Place the wild rice in a wire strainer and rinse with cold water. Place the rice in a pot and add water so water is 3/4 of an inch above rice. Bring to rolling boil for ten minutes then simmer, covered, until the rice opens and becomes fluffy, or about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally while simmering. Keep an eye on the water and add a little more if the pan starts to get dry and the rice isn't ready yet.
While the rice cooks, fry the bacon in a teaspoon of oil on medium heat. When soft (3-5 minutes), add the chopped scallions, chopped bok choy, mushrooms, and salt to taste. Stir occasionally as this cooks. Once this mixture has cooked through and begun to caramelize, add bok choy and kohlrabi leaves (and/or other greens), and cook another few minutes.
Top rice with veggie/mushroom mixture and add toasted pecans. Enjoy!
I wrote about our log soaking last year and shared a video of the new system. As I said then, it would get much faster once everyone got used to the new system. After a whole season of learning tips and tricks last year, this process has gotten much faster and easier.
Force-fruiting is going well and the mushrooms are picking up the pace!
A lot has been going on the last week or two at the farm. We finished moving all the newly inoculated logs out of the fruiting house. They are enjoying their summer home in the sun-dappled woods.
Even though the weather is still a little bit weird, we decided to start force-fruiting so the first batches were soaked and set up in the fruiting tunnel. This year we're trying something new. The extra rack above the fruiting racks is to hold the fruiting blanket, instead of having the blanket directly on the logs. The blanket keeps moisture and humidity in for the first couple days until the logs start "pinning" – that is, when the mushrooms start to grow. We can't wait to get our first big flush of mushrooms!
We're also experimenting with a few in-ground mushrooms this year – Almond Agaricus, Bluefoot, Blewits, and Winecaps. We grew Winecaps at our house in Minneapolis way back in the day, but it wasn't practical to have them at any of the locations our farm has been at over the years. With our own property, we can do whatever we want (WHATEVER WE WANT! =) ), so we're going to give them a try again.
We've eaten Almond Agaricus, which smells and tastes like almonds, but we've never grown it. We picked a nice sunny spot on the edge our field and Andy (farm employee), did an epic job of tilling it up, getting rid of weeds and grass. Jeremy dumped in a bunch of mushroom compost and mixed the spawn in with that and then covered the whole bed over with straw. If all goes well we should be seeing these mushrooms popping up in a month or two – in plenty of time for folks to get some at the farmers market!
The Blewits and Bluefoots (Bluefeet?) like more shade. We picked a shady spot in the yard near the house and Andy and Ashley (our other farm employee) laid down cardboard (for weed control) and they've been dumping in compost, leaves, and wood chips. We'll probably inoculate these shady patches over the weekend and cover them with straw mulch. These varieties take much longer to fruit so we probably won't get any till next spring. We'll all have to be patient!
I sometimes struggle to think of new recipes for the blog/newsletter which is silly because you can practically put mushrooms in everything. Like say…in deviled eggs!
There are a few dishes in the book that actually look okay, like the Mushroom Deviled Eggs. I was dubious, but they are actually quite tasty.
Make sure you hard-boil your eggs before you start on this recipe so they can be cooled sufficiently to peel and work with.
This recipe works fine with fresh, frozen, or dried mushrooms. If you're using frozen mushrooms, thaw them for at least an hour before use. Squeeze out some of the extra moisture and pat dry. If you're using dried mushrooms, soak for at least an hour, or till mushrooms are soft, before using. Squeeze out the extra liquid and pat dry.
Remove stems from mushrooms and mince the caps. Heat butter in a skillet on medium-high heat. Sauté the onions and mushrooms for about 4 minutes, until onions are caramelized and mushrooms are starting to get crispy. Set aside.
Cut the eggs in half and remove the yolks. Mash the yolks with the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and white pepper. Work the eggs into a smooth paste. Add the mushroom-onion mixture and mix well.
Fill the egg white halves with the mixture. You can spoon the mixture in, use a pastry bag with a large star tip, or cut the corner out of a plastic baggie and use that.