Out With the Fruit, In With the Fungi (and the Focaccio)

Mariposa made up for the hot summer months with a balmy fall that seemed almost as long.  September, October and November here felt like a typical August in the Willamette Valley.  It was so delicious to finally be comfortable in the sunshine, and our outdoor adventures included many new animal friends: 

The Lone Mallard of Yosemite hustles Bob for his sandwich at Emerald Pool.

A happy petsitting client joins us on a trip to town.

Bob picks up a hitchhiker on the highway.

We harvested our cold-sensitive summer produce at the end of October, but we could have left it longer.  Always a gamble, this gardening business.  Almost all of our ripe tomatoes were devoured as they came and the rest were dehydrated for storage.  Our single "Sweetie" cherry tomato plant was astonishingly prolific, and the sweetness of the fruit was even more astonishing, especially when dried.  Those of you who were children in the '90s may imagine a Gushers fruit snack with a delicate tomato flavor.  DELICIOUS.

The big haul.   

Of the many, many pounds of green tomatoes and peppers that were left, I canned several batches of this delicious relish/sauce/soup base recipe.  Surprisingly sweet, it can even be used as pasta sauce.  I added some dried smoked chilis to one of the batches for extra tastiness with beans. 

Mid-sized green tomatoes were mostly consumed fried and dipped in tzaziki, with a side of arugula, pickled beet, and feta salad.

A late October thunderstorm brought us our first meal of found fungus since moving here.  It was also our first time eating shaggy manes, one of the easiest edible mushrooms to identify.  Thrilled as I was to find these guys, I'm even more excited about the large area of burned and bulldozed land that we explored on the same hike, aftermath of a September vegetation fire right above the high school.  Come spring, I'll be snooping around up there obsessively in search of morels.  We'll also be starting mushroom garden patches and logs using spawn from Fungi For the People's brand-new mushroom spawn CSA.  We took a workshop from this delightful nonprofit while we were living in Eugene, and we can't wait to apply what we learned.

Our shags, which were consumed breaded and fried.  They were fairly bland, but enthusiasm is the best seasoning.  Garlic aoli doesn't hurt either.

Yet another local food source that we've been drawing from is our friend Christie's blossoming sourdough bakery.  Not only are her loaves mouthwateringly addictive, but something about the high quality of her (mostly organic) ingredients and the long slow fermentation of the dough results in breads that don't aggravate Bob's gluten sensitivity.  After two years of frustration and failure trying to make successful gluten-free bread at home, this is possibly the most exciting discovery we've made here so far.

Bob ogles the fresh focaccios with bakery dog Willie (who demonstrates much better self-control around the breads than we do).  From left to right: Rosemary, Olive, and Jalapeno-Cheddar.

This month finally brought our first real winter weather, an exciting 8" of snow overnight.  A good excuse to snuggle up in the motorhome with books and stacks of unanswered letters...and to finally write a blog post!

Finally some extra freezer space, conveniently located outside the kitchen window.

Warm winter wishes to all of you, our dears near and far.  We hope that you are keeping well and letting your little lights shine.

Little Motorhome in the Big Woods