Bear in mind Bigleaf Aster

Here is the early growth of  Bigleaf or if you like Large-leaved Aster (Eurybia macrophylla)

This is one of the edible plants I’ve been hoping to find much earlier this month, but today is the day.

(click on the photo to bearly see her.)  It’s kind of funny I also planned on adding a link to view a video which features Black Bears in spring eating Bigleaf Aster and today I also sighted my first Black Bear of the year. The bear is the tiny black dot about 800 feet down the road on the right, a little out of the range of my Sony Cyber-shot. You’ll get a much closer look in the Bear video, as  you will see some Black Bear family life and around 3 minutes in the Bears will start mowing down a lot of Bigleaf Asters as this seems to be a early spring favorite of theirs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQC-XHPtIM

Wintergreen tea pick

We are having a January thaw right now, much of the  accumulated snow has melted this week, though in most of the surrounding forest there is still plenty of snow except for areas like this one where some jack pine trees have been recently cut and the forest floor close to the stumps are snow free and Wintergreen leaves are now visibly available to those who may choose to partake in gathering some fresh leaves for tea.

Here is a closer look at the Teaberry plant aka wintergreen, (Gaultheria procumbens) its small round red leaves are noticeable on the south-side of the stump. Now the majority of the wintergreen leaves in these woods where the trees are still standing has (green) leaves beneath the snow, though in open areas like this the leaves are often red which makes for a pink colored tea of good flavour.

Marguerit is also here today to join in the gathering of these small leaves with a big taste. I mentioned earlier on in a post in November the flavour of wintergreen doesn’t reveal itself right away, you need a little patience as it takes a couple days of fermentation for the flavour to fully appear. I use a few handfuls of cleaned leaves placed in a jar add a litre of boiling spring water and close the lid for 2 days. After I may drink the strained tea cold or reheated, the leaves from the ferment can be used a second time by just steeping them again with newly boiled water or they can be dried and packaged for later use. cheers

Outside and in

You usually do not hear much from me this time of the year though tonight I will show you some of the fun I’m having during a very snowy December here in Moncton N.B. Since we have ample material to work with I decided to shovel up a small snow gazebo today. It’s about 4 feet high at this time and I’ll go up another foot and then close it in tomorrow.

A couple lawn chairs and this should be a nice spot for a few cups of herb tea over the next few months.

Now a couple strides into the house and here is one of the plants I’m interested in watching develop from seed.

Water parsnip (Sium suave) which isn’t a commonly gathered wild food in the last few centuries as it resembles 2 of our most poisonous plants which also grow in the same swampy areas of North America.

Here is one I have growing in the basement, I notice the stems of this plant has a very unusual contact dermatitis with my skin which feels almost like deep paper cuts which fade and reappear for a few hours. I can’t find any info on this being something commonly noticed about this plant, but this is enough of an experience for me not to try eating this plants leaves which are supposedly edible during the early spring. The part of Sium suave known to be most popular with folks hundreds of years ago are the numerous white thickened roots directly at the base of the plant which are rumored to taste a bit like carrots. As mentioned earlier this plant has some dangerous look-alikes so it is important to know a plant like this in all stages of development before ever attempting to eat it. ciao

Gaultheria teas

Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) is a very common plant under Jack Pine trees on dry sandy soil in my neck of the woods. The red berries are starting to get large and will be a nice cold weather treat from now until May any time they are visible as they may possibly be snow covered for a few weeks to 4 months, time will tell.

Today I’m gathering a few berries but mostly the plant leaves for tea. Some folks prefer the red leaves which seem to grow in the drier sunnier areas.

I’m also collecting some green Teaberry leaves from a shadier area to compare the 2 different colored leaves flavour.

Ah, a wet spot in the Jack pines and here we see some green Teaberry leaves and below them is Moxie-plum (Gaultheria hispidula) which has tasty white berries during the summer and its wintergreen leaves may even make a better tea than teaberries. So I’m going to do some Gaultheria tea testing in the next few days.

Moxie-plum (Gaultheria hispidula) usually grows in wet areas on or near old tree stumps and is rare compared to Teaberry in my area.

Here we see a larger mature stem with many small round leaves this one is well over a foot long.

I found a couple tea testers here at the house who will sample both the red and green Teaberry teas and also the Moxie-plum leaf tea in coming days as I must first ferment the leaves for a day or 2 before the tea tasting begins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk11Acjofu8

Gaultheria products are rarely made today though they were used many years ago. I suspect the Teaberry gum in the video was originally made with Teaberries in the early 1900s but by the time of the 1960’s video probably was made with more easily obtained ingredients, nevertheless the videos is kinda fun and the song was a popular instrumental when I was a lad. I will post the results of our (in-house tea tasting event) as an update in this post in a few days.

UPDATE Nov 19/2013

Both Gaultheria procumbens and Gaultheria hispidula leaves when fermented for 2 days make incredibly great teas. Gaultheria hispidula won the (in-house tea tasting event) by 2 votes to 1 as it was slightly more smooth though both were truly flavourful.

Since Gaultheria procumbens is one of our most common forest plants I will choose it as the one I gather and ferment  frequently this winter. If you live where this plant is common, enjoy fresh air and walking in the woods and also have space for a few small mason jars to ferment for a day or 2, then you clearly owe this small investment of timely pleasure to yourself. This is one tasty medicinal tea. cheers

Longing more Matsutake

It has been 12 days since I last visited my favorite White Matsutake grounds so after work I dropped in on my way home to see if any new ones have emerged in the dry weather we’ve been having.

I suspect the drier than usual soil conditions may have something to do with the long stems you are seeing on these White Matsutakes.

The nights have been approaching frost so I was pleased to see quite a few fresh mushrooms in good shape, a nice after work gathering for sure. ciao

Sheep Polypore

Found a few clusters of Sheep Polypore (Albatrellus ovinus) today so decided to bring them home and give them a try as their close relative Albatrellus confluens turned out to be a good edible as I recall from a sampling I had a while back.

These young Sheep Polypore seem to be quite soft and tender and I’m curious which Albatrellus will end up as my favorite as Europe seems to prefer ovinus over confluens though N.A considers confluens the best edible.

As mentioned in many sites that describe Sheep Polypore as an edible mushroom its flesh did turn yellow during cooking and it aroma was pleasant. Most sources of edibility info state this mushroom has to be cooked well before consuming which I made sure was done.

Well the results are in. — I thought Albatrellus confluens was a good edible and its relative the Sheep Polypore in my opinion is even better than good. Sliced thin and well cooked this is a top 10 edible mushroom when cooked fresh, this is a big surprise as this mushroom is not rated very high in North America. It is possible the growing conditions in the lowlands of eastern New Brunswick may be ideal for this mushroom to produce good quality edible mushrooms as opposed to the mountainous areas of the west where we seem to find most the info on Sheep Polypore’s edibility in N.A. So if you are a wild mushroom expert or you know one, you may want to check this wild mushroom out a little closer if you live in central  N.A. or the east coast. ciao

Gypsy mushrooms

I forgot my camera tonight though I will show you a few Gypsy mushroom I’ve gathered and have now selected for the table as these mushrooms are at their best when the caps are round and young, the stems need to be discarded as they are hard to digest. The caps should also be well cooked.

Some of the slightly older mushrooms I will dry to use for tea especially during the flu season. Here is some interesting info concerning this mushroom now known as Cortinarius caperatus. botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/nov99.html

Closer look at the caps with their white cap frosting and lovely wrinkles, click on to really notice these  characteristics, the stem ring and upper stem pattern with a rounded stem bottom are also important to know. There are some reasonably good photos of these in my edible mushroom page. ciao

It’s mine 1left

Preparing some things for the N.S Mycological Society foray which starts tomorrow night and I though I should take a break to show you a couple more fall wild mushrooms I noticed today.  Above we see a large Cortinarius caperatus (Gypsy mushroom) and what I thought at first was an earthworm until I seen its eyes. I sent the photo to Nelson Poirier in Moncton and he ID’ed the little one as a Red back salamander.

Here is another choice fall edible mushroom just starting to make an appearance for this year, (Bear’s head tooth) Hericium americanum. I won’t be posting anything for a while, have a pleasant weekend. ciao

White Matsutake Has Spoken

You walked an over grown path 2 decades ago to discover the wonders of this forest. You have returned every September since, early on you gathered the Hollow-stem Suillus as you could not identify the many white and deeply buried mushrooms of these woods.

Many years passed when you read of the Matsutake the much loved and historical mushroom of Japan, could these beautiful mushrooms half way around the world be the same mushroom or a distant relative?

Though you sampled this mushroom and marvelled at their smoky spiciness it still wasn’t enough to say these were the White Matsutake until finally an expert 14 years later verified what you had suspected.

Things naturally change as today you notice the markers on some of the trees. They will soon be cutting some of the old spruce, pine and hemlock. Reflect at the shrine and do your part to promote leaving some of the wild and wondrous areas as they are. Those who can purchase such places to protect them from some of the more negative unnecessary changes please step forward.

Hydnum repandum

Found some glowing good Hedgehog mushrooms today. Here is a look at a half pounder.

View of the spiny teeth on the underside of the cap.

The cap has lots of splitting which gives it a certain character.

Here is what I mean by glowing good as they really stand out from a far away distance.

Some Hedgehog mushrooms in the basket.

There are actually a few different looking hedgehogs out in these woods today. The large red-brown capped (Hydnum repandnum) at the back, the most common in this area (Hydnum repandum var alba) with the light tan cap in the middle and last and what seems least, up front all alone, one tiny (Hydnum umbilicatum). All 3 of these Hedgehogs though are choice edibles. ciao