantry closed.   Our wood heat has a special warmth, but the downside is that it makes the air very dry.  

Mushrooms like moisture.

 

This photo shows the mushroom project on the right and on the left, my last bag of dried oyster mushrooms from 2010. 
According to our neighbor, Neil, 2010 was the Year of the Mushroom. 

Yes it was. We had rain.  Rain, rain and more rain. 

Mushrooms were everywhere, even the varieties we see very few of such as the King Boletes and Chanterelles.  The 2010 Mushroom Saga.



On the other hand, 2011 was a bust as far as mushrooms go. That means making it through this winter with what dried mushrooms I have in my pantry.  The cupboards are not bare yet.

 

But, as you can see, the jars are half full.

 The Club Mushrooms have a sweet taste and are great sauteed in butter and then added to a recipe such as spring rolls or a risotto. 

 Chanterelles, the most golden, delicate mushroom of all.


Each wild mushroom has it's own unique taste and texture.  It takes some experimenting to figure out which mushroom is best in a recipe, but it's worth the time. 

Ah, 2010.  "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!"  A little quote from Mae West. Do you remember her? I don't think she was talking about mushrooms, but...

Temperature:  26.4 degrees.  Four inches of snow on the ground - snowing lightly. 

It's that time again.  More coffee. 

Mushroom Saga continues.......

Lobster mushrooms, Chanterelle mushrooms, Club mushrooms, Oyster mushrooms, King Bolete mushrooms.  Wow!  We are in mushroom heaven this year!

 Beautiful Chanterelles

Lobster Mushrooms

 Chanterelles with a few Club mushrooms ready for the dryer

Green tomato harvest-part three

King of the Mushrooms!

Jon found three of these mushrooms today!  They are one of the most sought after of all mushrooms.   Delectable fresh or dried.  Sliced and dried King Boletes are fantastically flavorful.  The tubes are separated from the caps and make what is called the Essence of Edulis.  You can then make a roux of flour and butter and you have an excellent mushroom flavor sauce for soup or gravy.

 A deer had already nibbled on this King Bolete, but other than that is was in excellent shape and very tasty!

I sauteed the tubes in a little butter and then added some water and seasoned with salt.  The broth is very rich and has great mushroom flavor.

We Found the Mother Lode!

To all mushroom lovers the Chanterelle Mushroom is just like gold!  It has a wonderful taste and texture.  Jon and I found these jewels yesterday afternoon.  You must have top security clearance to have access to the location.

The Boletes are not near as tasty and although the experts say they are edible, we have decided they are not up to par.  The Shaggy Manes are tasty even though they look terrible when they are cooked.  

Fall Mushroom Time

We've had a little rain and the Lobster Mushrooms are pushing up through the duff.  Jon and I hunted for about an hour yesterday and ended up with about 10 lbs. of mushrooms.  They are red and kind of ugly, just like lobsters.  Go figure.  When you slice them, they have a beautiful white flesh and the texture is quite firm compared to other mushrooms.  They are very tasty though and have a nutty flavor. They work well in a mushroom soup or added to rice.   I saute' them and add them warm to a green salad with crasins, sliced pear and walnuts.  I am drying most of these.

Bitterroot Mountain Morels

It wasn't easy pickin'.  Travis, David and Jon hunted 9 hours for these jewels and hiked to over 6000 feet.  They did bring home 8 1/2 gals. of mushrooms!  Yum!

This shows all but four trays that were in the dehydrator.  What a haul!

Montana Morel Hunt

We traveled to Montana for a wedding and spent the next day hiking up what was the site of the Kootenai Fire to hunt for morels.  It started out as a very nice walk and turned into quite a hike up the mountainside.  We spent all afternoon looking for the tasty little jewels and it seemed many times that someone else was ahead of us.  We would see a boot print and the stubs of the morels.  We did find some though and had a very enjoyable day!

At about 5060 feet we decided we had gone uphill enough and started back down.  We found quite a few mushrooms on the way back down.  

It doesn't look very steep here, but we managed to find quite a few steep places.  We had to side-hill for a long time coming back down because it was so steep.

The firefighters on this job earned their money!

Looking across the Bitterroot Valley towards the Sapphires.

Wheyward Goats

We drove to Suzanne's farm today for her open house.  The baby goats were very cute!  Help!  There's not enough room in here for kids!

Hey!  Get us out of here!