A happy accident in the incorrect shipment of our home-delivered mushroom kits landed us not only the mushroom plugs Nathan had originally intended, but also three additional home mushroom kits from a local company, Fungi Perfecti (a company started by Paul Stamets, the guy who proposes Six Ways Mushrooms can Save the World–check it out!)

One unsuspecting morning, we got a knock at the door from the UPS driver (who didn’t seem thrilled to have to maneuver around the wooden workbench parked in the center of our front porch with a large load bear-hugged in his arms–sorry UPS guy!).  An enormous box arrived, and we opened it to find four 1×1′ mushroom kits–Shitake, Oyster, Lions Mane, and and Saggy Mane!

After we got over our initial excitement–The Mushies Are Here!  The Mushies Are Here!–we were confused.  Nathan had ordered mushroom plug spawn to inoculate logs in our yard with (a long-term endeavor), not actual kits, which are bagged clumps of sawdust or wheat straw pre-inoculated with mycelium that can be grown in the house in just a few weeks.

After discussing the matter with the friendly people at Fungi Perfecti, we realized that we had inherited three home mushroom kits–free of charge!  They would send along our plug spawn the next day.

Meanwhile, Nathan got busy learning about how to care for the kits.  Simply: place the kit on a plate away from direct sunlight, spray the bag twice a day, and wait to see what happens.

Earlier than expected, the Shitakes sprouted, the Lion’s Mane started looking active, and the Oysters began popping through their plastic!

After only about a week, our Shitakes were ready for harvesting!

I know, they are pretty out of this world!

Nathan and I took turns harvesting the Shitakes by cutting off the stalks as close to their base as we could.  That would ensure that more mushies could grow later.  What fun!

We were left with a decent stack of fresh Shitakes!  We were so excited to taste them that Nathan got right to work creating our breakfast …

My mouth is watering as I post this picture to the blog–those Shitakes were THE TASTIEST mushrooms I have ever tried!  So fresh!  So flavorful!  It was a heavenly breakfast.

And, lucky for us, some of the Oysters were ready just a few days later!

Nathan cooked up a delightful open-faced omelet for breakfast this morning.

YUM.

Our next mushroom adventure (as this one continues) will be to prepare the logs and inoculate them with the plug spawn we received a day later.

We’re wild about mushies!

Nutritional Value of Mushrooms

Many myths have been spread about mushrooms. One of the most inaccurate is that mushrooms have no nutritional value. To properly consider them for their nutritional benefits, they must be viewed from a dried weight perspective. And mushrooms give you maximum nutritional benefit only upon cooking. Mushrooms are relatively high in protein, averaging about 20% of their dried mass. Further they contribute a wide range of essential amino acids. Low in fat (between .3 and 2%) and high in fiber, mushrooms also provide several groups of vitamins, particularly thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, ascorbic acid and Vitamin D. For more information on the nutritional properties of mushrooms, Paul Stamets, founder of Fungi Perfecti, published an extensive study of 24 major nutrients in 16 mushroom species and varieties. See: Stamets, P., 2005. “Notes on Nutritional Properties of Culinary-Medicinal Mushrooms”, International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, vol. 7: 103–110.

–Fungi Perfecti

Saturday February 25^th 11am-2pm

FREE and Everybody Welcome

Follow the balloons to the 3^rd floor for our annual Free Open House with local practitioners offering resources for health, including presentations every half hour in room 310. In store we’ll feature raffles, demos and samples of some of our favorite wellness products.
Presenters:

11am Carol Roberge: Eating For Energy
What Would Your Life Be Like If You Had An Abundance Of Energy?
Learn what foods either increase or decrease our feeling of well being and how you can start incorporating more vitality into your life!

As a Raw Food Chef and Instructor and graduate of Living Light Culinary Arts Institute, Carol is committed to helping people learn how to incorporate more vibrant plant based foods into their diet.

11:30 am Joan Barlow: Muddy waters healing clay
Joan Barlow is a Skagit Valley area esthetician and inflammatory skin specialist. Her spa retreat is called Native Springs and is located in the La Conner Wellness Center, focused on a clientele that are interested in natural products and improving the quality of the skin. Joan will talk about treating inflammatory conditions with healing calcium bentonite clay.

12 noon Doug Walsh: Consuming Superfoods for Health
Doug is a certified raw food chef, and he has done workshops to assist people in upgrading their health all across the country. He has passionately devoted himself to the study of nutrition for over 20 years, and is currently the Northwest Regional Representative for HealthForce Nutritionals. Doug holds a magna cum laude BA in Physics and a Master’s degree in Education.

12:30pm Karen Louise: Make the Change – Use the Power of Hypnosis
Karen Louise, Registered Nurse, Registered Hypnotherapist and Certified Life Coach, has a private practice located in Mount Vernon. Karen assists her clients to develop personalized Balanced Living Strategies and then to use the power of hypnosis to achieve their goals, such as smoking cessation, weight loss, stress and phobic anxiety reduction or to manage chronic pain. Karen Louise, RN, RHT awakenaware.com

1pm Sandy Vess: Foot Reflexology
Do your feet hurt? Are you stressed out? Reflexology is a natural therapy of applying pressure to the feet that stimulates specific reflex areas of the feet. Those areas are believed to correspond to different parts of the body.

Because your feet are so rich with nerve endings, the application of reflexology can bring about a deep tranquil relaxation, helping to break up blockages, increase energy flow, and encourages the body’s own natural healing power. Reflexology can also assist in conditions such as stress, headaches, constipation, back pain, sinus congestion, etc.

In class, you will learn how to work on your own feet. Or bring a friend and work on each other. Reflexology is a wonderful gift to give to a friend or loved one.
Sandy Vess is a Master Reflexologist at Vera Wellness Center in downtown Mt. Vernon.

1:30pm Simme Bobrosky: Yoga of Sound, Chanting for Health
Simme Bobrosky, OTR/L, RYT, Occupational Therapist, Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance, and Reiki Master teaches Yoga Heart Space - tranquility for mind and body through sound healing, chanting and meditation. As we awaken to ourselves we change the world, bonding with each other with chants of light, love, peace and goodwill to all. African Proverb: “If you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing.”

2 pm Jessie Tierney: Yoga for Equine Enthusiasts
Jessie will talk about how a yogic approach to working (and playing!) with your horse can enhance your riding skills, develop clear communication, and deepen your connection with your equine partner.  All animal lovers welcome!
Jessie Tierney is a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher.  An equestrian of over 18 years, she has taught yoga on and off horseback in the arena, on the trail, and in a variety of studio locations.  Jessie currently teaches at Double S Quarter Horses in Bow and Quantum Health & Yoga Lounge in Burlington.

Practitioners will set up tables for informational conversations and demonstrations throughout the 3rd floor – come say hi to some our our favorit workshop presenters and get to know their great resources:

Kathleen Flynn – Spiritual Director, soul collage: sacredceremonies.com

Dr John Jarolimek, DC - Chiropractor: mountvernonchiropractor.com

Michelle Mahler – Essential Oils: circleofhealingessentialoils.com

Karl Mincin – Nutritionist: nutrition-testing.com

Clint Ainsworth – Massage Therapy: everydayhealth.com

Jelan Nabholz – thereikistylist.com

Quantum Health Massage and Yoga: qhyogalounge.com

Kathleen Boehm: pugetsoundhypnotherapy.com

La Leche League of Skagit: lllusa.org

Skagit Natural Family Medicine: skagitdocs.net

Vera Wellness Center: Vera Wellness on Facebook

Brand new, made-in-the-USA, specially-designed-for-women, ultralight, extra long, MSR Lightning Ascent snowshoes!

Woot!

I was so excited to give them a try, and at our first opportunity, Nathan and I headed out Cascade River Road to camp in the snow one evening after my shift at the CoOp.  We drove as far as we could up the road (before it got snowed-in).  We arrived at  midnight and set up our tent in a snow bank, just out of sight from the road.  We snuggled in warmly and woke up early the next morning to go on a quick hike before I had to be at work.

I was completely pumped on my snowshoes’ performance.  I have tried a number of different styles of snowshoes in the past, including Tubbs, MSR Mens Denalis, and others.  The result was always the same: My hips and calves became sore after about forty-five minutes, and I felt like I had to walk bowlegged in order to keep from stepping on the insides of my own snowshoes.

I learned that this is actually not uncommon for women, and there are snowshoes specifically designed to fix this issue.  The women’s design is tapered and slightly less wide (accommodating for wider hips and a narrower stance).  Sweet!

And the proof was in the pudding–on our hike up Lookout Mountain, I never once stepped on myself on the trail.

Not only that, but I stuck to wherever I set my feet!  Ice, snow, packed, deep, fresh; whatever the terrain, I felt solid: totally confident and totally strong.

Now all I have to do is start training and Nathan and I will be snowshoeing up Mount Baker in no time!

Above, feeling like Superwoman in my new diggs.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for such an awesome gift!

Nathan was also excited to try out his newly-modified snowshoes.  We found some tails (extensions for snowshoes which enable you to carry a heavier pack or float over deeper snow) at a secondhand gear shop in Portland that (we thought) matched Nathan’s current snowshoes.  When we got home, however, he learned these were the tails to an earlier model and did not fit.

I just thought we could sell them back to the secondhand store, but not Nathan.  After considering the design of the misfit tails for awhile, he just pulled out his wood carving tools and shaved some of the material out of the way so that the tails would drop into place and fit snugly.  After a few minutes of work, he clipped them on and they were ready to go!

Above, you can catch a glimpse of the tail of Nate’s new snowshoes.  They too performed well on the trail, thanks to Nathan’s creative craftsmanship.  It was a sweet, short hike.

We are all geared up now … bring on the snow (and the days off work)!

On another exciting note, we were also able to collect some fallen logs to use with our mushroom plug spawn … we can’t wait!  How fortunate we are to live in this land of abundance.

Nathan in his previous woodcarving studio (the floor)

Nathan found an amazing workbench on Craigslist the other day, and we thought it would be too good to be true.  We cruised over to Mount Vernon and scoped it out.  It belonged to a man since he was a youngster, gifted to him by his father: a handcrafted, all-wood workbench from Sweden.  The man was selling many of his things to begin a life on a boat!

Next thing we new, we had a new piece of furniture–now parked outside on the front porch where Nathan loves to work!

Above, Nathan cleans the bench off.

Beautiful fishtail joints on the edges, and lovely wooden hand-crank vices in 2 locations.

Nathan gets right to work with his spoke shave on a bowl.

Here is a top view after Nathan had been at it for only a short while.

Below, Nathan uses the plane I gave him as an early Christmas gift.  One of his favorite activity is making “shaves” for our garden and compost.

To celebrate, we had a fire in the backyard.  We got some cool shots from the fire.

We burned next to our compost pile so we could add the ashes to it when we were finished.

Nathan manned the fire and I enjoyed throwing wood shavings in one by one …

It was a beautiful night near the warm fire under the stars.

Here, Nathan uses his new sharpening stones to sharpen his carving tools:

 Here is a view of Nathan doing his usual morningtime and nighttime activities.  I took this shot just moments after our morning run.

Here is the latest view of our front porch, which I tease Nathan is beginning to look like it’s out of backwoods West Virginia.  He spends lots of time on the porch in rain or shine working on his woodcarving projects, now in a healthier position for his spine!  I spent some time planting flowers along the front walkway and we lined the flower beds with rocks we’d collected on a hike.  Nathan’s wood shaves come in handy for landscaping!

]]> http://jessietierney.com/blog/new-workbench-and-celebration/feed/ 0 http://jessietierney.com/blog/new-yoga-props/ http://jessietierney.com/blog/new-yoga-props/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:20:27 +0000 Jessie http://jessietierney.com/?p=3263 For my Christmas (we had a late celebration), Nathan gave me the most thoughtful gift I could imagine … a set of yoga blocks, a bolster, and a backbend prop made out of handcarved cedar!

These special yoga props far outshine my foam blocks.  One of my yoga teachers speaks about “prop energetics,” and how doing some of the postures with wood blocks helps create more stability in the pose.  I am so excited to explore yoga from this new perspective!

We didn’t see any Eagles up close (we did glimpse a few from afar), but it was still a lovely, snowy and sunny day.  We glimpsed an elegant Grey Heron on the edge of the water on our first stop at the Skagit River.  It had just snowed the week before and there was still remnants of that snow to be played in!  We continued to Marblemount to where the Cascade River joins with the Skagit and climbed around on some snowy logs.  It was a beautiful day.

Here is a photo story from the afternoon.

Trees in Love

How fortunate Nathan and I are to live in this land of abundance!  Thanks to non-native Himalayan Blackberry bushes growing along nearly every road and trail in Nortwestern Washington, just a few berry-picking excursions afforded sufficient fodder for an awesome jam-making sesh with great friends.

Taya and Emily (Forest Service crew members with Nathan, and our good friends!) joined us on our Jam Sesh, contributing their knowledge and experience in Jam-Making.  Both were seasoned Jammers.  Emily brought over her canner, and Nathan and I quickly realized that we were lacking in just a few essential Jam-Making tools: namely, a large bowl and a large spoon.  Nathan scurried across the street to the Farm CoOp and purchased his own canner (which, in this case, could double as a large pot in which to cook the berries and sugar), and I dug through the unfinished wood projects to find a deformed spoon–my first (failed) attempt at woodcarving.  That would do just fine!

Ingredients needed: 6 cups sugar, 20 cups berries, 1 package pectin.  It’s as simple as that!  Jam-making is one of the easier preserving arts, I quickly learned.  Still, it took coordination, timing, and teamwork.  Luckily we had Taya and Emily there to help us step by step.

Above, Taya bubble-bubble-toil-and-troubles, inhaling the delicious smell of cooking berries mixed with tons of sugar.  Below, I excitedly admire the vibrant colors of the berries as they glop off my spoon (which, three months later, is still stained purple–pretty!).

Taya took over the stirring (we worked in shifts).  Meanwhile, Emily prepared the jars by sanitizing them in hot water and warming them so the glass would not crack once we put the hot jam in.  What a well oiled machine!

A pretty line of glasses dry below, waiting to be filled with steaming sugary wild blackberry elixir!

Once we filled each glass with the jam, we carefully wiped the outsides of the jars and placed the caps on top.  At about ten minutes, we began to hear POP!   POP-POP!  As the tops vacuum-sealed shut.  POP!

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In just about a week, the jams would be ready to go out to our families as gifts for Christmas.  Jam-making was a fun and surprisingly easy experience.  And, that night, our work was rewarded by Nathan’s homemade pizzas.  What could be a better end to a day of friends and a Berry Jam Sesh?!?

We climbed up into the branches and absorbed the serenity in its boughs.  While soaking in the unseasonable warmth and sunshine reflecting off the lake, Katrina recited this poem:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

-Joyce Kilmer

It was the perfect start to a beautiful visit.