Quieting Life

The Gleaners

A friend spread the word that there were potatoes left for the taking at her fella's farm. Yesterday was a fine Indian Summer kind of day, perfect for digging taters. Most of what remained were rose fingerlings, with some red-skinned beauties scattered randomly in the rows. I didn't do anything so compulsive as weigh our haul, but I'd guess we got off with about 50 pounds. Joan, my partner in gleaning, took a small bag full for short term use, and the rest went right into the root cellar. This spared us trying to divvy them up, and she can stop by any time and retrieve them from their safe storage.

With gratitude to the farmer and the earth:

When Life Gives You Oyster Mushrooms

Our friend Rob is, if not an expert, at least a very accomplished mushroom forager. He's also a dry stone waller like my husband, and brought TJ on to help with a big project this summer. So he's been arriving for worker pick-up early every morning for the last few weeks – and delivering some of his precious haul. Two weeks ago it was a clutch of perfect chanterelles, which I turned into a fine risotto with some local sweet corn. Friday, he handed over a brown paper bag containing close to a pound of the most extraordinary (and gigantic) oyster mushrooms I've ever seen. He'd spotted a tree along the roadside that was covered with them; he harvested about 10 pounds, and claims there's easily that much remaining.

Now, there are all kinds of wonderful things you can do with oyster mushrooms, but given the unprecedented quantity and quality, I opted to go 'showcase' and make them the star of a crusty pizza.

Fiddleheads

We have an impressive patch of fiddleheads down by the flood brook, but because I don't often walk in that direction, I'm apt to forget about them until the season's gone by. So last spring I put an event on my electronic calendar for April 20th, with an email reminder: Check Fiddleheads. And when I did, on April 23rd, they were just starting to explode.

I alerted a couple of fellow foragers and, baskets in hand and dog leading the way, we went a-collecting.