The great Paw Paw hunt

For years, Anne and I have gone looking for Paw Paws with no success.  I think we always started looking too late, but now I will always remember that Labor day weekend is the time to find ripe Paw Paws!

Clyde loves a visit to the water!

Paw Paw trees grow by rivers and are native to Virginia.  They have a tropical tasting, very soft fruit, that seems to have a fleetingly short season.

We didn't see a single paw paw on the walk until we had turned around and started walking back.  Then Anne started to see them everywhere!  We gathered up about 10 fruits in various stages of ripeness. 

We gathered Paw Paws and people!

We even taught a fellow hiker that the fruit was edible, and he wound up being a better paw paw spotter than either one of us.  It is not an easy fruit to see- Paw Paws are green and about the size of your fist. But once you know what you are looking for, it is pretty easy to spot them. 

Anne eating one on the trail!

The fruit is delicious raw.  The flavor is tropical, and pretty complex.  It has a soft texture, which made us wonder about what else we could make with it.  I will not lie, the first thing we thought to try making was a cocktail.  And so, the Captain Paw Paw was born.

Anne and Zak prepare the Paw Paws

First you take the skins and seeds off of the fruit.  This can only be done with your hands.

Then we added a simple syrup infused with star anise, black peppercorns and cardamom pods, then some dark rum, and finished the drink with fresh lime juice.  Delicious- not pretty, (kind of looked like gravy actually, so I didn't take a photo) but super tasty.  Valentines Day has chocolate, Thanksgiving has turkey and now Labor Day has the Paw Paw!

Erin's Western Adventure, Part 2: Living in Napa

I want to introduce you to some of the most influential people in my life, those whose hard work, faith in their capabilities and ideas, and sense of beauty has created a vibrant life for themselves and all they touch- my aunt and uncle, Cynthia and David.

When I was 23 and I had finished my term in Americorps, I packed everything I owned in my car, (including Lily the orange cat) and headed west. I didn't know where I would wind up, but when I got to Napa, CA, I thought I had found Eden. The landscape was so beautiful and vibrant and there was food and wine everywhere! So, my family let me set up camp in their garage for few weeks until I found my own place, and it still felt like paradise.

Cynthia and David run Rammed Earth Works, an earth build/ design/ consulting company.

"Rammed earth is a structural wall system built of natural mineral soils compacted in thin layers within sturdy formwork. The strength and durability of the wall results from the densification of a clay, sand, and gravel matrix. The mass of the wall provides superior thermal and acoustic properties."

Rammed Earth buildings and design elements are at once stunning and yet fit so naturally in their surroundings. My aunt and uncle love their work, which is another huge inspiration for my life.

Over the years, Cynthia has taught me nearly everything I know and love about food-about growing it and preparing it, but also about being flexible, generous and welcoming. She can take a walk in the garden with an open mind, and come back with the makings for a beautiful supper. On any given day they could have three or eight or a dozen people coming for dinner, and the table is always elegantly set and the food always thoughtfully prepared. That is how I hope to be- always welcoming the people I am lucky to have in my life to the table.

Fulfilling the idea of an open table doesn't have to be complicated. One night during my visit, we bought beans from Rancho Gordo, an heirloom bean company in Napa and paired them with a simple polenta and tomato sauce- I think there were seven of us that night.

We also made a 'found' salad of miner's lettuce and borage flowers.
So, that is the inspiration of Napa and my family there- being soft and still slightly wild, alive with wide open arms.

Lion's Mane Mushrooms

Pulled Lion's Mane Mushroom

I mentioned in my last post that this week I was going to try the Lion's Mane Mushroom. Well, try I did. I got my lion's mane mushroom from Steve Haas, of HaaShrooms at Saint Stephen's Market. He sells a a variety of mushrooms depending on the season. This past Saturday, I bought one lion's mane mushroom for $5. That's one mushroom for $5. I also bought a small handful of oyster mushrooms for the same price. I was willing to pay the money just to try this mushroom at least once. Also, I had tried the Chicken Of The Woods mushroom he sold in late summer and loved those ( Steve says those are his personal favorite).

Steve told me the bright white mushroom in my little ziplock bag would pull like crab meat, and even taste a bit like crab once sauteed with butter and garlic. Well, why not? Sampled uncooked and plain this mushroom has little flavor, but it takes on the flavor of whatever it's cook with. It did indeed pull apart nicely, but as for flavor I am afraid we messed things up by adding some onion and the oyster mushrooms into the mix to go over our pasta. I fished a couple pieces out to try on their own and with they had a consistency similar to crab, and tasted like the butter, garlic sauce they were cooked in. If I tried them again I'd skip the pasta and maybe put my garlicky butter dripping mushrooms over top a little micro greens or something similar. I'm glad I tried this mushroom that I'd never even heard of before. I ate well, and learned something, or actually a few things which mean those five dollars probably went further than many. You can check out the great HaaShoom's facebook page here to learn more , and see photos of the "wild crafted" lion's mane mushrooms he harvested just this Friday.

Urban Foraging in the 2010

Thanks to my friend Jonah who pointed me to the RVA blog Buttermilk and Molasses for news of a new app for your iphone. Use the app to find the closest public fruit trees to your current location! I was going to (eventually, one day) create a map of the fig, mulberry and other fruit trees around town, but now that seems so terribly old school. Now I think I'll just grab my friends with fancy phones (you'll love it, guys!) and go a huntin'.

Here is the info from the Neighborhood Fruit Website:

Find Fruit unlocks cities, enabling you to explore in new ways. Instead of being trapped in the concrete jungle, this app is your key to the edible urban forest! Find Fruit helps you find fresh fruit growing down the street and learn more about fruit trees.

Features:

Location of thousands of trees on public land nationwide on a standard Google Map.

Current location or zipcode/address enabled search.

Directions from your current location.

Configurable fruit tree search by seasonality, type of tree, proximity, and number of trees displayed.

Usage, description and factoids for all available fruit types, ranging from the pedestrian Apple, to the exotic Yellow Mangosteen!

Beautiful and informative illustrations to help identify the fruit.

Intuitive and fun interface!

Requirements:

iPhone OS2.0 or later

Scary Foods

I will eat anything- well, try it anyway. Ok, everything except meat. But plant wise- why not? Just this year, I have tried Mulberries and Persimmons right off the tree, Wild Asparagus, Oyster Mushrooms that I helped inoculate, Native Passion Fruit, Lotus, Kousa Dogwood fruit, Toothache plant (THAT was interesting...) and Stevia. Ginkgo fruit is on the list, which, if you have ever smelled its flesh, you would know how very daring my plan is. (Most people say that the fruit of this tree smells like puke. I am very excited...)
Anyway just this week, I have run into two plant products which are entirely edible, that I cannot bring myself to try. The first is a ghost pepper, given to me by the Venezianos of Sweetwater Farm in Louisa. I like spicy foods, but I am absolutely terrified of this pepper. The ghost pepper has a Scoville rating of 1,001,304 SHU- WAY hotter than a habanero. In fact, in certain parts of the world, people rub the tops of their fences with the oil from this pepper to keep elephants out. Elephants! I might get brave and make a hot sauce out of it, but right now the pepper and I are having a bit of a standoff. It is the hottest pepper in the world, and I still value my taste buds...
So, the second plant product I discovered that I WILL not eat is Corn Smut. (First of all- the name is not so enticing.) I have a prejudice about corn anyway, what with its taking over the idea of real food and all, so I don't plant much of it. I did have some stalks of a dent corn called 'Bloody Butcher' which was coming along nicely, when I saw one of the cobs on the ground with these gray leechy looking things surrounding it. It looked like the corn was nursing this colony of fat, gray larvae of some kind- really, really gross. So, I poked it. Turns out, those distended, sick looking things WERE the kernels, swollen to twenty times the normal size and infested with a black fungus that is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world. Egads. Here is a link to some one's blog who did wind up eating it. Gives me shivers...

Morels and Asparagus

I have been wanting to learn to 'hunt' morels for a long while. These wild mushrooms come up in the early spring, between the blooming of the Redbud trees and the time the blossoms fall from the Dogwoods- a fairly short window. My friend Dick Fowlkes goes hunting morels and asparagus in Rockbridge County. Since I could not accompany him, he was kind enough to write and send photos of his adventures. I must say, his life in the country sounds positively dreamy. Here is his tale of the hunt.

Erin,
Sorry you couldn't make it for the morel and wild asparagus hunt last weekend- the Richmond Forum needed your expertise. I climbed up and down a mountain for two hours to find not even a glimpse of a morel, I was perplexed. It was hot and dry so I wasn't totally surprised, but usually find some evidence of morels. I decided to give up and run over to The Herbery and get some Thyme plants. The owners Stephanie and Pete Louquet, said that they had seen some morels nearby. Pete and I trekked over to the spot and low and behold was a white morel the size of my fist. I was shocked- and not far from that one was another nice sized morel. My hips and knees were killing me from my earlier hunt, so I headed home with my dinner sized portion of morels. On my way home, I stopped at another friend's home who bakes their own bread for a local CSA. I needed to pick up the bread I had ordered. In our small talk, my friend Mary mentioned that she had seen some morels in a clearing on her driveway. She said to check it out on my way out. There in the clearing were three nice large white morels. I had hiked all over for two hours and here were morels right outside the car!

On my way home, I stopped at my favorite asparagus patch and found about twenty wild asparagus. They were so tempting that I munched on-two of them as I harvested. Happy with my "catch", I went home.


I took a shower and came downstairs to prepare the morels when the phone rang. It was my bread friend Mary. She had stopped by and left me a bag on the back porch. Inside the bag were about 25 white morels. I could not believe it. She said that she and her husband Gary had checked the clearing out and in about ten minutes had found these morels. What a dumb bell I was to have missed them. Mary said to come back in the morning to look for more, and I would. The next morning, I stopped by Mary's and found another thirty or so morels right there in the same spot. It was like an Easter Egg Hunt !! I had a blast with my pocket knife carefully cutting the morels to leave the "root system". I then tap the morel to release spores for next year. This is very important to leave spores behind so that they will procreate.

Even when I clean the morels, I rinse them in a bowl of water and pour the water out in our garden so that the morels will come next year !! I hope you will make it on one of our excursions soon. Good luck on your inauguration of your new Farmers Market at St. Stephen's Church this Saturday!!!

Dick