April 1
FIRST OYSTER MUSHROOM HARVEST
What an exciting evening! Tonight, 4 weeks and 5 days after taking the plunge and having a go at inoculating recycled paper with spawn, we harvested and ate our first crop of blue oyster mushrooms. It was hard to say goodbye to them after the sculptural beauty they’ve created in our home over the last few weeks. But this is clearly just the beginning. I’m hooked and particularly loving anything I can grow inside in this less than ideal growing season.
Check out how beautiful they are (we’re growing white and blue):
PLANT-BASED EATING: Mushroom and Herb Polenta
A big thank you to Paula for sending me yet another fabulous Ottolenghi recipe! I’ve adapted it to what I had in the garden and used our freshly made stock powder to make up the stock.
Mushroom and Herb Polenta
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 350 gm mushrooms
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp chopped tarragon
- 1 tbsp chopped thyme
- 500 gm vegetable stock (2 teaspoons stock powder)
- 80 gm polenta
- 80 gm grated parmesan (or nutritional yeast)
- 30 gm butter
- 1 tspn finely chopped rosemary
- 1 tbsp chopped chervil or parsely
- 100 gm Taleggio (rind removed), cut into 1cm slices (or blue castello cheese)
- salt and black pepper
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Heat up half the olive oil in a large frying pan. Once hot, add half of the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes, or until just cooked; try not to move them much so you get golden-brown patches on their surface. Remove from the pan, and repeat with the rest of the mushrooms and oil. Off the heat, return all the mushrooms to the pan and add the garlic, tarragon, thyme, and some salt and pepper. Keep warm.
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Bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan. Slowly stir in the polenta, then reduce the heat to the minimum and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. The polenta is ready when it leaves the sides of the pan but is still runny. If you are using instant polenta this shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes; with traditional polenta it could take up to 50 minutes (if it seems to dry out, add some more stock or water but just enough to keep it at a thick porridge consistency).
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Preheat the grill to high. When the polenta is ready, stir in the Parmesan, butter, rosemary and half the parsley or chervil. Season with salt and pepper. Spread the polenta over a heatproof dish and top with the Taleggio. Place under the grill until the cheese bubbles. Remove, top with the mushrooms and their juices, and return to the grill for a minute to warm up. Serve hot, garnished with the remaining chervil or parsley.
PRODUCE > CONSUME
Tonight I sowed seeds for Chinese Bok Choy … they were out-of-date but it’s a good opportunity to check their viability. Glad to get another negative RAT test label!
WHAT ACTIONS ARE OTHER PEOPLE TAKING?
Debra’s action today was to sign up to watch the movie on mining pollution in the Blue Mountains – https://miningthebluemountains.com.au/
Meredith’s action was signing up to volunteer with GetUp to help with coordinating the volunteers who hand out how to vote cards on election day.
OUR HAVE YOUR SAY PAGE IS UP FOR WORLD HEALTH DAY IF YOU’D LIKE TO POST THE ACTION OR ACTIONS YOU’LL BE DOING ON 7 APRIL … you can post a photo too!
Share your action here: https://yoursay.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/world-health-day
The theme for World Health Day this year is Our Planet, Our Health – recognising that our health is totally dependent on the health of the earth’s natural systems.
We’re trying to reach 365 actions in one day, the action of a whole year in a day, but we really really need your help. Would you consider doing and sharing one or more actions, and inviting everyone you know to join you, so that we can really show how serious we are about turning things around to create a healthier world.
Research by academics at Leeds University, engineering firm Arup and the C40 Cities climate group has identified that 73 per cent of all changes needed by 2030 to keep the world on course to meet the Paris agreement targets need to be made by governments and industry. But private citizens have considerable influence over the remaining 27 per cent. So let’s get cracking!
2 Comments
Sunflower · 02/04/2022 at 8:35 pm
Inspired by others from this initiative, I have purchased and used the Space White laundry detergent sheets. So impressed with how my very dirty work clothes have come up so well. Thanks for the suggestion!
Panetary Health Initiative · 02/04/2022 at 11:37 pm
So thrilled … we discovered them too as a result of someone sharing their action for A Year in a Day!