Black chanterelle (Craterellus cornucopioides)

The Late Season (text and photo by Josef Szuecs)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, mushrooms generally fruit in species dependent windows of time.  The exact timing of these windows vary from year to year, affected by a number of factors.  In the SF Bay area, we can start looking for a few wonderful late season mushrooms in December and January.  Namely, Black chanterelles (Craterellus cornucopioides), Hedgehogs (Hydnum repandum  and H. umbilicatum), and the Yellow-foot chanterelle (Cantharellus tubaeformis or Craterellus infundibuliformis).

Continue Reading »

Tagged: california flora, deep craft, josef szuecs, slow food, sonoma coast, wild mushroom

nearly ripe Hachiya Persimmon, ready to be peeled and hung to dry

Looking up at the persimmon tree’s wild constellation of fruit still languidly dangling, you’d hardly know we already picked over two bushels for drying. Ene recently discovered the Japanese art of Hoshigaki, a technique of drying fruit by a combination of open-air hanging and hand massaging. The fruit is picked before it fully ripens, with a section of branch left attached, then it is peeled and hung for several weeks, gently squeezed daily after a skin develops; the massaging brings out the sugars. Our studio is rimmed with drying persimmon, adding to the season’s festive atmosphere.

peeled persimmon are hung to dry, still attached to the branch

our Hachiya Persimmon tree is still loaded with fruit

Tagged: california flora, deep craft, DIY, gardening, hoshigaki, persimmon, phenology, slow food, traditional craft

This week my friend Josej Szuecs has graciously penned the second installment of his Mushroom Report:

Midseason Mushrooms (text and photo by Josef Szeucs)

The question is often posed to me: “When do the mushrooms start coming up?” In the western US, I start foraging two or three weeks after the first significant rainfall.  This is rain that penetrates the top leaf layer of the forest floor and moistens the underlying duff.  Usually this happens in late October or early November.  If the rain comes, I can expect of find numerous early season species.  Porcinis, golden chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, and cauliflower mushrooms (Sparassis crispa) are the prime examples. If the rain comes later, like mid-December, I can expect a poor year for those species. Continue Reading »

Tagged: california flora, deep craft, foraging, josef szuecs, mushroom, phenology, sonoma coast

Hachiya persimmon are ripening early this year

The raccoons have commenced their furtive nighttime raids on the persimmon tree, whose fruits are prematurely ripe by a few weeks. We’re still trying to figure out how best to use the hundreds of Hachiya persimmon produced by our single tree each winter, and have been picking and ripening the fruit before the raccoons strip the tree bare. The past few years we waited until the persimmon were dropping, soft and syrupy on the branches, and we’d slice them in half, freeze the halves and serve them as a deliciously slushy dessert with fresh lime between Christmas and the New Year. Still, we ate only a small percentage of the fruit, the rest fattened the raccoons, grosbeak and orioles. This year I plan to experiment with boiling down the ripened persimmon to make a sweet, colorful syrup, but remain open to any other suggestions.

making wreaths

Ene and Aili have been making wreaths this year with friends from our various holly trees, whose berries have also ripened early. It’s wonderful to see such value added to our annual prunings; the trees benefit while Ene sends beautiful homemade wreaths as gifts to family for Christmas. Making wreaths is a great model for the kind of nonchalant agriculture we seem well suited to practice, and we hope to continually develop the property by encouraging beneficial loops and a gift economy. Continue Reading »

Tagged: aesthetics, california coast, california flora, craft philosophy, deep craft, DIY, gift economy, Hachiya persimmon, phenology, slow food, sustainability

Most people know Ene, my wife and wowhaus partner, as one of the sunniest people they’ve met, and rightfully so. Our wowhaus compound has been blessed by her love of planting, harvesting and saving seeds, as she eagerly scouts out patches of sun throughout the year, populating them with seasonal flowers and vegetable gardens, battling hungry deer and gopher with joyous aplumb.

With the soil softened and moist from early rains and short days, Ene is truly in her element as she purposefully marches about the property, picking the last of the apples, dragging hoses and planting fruit trees, mulched with woodshop shavings. Her winter garden is predictably unruly, its inner logic a kind of living, visual manifestation of Ene’s happy hands and exuberant spirit. We eat well from Ene’s Winter Garden, where collard greens, dyno kale and lettuces thrive, and I love nothing more than to discover what’s ready to cook, driven by hunger to forage at dusk for the family dinner.

Ene’s Autumn Greens

Saute bacon in a cast iron skillet. Remove bacon to drain on a cloth or paper towel. Drain the bacon fat from the pan, leaving some. Add olive oil and saute sliced onions until slightly softened. Add chopped kale, collards or other green, tossing with the onions over medium high heat. When the greens are tender, de-glaze the pan with apple cider vinegar and toss in chopped apples and the bacon, crumbled into pieces. Reduce heat and allow to simmer until flavors blend, adding water if the mixture is dry. Season with salt and pepper and serve over pasta or as a side dish with roasted chicken or fish.

Tagged: aesthetics, california flora, deep craft, gardening, slow food, sonoma coast, wowhaus

artist/musician/chef Josef Szuecs of The-Way-To-Go-Joes

My friend and neighbor Josef Szuecs is one of the most multi-talented people I’ve ever met. Owner of Renga Arts in Occidental, CA, guitarist/founder of the locally popular, self-described ‘porch jazz’ combo, The-Way-To-Go-Joes, Joe is also an accomplished chef, and his food often features seasonal fare he hunts, grows, fishes and forages. Joe is always generous in sharing his knowledge, and recently introduced Ene and me to the craft of cider-making. As a Halloween treat, Joe has penned the primer that follows on foraging and cooking wild mushrooms, an autumnal delight in our region that is often shrouded in mystery:

Joe’s morning harvest of foraged porcini mushrooms Continue Reading »

Tagged: california coast, craft, deep craft, foraging, josef szuecs, occidental, porcini, slow food, way to go joes, wild mushroom

our own freshly harvested Comice pears (Pyrus communis)

After pressing the majority of our Bartlett pears into cider, some of which we combined with the juice of ripe Roma apples, we made a point of reserving our delicious Comice pears for eating raw. The large pear has the juiciest, creamiest fruit, and its flavors combine well paired with goat’s cheese or mint, or tossed in a salad with arugula and walnuts. Over the weekend I plan to experiment with using the pear in a fennel soup, the feathery green plants being such an abundant roadside crop this time of year. It would be so easy to forage a few fennel bulbs while cycling out to the coast, past the white egrets of the estuary.

I’d love to hear of any ideas for preparing the Comice pear, whose name derives from Doyenne du Comice (’top of the show’). Meanwhile, here’s an idea for a Comice pear and fennel soup:

Comice Pear and Fennel Soup

Roughly chop 2 or 3 (if small) bulbs fresh fennel.
Combine with 1 small onion, chopped.
Cook the vegetables in butter over medium heat until tender,
adding about a tablespoon or two of water.
Add two Comice pears, chopped.
Cover the mixture with chicken broth and simmer until pears are tender.
Blend the mixture and serve with fresh ground pepper.

Tagged: california coast, california flora, comice pear, deep craft, phenology, recipe, scott Constable, slow design, sonoma coast