Country Wisdom News

by Maria Reidelbach

Maybe you've never thought about this, but what is the definition of a weed? A weed is, simply, any type of plant that is growing where it's not wanted. Contrariwise, any plant that is wanted, is not a weed. It's really not so much about whether or not a plant has been domesticated, but whether or not it's desirable. It's freeing to remove this prejudice against free-range plants. I don't know about you, but I find any garden party is more fun with a few wild interlopers in attendance

This month, I have the pleasure of reviewing a new book written by clinical herbalist Dina Falconi and illustrated by botanical artist Wendy Hollender, two Rondout Valley residents. They have created a work of art. These women have amazing chops in their respective fields, and I have been eagerly awaiting this book almost since work began over three years ago. The finished product surpasses my dreams; it's nothing short of the best wild foods cookbook I've seen and the most beautifully illustrated. Certainly this is not a book about weeds.

Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide & Wild Food Cookbook is a large, hardcover book—not truly a field guide—but it is overflowing with useful information on finding, identifying and cooking native and invasive plants. This fulsome source is ever-so-timely in a number of ways. First, it's about free food! I'm an artist and have always had my eye open for freebie snacks, but with the economy the way it is, most everyone watches their spending. Second, many wild foods are more delicious and flavorful than their domesticated counterparts—and some have no civilized kin and their flavor is a wonderful novelty. Third, it shows a way to eat more local food—right from your backyard. The carbon footprint of eating food from your yard is...zero! And last, wild plants are a whole food and chock full of nutrition. Wildcrafters have known for a long time that foraged plants are extra nutritious, and now science is catching up. In the last 15 years new technology has enabled researchers to measure the amount of phytonutrients in our food. What's a phytonutrient? They are the compounds that reduce the risk of a bunch of nasty, fatal diseases: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even dementia. When plants were domesticated and bred to be sweeter and blander, these tasty compounds were bred right out. Wild plants contain three to thirty times the amount of these essential nutrients than domesticated plants (see source below).

Don't you find it just amazing that there's an abundance of free, delicious, nutrition-packed, low-environmental impact whole foods that are, literally, yours for the taking? Mother Nature is so generous!

Foraging & Feasting will enable you to harvest the bounty and make wild plants a regular and substantial part of your everyday diet. The book comprises two parts. In a full color section, 50 wild plants each star on their own page. Wendy's drawings and the handsome graphic design make each composition a delight to behold. Plants are identified by common and botanical names and every part is depicted, and often shown in various stages of growth. Dina's annotation homes in on salient features of each plant—which parts are edible, growth habits, habitat, culinary uses and caveats. Wendy's illustrations are more helpful than photographs because they can highlight distinctive characteristics that will help you identify a plant with certainty and confidence. Even though I know most of the plants in this book on sight, I learned much from the detailed and well-organized information. And the beauty of these pages makes them a pleasure to browse and linger over. There are several detailed charts that make it easy to learn, compare and reference types, origins, habitats, harvest times, and culinary uses of the 50 featured plants.

In very readable introductions Dina discusses how to identify, harvest and store wild foods, and how to use the identification pages. She also describes her philosophy of cooking and nutrition—as a life-long food activist she has worked out a sensibly healthy diet. Dina has very high standards about the quality of the food she recommends, but she is also understanding about living in the real world and the compromises that are necessary to get a meal on the table.

The cookbook section is based on master recipes—simple formulae that make it easy to substitute ingredients and elaborate or simplify a recipe at will. If you're harvesting wild plants you don't know what the day will bring; a master recipe shows you how to wing it. Foraging & Feasting has over 100 master recipes that Dina has tested and used for years—anyone who has attended a potluck with Dina knows what a great cook she is! There are many recipes for familiar dishes using wild plants: herb and fruit drinks, dips and spreads, salads and dressings, all kinds of soups (green, bean, cream and bisque), sandwiches, green salads, whole meal grain salads, main dishes, and desserts. There are also recipes for dishes that are less familiar, like water kefir, agua frescas, and lacto-fermented foods. Even though this is not a book on herbal medicine, it is full of information about the specific health-giving qualities of each plant. The cookbook section is so generous and complete that it could even stand alone as a very good general cookbook.

Foraging & Feasting is currently available through the website foragingandfeasting.com, and also soon stocked at local bookstores. There is a public Book Release Party on Sunday, July 14 from 4 to 7pm at Hollengold Farm, 222 Lower Whitfield Road, Accord. Books will be available for purchase at $38 and can be signed by the creators.

Links and sources:

foragingandfeasting.com

Jo Robinson, “Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food,” New York Times Sunday Review, 5/26/13, p. 1, 6-7.

Jo Robinson web site: eatwild.com

[to box?]

Agua Frescas Master Recipe

From Foraging & Feasting by Dina Falconi

Agua Frescas, from my native Mexico, combine water, fruit, and sweetener to produce refreshing celebrations of the season. Using the least amount of sweetener allows the flavors of the fruits to burst forth.

• 2 cups fresh or frozen fruit (about 8-10 oz) cut into 2-inch pieces. Remove large pits and seeds or, if using berries or grapes, leave whole

• 3 cups water

• 2-4 tablespoons sweetener (more or less to taste) such as raw honey, maple syrup or Sucanat

Blend the ingredients well, strain if desired, chill if desired, and serve. It is best to drink Agua Frescas right after they are made, but they will keep, if covered in the refrigerator, for 2-3 days. If making ahead of time, re-blend or shake well just before serving.

Note: Straining the Agua Frescas is unnecessary if the fruit you are using has only a few small seeds and you enjoy drinking a more textured liquid.

Makes one quart.

Illustration caption:

From Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook, by Dina Falconi, illustrated by Wendy Hollender.

Maria Reidelbach is the proprietress of Homegrown Mini-Golf. With its farm theme and all-edible landscaping, Homegrown Mini-Golf was named by MSN as one of the 10 Most Unusual Mini-Golfs in the United States.

by Maria Reidelbach

Last month in my column about bees, Chris Harp, local apiarist, explained that the blossoms of fruit

Mulberries.

trees are one of the richest sources of food for bees. Just after I wrote the piece, there was more bad news about the colony collapse disease that threatens the entire honeybee species. What a great time to think about adding more blossoming fruit trees to a garden both for our six-legged allies and for our own delight!

If foraging wild food is like a pick-up, and growing annual vegetables is like a summer fling, planting a fruit or nut tree is like getting married. Both marriage and tree take time to get established, but if healthy, both endure for a very, very long time. “You plant a pear for your heir,” is the old saying that John Wightman repeated to me. John is the extremely knowledgeable farmer of Wightman Fruit Farm and an NRCCA Certified Northeastern Crop Advisor. He sobered me about the impact of, and the amount of care needed by, the unimposing twig with roots that you place in your garden. If all goes well that twig will become a towering presence, so you want to take your time and choose very, very carefully. If you choose well, John adds, well-placed and -tended fruit and nut trees can add a lot of value to a garden both visually and productively. He points out succinctly, “Trees are fantastic at turning solar energy into stuff that tastes good.”

Siting a tree in an optimal location is crucial. The main conditions that affect a tree's success are: the amount of space for mature size, amount of sunlight, the condition and composition of the soil, water drainage, exposure, wind direction and soil contamination. Many species need to be planted in pairs in order to fruit abundantly (kinda romantic, I think), so you've either got to have room for two, or get your neighbor to plant one. The permaculture method takes the art of siting to a new level. Ethan Roland is the principal of Appleseed Permaculture in Accord and for the last seven years has been planning balanced ecosystems that contain a wide variety of food-bearing plants, from annual vegetables to berries to fungus to trees. Ideally, all live in a symbiotic community that makes the best of a site's conditions and that maximizes self-maintenance and sustainability.

The variety of tree you choose will have a huge impact on your success. Counterintuitively, the most obvious choices are not the best! Our Hudson Valley climate spans the USDA hardiness zones from 5 to 7. This rules out citrus fruits and tropical fruits, obviously, but also makes some borderline species much more challenging. Peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums will grow here, but you court failure at many turns. Successful growers take these limitations seriously and instead choose species and varieties that thrive here.

Elizabeth Ryan is a local ag powerhouse, one of the founders of the New York City greenmarket and farmer of four orchards in Dutchess and Ulster counties. For home growers she recommends pears; the trees don't freeze and although they grow slowly, they will live 100 years (plant a pear for your heir!). Elizabeth also suggests the sweet cherry varieties Schmidts Biggarreau and Hedelfingen, and sour cherries, which I think are the most insanely delicious fruit ever.

Lee Reich is a New Paltzian who has written a bunch of books about all aspects of edible landscaping. He's got a master’s degree in soil science, and a doctorate in horticulture. Lee grows a stunning variety of fruits and vegetables on his “farmden” (farm and garden). He recommends native varieties because they evolved especially for our environment. These include the pawpaw (get a named variety), the persimmon (Szukis is good), pear (dwarf trees do well), sour cherry trees (Cornelian), and chestnuts (peach chestnut). Wightman recommends dwarf varieties for small gardens.

Cultivated fruit and nut trees need more care than ornamental or native trees because it's heavy-lifting to grow fruit every year (literally): they need species-specific feeding and pruning, they are vulnerable to pests and diseases (who also like to eat fresh fruit), and some more particular than others. Apples, as it turns out, are incredibly difficult to grow, and require specialized pruning and multiple pesticide sprayings, whether organic or not. It's not rocket science, but if you don't do it right you probably won't get fruit and your tree could die. Who knew?

Many smart growers choose native fruit trees with unfamiliar fruit. Natives are both hearty and disease and pest resistant. Philip Perlman is a retired video and filmmaker and a founder of The Kitchen, a performing arts org in New York City. These days he farmdens in Accord, and has become so smitten with the pawpaw tree that he has planted over 60 of them—a real pawpaw plantation! Pawpaws are a delicious, tropical-tasting fruit that is distantly related to the banana. Philip sells his extras to the High Falls Food Co-op, where you can get them for a few weeks in September. Lee Reich points out that pawpaw trees are very beautiful in all seasons. They also begin bearing in just three or four years. Another native tree that is recommended by the experts I asked is the persimmon. Philip likes the hearty American persimmon varieties, which bear a juicy, sweet-tart fruit in the fall. Ethan recommends mulberry trees, with a delicious fruit that looks like a blackberry.

Chestnuts take a long time—7 to 10 years to fruit—but they, too, are a favorite with our mavens. A generous neighbor gave me some fresh chestnuts once and they were shockingly good. Most native chestnuts were wiped out in the 20th century by blight, but now there are new blight-resistant varieties. Lee recommends hybrids and Philip likes the flavor of Chinese chestnuts best. Hazelnuts are also a hearty native nut and they grow in curious little cabbage-like shrouds.

There's something I haven't mentioned that is a problem with almost all fruit trees. Squirrels are the elephant in the room (or, er, garden). Philip recommends planting your trees far enough apart so that the little buggers can't jump from tree to tree. Birds, also, can be voracious. Chris Hewitt (CW publisher) once told me that smart old farmers would plant mulberries next to their cherry trees because the birds liked mulberries better.

I hope that I've whetted your appetite for tree fruit and nuts. But do your homework! Catalogs may entice, but as John Wightman points out, “You don't build a house by going to the lumberyard first,” and “don't plant more than you can care for.” It's a bit of work, but the payoff? John confides that “my apples taste better to me than any other apples do,” and your fruit probably will, too. He thinks it's the taste of pride.

Maria Reidelbach is the proprietress of Homegrown Mini-Golf on Kelder's Farm: wacky putting greens set in a tasting garden of edible plants.

Tree fruit related events in May:

Lee Reich plant sale (keep an eye on his blog for details)

Kickstarter project to rebuild the historic cider house at Breezy Hill Orchard: kickstarter.com, search Breezy Hill

Good resources:

Appleseed Permaculture: appleseedpermaculture.com

Lee Reich's website and blog: leereich.com

Fruit Production for the Home Gardener, Penn State: http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/fphg

The Pruning Book, by Lee Reich

Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, by Lee Reich

Landscaping with Fruit, by Lee Reich

The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, by Rosalind Creasy

New York Nut Growers Association: nynga.org

Northern Nut Growers Association: nutgrowing.org

Local commercial orchards mentioned above:

Breezy Hill Orchard, Staatsburg

Stone Ridge Orchard, Stone Ridge

Wightman Fruit Farm, Kerhonkson

by Maria Reidelbach

Last month we talked about the havoc that deer wreak in your garden. We covered how deer are gourmets and like to eat baby plants and most of the same fruit and vegetables we like, how they're creatures of habit and tend to stick to the same habits and trails. One interesting fact I've learned in the meantime is that the leaping deer signs so common on our roads often mark the spots where deer trails cross the road. They're like deer crosswalks (cross leaps?). Who knew? Also, another deer resistant edible plant to add to the list from last month: our local currant maven, Ray Tousey of Clermont, told me that deer won't eat black currant plants—only the black currant has the fragrant greenery deer scorn, the other colors don't.

Last month we talked about deflecting methods, this month we'll talk about more active measures to take to protect your dinner, because once deer know that your yard is yummy, they'll make sure to cruise it regularly for anything fresh and new and it will become one of their habitual paths. The most extreme and permanent solution is fencing; it's also the most expensive and I'll leave that for last.

A combination of more modest strategies will often do the trick. Scare devices work, especially if you regularly rotate them to keep deer on their toes (do deer have toes?). You can try motion-triggered lights or water sprays. Scare tape and balloons may be effective, as can be the classic scarecrow, especially if you dress it with shiny objects like sequins and metallic items (why should drag queens have all the fun?). Wind chimes with shiny danglers hung from trees can work, too.

The next resort are repellent substances. Repellents work best if you use them before deer have made your place their daily hangout. And again, for the best results, alternate what you use. There are a bunch of different products out there, some of them are stinky, some noisy, some emit electronic waves. Liquid repellents seem to work the best, and are used either on the plant itself (contact repellent) or are sprinkled around the plants (area repellent). Deer Defeat, a company in Red Hook, has developed a nontoxic product that works so well that Victoria Garden's landscaping crews use it in many of the gardens they care for. You spray on or around the plants you want to protect, several times a season, as directed. You can use it on food plants, but because it contains raw eggs, it's not recommended for use on plants you expect to eat any time soon. For the surprise effect, alternate stinky repellent with “sweet” repellent made with cinnamon, also available commercially.

You can make your own repellent; the essential ingredients are eggs and water. It may not last as long as commercial products, but you probably still only need to apply it every couple of weeks. Here's a recipe for a tweaked version.

Stinky or Sweet Deer Repellent

3 raw eggs

3 Tbsp garlic juice or chopped garlic OR 15 drops of cinnamon oil

Use a blender to puree the ingredients with enough water to keep everything whirling. Add the mixture to one gallon of water. Use the liquid as a spray either directly on the plants or on surrounding vegetation.

This repellent may also be effective against rabbits and groundhogs.

Other common home deer repellents, such as hanging bars of Irish Spring soap or balls of hair, don't seem to be as effective as sprays, with reports of deer actually eating the soap, but again, try things out, and talk to your neighbors about what they've found effective. Deer gangs have their cultures and herd mentalities.

The most expensive, but most sure-fire solution to keeping deer away is a fence. The best kind of fence varies regionally, but here in the Mid-Hudson Valley, there are several good choices. A minimalist approach that works near houses was shared with me by Chris Hewitt, the publisher of this paper and a master gardener. He drives six-foot pieces of rebar into the ground around the edges of beds. Then he runs three rows of nylon fishing line low, middle and high on the bars. Deer bump the line and don't know what it is. Chris cautions that this works best in beds around houses where people are and deer are skittish, otherwise the deer figure out that they can push through.

Diane Greenberg of Catskill Native Nursery works on the front lines of deerland all the time. She has used picket fences with added taller posts to which a running chain is attached, making the fence look more imposing—to a deer. Chris says a five-foot fence can work around a small garden; deer are hesitant to jump into a small, enclosed space. A six-foot fence can be made to look taller with the addition of sticks poking above. But you really need a seven-foot fence, in this area, to reliably keep deer out. For best value, Chris recommends using 2x4 welded wire fencing and cedar posts—there are cheaper deer-netting materials, but they are not very durable. The wire fencing is also available in a black vinyl coated version that is less visible.

For those set against constructed fences, Diane suggests living fences—thick, tall hedges made of a variety of deer repellent and resistant bushes and grasses, with constructed gates at entry points. Hedges have the virtue of adding beauty and a natural border to your garden.

More info:

Ray Tousey has a table at the Kingston winter farmers’ market where he has his own currant juice and crème de Cassis, among other tasty produce and products. He's got plants in season.

Deer Defeat, more info at deerdefeat.com

Herzog's Supply Company, Kingston, herzogs.com, carries sweet deer repellent and 2x4 welded wire fencing.

Catskill Native Nursery, Kerhonkson, catskillnativenursery.com, edible deer-resistant plants and herbs.

Victoria Gardens, Rosendale, carries deer repelling supplies and plants.

Phantom Gardener, Rhinebeck, thephantomgardener.com, an organic source of gardening and deer repelling supplies.

Maria Reidelbach is creator and proprietress of Homegrown Mini-Golf on Kelder's Farm and is quite busy getting the edible landscaping ready for spring.

by Maria Reidelbach

If you think we upstaters have it rough in the winter, check out Sweden. It's got the same latitude as Nova Scotia, and parts of Sweden are so cold that they're frozen from September through May. The first day of winter has a mere six hours of sun. Swedes really need to party during the darkest days, and it's no wonder that they have created fabulous winter holiday traditions.

I'm lucky to have a Swedish-American friend, Bibi Farber, who grew up there with her mother. Every year Bibi celebrates the holiday season at her Kerhonkson cottage with at least one party featuring delicious Swedish dishes: creamed potatoes, beets, gravlax, and sweet-and-sour cabbage. She also serves glögg, a hot spiced wine that is a wonderful antidote to cold and darkness. She uses pretty white demitasse encircled in red hearts that she inherited from her mother. I don't know which is more warming, the glögg or Bibi's beautiful smile as she pours and passes the cups.

To bring a little of the Swedish spirit to your holiday celebrations, here are a couple of fun and interesting recipes. Despite their Scandinavian origins, I've added local twists.

Harold McGee's Cured Salmon with Pine Needle

Cured salmon, also called gravlax or lox, is easy to make; you just need a little lead time to let the salt and sugar do their work. The great food science and history authority Harold McGee suggests the following variation on traditional Swedish gravlax with dill by subbing pine. It works beautifully as a resiny aromatic—a delicious counterpoint to the richness of the salmon. And I'm told by Kevin Best, an avid fly-fisherman from New Paltz, that our local trout, whose season is just ending, would be wonderful served this way, too. It would be a treat to try it!

1 to 2 lbs. center cut salmon filet

6 Tbs. kosher salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. coarsely ground pepper

2 Tbs. vodka, aquavit, grappa, or other strong white spirit, optional

1 1/2 cups pine needles (any type of pine), chopped

Dry the filet and cut it in two. Mix the salt, sugar, pepper and pine needles. Sprinkle 1/3 in the bottom of a baking dish. Lay in the filet, skin side down. Sprinkle the rest of the mixture on top. Cover and refrigerate. Let cure for at least 24 hours for thinner pieces, up to 72 hours for very large pieces, turning and basting a couple of times a day. When the texture has become firmer throughout, remove from the dish and rinse off the pine needles, dry and serve in very thin slices with mustard sauce on rye crackers or thin slices of brown, white or rye bread.

Four-star tip: Chef John Novi, from the DePuy Canal House, told me that you can treat salmon this way for a shorter time period and then sauté it, with extraordinary results.

Mustard Sauce

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

2 Tbs. sugar

2 Tbs. white wine vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Bibi's Grandma's Glögg

Bibi says, “All the booze can be the least expensive variety and the measurements are approximate.”

2 bottles of burgundy or other hearty red wine (New York state, of course)

1/4 cup brandy, or more to taste

1/4 cup vodka, or more to taste

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup sugar, or more to taste

1/2 cup honey, or more to taste

1 cinnamon stick

3-4 cloves

1-2 cardamom pods

Peel of half an orange

1 cup blanched almonds*

*To blanch almonds, bring a couple cups of water to a boil, add the almonds and let boil for about two minutes. Drain and let them cool and the skins slide off easily. Bibi warns, “Watch out as they may fly around the room when you squeeze them!” Maria says, “Best to do this before you start drinking glögg!”

Warm all ingredients except almonds together in a pot. Don't let it boil even for a second or the alcohol will evaporate. Put an almond or two into each cup and fill with hot glögg, using a ladle.

Skål!

Good links:

Harold McGee—he makes food science and history fascinating: www.curiouscook.com

Bibi Farber's NextWorld TV—great videos about sustainability: www.nextworldtv.com

Shawangunk Wine Trail—a fun way to discover local wineries: www.shawangunkwinetrail.com

John Novi's DePuy Canal House—the Hudson Valley's only 4-star restaurant: www.depuy.com

Maria Reidelbach is the proprietress of Homegrown Mini-Golf on Kelder's Farm, the only miniature golf course with edible landscaping (m@mariareidelbach.com).

Hen-of-the-Woods Season

by Maria Reidelbach

Now that the weather is turning cooler the autumn mushrooms will be coming into season. I was about to write “the autumn mushrooms will begin to appear,” but one thing I've learned over the last couple of decades is that mushrooms are not predictable—that's why it's called “mushroom hunting” rather than “mushroom picking.” Although we've had plenty of rain since the spring dry spell, we will just need to wait and see and hunt to see what turns up.

One of my favorite varieties of edible mushroom grows in the autumn. It's easy and safe to identify, even for beginners, and you can find them all over the Hudson Valley—it's a gourmet treat called hen-of-the-woods, also known as maitake and Grifola frondosa.* These delicious mushrooms are polypores, meaning that they have a shelf-like structure with a firm, sponge-like spore-bearing surface on the underside. They're known as hen-of-the-woods because they resemble a fluffy, feathery, brown chicken, although they can be much, much bigger, easily five pounds and up to 20 pounds or more! We're about to get a local maitake farm in Wawarsing, and while cultivated hens are good, they're quite expensive (about $16 a pound). It's a wonderful thing that we can gather the even more delicious wild version at the same time as we're getting exercise and enjoying a walk in the woods.

Here's what to look for: hen-of-the-woods alwaysgrows on the base of big, old oak trees and they will grow year after year on the same tree. I look for large oaks with vertical splits in the bark; they seem more likely to host a hen. You'll have to sharpen your eyes to see these camouflaged fungus—they look at first glance like piles of leaves. The young ones are just bumpy pale brown biscuits, but soon they send out frond-like forms that are shades of brown on the top and off-white underneath.

You'll want to collect hens in this leafed-out stage, but not so big that they've become dried out or very crumbly—the best are firm-to-tender, just a little moist, and have good and mushroomy fragrance. Avoid hens that smell of ammonia, a sign of decay. Also make sure that the mushroom hasn't been splashed or dusted with anything gritty, which will sink right into the fronds as they grow and become impossible to remove. If you have a doubt, you can check for this by chewing a little piece right on the spot.

There are only two lookalikes for the hen-of-the-woods. One is the umbrella polypore (Polyporus umbellatus), which is pale brown, pretty rare, grows on the ground, usually in summer, and is equally delicious. The other is the black-staining polypore (Meripilus sumstinei), which grows on buried wood and stains black. It's not toxic, but is usually too tough to be edible. One more caveat: people taking MAO-inhibitors should avoid all polypores because they contain tyramine.

Hen-of-the-woods can be cooked in many ways, but they do love to be gently cooked in liquid, which brings out their nutty woodiness. To clean them, pick out bits of leaves and twigs (I once had a lizard run out of a particularly large specimen I was cutting up on a countertop!), and then clean with a dry brush or rinse with water if necessary. You can then slice or tear the poufs into separate leaves.

One easy seasonal preparation for hens is to roast them: set your oven to about 400 degrees. Pour a little olive oil in a large baking dish and add a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Put in the pre-heated oven until the garlic sizzles. Remove garlic from the pan, add dry mushrooms and stir, sprinkling generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 10 minutes, turn and roast another 5 to 10 minutes until they are browned and crispy. Serve with additional salt and pepper.

As with all mushrooms, the first time you find hen-of-the-woods, you'll want to confirm your identification by comparing it to several photographs or drawings and descriptions. The first time you eat any new food, have only a small serving to make sure you aren't allergic or sensitive.

*Just to confuse things, there's also an edible fungus called chicken mushroom (Laetiorus sulphureus and L. cincinnatis). It is also a delicious, edible polypore, grows on wood, but it's bright orange, yellow and white. The names for hen-of-the-woods and chicken mushrooms are reversed in some parts of the country—that's why we have botanical names to keep it all straight.

Links:

Join the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association—they're a great group of mushroom enthusiasts of all skill levels, membership is inexpensive, and you have access to expert hunters who are happy to help you learn. Plus they've got an active Facebook page where people post photos of all their finds. www.mushroomthejournal.com/mhma

The Mushroom Expert: Michael Kuo's website. www.mushroomexpert.com

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, by Elizabeth Schneider, contains one of the best mushroom cookbooks within its covers; she's got great recipes for hen-of-the-woods.

The Complete Mushroom Hunter by Gary Lincoff, author of the Audubon Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, is a wonderful introduction to mushroom hunting, starting with mushrooms you find in your own backyard. The Audubon Guide is the best field guide to have.

Maria Reidelbach is a past president of the New York Mycological Society and a current member of the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association. She has never gotten sick from eating a toxic mushroom.

Oh Nuts!

by Maria Reidelbach

It's looking like a good year for black walnuts,
which come from a tree that mysteriously
produces more nuts every second year.
The black walnut tree is best known for its
beautiful and expensive wood, but I love the
taste of black walnuts—they are the essence
of spicy, warm, walnutty flavor, the way that
marzipan or amaretto is the essence of almonds

If you don't have your own black walnut tree, you're sure to find one not far away, covered with bright green tennis ball-sized globes. The first nuts of the year, in August, tend to be empty, but the ones on and under the trees now are mature. Even the husk is fragrant, but beware—this plant is called black walnut because the husk is infused with a brownish-black pigment so potent and permanent that it was commonly used as hair dye.

Black walnuts are delicious toasted and sprinkled on ice cream or on sweet potatoes, used in baked goods, and, my favorite, sprinkled on whipped-cream topped pumpkin pie. I tend to use them sparingly, more like a spice than a food ingredient.

Preparing black walnuts is a bit time-consuming, but their flavor is so powerful that you'll only be using a few per serving, so it won't take long. If you've got a sink in the basement or garage, you might want to set up there. Don a pair of rubber or gardening gloves. Use a vise, hammer, or large pliers to crack the husk, then remove it with your hands and toss it out before it stains anything. Sue Bruck, who's been experimenting with black walnuts this fall, recommends cleaning the nuts under water with a steel or heavy duty brush to get the husk fibers out of the shell ridges. After they're cleaned they are good to crack and eat or to dry and store to eat later (they'll be good up to New Year's if you keep them in a cool place).

If you'd like to grow a domesticated nut-bearing plant, I'd recommend the hazelnut, an ancient source of nutrition, and a delicious one. We planted a tiny hazelnut on Homegrown Mini-Golf five years ago and it's a beautiful, full, seven-foot tall bush bearing nuts every year. Hazelnuts, sometimes called filberts, look kind of like tiny savoy cabbages, wrapped in a cowl of leaves. They have a wonderful umami richness and are great with chocolate (think Nutella) as well as savory foods. Chopped finely or ground in a food processor, they make a crunchy crust on fish or chicken.

This is also the time of year to look out for chestnuts. I've never found a chestnut tree, since most of them died from a blight that swept the county in the early 20th century, but last year my neighbor Cynthia kindly shared some from her tree and they were amazing! If you've never had truly fresh chestnuts, you're in for a real treat. They are kind of like those yummy Lunar New Year cookies that are sold in Chinatown—sweet, fragrant, rich, and almost cakey in texture.

Now, a shoutout on behalf of the people who produce food on a professional level, our local farmers. Many of us have been affected by recent storms and flooding, and that's been awful enough, but few of us have sustained as much destruction as some of the local farms. The storms arrived at the height of the growing season, destroying crops and damaging equipment and terrain with flooding and winds. Many will never forget the sight of hundreds of pumpkins washing down-creek in High Falls and Rosendale. Inspired by a payment check sent to a farm by one of the people who rescued a pumpkin from the swirling water, the Rondout Valley Growers Association has rolled out an effort to raise money for a farm disaster fund. The Paper Pumpkin Project is appearing in farm stands and retail outlets throughout the Rondout Valley—purchase a paper pumpkin with a generous donation, support your local farms, and the farms will be there to support us with fresh, healthy, local food grown by people we know and trust in years to come. There is no better investment.

Maria Reidelbach is an artist, author, and board member of the Rondout Valley Growers Association.

by Maria Reidelbach

So, spring is here, at least according to the calendar. This is the time of the year that I feel compelled to go out and stare at the soggy, beat up earth, looking for signs of green emerging from the muck. This might be hard-wired in the human psyche, or it might be a result of my early training. One of my first food memories is being sent outside by my mother in the early spring to pick the tiniest dandelion leaves—it took a long time, but luckily our yard had lots. From these she would make a delicious wilted greens salad with chopped hard boiled egg and bacon bits. The richness of the bacon and eggs really contrasted nicely with the bitter greens. Years later I realized that on the Depression-era farm on which she was raised, those itsy-bitsy leaves must have been the first greens they had gotten since autumn and an important source of vitamins—a true spring tonic!

Last month, I wrote about herbs to give a jump-start to your edible landscaping. This month, I'd like to talk the fundamentals of a good garden. Sun and soil are two of the most important elements to insure the success of your plantings.

Almost all vegetable and fruit-bearing plants want at least 6 hours a day of direct sun, and preferably 8 or 10, to transform into delicious produce. Look around your yard to discover the sunniest spots, and remember that trees and shrubbery will be growing leaves and producing shade within the month. The more sun, the more vigorous your plants will be.

Soil is a little more complicated. First, soil needs to be a good consistency to both hold moisture and drain wetness, and so should be a mixture of clay, sand, and humus. To determine what your soil's texture is, pick up a little damp soil and squeeze it. If it's got too much clay it will clump together like the stuff you remember from your first grade classroom. If it's too sandy, it will fall from your hands like powder, and if it has too much humus it might be mucky or slimy. You can add sand, clay, and compost until you get a nice texture.

Next, you want your soil to contain lots of nutrients, the right pH level, and few contaminants. You can buy a test for nutrients and pH at any good gardening store and do it yourself at home, or you can send it away. If your home is in a location that has a history of mixed use or agricultural use (especially an apple orchard), or if it was painted with lead paint, you should also get your soil tested for heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium. Materials dumped and pesticides used in the past can remain in the soil for decades and are accumulated by plants, especially leafy greens. Our house's lot is mixed use and had a commercial garage, and also once had a hotel. Our soil tested positive for a low amount of heavy metals, so we brought in soil for some of our plantings, although we are growing berries in the existing ground.

What to plant now?
Radishes – there are a number of terrific radishes to grow, from the familiar dark pink spheres, to other shades of pink, red, white, and purple.
Lettuce, arugula, chervil
Peas – they look very pretty growing up an arbor, and even come in violet and yellow varieties.

Good links:
Dandelion, bacon and egg salad: nytimes.com/2006/09/20/dining/202brex.html
Soil testing: soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu/extension/test.htm
Soil contamination study: news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec10/NYCSoils.html
Radish and lettuce seed: seedlibrary.org
Blue and yellow peas: cooksgarden.com

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