Mushroom Monday

This weekend we made our third trip to the local mountains to hunt for mushrooms. Yep, "hunt" instead of "forage" because we have no idea where they are, let alone whether there will be enough to collect. Since these mountains are so new to us, and the weather this year so very odd, we've picked a few areas to try to visit with some regularity. Our first two trips yielded...

not a mushroom

not a mushroom

...some spectacular views, glimpses of elk, wildflowers, mule and white-tailed deer, fingerling trout, turkeys and geese; nary a mushroom. Wrong place? Right place, wrong time? Who's to know! We're after the wily and capricious boletes of the southwest so there's just no telling.

Well, actually, there's some fairly educated guessing about habitat and timing going on but still, it feels like we're stalking wild prey. So imagine the adrenaline rush when we saw this on our third outing:

a little orange dome among the young aspen trees, what could it be?

hum... orange-brown cap, cap dry, whitish pore layer, dark scabers on the stalk, stains purple-gray to black when cut

That's right! An Aspen Bolete (Leccinum insigne). The first time we found these a few years ago we knew they were boletes (pores, not gills or teeth) but had only seen the Boletus edulis in hand so we consulted our handy Arora pocket guide to find this notation, "Edibility: excellent, it darkens when cooked." They were the only boletes around at the time so we bagged a few to try and off we went.

When we got home M hit the internet to find out more from our other best & trustworthy regional resource, Colorado Mushrooms, "Edibility: edible by some." Uh oh. Reading further:

"The Rocky Mountain Poison Center received occasional reports of serious gastric problems, some requiring hospitalization, from eating moderate amounts of so-called orange caps, usually well cooked, found under aspen in various part of Colorado."

Let's just say those specimens sat a little too long and by the time we got around to them they were bug-eaten and way past their prime. Yeah, that's the story... We ain't afraid of no 'shroom! I do, however, have a strong aversion to the idea of self-induced 'severe gastric distress.'  Which brings us to our specimen above...

Since our first experience with Aspen Boletes we've read up on the issues and we felt like we could make an informed decision: we would go ahead an try this one...just a small piece to see if either of us reacted to it. At least that was the gist of the conversation in the field. We got home and M prepped the mushroom for a simple fry up-- it was a beautiful, not a bug or blemish on it. As he peeled away the scabers from the stalk, "Why don't you see what Vera  has to say."  "Edibility: edible (but see caution). Looks like she wrote the above note in CM." He throws the mushroom into the skillet for a quick dry saute...

dry saute of aspen boletes

"How 'about Kuo? He's kind of conservative when it comes to eating fungus, see what he has to say."

aspen boletes turn to an inky black

Yikes! He has them in Group Three of this poisonous bolete look-alikes!

"Though it is a fact only recently finding its way into the mainstream of mushroom publications, it is a certainty that at least one or two of the orange-capped Leccinum species in North America is mildly poisonous. It is still unclear precisely which species is the culprit (and more than one species may be responsible), but all of them should be avoided."

That was that.

aspen boletes on their way to the local landfill

Maybe we'll revisit Leccinum insigne in a few more years when the experts have worked out the details.

Capturing Summertime

This week's You Capture theme is summertime. 

Go ahead and hum along with Ella, you know you want to..."Summertime...and the living is easy...."

Except around here the garden is gearing up.

 first figs of the year

black-eyed peas (folks around these parts call 'em cowpeas)

shelled black-eyed peas

sandcherries about to meet their jelly maker

thinly sliced zucchini being cooked down a la Fearnley-Whittingstall

tomatillos bound for a Rick Bayless recipe, adapted here

Tired of all those vegetables and fruit? Here, I'll toss you a bone...

mouth-watering ribs, read about them here

Ah, summer. The livin' is busy and the eatin' is good.

You Capture is a photo project designed to motivate you to get out and use your camera(s). There are pros and beginners alike who share their captures; extend your summertime fun with more photos at: I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Jammin' Apricots Part 2

"When I was growing up, canning was for old folks and cranky separatists -- oh, and for my parents..." 

That line sold me on Liana Krissoff's Canning for a New Generation. Of course, there's more: I like her tone (instructive but not pedantic); the book is organized seasonally to take advantage of your garden, local farmers' markets, neighbors' trees, green spaces in town, etc.; you might have to make a trip an ethnic market (in this town, no such thing: Amazon Prime is my friend); and she includes recipes using the canned goods (How 'bout jerk chicken made from your own mango and peach habanero hot sauce?).

We've just begun to explore this book and have had a promising start. Of the 41 pints of apricot-y goodness we produced last weekend, five of them were preserves -- our first recipe from Krissoff.  

pot scrapings, yum

You can see the end product in the photo above: dark orange, nicely gelled (no pectin) with little bits of black...okay, maybe the addition of whole vanilla beans with seeds isn't for everyone. (We're still doing double-takes; you see the preserves next to the jam and think "How did I miss that brown spot..." before the brain registers that it's a vanilla bean in the jar.) The taste is of well-cooked apricots, rich with a strong vanilla flavor; the wine adds a nice sublte floral note (we had a Mosel Riesling open so it was 1/2 cup for the pot, 1/2 cup for the cook). 

promising marriage of apricots, wine, vanilla beans and sugar

This recipe will help so-so apricots in their aspiration to deliciousness but might not be the best for fruit at its flavor peak, when capturing the fresh taste is part why you're canning in the first place. The preserves are a little heavy-tasting for use on toast or biscuits but I bet it will be an awesome ingredient in sauce for duck, or to top ice cream. Oh, the possibilities.