Mokelumne wilderness - Fourth of July Lake

I suck at hiking. Therefore I decided to hike a lot until a) I suck less or b) I get sick of it.  Here was the first foray into the Mokelumne Wilderness. You start at Carson Pass and then go down around Fourth of July Lake and then up to the Forestdale Divide. The loop is about 15 miles. Since I was off the couch, I was practically crippled by the time I made it back to my car. I have the fitness to do the hiking, but my joints suffered.

 orchids

 I need to look these up.

Alcatraz and Vegas

I found some mushrooms at Salt Point:

My first matsutakes in good condition, a lion's mane in good condition, some hedgehogs and black trumpets. Not pictured are candy caps and yellowfoot chanterelles.  I took the hedgehogs and some of the yellowfeet over to Kevin and Emily's and we made a duck and mushroom pot pie with duck that Kevin shot that morning. It was gooooood. And so rich. The matsutake and lion's mane went into a stir fry, and the rest went into the dehydrator. I've become the person that people go to when they have a question like "do you have porcini powder?" I'm happy to say that yes, as a matter of fact I do have porcini powder - and you can definitely have some, as long as you share the duck jerky you are seasoning with it.  I think a lot of people make really good food in Davis because there is NOTHING ELSE TO DO. It's a matter of survival.

Anyway, I'm working this route called Alcatraz at Jailhouse that is harder than anything I've ever tried, or at least have committed to trying. But what the hell else are you going to do at your home crag in the winter? It's a good route, I've done the first crux, am making progress on the second, and am linking substantial portions. The nice thing about starting to try a route is that you make a lot of progress really early...then it gets heinous if you plateau and realize that you can't do it.  Hopefully this will not happen, but if it does, fuck it - I have a day job.

I want to go to Vegas for a week or so. Climbing with Crista and the "bitch pack" got me psyched to hang out there more and take advantage of the awesome ladies that call Vegas home. Of course, the semester is starting and I have no fucking clue what I'm doing in terms of teaching this class, and the smelt will start to spawn soon and I need to have an undergraduate up and running so that she can do a lot of the work (I won't have time, plus DNA extraction has "undergrad bitch work" written all over it). Oh yeah, and at some point I should finish my bloody PhD. My CDFG guy from Bishop has had the manuscript for a month and keeps telling me that he'll get it to me "tomorrow."

This blog is boring. If you are bored, don't read it.

Mushroom sex!

Best day for morels yet! Found about a pound and a half, and I've realized that every time I find morels they are somewhere different. To find them you just have to get out and hoof it around disturbed areas. This time we found most of them in an area that had piles burned. The morels were IN the piles! We couldn't believe it. Now I'll know.

I'm excited because these are big enough to stuff (morels are hollow) and wrap in bacon and throw on the grill.  Stoked.

Lots of stuff, none of it climbing.

Okay it's June now. And it's like 60 degrees. Craziness.

Since I haven't been climbing due to my rotator cuff (it feels better though so hopefully it's been worth it), I've been doing domestic things like gardening and mushroom hunting and cooking and working.  And job interviewing.

People ask me if the job interview went well and I say that it's difficult to tell if it went well, but very easy to tell if it went horribly. Fortunately it didn't go horribly, so I'd tentatively like to say that it went well. I should find out in about a week if I'm accepted into the pool of adjunct faculty. Maybe I'll also find out if I am offered the job teaching the fish class.  I'm not even sure what I want. I haven't heard back from the Vegas job yet either. I might call the guy and bug him this week.

Instead I'd rather talk about mushrooms. It should be clear to everyone now who reads this (all 4 of you) that I'm obsessed. When the weather sucks or I'm injured, mushroom hunting is a great past time.  This past weekend I went with Ben, Summer and some other random chick to look for morels. We had an insider's tip to go up to Amador County where some controlled burns had been done at around 4000-5000 feet.  We didn't find much in the way of morels (below is all that I found).  However spring bolete season is upon us (we weren't expecting this), so we at least ended up with some nice Boletus. I'm the only one who found any black morels. Apparently I have a supernatural gift of spotting them on the roadside while we are driving. I kept yelling at Ben "stop the car", and then jumping out and running back down the road to grab a few.  People were astounded, and soon we were doing it American-style and trying to spot the mushrooms from the car.  Nobody was able to do this trick but me. Ha ha ha!!!

 Black morels and the lone blondie

Sunday Sarah and I worked on the garden. It's looking great!  Hopefully the cucurbits do well this summer (squash, melons, cucumbers etc.). Last summer in Davis they all got some disease and nobody got much. Our strawberries are amazing!  I can't even wait until they are at peak ripeness...I have to eat them now!

Sunday afternoon I went over to Bjorn and Lisa's bearing more foraged gifts. I made elderflower sherbet from elderflower syrup I made. It was amazing. I also made elderflower fritters. More like fried dough, but novel nonetheless. I mean, who doesn't like fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar?

Last night Kat and Emily came over and we made pizzas with the mushrooms I found Saturday. Emily brought over some taleggio and Kat brought over teleme cheese.  I caramelized some onions, then we sauteed the mushrooms, added kale, garlic and pancetta.  Here are the final results (pre-baked):

I realized this morning that I didn't get any after shots because we were too busy eating them!  The pizzas were amazing.  I can't wait to get out and find more shrooms.

Mushrooms!

I'm so excited about another mushroom season - this time morels.  I went up towards Marysville last weekend with Ben (of the pig-ass-shooting fame) and his wife Summer. We'd located a fire around some random lake in Yuba county. We found the fire ok and pulled over and got out of the car. Within the first half hour we found a really good flush of morels - which was great because none of us had ever found any before.  They were in a north-facing drainage.  After we collected the shrooms, we wandered around for another three hours or so and found nothing. The first flush gave us some false confidence I guess.

The first two nights I sauteed some with bacon and arugula and ate them over penne with some shaved parmesan. Man that was good.  Last night I decided to try something different, so I made "pizzettas":

I forgot to turn off the auto-white balance.  Whatever.  The pizzas were really good, and the dough was thin and crispy.

After we found the mushrooms, we stopped and bought some eggs from someone with very cute chickens.  Chickens are so great. I mean, look at them:

Great, right?  By the way, if you have any affection for chickens whatsoever you should watch the PBS documentary "The Natural History of Chickens."  It's hysterical and you won't regret it. It's all on youtube, but I can't embed.  Here's part 1/6. Just watch it. Trust.

Hmm...other than that, I'm trying to bribe/harass/cajole/beg my friend in El Portal to take me to the spot where he found a bunch of morels. If he doesn't, then all of the photos that he sent me via his phone of the morels he found will just make him a mean mean person.

Oh. right. rock climbing. Had a fucking great day at Gold Wall last Saturday - I feel fitter than ever...still. I wonder how long it will last. I'm going back with Addison again Friday. Hopefully I will send Golden Showers. It's a great route, but it hurts my shoulder a bit. You can see why here:

High gaston = shoulder distress

However, don't I look goooooooood?  Just kidding, but this photo is so funny:

Mt. Tam mushrooms

So I was a lazy rock climber today and drove out to the coast to look for mushrooms instead.  I didn't feel like suffering at Jailhouse again for 2 pitches in sub 40 degree weather.  So shoot me.  Instead I drove out to the coast and looked for mushrooms.  It gave me plenty of time to ponder what a nerd I am - right before my 31st birthday. Ugh. Here are some photos and descriptions of the things that I found. Mushrooms Demystified (MD) offered some information.

Dyer's polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii), otherwise known as Red-brown Butt Rot (I'm not kidding). MD: "it is prized by dye-makers for the rich and varied hues it imparts to yarn." When I start growing goats and making yarn, I'll use this to dye it.

These funky little puffballs were pretty cool. I'm not sure which species they are.

I don't know what these are and it annoys me. Maybe they are Corinarias? They don't have that cobwebby stuff on the stipe though. I really don't know.

Black witches' butter (Exidia glandulosa). According to Mushrooms Demystified, "This sinister-looking black jelly fungus can be confused with little else."

Hericium ramosum or H. abietis. It is edible, and supposedly delicious, but I let it be. I'd seen photos of this before; it was much tinier and more delicate than I was expecting.

Emetic russula. Possibly R. sivicola. This is the name given to a group of mushrooms. MD: "pleasing to the eyes of all, to the tongues of some, but to the stomachs of none." Ostensibly it is also collected in the Himalayas to add spice to curries (MD p. 98)

Yellow-veiled amanita (Amanita franchetii), I think.

Several of the slippery jack/bolete ilk.

Not sure, but they are pretty.

I don't know what these are, but I think they are different kinds of russulas.

Sulfur tufts

 Yellow coral mushrooms (Ramaria sp.) Maybe this?

salmon coral (Ramaria sp.) Ramaria stricta? or Ramaria violaceibrunnea?

Western Amethyst Laccaria (Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis) - at least that's what I think.

California agaric - (Agaricus californicus). This was my first successful key from MD.

Matustake? (Tricholoma magnivelare) This is my first matsutake (if it is)...worth big bucks when young. Unfortunately this is definitely not a youngster.

 Fluted black elfin saddle (Helvella lacunosa). I brought a bunch of these back home with the intention of eating them. We'll see if I get around to it.

 I found some sun!  This made it all worth it. I got sunburned from being in the sun for a few hours.  That shows you how grim it's been in California lately.

Banana slugs like mushrooms too.