Dear Annet,

November 8, 2011

Weak, Polar Circle light illuminating a dried pear

Thanks for bringing those most tasty and juicy pears to the food co-op last pickup day. We bought 4 kilos and the next day had already eaten an entire kilo! The last 3k we dried because they were threatening to go soft. Just look what they turned into! Golden, chewy, hint of vanilla, sticky, full of flavour!

Please let us know if you’ll be harvesting again soon, because I’d love to go with you and help pluck. Of course I’m happy to dry a bunch for you as well; dried pears bring a huge amount of happiness into the home.

Merçi, verheugnis alom en tot straks op een pluk dag,

Debra

debra at 14:34 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us

The Spore Report

November 7, 2011

A spore print, probably of an agaricus arvensis.

What an exuberant spore print, probably of an agaricus arvensis, or maybe an agaricus campestris, possibly an agaricus bitorquis, or if I’m lucky, an agaricus silvicola. They’re all edible. Still, most likely it’s a horse mushroom, agaricus arvensis. I found it along the bike path, cutting through the woods, near the border of some grassland.

Ruling out the poisonous possible doppelgängers, it’s unlikely to be an agaricus xanthodermus. Why? Because it’s flesh is not turning yellow when bruised or cut, and because it doesn’t smell of creosote. It smells of anise, and of sweet leaf mould, like the woody path it came from. It smells like it’s going to be delicious fried in butter and served on toast at lunch.

And there’s at least one more…

debra at 10:16 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us