More mushrooms + squirrel lunch

Found some big edible mushrooms today.  Also, caught and barbecued a ground squirrel.

Boletus bicolor (relative of porcini mushroom)!

Thanks to a guest's observation on today's tour in Silverado, we found Boletus bicolor, a relative of the porcini mushroom!  This was my first opportunity to eat a wild Boletus in California.  Notice the pores/tubes under the cap instead of gills.  When cut, it bruised the color blue.  I sautéed with butter and enjoyed for dinner.  It was delicious!  Thanks to Monica Wilde, forager extraordinaire, my daughter and I were able to observe and eat wild porcini (much larger cousin) that was found on a foraging tour in Scotland last October, 2016.

Hail in Ladd Canyon, Silverado, OC, SoCal

An amazing hail storm covered our slope!  Here are 2 vids & a photo.

Foraged Breakfast: Mushrooms, Wild Artichoke & Greens

This morning's breakfast: wild artichoke leaf (spines and lobes stripped with knife), wood blewit, puffballs, dock and mustard greens sautéed with pasture-raised organic eggs and butter.

Rain fills up creek in Ladd Canyon

Check out Ladd Creek after today's rain!  Yeehaw!

Blewits for lunch!

Found a large blewit in the oak woodland by our house.  We added to our collection of little blewits we found yesterday.  For lunch, we cooked them with potato, dock, chard and broccoli.  Mmm...

Blewit with some shaggy parasols.

Foraging Greens & Mushrooms in Santa Ana

Successful foraging in Santa Ana and Silverado yesterday and today.  Blewits, shaggy parasols, agaricus & other unknown mushrooms (currently getting spore prints).  Garland chrysanthemum, dock, short pod mustard, rocket, lamb's quarters, nettle leaf goosefoot & mallow.  Cooked foraged ingredients with organic pasture raised eggs on the campfire for breakfast during the rain this morning!

Bay Nuts from CA Bay Laurel Tree

I processed some more bay nuts from the California Bay Laurel (Umbellularia californica), a relative of the avocado.  I found them on our hike in upper Silverado Canyon in Orange County, California.  I regularly collect and cook with the fragrant bay leaves, but fall and winter is an excellent time to harvest the bittersweet nuts.  When roasted, the nuts have the flavor and consistency of cacao nibs or coffee beans.  First, I removed the rotten flesh that surrounded each nut.

 Then, I dried them and shelled them.

Finally, I roasted them in the oven until they were brown. 

I drizzled some olive oil and salt and served.  They are quite addicting!

Monday Foraging: Waterfall, Greens, Mushrooms

It has been raining fairly regularly, so more mushrooms are appearing.  I walked with my daughter Sydney to a waterfall near our place in Ladd Canyon.  On the way back, we found some fresh dock, fennel and mustard leaves.  We also found 2 large Agaricus mushrooms.  We cooked everything for lunch!  It was delicious!

Rewilding Gospel Swamp + Chrysanthemum

Today, I collaborated with Jim Meyer of Trails4All, high school students, NFY volunteers and the Heritage Museum of OC in Santa Ana to restore wildlife habitat to a slope in the Gospel Swamp Natural Area.  We increased the plant diversity by introducing sage scrub species in an area that was dominated by garland chrysanthemum.

A visitor from the local monastery and a veteran volunteer named Denny commented that chrysanthemum is an edible vegetable.  I only new of its ornamental value, so I had Nikki, NFY volunteer, look up the edible details on her phone.  She found out that it is not only a tasty edible vegetable either raw or cooked, but it is also prized for its medicinal value!  Nikki announced the exciting details to the entire group of volunteers.  Almost everyone ate raw shoots and leaves during the day.  

Since we removed quite bit of chrysanthemum to accommodate other plant species, we had quite a bit of the vegetable to take home.  I filled up a 5-gallon bucket with the vegetable and brought it home.  

I sautéed some for dinner.  I plan to sauté some more with eggs and tomatoes in the morning for breakfast.  I will eat it whole plants raw or chopped in salad as well.  I am so excited to learn about this delicious and abundant food!!!!!

Turn wild cherry pits into porridge!

The flesh of the holly leaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia) is very thin and worth drying into fruit leather.

 The pit is substantial and includes a nut inside.

I dried the cherries, peeled off the dry flesh to eat, shelled the pits with a rock, pounded the nuts into a meal,

leached under running water

and boiled to remove hydrocyanic acid.  The final product was porridge.

When pounding the meal, I enjoyed a strong fragrance of cherries and almonds.  The porridge has mild flavor and is filling.  I hope to collect a larger amount and process with others.  It is very similar to processing acorns!

Swimming holes are back in Silverado!

I was checking out foraging opportunities up Maple Springs Road (Silverado Canyon) with family and friends yesterday, when we noticed the swimming holes are back in Silverado!  YAY!  I only took photos of the first one, but the second is overflowing as well!  There is graffiti on the boulders that could afford to be removed.  Anyone want to help remove the graffiti?

This Weekend: Falls, ReWild & Forage

This weekend!

Upper Silverado Canyon