Growing Mushrooms

Do you like to eat mushrooms? I like mushrooms. They are great in spaghetti, on pizza, in salads and even sauteed and eaten as a meat substitute on a sandwich. You can find mushrooms in a lot of Mexican and Chinese dishes.

I think I am the only one on my side of the family that will eat mushrooms. My brother says they are fungi and he ain't eating nothing like that. 

Nature proved his “fungi” remark correct because I am apparently growing eatable mushrooms in my front yard. As I was finishing up my walk the other day, I noticed my butterfly tree had this funny looking stuff growing up the stalk. 

It looked soft like rose petals and shaped like ears. I hope my neighbors don't think I’m some mad scientist growing ears in my front yard. 

I was curious so I had to snap a photo and do a Google photo search. It came back as a “Wood ear Mushroom”. Also known as a Jew’s ear or Jelly ear. Wood Ears can be found in just about all Chinese cuisine and eaten regularly in China. They do not loo appealing but have a great taste. 

I think I remember seeing something like this in my hot and spicy soup before.

I had to snap a few photos but left it alone. I have no intentions of cutting it off the wood to make any meals with it. I will leave that up to Ku fung chu.

Vintage Bocce Balls

I have this old Vintage set of Bocce balls. They are made out of hard wood and are dented, chipped and have taken a beating. They were brought over from Italy by my husbands Grandfather back in the early 1900’s. We are thinking around the 1920’s. So these balls are almost 100 years old. This Bocce Ball set is the one thing I really wanted after my father in law passed away. There was just something about the old wooden look of these balls that made me want to take them out of hiding and display them. I also wanted to keep them in the family.

 

They looked great in their old withered shape but I wanted to condition them so they will last for many more years. I used coconut oil. I put a thin coating of coconut oil and gently gave them a rubdown, then I took a cloth and wiped them clean. This brought the dark leathery look back. The best thing about using coconut oil is that it does not leave them greasy or oily.

I‘m not real sure if I like them better with the oil applied or not. It sort of took away from the distressed character. If I decide to keep them in the best condition, I will need to apply the oil at least once a year. The wood will eventually dry back out. 

Before and after

Bocce Ball is a yard game. One person will throw the small ball called a Pallino (target ball) then each team takes turns throwing a large ball. The goal is to get as close to the small ball as possible even if it means knocking someones else's ball out of the way. Points are gained. You can have a team of two to four. 

We have a newer Bocce set that we keep in our camper. We like to play Bocce Ball on the beach. It attracts new friends as teams are made. They are also wooden and the same weight and size as the vintage set, but the new sets come in vibrant colors. A beach trip is the first time I ever learned about this game as I saw many people playing it on the sand.

I found a wire basket to display this old vintage set. They sit on my hearth with a story behind them. I would have loved to play with this set along side of my late grandfather in law.