Local Mushrooms

Here's a great find at the Farmer's Market yesterday: exotic mushrooms cultivated in New Hampshire. The NH Mushroom Company churns out a few hundred pounds each week from their facility in Tamworth, NH. They sell to restaurants and wholesalers, and this past week made an appearance at the Concord Farmer's Market. Chestnut (the brownish ones - like shiitakes, but with a less-chewy stem) and Oyster. Not terribly expensive either at $12-14/lb. A half pound of the chestnut mushrooms, combined with asparagus and tofu, will offer up one of our favorite springtime dishes.

WMUR profiled the company over the winter. Video here, including great video of how they do their growing (bags and bags of woodchips and sawdust!).

Spring is Here!

In great contrast to my last post (oh so many weeks ago, I know), there are some signs of Spring around Concord. Despite the fact that it has been pretty cold this past week - the first week of April - we are well on our way:

1. Maple Syrup season is just about wrapped up. After reading Maple Syrup Season by Ann Purmell about twenty times in February and March, we went out to see sugaring in action a few weeks back during NH's official maple syrup weekend. The season was already pretty far long, because we sampled some hot Grade B fresh from the evaporator. In other news


2. I sent off an order form for seedlings for our vegetable garden. Sure, we won't pick them up until Memorial Day weekend, but it is a comfort, looking over the strawa-covered raised beds on a grey morning - to know that our tomato, pepper, tomatillo, and brocolli plants are at that moment growing in a greenhouse a two towns away.


3. The raised beds may be looking a bit forlorn and have nothing but old straw to show at the moment, but there are twinges of green to be seen as well: garlic popping up


4. Although it's been chilly when we do it, Hilary and I have been able to do some outdoor bike rides in the last few weeks. We even did a 30-miler last weekend coming back from an Easter get together in Amherst.


5. Easter! We aren't particularly observant, but Easter is always a fun holiday for us. At the said family get-together, Brynna's easter egg hunt was a real crowd pleaser. Picture one adorable and giggling 4-year old chasing through a yard with 9 adults trailing behind with cameras. Or, better yet, observe:

source: Bill R.


6. The end of snow. Enjoy it while it lasts, Jasper!
source: Bill R.


7. March Madness. Go UConn Huskies! What do you mean "men play basketball, too"?


8. Changing wardrobes. We have bins of hand-me-down girl clothes from our former neighbors. Just today Brynna and Hilary did a grand changing of the wardrobe: culling the extra warm and increasingly small clothes and replacing them with sundresses and shirtsleeves for the coming summer.


9. Ice cream. Sure, it was hovering around freezing when we got it, but the neighborhood ice cream shop opened for the season on April 1st - and we made a point to be there! Not that we sat around outside to eat it through.