Monday, September 26, 2011

From the Garden (and Yard) to the Table

Hello again! Happy Fall Equinox and nice to take the time to write here again ;) For those of you who follow me on Facebook (either under Julie Baumlisberger or Windy Field Farms), you will already know that we have had a busy, but bountiful growing season.

The greenhouse we put up at the end of May has produced bushels of tomatoes, and many other delicious meals which included beans, onions, basil, greens, beets, carrots, dill and a few other yummies. The outside gardens are still producing, thanks to the
successive sowing regimen I used. When one crop was done, I immediately cleaned out the old plants onto the compost heap, worked up the soil again, and planted something new. In fact, in a week's time we will be eating green beans which I planted a month ago, on the hope that we would escape the mid-September frosts we often get after the full moon. A few things were covered up and the very light frost did no damage to anything that was left unprotected.

Today's short post is a wonderful example of the bounty we have been enjoying, from our entire property. As I was cutting the grass before supper on Sunday afternoon, I spotted a large clump of Pleurotis ostreatus (ie. Blue Oyster mushrooms).

They appeared to be growing in the lawn, but since these mushrooms only grow on dead organic material, we knew they were probably growing on a dead root, near the lawn surfa
ce (and they were!).

I had some delicious beef strips simmering with onions and garlic (okay, and a healthy splash of red wine), so Ralph helped gather up the mushrooms.



I washed them, chopped them up and added them to the meat that was almost cooked


and ...voila! a delicious gourmet dinner.


For the record, I have some beautiful photos, from start to finish, for this entry....but for some **##"? reason they are not loading properly.. I will include them on my Facebook post.