Photo of edible Honey Mushrooms, by Seabeck on Tumblr.
Mushroom linkie at the bottom of page.
Western Columbine. Same Photographer.
Ramona had been thinking lately of
the old time Firekeepers that she had known, and her own mother and grandmother,
and the things they had done to get by when the hunting was poor, or they had
no Hunter to provide for them.
She was thinking that it might be time to start teaching Cherry some of the old ways. She was very aware that at some time in the future Cherry would become a Firekeeper herself, and Ramona wanted her to be up on survival skills. She was thinking about recipes, and such. Cooking is always a good place to start with a blossoming young thing in need of those survival skills.
The recipe she had in mind to start with was called Slow Meat, affectionately, by the old girls she had known when she herself was a young thing. It was slow in two ways. It didn’t move fast in life but also took a long time to prepare.
She knew that the beast was unloved by the Hairless, but she had an experiment in mind, in addition to teaching Cherry to cook this dish, which Forest People actually relish.
Ingredient List:
1 Yellow Land Crawler per person
1 head of garlic per 4 crawlers. (This is a modern development.)
Lots of salt
A good lump of Thaga’s homemade butter, maybe half a pound!
A lot of wild hazelnuts
Pepper if you can find it.
Some kind of sour juice, perhaps wild cherry juice.
A good bunch of edible mushrooms too. A Twigg basket full.
Of course, the first step was a
hunting expedition. Ramona had a nice burlap bag that she had gotten from
Thaga, the same person she got all the garlic and salt from. Ramona told Cherry
that in the old days they used salt water for part of the process, but it was
hard to get unless you lived near salt water.
“The first thing we have to do, Cherry, is catch some crawlers. They don’t move fast, but they are hard to find. You really have to look over a lot of forest floor,” Ramona said.
“Do they bite?” said Cherry.
“Oh, no. But they’re sticky!” said Ramona. “I’m sure you’ve seen them before, but you didn’t know they were any good for anything but being cute.”
Now, Yellow Land Crawlers don’t like direct sunlight. So Ramona and Cherry went walking along the paths of the Great Forest where it was cool and damp but there was grass and other plants for the crawlers to crawl on and eat.
“Mama, do they ever swim? Are they in the river?” said Cherry.
“No, Baby. They never swim. They live on land eating plants,” answered Ramona.
Ramona told Cherry the truth when she said they were hard to find. It took real hunting. But after Cherry’s eyes learned where they might be lurking she began to locate them here and there, always half obscured by some bit of foliage or on the underside of a fallen branch.
When the hunt was over they had 9 Yellow Land Crawlers. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but they are pretty big. They were about 8 inches long, bright yellow, and some had brown spots like a banana! Cherry had carefully picked them up by their backs, so she didn’t get sticky, and put them in the burlap bag. That was the first part of the recipe.
Next, Ramona made a bucket of very strong brine. She pulled the crawlers out of the bag one by one and dumped them in the salt water to make them kind of purge themselves and to kill them. It also cleaned the slime off of them. Fortunately crawlers don’t really know they are alive anyhow, being just Slow Meat, as they are.
She saw that the burlap bag would need a good scrubbing in the river and so would her bucket.
After the crawlers were dead and clean on the outside, Ramona had to clean the insides of them. This was no big deal. She slit the bottom side and pulled out the now mostly empty gut and whatever else didn’t look edible. There isn’t much inside one of those guys.
Next she made a marinade. It was peeled and crushed garlic, more salt, crushed wild cherries. (I remember wild cherries from childhood. Very sour!)
When she had good bowl of this mash she cut each crawler into three sections and put them into the marinade. Then she called Twigg. He was busy with something to do with bees, but he came anyhow.
“Twigg, Honey, Bernice and the B’s can live without you for a while. I need you to go out into the meadow and find me some of those mushrooms I showed you. Take one of those little baskets you make and get some would you?” said Ramona.
Next, she whistled up Maeve, who wasn’t very far away anyhow. She had just been discussing airborne physics with Ralph up by the river where he was sweet talking some big brown speckled trout.
“Maeve, Sweetie, will you go tell Thaga and Ooog that I’d like them to come sample an old Firekeeper recipe tonight? I mean invite them for dinner, OK?” said Ramona.
“On it,” sang Maeve and she blasted off for the stone cottage where Thaga and Ooog lived and gardened, to carry the message.
Next, Ramona pounded about a pound of wild hazelnuts to crumbs and set them aside.
Ralph came back with about a dozen trout just when she was done with the nuts. So she took the time to clean the fish right then, so they were ready for her big flat pan. She was pretty sure she could get the whole thing onto one pan.
She salted and peppered the inside of the trout where they waited on the big flat pan.
She stood there, hands on hips for a few minutes, thinking about timing. OK, then.
When she figured they had marinated enough, Ramona removed the chunks of crawler and let them dry a little. Then she rolled them in the nut crumbs until they had a nice coating on them. She laid them on the big flat pan with the trouts.
In a few minutes Twigg showed up with a couple of pounds of mushrooms. Ramona inspected them to make sure they were the right kind. She threw two away. She brushed them clean. You don’t put mushrooms in water! She tossed them on the pan among the crawler bits.
She sent Twigg down to the river with the bucket and burlap bag to clean them for their next use. Then she built up her fire, for some coals a bit later, and made a pot of coffee.
She and Ralph and Maeve, who had returned, took a little coffee break.
Ralph put the grid over the fire. Everything was ready.
Ramona scattered lumps of butter all over the flat pan, then she laid it on the grid. None of this took long to cook. She had to toss things around a little in the hot butter and flip the fish once.
Things were hopping, so Bob and Berry just looked on, out of the way.
While it was still on the fire sizzling, Thaga and Ooog came walking into the Home Clearing. Thaga had a new pink floral print dress on and some little homemade moccasins on her feet. Ooog wore a blue shirt and his green leather britches. His hair was in its usual long braid and tucked into the back of his belt to keep it out of the way.
Cherry ran to them, with Blue in tow, saying, “Hi! Hi, Thaga, Ooog! This is Blue, my wolf!”
“Hello, Blue!,” said Thaga! “Are you a very good wolf?” Blue grinned a wolfie grin, as she knew that she was a very good wolf.
Everybody hugged and greeted everybody else. There was a lot of noisy conversation, because it had been a while since they had all seen each other.
“Everything is done, so let’s eat it,” said Ramona.
Everyone found a place to sit. People on the logs. Cats and wolf crouched within the circle, and Maeve also sat on a log seat.
Ramona has a stack of wooden bowls made by Ooog in his shop. They are low and broad, a very useful shape.
“Every time we use these bowls, Ooog, I thank you,” said Ramona as she put a fish in each bowl along with a few mushrooms and three or four chunks of nut crusted Slow Meat. She didn’t really explain while she was dishing up. She just smiled and kept dishing up.
They ate with their hands and paws and beak. Each of the animals received a bowl too, and of course Maeve did, though she had a little trouble keeping it balanced on the log. Maeve doesn’t like to eat on the ground.
Once everyone was full, and the conversation slowed down, Ramona turned to Thaga and said, “What do you think about the old Firekeeper recipe?”
“Well,” said Thaga, “I know you must mean those nut crusted bits. They were tangy, garlicky, a little bit clammy in flavor. I liked them. Maybe I should give you some black pepper. It would have been good on them too. But, yes, I quite enjoyed the old recipe. What was it, in life?”
“Well, you know those big long yellow things that like to creep into Ooog’s garden and eat his seedlings. Yep. Them. Slow Meat, we call them, because they are easy to catch and slow to prepare!”
Thaga sat with her hands in her lap, quietly for a few moments. She sighed. Then she spoke.
“Ramona! It’s a good thing I love you!” She shook her head, then started laughing.
“But you pulled it off! You made a big old yellow slug edible! My hat’s off to you, Ramona!”
They had more coffee. The kids and the animals went to bed. Maeve flew off to her rocky cliff house. They talked until the moon came up, and the breeze said it was time for Thaga and Ooog to toddle off home, and Ralph and his Ramona to hit the sack!
She was thinking that it might be time to start teaching Cherry some of the old ways. She was very aware that at some time in the future Cherry would become a Firekeeper herself, and Ramona wanted her to be up on survival skills. She was thinking about recipes, and such. Cooking is always a good place to start with a blossoming young thing in need of those survival skills.
The recipe she had in mind to start with was called Slow Meat, affectionately, by the old girls she had known when she herself was a young thing. It was slow in two ways. It didn’t move fast in life but also took a long time to prepare.
She knew that the beast was unloved by the Hairless, but she had an experiment in mind, in addition to teaching Cherry to cook this dish, which Forest People actually relish.
Ingredient List:
1 Yellow Land Crawler per person
1 head of garlic per 4 crawlers. (This is a modern development.)
Lots of salt
A good lump of Thaga’s homemade butter, maybe half a pound!
A lot of wild hazelnuts
Pepper if you can find it.
Some kind of sour juice, perhaps wild cherry juice.
A good bunch of edible mushrooms too. A Twigg basket full.
“The first thing we have to do, Cherry, is catch some crawlers. They don’t move fast, but they are hard to find. You really have to look over a lot of forest floor,” Ramona said.
“Do they bite?” said Cherry.
“Oh, no. But they’re sticky!” said Ramona. “I’m sure you’ve seen them before, but you didn’t know they were any good for anything but being cute.”
Now, Yellow Land Crawlers don’t like direct sunlight. So Ramona and Cherry went walking along the paths of the Great Forest where it was cool and damp but there was grass and other plants for the crawlers to crawl on and eat.
“Mama, do they ever swim? Are they in the river?” said Cherry.
“No, Baby. They never swim. They live on land eating plants,” answered Ramona.
Ramona told Cherry the truth when she said they were hard to find. It took real hunting. But after Cherry’s eyes learned where they might be lurking she began to locate them here and there, always half obscured by some bit of foliage or on the underside of a fallen branch.
When the hunt was over they had 9 Yellow Land Crawlers. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but they are pretty big. They were about 8 inches long, bright yellow, and some had brown spots like a banana! Cherry had carefully picked them up by their backs, so she didn’t get sticky, and put them in the burlap bag. That was the first part of the recipe.
Next, Ramona made a bucket of very strong brine. She pulled the crawlers out of the bag one by one and dumped them in the salt water to make them kind of purge themselves and to kill them. It also cleaned the slime off of them. Fortunately crawlers don’t really know they are alive anyhow, being just Slow Meat, as they are.
She saw that the burlap bag would need a good scrubbing in the river and so would her bucket.
After the crawlers were dead and clean on the outside, Ramona had to clean the insides of them. This was no big deal. She slit the bottom side and pulled out the now mostly empty gut and whatever else didn’t look edible. There isn’t much inside one of those guys.
Next she made a marinade. It was peeled and crushed garlic, more salt, crushed wild cherries. (I remember wild cherries from childhood. Very sour!)
When she had good bowl of this mash she cut each crawler into three sections and put them into the marinade. Then she called Twigg. He was busy with something to do with bees, but he came anyhow.
“Twigg, Honey, Bernice and the B’s can live without you for a while. I need you to go out into the meadow and find me some of those mushrooms I showed you. Take one of those little baskets you make and get some would you?” said Ramona.
Next, she whistled up Maeve, who wasn’t very far away anyhow. She had just been discussing airborne physics with Ralph up by the river where he was sweet talking some big brown speckled trout.
“Maeve, Sweetie, will you go tell Thaga and Ooog that I’d like them to come sample an old Firekeeper recipe tonight? I mean invite them for dinner, OK?” said Ramona.
“On it,” sang Maeve and she blasted off for the stone cottage where Thaga and Ooog lived and gardened, to carry the message.
Next, Ramona pounded about a pound of wild hazelnuts to crumbs and set them aside.
Ralph came back with about a dozen trout just when she was done with the nuts. So she took the time to clean the fish right then, so they were ready for her big flat pan. She was pretty sure she could get the whole thing onto one pan.
She salted and peppered the inside of the trout where they waited on the big flat pan.
She stood there, hands on hips for a few minutes, thinking about timing. OK, then.
When she figured they had marinated enough, Ramona removed the chunks of crawler and let them dry a little. Then she rolled them in the nut crumbs until they had a nice coating on them. She laid them on the big flat pan with the trouts.
In a few minutes Twigg showed up with a couple of pounds of mushrooms. Ramona inspected them to make sure they were the right kind. She threw two away. She brushed them clean. You don’t put mushrooms in water! She tossed them on the pan among the crawler bits.
She sent Twigg down to the river with the bucket and burlap bag to clean them for their next use. Then she built up her fire, for some coals a bit later, and made a pot of coffee.
She and Ralph and Maeve, who had returned, took a little coffee break.
Ralph put the grid over the fire. Everything was ready.
Ramona scattered lumps of butter all over the flat pan, then she laid it on the grid. None of this took long to cook. She had to toss things around a little in the hot butter and flip the fish once.
Things were hopping, so Bob and Berry just looked on, out of the way.
While it was still on the fire sizzling, Thaga and Ooog came walking into the Home Clearing. Thaga had a new pink floral print dress on and some little homemade moccasins on her feet. Ooog wore a blue shirt and his green leather britches. His hair was in its usual long braid and tucked into the back of his belt to keep it out of the way.
Cherry ran to them, with Blue in tow, saying, “Hi! Hi, Thaga, Ooog! This is Blue, my wolf!”
“Hello, Blue!,” said Thaga! “Are you a very good wolf?” Blue grinned a wolfie grin, as she knew that she was a very good wolf.
Everybody hugged and greeted everybody else. There was a lot of noisy conversation, because it had been a while since they had all seen each other.
“Everything is done, so let’s eat it,” said Ramona.
Everyone found a place to sit. People on the logs. Cats and wolf crouched within the circle, and Maeve also sat on a log seat.
Ramona has a stack of wooden bowls made by Ooog in his shop. They are low and broad, a very useful shape.
“Every time we use these bowls, Ooog, I thank you,” said Ramona as she put a fish in each bowl along with a few mushrooms and three or four chunks of nut crusted Slow Meat. She didn’t really explain while she was dishing up. She just smiled and kept dishing up.
They ate with their hands and paws and beak. Each of the animals received a bowl too, and of course Maeve did, though she had a little trouble keeping it balanced on the log. Maeve doesn’t like to eat on the ground.
Once everyone was full, and the conversation slowed down, Ramona turned to Thaga and said, “What do you think about the old Firekeeper recipe?”
“Well,” said Thaga, “I know you must mean those nut crusted bits. They were tangy, garlicky, a little bit clammy in flavor. I liked them. Maybe I should give you some black pepper. It would have been good on them too. But, yes, I quite enjoyed the old recipe. What was it, in life?”
“Well, you know those big long yellow things that like to creep into Ooog’s garden and eat his seedlings. Yep. Them. Slow Meat, we call them, because they are easy to catch and slow to prepare!”
Thaga sat with her hands in her lap, quietly for a few moments. She sighed. Then she spoke.
“Ramona! It’s a good thing I love you!” She shook her head, then started laughing.
“But you pulled it off! You made a big old yellow slug edible! My hat’s off to you, Ramona!”
They had more coffee. The kids and the animals went to bed. Maeve flew off to her rocky cliff house. They talked until the moon came up, and the breeze said it was time for Thaga and Ooog to toddle off home, and Ralph and his Ramona to hit the sack!
🍄
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