Jane, thank you so much for posting about Hen of the Woods wild mushrooms! If it weren't for you, we would never have had today's experience. I kid you not! We were at a picnic with local wine guild. The picnic was all a part of finding that local vineyard and making grape wine. Anyway, we were having a great time taste testing homemade wine and doing what people do at picnics when Belle quietly approached me and whispered, "look at that." I knew what she was suggesting immediately. We had both read Jane's recent post and talked about how great it would be to find wild mushrooms. There at the base of an old tree trunk right by the picnic tables was a giant Hen of the Woods mushroom. So as we were leaving, and saying our goodbyes I quietly harvested about 5 lbs worth of wild mushrooms. Thanks Jane! It's our reward for blogging with great people like you. We would have never known.
always goes straight to Belle! She's the work horse around here. And boy does she know how to bring it to the table! Sometimes she cans. Sometimes she dries. Sometimes she brings it straight to the table. I look forward to sharing her work with you. If I remember to ask her for the recipe, I'll share that too! From our cupboard to you, this is what Belle's been up to this week.
On Monday we went to the local farm auction and picked up 3 boxes of Gala apples for a really great price. Belle has dried several baggies of them, and yesterday she made apple butter!
Apple Butter Recipe
12 apples
3 cups apple cider
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon clove
1 cinnamon stick
1 generous squeeze of fresh lemon
1/2 lemon rind grated
Core and slice the apples. Mix apples with apple cider and cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until mushy. Separate the skins from the apple pulp with that hand held thing-a-ma-jig pictured above. Blend the mixture in a food processor. In a crock pot add the sugar, spices, lemon juice and rind to the apple sauce, and slow cook until the sugar caramelizes. Spoon a bit out and place on a cold plate. If the liquid does not separate from the apple butter, then it's done! Give the pints a 10 minute water bath, then you're done.
This week we also harvested and dried a couple of pounds of wild honey mushrooms. They are larger than white mushrooms, but smaller than portabellas they are similar in texture to portabella, maybe a little softer, and they have a beautiful golden brown color... like honey! They taste wonderful.
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| Wild honey mushrooms we found in the woods behind our house. |
Finally, for dinner one night Belle made chicken corn tortillas with the salsa verde she canned earlier this year. We also had pickled jalapenos and sweet potato fries fresh from the garden. Yummy!
Please stop by The Gardener of Eden and see what other people are preserving for the Cupboard and preparing for the table.
Jane, thank you so much for posting about Hen of the Woods wild mushrooms! If it weren't for you, we would never have had today's experience. I kid you not! We were at a picnic with local wine guild. The picnic was all a part of finding that local vineyard and making grape wine. Anyway, we were having a great time taste testing homemade wine and doing what people do at picnics when Belle quietly approached me and whispered, "look at that." I knew what she was suggesting immediately. We had both read Jane's recent post and talked about how great it would be to find wild mushrooms. There at the base of an old tree trunk right by the picnic tables was a giant Hen of the Woods mushroom. So as we were leaving, and saying our goodbyes I quietly harvested about 5 lbs worth of wild mushrooms. Thanks Jane! It's our reward for blogging with great people like you. We would have never known.
