The Elegant Stinkhorn

While gathering tomatoes from the garden I found these little gems hiding out in the mulch at the edge of the garden.  These are called stinkhorn fungus with the longer version of the name being the elegant stinkhorn.  This fungus' fruit start off looking like an egg that burst open to reveal the narrow red fruit.  The Latin name of Phallus impudicus simply means that it looks like a penis, which it does.  While this is not the smelliest of the stinkhorn fungus family, it is not hard to catch the odor of decomposing flash or even feces when walking past it.  This is the way the spores are moved from one place to another.  Flies, attracted to the rotting smell come down onto the fungus and are covered with the spores, then the flies fly away and often go to the next place of rotting scents.  This is the perfect place for the fungus to start growing again.  One great use for the stinkhorn fungus is to put in into your compost bin or pile because it can speed up the break down of organic material into compost. 

In China the fungus is sliced thin, dried and sold for eating.  I, myself, would not have the fruit drying in my house, nor touching anything I own, just because of the odor it gives off.  Still you can find stinkhorn being sold in Chinese apothecary shops for medicine as well as for eating.

What I will be using it for is a medicinal.  This fungus is actually an amazing find.  It is known for its antibiotic properties both topically (on the skin) and internally.  Its juices can be spread on cuts and burns to help ward off infections as well as kill off any bacteria that my already be in the wound.  Internally it has been used to start the healing process of ulcers, killing off the bacteria that cause them.  When using stinkhorn it is best to use a good probiotic because it is  indiscriminate on which bacteria it kills.

Despite it being a fungus itself, it is actually a pretty good fungicide, helping to heal things such as athlete's foot or ring worm.

And recent Latvian experiments show that the juice may have the ability to help fight cancer.  They injected the juice of the stinkhorn under the skin and found that in as little as 15 days cancer tumors had shrunk significantly, as much as 54% compared with a control group.  So this little stinky 'shroom shows great promise in healing.  Perhaps scientists should listen to folk healers more often.

Because the fruit of the fungus grow, matures, and dies in a matter of hours (usually right after a rain), I am going to preserve mine in a tincture.  I simply poor a strong (190 proof) grain alcohol over the fruit.  The fruit dissolves very quickly into the tincture and that cloudy fluid will go into my medicine cabinet next to my many other tinctures waiting for injuries or illnesses that may occur. 

This is a great find out in the garden.  It is breaking down my mulch, making it into next year's compost and its fruit is going into my medicine cabinet for any eventuality that may come.  It's nice to know that my garden does more than just feed me, it feeds this wonderful little gift from nature.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

The tomatoes are starting to come in fast and furious from the garden.  We are in full swing of the chaos energy of the harvest. 

For those who do not harvest their own food, late summer, as the days become shorter, humans begin to prepare for winter, much like all other animals do.  This is a non-thinking process, it is instinctual to begin to get ready for the coming dirth, or time of the year when food is scarce.  If you do not harvest your own food, you feel the need to get ready just the same.  It is quickening of the blood, as the days get shorter, the need gets stronger.  This is the time of preparing, this is the time of change, this is the time of chaos.  For most witches, they ride this wave of energy like a surfer rides a wave.  For us that harvest our own food and medicine, we turn that energy into survival needs. 

Plants are preparing for the coming dead time too.  The tomatoes, knowing that they will not live through the cold winter, are making babies, seeds buried deep in their fruit.  Many of these seeds we will save, allowing the fruits to almost rot on the vine before we wash the seeds free from the resulting pulp and dry them for next years plants.  Many of them will join the food in the cellar to carry us through the winter, getting canned and dehydrated for a taste of summer in the dreary dark days of winter.

Today I'm making roasted tomato sauce which is very easy but time consuming.  First thing I do is wash all the tomatoes, taking off the stem area and any bad spots.  These will be fed to the chickens.  The rest go into roasting pans.  On top of this I cut up onions, garlic, peppers and herbs from the garden.  I drizzle this with olive oil and put it in the oven to roast.  The temperature of the oven depends on what projects you are doing while the veggies are roasting.  If you're just puttering around the house, put them in at 400 degrees F.  If you've got a bigger project, put them in at 350.  This way they will take longer and you'll have plenty of time.  Then let them roast.  They can take as little as two hours or as much as five.



Then mash up the veggies.  If you have a wand mixer, this works really well, if not, pound them with a wooden mallet or potato masher.  Careful now, this stuff is hot.  Mash and mix, mash and mix, until all your veggies are blended into a sauce.  Then it's back into the oven to thicken.  How thick you want it is up to you.  If you like your sauce to really cling to your pasta, roast it for a couple more hours.  If you like it thinner to soak into your bread, you may be read to can it now.

Once your sauce gets to the thickness you like, it's time to flavor it.  Salt and pepper to your taste.  Then it is time to make it safe.  Modern day tomatoes, even many of the "heirloom" or open pollinating varieties don't have much for acid.  Acid is what helps keep the sauce from allowing dangerous bacteria and spores to grow in it.  If you are not going to add any additional acid to your sauce, you're going to need to pressure can it.  Ten pounds of pressure for 20 minutes should do it, but consult the manual for your pressure canner.

For me I find it easier to just add an acid. One tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice (they both have about the same amount of acid) per quart of sauce and a couple extra to grow on in what I do.  Yes, I know it's not scientific but that's how I've done it.  If you are concerned called you county extension office to see what they recommend.  Then you can can it in a water bath canner like the one below.

Here seven pint jars are being boiled for about 20 minutes.  Of course you will do it with the cover on, I was just showing the cans as the water heated up.

Each of the roasting pans makes just a bit over 2 gallons of sauce and I made 6 roasting pans of sauce today.  Here are the jars from the first pan, just waiting to be labeled and stored on the cellar shelves for the cold winter days when the sour dough bread is baking in the oven next to the roasting squash.  A pot of homemade noodles are boiling quickly on the stove, waiting for their drenching of this taste of summer. 

There is a power in being in control of your own food supply.  No worries if the stores don't carry what you want or if a blizzard keeps you from getting out.  You are in charge of what you put into your sacred body.  All you need to find that power is to tap into a bit of that chaos energy that is swirling around you right now.  Put it into you cans and in the dark times if mid-winter, when sadness can creep us on us all, you can open that can and feel a small part of the energy that will once again swirl around us at the harvest times.   

A Witch in the Wilds

I have tried doing the Internet communication many times in the past.  I've tried blogging, I've tried Facebook, I've tried YouTube.  My problem is that life often gets really busy and suddenly I find I haven't posted for weeks if not months.  Then I feel guilty and I just abandon that channel and start a new one.  So this time I've decided that I'll simply start this by saying that I will not put pressure on myself.  When I post, I post, when life gets busy and I can't get back, then that's okay too.

Who I am is a seventh generation farmer living on a farm that sets on the edge of the wild places along the Wisconsin River.  I was raised in a family that still practices many of the traditions it brought with it from the old country, plus built on from their neighbors in the 150+ years that they have lived in this valley.  To many modern people we often seem quaint or maybe even a bit backwards, but as we have watched modern people build an unsustainable world, we realize we are okay with being a bit quaint and backwards.  LOL

As I am just as comfortable gliding through the back waters of the Wisconsin or even the Mighty Mississippi in my canoe or growing my food from the earth in an agricultural setting.  I straddle the hedge as it is often said between the domestic world of the farm and the untamed world that many fear.  My hearth can be the electric stove in my kitchen powered by the sun and the wind or it can be the rocks surrounding the campfire powered by the forest's wood itself.   Many of my foods and medicines come from both the gardens and the wilds.  I have enjoyed being a homesteader now since 1988 though being raised a farm daughter wasn't much different.

I am now retiring from being a forensic meteorologist, a job I have loved and will always hold to my heart.  I will still work cases when needed but by the end of 2013 I will be a business woman of my own making.  There are five of us that have started an outdoor education center here and I have to admit that things could not have gone better in the starting and timing of this business.  Yes, there were problems (zoning is NOT fun) but since the business opened things have just fallen into place.  In a little over a year I will be working for myself totally.  I have done other businesses; I run a direct market farming business, I am a horse trainer, I rent out artist cottages, I am on a board of our local township, but I have always had my main job that demanded my time.  I look forward to the coming change.

My spirituality comes from working with both the farm and the wilds.  This makes it hard to describe my spiritual practices.  I don't have a god or goddess, because I find all things in life to be important and to exalt one being to a higher station than any other being just seems wrong to me.  I also have a hard time with someone watching over me, keeping me safe.  I have never been a person that enjoys being safe.  It gets kinda boring to say the least.  :-)   I do believe in the spirits and the energies around me.  As my blog's name suggestions I enjoy the legends of the beings that live in the magically places, the places we humans have not tried to tame.  So instead of deities, I have spirits and instead of churches, I have nature. 

I call myself a witch to reclaim the meaning of the word.  Once the witches of the world were the men and women who practiced herbal medicines, who were mid-wives, who grew the crops, brew the brews and buried the dead.  Once we were the wise ones of the village, back when wisdom was shared and not hoarded, given away only at a price.  A witch was someone who stood in their own power, not allowing institutions or society to take it from them.   I call myself a witch because this modern day society has tried to strip so many powers away from the people who live within it's iron fisted grasp.  This is an illusion though.  People are the power and many of us are already rising up against this muting of our strengths.  We are becoming whole again, and while it takes hard work, we are not letting ANYONE be in charge of us.  We can work together but no one is better or worse than the next person.  ALL people are magical. 

So, that's about all that I'm coming up with at this moment.  I'll get onto blogging as things come up to share.  I hope everyone that reads this is not too confused and gets to know me through my blogs as I write them. And I hope to learn much from everyone else here.  Thank you