Latest / Family Tree Food Stories / Fall Mushroom Show: Shiitake, Truffle Hustles, the People's Mushroom and more

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Fall Mushroom Show: Shiitake, Truffle Hustles, the People's Mushroom and more · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:03
  Hey everybody, it's Nancy from Family Tree Food and Stories, and
• 0:06
  I am here with my co-host, Sylvia.
• 0:09
  Lovely.
• 0:10
  Hello, Sylvia.
• 0:11
  How do you do fellow fungal?
• 0:14
  Yeah.
• 0:14
  Well that's just a hint about what this show is all about because we're talking
• 0:18
  about fungis because we are fungals.
• 0:21
  All right.
• 0:22
  corny, corny.
• 0:23
  That's for the Fall Harvest Show, which was last week.
• 0:26
  So if you haven't already heard, go listen and go back to last Thursday, which is
• 0:31
  available on podcast at Family Tree Food and Stories, our Fall Harbor show, which
• 0:34
  I think is pretty fun and interesting.
• 0:37
  And next week we're talking about all the cozy comfort.
• 0:40
  Winter foods that are coming along and coming down the pike for us.
• 0:44
  Things that we don't eat in the summertime.
• 0:46
  But I don't know about you, Sylvia.
• 0:48
  I am ready to dish out a ladel of, I don't know, something
• 0:52
  Stewy and meaty and potato.
• 0:54
  Potato, like.
• 0:56
  Oh yeah, me too.
• 0:57
  Me too.
• 0:57
  Pot of chili and the slow cooker.
• 0:59
  That's my jam.
• 1:00
  Hmm.
• 1:02
  Beef stew made with lots of red wine is mine.
• 1:05
  But that's for next week.
• 1:06
  So this week we are talking about mushrooms.. You'd be surprised how
• 1:10
  many stories there are around mushrooms.
• 1:11
  And the first we're gonna start off with is the.
• 1:16
  Luxury mushroom.
• 1:18
  It's hard to believe a mushroom is actually a luxurious thing
• 1:21
  because they're fungi, right?
• 1:23
  I don't know, but it's truffles and you have all sorts of stories
• 1:28
  about truffles because, well, you use them in your restaurant, right?
• 1:32
  We use truffle oil.
• 1:33
  , Food costs are important in restaurants, maybe someday, but right now we do
• 1:38
  truffle fries with the truffle oil.
• 1:40
  It's mixed with olive oil in our case.
• 1:42
  And, , it has a, very robust taste.
• 1:46
  , The oil , has a smell to it that is appealing to some people and not so
• 1:50
  much with others, including my husband.
• 1:52
  He doesn't even wanna be in the same room with truffles,, and , truffle oil.
• 1:56
  Now, maybe if I served him a $3,000 truffle, he would eat it anyway because
• 2:01
  we had paid for it or something.
• 2:03
  One of those things went for $330,000 at an auction.
• 2:07
  In 2007.
• 2:09
  So who knows if, anybody is that rich, But you know, , these are
• 2:13
  a European cuisine kind of thing, is where they're primarily used.
• 2:16
  And, and that's not to say there aren't fine restaurants that use them here in the
• 2:19
  US but , they go for a pretty big price.
• 2:22
  And Italian whites are really prized and Tuscany has a few, and that
• 2:27
  was the one that sold for 330,000
• 2:30
  Can I put it on my hand, like on gold?
• 2:32
  I don't
• 2:33
  Really, really wear it like a ring.
• 2:34
  And black truffles are cheaper.
• 2:37
  , And I'm not sure where this is from, but $300 to $700 a pound,
• 2:41
  which is still pretty expensive,
• 2:44
  it was the other way around.
• 2:45
  I thought it was the black truffles that were more
• 2:47
  no,
• 2:48
  I think it's the whites.
• 2:49
  Yeah, I think it's the whites.
• 2:50
  Yeah.
• 2:51
  So anyway, , the foraging is one of the more interesting parts about these.
• 2:56
  , Truffles.
• 2:57
  And the foraging takes place with people who are highly trained., And ., There are
• 3:02
  people that have been in this business for generations and they have their spots.
• 3:08
  They grow underground, right?
• 3:09
  , These are not like mushrooms that pop up underground.
• 3:11
  You really have to know where to.
• 3:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:13
  And there are certain trees that they have to, , grab onto.
• 3:16
  And that's the roots of oak.
• 3:17
  , Hazel Trees, beach and Poplar.
• 3:20
  And these are the great co-hosts, for these things.
• 3:23
  And the fungi helped the tree absorb water and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrate.
• 3:28
  And it's a perfect marriage because the tree supplies the carbs produced
• 3:32
  by photosynthesis, syn synthesis.
• 3:36
  Say that three times
• 3:36
  Oh, really?
• 3:38
  Yeah.
• 3:38
  I've had a little early wine here.
• 3:40
  , But they benefit from all that stability and the diversity of a host.
• 3:43
  But the really interesting thing to me is how guarded these spots are.
• 3:47
  , , I was reading one person, who went to his uncle's spot, uncle put
• 3:53
  a mask on him, an eye mask so he wouldn't see where he was going.
• 3:58
  Oh my
• 3:58
  goodness
• 3:58
  I mean, that's.
• 4:00
  , Fascinating.
• 4:00
  And then they use pigs at one time.
• 4:03
  But in some places, pigs are outlawed because the pigs would eat them.
• 4:06
  Yeah, I've heard those stories.
• 4:08
  Well, pigs are pigs, so Yeah, they'll eat them right
• 4:11
  . but here's the deal.
• 4:12
  They have to have the nose, , the nose.
• 4:14
  There are only certain dogs.
• 4:16
  And what's the name of that dog?, It's a Italian water dog, which probably
• 4:20
  doesn't matter to most people, but, , oh, it's a Legato Ramad, Ramon Nolo.
• 4:26
  I don't know.
• 4:26
  It's an Italian water dog.
• 4:28
  Anyway, I'm sure you're waiting with great anticipation that BB your
• 4:33
  full-blooded standard poodle qualifies.
• 4:37
  She's an Abbondanza dog.
• 4:39
  She, she qualifies.
• 4:41
  Maybe she's a water dog.
• 4:42
  Are they water dogs
• 4:43
  Well, yes.
• 4:44
  Poodles are what
• 4:45
  Okay.
• 4:45
  Well, it must be the same with the nose.
• 4:47
  , If they are water dogs.
• 4:48
  My Ellie, my dog is half qualified because she's half poodle, but they don't
• 4:53
  use Bernese mountain dogs very often.
• 4:56
  But, just so you know, tuck that one away.
• 4:58
  If BB ever needs a useful profession.
• 5:01
  Believe me, we'll put her to work as soon as we can find those
• 5:03
  truffle trees down here in Florida.
• 5:05
  They do grow in Florida, but, I think they really need a moist
• 5:08
  environment the entire time.
• 5:09
  And the summer times here are pretty dry, so that kind of disqualifies
• 5:13
  most of, Florida, but even still.
• 5:16
  So , well wait a second.
• 5:17
  You had also heard about the pigs who, when they ate them,
• 5:22
  they were like super healthy.
• 5:23
  Yeah, there
• 5:24
  super pigs.
• 5:24
  a, these are all tales, by the way, this is not even capable of being
• 5:28
  confirmed, but they're fun tales, right?
• 5:30
  Folk tales always are.
• 5:32
  So this farmer observed his pig eating truffles, which would probably be
• 5:37
  grounds for murdering the pig, right?
• 5:39
  But anyway, the pig was so healthy.
• 5:41
  His wife and he were childless.
• 5:43
  So they started eating these mushrooms and voila, they had 13 children.
• 5:48
  So
• 5:48
  Oh, be careful what you eat.
• 5:50
  But , here's my favorite truffle story.
• 5:52
  A home cook was in an airport, I take.
• 5:55
  It is, this is another one of those stories, that you don't know
• 5:58
  if it's been embellished or not.
• 6:00
  But anyway, she snuck a truffle into her pocket to avoid security.
• 6:03
  She forgot about it and it melted in her pocket creating a mess.
• 6:07
  She lived on with the family legend of being truffle.
• 6:11
  butt I think that's cute.
• 6:13
  I think that's so cute.
• 6:14
  You know, Nancy, it reminds me of a story.
• 6:16
  This is kind of food related.
• 6:17
  I was in Romania on a tour with a bunch of people and the Romanians
• 6:22
  bottle moonshine in Coke bottles.
• 6:25
  I don't know why Coke bottles, but they do.
• 6:27
  They desperately wanted us to take some back to the states and we're
• 6:30
  like, uh, I don't, we don't know.
• 6:31
  So anyway, we packed them tightly in our luggage and we arrived
• 6:35
  in Cincinnati at the airport and we were just about home free.
• 6:39
  When a beagle, came up that was a sniff dog, and it started sniffing our luggage.
• 6:45
  And I'm like, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in federal prison,
• 6:48
  Right.
• 6:50
  and it soon just walked away.
• 6:51
  I'm like, okay.
• 6:53
  I maybe used up all my good luck that day.
• 6:56
  that's pretty funny., I thought you were gonna say they exploded
• 6:58
  on the way and everything else.
• 6:59
  Like oof next, but.
• 7:01
  well, that was another danger.
• 7:02
  But anyway, you have a story
• 7:03
  about
• 7:04
  New
• 7:04
  I do have a story, this story that I heard about, well at the time,
• 7:08
  a young man in the New York area who was, an avid entrepreneur or
• 7:12
  wanted to be an entrepreneur, and he figured that maybe the truffles was
• 7:17
  something that the local restaurants.
• 7:19
  Like, so this is before truffles became pretty popular.
• 7:22
  , Bob, like Bernie, probably think, well, I'm not sure what Bernie says they smell
• 7:26
  like, but Bob says they smell like bad dirt as well as a couple of friends.
• 7:30
  But, , I like them in moderation.
• 7:32
  Anyway, so this fellow . Ian Purkayastha I think that's how you pronounce his
• 7:37
  thank you.
• 7:39
  Yeah,, I can spell it or I can say it phonetically, but . I'll put it
• 7:41
  in the show notes so you've got it.
• 7:43
  But he started selling them in New York, in the back of his car, or just after he
• 7:47
  got his license, figuring he's gonna make some extra money knowing that the price of
• 7:51
  truffles was relatively higher than would he make, and probably being a paper boy.
• 7:55
  So he would hang out at the back of the restaurants and try to sell these things.
• 7:59
  Now he's imported them from overseas.
• 8:02
  They have a shelf life.
• 8:03
  The quality of the truffle actually goes down almost by the hour.
• 8:08
  So the faster he could sell them at the higher price, the longer he hung
• 8:12
  onto them, the lower the price went.
• 8:14
  All of a sudden he hit the market just at the right time when the restaurant
• 8:18
  started saying, these are great.
• 8:20
  He sold them at a better price than they could get directly from the importers.
• 8:23
  Well, all of a sudden he had competition, but still , to this
• 8:27
  day, 24 years, later or so he is, maybe i'll figure that one out.
• 8:32
  I'll find out more.
• 8:33
  But he now sells 90% of New York's Michelin star restaurants.
• 8:40
  The truffles that they look for.
• 8:41
  ' cause they know that he's got the best ones and it's just selling
• 8:46
  dirt mushrooms out of the back of a broken down, whole car boxes.
• 8:51
  versus going to the market.
• 8:53
  the competition, they all try to chase after him, see where he is been.
• 8:56
  And so they're trying to push the prices left and right.
• 8:58
  He did find some competition, but it seemed like the restaurateurs were really.
• 9:03
  Beholden to him because he was honest in what he did.
• 9:06
  And if they weren't good, he told them.
• 9:08
  But, , he is now known as Regal Food, R-E-G-A-L-I-S Foods, and
• 9:13
  it's a multimillion dollar company.
• 9:16
  All started with dirty mushrooms.
• 9:18
  Go figure,
• 9:19
  right.
• 9:20
  what can we do out of the , back of our cars to make that fortune, and then we can
• 9:25
  I need to get a really disgusting looking car.
• 9:27
  So it looks kind of interesting.
• 9:29
  It tells a story, and then we've gotta get something really gross
• 9:32
  to sell out of the back of our car.
• 9:34
  Maybe dairy and fruit,
• 9:36
  which stinks.
• 9:37
  Yeah.
• 9:38
  , What's the fruit that, , the guy who would eat like the most
• 9:40
  disgusting things on television,
• 9:42
  Yeah.
• 9:42
  And Dorian and Darion of that fruit is so smelly.
• 9:47
  It was a story in the paper the other day about that.
• 9:49
  And this guy, he said, if you can get through the smell and get to the, the, uh,
• 9:53
  pul.
• 9:54
  The fruit.
• 9:55
  That it is the most delicious thing.
• 9:56
  He said he could eat it till he explodes.
• 9:59
  , Anytime you saw him trying to eat it, he, he couldn't get past that.
• 10:02
  So anyway, , truffles, I like them on fresh pasta, but that's about it.
• 10:08
  Yeah.
• 10:08
  Let's move on.
• 10:10
  So , the next mushroom the fungi.
• 10:11
  The fun fungi that we're talking about are shiitake shiitakes.
• 10:15
  You gotta make sure you say that right?
• 10:17
  So you don't end up with a, a bleep on the radio, on the podcast like bleep.
• 10:22
  But, , shiitakes actually started with the records back from the Song Dynasty
• 10:26
  back in, was 960 AD? I think it was
• 10:30
  . Right.
• 10:30
  They have a really interesting cultural history and you've got all details
• 10:34
  on the folk folklore, all related to shiitakes, which I think is fascinating
• 10:40
  that even mushrooms have folk lore.
• 10:42
  , I think we should call it, instead of folk folklore, we should call it fork lore.
• 10:46
  Fork
• 10:46
  lore.
• 10:47
  there you go.
• 10:48
  Make it fancy.
• 10:49
  Uh,
• 10:50
  I made that a one up.
• 10:51
  You are good.
• 10:52
  Um, cul rich cultural history, , tied to medicinal uses and folklore, as you said.
• 10:58
  And they have that Asian beginnings, but they've spread everywhere.
• 11:01
  And, , my chef was telling me that he does get shiitakes and boy, you are
• 11:05
  making me nervous about how I say that.
• 11:08
  And talkies,
• 11:10
  I'm gonna shiitake on you.
• 11:12
  Be careful.
• 11:13
  but they were included as dowry items.
• 11:16
  families in those , , ancient eras valued their mushroom cultivation
• 11:19
  , they just have this history of being related to longevity and all of that.
• 11:24
  And, some of the research that I did, , came from the literary world , and there
• 11:28
  was a book, I loved this story by the way.
• 11:32
  Things remembered and things forgotten.
• 11:34
  It's a compilation of stories.
• 11:37
  Not all about food, but about Japan imagine what Japan went through.
• 11:42
  It was on the wrong side of a war, right?
• 11:44
  And it was devastated in the atomic bombs.
• 11:47
  , And that, , exploded all the history that they had, at least in those two cities.
• 11:52
  And they had to totally reinvent themselves.
• 11:55
  So one of the stories that got such high reviews, . There was like 12
• 11:59
  stories or something like that.
• 12:00
  But the story that I loved, , was . My wife was a shiitake.
• 12:05
  I love that.
• 12:07
  , It was about a husband who's struggling with the loss of his wife unexpectedly.
• 12:12
  And , I take it that he was a busy man, , and Japan is a, a culture where the men
• 12:17
  work and the women cook and stay home.
• 12:20
  He started looking into her cookbooks and saw the little notes.
• 12:24
  Imagine Reconstructing a Life.
• 12:26
  Nancy.
• 12:27
  This is about US , family Tree, food and Stories in our book, my Family Tree food
• 12:31
  and Stories, because it's about seeing those words on the page and the stories
• 12:37
  about food memories that make people come alive ., Think about grandma's
• 12:42
  biscuits and, and the stories that went with it to make the most simple example.
• 12:46
  But in this case, she had signed up for a cooking class, and so he decided
• 12:52
  to take the class in her stead.
• 12:54
  He was able to cook some of her recipes and using the mushrooms In
• 12:59
  Japan, mushrooms are a big deal, in fact, a lot of times, and when a child
• 13:04
  is born, they'll inoculate a log.
• 13:06
  That's how they grow them is you inoculate a hardwood log, not a rotting log.
• 13:11
  , But a hardwood one.
• 13:13
  They inoculate it at the same time the child is born and
• 13:17
  you have to re inoculate them.
• 13:19
  And it sounded a lot like sourdough where you have to keep going and keep
• 13:23
  feeding it and all of that kind of stuff and it'll grow up with the child.
• 13:27
  I mean, is it that just an amazing, it's a tradition, but
• 13:30
  yeah, my wife was a shiitake.
• 13:33
  The Shiitake stands for love for getting over grief for resilience.
• 13:38
  And , he found his wife's true voice
• 13:40
  Isn't that beautiful?
• 13:41
  Yeah, true voice.
• 13:43
  And think about voice and how important voice is in food.
• 13:46
  And that's why I love it when people call us with their stories, because to hear
• 13:50
  a person tell their food stories is even better than seeing it on a written page.
• 13:54
  Well, and the emotion comes through.
• 13:56
  I'm, I'm gonna chat a little bit about that on a side note.
• 13:59
  The other day we're looking for a new financial advisor and unfortunately
• 14:03
  ours is retiring, do some illness, but, . I met a, a fellow and we
• 14:07
  were chatting and he is, he's trying to become a US citizen right now.
• 14:12
  He's been in the States for like 20 odd years But the interesting thing
• 14:16
  was when I talked about the book, he says, oh my gosh, I love this because.
• 14:22
  This is, this is my history, this is my family, this is my identity of who I am.
• 14:27
  And , so he's saying , I've lost that connection to my
• 14:30
  grandmother and to my family.
• 14:31
  My parents are heroes, US citizens now, but he himself is now trying to do that,
• 14:36
  and he says, I immediately says I, I have to get this book because I wanna share.
• 14:41
  Learn from my family and the stories and the history of my identity through
• 14:45
  food because it's so important to us.
• 14:47
  So that's, that's kind of a story.
• 14:50
  It's not related to mushroom, but it is related to mushrooms
• 14:53
  in some way, shape, or form.
• 14:54
  'cause there's mushrooms in every, in every cultural environment,
• 14:58
  well there's also Alice in Wonderland.
• 14:59
  Remember, she
• 15:00
  eats the mushroom, she grows six feet tall and then she shrinks and, that's
• 15:06
  the other thing shiitake are known for.
• 15:07
  It's a self-discovery journey of life.
• 15:11
  And so that was that one.
• 15:12
  You wanna hear a funny one.
• 15:13
  You wanna go from the absolutely sublime to the ridiculous.
• 15:17
  There are these cartoon figures and if you've ever played Mario
• 15:20
  Brothers, which I have not, I'd have to confess, people probably
• 15:23
  think I'm
• 15:24
  Yeah.
• 15:24
  I'm not a, game person
• 15:25
  I'm not a game
• 15:25
  do you know what a goba is?
• 15:27
  They're
• 15:28
  I know what ABA is in a different way, but
• 15:30
  goba are the first little figures shaped like mushrooms if you see
• 15:34
  them, they are the first enemies.
• 15:36
  Little tiny shiitakes, right?
• 15:38
  Yeah.
• 15:39
  Of the Mario Brothers.
• 15:40
  They're the very first enemy they face.
• 15:42
  Mushroom enemies, GOBA.
• 15:44
  Well,, that's pretty funny.
• 15:45
  Yeah.
• 15:46
  , You also talked about how the little, I'll call it psychedelic issues related,
• 15:52
  I'm not sure psychedelics and, and shiitakes, but maybe there is a little
• 15:55
  bit of a do, do, do, do going on there.
• 15:57
  , we have a, we have what they say is a mushroom farm, but it's not
• 16:01
  really a mushroom farm because they now have classified themselves.
• 16:04
  As a religious affiliation or a church, a mushroom church, not too far from us.
• 16:11
  And can you guess what kind of mushrooms they're using?
• 16:15
  What?
• 16:15
  Well, they're not the kind of mushrooms you would typically put in your soup to
• 16:19
  give to grandma.
• 16:23
  They apparently are psychedelic mushrooms and well, those are causing
• 16:28
  a lot of havoc in the backwoods of , Florida here right now.
• 16:31
  But,
• 16:32
  Well.
• 16:32
  You bring up an interesting point because, , it used to be those
• 16:35
  were made into a Schedule one drug.
• 16:37
  They have a certain chemical titles, I can't say it, but it's a drug that
• 16:41
  is psychedelic in nature and people would talk about doing mushrooms
• 16:45
  back in the sixties and seventies.
• 16:47
  And there's some, Carlos Castane wrote about it in literature.
• 16:50
  I've read all his books and you would have a , mushroom and you would take a trip.
• 16:55
  So it's a, fascinating kind of thing that is now coming into use and in
• 17:01
  psychedelics for like drug addiction, helping people overcome addiction.
• 17:05
  Oh, the mushrooms, the psychedelics are actually helping people overcome drug
• 17:08
  Well, what I don't know and haven't verified is if it's the same ones
• 17:12
  with that same chemical, but I do know it's very controversial
• 17:15
  and it's the use of psychedelics.
• 17:17
  To help people cure and mental illness.
• 17:20
  The other thing, it, it attacks is mental illness, but you know, just in general
• 17:23
  medicinal uses, it's like marijuana is now legal in so many states, which is why
• 17:28
  people aren't drinking as much, I suspect.
• 17:30
  , I guess a little puff here, a little puff there on a mushroom or a,
• 17:33
  there you go.
• 17:34
  . , I know a number of, entrepreneurs, who have talked about using psychedelic
• 17:38
  mushrooms to supposedly help with their clarity and their creativity.
• 17:42
  Well, I must not be overly creative because I don't do mushrooms I just
• 17:47
  find creativity in another way But , on that front, we also have something
• 17:51
  called the people's mushroom, which I would think would be these two,
• 17:54
  but they're not, they're actually called oyster mushrooms, which, I
• 17:57
  find kind of fascinating that people's oyster mushrooms , have that title.
• 18:01
  I need some bragging rights here first though, before we leave Shiitakes.
• 18:04
  Please go ahead
• 18:05
  shiitakes are usually grown on big farms.
• 18:07
  They can appear spontaneous.
• 18:09
  No one resource said they couldn't appear spontaneous.
• 18:12
  But , there isn't an absolute rule on anything, right?
• 18:15
  But they do have to be in inoculated into hardwood logs,
• 18:19
  and that's how they're grown.
• 18:20
  But , Southeastern Kentucky can grow Shataki.
• 18:22
  That's pretty cool.
• 18:23
  I
• 18:23
  love it.
• 18:23
  So anyway, just, just a little thing.
• 18:25
  Give us something to brag about.
• 18:26
  You know, we're the butt of, , late night television, so.
• 18:29
  , I think Kentucky's a beautiful state, but the bluegrass country is absolutely
• 18:33
  gorgeous, so I think you have a lot to brag on other than mushrooms.
• 18:38
  So, the people's mushrooms and the oyster mushrooms, you know, a little
• 18:41
  bit more about that than I do, especially from the restaurant side.
• 18:43
  So why don't you fill us in on the oyster
• 18:46
  Yeah, they're known as the people's mushroom because they're
• 18:49
  so accessible and sustainable.
• 18:51
  I anybody can grow oyster mushrooms, and they're one of three kinds of
• 18:56
  mushrooms that grow in your backyard
• 18:58
  And those are the ones that you get in the grocery store that you see, I
• 19:01
  guess the, the white button mushrooms?
• 19:03
  You know, I don't know what the ones look like in the grocery store.
• 19:06
  That's something that, , I wish we had some visuals because one of the
• 19:09
  things that I'm concerned about is people forage in their backyard.
• 19:12
  And, that can be dangerous, and we're gonna talk about that in a minute.
• 19:16
  But, because people do grow them anywhere,, in your backyard
• 19:20
  on straw or, or wherever.
• 19:22
  They just kind of grow, grow, grow, and . All mushrooms are being found
• 19:26
  to be rich and healthy properties, just like all the rest of them.
• 19:29
  and so here's the dangers about the, and I, you know, what's
• 19:33
  wrong , with, , oyster mushrooms and what could be wrong with these?
• 19:36
  One of the things wrong with them is they are invasive.
• 19:38
  They'll grow.
• 19:39
  Anywhere you have a leak in your toilet, look down, you're
• 19:42
  gonna have oyster mushrooms.
• 19:44
  Oh no,
• 19:44
  mean, it's like weird to look down from that vantage point
• 19:48
  and see a big old mushroom
• 19:49
  is is that the bathroom out back or The one in my bedroom?
• 19:53
  Well, they, showed a picture of around the bottom of a toilet
• 19:56
  and these mushrooms were growing,
• 19:59
  or, you know.
• 19:59
  Ooh, that's disgusting.
• 20:01
  So we're not talking an outhouse, we're talking like inside of
• 20:03
  yeah.
• 20:04
  Oh, they can take over.
• 20:05
  Apparently they can grow anyway, particularly if there's , a water
• 20:08
  leak or something in your house.
• 20:09
  I mean, watch out folks.
• 20:11
  Okay.
• 20:12
  I got a caveat here.
• 20:13
  Please.
• 20:14
  If you're, , hopefully you're listening this far to the show.
• 20:16
  If you find mushrooms growing around the base of your toilet in your
• 20:20
  house, do not eat those mushrooms
• 20:22
  No, it's not just gross sounding.
• 20:25
  Uh, so you've got all kinds of these things.
• 20:28
  One home grower found their mushroom bags being rated by squirrels.
• 20:32
  Eventually had to plug the holes in their garage to stop the intrusion.
• 20:36
  , Anyway, it's a big deal, so just control your mushrooms.
• 20:39
  Alright.
• 20:40
  Control your mushrooms
• 20:40
  that that is pretty funny.
• 20:42
  So , I have a mushroom story, beyond.
• 20:44
  beyond.
• 20:45
  Mushroom church story.
• 20:46
  So, we had neighbors, we've talked about our neighbors before.
• 20:50
  Our neighbors, Keith and Jackie, who have smoked the Turkey, and I'm worried about
• 20:53
  the root fire and the whole nine yards.
• 20:55
  But they, at the, well, Keith, is a terrific guy, but also . He's a
• 20:59
  culinary creative, I'll put it that way.
• 21:02
  That's probably the, the best way to describe it.
• 21:04
  And one day we would get these big puff ball, you know, those giant puff
• 21:07
  ball mushrooms and they would grow typically around the fall time up in
• 21:12
  the Connecticut area where we were.
• 21:13
  'cause we're in the woods with lots of, in the woods it was leaves.
• 21:16
  We didn't have grass.
• 21:17
  , Our backyard was oak trees and leaves.
• 21:19
  . We probably had , truffles in there and we didn't even know
• 21:21
  about it 'cause the amount of oak trees that we had in the area.
• 21:24
  But one day he decided he would take a puffball mushroom and cook it.
• 21:28
  I'm like, you have got to be crazy.
• 21:31
  Well, nope, he cooked it like a steak and as long as you get it at the right time.
• 21:36
  And I double checked and I looked at all the recipes
• 21:38
  online to see what's out there.
• 21:40
  You have to get it when it's still fresh and white, and if you cut into
• 21:43
  it in half and it's not white or you cut in the piece and it's yellow or any
• 21:48
  discoloration at all, do not eat it.
• 21:50
  It's not good.
• 21:51
  But I have to say puff balls, they are kind of fun when they get to
• 21:54
  the point of almost explosion.
• 21:56
  Have you ever kicked one?
• 21:57
  No, not that I know of.
• 21:59
  Kicking puff balls is a load of fun.
• 22:01
  They just explode and all the spores go everywhere.
• 22:03
  It's like this giant dust ball and dust storm that happens.
• 22:06
  So next time you see a giant puff ball.
• 22:09
  Wait, don't cook it.
• 22:11
  Or maybe let one cook because they usually don't grow and grow in clusters.
• 22:14
  They grow one at a time.
• 22:16
  But we have to take a quick break, so let's take a break and then
• 22:19
  we'll go on with the rest story.
• 22:30
  okay, so we are back.
• 22:32
  It's all about mushrooms and if you haven't kicked, a puff ball,
• 22:34
  I suggest you find one at some point in your life and you have
• 22:39
  that experience kicking mushrooms,
• 22:41
  wonder you're so cool.
• 22:42
  I know, well, I actually, I have to talk about mushrooms.
• 22:44
  . We have,, a window box.
• 22:46
  Well, it's not a really window box.
• 22:47
  I've got this little planter in my window and it looks
• 22:50
  like a bunch of sheep together.
• 22:51
  So when you, you look at the front, they've got all the sheep heads
• 22:54
  and the plants in the middle.
• 22:55
  You turn around and you see all the sheep butts.
• 22:57
  The other day I'm watering it and I found mushrooms growing
• 23:01
  inside my planter in the house.
• 23:04
  don't know, maybe they're edible, but at least they weren't
• 23:06
  growing around the toilet.
• 23:08
  So I'll leave it at that and we'll talk about flavor profiles of mushrooms
• 23:13
  because they really are pretty delicious.
• 23:14
  Yeah.
• 23:15
  . The truffles are very robust and if you use too much, I mean
• 23:19
  you spend a lot of money on 'em, but you don't have to use it.
• 23:21
  And a little dab will do you, as that old commercial used to say, 'cause
• 23:24
  they can really take over a dish.
• 23:26
  I don't know that I'll have much of a chance to ever try them.
• 23:28
  I'm not a great big adventurous eater, but, , shiitakes are intense, and
• 23:33
  they have a rich woodsy flavoring.
• 23:36
  Oysters are subtle, mildly sweet, and they say a slight shellfish flavor to them.
• 23:42
  And so that's kind of cool.
• 23:44
  There's also a lot of magic, and we won't get to all that today, but
• 23:48
  there are, , stories, , in England.
• 23:51
  These, I don't know what a fairy ring would be, , but there are circles of
• 23:54
  mushrooms in the grass and that if you find that, oh, well that's cool.
• 23:59
  , Where that's where fairies have danced.
• 24:02
  In England, you step aside and don't step into them or a curse will come upon you.
• 24:07
  So you didn't do any of that.
• 24:08
  Did.
• 24:08
  No, I didn't do it.
• 24:09
  , We had friends over in, Katon, New York who used to pick the mushrooms in their
• 24:13
  front yard and, . , Andrjez, , they have since moved to Portugal, but he was
• 24:18
  Polish and raised in, in Poland, and he knew how to find the right mushrooms.
• 24:22
  My dad said they used to pick mushrooms when they were kids, but,
• 24:25
  I never learned how to do that.
• 24:26
  Always wanted to, so, nope, I didn't Step in the fairy circle
• 24:29
  Okay now, so to kind of end things, , I didn't wanna tell a folk tale.
• 24:33
  Because really, seriously, we would emphasize know what you're doing.
• 24:37
  If you're eating mushrooms out of the backyard and , whatever
• 24:40
  your trusted source would be, you could probably do that.
• 24:42
  And most states have like fish and wildlife or something like that.
• 24:46
  Some version of that we do.
• 24:48
  And you can probably get educational materials from there.
• 24:50
  But this one's a fun story.
• 24:51
  Alright?
• 24:52
  A woman tells a story, that.
• 24:54
  her mother would never serve mushrooms that were foraged from the backyard.
• 24:58
  And the reason she didn't is that her grandfa, her father.
• 25:01
  So it was the woman telling the story's grandfather granddad would forage in
• 25:05
  the backyard and he loved his mushrooms, and grandma was les enamored with them.
• 25:11
  So she would take a silver coin and put it in a pan where she cooked them.
• 25:15
  And if the coin turned black.
• 25:17
  It meant the rooms.
• 25:19
  That's mushrooms by the way.
• 25:20
  I'm being cool.
• 25:21
  Mushrooms were toxic.
• 25:23
  So there you have it.
• 25:24
  A mom.
• 25:25
  This, the one in between, the generation in between.
• 25:28
  Wouldn't do, wouldn't touch forage mushrooms.
• 25:31
  So do what you want.
• 25:33
  Find that silver corn.
• 25:34
  But don't do what you just think you want.
• 25:36
  Know what you're doing.
• 25:38
  Find that silver coin and put it in your pocket instead.
• 25:41
  absolutely.
• 25:42
  So there you go.
• 25:43
  Mushrooms.
• 25:43
  I, I've made mushroom soup and mushroom stew.
• 25:46
  And when it's done right, it's delicious.
• 25:49
  But I do tend to go overboard with finding the fancy expensive mushrooms
• 25:53
  because ooh, you put 'em all together.
• 25:55
  They are yum.
• 25:56
  Very delicious mushrooms.
• 25:58
  We are the fungi.
• 25:59
  Fun.
• 26:00
  Well, we're the fun gals,
• 26:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:02
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:03
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:03
  Definitely.
• 26:04
  . If you haven't already, please share and like the show, share it
• 26:08
  with friends, family, neighbors, maybe even your dog who likes to go
• 26:12
  looking for Fungis to with BB, right?
• 26:17
  And , we hope that you will also share your stories with us.
• 26:20
  Go to podcast Family Tree Food and Stories to do that as well.
• 26:24
  And we'll put a link in the show notes so that you know how to reach us.
• 26:27
  So until next time, stay tuned.
• 26:30
  Eat well, share more stories, and we'll see you soon.
• 26:34
  Take care.
• 26:34
  Bye-bye.
• 26:37
  Okay,