Hudson Valley Gatherers

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Comment by Tony Hitchcock on June 20, 2010 at 7:25am

Cool. I have a great recipe for Oyster Mushroom pasta...

Comment by Elmer LeSuer on June 19, 2010 at 11:08pm

Thanks to the Mid Hudson Myco Assoc Mushroom Cultivation Workshop I know one place where there will be zero competition when I want to forage for some mushrooms... MY BACKYARD! We also did a grain to grain transfer expanding one jar of Oyster Mushroom Spawn into 14 1-quart jars. Next phase we will "plant" an oyster mushroom straw basket... Stay tuned for more information... Due to the fact that it will happen whenever the Oyster Mushroom is ready, it will happen without much notice so pay attention if you're interested...

Comment by Gary Allen on June 10, 2010 at 12:28am

It's elderberry flower season... many of you know about making fritters from the umbels (flower heads), but in Europe they've been made into syrups for centuries. Here's my recipe:

Elderberry Blossom Syrup

This fragrant syrup can be used in cocktails, added to prosecco, or mixed with seltzer for a refreshing non-alcoholic quaff.

Ingredients
20 elderflower heads
1 lemon, sliced
2 tsp Ball Fruit Fresh (see note)
4.5 lbs white sugar
40 oz. boiling water

Method

1. Trim flowers of all stems, and pick over for insects, leaves or other debris.

2. Place in a large bowl with sugar, lemon, Ball Fruit Fresh.

3. Pour boiling water over the dry ingredients. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Cover with plastic wrap.

4. Stir twice a day for five days.

5. Strain though a bouillon strainer and/or through moistened clean cloth napkin.

6. Fill sterile bottles. Refrigerate or, for long-term storage, use canning jars, seal and process for fifteen minutes.

Note: Ball Fruit Fresh is a mixture of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and citric acid, used to prevent browning due to oxidation, and preserve the color of fresh fruits and vegetables when cut.

Comment by Elmer LeSuer on May 4, 2010 at 10:13pm

Elmer LeSuer Since the planting session of our mushroom cultivation workshop had to be backed up it allows a second chance for the people who missed the first chance...

So make plans to attend and get your orders in people... More Info Who/What/When... http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=356477717871&index=1

Also... there is a word document and .pdf format copy of the order packet available... Let me know, and I'll get you a copy...

Comment by Elmer LeSuer on April 23, 2010 at 2:22pm

That Goes For You Too Tony!!!

Comment by Elmer LeSuer on April 23, 2010 at 2:22pm

Couple things...

MHMA & Elinoar Shavit's Earth Day Morel Lecture last night was really informative... She did not just rehash the results of the study... She broke it down and focused on the important concepts of the study... She is a very magnanimous speaker... (And in her general personality too I think...)

If you haven't yet read the paper she published, I highly encourage you to take a few minutes to read it, or just print it out and put it in the bathroom or on the nightstand for later... There are some really important implications uncovered by the study...

MHMA was thanked for it's financial contribution to the study and for having the vision to take part in real scientific mycology work. Elinoar announced that the results have been noticed not only in the mycological communities here in the U.S., but also around the world. There have been many schools show interest in expanding the study to get a higher sample base to shore up the numbers representing the correlation of the ratio of toxins in the soil to toxins in the fruitbody...

Further studies could also take a closer look at several other important implications including how the toxins are assimilated through passive or active means... (Meaning does the organism seek out and capture the toxins or do they come in with the other nutrients...) The most pressing concept of all though is the potential application of the results to the remediation of soils where these and maybe even other heavy metal toxins are present... Myco remediation is a hot concept in the environmentalist circles and a breakthrough here could help clean up hundreds and hundreds of abandoned orchards where the dangers associated with the toxic soil prevents not only development, but prevents safe use of any kind...

We would like to thank Elinoar once again not only for spearheading this reasearch, but also for going out of her way to present her findings to us on Earth Day.

In summary, I am proud that MHMA has taken a step forward and not only embrace but actually participate in real scientific mycological research. Furthermore, I am also proud that MHMA took a leadership stance in the local community in hosting an "Earth-Conscious" event in conjunction with Earth Day...

I would like to think that as a mycological club we will all do our best to share the information that Elinoar and her study has unearthed... There are alot of non mushroom-geeks out there and they're people that feel comfortable picking and eating morels and will be doing so without any knowledge of the potentially dangerous toxins that could come with the meal...

A soil test and a fruit body test is cheap in comparison to poor health so it would be good to encourage people to consider testing their spots for toxins before eating any apple orchard morels...Remember it is not a panic situation, and the full story is still to unfold, but for now red-flag caution is in order so please help spread the word in our community...

More Information is available at the following urls:
http://www.fungimag.com/winter-08-articles/Rev_Medicinal.pdf http://www.fungimag.com/winter-2010-articles/shavit-morels.pdf

PS: I heard one Earth-Day type thing yesterday I would also like to share... You may have already heard this but for me it was new... There was a study done showing that the amount of electricity wasted by "Vampire" electronics "sucks" some ridiculous amount of energy from the grid. The point is these Vampire electronics are unnecessary things like cell phone and battery chargers plugged in but not in use, computer printers and computer modems and routers powered up but not in use etc... The advice of the speaker was to unplug these things when not in use or if possible put them on a power strip and teach ourselves to click off the strip when grabbing our cell phone, or when turning off the computer etc...

Small Steps...

Comment by Elmer LeSuer on April 22, 2010 at 11:34am

Reminder: MHMA Hosting Earth Day Morel Lecture presented by Elinoar Shavit... For More Info Click: HERE ( http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=10150120166575464&index=1 )

Comment by Tony Hitchcock on April 5, 2010 at 9:01am

My recollection is that seeds from the Pyramids have still sprouted...of course the Egyptian desert is a mighty dry storage environment.

Comment by Elmer LeSuer on April 5, 2010 at 8:50am

What a great weekend... eh?!!! I have heard from a few people that they are starting to find Ramps and Fiddleheads...

Comment by Elmer LeSuer on April 1, 2010 at 9:23am

I heard about this on a news talk radio program... Looking for feedback and opinions... Have any of you heard about this yet?

www.survivalseedbank.com

It says they'll last 20 years... Does that sound true?

Do any of you have seed banks?

Are any of you so concerned about GMO that you are starting seed collections or is this all hype to create a market?

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