my northline produced its 1st big crop last summer. man they were good fresh picking them in the light purple stage. no morels here . soils too acid. fall oysters found frozen on the tree in nov. are so good.
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Aleppo peppers, and delicata squash are the 2 in my garden that I would describe as āgourmetā. For fruits- black currants and gooseberries. Those 4 are flavors I wish I was aware of years ago.
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Thank you!
Oregon truffles? How are they? Have you ever had european ones?
Iāve only had a good truffle salt but I read they were all pretty much synthetic. Love it anyway. A little bit set on steak au poivre before cooking is amazing. It smells like testostrone, which is just wonderful.
Iām thinking about ramps, although I now have leeks, grey shallots and torpedo onions and looking for elephant garlic. IDK, are they worth growing if I have all that?
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Aleppo sounds interesting. How hot are they? Do they have a milder version?
If it helps, when I was a kid in N.E. and didnāt know the heads were edible I found ostrich ferns in very mucky muddy conditions in the spring. Right on the edges of swamps in shade. In pure mucky black soil. Not in the water unless they were on hummocks with a good tree cover, but within several feet of the water. If on hummocks their roots would extend into the water.They werenāt everywhere, but where they were thereād be a big clump of them maybe 10 - 50 ft wide. For some reason I wonder if they need certain fungal or bacterial conditions.
If and when I do plant some Iām going to try to get quite a few at once and plant closely.
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they need to be in or near a floodplain. my father had them growing successfully in a wetter spot it his garden with a generous helping of composted manure yearly. they like moist rich soil. i have some langushing under my big spruces for the last 4 years . they havent done well there but theyre still alive. i need to have to start giving them more love if i want the nice fiddleheads that grow wild here. all the stores sell them in the spring so i dont really need to grow my own. just want to. got some ramps growing up hill from them.
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Not super hot, like a hotter jalapeƱo maybe as hot aa Serrano. I use them dry like paprika. Great on fish, or in beer batter.
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Thanks, good to know. I think one or 2 plants would produce enough to last me 3 years.
One the hits most of the marks for gourmet, very hard to get ahold of, very slow to produce, extremely rare, and very tasty and interesting, are the nuts of Chilean wine palm x Brazilian jelly palm hybrids. They look like miniature coconuts. Theyāre very crunchy, with a buttery and sweet flavor thatās a mix of almond and coconut.
Iāve only ever had one. If Iām lucky Iāll be able to enjoy some more, along with the date/apricot like fruit, in about a decadeā¦
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for me itās egg fruit, i will never be able to grow one but i crave them and durian something fierce, all the time.
@Lynn345 i keep putting them by the rain barrel/roof runoff in the mucky place, itās very dry here. but they grow wild in the woods here in pine soil with very little water. i have a few rhizomes this year Iām going to spread all over anywhere there is some shade.
Oregon truffles are an industry. theyāre very good, restaurants buy them, people in my old town where i lived there, some people make their living hunting truffles. fresh like that there is nothing to compare to, they are fantastic. you only need a little at a time just shaving or grating it. i love them as a grated topping for any meat just about. umami
i lived in a small cabin in the middle of the siuslaw. itās one of the least-developed national forests, so quiet and lovely. dark and damp. my dog and i would do long fishing and foraging walks along the Alsea River and one day he was very excited at a tree, i scuffled to see what he was after and it was a truffle. the biggest one i got there was about 2tbsp in size.
willamette is better known for it, there is that entire Nicholas Cage movie about it (Pig) and lots of tours there you can go on to truffle hunt. they sometimes sell for really high prices, i guess they are high quality in willamette valley. there really is a whole local āfoodieā subculture around them.
these ones.
chanterelles are my favorite and i would get a lot of those. chicken or sulfur mushrooms too.
i miss living in that cabin, but Iām glad to be where i am now, too.
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Ive seen some places selling trees innoculated with truffles to consumersā¦ hazelnut bushes too. Very tempting to graft a good variety on it and get it duel purpose
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I used to love growing La ratte - so easy to harvest since all the potatoes tended to be in a nest. They did have a nice nutty flavor and were fairly productive in my garden.
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That is a really beautiful watercolor. I love the light and composition.
Beautiful mushroom too. Pretty cool your dog is a natural for truffles! Might want to get another dog when he gets really old so he can teach it. I used to live in Humboldt county, I think there are some there too, under doug fir, but Iāve never found them. I poisoned myself with the wrong kind of fern once and am a bit shy to forage mushrooms..
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