I have absolute dream neighbours. Last time I left my washing in the communal washing machine all day, I came back to find it neatly folded on the side, after someone had taken it out of the washing machine, put it in the dryer, then taken it out of the dyer too.
I accidentally made seitan the other day. I was trying to make a not-omelette (aka nomelette) and was mixing the equal parts flour and water with all the seasonings and stuff but it was going springy instead of batter-y?! I'd grabbed wheat gluten instead of gram flour. Fortunately it was a totally valid seitan mix so I stuck it in the fridge and started again. Now I'm frying it for a stirfry and it's super. Good job, past me.
I am beyond excited that my fave independent zero waste shop Grain & Sustain is coming to Kirkcaldy, and bringing a vegan deli with them! And I'm thrilled that my local coffee bean supplier Ecobean is getting recognition for having a completely closed-loop zero waste thing going on as well.
My brother and I are going on an adventure together this weekend. I'm paying for everything, as a goodbye present. With the caveat that if he fails to actually leave, he's refunding it in full.
Colleagues who offer to hold a meeting for you so you can get on with other stuff instead are precious indeed. <3
I haven't done a week in review since like May but REST ASSURED I'm keeping notes in a text file and I will flood you with all of them at some point. I'm behind on photo logging and like to link to stuff from the WiR, is why.
I'm not usually around when my brother goes for his before-bed snack, but I was last night. Thoughtful of him, as he heads to his room with the last slice of lemon pie on a plate and a fork in his hand, licking his lips, to ask: "is it okay if I have this?" as if it wasn't a foregone conclusion.
An afternoon in the community orchards at Buckhaven for apples, pears, and plums. Also spied some aging parasol mushrooms. And stopped in the ice cream shop at East Wemyss on the way home.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A chanterelle emergency in woods not far from home (location classified). Filled up bags and boxes we had and had to leave a whole patch for lack of space and light. Also picked up a few to ID, and a good amount of hedgehog fungus. And what is probably an agricus, but it was growing under a tree, so further investigation required.
Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Got offered some big jars on Freegle, but they were in Dundee. So made a day of it, and went to various new woodlands on the way for foraging. Got a good haul of chanterelles (from very close to home actually), plus a few boletes, a ton of amethyst deceivers (or are they?? yes they are.. some doubt for a while because the caps were super pale, but they do that as they age and/or dry out - rehydrated them to get the glorious purple back to convince myself), and several new mushrooms to bring home to ID. Also found my first wood blewit, but unfortunately the slugs had found it first and all that was left was the - admittedly very distinctive - stem.
Amy added 74 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
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Sunset, sunrise, sunset, sunrise, never ending glory.
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A day out to investigate various woods around Fife. Lunch from the market in Cupar. A quick stop on Tentsmuir beach.
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Ice cream in East Wemyss on the return from apple harvesting in Buckhaven. And the sunset, earlier and earlier.
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Hunting for agates in fields near Norman's Law, and a stop for chips and local history in Newburgh.
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Scones at the Community Kitchen. More chicken of the woods meals. Muffins and sourdough rye for hiking.
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
More scones, cake and muffins at the Community Kitchen. Wild mushroom pasta bake. Coconut and jam cake at home.
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More scones. Courgette pakora to accompany curry and homemade flatbreads.
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Trying to do something with all of this beefsteak fungus. It's not my favourite when cooked. Not much taste, and not very pleasant texture. WIP. More scones and lemon drizzle cake at the community kitchen. Comfort food (with mushrooms) at the weekend.
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Pies, passata, and apple puree. A lot of food to process. And more mushrooms, of course.
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A beautiful lemon fruit tart, peanut butter stuffed cookies, and many crumbles. Mushroom tempura.
Multiple batches of berry compote. Mushroom noodles. Lemon tarts at the Community Kitchen.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Misc from passing through Ravenscraig Park. Bag of hen of the woods from Kirkcaldy town center!
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Evening foray to woods near Aberdour. The goal was ceps, but we were a bit late. Found a couple in decent condition (but I'm not totally convinced they're not Bay boletes - the pores are yellow, but the stems are so cep! Good either way.) and some giant ones that were way past it. A couple of new chanterelle spots and enough of those for a couple of meals. Lots of yellow/red cracked boletes, some very pretty brown and orange birch boletes. The chonky scarletinas are from before we'd even made it to the train station in Kirkcaldy (actually missed the intended train to stop and pick these). A selection of yellow and purple russulas in surprisingly good nick. Also my first amethyst deceiver and porcelain fungus. A couple of unknown souvenirs to take home and ID.
Amy added 25 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A visit to the woods on my doorstep. We were hoping for more chicken of the woods, but it seems like it's beefsteak fungus season! This deeply disturbing bracket fungus which bleeds and wobbles like raw meat is found mostly on oak trees, anywhere from by the ground to way up high. We levelled up on this foray though - mushrooms up to 11 feet high are no longer safe from us due to my unexpected new skill of precariously and hilariously balancing on R's shoulders. Also a great haul of puffballs. And a few late hen of the woods.
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Foraging on my doorstep last week. Puffballs in Ravenscraig Park. A new flush of dryads saddle on the first tree I saw fruit in June! Don't they know their season finished a month ago?? A relative of the hedgehog fungus. Agricus, the ones that didn't have sneaky little beak marks in. Several unknowns. Also pictured: Max helps with mushroom ID.
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A day trip to areas around the border of Fife and Tayside, with some foraging stops. Found enormous pestle puffballs, and a few new things to ID. Also pictured: agricus and dryads from closer to home, earlier in the week.
Amy added 21 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A final harvest before we leave for an adventure. My footpath tomatoes are growing.. but..... also horrible mutants.
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Inside cherry tomato has reached the ceiling. Now what? A hole?
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Hungarian peppers are going purple. Tomatoes and aubergines... another flush of inside substrate remix oysters.
Cucumber in the footpath garden. Tomatoes in the polytunnel are getting out of hand.
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Chillis abound! Inside tomato has ambitions of the stars.
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Climbed Glen Dessary at a leisurely pace. Met many interesting rocks, plants, and bugs - and mushrooms of course - along the way, and built a cairn. It was overcast, but very humid and warm. The breeze kept the midges away as we got higher. Pitched the tent a little way down from the peak on the windy side - it was a loud night, but decided that was preferable to midges.
Amy added 45 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202109-glenfinnan/
Day one of West Highlands adventure: bus to Glasgow, train to Glenfinnan, and walked out to the nearby bothy, about an hour and a half through the woods. Lots of people gathered to look at the viaduct just outside of Glenfinnan. The woods were bursting with mushrooms, and even though we had no way to make fire, I picked them anyway. At the bothy were other hikers, who did have a way to make fire, and also bothy cooking pots. So that evening we cooked mostly brown birch boletes and slippery jacks, then camped by the river. There were a lot of midges.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202109-glenfinnan/
Day 4 of West Highlands adventure. Followed the valley out to the bothy of the first night (Corryhully). There was no trail for 2/3 of the way, besides those left by the deer, and it wasn't super easy. The foliage was long and wet, and the banks were often steep and/or muddy. Soaking by the end of it; it rained a little bit too. Took about 3 hours to get to the bothy, where we sheltered and dried off for a while. Then walked back through the woods to Glenfinnan. Picked up a few boletes on the way. Saw the steam train go over the viaduct. Bumped into a Bothy Association guy who saw my bag of mushrooms and said we might find chanterelles in the nearby woods. We surely did! And a bunch more perfect boletes, and my first hedgehog fungus. Then the last train back to Glasgow, and the last bus back to Kirkcaldy.
Day three of West Highlands adventure. Didn't have a particular plan, so made a decision on which direction to walk in the morning. Options considered were: a ridge walk to Beinn Gharbh (eastish), a creek walk to a bothy at Oban on Loch Morar (northish), or an off-trail amble to wherever we'd get to in the south-westerly direction. Chose the latter. Went in a roundabout way to look at rocks, and ended up at Loch Beoraid mid-afternoon. There were some nice waterfall-y valley spots en route. Saw and heard red deer. The loch had a lovely beach, where we pitched the tent and chilled for the rest of the day. Midges came and went, which was better than being consistently covered in them. Kinlochbeoraid bothy is a mostly abandoned bothy a swampy 15 minute walk from the loch, but two other people were staying in the coal shed. It was pretty grim. Loch beach was better.
Amy added 29 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202109-glenfinnan/
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Finally cleared Dave's room the guest room and painted a base layer of white to cover twitter-blue and bare plaster.
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Pickled tomatoes! Finally, I can relive my glorious days of eating in Georgia (where I discovered pickled tomatoes, and haven't really been able to find them anywhere else since).
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
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Me: ugh why didn't the last people who painted this room bother to tape up the edges, it's so messy. Also me: fuuuuuuu- taping up all the edges before painting is so much work, is this really necesssary?
Inside tomato is starting to fruit. Taped up and sanded a bit of my brother's the guest bedroom walls. Harvested tomatoes. Walked on the beach. TAG virtual face-to-face in the middle of the week. Made coconut scones and fab lemon drizzle cake at the Community Kitchen and did some weird things with beefsteak fungus. Adventured around Fife and went to Dundee to pick up freegled jars, and made foraging stops enroute. Went to the Buckhaven community orchards for a haul of apples, pears and plums. Started watching Sweet Home.
Finally finished sanding and painting my brother's the guest bedroom walls. Made much apple raspberry compote and many apple pies and more desserts. Picked a tomato and a carrot from my own garden. The caterpillars seem to have abated for the time being, maybe it's time to put a row of autumn carrots in? Chilli plants are all thriving. Finished reading Foundation & Empire, started Second Foundation. Finished watching season one of Kingdom, started watching Uncanny Counters. Sunrises... Climate protests at Seafield. Wandering around north/east Fife.
Made tasty things. Found More local mushrooms. Caterpillars have destroyed my broccoli and kale among other things. Went on a West Highland adventure which featured hiking, a Munroe, camping and foraging mushrooms (of course).
Week in review: 30th August - 5th September
Cherry tomato plant inside has reached the ceiling. What now? Worked on the Environmental Permits Data Service project. And various internal Co-op welfaring things. Went foraging in the woods near Aberdour. Finally sanded and cleaned the walls in Dave's bedroom ready for painting. Made scones and lemon cake at Community Kitchen; blueberry scones, lime coconut cake, chilli and curry and pickled tomatoes at home. Garden continues to produce. Sun continues to rise. Beefsteak fungi, and cooking boletes.