Drought Story 'Round Here

Blessed rain comes, and soon the earth is dried and cracked all over again. Trees look very unhappy. I look at them and wonder whether my old friends will be back again next year. Even the hardiest of hardy, my walnut tree, looks as if it's going to die any time, now. The shoreline of Sandusky Bay is shrinking. Plants in the garden are slow to produce. Fruit is half the size it was last year around this time.

The weather here has simply not been very nice to living things, and no relief is in sight once the rainfall has gotten this far behind. NOAA reports show rainfall average statistics as only 3.4 inches for the Sandusky Bay area. Only one city, Toledo, has a lower average of 3.2.

According to NOAA,"17-day deficits ranged between 1.5 to 3 inches from the central Great Plains to the eastern Ohio Valley, and temperatures averaged well above normal. Triple-digit heat was common during the first week of July. Current NLDAS soil moisture anomalies . . . reveal widespread moisture deficits on the order of 5 to 8 inches."

I feel so dehydrated after I work outside. It's as if every living thing is competing for moisture. I think I'll buy some stock in a company that produces lotions for dry skin, or hair. I had to go to the Hair Hut for my hopeless hair. It was so dried out from the heat that it turned into an utter frizz ball. Hair salon owner, Janet, gave a sigh of relief once the dead ends laid in a thick pile on the floor. "There - that's better," she said.

The future is bleak weather-wise. According to Associated Press writer Jim Suhr, half the counties in the U.S. are categorized as disaster areas. More than not knowing what to expect, or the anticipated high prices, the whole situation makes me feel helpless. Extreme droughts don't come along often enough to anticipate what's going to happen to affect the harvest . Are there any remedies? Watering doesn't help after a time. Plants need the ions that thunderstorms produce. The next time it rains, I'm going to go out and play in the puddles. Maybe, I'll do a thankful rain dance, and hope for a happy ending to this depressing extreme drought.

Red sunrise signals hi temps

 There’s not much to harvest

 Unhappy

Apples look a little better

                                          See the difference - this cabbage is from last year




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Local Wild Garlic and Meadow Mushrooms found on Peninsula

If you’re like me and dabble in gourmet cooking (not literally,) you might look to the sides of road during spring around Marblehead peninsula.  Wild garlic, that some consider a nuisance has a wonderful mild and woodsy flavor.  Once you get a plug, it’ll be sure to grow nicely in your garden. 

I added it to my herb garden and it makes a nice statement because it’s stately and unique.  These grow up to three feet tall.  Nothing else around looks the same as these.  Look for the seeds or flowers to gather at the top of the stalk. You'll need a shovel or hand digger tool if you want to transplant one of these. The seed head flowers turn into seeds all in a cluster.  Grab a handful of seeds, and if mature enough they'll show up next year wherever these are planted. By the end of the season, the root can be harvested for more of that unique, mild flavoring.

This year, I saved the seed heads as soon as they developed. I dried them and added them in with favorite herbs.  Using kosher salt, I ran it through the herb grinder till it was almost powder.  Then I added ground up dill, sage, and oregano.  It takes a while for the flavors to congeal, but it adds tang to any recipe and is worth the wait.  Just in case a dish turns out bland, I keep a shaker of it on the table.

Meadow Mushrooms

Locals know the varied places to find wild mushrooms like Morels.  These are scattered throughout the woods during late spring around East Harbor.  Warning:  If you are not well versed in recognizing wild mushrooms, don’t try this. 

Before moving here, I was in north central Ohio.  One year I was graced with abundant mushrooms that seemed to blow as if upon some kind of fairy dust.  Looking out the window one morning, the yard was full of them. Thanks to a neighbor teaching me how to recognize this variety, I was able to harvest several pounds of these.  These are round and smooth on the edges, and have a certain glow. This is tricky, because there’s an imposter mushroom that looks very similar.  The exterior of the imposter is very similar to the edible variety.  It’s called fly agaric and - warning it is poisonous.  The fly agaric has white gills.

In any event, the Meadow Mushrom is smooth white on top and has rose colored gills.  The gills are unique, and when turning them over are obvious.  Once they get older, the gills turn chocolate brown.  By then, they aren’t usable as they’ve lost their entire flavor.

Last year in the back yard here where I live near Sandusky Bay, I saw some larger sized mushrooms that looked promising.  Turning them over, yes! – these were my favorites.  So good when freshly picked!

Over the next few days, more Meadow Mushrooms appeared.  As time went on each patchy spray got bigger.  Finally toward the end of their short season, I actually found one that was the size of a dinner plate!  This is no exaggeration.  I wouldn’t have mentioned with the accompanying photo.

 The dinner plate is a larger sized one at that!

Normally, the Meadow Mushroom looks similar to the variety sold in grocery stores.  Whatever made them grow this large is a mystery.  My husband and I cut them into cubes and froze them.  They didn’t stay in the freezer very long.

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