on the Soap Tree

as we talk soap-making Vicky shared a story:
Vicky:
“On the subject of soap and plants, are you familiar with the soap tree? We used to use the leaves to wash our hands when we were kids, playing in the bush near our house.”
Me:
“Soap tree? I don’t know that one. do you have an image?”
Vicky:
“I just googled it. Botanical name is Alphitonia excelsa, common name red ash. It’s a rather undistinguished-looking tree: leaves are oval, shiny dark green on one side, and silvery on the underside. The leaves contain saponin, and new growth smells like sarsaparilla. Apparently the fruits have been used medicinally by the aboriginals, but I only know its use of leaves as soap.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphitonia_excelsa

amazing databases

The Food Plants International database covers some 18,000 plants edibility, just falling short of the estimate of edible plants in the world, which according to Plant For a Future, is around 20,000.

Great respect should be paid to the countless amount of people devoting so much of their time and knowledge for all to share, FPI is a mostly Tasmanian-based crew, while PFAF is mostly based in Cornwall, UK.

check them both:
here is the 18,000 plants database Food Plants International
and here is the 7,000 plants database Plants for a Future

reposting someone else’s mushrooms adventures

Hi all, I found this blog entry and HAD to share>>

From here

In a way that is probably all too typically Australian, I have not been much of a mushroom forager in the past. Fungi are without doubt the weakest part of my foraging game. A few field mushrooms (Agaricus campestris) have passed my way; those least challenging of all with their obvious similarity to the common cultivated type (Agaricus bisporus). One foray in England brought a few home once, but which we then failed to identify with enough surety to eat. And I will confess to some youthful dalliances with the hallucinogenic kind (Psilocybe cubensis) from North Coast cow paddocks. But somehow I managed to spend far too long of the common view that we are simply not a country with enough edible mushrooms to make it a worthwhile pursuit. I have rarely been so wrong.

Perhaps with this the wettest autumn in memory around here I have probably picked a very good year to start, because my first foray into serious mushrooming has been a phenomenal success. With saffron milk caps (Lactarius deliciosus) to be precise. Last Sunday evening, with fading light and just enough time for the briefest foray, the beginning was at the Vulcan State Forest just out of Black Springs. Within a few metres and a few seconds of entering the forest, there they were, so thick on the ground that all but the best looking were ignored and the basket still easily filled within perhaps ten minutes.

A full basket within minutes and metres of entering the forest
Reaching the cabin that night in the dark and the last couple of hundred metres on foot with the car stuck in the wet I don’t start on eating them; that last vestige of caution and toxiphobia holding me back when so far from town and uncertain of the car’s abilities. The following morning however it takes only daylight and greater impatience to push me over the edge, and to push one thinly sliced cap into a pan. And it was delicious; only delicately flavoured in my view but wonderfully textured and cooking to a beautiful rich orange. On reflection it seems to me that the saffron milk cap is the perfect novice mushroom (as also found by others). Perhaps most importantly, it is just so distinctive and identifiable; plus it is great eating; and to top it off it is wonderfully abundant at the right time (early Autumn) and place (pine forest).

Sliced saffron milk caps

In a hot pan and butter, all too easy
The next day we make our back to Sydney with a stop at Belanglo State Forest to top the basket up. After sorting the haul in the morning I learned why you see foragers like River Cottage’s John Wright being so careful and delicate with their cargo – bruised mushrooms lose a lot of appeal and they do it quite quickly and easily. A few trashed ones thrown out, I am actually glad to have cause to get more. Belanglo didn’t seem as well stocked as Vulcan, but it was still very easy pickings and somehow a more open and inviting forest to walk into (strange though that is to say of a place of such serial killing infamy).

So now I have it, the mushrooming bug, and I already find it impossible to imagine that any autumn will pass again in which I do not venture into the pine forests. There is a crucial tipping point with fears like those we have about wild mushrooms where rationality wins out. To now branch out to slippery Jacks (Suillus Luteus) or boletes (Boletus portentosus), should I be lucky enough to find them, seems but a meagre challenge. On Tuesday it’s Penrose and Wingello State Forests for more.

thanks Forager’s year!

Santina, and the need of knowing

“Hi Diego,
I attended the Wild Medicine class on Saturday. It was a really wonderful afternoon and I enjoyed it very much. I wanted to share with you the story of why I attended.

I am American and have lived in Australia for more than 7 years. When I’ve gone back to visit the last few years the conditions have changed drastically. People have lost their homes, business are struggling and closing everywhere. There are tent cities. Tent cities in America. I was shocked. It was then that I became aware of a movement of “Preppers”. Preppers believe that things haven’t hit bottom yet and when they do there will be a lack of food and medicine available. It’s expected that it will be worse than the Great Depression with more people dealing with the loss of income, housing and food. Even if not economic collaps there are floods, fire, earthquakes and numerous other disasters that may occur. So we preppers have stored food, water and medical supplies for our families.

I am relatively new to the movement but decided that instead of relying on a huge supply of canned foods and out of date medicines that I should look to the world around me and learn to supplement my supplies with items supplied by the earth. I have used natural medicines for years so the concept was not new to me but extracting it from the plant myself is. I wanted to be sure to do it right and have proper identification of the plants I am using.

I really appreciated how your class focused on a few specific plants so I can learn them well and then move on. I look forward to more learning and have already signed up for your mushroom walk. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and the beauty of the world around us. “

Santina, Ceramic artist, 2012

Camphor glory box

“It was good practice for unmarried women to collect items such as clothing and household linen, in anticipation of married life.
The dowry was saved in a Glory Box, generally made out of Camphor laurel wood, as it was insect (silverfish) proof, so to make sure the items were in good state by the time the box was open”

Aida and the Camphor laurel

Here’s Aida who tells us the story when she was growing up in Argentina.
It was common practice in her neighborhood to send kids to school with a little bag around their neck. The bag contained little balls of camphor to help prevent the kids from getting diseases while in contact with other kids.

on how to make dandelion coffe

dandelion coffe, a set on Flickr.

a step by step procedure on how to make Dandelion coffe, from the field to the cup>>