Come meet celebrity chef Bruno Feldeisen beloved judge of TV's the Great Canadian Bake Off who will be cooking up an "Ode to the sea" seafood pop-up dinner Sept 26 + 27th in the Swallow Tail secret supper club garden space.
What are these crazy balls (pic)? Edible mushrooms! It's that time of year already and a select group of early season mushroom are starting to fruit in higher altitudes or in Northern latitudes in BC and WA. Among these giant western puffballs (Calvatia booniana) is one of my favourites because they look ridiculous, don't they? When you come across them in a meadow
(they like sage brush flats, near you, if you live in the Okanagan for example), you may think it's a volleyball. It's frequently fried and served as you would a steak, but I actually like eating small amounts raw in a bit of good olive oil and salt (may give some people gas raw) like the Italian's serve some of their wild mushrooms. Dished this way they taste a bit like unripened mozzarella. Please note with puffballs especially small ones, that they can look a bit like baby
Amanita's so be sure of your ID before you harvest them. Our pre-release tickets to our mushroom foraging classes are open now for members to book them for this Sept to Dec season. Happy foraging!
