Desiccated Vegetables
Grown during 2008, these small leftover items from the garden became interesting objects and strangely beautiful as they transformed.
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Morchella, the true morels - 2009 season
Morchella, the true morels, is a genus of edible mushrooms closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi. These distinctive mushrooms appear honeycomb-like in that the upper portion is composed of a network of ridges with pits between them.
Types of morel mushrooms:
The best known morels are the Yellow Morel or Common Morel (Morchella esculenta)
the White Morel (Morchella deliciosa)
and the Black Morel (Morchella elata)
Other species of true morels include M. semilibera and M. vulgaris. Discriminating between the various species is complicated by uncertainty regarding which species are truly biologically distinct. Mushroom hunters refer to them by their color (e.g., gray, yellow, black) as the species are very similar in appearance and vary considerably within species and age of individual.
The 2009 season for Morchella esculenta and Morchella deliciosa
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The 2009 season for the Morchella elata below....
Morchella elata is a species of fungus in the family Morchellaceae. It is one of three related species commonly known as the black morel.
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Special "eating" section
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Early Morel or False Morel
Verpa Bohemica are also called wrinkled thimble cap, or early morel, and Ptychoverpa Bohemica. Although the early false morels are sometimes eaten without ill effect, they can cause severe gastrointestinal upset and loss of muscular coordination (including cardiac muscle) if eaten in large quantities or over several days in a row. They should be parboiled and dried before use in cooking to break down a gyromitrin-like toxin (an organic, carcinogenic poison) that is produced by the mushroom.
The early false morels can be told apart from the true morels by careful study of how the cap is attached to the stalk. The edge of true morels' (morchella) caps are intergrown with the stalk, but early morels' (verpas) caps hang over like a thimble, for which they are sometimes referred to as "thimble morel". Early false morels are the first morels to fruit in the spring, shortly after leaves begin to form on deciduous trees. Narrow-head morels (morchella angusticeps) fruit next, around May. The last morels to fruit are the yellow or white morels (Morchella esculenta), then crassipes.
Cap: the cap of false morels is wrinkled and irregular, bell shaped or cone shaped, attached only at apex (top) of cap not like true morels which have caps that are attached at the bottom, the color yellow brown to olive yellow or tan, darkens with age.
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Pope Model L motorcycle
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McSorley's Old Ale House has been a gathering place, a watering hole, the subject of art and literature and even a supreme court controversy. Established in 1854 - McSorley's can boast of being New York City's oldest continuously operated saloon. 155 years for the math challenged.
