Morel Mushrooms (again! in Video...)

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i could not resist going back for more. I ate them up in a stir fry... soooo good!
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xxoxox

Good Morels (mushrooms!)

On my way back from the 'stairway to ramp heaven' I made a foraging find that made the day seem like it was born of magic, unicorns and rainbows... i found some morels! And not the kind I have to kneel down a pray for, but the kind I kneel down and pluck from the earth... Huge wild morel mushrooms. The most morels I have ever held, the most I have ever seen, the biggest most beautiful... morels the size of a f-en pine cone! we literally stumbled upon the patch of morels when walking back through the forest and (not) trespassing past someone's house... (omg, i stole someone's morels--- does this mean deep down i have no morals?) I did take the mushrooms, and shook them all around the area where i plucked a few... trying to spread spores in what seemed to be a perfect environment for growing them- there were sooo many! I made sure to leave many morels growing too, so spores could take wind and make many more.

WHEN I GOT HOME WITH MY MORELS :::::

i know it can be futile to attempt to grow morel mushrooms on purpose, but it's always worth a try. I wrapped the mushrooms in a cheese cloth and took them into the woods - shaking the cloth lightly to let spores loose into the air.

and my second trick, in hopes to grow my own... i filled a bowl full of spring water, let the morels soak for an hour or so --- then i took the spore filled water outside and spread it around in spots I thought they'd enjoy propogating.

THEN I COOKED Um' UP! :::::::

mmmmmm

• I cut each one down the middle (after rinsing it) , added ramps (wild leeks), parsley and rosemary to a pan.


• Alot of moisture came from the mushrooms, which i drained off twice. Once the water was drained off enough, i added some oil and let them cook on low/medium for about 7-10 minutes (until darker brown.)


• I put it over (gluten free) rice pasta with olive oil and pink salt!

SooOOOooOOo delicious, it felt like a sin.

XoxoxoX

Stairway To Ramp Heaven

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Yesterday me , JuJu the donkey and a good friend went ramp huntin' in the woods... there was alot of pointing, turning around, following ridges, judging terrain, and memory sharing - of where local people said they had found them before. Impressively JuJu pushed right through the forest with me, stepping over fallen trees & always guarding our back, stopping when i stopped, maybe even smiling a donkey smile.

After a hike so up and downhill that my legs are actually sore... we came upon the BIGGEST most heavenly, grandest HUGE insane ramp patch I have ever seen, and most likely will ever see! Thousands and thousands of them, more then i could take in standing in one place... going downhill, uphill... 360 degrees all around. I had the urge to lay down in it and roll around till I smelled like an onion.

For anyone who might not be familiar with "ramps", they are a delicious wild edible leek, or onion type plant. (see more close up pics here.) They have a strong odor & flavor - people love them so dearly here in the mountains that they have festivals sharing all their ramp recipes & NO ONE ever tells where the ramp patch they've found is. No one, including me. :)

We dug up about enough to fill a half gallon jar, some to eat, some to replant in our own hiding places.

When you first dig um' up, you have to pull back a rotten looking layer of brown-ish skin, to reveal the beautiful white root of the ramp (see pic below).

Digging down a few inches, cause ya can't pull the plant up by it's leaves (it will break)! The whole entire thing is edible....mmmmmmmm. And did i mention they taste sooooooo gooooood?!!

Xoxoxox

Do You Forage For Food?

...cause it's kinda exciting and fun. Not to mention probably some deep biological drive that feels super satisfying to fulfill. While I am working on having much of my own food growing at the Luck Cabin by planting dwarf fruit trees, having seasonal veggie gardens, planting a variety of culinary herbs, and learning about edible forest plants... I also am a food foraging scout for at least 2 miles around me.

Meaning, alot of the folks who live in these parts don't actually live here anymore. Farmers get old and die, the family holds onto the land but doesn't want to live there, or there are the once popular vacation homes that are for sale & abandoned now. These people just are not around, and with all the walks I take in the area I can't help but scope out every plant, fruit tree, nut tree and take a mental note of when it will be ready to drop a good meal.

Pictured above are a ton of small white peaches on the ground at a house no one has lived at for quite some time. I picked through them to find the best looking ones. I wanna make peach sauce! :)

Pictured below are HUGE delicious turnip greens I found in a field down the road, the cabin & property there is a vacation spot I have yet to see anyone stay at. The field is mostly overgrown.

There are some places where neighbors DO live, and have such an abundance of apples and chestnuts they are willing to share. :)

Another "food" I forage for is seeds. I find seeds to other herbs, plants, and wildflowers that I want to take back with me to my cabin. In my hand (pic below) is the seed head for the herb YARROW. I use yarrow alot during the summer in the natural bug repellent I make for my skin.

Usually while I am out on these walks I find tracks from native animals, and sometimes I find the real thing...

These are wild turkeys that were very close and within perfect range to get for dinner, but I don't have those kind of hunting skills yet. Or rather I only had a big knife on me at the time and not a gun, or a bow & arrow. But the potential to forage some good turkey meat is easily available...and for me personally one turkey would last me 6-8 months.

FOOD I GATHERED :::::::::

I got a pretty good variety of free foods to eat. Think about it.. it's FREE. Free food and free therapy because giving in to your inner hunter/gatherer just feels good, feels peaceful, and right.

And since these foods are wild, they are not only organic but they are even better then organic!

Chestnuts, apples, peaches, acorns, turnip greens (and wishfully a turkey, maybe next time)! And there is so much more to be had, this is just what I can fit in my backpack and carry on each trip. Had I bought all this at the health food store I would have spent a fuckin' TON of money, just organic apples alone woulda broke me.

But now i can have yummy peach and apple sauce, and enjoy the fruits & nuts of my scouting labors. :)

Xoxoxox

Chestnuts & Buckeyes, not the same nut!

Back in the day when I first became interested in foraging for food, I got really excited about all the "chestnuts" falling around my cabin. I collected massive basket fulls, and felt like I had struck gold in the yummy nut lotto! That is until my poor boyfriend at the time ate them.
He believed me that they were chestnuts and while I was asleep one night he boiled a bunch down and began peeling and eating them - he said they tasted bitter and sick but he ate about 10 of them anyway and got really bad stomach probs the next day.
The internet was not as saturated with info as it is now, but he decided to look up more about cooking chestnuts since his were so f'en gross and discovered he'd been eating poisonous buckeyes, otherwise known as "horse chestnuts" ( they are poisonous to horses).
Poor guy. He never was right after that. He never was right before that too though.
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So here are clear pictures for ya'll food foragers out there who might be curious about these nuts...
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This picture below is the big shiny HORSE CHESTNUT, or BUCKEYE. It is poisonous to people and to some animals too. DO NOT EAT THIS NUT!

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This next picture below is a real EDIBLE CHESTNUT! You can eat these, most people prepare them first by roasting or boiling. But HERE they say you can go ahead and eat them raw too. (I am gonna roast mine! mmmmm)

Xoxoxoxo

Edible Forest: Indian Cucumber Root

I have to confess. Sometimes I am scared to try new foods in the forest because I have so many digestive problems from damage caused by Celiac Sprue...but the wild woman in me can not help but want to learn about every single plant that grows around my cabin. Today my curiosity took a stronger hold and I decided to actually take a taste of the Indian Cucumber root.

These are pictures of the Indian Cucumber plant, growing wild in the woods - since it is the Fall season the plants are looking less then perfect (in the Spring they look more healthy and vigorous).

The multi-leafed plant shoots up a smaller tower of less leaves where it flowers and makes this little dark 'berry' (see below), which I assume is the seed case. (I doubt that seed berry is edible, does anyone know for sure? DO NOT eat anything in the wild unless you know without doubt it's edible!)

You can use just your fingers to dig up the root, which isn't all that deep into the ground. The root is very tiny though so it takes a lil' care to make sure you find it.

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Bright white and just like it's name sake... it tastes ALOT like a cucumber! In fact, it tastes just like a cucumber but with a really delicious sweet flavor added to it....

mmmmmm.....

so good.....

I go cross eyed.

Thank you tiny cucumber for helping me overcome my fear of trying random edibles in the forest.

Read more info on the INDIAN CUCUMBER ROOT here.

xoxoxoxo

The Hunted: Ginseng

I never realized how widely sought out and coveted the ginseng plant was till I read about it in the good ole' FoxFire books - and how the men of the Appalachian Mountains made a living off of ginseng hunting throughout the woods. They sold it for huge amounts of $$$, cause the wild stuff was apparently better then the kind which was cultivated - it became such a big deal they practically wiped the plant out of it's native exsistence! People who hunted 'sang before it went to seed were looked down upon, a good fella' waited till the Fall when it dropped it's seeds so that if the root was dug up, at least more plants could grow in that spot.
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"Wild ginseng is ginseng that has not been planted and cultivated domestically, rather it is that which grows naturally and is harvested from wherever it is found to be growing. Wild ginseng is relatively rare and even increasingly endangered, due in large part to high demand for the product in recent years, which has led to the wild plants being sought out and harvested faster than new ones can grow (it requires years for a ginseng root to reach maturity).
There are woods grown American ginseng programs in Maine, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia.[30][31] and United Plant Savers has been encouraging the woods planting of ginseng both to restore natural habitats and to remove pressure from any remaining wild ginseng, and they offer both advice and sources of rootlets."
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The root is what has the strong medical qualities, most widely used for diabetes and erectal dysfunction ---> but in the old days people used it for less complicated problems like upset stomach, a burst of energy & hawt sex. ;)
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The pictures here are of some ginseng plants I found near the Luck Cabin where I live - you can see in the pic below the tiny dots coming from the center of the stem that will turn into the red berries, that then become seeds. Me and Bort found this ginseng patch by accident when he stepped on one of the plants and I instantly thought ''''oh no, that was ginseng'''' ---> it took us a few minutes to give it a positive ID because many tree saplings have the exact same leaf pattern as ginseng and were surrounding the 'sang by the dozens...
The real dividing factor is the trees have a woody stem and the ginseng has a stem more similar to bloodroot - and the easiest way to tell for sure, are the berries that grow out the center.

So cool!!!! I feel rich just knowing the secret spot where it grows!
Xoxoxo

Wildcrafted Herbal Remedy For Breast Cysts

Before telling you about my witches brew experiment, I have to do this:
The information contained on this web site is provided for your general information only. The Oko Box does not give medical advice or engage in the practice of medicine. The Oko Box under no circumstances recommends particular treatment for specific individuals and in all cases recommends that you consult your physician or local treatment center before pursuing any course of medical or herbal treatment.

I have a cyst in my right breast. I found it about 5 years ago when one of my cats stepped on my boob (Thanks Mr. Toonces!) - I was pretty sure it was caused by a combination of having been pregnant a few months before that (which can cause clogged milk ducts, even if you miscarry I suppose) and the fact that when I was preggers I ate tons of dairy food which I am normally allergic to when un-preggers. (Mmmm, Cream cheese.) I did not go to the doctor about the cyst for 4 years after I found it because I knew what it was - I only knew because I had been made to feel up fake boobs at the Women's Breast Clinic in New Orleans where I felt cysts, fibroids and fake cancer in all the boobies in order to learn the difference when self examining. The cysts and the fibroids are mobile, they can slip and slide around inside the tissue, change in size and hurt when you touch them - the cancer was stiff and rock hard, it didn't move at all, and I was told by the doctor that it would not be sore and hurt like a fibroid or cyst would.
Last year I broke down and went to the health center in Asheville NC, you know... just to make sure I wasn't making a bad choice but mainly to beg someone to go ahead and take it out with a needle. The nice lady doctor touched my breast for all of a few seconds and knew right away announcing it was" just a cyst" - which meant not cancer and also meant they would not be taking it out.

I am a naturalist anywho, so I decided to take my knowledge of herbs and research some different remedies to come up with my very own brew to shrink the cyst and tone down the pain when it's inflamed before my period.
Here is what I came up with and I'll tell you how it worked when I've used it:

• Mullein Leaves (1 or 2) - Go here to see what they look like.
  
• Dandelion Root (one freshly dug root) - Go here to see what they look like.
  
• Ginger Root (a few large chunks)
  
• Lavender (sprig)
  
• Lemon (optional, 1/2)

I take all the herbs/ingredients listed above and put them in a pot and bring to a boil - not for a drink but for TOPICAL use. I also made myself a small organic cotton pad to absorb the super warm topical tea and then hold the pad directly onto my breast over where the cyst floats around. I would hold it on there for at least 15 -30 mins. always keeping the pad replinished with the very warm topical tea.
Everytime I have used this method I have shrunk it down, when I did it regularly I shrunk it almost 80% but stopped cold and eventually the cyst grew back to it's larger size. When it was shrunk I also found that applying this remedy stopped that one breast from hurting before my period (while the other one still got sore) - so I imagine this may do something for inflammation in general. The reason I stopped cold of doing this till the cyst was gone was because for some reason I got nausiated as the cyst got smaller and thought possibly the cyst was releasing something less then healthy into my body (isolated toxins?) - and was hoping to have the rest taken out by needle (which ended up costing way too much). I am now starting the whole process again, and after just one sitting with the warm pad full of witches brew it already shrunk 20-30% down from the size it was right before. Wild huh?

Have any ladies out there dealt with breast issues? Cysts, fibroid or cancer? What kind of methods did you use to get your health straight?

XoXo

Natural Plant Dye: Non Poisonous Sumac

Not all sumac is the bad stuff that gives a person a poison ivy like reaction (like this), the sumac pictured here was used by native americans to make plant dyes and even a citrus tasting drink akin to lemonaid. Red sumac, also known as Staghorn, grows all along the roads here and up on open hills- so I rode my bike about a mile from my house to gather some to make non toxic dye with! The highest goal I have for making organic paints and dye is for it to not be poisonous in any way whether chemical or natural (which is the only downfall for poke berries, ya can't eat 'um) - staghorn sumac is one that can even be ingested- so it gets the 5 star award for being totally eco friendly and safe!
I cut the berry clumps off with a knife (the stem is fairly soft but might be hard to break by hand), and I gathered them in a hemp bag. The sumac is self contained, it wasn't bursting open and staining anything along the way. It has a sugary looking substance coating the each little berry.
I put the sumac berries in a pot, with some salt and water. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I think the more you mush them, the longer it cooks, the deeper a color that can be achieved- even though this most likely will never be as opaque & dark as poke berries or tumeric. As far as I could tell from the consistency it makes a better watery dye, then a paint, but I will keep you posted on that! I did a quick short experiment, just to see if the red-ish brown water would stain an undyed organic cotton shirt.
I was surprised how easy the color took to the fabric, mainly because it looked even darker in the shirt then it did in the pot. It will dry a shade lighter then when it's freshly wet, probably making this a peachy red, with brown overtones. I am impressed with how nice the color came out- but what's even better is the SMELL! This stuff smells yummy, and when it comes to making DIY dye that is a huge bonus! Toxic dyes smell like crap and are unhealthy to inhale, to have against our skin, and the throw down the drain. If someone wanted to try this as an organic paint, it might work best if painting on fabric instead of canvas or paper, using this in combo with other natural dye stains to achieve depth and variations in darkness to light.
Yay, for sumac... more plant dyes to come.
Please share your own natural dye experiments!!!
XoXo

Chestnut Tree

I found this large chestnut tree over by the Haunted House down Willow Creek Road- I was super excited about finding it cause I like to collect chestnuts fresh off the tree (free food excites me)! I know it's not an American Chestnut, cause those almost went extinct back in the day...

"It is estimated that the total number of chestnut trees in eastern North America was over three billion, and that 25 percent of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains were American Chestnut.The American Chestnut is highly susceptible to chestnut blight, caused by an Asian bark fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica, formerly Endothia parasitica) accidentally introduced into North America on imported Asiatic chestnut trees. The number of large surviving American Chestnut trees over 60 cm (24 inches) in diameter within the tree's former range is probably fewer than 100."
Those green balls of spiky doom are what holds the yummy chestnut treasure - this tree looks as though it is going to drop more then I could ever eat. It's a very large tree with a wide reaching range of branches. They branch out so far I had to triple check that I was finding the right trunk they were growing from... below is a picture of what the bark looks like on a Asian Chestnut, so it will help ya identify the tree better when looking for it!
The leaves are rather large and glossy, with distinct lines, edges, and shape. The Asian variety seems to have very dark green leaves.
When the chestnuts are ready to eat, the green spiky balls turn dry & brown - then fall to the ground. These things are not soft or hairy- it's more of a porcupine type thing going on...or maybe a ball of hospital needles - so grab it lightly and slowly.
Generally the balls open up and the chestnuts fall out! (Thank Gawd!) Pictured below is an open spike ball from last year- cause they are not quite ready yet this season, chestnuts fall to the ground when it's cold out and you are gearing up to hear Christmas songs in every store.
(I don't have a pic of the chestnut itself here, but click on one of the cooking links below and you can see what it looks like.)

Here is how easy it is to prepare them : Chestnut Cooking Tips! Just cut some X's in the skin and roast in the oven or boil! You can make other recipes with them too...mmmm.
XoXO

Ginormous Wild Grapevine

Is this for real? I thought this grapevine was a big dieing tree at first, leaning against another tree in the woods... but no, it's the most huge ginormous, gigantic, amazingly thick wild grapevine I have ever seen in my life!Look how small my hand is touching it, I didn't even know they could get this huge?! It's so girthy that it even has giant poison ivy vines growing up it, and they look micro tiny in comparison (see the P.I. vine cutting through the middle of the grapevine in the pic above and wrapping up it in the pic below...) - and guess what? The grapevine is totally still alive!
The giant grapevine magically wrapped way up into the tall trees, making me feel like I was alice in wonderland shrinking smaller and smaller til everything is suddenly much bigger then it normally should be. Very curious, don't ya think?
XoXoxoxoxoo

The Morel Hunters

Meet the morel hunters. Me... (looking tough enough to split the rock wall with my knife and possibly lacking regular morals).... And Bort...(looking like a moonshiner mountain man who knows whats up but don't care)...

Morels (not to be confused with religious morals) are edible mushrooms that are really popular to hunt in the woods and old orchards, but can be difficult to find because they are so camouflaged into their natural setting. They blend right in with the dead leaves and decay on the forest floor - but once you actually spot one you begin to spot them all around the area. They have a look alike morel mushroom that is slightly poisonous, but you can identify it by the fact that it's head pops off too easy as if it's not attached at all. Real morels are in tact, all in one piece... just like the puritans hope our morals are too. :)You can see in this picture above how well the morels fit into their environment - if their noodle looking stem gets long enough though it makes it much easier to spot the seemingly invisible mushroom. Below you can see how large some get, although in the patch we found they ranged in size a great deal. Bort cooked them up in a frying pan to eat - but I declined to eat any on the crack pot premise that a Chinese Med doctor once told me to only eat mushrooms growing on trees for my particular disposition. Once they hit the frying pan they looked like they melted and it was not appetizing anyhow - but let me tell ya, if i was starving I would gobble up any man's morals.... I mean morels.

XOXO