Woodland Fare

Harvesting Black Walnuts without Power Tools

2013-10-14T10:11:00.004-07:00

Black Walnut Tree, next to my building

Deep into year 2 here in suburban Philadelphia, and I am very ready to move back to Oregon. I miss the woods, open spaces, mushrooms, salmon and all the other things that stole my heart out there. When I was growing up, we had 2 black walnut trees in our back yard. I remember hitting them with a baseball bat, and watching the squirrels go bananas in the fall, but I never thought about eating them.

Black Walnut Tree in Mid October, Mid-Atlantic region

The neighborhood I live in now is black walnut central. There are 4 trees surrounding the condo I live in, and at least 4 surrounding my office. Seeing these grow all summer sparked me to do some research on how the heck to hull these simply. As always, YouTube provided a ton of information, however most of the solutions; though highly effective, were just not attainable in my current environment. I don't have power tools, a cement mixer, a corn shiller, and right now, a car to get the husks off these things, so its left to elbow grease.

Bumper Crop of Black Walnuts

Don't get overzealous when picking these, If you're going to try hand harvesting, start with a dozen, as tempting as it is to come home with a huge haul. By the time the nuts fall, and the following days after they fall, the rinds will soften. Put on gloves before you head out, the rinds contain a natural dye (here's a great article on dyeing with) the dye is so strong that it will last on your hands for days, so be warned. When the rinds are soft, you can basically twist the nut and one half will come off, leaving a slimy black nut in the other end. Save the nuts and bring them to your cleaning location.

Ready to husk

I like using plastic tubs with lids, not too big that you can't fill it with water and hold both ends. Fill up your jug with water 3/4 of the way, with the nuts inside. Screw on the lid and begin to shake 'em up, you'll be treating this jug like a manual rock tumbler, the rigid sides of the nuts scraping each other. I do about three fill and shakes, trying to get that water slightly clearer than the previous rinse. You can also add gravel to the mix, I hear that really helps out, though there is none to be had close to my home to test with.

Next, you'll want to hit them with a wire brush, I picked one up from a local hardware store for 2 bucks. Run each surface of the nut over the brush, be careful because the remaining coating will spray all over, and dye anything in its path. Clean them up, put them back in your barrel for the final rinse and wash them off for the last time. You may want to let them dry out before placing them in mesh plastic onion sacks, as again, they will drip and stain your floors. Let them hang out for a month or so, and you're ready to start crackin! Thanks for reading!

This years harvest so far

Fall Fly Fishing in Chester County PA

2012-10-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

The onset of the cold season has shown its face finally. Cutting the extreme dewpoints beyond half in a matter of days. I hit the creek on one of the last cusp days, when temperatures started in the high 40′s and pushed into the low 70′s in just a few hours after sunrise. Took the Maxima out to French Creek, closer to the origin at Warwick, in French Creek State Park. The scenery, sounds and water were superb. There is a huge Hickory grove in the area, and their nuts are beginning to drop, and they taste absolutely amazing. I’ll be back in a week to collect and hull, there were at least 10 trees and a mass of squirrels and chipmunks hulling them out.

I waded up about a mile, flycasting for a hopeful holdover rainbow, brown or brook, but no trout were to be had.

There were fish to be caught though, and the perseverance and sheer presence of the Creek Chub always lead to a good fight and stellar trout training on the 4 weight. Ended up landing roughly 15 chub, and one greenear sunfish on the excursion, treating beadhead prince & hares ears’ like slo-mo streamers.

The largest chub of the day

This is the biggest one, and at a full cast of 30′ fought as hard as any salmo derivitive I could hook in the keystone. All released, barbless.

Trout Season

2012-04-22T06:12:00.001-07:00

With the launch of trout season in SE PA in the very recent past, I made it a point to get on the water after work at least once a week. Granted, this didn't happen until April 20th, but it was a good afternoon on the water. I brought my ultralight spinning gear, and was throwing 1/16 oz jigs with rubber worms, and hooked and released this Redeye Rockbass shortly after arriving to French Creek, here in downtown Phoenixville.

Shortly after that hookup, I switched lures to a super small Daredevil Spoon, and hooked into this 18" stocked Brown. Great fish, destined for the dinner table.

I typically cook the fish whole, but decided to fillet so that my wife and I could have our own portions. Found this great instructional video on Youtube below. This kid is a wiz, and having a sharp knife will not only make your life easier, it will keep your cuts closer to the bone, making your fillets fatter. Though it didn't go as smooth as the video below, the fillets were acceptable and minimal meat was lost in the process.

Here's the fillets, I scaled them, covered them in a little olive oil, juice of 2 limes chili flakes and chili powder, then popped them in the fridge for 2 hours.

I grilled the trout on my electric grill for about 15 mins, added to the grill green squash, baby leeks and sweet bell peppers, served up with some spanish rice and avocado. Great

First Trip in PA

2012-02-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

Finally getting settled in the new area, and found a little time to get my PA license and hit one of the local rivers with a friend. No trout yet this year, but the Chester County surroundings look absolutely beautiful and rather promising. We're within post-work fishing distance from Valley Creek, French Creek and Pickering Creek, not to mention on the banks of the Schuylkill (hello Carp on the fly) so lots of fly fishing in the near future, just waiting for some free time..

Pickering Creek

Holiday Dried Pears and Apples

2011-12-26T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a great holiday season thus far. Since moving back to the Eastern States, I've seen a LOT of family, eaten a ton of food and help to keep the American brewing industry afloat. As per usual, there was a fruit surplus from various baskets and kitchens family wide that somehow ended up with my mother. I was greeted with a case of Anjou Pears several days ago, as well as a grocery bag full of Apples, Oranges, a Grapefruit, Lemons, Clementines and more. The pears had a foot in the grave, so they needed to be handled first.

There were 2 types of pear and several Gala apples that fell victim to the Nesco this holiday weekend. This is the second time I've dried pears and varied the style a little this time. This is really simple, and makes your house smell awesome:

10-12 Ripe Pears of Apples
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Nutmeg
1 Sliced Lemon

Core the fruits and slice lenghtwise into 1/4-1/3" slices, the smaller the less drying time needed. Place slices on the dehydrator rack and squeeze a slice worth of lemon juice onto the pieces of pear. You can also just juice the lemon and dip the slices in lemon juice if you please, its messy, but works great.

Next sprinkle a generous amount of Cinnamon over the slices, followed by a much less generous amount of Nutmeg. Do this until your racks are filled, then dry for 5-6 hours, checking occasionally. You want them to be more Fruit Rollup consistency than potato chip dry, they carry the sweetness of the fruit much better that way. This recipe yielded about 3/4 of a gallon zip-lock full of fruit slices, perfect for snacks and taking into the woods. The Citrus portion of this bounty is "in utero" to say, I'm making lemon confit/Moroccan style preserved citrus, won't see that for another 30 days, but it will be posted on the blog. Thanks as always for reading!

Keystone Beef Jerky Recipe

2011-12-13T05:22:00.000-08:00

We've finally made the long haul from soggy and beloved Oregon to sunny and freezing Pennsylvania and are getting settled in. Living in a condo will present some new challenges to my curing, smoking, and overall kitchen concoctions, but there are some benefits. One of which is I live in biking distance from a butcher shop/hispanic grocery which can supply any cut I can fancy at a stellar rate. Also, I live 9 miles from French Creek Park and its attached gamelands which look stellar for Whitetail, Trout, Pheasant and best of all, Spring and Fall Turkey! Though my Little Chief smoker still remains in Oregon, I plan on taking the opportunity to do more salt cures and charcuterie, its about time for another Pancetta anyhow. Here's the first project from the new place, Keystone State Jerky:

Marinade

1 1/2 Cup Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp Chili Flakes

2 Tbsp Black Pepper

1 Tbsp Cayenne

1 Tbsp Chili Powder

3/4 Can/Bottle of Yuengling Lager

Add to:

4-6lbs Top Round, Sliced against the grain, in roughly 1/4" strips and let sit for 16-24 hours in the fridge, I like using gallon ziplocks for this, less mess.

Lay out the strips on the dehydrator and sprinkle lightly with Kosher Salt. This is a pretty standard recipe, though I really like the sweetness of the Yuengling over my standard PBR/Miller/AmericanLager of many past recipes, and since I'm close to "the source" will probably rely on Amreicas Oldest for recipes to come. Leave a comment, ask a question, have a great week!

October Mushroom Hunt

2011-11-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

Got out into Mt. Hood National Forest for the first time this year. Since moving out to the westside, I've been spending most of my adventure time in the Coast Range, and have really missed the Ripplebrook area. About a year ago, we really cleaned up Chanterelle picking out here, and hoped to do the same. It was a weekend, and we were definitely not alone when it came for fungus foragers.

A little flick made with my iphone, you can see the size of some of the mushrooms this fall, there were several huge ones

All said and done, this trip yielded about 5-6lbs total. We've been going out alot this fall, and dehydrating 90% of our finds, anticipating the move to PA in the coming weeks. It will be sad leaving such sweet fungus behind, but there are lots of Eastern species to learn about.

Getting Ready for Hunting Season

2011-08-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

In addition to cleaning up the 12g, I'm dropping a few pounds this month in anticipation of an active fall bird hunting season. Looking at the Tillamook and Trask Units, and have my Deer Tag (first time for that) and an upland game bird permit. I'm also going to pick up a Bandtail Pigeon tag too, as I've been seeing a lot of these birds around the Wilson late Spring and Summer.

We actually had a couple in our yard this Spring, and they're a pretty sizable bird, I'm stoked to track a couple down and see what my kitchen can turn them into. The season right now is only 15 days, in September with a field limit of 2 and a season limit of 4. I think the permit is 12.00, but the season corresponds with Mourning Dove and all the other upland birds, so with my luck, permit diversity can't hurt. Any results will be posted here, thanks for looking!

Summer Showers

2011-07-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

Headed out fishing on the Wilson this weekend, should have some photos and hopefully a fish to smoke!

Making Beef Jerky in a Dehydrator How To

2011-06-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I recorded this video this weekend and published it up to Youtube. This is my most reliable recipe for a savory, slightly spicy salty batch of home made jerky! Thanks for checking it out!

Digging Clams in Tillamook Bay

2011-06-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

We recently had a nice few days of Minus Tides on Tillamook Bay, luckily one of the days, I wasn't working. My friend Mike and I gassed up the car and headed over the mountains to Tillamook Bay on the coast. The tide was a minus 1.9 foot, which isn't all that much, but noticably lower than other times I've fished the area. With a regular shovel, we headed out onto the rocky muddy flats in search of Butter Clams, Cockles and Littlenecks.

We found the Cockles, the scallop looking ones below just sitting in the little channels, they get caught by the low tide and are stranded, helpless tasty things. We probably got about 25 of these. In the rocky flats, you can dig in the mud and find the bigger, butter clams, like the large white ones in the pic below. I would recommend bringing a shovel, and a Potato Rake or other tined, deep claw lookin' rake to pull aside the rocks from your muddy hole in search of filter feeder goodness. Also, you can just walk the rocky flats too, and wait for them to squirt you. Then you'll really know a good spot to dig.

I let them aerate in salt water for about an hour, and then steamed them till they popped. With a simple egg batter, I dropped the clam bits into a mixture of Panko, Sesame Seeds, Black Pepper and Sea Salt, and tossed them into hot oil. They fried up excellently & made my house smell bad, open the windows! The Cockels were sandy, even after aerating, and next time, I'll let them aerate for at least an hour and a half +.

Fly Fishing in the Oregon Coast Range

2011-06-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

Took an early morning trip out to the Oregon Coast Range, via Highway 26 this morning for a little Cutthroat Trout fly fishing. I was lucky enough to catch 2, one just barely over the legal limit of 10" but released both. Anyhow, the larger one was caught on a beadhead hares ear nymph, and the smaller on an elk hair caddis dry. Great day, would have been nice to catch some larger fish, but regardless a nice day in the spooky woods of the Coast Range.

This is the larger of the 2, caught on the nymph

And this intensely colored native cutthroat trout took an elk hair caddis dry.

If you're going to get into fishing here, please check out the regulations first, though its confusing as all hell, you can visit, call (and shop!) great resources such as Ollie Damons in Portland, and Tillamook Sporting Goods on the coast for detailed season information and tips. Stream trout fishing, as of 2011 is opens in the Coast Range on Memorial Day weekend, and now you're allowed to keep 2 fish between 8-16 inches in size. Don't quote me, check the ODFW site, and the Rec Report for official up to date info.

Making Bagels at Home with a Bread Machine

2011-06-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Growing up in NJ, I developed a spoiled palate for Bagels. In the small town I grew up in, there were 4 bagel shops, all a little different, and all offering super inexpensive tasty bagels made daily. We decided to give bagel making a shot a couple weeks ago, and with the help of our Oster Bread Machine, made a simple dough from a recipe found online and displayed below:

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
3 cups bread flour
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 quarts boiling water
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 egg white (I used veg. oil)

Directions

Place water, salt, sugar, flour and yeast in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting.
When cycle is complete, let dough rest on a lightly floured surface. Meanwhile, in a large pot bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar.
Cut dough into 9 equal pieces, and roll each piece into a small ball. Flatten balls. Poke a hole in the middle of each with your thumb. Twirl the dough on your finger or thumb to enlarge the hole, and to even out the dough around the hole. Cover bagels with a clean cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle an ungreased baking sheet with cornmeal. Carefully transfer bagels to boiling water. Boil for 1 minute, turning half way through.

Drain briefly on clean towel. Arrange boiled bagels on baking sheet. Glaze tops with egg white, and sprinkle with your choice of toppings.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degrees C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well browned.

Viola! Here's our finished result. When we do them again, which won't be soon enough, we plan to make half as many bagels with the same recipe. 9 tiny bagels are less satisfying than 6 bigger ones would be, of 4 colossus bagels would be. This was a really fun Friday night, and early Saturday, a fried egg, some of the homemade bacon from a prior recipe and hot sauce/cheese a winning start to the weekend.

Pancetta

2011-05-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a whole pork belly from a central Oregon farm, and following Mr. Rhulman's book mentioned in the prior post, decided to tackle homemade bacon and a pancetta. I split the whole belly in 2, making roughly 7 lb pieces, and the after skinning the pancetta side, it weighed the rough 5lb recommendation for the recipe.

Here's the fresh belly, about 14lbs! Photo below is the wrapped pancetta.

I'm fortunate enough to live close enough to a place where I can get a pork belly, and the other hard to find ingredients (Pink Salt & Juniper Berries) within the day after my belly came in.

Here's the finished pancetta, after 2 weeks hanging in the utility room

I followed Rhulman's recipe as best as possible, temperature fluctuations and humidity levels were not optimal, and I may work on climate controlling part of my utility room for more Charcuterie projects. Results were good, the pancetta was moist, and exceptionally flavorful, I made pasta sauce, but this baby really shined when cut slicer thin and sauteed with garden veggies, think snap peas, asparagus, squash, this really brought out some stellar flavors there. Also, have friends that like Pancetta, You get a LOT of slices out of the suggested 5lb belly, and I've got enough frozen pancetta for the year.

You should totally Buy this guys book,

Want it? Click it.

Moved.

2011-01-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

Blurg. Haven't had any time to do anything other than move/get stranded in the cluster f* east coast snow storm right after christmas of 2010. What a mess, we were stuck almost a week over our original departure date, and still had to buy new tickets to get back to Portland. ALSO, we moved at the same time...We found a cherry rental in NW Portland, on 2 acres, all wooded, so, here I am now, and hopefully, I can continue remotely worth reading content for this blog...also, just got this book Charcuterie which Im stoked on.

October Times

2010-10-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

Like always, its been too long since posting some baloney on this site. October has been a great month so far, about as busy as it gets at work in a year, but I've had some weekend time to get out into the woods, I've been hitting the Three Lynx area of Mt. Hood forest twice to flyfish, and once to hike/hunt for grouse with my new Binelli and it was a humbling experience. I parked my car at the head of an old Forest Service Rd, long abandoned and blocked off, all on the recommendation of a local Elk hunter on good Grouse grounds. It was a beautiful stretch, solid birch in the start, turning into a scotch broom mess of a clearing before transitioning into a older growth fir forest. There were countless mushrooms, something I'm not familiar with, and a couple squirrels. Chasing the sounds of the squirrels in the brush, I ended up following some kind of game path into a void, everything looking the same, remote ideas of my incoming path and no sign of that clearing in sight. After about 40 minutes of supposed backtracking, I ended up on a ridge above the road I walked in on. I left Damn lucky with an empty game bag and a smile on my face.

New Gun!

2010-09-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

Howdy all, just writing to make my conscious feel a bit better after dropping about 300 bucks yesterday. I've been eyeballing this Binelli Nova Pump Action 12g at the pawn shop by my house for about 8 months, and after continuously asking the "price" of the thing, made an offer. I've bought my first shotgun! I'm pretty psyched, and come the next couple weekends, will finally get a chance to shoot some clays. I bought this gun to hunt turkey here in Oregon, and can't wait to get into that action.
Anyhow, just an excitement post, nothing much else to report. Made some really tasty, hot jerky earlier in the week, I've started making a paste-like marinade for the past 2 recipes, and here's a rough, and easily customizable ingredient list for the marinade:

1 Can o' Beer (I usually drink about 1/4th, unless making more than 3lbs, its too much.
Onion Powder (till thick)
Ginger Powder (use your judgement, this flavor doesn't carry unless you go heavy)
Chili Flakes
Black Pepper

The powders and beer make a nice thick marinade when the beer is added, and coats the meat very well, and dries clean in the dehydrator. I've also done it with White Wine instead of beer, which worked out great.

New Air Pistol, Reviewed

2010-07-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

Recently, I picked up a Desert Eagle Blowback .177cal Co2 pistol. I got it at Airgun Depot in the refurbished section, and for 80 bucks I feel it was an overall good deal. With the MSRP over 200, this was a good deal, but I would never call it a 200 dollar pistol. Construction is nice, it feels, and is big, made of some cast plastics that don't mar easily and look and feel like a nice coating. The mechanics are all metal, as is the 8 shot cartridge. I finally got to test the thing out a couple weekends back, when I had a free morning and some extra gas in my tank.

I hiked into the Roaring River for the test, a very rural and secluded hilly area in the Clackamas Basin. The gun is strong, especially with the first clip on a new co2 canister, and gives a really nice kick for a air gun. I got 4 clips per co2 cartridge, which I would expect from this caliber. Overall, it's fun, and at close range could probably blow away pests (ON A NEW Co2 ONLY, its 450 fps, and with wadcutters, or hollowpoint), but get a refurb if you're going to get one, in my opinion. On a side note, the refurb section at airgundepot is pretty awesome, and you can get some really, really nice rifles there, and hopefully they'll have the .22 Walther Falcon Hunter's back soon (was 175 for the refurb)

Clamming Trip

2010-06-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I were able to get out to the coast this weekend for some crabbing and clamming. Hitting the public docks in Garibaldi, our usual spot, was alright, with tons of crab in the rings, but not a one over 5.5" (though a lot were right on the cusp) Crabbing was weak, but the clamming, which none of us have ever fruitfully done, was a success. Using a razor clam gun at low tide, on the sandy part of the beach yielded several softshells, the biggest probably about 5-6" Shovel digging in the softer rocks yielded cockels, littlenecks & butternecks, both super tasty. I didn't take many photos, but will post anything from my little camera once I get it out of my tackle bag. My friend Mike kept his softshells, and made an aioli for them, I just steamed the various that I dug, the largest only 3" in some cheap lager beer and served with faux butter. (I'm allergic to all dairy, sorry cheese peeps, no recipes for you here)