Freeze, Mushrooms, and a Birthday

We had a certain frost/light freeze the night before last and last night, no doubts about this like the other two weeks ago.

And I never thought I would be so sick of mushrooms as I got last week. Still no Oyster mushrooms but I hit upon a huge patch of Blewits, there where a lot of 'em. Some are in the freezer. A few days ago when food was cooked and being dished up I told everyone, "For a special treat today, no mushrooms!" I received a look of gratitude. And we all pretty much are mushroom lovers here.

We have gotten the furnace vacuumed, wiped down, and blown out, in general ready for another season. It has kicked on a couple times in the last few days but the house is still mostly warm from the summer and it is supposed to warm up a bit again in the next day or so. Hopefully we won't have to use it a lot this year but it would be nice to have a little more winter than we had last year.

My eldest is turning sixteen. For months she has been going around telling us, "Brianna's birthday is November 18th." I have been trying to get her to say "my" instead of her name; I am getting mixed, but poor, results. I'll keep trying. She also has a list of DVDs and CDs with the words "Happy Birthday Brianna" written at the bottom. It is funny, she can write her numbers but if a title has a year in it or she is asking for a specific edition, she brings her list to someone else to write the year down. She tells us what numbers to write but we have to write them. I did get her to start saying the years right; she was saying "one-nine-nine-three" and now she will say "nineteen ninety-three." She is on a day countdown now until "the" day; 20 more days. I don't recall her ever being this excited over her birthday before. We will probably go to the new "Twilight" movie for her birthday. She likes going to the movies, we have been following the series as a family, and it comes to the theaters on the 16th-- seems perfect.

Was it a Frost? And Mushrooms

From late Saturday (Oct. 6th) night to Tuesday (Oct. 9th) morning there have been area-wide freeze and frost warnings; we were destined to get hit with it--so the weather folks said. On Sunday night/Monday morning we MIGHT have gotten a frost. There are three okra plants, in a frost prone spot, that have a few wimpy leaf tips but the tomatillos right next to them are fine. The two okra plants in another spot have no damage, even the eggplant has no damage and if anything is as cold intolerant as the okra, I would think it would be eggplant. What it amounts to is about seven or eight leaves of okra got a little edge damage, it didn't even fully kill the leaf. So, does it qualify as first frost? I am debating with myself over it as I am trying to keep track of things like that in a garden diary. I wish I wouldn't have pulled those green tomatoes.

It is time, here at least, for fall mushrooms. There are lots of different fall mushrooms to hunt; unlike in the spring when it amounts to hunting Morels. Coral, or antler, mushrooms are quite popular around here but there are others that are choice that grow here and if one can identify them, one is in for a delightful treat. Ron and Morg each found a mushroom called Lion's Mane. Lion's Mane is a big mushroom and quite tasty; I have never seen it for sale. We had those and some Coral mushrooms a few days ago. I did some hunting on Sunday and found some small Puffballs and some more Coral; Ron found a good sized Puffball yesterday checking on the cows. (I believe I saw Puffballs for sale in California, at a market, once.) And I went out again yesterday to a different spot and besides more Coral mushrooms, I found some Blewits. I have found a few Blewits before, about seven or so years ago, and these are choice mushrooms. When you can find them for sale, they are pricey. We had a wild mushroom pasta dish this evening and --oh my, was it GOOD--and there are leftovers! I have dried Puffballs before and it turns out well. I would like to find more to do it again. I don't know if Blewits dry well but if I can find more I would try at least one for future reference. I haven't seen any Oyster mushrooms so far this year--another choice mushroom, but I am hoping.