Water Pennywort

Over the winter I remember reading about the interesting medicinal and edible Asian plant Gotu kola and was hopeful of taking some time this year to find our close Maritime relative Hydrocotyle americana. One pleasant thing about foraging is being reminded of little projects while foraging for other things as wild mushrooms are my main focus today.

Here we have Water Pennywort on the ground with the mint family member Bugleweed towering above. I can’t give any info from my own experience on eating or beverages made from Hydrocotyle americana so I must leave this as just another interesting little plant not well known to share as the more familiar we become with these types of plants, (this one was found on an old woods road in Kent county NB) the more we will be willing to protect them from human over indulgence in our surroundings. We can be conscious of our own gatherings and be aware the impact of some of the other ones going on around us.

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Daylily buds

Staying close to the nest today I decided to try some Day-lily buds as a cooked vegetable. Last year I dried a lot of flowers for use in tea and soups and have been very pleased with them, also the fresh flowers were very crunchy and good in salads last summer. This year I will explore the flower buds during their 25 days of development before flowering which from what I’ve read change quite a bit in taste and nutritional value with the buds being most beneficial to eat in the last 4 days before flowering.

Day-lily bed

These few buds here are a little  over 2 inches long and were delicious boiled in a small amount of water for 4 minutes. I honestly rate them as better than any cooked green beans I ever had which I also tend to enjoy, so. Here you also see my Stinging Nettle, Jerusalem Artichoke patch with Day-lilies behind them. Some Day-lilies varieties may not be totally safe to eat so I suggest you learn to recognize and stick with Hemerocallis fulva the (Tawny Day-lily) which has become a very common wild Day-lily on the east half of N.A.

A smidgen of a rainy daylily evening

Yes a light rain most of the day, so something a little different for the ready to close daylily flowers tonight. A few petals in my salad was nice, taste like a crisp sweet lettuce. The still damp sections of flowers will go into the dehydrator for a few hours and will be used in soups and I’ll try a tea with them as well. Ciao

White Matsutake

I’m opening a new page today showcasing a wild mushroom not to many folks are familiar with in eastern North America, but these beauties are highly esteemed in Asia and especially so in Japan.

Our version of the Asian Matsutake is mostly slightly lighter in color and goes by a different name Tricholoma magnivelare, it also happens to be my favorite wild edible mushroom which I enjoy fresh from mid Sept to mid Oct in most years and I also usually  dry plenty for rice and herb tea mixes, they have a very unusual flavour which goes well with soy sauce and vinegar, they also taste great baked with salmon. I collect most of my white Matsutakes around hemlock trees though I usually find smaller quantities near spruce, jack pine and red pine. They are lots of fun to collect as the stem is often 4 to 5 inches beneath the surface and sometimes the entire mushroom will be completely expanded below the moss and you will only notice a number of humps that resemble the mushrooms cap, so it’s a real treasure hunt.

The history of the Matsutake mushroom in Japan is a great story in itself with it influencing art and architecture and they also have significant ceremonial value in the Japanese culture. I’ll leave the rest of Matsutake story up to you to discover if you wish. Hope you enjoy the photos in the (white matsutake page) above and at some point get to taste the wonderful flavour which has been savoured & un-altered  by man for many millenniums. Click on the photos in the matsutake page for some nice close ups. cheers