Mushroom Camp, Fancy Food Show, Then Life

Even though I wrote right here on my blog that I was going to bring my camera to mushroom camp, I managed to forget it. It's probably a good thing that I did because there was so much work to do that I would not likely have had time to use it. My friend Ellen snapped the one photo that I wanted of me with Saul and Moon Planits (aliases), featured here. It's not everyday that you meet people with such unusual names, but SOMA mushroom camp is that kind of place. If I'd had more time out of the kitchen, it's likely that I would have discovered other interesting people.

I actually managed to get out to a class taught by Christopher Hobbs, L.Ac. on how to make medicinal mushroom tinctures but it was just then that I realized that we had to count bowls which would hold all the darned condiments for our outrageously complicated-to-prepare-and-cook Asian street food meal, put together by Mycochef Patrick Hamilton, pictured with me below, in a pretty unflattering but "real" photo. So, sitting in a class didn't really work for me and I didn't make it out of the kitchen much but the meal got rave reviews.

We had an incredible team of volunteers, too many to mention so forgive me if I haven't included your name (you know that I adore all the volunteer "kitchen slaves"), who worked their butts off. Below is Andy ("The Toolman") Still and his wife Gayle. Andy brought his industrial strength Robot Coupe with more blades than I ever knew existed. That machine saved us from kitchen failure and melt down although we know now that those blades are very, very sharp. Nothing further shall be mentioned regarding this or any other things that needed nursing.

Included here is also a kind of dark photo of me with my dear friend Dee, who does incredible hand reading, and is a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen. All photos by my "right hand woman" Ellen. I know that I ought to have some food photos but those will hopefully show up somewhere else, like on the SOMA Mushrooms website but nothing yet (or I've just been too busy to check).

Sunday night I left Mushroom Camp in a heavy downpour (both myself and the weather), ready for my bed at home, and the next day working on writing assignments at The Fancy Food Show at Moscone in San Francisco.

I had hoped to see, and stay with, my friend Sonnie but the weather (still raining) and my mood (both a bit wet and bedraggled) didn't allow that. I walked the show floor all day, missing a number of interesting items as I was focused on my story leads about beverages and cheese (of all things). And, once again, I forgot my camera. I ought to have it somehow surgically implanted so that it goes with me everywhere.

I managed to test out the chocolates, grains, gluten-free products (in abundance), agave (how many kinds can there really be? At least 2, I found out - white and blue.) and popcorn. It looks like popcorn is the latest, greatest "new" snack food. At the end of the day, I was ready to head back home for a fairly quiet week of work.

And I got that for a few days until Thursday afternoon when my 16-year old son called to tell me that he needed a ride home and that he likely needed to go straight to the hospital to have his appendix out. So, I picked him up, took him to Kaiser Permanente and we spent 6 hours in the emergency room, minus a short time in radiology for a CAT scan to determine that, yes, he did need his appendix removed, an hour in surgery pre-op, an hour post-op and at about 3 am we made it to a patient room, where my uncomfortable son tossed and turned in a hospital bed while his exhausted mother slept in a most uncomfortable chair for a few hours. When I awoke, I drove home to rest for a while and gather my thoughts.

Son is resting uncomfortably at home now, and I had a most remarkable deep sleep last night. I guess that somehow hard work pays off and you never know what the reward will be. I am grateful for the little things -- health, sleep, air, a roof over my head, the sunshine, rainbows, and so much more. May your next week be less eventful.

Mushroom Time Again -- SOMA Mushroom Camp Approaches

Winter in Northern California is often like a big playground for those of us who are mushroom hunters. I consider myself part of the lot, although the days that I go out hunting have been limited in the last few years by working too much on "perfect hunting days". I hear the mushroom sirens singing but must ignore them all too often. One of my goals for this year is to get outside at least once a week with my eyes focused on the ground -- at least during mushroom season which lasts until around April, depending upon the weather. While this has not been the best year for mushrooms, it's a heck of a lot better than last year which, to me, was one of the worst that I can recall. (But I am fairly new to this endeavor -- with less than 10 years in.)



No matter what happens in the woods, SOMA mushroom camp takes place Martin Luther King weekend in Occidental, California. And I am one of the lucky people who toils in the kitchen, putting out a couple of wonderful mushroomy meals. I work with Mycochef Patrick Hamilton who does the menu, and I am the kitchen coordinator, or sous chef. This year, I fear that I may be in trouble with our Asian street food menu of 20 dishes that require many hands. But many hands we will have and if I can remember all the names and faces that go with the hands, we will have spectacular results. (Think about joining us next year, in the kitchen or not. It's an amazing weekend.)

My favorite part of camp is when I sneak out the back door to mushroom cultivation -- making oyster mushroom bags to bring home. You can see the results from one of last year's oyster mushroom bags here.




This year I will have my camera with me and hope to get some people and mushroom shots, with the mushrooms easier to hunt down than the people. So stay tuned...

You never know what you'll find in the woods or in the kitchen.

Rooting Around For Mushrooms and More

Last night I went to a SOMA meeting and listened to David Arora, author of Mushrooms Demystified (which is still a big mystery to me) and All that the Rain Promises and More..., and William Rubel, friends and myco-cohorts discuss the Aminita Muscaria mushroom and its edibility. Now, if this isn't the black hole of mycological geek-dom, I am not sure what is. No PowerPoint presentation or photos, one little aminita-like prop and lots of talk about history and then reality. Bottom line: they say that you can eat the poisonous aminita muscaria if it is boiled for 15 minutes in a large amount of water and then cooked another way. First, though, you have to find said mushroom.

A sad day for me, as today was the SOMA foray at the coast of Northern California. And my day just did not allow for me to make the trip. So, I went to a local park which was supposed to be a potential mushroom spot. I once found a Boletus Edulus (porcini) there and have been looking for another ever since. That was years ago. But sometimes the fun is in the hunt, not in the finding -- RIGHT! While that sounds nice, the truth is that the thrill is in finding the mushrooms, especially choice edibles. That will have to wait until later this week when I hope to get a coastal trip in and get moving in the woods with eyes on the ground.

On another note, today was a beautiful day at the farmer's market, with people gearing up for Thanksgiving. I bought a new-to-me squash, the name of which I have already forgotten, and some horseradish root, which I love as something to grate onto my baked potatoes. Twin Peaks Ranch had a new Algerian tangerine, which I declared is tastier than the Satsuma Mandarin. This was confirmed by Ted Richardson of Bella Ride Orchard (or farm), a guy who knows his fruit. I stopped by too late to get any apples or pears from Ted but he's the guy who grows the incredible Warren pears, also sold out for the year. Jim and Dave from Cazadero were there with chanterelle mushrooms (see photo for a holey one), chestnuts and quince.

Friday I spoke to the Valley of the Moon Rotary on The Veggie Queen's Health Care Solution and tomorrow I speak to the UU Forum in San Francisco about Surviving the Holidays as a vegetarian (so easy to do in my opinion but I have years of experience). Both talks involve vegetables, which ought to be clear by now. I have an agenda. I'm a mom so I say, "Eat your vegetables, please."

Just so you know, I've still got mushrooms on my mind, and they aren't vegetables but are well worth eating, if you can find them.

Relish Culinary Mushroom Cooking Class with John Ash

It's rare that I get to sit in a cooking class. I am usually the one at the front of the room doing the talking. But I just had the chance to attend a cooking class by local, and big deal, chef John Ash. I have known John almost as long as I've been in Sonoma County, which is about 20 years.

Three times I have been a finalist in the KSRO recipe contest that he and co-host Steve Garner have each year. This year I was the grand prize winner for my Spicy African Sweet Potato, Tomato and Ground Nut Stew recipe. The topic was peanuts or peanut butter and this recipe contains the latter. Read my post for more info about my winning.

As a result of the win, I got tickets for a cooking class at Relish Culinary in Healdsburg, a cute little town in Wine Country, just 15 minutes from where I live. The tickets were originally for a Wild Game class with John but I was not wild about that idea so I waited for something more apropos. And mushrooms it was.

Next week is SOMA Mushroom camp where I am the sous chef -- 2nd in command, putting out dinner for about 200 people. This is my big cooking gig of the year. I know a bit about mushrooms and if you want to learn more in-depth information by reading about them on The Veggie Queen site.

I wanted to be anonymous in the class but Relish owner Donna del Rey introduced me fairly early on. Then John mentioned that I am a Registered Dietitian and he deferred to me more than once. I felt quite honored.

John did a great job entertaining and educating the group about mushroom cooking and used a variety of mushrooms from Gourmet Mushrooms in Sebastopol plus dried wild ones that included porcini, black chanterelle and candy cap. The food was rich and delicious and accompanied by fine local wine.

Chef Ash (someone asked a question of him as Mr. Ash and I felt kind of strange calling him John at that point) shared his tips and techniques for making food taste great such as adding sugar to balance flavors and using citrus juice to perk things up. He even commented on his irreverence in teaching, which appeals to my sense and sensibility (if I have any).

It was a divine evening for me. I even had my friend and assistant Ellen accompany me, and she drove. This made winning the recipe contest even better.

I am going to do another post about John Ash and sprouting, so watch for it.

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Stevia Approved for use In Soda

You will see the new Coke soon with stevia. I am not sure how this will affect the soda drinking public but we shall see, likely a few years from now. This blog post chronicles the history of sweeteners. It's very interesting.

I say, drink water, drink tea, drink juice and stay away from soda, unless you've fermented it yourself. To find out more about that, check out how to make your own root beer.

Learning to eat and drink real foods is vitally important to your health. Choose whole foods most often, especially during this chaotic season.

A good dose of garlic, hot chilies, shiitake mushrooms and miso in some combination will likely do you good.

The Veggie Queen attends The Green Festival in San Francisco

This past weekend I went to The Green Festival in San Francisco. This was my second time but the first time I went with my husband and son who rushed me through the place in about 1 1/2 hours. It was record time and I really didn't get to do what I wanted. So, this time I went alone. And it took me twice as long and I did get to see what I wanted, maybe more than I wanted, and also less.

The Green Festival is definitely consumer oriented. I would say about half the booths are green and eco clothing. Now, we all need to dress each day but it seemed like too many clothes for me. I got about halfway through and felt burnt out. I did see my favorite friends from Indigenous Designs, and bought a cute organic cotton hooded sweatshirt from No Enemy (gotta love the name) in purple. And I almost missed the No Enemy guy but saw Adam, the kombucha guy wearing another No Enemy shirt and he sent me packing back down the aisle.

Adam's hibiscus kombucha (I will get the name of the company which I believe is Kombucha Botanica) was the best tasting that I have ever had. My farmer friend Larry of Triple T Ranch and Farm, here in Santa Rosa, is a kombucha fan. (That reminds me that Larry never returned my glass jar that contained kim chi, so he doesn't get any more until he does.) Generally, I don't care for kombucha and get my fermented food in other ways. But back to the Festival.

The area for the speakers is not big enough so I missed seeing Amy Goodman and Van Jones. Oh well. And Andy and Amy Berliner of Amy's Kitchen were going to be on at the end of the day, when I was long gone. So, mostly I walked through the booths.

There was raw food to sample but at some of the booths, they seemed to target younger people, and I obviously wasn't one and was almost ignored. That was disturbing.

I bought an Ahhh Natural mineral bag system for my hot tub so that we can give up chemicals. I can't wait to get it going so that the tub no longer makes me itch.

Rainbow Grocery was in attendance, handing out apples and pears. There were other food samples but many of them were from companies such as Organic Valley and Earthbound Farm. Clif handed out bar samples and there was a whole tasting area where if you donated $1 to Farm Aid you could taste all kinds of things, including Sunshine Burgers, which has a very tasty Southwest burger, but that wasn't being sampled that day.

If you like chocolate then the Green Festival would be a good place to go. And magazine samples were in big supply ranging from pubs like The Nation, Ode, Good to Vegetarian Times and my favorite VegNews.

The highlights for me were the new Choice pyramid tea bags that are biodegradable, an herbalist who had travel packs and To-Go Ware's stainless lunch carriers. Also, Fungi Perfecti had a booth with their mushroom kits and Paul Stamets was going to be there at 2 p.m. but I was trying to leave to get back to Sonoma County.

Interesting trip but I can just as easily be green right here. I also had to make a choice between the Green Festival and the Farmer's Market. The market seems much greener to me, with far fewer clothing and chocolate choices -- overall more mellow and less crowded. Staying close to home has its benefits.

The Global Flavor Market Worth 7 Billion Dollars

According to Cargill, one the big villainous multinational corporations (do you hear my cynicism?) the global flavor market is worth $7 billion. I was a bit overwhelmed when reading this factoid, which was associated with an article about how some researchers in Italy discovered a flavor compound that somehow simulates mushroom in another plant.

I honestly had no idea about how a researcher goes about identifying a flavoring component in a flower or plant but obviously it is worth the search if you find a good one -- it's a big score.

The following was reported in the Food Navigator:

Distilling the aerial parts of Melittis melissophyllum subsp. melissophyllum (Lamiaceae), a member of the mint family, yielded “extremely high amoun[s]t of the mushroom-like aroma component 1-octen-3-ol (43.6-54.2 per cent)”, according to findings published online ahead of print in the journal Food Chemistry.

Now, I am quite thankful that the Food Navigator delivers such news because I don't often read the journal of Food Chemistry although I am sure that I would find it a good nap- or bed-time read. Although, I can get a bit geeky about the scientific side of food and perhaps I'd really get into it.

In any case, I think that I shall stick with the natural flavors in food by eating them just the way that they are. One more reason to stick with food as it exists in nature. I don't have to be part of the economic incentive for scientists to track down "natural" flavoring agents. I often wondered where they came from and I now I know at least for one of them. Don't you wonder why can't we just use mushrooms to get a mushroom flavor? I do.

The Veggie Queen's Husband's Secrets for Health

The other morning my husband said, "I know that I haven't gotten sick because of vegetables, fruit and my medicinal mushroom capsules. And you can blog about it."


Everyone in my husband's office has been sick with some cold, other virus or the flu. Somehow my husband, who doesn't eat nearly as well as I do, has managed to ward off those bad bugs. He has been taking Mushroom Science medicinal mushroom capsules for almost a year now. They stimulate your immune system to keep it healthy at a very deep level.

Hubby has managed to stay healthier than most years by doing this - repelling almost every illness that has swept through his office. In addition to the better eating, he also takes a packet of Emergen-C each morning in the cold months, and Omega-3 capsules each day. That's the formula that is working for him. He also strives to eat at least 9 servings of vegetables and fruit daily, which he does often but not always.

His other self-care technique is using the neti pot daily with a special sinus salt that contains essential oils. And when it feels as if something is about to get him, he uses Sinus Buster with echinacea which is an intense but amazing product.

In addition to any of these things, I also suggest washing your hands more often than you think that you need to at this time of year. And take a few minutes each day for some relaxation and breathing.

I could go on and on about self-care techniques that might work but for now, I'm just happy to my husband has made a connection between what he puts in his mouth and his health.

Veggie Queen Cooks Under Pressure while Mushroom Hunting

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going on a mushroom hunting foray. And the pressure cooker once again came in handy. The drive to the Sonoma coast took about an hour and a half. The pot luck dilemma revolves around the best way to be sure that your food is hot. My pressure cooker made this possible.

I had intended to make wild rice and mushroom soup but changed it to a wild rice and mushroom dish when I discovered that my chef friend Patrick Hamilton a.k.a. Mycochef was making Thai soup. So I served wild rice with Trumpet Royale Mushrooms and Black Chanterelles with Balsamic Vinegar Glaze. It was black on black but quite tasty, especially with a sprinkle of Salt and Truffles that our resident mushroom ID guy, Darvin, brought along.

Wild rice takes only 25 minutes in the pressure cooker, cutting the time by more than half. I wasn't sure what would happen when it was left in the cooker for more than 4 hours. I let the pressure come down naturally, very naturally as the pressure cooker sat for at least 3 hours in the car, waiting for hungry foragers to return. Lo and behold, when I opened the pot the 4 quarts of cooked wild rice was still hot, not warm but hot. A fellow Sonoma County Mycological Associaton (http://www.somamushrooms.org/) member, Linda, asked how I managed to have hot rice at that point. I mentioned the pressure cooker. But when I saw the rice which was a bit mushier than I had wanted, I wished that I had made soup. Not many critics, though, and it was eaten up.

It was a beautiful day and many people, with a large group of first-timers, found a variety of mushrooms. Included in my haul were black chanterelles (but very few), two types of hedgehogs, chanterelles and winter chanterelles, also known as tubies or yellow foot for the color of the stem and one lone candy cap to add to my already dried collection.

The real and best work began when I arrived home and started sorting and cooking. And more about that another time.

Cooking at SOMA Mushroom Camp

I cannot imagine having much more fun than slaving away in the kitchen with some of the most interesting people that I know -- mushroom hunters. I am a member of the Sonoma County Mycological Association http://www.somamushrooms.org and every year they put on a camp. This year, and last, I had the privilege of working in the kitchen, producing a gourmet meal for the 200 or so campers. This year the theme was Mexican. (More about that later.)

I was the sous chef (same as last year) to Patrick Hamilton, the Mycochef.
We were assisted in the kitchen by a great cast of characters, including Mark Todd, a.k.a. The Cheese Dude. Add in me, The Veggie Queen, and you realize that it's good to have a special name in the kitchen. Fellow family camp head chef, Dee Dumont, was of great assistance. But special name or not, we had lots of help and it was needed.

Prior to camp, our idea of a Mexican-themed meal drew complaints. While in the kitchen, making mini-candy cap tamales, all hand-tied, I was wondering who thought that up? (It wasn't me.)

Our meal was way beyond rice and beans, and in my opinion, the slaw with candied pumpkin seeds and oranges along with the roasted veggies and chard, saved the day. There was far too much meat for my liking but it must have been good because people loved the food, and said that there was too much of it. And there was but what's wrong with that? We had leftovers to go which many of us liked.

It must have been the Lagunitas Brewing beer donation that had the bunch of us working so hard.

In the few moments that I had outside the kitchen, I did get to speak to people. An interesting discussion ensued with Jeanne Porcini (her official mushroom title) about avocado toast. What? you might ask. It's toast that has avocado on it. I eat it for breakfast. She gave it to her kids to eat, years ago, and wonders why it's not more popular. I do, too, since it's what I eat at least 3 days a week, as long as I have avocado around. (I only eat one a week for my waist's sake.)

Now that they say that a large part of the avocado crop was frozen, and the price will skyrocket, I will likely switch to my other favorite morning meals-- either Bob's Right Stuff Cereal made my special way in the pressure cooker or my pressure-cooked 3 minute veggie tofu conglomeration served over grains, or not. I usually eat a savory breakfast for it makes me feel better.

Mushrooms for breakfast anyone?