Hiking in the Whites

Last weekend we went for hike up near Gorham,  NH in the White Mountains.  The weather was quite chilly - a reported 6 degrees overnight in the hut, and an early taste of winter.  It was amazing to see the gradations of seasons as we drove further north, from peak foliage in Massachusetts to snow-on-the-ground in New Hampshire.

A bear sharpened his claws on this tree.

The view from the ridge near Mt. Moriah.

Foraging

With the recent rains I've been finding a lot of mushrooms lately... my new passion. The ones above are Hens of the Woods and puffballs. The bright orange ones below are Chicken of the Woods, otherwise known as Sulfur Shelves. I sauteed each in butter, froze some and made some quiches. They're so delicious on their own but I imagine they'd be tasty in a pasta or rice concoction. I did dry the majority of them because its easier to just rehydrate and toss them in soups - and we've run out of freezer space.

Onion Drying

We dried our onion harvest on top of window screens propped up with two sawhorses. They spent about two weeks outside under a sheet. It rained lightly a couple of times but the sheet wicked the moisture away and they dried quickly. The idea with giving them the air circulation is to dry out the roots and tops to prevent rot while they're in storage over the winter. We harvested about 45 pounds of onions for the year, but I think with all the sauces, salsas and chutneys we'll use considerably more than that this year. The onions pictured here are Copra - good for storage. We also had a few varieties of sweet onions for salads and eating. Next year I'll plant some red onions and more storage ones. We interplanted with lettuce, carrots and beets - but the ones interplanted with lettuce didn't fare as well (very small). The idea is to get the tops really established and green before day length starts to decrease so that the plant has energy to put into the bulb. Onions also like plenty of water and fertilizer, and do well in fairly sandy soil, all conditions we're capable of creating... and we love onions.