Mulberries, Miles and MUSHROOMS! In JUNE!

Preparing for the Mile Run

At the "Start Line"

Yesterday was kind of a big deal!  Cheryl had scheduled a virtual  Mile Run  so she could report her "Best Time"  for a single mile.   She had been preparing this for weeks and we had a wonderful downhill slope so she could get an advantage with Gravity.   The course was exactly one mile and I kicked her off and raced to the end to capture her victory finish.  There were no other runners on the course.

It is raining... HARD! 

Cheryl completes the Mile 

But wouldn't you know it.  In the short period of the race,  it began to pour down rain!   The rain was causing the sidewalk to become slippery and Cheryl was wearing her Super Fly  Nike Shoes. ( No tread for maximum grip on flat dry surface.) 

Lots of water on the course. 

They are great on the dry road, but not on water.   So Cheryl ended up breaking on the downhill... which was the ENTIRE mile!  (Opps!  Best laid plans....)    However, she did turn in a 6:59  mile.  Not her best mile ever, but it was her best mile so far this year.

Dragon Mulberry Pie,   Soft in the
middle,  chewy on the outside. 

Makes a Great Hand Pie!

Cheryl Continues to experiment with pie.   As I write this, she just pulled out a Mulberry Hand Pie... which shows signs of a break through!   I could possibly explain it in the blog post, but I have so many other things to chat about.   Let me just say that her Mulberry "Dragon Pie" was delicious, but still hard and chewy.   She was disappointed, but I ended up eating the entire thing ( minus one piece...  Cheryl's sample!)

A Beautiful sight to behold!
Finding Gold in the Forest!

Rhubarb Raspberry Pie!  Softer
crust achievement. 

 It was firm enough to eat with your hand, so that is what I ended up doing.   I suggested that the harder pie crust should be used for a hand pie... so she just made one, using the Norwegian Tart recipe for the crust...  So tender and flaky!    So now all she has to do is switch the recipes!  Norwegian Tart Crust for the pie, and the "Award Winning TOUGH pie" recipe for the hand pie.   I only hope we have enough Mulberries for such a thing.

Dehydration time!  (Note the
bucket of Mulberries...again) 

Handful of Golden Goodness!  

And finally,  during our bike ride last night,  Cheryl spotted a tree covered in newly formed Golden Oyster Mushrooms!   We took them all home and Cheryl chopped them up for dehydration.   The smell fills the entire apartment with "Earthy Tones" of mushrooms!   I thought she was cooking them up last night!

Trays are filled.  They fill the room
with Mushroom Earth smell. 

Fast forward to today!   We went out to Coralville to check out our favorite Mushroom trees!  And possibly search for others along the way.   Turns out, the spring ( uh, Summer, now!)   Rains have triggered the Mushrooms to bloom!

Cheryl is saving these for A
Mushroom Tart

Some Older Oysters we missed.
Were they out last week? 

 We packed our baskets full with everything we could find.   We even found several bunches that were too old to harvest.   Perhaps we should have been checking our mushrooms places last week!   

Russulas ( Brittle Gills) Are OUT! 

Yellow Slime Mold. 

I wanted to log this for the blog to tell Future Cheryl and Ethan that the Oyster Mushrooms were popping out in  Late June!   I believe the earliest we ever found them in the past was mid-July.   So this will tell us to begin our search earlier if the conditions are right,  ( I can only assume, lots of rain?)

Pearly Eye Butterfly 

Red Elfin Cup! 

In addition!   We found Brittle Gills in the Park and along the path.   I found three Chanerelles in the yard!  Looks like Cheryl will be having to make a Mushroom Tart tomorrow with all of these mushrooms piling up.   However,   we are currently drying all the ones we will not be cooking up  so we will have a stash for the future.   I'm loving the Dehydrator already!

Hackberry Butterfly. 

Our wildlife sighting for the day was a pair of Butterflies.   A Pearly Eye and a Hackberry.   The Hackberry Butterfly is a serious find for us, as former butterfly hunters. ( Lepodopterists.  for those in the "know"....) We found one so many years ago in a part of Northern Michigan.  ( U.P. , maybe?)

Notice the White Spots on the
antennae? ( I drew them in to help) 

We chased it for what seemed like forever, because we knew it was not a Wood Satyr nor a Pearly Eye by the way it flew.   If you look really close, you will see the two antenna have a very bright white spot on the end.   He was nice enough to allow me to capture him with my Phone....  So cool.

Filling the Dehydrator again! 

Bannana Cakes?  

And Cheryl continues to experiment with Banana Bread.   She recently got a request from Glen, the Cashier at Casey's...    He is an Iowa Transplant like us, so we kind of bonded right away 8 years ago.   And if He will end up eating the Baked goods,  that is a good thing for me.   Because I can't afford to eat ALL of Cheryl's Experiments.

Adding Ganache 

So to change things up, she has baked the Banana Bread in round cake tins with Ganache and Walnuts on top.    They sure look pretty.   And we did end up eating one for "quality control".

The look like flowers! 

Blooming from Logs. 

The point of this blog post was to alert Future me of the Mushroom Blooms!   Cheryl says the Goldens look like yellow Flowers on mossy logs.   I tend to agree!   They are so pretty  and it is so fun to find them when they bloom.  Now that we can preserve them,  we have the license to harvest as much as we want!  Cheryl estimates we harvested at least $60 bucks worth of Oysters today!   So we are saving money when we forage from the wild...  And I love saving money. And I love Mushrooms!   Thanks for stopping in .