Hudson Valley Gatherers

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From foraging to mushroom hunting, this a place to learn and talk about what you can find to eat in the woods.

Members: 87
Latest Activity: Aug 30, 2011

Featured Foraged Recipe

Hen and Chicken Alfredo

These days, I generally prefer dark poultry meat, but in this dish I use white because I was focused on having the mushroom flavor come through but making it hearty enough for my boyfriend. This would a great vegetarian dish as well, if you want to omit the chicken.

When you add the pasta, focus on a good balance of sauce to noodles, adding it in incrementally until you have the right sauce level. Slightly under-cooking the noodles, and then finishing them in the sauce, allows the noodle to absorb the flavor (a trick of Italian cooks).

1-2 bone in chicken breasts with skin
1 lb linguine or fettuccini, preferably fresh (cooked al dente)
Loosely packed 2 cups of chopped Hen of the Woods
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 to 2 cups spinach
¾ c. heavy cream
¼ to ½ c. vegetable or chicken broth
Red pepper flakes

Lightly season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and brush with olive oil. Sear the chicken in a large sauté pan until skin is browned. Remove breasts from pan and place on baking sheet. Bake in a 375 degree oven until cooked through.

Add onion and garlic to sauté pan, scraping up brown bits from chicken (aka pure deliciousness). Saute about five minutes until onions soften. Add mushrooms. Saute about 10 minutes until the mushrooms release their juices and soften.

Add heavy cream, broth and red pepper flakes. Let simmer until sauce thickens, about 10 more minutes.

Remove chicken skin and dice the meat. Add any drippings from the baking sheet to the sauce. Add chicken, pasta and spinach to the sauce. Stir until spinach is wilted and sauce clings to pasta.

Serve topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Discussions on HVFN:

Restaurants and markets that buy/sell foraged foods
Your best wild mushroom and foraged recipes

Reading:

Seize the day lily: A taste in New York City parks
A foraged feast from Yonkers
A Harriman blogger: book recommendations and recipes.

Hudson Valley Hosts September Mushroom Foray

Next September, the Hudson Valley will host a weekend of mushroom walks, talks - a total geek out on all things mushroom.

The Northeast Mycological Federation chose Kerhonkson as the site for the 2010 Sam Ristich Foray. For average folk, this is a chance to peek into the minds of the area's greatest mycologists and collectors.

Get on the mailing list to get foray updates by emailing nemf2010@verizon.net.

Books

Discussion Forum

Foraging 2011 Results

Started by Heather Awen Aug 30, 2011. 0 Replies 0 Likes

My first year as a forager has been something of a roller coaster ride. From my excitement to finding baby board leaf dock to use in lasagna and it making us sick to making wild river grape juice…Continue

Graveyard Mulberries & Bear Scat

Started by Heather Awen. Last reply by Erin Elizabeth Jul 7, 2011. 1 Reply 0 Likes

I was gathering mulberries…Continue

Tags: mulberries, bears

pears anyone?

Started by Heather Awen. Last reply by Heather Awen Jul 3, 2011. 2 Replies 0 Likes

in the yard of my new home is an old pear tree. last year it grew lots of weird, lumpy, rotting, bug infested pears and this year it is filled with strong baby pears. i don't like pears generally,…Continue

Asking strangers if I can pick their apples

Started by Heather Awen Jul 2, 2011. 0 Replies 0 Likes

when i lived in los angeles, a man used to drop by to ask if he could pick our yard's persimmon tree. being north east coast gringos we happily said yes, since we had no clue what to do with them.due…Continue

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Comment by Diane Groeters on June 23, 2011 at 7:27pm: I agree acorns are soooo not worth the effort. I did the flour thing. It took 1/2 a bathtub full of acorns and two days to process them resulting in maybe two cups of flour. We used a some in a simple muffin recipe but it had a bitter, chalky taste. The balance we worshipped in a glass jar for about a year before some moths hatched in it.

Comment by Masha Zager on June 23, 2011 at 3:21pm: Good to know, thanks.

Comment by Heather Awen on June 23, 2011 at 2:54pm: Hi Masha, I don't have any pictures, but it stinging nettle, so if it stings it's the nettle! Right now though they all seem to be in flower and are prett tough although the top leaves might be ok. But I have heard that when it is in flower stinging nettle can cause trouble for kidneys, so I limit my picking for early spring and late fall. I hope that helps.

Comment by Masha Zager on June 23, 2011 at 1:43pm: Heather, can you post a picture of the nettle you're using? Not sure if what I have is that.

Also, I've been using the wild grape leaves to cook with (especially good with ground lamb), and this time of year they are very tender and grapy-tasting.

Had the same experience with acorn - didn't even get as far as flour, just trying to make the nuts edible - but it's a HUGE amount of work for very unimpressive results. Ended up throwing them out.

Comment by Heather Awen on June 23, 2011 at 1:20pm: I have tons of nettle in my yard, so before it flowered I cooked a bunch of it and now it frozen ready for cooking! I also dried some because I like to make tea with it. Like the rest of you, I have more than my share of garlic mustard. I did experiment with cooking dock but it gave us indigestion. I've been adding dandelion flowers and my yard's wood sorrell to salads. (The dandelions in my yard don't have the conditions to make them yummy enough for picking.) What I did find (I just moved here last fall) is that I have a lot of wild grape here intermingled with poison ivy. I am going to make grape juice using Samuel Thayer's recipe this fall. I had dreams of making acorn flour but the amount of work is intimidating - I have to remind myself that gatherer-hunter-gardener societies worked together - it wasn't one woman with a book doing it all! But I am on the look out for cat tail pollen.

Comment by Krystal Stone on May 2, 2011 at 11:46am: Is there any way that the Morel walk could be rescheduled? I would really love to participate.

Comment by Sophie Allen on April 22, 2011 at 12:25pm: Elmer, thanks for your email regarding sustainable harvesting. As foraging becomes more popular, more attention needs to be paid to what is being taken and just as importantly, how it's being harvested.

You should post here too. See you on a walk!

Comment by Krystal Stone on April 22, 2011 at 12:13pm: I was thinking about going to ferncliff forest in Rhinebeck tomorrow. Hopefully I'll finally find some ramps, if not I'm pretty sure I'll get some fiddlehead ferns.

Comment by Diane Groeters on April 22, 2011 at 10:37am: When harvesting garlic mustard remember to pull it up by its roots. It's an invasive that has negative effects on the environment. Yank it!

There have been a lot of early ramp harvesters. I meet someone yesterday with a huge box full for sale and he told me it was one of three boxes he had collected. He had pre-orders from local restaurants. That NYTimes article is correct about the over harvesting in our area. Plant seeds if you have suitable conditions.

Comment by Jim Marks on April 22, 2011 at 10:16am: got some ramps at Black Creek yesterday, kinda smallish. Don't know if it's still early or if the soil there is just thin. Trying in the Catskills next week or week after.