Roots

We went out on a chanterelle foray this past Saturday, but we didn't find any. I think I saw about two nondescript brown mushrooms, but we didn't see any chanterelles at all. It may be that since it has just started raining again, they haven't had time to come up. We shall try again later.

It may also be that someone already came through and took all the chanterelles, the idea of which annoys me on a few levels. One, that I didn't get any, and two, removing every single mushroom from a patch of woods is just bad foraging practice because then no spores get distributed and there are no more mushrooms in the future.

So we picked a whole bunch of blackberries instead, which I made into jam. I also made tomato jam earlier in August, and I'm going to make blueberry jam and maybe something else so that I'll have a good stockpile for the coming year!

I've been harvesting our modest crops of root vegetables, namely onions, potatoes, and some carrots. Roots are the most mysterious to grow since they're underground and you can't see what's happening down there. Therefore, I was really curious to see what I got. And, well, I got just enough potatoes to make a single dinner, gratin dauphinois to be exact. Next year I may try growing potato plants in a stack of tires, which is apparently a good way to have the plant produce more potatoes as it gets gradually buried.

Here are the onions, currently curing in the drying rack in our mudroom. You have to let onions cure, and then store them in a ventilated box filled with damp sand. I don't know where I'm going to find a box of sand, so I may just have to put them in the fridge.

Carrots have been growing large enough to pull up as well, with more on the way. I planted a variety called Red Dragon. They have a spicy red skin but are orange inside; quite lovely and delicious.