I recently attended the Sonoma County Mycological Society (SOMA)Mushroom Camp. There were over 200 participants from all over Northern California and abroad, all interested in the glorious fungi!  I felt proud to count myself amongst a group obsessive about those funny mushrooms that grown out the forest floor.  Mushrooms have all my favorite things in them. First, obviously, it’s about the food for me. Foraging wild mushrooms and then eating them is the best. I learned some amazing recipes, including a candy cap terrine that was to live for. I watched someone grate 5 Oregon white truffles into 3 cups of pasta with cream sauce, and of course, there was the mushroom caramel sauce.

But it’s  becoming more than food for me. I hand dyed a scarf with mushroom natural dyes. I learned several new varieties. I sat down and drew a mushroom for the first time. I learned how to use a key to identify mushrooms. I made bags to grow oyster mushrooms in.  And I learned a few great spots to look for mushroom here in SF.  There is so much to learn.  I learned about a type of mushroom that lives on a caterpillar in Tibet, and is sold for $20,000 a pound. This mushroom has been supporting the economy of rural Tibet.

Here is my favorite book to use while going mushroom hunting.

I also learned that you MUST cook wild mushrooms really well, even though they are edible. They are NOT to be eaten raw, not even the mildest of wild mushrooms like hedgehogs. It can give someone an upset stomach.

There was much discussion about the use of psilocybin mushrooms for medical purposes,and there is much research being done about it for treatment of cluster headaches, depression, and drug addiction.

Here is an article about where to get good meat here in town:

http://www.7×7.com/eat-drink/san-franciscos-best-butchers-and-roasts-101

Recently I spent 2 solid days making apple butter and watching Buffy with my neighbor. The apples were from her trees, and as we watched episode after episode, we sliced the apples, cooked them off, put them in the food processor(so we don’t have to remove the peels, which I like) then cook the heck out of that puree until the apples turn a caramel brown. We use Martha Stewart’s recipe which uses apple brandy. I felt like quite the modern woman trying to do something as old school as canning. Between myself and my neighbor, we had conference calls, TV interviews, movie deals,  being taken out to sushi, all while trying to make this apple butter. We talked about teaching kids how to make pizza in at the Bay-view garden and my trip to Italy.

Of course, with all of that,  the apple butter burned once on the bottom. I could smell it just starting to catch, so we quickly transferred it to another pot. You can’t rush apple butter. It really takes its sweet time. Like hours and hours.   We did a different style of canning than I am used to. We baked the empty cans, sterilized the lids, then steamed the closed jar. Here is the finished product.                     

I also love to make and drink hard cider. Hard cider is simply fermented apple cider sealed in a jar in a way that the carbon dioxide can leave, but the outside air(and “bad yeasts”) stay out.  You can add yeast to it, or do it from the wild yeast that exists on the apples. Once when I made this, I used bread yeast. It made a bready batch, but it was good.  So many of these things are easy to make, however to make it taste good, takes more skill, especially with alcohol.

I learned a story about Johnny Appleseed. I heard  he was planting all kinds of trees so folks could make hard cider from the apples.  He also walked through the west naked and with a cooking pot on his head.  I love that each seed from an apple creates a unique and different apple, as unique as a human.  For example, a pippin apple seed, when planted, will not make a pippin apple. Each kind of apple we are used to is that because it has been grafted on to a wild apple root stock.  The pippin apple has been cultivated for many years by humans to make that kind of apple.   I just opened a bottle of this excellent organic cider and wanted to share with you the label so you can try it yourself if you want. It is a dry cider, not sweet at all.

At the end of a long summer of cooking, I was presented with one more job at DQ university.  After the first day, we nick-named it the ‘apocalypse’, when we arrived to 100 degree weather, no potable water, vandalized buildings,  flies everywhere,no electricity, and fridges full of old rotten  food.  Where were we?  What happened here? Why?

Penny Livingston, the visionary and teacher at the Regenerative Design Institute, was asked by the board of DQ university to teach a permaculture course to bring vision and direction to the place.

DQ has a long history stemming back to the occupation of Alcatraz by Indians of All Tribes group in 1969. The group occupied the island for 19 months, and one of their demands was an all tribe university. This group later occupied an army base outside of Davis, which became DQ university.  This place was, and still is a bomb shelter.

The purpose of D-Q University, created in 1971,  was to provide alternative ideas and methods of education to Native American people. Among its goals were the preservation and re-institutionalization of traditional Native American values, the perpetuation and exercise of Native American  religion and beliefs, the establishment of a Native American Research Institute, the development of field-based educational delivery systems to Native Americans who could not attend the school itself, and the maintenance of social and personal support systems for D-Q students and staff.

It was the only all tribe college in California.

The university fell into in-fighting and loss of accreditation several years ago, and fell into ruin. Outside vandals came in and broke the window and even up to the day before the course, stole equiptment.  There is a very powerful Yolo county neighbor who wants lease their land and spray chemicals on it, which the university refuses to allow. The neighbor sprays anyway and farms the land illegally for profit.  The first night we were there, a white truck drove up and the driver threatened to burn the place down. The group responded by having watch 24 hours a day.

In the middle of the week, we were sprayed on by pesticides for mosquito control.  There was a huge talk about whether we would evucate or not, 15 minutes before lunch time! After the spray hit, the birds left the land because all their food had been killed.

My bedroom door had been kicked in at some point, and the curtains were bomb proof metal slats.

So lets just say, the situation was a little tense.

I am humbled by the power of permaculture and what having a vision can do.  One of the first nights, where was a talking circle around a fire for 80 people that went all night. That fire burned throughout the entire course.  On another day, a tree was planted to represent new growth for the place.   I was so honored to actually be invited to this land and asked to contribute what myself, Anne, Wowzer, Jeremy Jodie and Nick could do.

I was nervous about the food. How could I feed such a diverse and keep everyone happy? There were tribal elders, and vegans all in the same room.  Would my California organic world food cut it?  There was a request to not have as many desserts to ease up on the sugar for diabetics in the room. Darn! Desserts are the great equalizer that makes everyone happy.   Seriously, I was sweating it, inside and out.  Slowly, we found the way, and given the extreme environment, the food worked out really well. Susan, one of the board members and I have been talking about food. She thanked us for firing up the hearth of the community. She told me that in native american culture, food was always a part of it, at every gathering,  and festival. It is central.   I like this and resonate with this.

So I made paella. on the asphalt no less.Paella in the apocalypse as the sun was setting. Not too bad. Will, Lauren and DH got stuck in the mud trying to bring wood back for this fire. They were stuck for hours. In the mud around them were coyote tracks…..and the taste of the asphalt only seasoned the food to perfection.

DQ is launching a new campaign about healthy food and well being as a core part of their university. I am excited to have ties to this place and watch it flower. Hopefully I will cook for their 40th anniversary event.  The tree is taking root, people are living on the land,   and that fire is still burning.