MORELS!

It's been raining a lot lately. Not today though. When I got home from work, the sun was shining, and I went to do a little weeding in the garden. I decided it would be a good time to look for mushrooms, and I started looking around the edge of the woods. Near a fire pit that I built a few years ago, there is a spot where we roll the burned logs and throw the ashes when we empty out the pit. All around this area, about 20 sq. feet in total, I found about a POUND of MORELS growing WILD in my backyard!



Morel mushrooms are some of the most sought-after and expensive gourmet mushrooms in the world. They cost about $150-200 a pound. They are delicious, and they are one of the only mushrooms whose environment has never been created in a laboratory setting. This means you can't have a controlled commercial morel-growing operation like you can with most other mushrooms. The reason for this is that Morels are incredibly particular about where they will colonize. They only can grow in areas which have been recently burned by fire. Usually, they fruit in great abundance in the aftermath of a forest fire, which is why, after a big burn out west, you can find morel-hunters in the woods shooting each other for these things. I can't believe these are just growing wild in the backyard. The ashes and burned logs from my fire pit must have re-created the circumstances necessary for morels to do their thing. I have no idea how morel spores ended up here, but...

Awesome!

I am going to cook these tonight at low heat with some butter and cream and little fiddlehead ferns that I picked in the woods and almost nothing else because nothing tastes better than fresh morel mushrooms. They do not need to be fucked with. A $200 meal from the backyard. Anyone who comes over in the next 2 hours can feast with me.

The Barter System + Have You Been Immortalized?

Spring! Even though it snowed for a minute yesterday! Fuck it, it's Spring!

We've been getting tons of rain lately, and the one bed outside that I have planted has really begun to take off. Leeks, onions, garlic, corn salad, swiss chard and pole beans are all beginning to make some moves.

Ok. So here's the deal, my Baltimore people. This Spring/Summer there's a bunch of things I need to gather and a lot of work I need to get done with this project. The stuff I need includes: fencing and posts, anything that will work as a large outdoor planter, compost, topsoil, and a truck to drive around for a couple of days. I will so happily barter some plants, help you start a garden in your kitchen or yard, or will give you some produce later on down the line in the season, if anyone can help me out with any of that stuff.

I also need to get a greenhouse put up. I am still waiting to get one crucial piece before I can start building, but I should have it soon. I need help putting a fence in, tilling out a new shade garden, selling stuff once market time rolls along, and with a lot of day-to-day stuff in June/July when I'm going to be in class a lot. Anyone who wants to put in a little time will be richly rewarded with any of the above-mentioned things I can give you/do to your home.

OKAY so a bunch of you all made it into the garden. This is a double-edged sword, I must warn you. While it will certainly be cute to watch your proxy plant-kingdom self mature through the life cycle, there's a good chance you'll be devoured by parasites, eaten by rabbits or that I will just neglect you until you expire. And in the end, everyone dies or I just sell you to the highest bidder. But I'll save your seeds and bring you back to life in 2010, if you hold it down and grow like a champion this season. With that, here's the first round of new people-plants in the garden.

Aaron, the Flame tomato.

The "Hillbilly Flame" tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) is an old French heirloom. If any of you know Aaron Reuben, you'd know why a tomato named for its rosy-red coloration and its high stature among hillbillies is apropos for him. This plant is about 4 weeks old. I'm going to start "hardening off" the tomatoes this week. This is just basically a process of getting the plants gradually used to the wind, varying temperature, and direct sunlight of being outdoors, by taking them outside for a few hours a day, increasing the amount of time slowly.

90 days after transplanting, the Hillbilly Flame tomato kicks out fruit (Yes, it is fruit, not a debate) that looks like this. Red and yellow marbled flesh on the inside is the trademark of this variety. I've heard they taste as great as they look. The fruit is a big, beefsteak style of tomato, often 5'' across at the widest point.






Up next, Gabriella, the Corno Di Toro Rosso Pepper.

The human Gabriella is from Brooklyn, but the CDTR pepper (Capsicum annuum) is an heirloom from Italy. It is also called the Red Bull's Horn Pepper. This sprout has just gotten its first set of true leaves. The peppers don't grow as dramatically as the tomatoes, so it might be a little while before these plants look like anything but semi-anonymous sprouts. I'm actually a little worried about how slowly some of the peppers seem to be growing, but at least everyone seems healthy for now. All the same, once this fine lady reaches maturity, she'll look something like this down here.

Them's some good eatin', I've heard. Spicy, sweet and tangy. The peppers only turn red right at the end of the cycle (about 80 days from transplanting) when they are finally ripe. About 8''-10'' long. A lot of the things I read about this pepper say that if you grill it on the BBQ and eat it hot, you will never question the validity of your existence ever again. I don't know about that, but I am really excited to try some life-changing CDTR peppers this summer.



Moving on, this is Caitlin, the White Habanero Pepper plant.

She may not look too wildly impressive now, but this is not a pepper to be underestimated. The White Habanero (Capsicum chinense) is a rather rare variety, which originates from Peru. It is a small, bushy plant that produces 2''-4'' long creamy white chilies. These peppers are unbelievably hot. They have been measured at 300,000 Scoville Units, which is about 10x hotter than a standard Jalapeno pepper. I think I am going to dry and powder a bunch of these once they come in and make an ultra-spicy white hot sauce!

Mmmm... don't those look cool? They can kick your ass too, make no mistake. Avoid jamming one of these into your eyeball without adult supervision.







And the last one for today goes to my friend Aba. Aba is a Purple Beauty pepper.

Aba just broke into her first set of true leaves this week, after a very belated start compared to her bretheren. Purple Beauty peppers are from the sweet bell variety, and when they are ripe, they actually do turn from green to a shade of deep purple-red. I have actually tried this one before, and it is a thick, meaty 4-lobed pepper that is about as sweet as an orange or yellow bell. They are very weather and disease resistant, and they look simply awesome when they are ready to harvest.

Badass.

More friends in the garden next time. Here's a few pictures of the whole colony as it has progressed over the last week or two.

More soon!