Yard To Table

Beyond the Yard: Foraging to Table with Amy Demers

• Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts • Season 2 • Episode 6

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EditThis week on Yard to Table, we’re heading into the woods with Amy Demers, founder of the Connecticut Foraging Club. Amy shares how a childhood love of picking berries grew into a passion for wild mushrooms, edible plants, and turning what she forages into delicious, seasonal meals. From field garlic to chanterelles, join us as we explore the tastes, textures, and simple pleasures of eating what you find in nature. And learn how to do it! 

Follow CT Foraging Club on Instagram: @ct_foraging_club
And sign up for their next Forage to Table Dinner with Chef Geneè Habansky of Herbaceous Catering here!

Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!

Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! TY 💙

Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!

Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! TY 💙

Ellen :

Well, hello, Trevor.

Trevor:

Well, hello, Ellen.

Ellen :

How are you today?

Trevor:

Yeah, that was different.

Ellen :

I know

Trevor:

you did it first?

Ellen :

I did.

Trevor:

I usually go Hello Ellen, and then you just, you jumped right on it.

Ellen :

I did. I jumped in because, you know, that's the kind of woman I am. I'm a leader. I'm a starter of things

Trevor:

you are. That is, that is very, very true. You are starter of a lot of things, some of them good and some of them amazing. How about that? You didn't think I was going there?

Ellen :

Good recovery.

Trevor:

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. That's like, like we said, 12 years married, that's a lot of stuff.

Unknown:

You know how to you know how to keep it going.

Trevor:

a lot has been happening from our last go around here,

Ellen :

I know there is just amazing activity at the old Stonebrook.

Trevor:

Stonebrook has these days where, you think, can any more trucks, vans or cars fit on our driveway, on our property? Yeah, feel like a parking attendant some days.

Ellen :

Well, a lot of times you're getting out there and directing

Unknown:

so I think I need, like, a vest, or

Ellen :

I'm gonna get you, honey. Oh, I can't wait. No, maybe I won't share maybe I won't share it. I'm thinking though I'll share with you listeners,

Trevor:

because I can't hear this. Go ahead.

Ellen :

I'm thinking like, airport vest and those like flashlight things and the cone,

Trevor:

I will tell you, I've always wanted a set of those cones. See, honey, I know you so well you see those guys in the airport doing their thing, and they're I like

Ellen :

the guys that really do it in a really, we are digressing.

Trevor:

Oh, this podcast isn't about yards or tables at this point in time. You know? I also like the traffic cops that sometimes they get in and then they get really creative, yes, where they're like, Yeah, almost like

Ellen :

blowing a whistle and like, yeah, pointing at people, yes. Send us all those clips.

Trevor:

That's what I am, essentially. That's what I am. You are all of the people that are here. Sadly we did, we did. We had to, find a unique place.

Ellen :

You are. And you will do it for our guest today, We had to advise her place where, where she could park. So enjoy. But that's Reno life. We are the keepers of 100 year old property, and we want to ensure that this property is here for future generations. And that was the investment we took when we bought this lovely responsibility, the responsibility, yes,

Trevor:

and we are up to the task.

Ellen :

Yeah, because we are, we're here for the time. We're here, and then we're hoping that that's a long time.

Trevor:

It's good. It's going to be a long time. Let me tell you that, because we're not going anywhere.

Ellen :

No, why would we? That's we have too much stuff. Yeah, as I'm looking at your new office window,

Trevor:

Oh, yeah. So we did a little upgrade of the office here in our studio, where we recordYard to Table, and we have some beautiful new windows that replaced the storage garage doors, and now we have a lovely view of the garden.

Ellen :

Yes, I think it may be the best garden view. It's on the property. My mom has the second vest. That's true.

Trevor:

That's true in our little cottage. Her little cottage is opens right out to the side where the cold frame is and all the loveliness.

Ellen :

But we have a lot of yard here.

Trevor:

We do have a lot of yard.

Ellen :

We have a lot of driveway. We have a lot of yard. We have a lot of forest on our property,

Trevor:

We're essentially a microcosm of all of Connecticut in one tiny, 11 acre space

Ellen :

well. And you know, this season, we've been talking about expanding the ideas what the yard is, and so that's where we're going to be going today with our guests. And how interesting. Welcome everybody to this week's episode of yard to table. And I'd love to talk about our guests

Trevor:

as well documented. I love a guest.

Ellen :

Our guest today foraged for berries and field garlic as a child, but became interested in mushroom foraging after listening to a talk by Paul Stamets in 2019 on the medicinal benefits of mushrooms. Since then, our guest has learned how to forage for a variety of wild mushrooms and more, and loves the diversity of flavors in the mushroom she finds. She also makes her own medicinal mushroom teas and tinctures. By the way, we're going to talk a little bit about that, because I need some Yeah, she brought some stuff for us, and our guest started the Connecticut foraging Club in 2021 there were no foraging clubs or free foraging clubs in Connecticut, and she is also a doctor of physical therapy. So we are super excited, and a friend of our friends, so we're thrilled to welcome to the table. Amy Demmers.

Amy:

Im so Happy to be here.

Ellen :

oh, we are so happy to have you here. I feel like our our circles have been crossing, intersecting, passing word,

Amy:

yeah, I've heard about you guys from Liz Reuven. and obviously Janae,

Trevor:

both dear friends, friends of the podcast, guests of the podcasts, and friends, that's right, just amazing connectors of people.

Ellen :

And we talk about this all the time, that good people know good people, so we're so excited to get to know you. And so yes, how we met was through Liz and Janae, and we're going to talk a little bit about that connection, but let's get into the passion of it all. So foraging, berries, wild garlic, what led you from a child with interest in nature to where you are now with foraging?

Amy:

So I always loved nature and being out hiking, and I've also always been into health, which is why I'm a physical therapist. I, like you said, I listened to a podcast one time about how good different mushrooms are for you, and in the grocery store, we mostly see white button mushrooms and Portobello, which is actually the same exact species as white button mushroom. Sometimes you'll see some oysters or a few other things, but the podcast was talking a lot about like, the lion's mane mushrooms, may take mushrooms, a lot of mushrooms that you just don't see in the grocery stores. So I was going to farmers markets and getting those mushrooms cultivated, and then I just Googled one time, like, do may talk a grow in Connecticut? Do Lion's Mane grow in Connecticut? And a lot of these mushrooms actually do grow wild in Connecticut.

Ellen :

Oh, that's so interesting. So then you're like, I'm gonna go out and

Trevor:

find for this, to buy this stuff, ill just pick it up.

Ellen :

It's the perfect it's the perfect marriage of loving to be outside. And now I'm also going to look for this thing that I'm really interested. I love that.

Trevor:

And yet that expanded bit by bit. Was it just full on, where you just now I'm just driving everywhere looking for things, or was it sort of in an area of, sort of a local area?

Amy:

So yeah, obviously, then COVID hit. I lost my job. I had a lot more free time. We were hiking a lot, as a lot of people were, oh, yeah. And so I had a lot more time to explore the plants and mushrooms that were out in the woods in Connecticut. And then when COVID kind of cleared up a little bit in like 2021 I was just kind of googling foraging clubs, because I was like, I want to meet other people who are into the mining community. Yeah, exactly, yeah. And I couldn't find any. So I just my inst I had an Instagram already where I talked about Lance and mushrooms that I had found and basically how I was able to ID them, how to differentiate them from look alikes really just for myself, so I could remember what I had learned smart. And then I just decided to call the Instagram Connecticut foraging club.

Ellen :

And then they came. And then they came. If you build it, they will come. There's a movie about that, yes,

Amy:

DM me if you want to join. And I started having people DM me. And then I started my first free walk in March of 2021 I had maybe six or seven people come, two of which were my friends who I knew,

Ellen :

it's great. It's always good to have that. It's always good.

Amy:

And then it grew from there. I had a few people write articles about the Connecticut foraging club. And then after the Hartford Courant wrote an article back in 2021 we had like 100 people show up to the next class there's incredible. Was

Trevor:

it? Was that first walk the big one? Was that primarily mushrooms, or was that just a general foraging walk? Because that's, I would imagine, sort of a lot of responsibility, where you're like, I think that's probably a good one. But, I mean, you've done research, right? You had known, but what was that first walk? Like?

Amy:

Yeah. So for the free walks, they're very casual, so anyone can show up. You don't have to sign up. You just show up to I post it on Facebook, and I have an email list, and it's more for people who have some knowledge, and people can share their knowledge with others. So if one person's like, Oh, I think that's a reishi mushroom, someone else can be like, yeah, that is a rishi mushroom. That's good. It's not as well tailored to people who have absolutely no knowledge. I now do classes too. So by the end of 2021, people started asking me to do more structured classes. So now I also do classes throughout the state with different co instructors, and those are a lot more informational and structured for people who are novices to forage.

Trevor:

So that's more like, I don't know what a mushroom is.

Amy:

More like that too.

Trevor:

Is that too far afield? Like, I don't even know what

Ellen :

I'll give you that there is a wide variety of mushrooms. How's that? Is that because Amy's too polite to say what I'm gonna say, which is, really, but I mean, mushrooms have like, two part questions. So have you always been into mushrooms? Is that something that you liked as a food or

Trevor:

or did this podcast, just like, totally light you up in this possibilities.

Amy:

Yeah, no, I wasn't that into mushrooms, probably until like 2019 so I would eat mushrooms, but I didn't. I had never eaten the really good mushrooms, like a lion's mane and chanterelles and may take taste so different and so much better, in my opinion, than white button mushrooms. So if you've never even tried them, you don't know what you're missing.

Unknown:

No chanterelles are just bannanas amazing.

Trevor:

no shakes to the No, no, no shakes to

Ellen :

And what I love about that we talk all the time, I'll digress for a second about getting exposure to local food, and how that really changes when you grow it, when you find it in nature, it just lights you up from a taste profile that you you think, Oh, this is a mushroom, like you just said,

Amy:

blueberry to know it's edible. So it's not like every and a mushroom tastes a certain way, because I've always had, we've all always had white button button mushrooms. If you eat them, that's what you have. So I love that. I think that's purple Berry is edible. You have to know the species of mushroom. You have to know that it's a chicken in the woods to know it's edible.

Ellen :

And are there certain ways that you because there are some that look very similar to each other. So how do you ensure that that is a chicken of the woods? Or

Trevor:

you DM, Amy will tell Amy you take her to tell Amy your story. No, I had a I had a very similar situation where our good friend, Tom cubic, who we hope to have on in in a little bit, he was helping me with a tree in the backyard, and I said, Tom so excited. Cannot wait to show you all of these beautiful chantrell mushrooms. Tom grows mushrooms. Because Tom grows mushrooms. He does everything. And He came over and I was, there they are. They're right there. They're beautiful, they're huge. And he went, yeah, those aren't true. And I said, What are they? And he said, they're pumpkin jacks. Is that the name of them? Jack o lanterns. Jack O' Lanterns. There you go. And I said, But they, but they're, but they're so pretty, and they're so big, and they're so they look so nice. And he, he said, Has anybody tried the nibble on those, like, deer or rabbits, or anybody? No, they got deer. He's like, that's why. Now, you know, yeah. So he saved me from a

Ellen :

all of us, really,

Trevor:

all of us. That's a good point. He saved all of you. Saved you too, from a rather bad belly thing, yeah.

Ellen :

But how do you I mean, obviously you're talking about going out with people who are also into foraging. So you you share knowledge and identification. But I've heard of like, their spore testing. Or is there other ways to really, know know what a mushroom is.

Amy:

It really depends on the species. So, for example, with the chanterelle mushroom, they all have false gills. So the Jack O' Lantern mushroom will have true gills.

Trevor:

Explain that a little bit more.

Amy:

So, yeah, false gills are just ridges in the mushroom, so you won't be able to remove the Gill from the mushroom, whereas true gills are thinner and you'll be able to remove it from the mushroom

Trevor:

I see. So like on the underside of the cap of the mushroom Exactly. There are like little ridges or little flaps, almost. And a false Gill has essentially no they just kind of wobbly. And a true Gill is like an actual long little sheet,

Amy:

sort of knowledge. So yeah, the false gills will be a lot thicker, and they're just ridges on the underside of the cap. Gotcha. That makes sense. So that's one, one identifying characteristic. Another thing is the jack o lantern grows from wood, and the chanterelles grow in the ground.

Trevor:

And that makes sense because this was growing essentially out of the base of an oak tree, nice and beautifully nestled in there.

Ellen :

It was a lovely color too, yeah, but orange and red usually is danger, right?

Amy:

Well, Chanterelles are Orange.

Trevor:

that's why I was excited, and I was devastated. I know the excitement only lasted so long.

Ellen :

All right. Well, tell us about spores. Spore testing.

Amy:

For most of the easy to identify mushrooms, like the chicken of the woods, the maitaki, the chanterelles, you don't need to do a spore test to ID the mushroom. Oh, that's great. But there are more difficult mushrooms to ID, such as the enoki mushroom, which has a deadly look alike, which is the deadly gallerina. And that one looks so similar to the deadly gallerina that you should do a spore print to positively identify Inoki. Verse, The deadly gallerina. So, and how do you do a spore print? What is that like? Yeah, so the spores are the way that the fungus reproduces. So the spores will find new wood, new ground, and then produce more mycelium, and that will then produce the fungus that can produce the mushroom, which is the fruiting body, or the reproductive structure. So to see the color of the spores, since they're microscopic, you would take the cap of the mushroom and put it Gill or pore side down on a piece of paper. You can do aluminum foil or white or black paper, depending on what color you expect the spores to be, okay, and you leave it there for a day or so. And then when you take the mushroom off, you'll see maybe the spores are white, maybe they're pink, maybe they're brown, and that is one identifying characteristic for mushrooms.

Trevor:

I'm so excited here. I know there's so much good stuff, lots of lots of sub questions, which is always fun, enoki mushrooms, which are lovely and delicious. What are the colors of those spores?

Amy:

So the enoki are gonna have a white spore print, and then the deadly galerina will have a brown spore print. So you can sometimes actually see the spore print on older mushrooms. So the enoki will grow in clusters. So if the mushroom is older and has already dropped its spores, you'll see on the top of the cap of the bottom mushrooms of the cluster the white spores. But if the mushroom is younger and has not yet dropped its spores, you want to put the cap of the enoki mushroom on a darker piece of paper, so aluminum foil, cardboard, right? Something exactly, because if you put it on a white paper, you're not going to see the white spores.

Ellen :

That's makes a lot of sense. Obviously, when anything is new, you have so much research that you need to do, but there's a lot in foraging that you need to know. And I want to talk about that too. But let's talk about, since we're on mushrooms, what are the mushrooms that we can forage for here in Connecticut, and are they specific to certain parts of the state, or what could people find if they were going out to look

Amy:

Connecticut has an amazing diversity of wild mushrooms. So right now you can find chicken of the woods. You can find puffball mushrooms, Reishi Mushrooms are out right now, wine caps, Dryad saddle. In the summer, we're going to start getting the chanterelles, the milk caps, and then in the fall is really when you see the most diversity of mushrooms. So in the fall you'll get the different Lion's Mane, which are the herissium mushrooms. You'll get the maitaki, the hen of the woods mushroom. You'll get some bolitz in both the summer and early fall. But yeah, Connecticut has a huge diversity of mushrooms.

Trevor:

So interesting. We picked the right state. We did, this is good. I'm glad we I'm glad we decided on on this, of all places, the the mushroom capital of the East Coast. So no, that's perfect.

Ellen :

We'll go back to my question about getting ready to forage. So where are places people can forage, here in Connecticut, and what should they do to prepare themselves if they've never done it before?

Unknown:

So a great way to start would be going to an in person class. So obviously, there's great books. Some of my favorites, my favorite for plant foraging is something called northeast foraging. And then there's two really good mushroom books too. One is called How to forage for mushrooms without dying. I need that book. And then there's another book called edible and medicinal mushrooms of New England in Eastern Canada. That's a really good mushroom foraging book too.

Trevor:

That is a big title.

Ellen :

And don't worry, listeners, we will put the links to all of those recommendations from Amy in the show notes. So check those out, because knowledge is power,

Amy:

But it there's nothing like having the mushroom, seeing it in its environment, being able to touch it, being able to smell it. A lot of wild plants and mushrooms, you can actually help to identify them by the smell. The smell that a book tells you it has is not the same as the smell you're gonna get. So, for example, there's a mushroom called the Dryad saddle that's out right now, and it smells just like watermelon rind. Whoa, interesting. It's a very unique scent.

Ellen :

I thought you were gonna say leather with that name.

Amy:

Yeah, there's another mushroom called candy cap that smells just like maple syrup. So being able to actually smell that mushroom, and then

Trevor:

I'm ready

Unknown:

Trevor one full of those. Yeah, yeah,

Amy:

they're not that easy. I mean, I'll find them here, but not usually in huge groups. So I've been I dried them all season last year, and I finally have a small jar worth, and I think I'm gonna do some candy cup ice cream soon.

Trevor:

Oh, that sounds good. Yeah? Like, really good.

Ellen :

I have so many questions. Yeah, that's, that's really so definitely Find it. Find some find some experts, find some community where you can get out touch, and also, I guess, advise you on where to go. I mean, are there? Where are the places where people forage? Because a lot of it's public land, I would assume. I mean, obviously you forage in your backyards. Amy was walking around with us a little bit today, before the weather was turning a little bit. But where do people go to do public foraging?

Amy:

So, yeah, any natural area. Will have plants and mushrooms that you can find and eat. Luckily, in Connecticut, you're legal to pick mushrooms on the state forests and state lands for personal use. So that's somewhat unique for Connecticut, because some other states, you can't pick anything. Oh, interesting. And then most parks, if you say you want to pick the non native and invasive plants, they're okay with that, because really, you're helping the environment by taking away the non native and invasives and allowing more room for the natives to grow, right? And then natives are a great thing to plant in your own backyard. And then you can forge some and then allow the population to continue to grow.

Trevor:

beyond just the actual law of the land. Are there like rules to foraging? Because I know that in some of our conversations about ramps, for example, not not on the mushroom side, but on the plant side, if you take everything, then the ramp is done. If you take the the bulb and all of it, it's there's sort of like rules, yeah. What do you feel?

Ellen :

even like, only take one leaf, one leaf, Way, like you found like rules, but you, yeah, you're, I myself, not a rule follower. You very much. That's the That's what they say. What are the what are the ground rules when you're foraging by yourself with a group? Because I also have seen some things about, like, no posting where you are if you're posting something on social media, because I guess they don't certain groups don't want a lot of people to rush to that place. And obviously you're in a natural environment. So many questions I love. That's like 11 and a half questions. Take it upon as you want to. Amy, okay, and I'm happy to restate

Amy:

the good thing with mushrooms is you don't have to be nearly as careful with plants. So mushrooms, you're only picking the reproductive part of the fungus. So it's like picking an apple from an apple tree. The tree's gonna be fine. And with mushrooms, they want to be picked, and they want you to carry their fruiting body throughout the forest in a basket in your hand, in a mesh bag, helping to distribute those spores as you walk. Interesting. So picking mushrooms, for the most part, is sustainable.

Trevor:

The mushrooms want it, yeah, pick me so that I can sew my magic across myself across that's a different kind of mushroom. I don't think the magic. I don't think that's what talking about,

Ellen :

of course,

Amy:

yeah. And the other thing with mushrooms is, most of the time you're going to find mushrooms past their prime. So for example, chicken in the woods mushrooms, they're only good to pick for two, maybe three days, and then they're too old.

Unknown:

Wow, yeah, three days.

Ellen :

Now, I follow Connecticut foraging club, of course, of course, which is on Instagram and the Facebook and we'll drop the links to it in our show notes, as we always do. But it's so interesting, because I see people post like, is this good? Is it past its prime? And I guess the answer is probably usually Yes,

Amy:

yeah, it's interesting. I'll tell people look at it if it looks like something you'd want to pick at the grocery store, then maybe it's okay. If it looks like moldy and rotting, and people bring these, me, these disgusting looking mushrooms, and be like, Is this okay to eat? I'm like, No, that's moldy and rotting.

Trevor:

Oh, that's, that's, that's a reject from The Last of Us.

Ellen :

So excited, I bet, because they're like, I found it. Amy, I listened and I found it. I can't eat it?

Unknown:

You're Crushing their dreams. Their little mushroom dreams.

Ellen :

So, yeah, so if it doesn't look like it's good to eat at the farmers or go to grocery store, then don't eat it. Yeah, because it's not fresh. Okay,

Unknown:

that's a general good rule of thumb for all things you put in your mouth.

Ellen :

I can totally picture. Yeah, please, please. But anyway, go ahead.

Amy:

But yeah, with mushrooms, it's also species specific. So for example, puff balls, if they're pure white inside, they're good to eat. Once they've started to turn any hint of yellow, they're past its prime, and it can make you sick

Ellen :

I was going to ask you, did something happen? What's the if you eat it. correlation there? So yeah, sometimes it speaks in another language.

Trevor:

Does Something happened.

Ellen :

I know I want to know what happens now, what

Trevor:

and what is the what is the other side of that coin?

Ellen :

It's that to the click. It's fine. Yeah, you're out anyway. Go ahead.

Amy:

In terms of plants, you have to be a lot more careful. So you need to know, first off, is it native? Is it non native? And if it is non native, is it invasive? So if it's invasive, you want to pick as much as you can and make sure you're not letting that plant propagate to a new area. So for example, with Japanese knotweed, which is a horrible invasive it's also a very tasty edible and a medicinal but if you leave a part of the plant in a new area, like in your compost pile or in your backyard, then a whole new plant can sprout. So obviously that's number one, is you don't want to let the invasive spread.

Ellen :

And we talked, we've talked a lot about that on the podcast, around identifying those invasives that still may have. Them food value to bring to your table, but how you really want to eat them? To get rid of them, yeah, and to get rid of them correctly, so that so that's that's important. Are there invasive mushrooms?

Amy:

That's a good question. So there is one mushroom called the Golden oyster. I have not yet found it, but people have posted it on like the mushrooms of Connecticut Facebook page. So I know they do exist in Connecticut. They are not officially invasive, like the state doesn't recognize them as invasive, but they are thought to potentially become invasive. So basically, invasive means that the plant, mushroom animal, is not native to here, and it's capable of out competing our native species and taking over the resources and then decreasing biodiversity. So the golden oyster is a mushroom that was cultivated in New York, and there was one strain that was super aggressive and has been able to grow in the wild. But it is not yet listed as invasive, but it has the potential. So that is the only mushroom that, if you were to harvest it, you want to keep that in a bag somewhere, in a bag without holes where it can't then spread its spores,

Ellen :

not doing the happy thing that all mushrooms want to do, which is pre populate. That also sounds like the plot of a movie. It does that this new strain was developed, then it blah, blah, blah, yeah, that's, I'm the sound effect person today on this podcast, clicks and the Jones and all that other good stuff

Trevor:

You mentioned earlier. I want to go back a little bit, not a lot bit, but a little bit you had mentioned, from spores to mycelium to the mushroom. Talk a little bit more about that process, because I've heard a lot about mycelium and how it certain people think that it's like a connector of, yeah, there's a sort of a lot of there's a lot of conversation around the interconnectedness of mycelium across our environment and our landscape, and Certainly the foraging and it has a part of that in it. So tell me a little more about the just the biologics of mushrooms.

Amy:

So the Mycelium is most of the fungus. So that's the part that's in the ground, that's in the trees, and it's this almost like root like network. And the mycelium works in conjunction with a lot of with most plants actually to help to bring some more nutrients and some more moisture to the roots of the plants. And a lot of times, in exchange, the plants will give the mycelium food. So the mushrooms, the fungi, don't produce their own food, like plants do. They take food from other sources, more like what humans do.

Trevor:

So there's really no photosynthesizing, no in of mushrooms at all. No. Require no sunlight to make them, well, minor amounts of sunlight to make them do their thing.

Amy:

Yeah? So, yeah, they take the made food from the plants, kind of like how we eat plants, and take the energy from plants. That's crazy.

Ellen :

That's so interesting. And you know, I guess that's why we see them growing on trees or in leaf piles or on things they are. They're getting their nutrients and growing off of those, those elements that which makes total sense.

Trevor:

Do we want? Since we're on the topic of mushrooms, you brought a mushroom, yes, with you,

Ellen :

it's beautiful.

Trevor:

It is gorgeous. Wow. It looks like a beautifully baked roll. It does. It has this lovely Shine, shine on it, which obviously is from the egg wash. And it's kind of like a clam shell. It's a it's a clam shell. It looks literally like a clam shell, yes. And it is a....

Amy:

medicinal mushroom, medicinal Oh, you're asking the

Ellen :

It's which is a medicinal mushroom, but I'm excited about it. I'm sorry, what was the type of mushroom type. again?Iit has a few common names. The scientific name is Ganoderma tesu gay. Thank you. It is Hemlock Reishi or Hemlock furnace shelf. So it is a medicinal mushroom that primarily fruits May to June, and it grows almost exclusively on dead and dying Eastern Hemlock trees.

Trevor:

Wow, that's very specific.

Amy:

And yeah, it's a gorgeous mushroom. So you can see the top is shiny, and it starts off with kind of a cream colored edge, and then you'll see this orange color. And eventually the entire cap of the mushroom will be a shiny maroon color when it's fully grown, whoa. And then it's a type of polypore. So that means it grows from wood. And then if you look on the underside of the cap, you'll see tiny little holes, tiny little pores under the mushroom. Wow. So the do we eat this mushroom? So when it first grows, it looks like these little like marshmallows or knobs that grow out of the tree. And at that point, the mushroom is mostly cream colored and it's very soft. And at that point, the mushroom is edible, but it is not a choice edible. So there. A difference in the mushroom world. There's toxic, there's inedible, there's edible, and then there's choice edible. Okay, so about 20% of the mushrooms we find are edible, but most of those are not choice edible, which means they don't really have a flavor. They're a little tough, like you don't really care to eat them.

Trevor:

You will not - click click - from having them, however you will

Ellen :

Its one click,

Trevor:

oh, sorry, I apologize. By the end of the podcast, you can eat them. You won't get sick from them, but they're they're just not that great,

Ellen :

and chefs like Chef Genee are not going to pick them to use for their meals,

Amy:

yes, at least in that form, right? So Reishi is more used as a medicinal mushroom, so once it gets past that knob shape, it starts to fan out, and the mushroom gets tough. So at that point it's considered inedible because it's too tough to eat.

Ellen :

And it is, it's it's sturdy this mushroom that, yeah,

Amy:

yes, inedible usually also means it's not gonna kill you, it's not gonna make you sick, but sometimes it's too tough to eat. It's too bitter to eat.

Ellen :

Basically, why would you do it exactly? Move on, people. I know you're excited. Don't eat me

Amy:

with the reishi mushroom. You can make tea or broths out of it. So you'd basically simmer the mushroom in a pot of water for around two hours. This tea tastes very mushroomy, so it tastes more like a broth. I don't usually make Reishi tea and just drink it. I would add it more to like a soup or a stew, that kind of thing.

Ellen :

And what are the medicinal benefits of that?

Amy:

So, yeah, the reishi mushroom is also called the mushroom of immortality.

Ellen :

Well, hello,

Trevor:

hold on hold on hold on hold on Oh, if we That's my mushroom again, Wow, amazing. It's a whole new dimension to our podcast that I didn't know that I wanted. Am I gonna live forever? Is that what we're talking about here

Ellen :

That the word, let's Yeah, tell us more. Amy,

Trevor:

I doubt it's full immortality. It's probably just partially never had one before. I've never had me not living forever. No,

Ellen :

well, till today. Go ahead. So tell us more.

Amy:

The reishi mushroom. So all mushrooms in general have anti cancer properties and are good for your immune system. The reishi mushroom in particular can help with stabilizing blood sugar. So someone, for example, who's pre diabetic or has diabetes, it also helps with lowering blood pressure. And it's also good for your skin,

Ellen :

really. Now, by drinking it, it's good for your skin. I did see you were offering a class on skin products and things like that. So this is not something I'm gonna put on my face.

Amy:

You can use Reishi and make skincare products as well.

Ellen :

Interesting.

Trevor:

It does have a very mushroomy, yeah, traditional mushroomy aroma,

Amy:

exactly, and that's what the broth will will taste like,

Trevor:

sounds, I'm, I'm good for that.

Ellen :

Can you have too much of the broth?

Amy:

You can have too much of anything.

Trevor:

Okay, too much of a good thing. There's too much immortality. Too much immortality. That's the problem.

Ellen :

And here in Yard to Table, we are, we're asking you to verify all of your medicinal properties with whatever health provider or Guru you consult. We are not advocating, or not advocating for any indigestion

Trevor:

Legal commentary to follow after the podcast,

Ellen :

but so it's not a situation where you have it in a soup with other things.

Trevor:

Yeah. What's the ratio you do one of these per pot of soup, or,

Ellen :

Yes, this is about the size of my palm.

Amy:

Yeah, the mushroom I brought in, I would probably add that to a medium sized pot of water. And if I were to make broth, obviously, I'd add other things too, like onion and carrots and maybe other Yeah, but if you wanted to just taste the mushroom tea, you could just add that to a pot, a small to medium sized pot of water, simmer it for two hours and then just try the mushroom tea. Or you can add it to soups. Like I said, two hours

Trevor:

feels like a pretty good trade off for immortality. I mean, two hours of boiling and water. Deal. I'm gonna try that's a deal. I think that's a good one.

Amy:

It does take a while, so a lot of people think, oh, I'll just boil water, pour it over the mushroom, because that's what you do, usually with plant teas. But the fungus has, like, hard cell walls, and it takes a long time to break down and get the medicinal properties.

Ellen :

That's a great question. So do you chop it up, or do you put the whole

Amy:

so you can put it all in the more surface area, the quicker the medicinal properties will kind of seep into the tea.

Ellen :

Oh, this is, this is exciting. I know very excited about this. Well, we've talked a lot about mushrooms, and I want to keep talking about mushrooms. They're, they're super exciting, but they're not the only thing that you're going out there and forging,

Trevor:

yeah, what else do you like to Yeah, what are you like? I know we know about mushrooms. We know you love the mushroom. I'm ready to keep talking about mushrooms. But do you have other favorite forages in terms of plants?

Amy:

Probably my favorite is wild berries. Mid June starts kind of peak berry season. So black cap raspberries will start to fruit in mid June, which are one of my favorites? I mean, they taste like raspberries that you get from the store, but I. A little more tart. And obviously, if you pick them right from the vine on the edge of fields, it's going to be super fresh and you're out in the sun, and whenever you're out in the sun picking a wild of fruit, it's going to taste better.

Ellen :

But it's like I say, when you eat lunch at the beach, nothing tastes better to me than something I'm eating right by the ocean.

Trevor:

Imagine if you had fresh berries that you had just picked

Ellen :

or like a beach plum, beach, like a beach plum, your head would explode. I would my Yeah, I'm gonna forage for that. Keep going,

Amy:

yeah. We get beach plums. We get black cherries that grow here. Wild Strawberries are out right now, which, if you've never tried them, they're the tastiest thing ever. They're itty bitty, yeah? But they pack so much flavor, so much sweetness, even if you can only find one or two, it's worth it. But we have wine berries, which is an invasive type of raspberry. We have wild blueberries, wild huckleberries, which usually I'll find on the top of hills and mountains. Other plants that you can get are milkweed so, yeah. So, yeah, our last summer forged a table dinner. Janae made pickled fried milkweed pods, which were absolutely delicious.

Trevor:

She's such a she's such a star. It's amazing.

Amy:

But, yeah, you can get some really unique flavors by foraging both plants and mushrooms. Like there's a plant called spicebush, and it smells kind of a citrusy and you can use the little berries to flavor like pumpkin pie. It tastes, I mean, it has a unique flavor, but people use it kind of instead of cloves. It tastes like spicy.

Ellen :

We have a plant in our back that I thought I identified as Spice Bush. I want Amy to take a look at it. That's the one right by the back deck. Oh, yeah, yeah. So that's so interesting.

Amy:

Yeah, the best way to idea is to just take a leaf and crush it up and smell it, and you'll smell that kind of citrusy spicebush flavor.

Ellen :

I love that. And you mentioned Janae, and you mentioned the forage to table dinner. So obviously that's sort of how we sort of became aware of you in the Connecticut foraging club. So tell us a little bit about how those dinner that dinner series. So that's forage to table. We love a table. How did those come about?

Amy:

Janae came to one of my classes two years ago now, and I remember when she came, she was like, this my first Saturday off in a year. This was the first thing I wanted to do

Ellen :

that's pretty impressive, because we know how hard she works. We're talking about chef Janae habanski of herbaceous catering

Trevor:

that fits 100% totally, totally fits.

Amy:

And I remember her telling me she's a chef, and then I think I followed her on Instagram after that, and her food all looked amazing. And then the beginning of last year, I messaged her on Instagram because I had dreamed of doing like a forge to table experience, but I'm not a chef. I cook like I make a bunch of wild pestos and mushroom sauces and all that kind of stuff, but I'm definitely not a chef. And I reached out to her on Instagram, and she was super excited about collaborating. So we did three Forge to table experiences last year, a spring, a summer and a fall. And then we're doing three this year too.

Trevor:

That's so exciting. And we are going to get to go to one, which is super exciting.

Ellen :

Yes, we're we're going to the summer that's right to table experience at the gorgeous Hickories Farm,

Trevor:

favorite places and favorite people.

Ellen :

Oh, I'm very excited about this. And so tell us, when you guys are planning these dinners, how does it work? Because obviously, you're foraging for things that are in season, there's also a walk that's included, right? So how does that come together? In terms of Janae making the food and a whole process?

Amy:

Luckily, janae's commercial kitchen is less than a mile from where I live. Oh, so it's super easy. Usually, after I pick something, I'll either drop them off or she'll come pick up whatever I've foraged, and we'll really pick stuff for months before the dinners, because a lot of things are only out for, like, a week out of the year, right? And so she'll preserve things in different ways. So that's why we did the pickled fried milkweed pods last year, because the milkweed pods are only good for maybe a week or two, and when we had the dinner, the milkweed pods would have been too large, and they would have been past their prime. So that's why she preserved them, pickling them, and then she could then fry them. Yeah, for the dinner. But yeah, I'll usually pick stuff as I see it. So I just picked some black locust flowers for her. She might make some ice cream or something out of those.

Ellen :

Oh, I feel very lucky. Yeah,

Trevor:

I'm very excited about this.

Amy:

And then the week of, I'll try as much as I can to pick any mushrooms. Usually I'll do wild greens, to do either a salad or cooked wild greens as part of the main dish.

Trevor:

And a side question, because you bring it up, you're picking these wild greens or mushrooms or whatever, do you keep them, just like you would keep any salad or other product that you're that you're bringing home from the market, does it keep the same way? Does it have a shorter shelf life?

Amy:

So it really depends on what it is. So for example, spruce tips, those will stay good in your fridge for a few weeks, whereas other plants and other mushrooms you have to eat like that day.

Ellen :

Again, this part.... we did at the same time.

Unknown:

Apparently, those are sound effects too,

Ellen :

but that's important to know, again, part of the research, understanding what it is and the shelf life, or all that other good stuff. And so then the foraging walk, that's part of the event. Do you that's a sort of like a mini class right around identifying what's there, and that doesn't necessarily come into the meal, but maybe there might be something

Amy:

I try to bring any plants or mushrooms that we're gonna sample, if they're not at the location, so that I can give a little background of what it is. Because if you're eating something and you've never heard of it before, it's not gonna be as cool as if you actually know what it is.

Ellen :

That makes total sense. And also Janani, I was thinking about, I'm so glad that you're forging beforehand, because I was constantly wondering, I mean, this woman trying to create a meal for a lot of people with things you're just literally getting right, like before, everybody sits at the table that feels like a competition.

Trevor:

You get one room and you get no mush. See, I can do sound

Ellen :

That's nice. I liked it, effects too.

Amy:

you know, it's very planned out. And like some mushrooms too, if I pick them ahead of time, she can preserve them in the freezer, for example, for a month or so before the dinner. That

Ellen :

makes total sense. You talked about drying mushrooms. We're going back to mushrooms. How do you dry a mushroom?

Amy:

I use a food dehydrator. For example, the reishi mushroom that I brought you can dry that and make tea all year round. So I would just cut up the mushroom, put it in the food dehydrator until it's cracker dry. So this mushroom takes probably close to 24 hours until it's completely dry. Other ones only take eight hours. Other ones like Chaga, which is a medicinal fungus, yeah, that takes like, a week, because you have to do drying for 24 hours, let it sit for 24 hours and repeat the process like four times. Wow, but yeah, most of them take a day or less to dry.

Ellen :

So you're going to a foraging dinner, you're going to be walking around, but you're not fully going in the woods like you would would on a foraging hiker, hiker event, right?

Amy:

Well, usually it is like an hour to an hour and a half long, like hike, but it's an easy hike. You know? We walk slowly. We stop at different plants and mushrooms. Talk about the ID. Sometimes taste it, smell it, kind of learn what it is, how to identify it. And then you'll get to then taste those foods in like a curated five course meal. I'm so excited.

Ellen :

So I these are, these are always questions I ask for I'm going anywhere, what do I wear? What's appropriate to go, you know, obviously, like, you know, bare arms and sandals. No, that is a good question, what do you what do you wear? What should we be wearing when we forage?

Amy:

Yeah, so normally for my classes, people wear like hiking clothes, like comfortable shoes. I mean, one of my co instructors walks barefoot all summer long, so you can do that too, if you'd like. But thank you, yeah. But usually for the dinners, some people will bring a change of clothes because the actual dinner part is relatively fancy, but then you're hiking in the woods, so some people will bring a change of shoes or a change of clothes, but, yeah, you can wear jeans, or you can wear a dress with hiking boots.

Ellen :

And is there protection, I mean, if we're going on a day hike or day forage, or is there other safety protocols we should be doing, or thinking about, obviously, with ticks or insects are also getting lost. You know, how do you there's a lot, there's some stuff there, right?

Trevor:

Its not a three hour tour. This is not like a Gilligan's kind of a situation,

Ellen :

I am safety first. I like to ask these questions.

Amy:

Obviously, ticks and bugs can be an issue. So this is tick season, yeah, you can wear tall socks, check your legs, check your body. Afterwards, you can put bug spray on there's a plant called Japanese barberry, and it's actually an invasive plant. People plant it a lot too, but the leaves and the berries are edible, and they're really high in Berberine. And I'll eat some of that when I'm hiking as a preventative, because it can help with preventing and treating Lyme disease. Wow, I'm not sure I haven't gotten Lyme disease. Knock on wood, but you have a sample of one.

Ellen :

I can't do the sound effect of the knock no you can, nor should you.

Trevor:

Ticks, bugs, other problems, Poison Ivy, aside, on hikes and walks, since you started your journey with foraging now you're doing Connecticut foraging club, you've got classes, you've got walks, you've got these amazing dinners with with Chef Janae. Have you seen a big increase, just generally, in people's interest in foraging? Because I know going from not really knowing much about foraging, I hear it a lot in our conversations, and have you seen a lot of growth in the foraging interest market?

Amy:

Yeah, it does seem like a lot more people are aware of foraging. So foraging is a lot more common in other countries. So in Europe, for example, in Asia, in the United States, especially in New England. Historically, or the last maybe 100 years, a lot of people have been very scared of wild plants and mushrooms, and you hear these horror stories of people eating the wrong mushroom and dying, which can't happen if you don't know what you're doing, but if you put the research in to ID in the plant or the mushroom, then you're probably fine. And start with the easy to ID ones. Don't start with the Inoki, which are so closely so look so close, deadly.

Ellen :

Look alike. Wait until you're a little more experienced before you start picking

Trevor:

pretty true of anything. I mean, if you pick up a very dangerous power tool, and you have no idea, you can also die from 100%

Amy:

but yeah, I think in the last, I don't know, 510, years, people are more interested in knowing where their food came from, trying to eat more locally, trying to eat things that are good for their health. So people come to foraging for all different reasons. Some people, they're trying to use it for herbalism, for treating some sort of condition they have. Some people just want to eat locally and be more sustainable. Some people are chefs and want to try the new flavors that they can't get in the grocery store.

Trevor:

It's funny, you mentioned about other countries, and I remember not that long ago, our very good friend Marty. He and his family have a family home in the Pyrenees, right on the French side of the Pyrenees. And one day when he was over there visiting family, he texted me a picture of an entire basket full of chanterelles, and he said, This is lunch today. We just found it. I was so jealous, so jelly, because it looked amazing, but that's it. I mean, they then they just walked around and they just got all these chanterelles.

Ellen :

that's so culturally driven, correct, and think about the summers they spend, and there's a lot of that, and we have, I hope we're seeing a connection to yards and to nature that people have not we haven't had. We've been trained as a society to go to the grocery store to get the thing we can the thing that's been preserved, or the thing that's been made. And when we go back even just a couple generations, we had families that had gardens and that were cooking the things that they grew. And we obviously wanna we care about what we're eating, where our food comes from, but also what's happening to that food, like, how long is it taking to get to our plate? But also what's happened to it along that journey. How was it grown? What was it grown with, with chemicals, and, you know, what was it sprayed with when it arrived here? And I know that's something that we have definitely have grown our awareness a lot, a lot, and I we see other people doing it, but that's because the other part of this is you can't forage or eat something wild if you don't know what that soil or the land has been treated with. So we talk about this with violets. We mentioned this several times on the podcast, but we have lots of wild violets that are on the property, and we love making the syrup, but we can do that because we don't chemically treat our lawns are wild.

Trevor:

I think that's one of the fun things about foraging, is that it really opens you up to the experience of going in your local yards. And I mean, I'm not talking about trespassing, but I am talking about going around and seeing that's

Ellen :

Also thats the other legal disclaimer, Dont trespass on your neighbor's lawns or yards,

Trevor:

but it's such a fun way to experience what is truly local. It is true what yard table it is right around the corner in all of these different places that we that we have in, in no matter where you are across the world, there's got to be a space that's wild that you can go and you can learn about, and you can find wild edibles forage and bring it home and create something that's truly unique,

Ellen :

and also helped it to continue to populate so like, what Amy was saying is carrying around those good mushrooms, they're spreading as you're walking around. And I'm not going to make the sound effect,

Trevor:

no, I have a vision of myself now going on a foraging walk, finding mushrooms, because Amy's going to be with us, because I'm going to be terrified to do it by be terrified you. Yeah, I'm not even bringing you, but just having a bag and just shake it in, just looking like I'm not just shaking this bag of mushrooms. Come on, guys, you're going to get real happy, and I'm just going to shake it and shake it like a Polaroid picture. That's what I've heard. Yeah, that's what they've said.

Ellen :

So I'm gonna go back to what I was saying, which was about planting those things like ramps. There has been a movement around finding because ramps are getting over foraged, in some cases, that there's places that are approved to be growing them, and then you can take them and grow them, because we don't have any, we've talked about this before too. We don't have any ramps on our property, which is crazy, but that's important to help these natives grow, and that impacts our environment. And obviously the sustainability of those things is super critical. Yeah, so I'll go into we were talking a little bit about medicinal benefits, but I was intrigued by the skincare of it all. So I see you have an upcoming class. Class that's happening with Connecticut foraging club around foraging for skincare. Tell me more about that.

Amy:

One of my co instructors, he makes his own skincare products and uses a lot of wild ingredients. So he's gonna talk more about how to make the skincare products with the wild ingredients, and then I'm gonna talk more about the ID of the plants and mushrooms that he's using for those skincare products.

Ellen :

That's really cool. Sign up for that class, people.

Trevor:

One of the things we always ask everyone on the podcast is what's growing in your yard, but in your case, I would, I'll say what's growing in the forest near you? What do you what are you seeing out there in your forages.

Amy:

End of June is going to be peak berry season. I would be looking for the black cap, raspberries, wine berries will be out. Blackberries will be just starting. And then you'll start to get the summer mushrooms. So the chanterelles will start to be popping up. You'll start to get green Russell, as are edible. It's another type of mushroom. The milk caps will start to come out, and then some of the summer bolits.

Ellen :

Is there a holy grail mushroom? Is there one that people are like, I need to find that mushroom on the side of the not just the edible, but of the choice.

Amy:

There's a few morels, obviously, are relatively rare. A lot of people have their spots, but they're so hard to find because they're brown and they grow in the ground and they're relatively small, so they're very hard to spot. They have associations with specific trees, and they also like some sun. A lot of people very specific. So, yeah, a lot of people actually find them in their backyard, but they're a little bit harder to find, say, in the middle of the woods, because a lot of times it'll be too shady. So you can find them like I found them on the top of a hill, or I found them in more open woodlands, but they're extremely difficult to spot, and they're relatively rare. So Morel is one of them. I was looking for morels for like, five years before I finally

Ellen :

wow. So that is, that is like, a wow. Then five years, and then you're like, it's dry and I can't eat it, so, but I'm gonna eat it anyway. We're going back.

Amy:

Yeah, it's, it's actually funny. I was looking for five years for morels, and then I found, this was not the first time I found them, but I then found them less than a mile away from where I grew up.

Trevor:

That's hilarious. Of course, yeah, you always start and you look everywhere, and then it's the first place that you didn't look is the is right where it is,

Amy:

yeah? And I actually found them. I was walking through the woods picking up garlic mustard because that's an invasive and you want to pick as much of it as you can to decrease the population. And I picked a garlic mustard and looked down, and there was a morel right

Ellen :

. Oh, happy accident.

Amy:

I was like, Mother Nature is thanking me.

Trevor:

So as we close out, what do you see for the future of foraging, for you and for the Connecticut foraging club and for your classes, where are you? Where is all this gonna go?

Amy:

I'm hoping the more people who are interested in foraging, it'll just be the more people who are taking care of the environment, helping with removing the invasives, eating more sustainably, because a lot of the fruits and vegetables you're getting from the grocery store are traveling across the world, whereas you can just walk in your backyard or in your local woods and pick mushrooms and plants. So the more people who pick local food, the better for the environment you're saving money, and better for our health

Ellen :

and better for everything. Yeah, just better. Well, I highly recommend everyone, first of all, to take a class, but also, 100% to follow Amy's journey on social media, because your stories are always so full your it's literally, you're in moment foraging, and you're identifying things that you're seeing. And it's a, it's a such a great learning experience, even before you take a class or to help build your knowledge, because even just walking around, she identified something on our lawn, like 11 things. But I love that about your social media, because it's just, you're taking pictures, you're identifying it. But obviously getting in that experience and community, meeting other people who are interested and wanting to learn is so critically important. So I've learned a lot totally.

Trevor:

I don't know if there's any spots left at this point in time, by the time we get this out, but dinner at the hickories, yeah, July, with Chef Janae and Amy and hickory crew,

Ellen :

a collab with herbaceous catering, Connecticut foraging club and the hickories powerhouse women,

Trevor:

that's essentially like the greatest thing ever. Yes.

Ellen :

Well, thank you, Amy for spending time with us. Yeah,

Amy:

thank you so much for having absolute blast. This is a lot of fun.

Ellen :

Well, I my mind,

Trevor:

there's a incredible amount of information,

Ellen :

so much information,

Trevor:

but I think there's so much more. It just, it's like, you it's like, you open the open the door, and you open it a little crack, and then you see this big, wide, amazing place that you're like, I want to live there.

Ellen :

let's say just even walking Amy around, I know, just before five minutes, she identified, like, six different things that we could taste.

Trevor:

I can't wait for this dinner. This dinner is going to be, I mean, so phenomenal. We love the hickories anyway. We love Janae anyway. This is gonna be, like an event of the season.

Ellen :

It's it's so great. And if there are tickets still available, you gotta go go or join any of these foraging seasonal dinners that they have on the calendar, because it's truly an incredible

Trevor:

It's gonna be phenomenal. I'm hungry right now.

Ellen :

We're always hungry.

Trevor:

That's true.

Unknown:

Thanks for being with us and having a seat at our table.

Trevor:

Yard to Table is a production of Macrocosm Entertainment. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and for tips and more information, follow us on Instagram @Stonebrookhouse.

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Ellen Scherer Crafts

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Paula Koffsky

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Trevor Crafts

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Amy Demers

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