New News is Good News

One - Illustrated Wild Foods Calendar Giveaway!!
A lovely local blog called Are You My Ghost? is having a calendar giveaway and all you have to do is post a comment and you may be picked! So awesome, so easy. Thanks Renai! Ends Tuesday afternoon, December 22nd.

Two - Its gift time, and it's almost 2010. It is time to move these babies! - The Illustrated Wild Foods Recipe Calendar is on SALE. At the farmer's markets or online on the Nettletown Etsy Shop - 2 calendars for $20! Now you don't have to wonder if you should get one for yourself when it buying as a gift for someone else! Just do it, someone once said.

Three - Emily Counts and I have put our friend powers together and formed an alliance of lovers of time, art, and food. Please join our The Illustrated Wild Foods Recipe Calendar Fan Club on Facebook!!! TIWFRCFC for short. I am kinda tired of typing out the name of the calendar, what were we thinking!?!

And a final blurb that really isn't news - A special thank you to all of you who have supported my calendar venture and this lil' blog called Nettletown. In this new year arriving soon, we hope to get better and bigger and to grow under the the warm wing of your continued interest and support!!!

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 12/12

It has been a week full of glorious clear days, intense winter sunsets, and .... icicle temperatures. Unfortunately these crispy frozen days are not the best for mushroom season. Frozen mushrooms are not to fun to pick. Once it thaws though we should see some new growth.

We do have chanterelles this weekend and will be starting a special on the the Wild Foods Calendar. It is also a good time of year to stock up on dried mushrooms. They are nice to have around for impromptu soup and stew nights warming up by the fire. Keep your eyes peeled for a tasty dry mushroom soup recipe coming soon on Nettletown.

This weekend at the market
Chanterelles
Recipe Calendar Special - 2 for $20
Frozen White Truffles

I just started a fan club for the calendar on Facebook - please join us!
The Illustrated Wild Foods Recipe Calendar Fan Club

Also check out these two recent articles by local food writer Rebekah Denn.
This is someones writing you should follow if you haven't already found her. In my opinion she is one of the best local food writers with more focus on regional local food producers and politics, and less on the restaurant fluff. She wrote an award-winning article a number of years ago about Foraged and Found and Jeremy that really blew me away. "Out of the Woods - Forager Faber is a Master in the Wild" from the ol' PI. It drew a accurate picture of the business from field to restaurant and she truly captured Jeremy's nutty personality.
Rebekah has a great blog -eatallaboutit.com

One short and sweet and one long and thorough -
"Washington Businesses Break Ties to Industrial Food Chain"
Seattle Times
Very interesting article about local food producers and their challenge to source high quality food and to know where it is coming from. A few of them were hit by the massive countrywide peanut recall and had to rework their systems of procurement and production. Caveman Bars, CB Nuts and Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream are featured.

On the lighter side....
"Is there a better word for "foodie"?"
The Christian Science Monitor Blog
I have always struggled with this word myself. It is such a stupid word but it happens to perfectly encompass exactly what many of us are.

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 12/4

a small amount of matsutake available today!

Truffle time! Jeremy is digging the first black truffles of the year out on the Olympic peninsula today. It is time for moist truffle-y scrambled eggs and creamy cauliflower soup with shaved truffles lightly floating the top. Technically the prized local black truffle is called an Oregon black truffle but patriotic tendencies toward our home state trumps the rival state name. We call it by where the geographically correct hole in the ground is - Washington. Dug in Washington or Oregon it is still a Leucangia carthusiana- a prized underground fungi with complex musty aromas and a hint of sweet pineapple. These little earthy lumps are love/indifferent affair - you either understand the lump and it hits you right in the gut with an aromatherapy-taste bud tango or you shrug your shoulders and wonder if you didn't get the memo.

This weekend at the markets -

Chanterelles
"Dug in Washington" Oregon Black Truffles
Cranberries
Come early for these at U. District Market-
Hedgehogs
Matsutake