Fox Grapes

When I was a little girl, I distinctly remember going to the Blue Ridge Mountains with my family to pick fox grapes. The experience is perhaps more vivid and distinct because while we were picking, my brothers and I ran off through the woods and were attacked by stinging ground wasps. I was stung over 20 times, but that was the day we discovered that my brother was allergic to bees, similar to my mom, who was deathly allergic. He ended up in the hospital overnight. And even now, as I laugh at the memory (I ran screaming, down the road, throwing off my clothing along the way--wasps were in my pants, in my hair, everywhere, and my mom had to look on in horror from a distance because she couldn't help us), the taste of those wild grapes is a sweet and fragrant elixir permanently etched into my hypothalamus. So, when Dahlia came home from a walk with a basket full of grapes (I'm not sure what strain) last week, those memories came flooding back---I was filled with nostalgia, the sweet, the sour, the crunch of the seeds, that particular musky grapeness---it was like a little bit of my childhood neatly encapsulated in those powdery clusters of little berry orbs.

Dahlia and I decided to make grape juice. So we washed the grapes and mashed them in a large pot.

After gently simmering for about 10 minutes, we strained the mixture. you can see how the pigments really start to come out of the skins, and the mixture becomes a rich purple red color.

I decided to forgo the cheesecloth because I felt it would remove too much of the good stuff, so the juice is more like a thick cider, but it is creamy and delicious! Noting that there was still a lot of color and grape fragrance to the mash after straining, I decided to make grape mash vodka. I'll let the vodka infuse for several weeks, but it surely does smell delightful!

The grape mash vodka is on the right, the other two are elderberry.

Chicken of the Woods

My youngest daughter, Dahlia went out to collect money for a school fundraiser and came home with over $40, and a large cache of Laetiporus sp, more fondly know as the chicken of the woods mushroom. I have to admit, I was pretty excited; its been dryer than usual for this time of year, and I guess I'm antsy for mushroom season to fully kick in. 

The Laetiporus Dahlia found was ideal, young and tender; the taste was delectable. The chicken of the woods is a great mushroom for people just getting into fungi; it is rather distinct looking with its bright orange/yellow flesh and presence of pores rather than gills. And even though Dahl doesn't like mushrooms, she loves finding them and helped me prep them for cooking.

 
These mushrooms were prime, so a quick saute in butter was all that was necessary.

I saved 3/4 of them for a creamy potato-laetiporus soup and used the rest in a delectable omelet.

Apparently, the Laetiporus complex has at least 6 recognized North American species. For more information, I recommend Michael Kuo's website: Mushroom Expert.Com. 
Research has also shown that laetiporus extract is effective as an anti-oxidant and strongly inhibits the growth of certain Gram-positive bacteria.  
Chicken of the woods can be found on living and dead woods and fruit mainly during the late summer and early fall. They have a savory earthy flavor with a dense meaty texture.

Elderberry Vodka

Fall is slowly winding its way across the valley, acorns are dropping, and the big leaf maple is starting to glow. Autumn is such a wonderful time of harvest and abundance. Wild and cultivated fruits beckon with a myriad of colors and textures, and mushrooms are about to start popping up all over the Pacific Northwest. 

Elderberries--Sambucus cerulea are one of my favorite wild fruits to harvest in the late summer/early fall. They can sometimes be tricky to access, but the beautiful umbels of blushing blue berries are worth the effort. 

Elder has a long history of edible and medicinal uses (both the flowers and the fruits) and is a common winter herbal used to activate the the immune system (immuno-stimulant) and as an anti-viral agent. 

For some ethnobotanical and ecological information on elderberry, check out Plants for a Future, The Living Wild Project, or the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) plant guide.  

If you are interested in learning more about scientific research into the medicinal properties of elderberry, the links below might be good places to start:

Regulation of Inflammatory Gene Expression in PBMCs by Immunostimulatory Botanicals

Sigma Aldrich Plant Profiler 

Because of the lovely berry taste, even young and picky eaters are apt to enjoy it. I usually make elderberry syrup with some of the berries I collect, and use the rest to make a fruit relish, prepared similarly to cranberry relish. This year I made elderberry infused vodka; it looks, smells, and tastes delightful. 

Elderberry vodka lemonade. Divine!

 

 

Nettles and Hedgehogs

Despite the crazy and erratic weather that has been raining down on the Pacific Northwest, spring is definitely in its early stages. One of the early spring bloomers here in the Willamette Valley is the Oso Berry or Indian Plum, Oemleria cerasiformis. A rather diminutive shrub in the rose family, this species is endemic to the area and is not found anywhere else. The small drooping flowers of this Oregon native are a sure indication that winter is drawing to an end. I took the picture below last year at the end of February.

Osoberry or Indian Plum

 Spring is one of my favorite seasons here in the Pacific Northwest, and its a wonderful time to be out foraging in the woods. Two of the most tasty edible foods I seek out in the spring are the tenderly delicious hedgehog mushroom, Hydnum repandum, and the lush and amazing Urtica dioica, more commonly known as stinging nettle. 

I picked these last year in March in the Mid-coastal Siuslaw Watershed

Hedgehog mushrooms are one of the easiest and safest mushrooms to identify, with the golden chanterelle like color, distinct lack of gills and presence of lots of little "teeth". The Cascade Mycological Society is a valuable 501(c)(3) organization in Oregon with some valuable information about hunting edible fungi.     

http://cascademyco.org/category/information/huntinginfo/

Firm, and tender, nettles are perhaps my all time favorite and common and easy to identify spring green, at least, once you get stung you'll be positive. The smell of nettles is fresh and green (if you smell a heavier, almost stinky smell when harvesting, you may want to make sure you aren't picking a Stachys, which has a similar look) and the flavor is very mild and less acidic tasting than spinach because it doesn't contain the oxalates that spinach does. Nettles are rich in minerals and nutrients and can be a great source of non heme iron, but as with any wildcrafted or foraged food, you'll want to make reasonably sure you are collecting from a safe, relatively clean, non-contaminated area. To collect, I usually just gather the fresh young tops, wearing a protective glove, of course.

Hedgehogs mushrooms and nettles can be cooked and enjoyed in a variety of ways. My favorite is a creamy soup! Internet recipes abound for these two culinary beauties; Hedgehogs can be used in most recipes that call chanterelles and the same works for nettles and spinach. 


And it turns nettles are not just a great and nutritional wild food. They can also be processed for their fiber content. Some of the most beautiful, natural, organic fabrics I have seen were made from nettles. Check out these links below to see some Independent Artistry on Etsy featuring nettles:

Organic Nettle Fiber shawl

Nettle Linen Hand Spun Yarn

Nettle Yarn BareFoot Sandals


 Ask questions! Stay informed!