Upcoming; dinner, floral demo and book signing

If you read my column in the Dominion Post today, you know I'm pretty excited about the Florist to the Field event at Modern Homestead this weekend.

I love flowers, and how much a bouquet can improve a bad mood or keep a room constantly cheerful (unless I forget to refresh the water, and end up vacuuming petals for days). My two usual cut flower sources are farmers markets and my fields, which is why I'm particularly looking forward to this event.

This Sunday, after a seasonally inspired family-style meal, the authors of Florist to the Field will give a floral arranging demo using foraged materials.

The location is another aspect that I'm excited about; an old church Modern Homestead is renovating as an event space. Using old buildings instead of tearing them down is something I'm a huge fan of (seeing new structures go up when we have beautiful existing ones is a major pet peeve of mine).

The church in Reedsville is charming inside - big windows and a high ceiling with an intimate atmosphere.

After chatting with Trellis last week about the upcoming event, I was inspired to pick some flowers and brighten my home. The pictures in the post are of my attempts - let's see if I can retain any tips and tricks shared at the event on Sunday and make prettier arrangements next week!

Stop and smell the ramps

Last weekend, when the weather felt a bit more like spring, I went out to pick up some branches and logs.

My motives were multiple; help my parents get a jump start on collecting fire wood for next winter, beautify the roadside, collect some nice branches to potentially use as bean poles... But most importantly, to uncover a patch of ramps the road crew had unknowingly covered when cutting trees.

While dragging branches away from the wild onion/garlic growing area, a pungent smell stopped me in my tracks. I dropped to my knee, and scanned the ground. Sure enough, there were tiny green ramps, poking up through the dirt and debris.

It'll take at least a couple more weeks before any are ready to harvest, but I'm already getting excited and having cravings. Each year I try to expand the recipes I use ramps in, and try to preserve a few. A favorite tried and true recipe (below) I will be whipping up with the first harvest is ramp butter biscuits. It's a simple recipe, and include fresh oregano - another of my springtime favorites.

Ramp Biscuits

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt and sugar

3/4 cup chilled butter

handfull of ramps, chopped

one bunch fresh oregano, chopped

1 cup of water or milk

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Cut butter into dry ingredients using two knives or your fingertips until the mixture looks crumb-like.  Add ramps and oregano, mix, and then add liquid.  Mix to combine. Press onto a floured surface to create a 1 inch thick disk.  Cut using a biscuit cutter, a round cookie cutter, or simply a small glass, cut into rounds.

Bake at 450F for ~10 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Try not to eat all the flakey delicious biscuits in one sitting... or do! Yum!

Third time's the sweet charm

Spring is full of hope - the fields starting to green, snowdrop and crocus blossoms providing the first nectar for honeybees.

Something else starts to happen when the days warm up. Something not visible, but just as sweet as those first blooms; maple sap starts to run. 

Maple trees need day time temperatures above freezing and night time temperatures below freezing for sap to flow. The fluctuations in temperatures (after the winter freeze) cause the sap to alternate between rushing up to the branches and back down to the roots.

Three years ago I tried tapping a few trees - it is a simple process. I used a 5/16" drill bit to make a hole at a slightly upward angle about 2" deep into a maple tree trunk. I inserted a homemade spile; spiles are any type of device that allows the sap to run out of the tree and into your intended bucket. The first year I cut disposable pie pans and bent pieces into 4" tubes. The second year I used wooden spiles. This year I invested in some plastic spiles with 2' hoses, which gave me more flexibility on where I drilled the taps.

Boiling though, proved slightly more difficult than the tapping process. The clear and barely sweet liquid that runs from the tree needs the water content to be boiled away before it becomes the amber sap we are all familiar with. The ratio is about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.

The first year I used a cast iron pot and my rocket stove. This was not an efficient method, and I ended up putting the pot on an electric burner outside. It still took several days to to boil down less than a dozen gallons, and by the time the sap had reduced to syrup it had acquired an iron flavor from the pot. 

The next year I thought I'd learned my lesson. I chose the same method, but in an aluminum pot. Again, it took time to reduce, and this time the finished product had a slightly different metallic flavor.

This year, I did it right.  Chafing dishes, open flame, boiled down in an afternoon resulted in the best maple syrup I've ever tasted. 

I generally followed these diy evaporator plans. They worked great and are so simple! I put a few oval chafing dishes (picked up second hand) across the cinder blocks, and lit a fire. 

I built the evaporator outside my garden, but close enough that I could do some chores while the sap boiled. 

The hottest spot on the evaporator was the pan closest to the chimney, and I loved seeing the color progression of the sap as the sugar content concentrated. 

Once I was down to one pan, I kept a close eye on it to make sure it didn't scorch. When I couldn't take the suspense (and had about an inch and a half of liquid left), I brought it inside to finish on the stove top. Following other directions I found online, I let it boil until the syrup reached 217 degrees - just above the boiling point of water.

The resulting syrup was almost buttery, and hands down incredible. I also highly recommend using some of the boiling sap (once it has a nice color, but is not yet syrup) to make coffee. I put it with fresh grounds in my french press, added a splash of local milk, and thoroughly enjoyed every sip.

So far I've boiled close to 20 gallons between the 5 trees I tapped, and given a jar to each of my sisters as stashed two in my fridge. With the wonky weather this year I'm not sure the sap will run any more. If it doesn't, I'll take comfort

Mushrooms all year

Would you buy a wild mushroom calendar? I'm considering putting one together, but I'm not sure it would sell... 

These wouldn't be the final images, just a sample. What do you think?

WV rain forest

Last week I wrote a column about the crazy amount of mushrooms I found in our woods. Boletes, chanterelles, and so many new ones I'd never seen... In JUNE!

This rainy weather sucks, but the woods sure love it. 

Here are some picks from my walks lately. Please note, MOST OF THESE ARE NOT EDIBLE. This is not meant as an identification guide, it is for entertainment only. If you eat wild mushrooms, please please identify everything carefully, so you don't eat anything toxic!