Guest Blogger Alice Kulyk has suggestions for the best time and places for mushroom foraging.

A good time to look for new mushroom picking spots is when that variety of mushroom is growing. I also mark the date I first found them growing in my gardening journal. This year I first found chanterelles on July 23 and have been going out once a week to search for more and scouting potential new spots for next year. Last year, I first found honey fungus mushrooms on Oct 4^th. They were beautiful buttons probably just a day old so this year I will start looking for them a bit earlier, maybe mid September. Last year I found lots of honey fungus in Birds Hill Park and found a couple of new spots where no one had been picking. The mushrooms were big and old but there were LOTS of them.

A warning to pickers: there may be poison ivy where mushrooms are growing.

Make sure you wear long pants with ankles covered, even rubber boots wouldn’t hurt and be careful when you are picking with bare hands. I did end up with a small case of poison ivy last year. A preventative measure when you get home is to wash your hands and arms with sunlight soap. For me, Birds Hill Park is a great place to pick mushrooms even though there may be poison ivy, as it is only 10 minutes from home. I did notice there was a big sign saying that every car should have a park pass even though the front ticket booth was closed. You could buy tickets at the park office.  I took a chance without a pass and was not towed or ticketed in the middle of October.

Find out more:

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/treating-poison-ivy

Kath’s quote: “If you want to go foraging into the wilds of Canada without proper gear, you deserve what you get, even if that happens to include being attacked by an undead moose”.

Love never fails.

Once per summer, I take the opportunity in my Canstar Community Newspaper Column to write about a restaurant located in the beaches area north of Winnipeg. This visit was to the Hillside Eatery 38167 Hillside Beach Road at Hillside Beach, MBat Hill. The eatery’s reputation proceeded itself with accolades on the burgers, fries and pizza. Every word of praise was true; we were very impressed with the quality coming out of the little kitchen. Owner Rene Cyr turns all the praise over to his chef/wife Lori and her selection of fresh ingredients, sending him hither and yon to ensure that everything including the correct bread is purchased for their variety of menu items.

I selected the Ruben sandwich and the authentic rye bread was indeed the perfect choice as was the shaved corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing. I often judge a Ruben by how many napkins I had to use to eat it and theirs ranks right up there with the messiest and most delicious.

Others in our group decided upon chicken fingers and burgers and were equally pleased. The burgers were made with hand-pressed beef patties, swarms of sweet sautéed onions and condiments of your choice.

We saw a pizza being delivered to the table next to us that was literally falling off the pizza pan, it was so huge. That is what we will try on our next visit.

The highlight for most of us was the hand cut French fries. Long and crispy with just enough softness in the centre, they were perfectly cooked and abundant. A simple sprinkling of vinegar and a glistening of salt finished them. Speaking of ”finishing them”, I surprised myself and ate up every single one!

The family has just completed the building of a lovely adjoining patio. We understand from Rene that Lori often makes fresh seasonal pies for sale in the adjoining store but you have to get there right away to snatch one up before they are completely sold out, as is often the case.

Kath’s quote: “If baking at Zomick’s bakery is any labor at all, it’s a labor of love. A love that gets passed from one Zomick’s generation to the next one.”  ― Zomick’s Bakery

Love never fails.

Today I introduce a new feature and a new guest blogger to Food Musings. I have known Alice since high school. She was older than me and I would admire her and her friends in candid yearbook shots and on the sport team pictures. We were reunited when I discovered that she was married to a partner in the advertising firm that I worked at. Many years pass and her son’s family are friends with my nephew’s family. That son has a summer home at the same lake community as us. Belair Forest is well known for its blueberry and mushroom picking. Alice is a forager and has discovered many treasures in the woodlands. She will be sharing her tips for foraging as the weeks pass.

This is a great year for picking chanterelle mushrooms as there has been plenty of rainfall and very warm temperatures. I visited my favorite spots several times and found a few pounds every time I went.

Even my grandchildren  enjoy a few hours in the forest hunting for chanterelles. They have their own baskets and they carry plastic knives which are safe but make for good mushroom cutting. Taking the grandchildren mushroom picking is a very rewarding experience as I am so passionate about picking and teaching them about the gifts the forest offers us. It is also an opportunity to really embrace and enjoy our natural resources and see the beauty in nature. Someone has to teach the younger generation to be appreciative of what nature has to offer.

Now I just have to figure out how to teach them to enjoy the taste of mushrooms. Chanterelles grow in evergreen or mixed woods forest with a mossy floor.

There are lots of areas out by Belair. In July through August, just take a drive north on Hwy 59 and see where cars are parked on the side of the highway and you know they are picking mushrooms.  Friends have also told me that the Kenora forests have provided large harvests this summer. I never did find the incredible chanterelle garden I have watched others find on YouTube. Nevertheless, we had several good meals and enough to share or give to friends.  I think they are as happy receiving as I was giving.

I will stay hopeful that one day I will find the mother lode.

Find out more:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Picking+Chanterelles

https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=HCKzV9uwE-Sy8wewkoHwCA&gws_rd=ssl#q=Chanterelle+Recipes

Kath’s quote: “All of the people who work in the kitchen with me go out into the forests and on to the beach. It’s a part of their job. If you work with me you will often be starting your day in the forest or on the shore because I believe foraging will shape you as a chef”. –Rene Redzepi

Love never fails.

Our honourable hosts

Each year at approximately the same time, we join good friends from Toronto at the lake house that they retain at Willard lake. Designating a theme for each weekend we are together, happened quite by accident but has been one of the highlights of our time together. We were lucky this time as BIL David had gifted me with a real kimono when he traveled around the world a number of years back. D was able to find a judo uniform at Value Village so we were all set.

Saki Mojito Cocktails were served as we were perched on the floor.

This was after the entrance of another guest (check out the beard!)

We were assigned to the appetizer and dessert and D had done a dry run the weekend before so we would have a sense of timing and recipe difficulty. The recipe for Korean shrimp and green onion pancakes was suggested by Sister #3 who had a Korean student live with her for a year (recipe below).

Dinner stretched into the evening with prepping together and visiting our host as he barbequed double-boned pork chops that had been marinating all day.

Next up was a simple salad of cellophane noodles and slivers or cucumber.

Our entree was the hearty pork chops, caramelized onions and roasted sweet potato halves.

We let ourselves rest a bit before we were in the kitchen again on dessert duty, preparing a Vietnamese dessert of battered and fried bananas with a sweet coconut milk dipping sauce and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

The evening and rest of the weekend was picture perfect. We recounted our joys and sorrows of the year since we had last been together. Then we toasted the time together, the time past and the time ahead.

Kath’s quote: “They talked in the shorthand of old friends and shared memories.”
― Dee Henderson, Before I Wake    

As we opened fortune cookies over the weekend, they were taped to these antlers to be a permanent record of our time together.

Love never fails.

Our first glance of the blue Tuscan sky through our bathroom “window”

and a view of our terrace in the daylight.

After breakfast in our hotel we took the same route that we had walked in the dark the previous evening

arriving at the town square.

This is the handsome man with whom I spent the time of my life in Tuscany.

One of our first stops was the wine store in case we needed a night cap in our room.

After depositing the wine safely in our room, we wandered down Viale G. Verde passed the various spas by which the community became famous.

We knew from our research that Montecatini was divided into two communities-Montecatini Ferme where we were staying and Montecatini Alto that we could see high above us. We guessed that there was a route by road but we were tourists and opted to do tackle the journey by the vintage Funicular which was kind of like a slanted trolley car.

This as the gorgeous view of Montecatini Ferme from Montecatini Alto.

Almost upon disembarking we spotted this tribute to a loved one. Did someone have a funicular accident?

We had to climb straight up to the town square.

This lovely spot awaited us.

Before we decided which restaurant to have lunch in, we had a little snoop around.

There were flowers everywhere.

As well as historic buildings.

We were most fascinated with the every day life of the residents.

I would have dearly loved to have purchased something here but we waited until near the end of our stay to decide what to buy once we had a chance to window shop.

The restaurants put out baskets of their ingredients to lure you in.

This lady sat all by herself at one restaurant, never ate or drank anything and her expression never changed. I think that she might have been ordered to sit there and to not make any (more?) trouble.

My first taste of house wine-I was in heaven. We drank the house wine at each and every place we stopped-it was about being economical but also to compare and contrast tastes and flavour profiles.

I choose this unappetizing looking lunch as my selection-Tuscan Crostini sounds innocent enough but had a pungent, heavy taste. I had struck out at my first time at to bat.

D on the other hand loved his grilled cheese sandwich.

All the patrons sat outside that day but I peaked in to see what the interior was like.

I would have loved to have visited again on a rainy or chilly day but we still had so many restaurant meals ahead of us.

Kath’s quote: “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck

Love never fails.

I found this little bus shelter the square.