www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Grow your own mushrooms

One rainy day back in April, Ben, Squeegee (the ball python) and I took a walk thru our neighborhood and observed a fresh crop of some wild mushrooms growing in the neighbor's garden. Hundreds of them....some kind of agaricus I suspect, but not knowing anything more than that, I was giving them a wide berth. Ben was fascinated, however...where did so many come from, practically overnight? Luckily, I had recently gotten a copy of Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti. 

A Tale of Two Cookbooks

by mimulus

Well, three actually.  My 7 year old son Ben and I have been reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder at bedtime.  I cannot help but admire how self sufficient and well fed this family is by their own hard work.  Young Almanzo always seems hungry (getting up at 5 am to take care of livestock builds an appetite) and ample food grown and produced on the farms satisfies.  The menu goes on and on...sausages, pancake and maple syrup, roast pork, mashed turnips, mincemeat, pumpkin pies, watermelon pickles, doughnuts. 

The farm and its rhythm of work is an highly integrated ecosystem where nothing is wasted: the cow is butchered to become meat, tallow for candles and leather for shoes.  While I can never hope to replicate that complex dance of production, I can try to emulate some of the foods thru my eat local habits and mastery of slow food techniques.