After the deluge: porcini!

After nearly two weeks of pouring rain and no true August in sight, Friday and Saturday had finally brought a blazing 26 degrees back again. And with it popped up mushrooms, among them a bunny-sized one in our backyard, most likely inedible but quite cute. After venturing in vain for the gigantic white puffball we settled for a lurid bolete close to our house. My mum pointed us at him referring to the Polish hauler who turns up at my dad's factory about once a year and manically crawls beneath the trees, taking bags of this lurid bolete (and offering them to my frightened mum who happily refuses). Not us! (we thought.) But then, slight discomfort arose thinking of an intense mushroom death, albeit psychedelic it might be.

This made me go to Pete's dad today who collects mushrooms for years and just walked over the doorway, still dripping from the rain that decided to revisit, now with 100 litres tonight.

In his hand though a shopping bag full of porcini which he proudly showcased and turned right into a steaming, meaty mushroom mess. Cut them in thin slices, fry in oil or butter until most of the liquid has gone and then add a finely cubed onion for about every 150-200g of mushrooms, leave to become translucent, add half a crushed garlic clove, and leave it be for 2 more minutes. Then season with salt, pepper and a good handful of parsley. Pete's dad put a sourdough bread with cold butter to serve on the side, good for adding something substantial and perfectly complementary.

So if you have some rain and then some sun around this time of the year, check out the base of beech trees on your next walk out, maybe you can find some of these tasty fellows (here's how by Leslie Land, nothing more to say)!

Strawberry Fields Forever?

Imagine nearly a thousand varieties of strawberries, then take more than a hundred varieties of gooseberries, raspberries and countless other fruit and berry seeds and their living plants in a field, 90% of it only found in this special place: the Pavlovsk Seed Station, found outside of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Initiated in 1926 by the dedicated Nikolai Vavilov, it has been saved through a worldwar (amongst others due to starvation of the scientists dedicated to the survival of the countless peas, beans and other seeds that could have saved their life), and decades of socialist regime plus the onset of capitalist Russia which now could be its death sentence. Private housing estate has seized the land and the final decision if one of the oldest global seed banks can be bulldozed for houses will be decided this week in the Russian court.
Relocation of the seed station is impossible as it is an in situ conservation station: no preservation in coolers and movable packages but largely on fields and in gardens where seeds can further adapt and exhibit traits that might be highly valuable for future agriculture. Think drought resistant species, think flooding resistant species, think early or late maturing species, finally think much-more-tasteful-than-now species.
Please sign the petition of Martin Wik Fowler whose dad has been working a big part of his life (amongst many others!) on building and preserving this unique collection of agrobiodiversity. If you would like to read some of the interesting press coverage, check out BBC, the Guardian or USA Today.