A hike to Schmiedefest @Krenzer Hammer crafts fair

 Last Saturday I met with Natalie and little Jonas to go on a foraging hike to the legendary crafts fair @ Krenzer hammer. (www.krenzer-hammer.de). We had an early start and were greeted by a snail and a bear family...

 ...and another snail.

 We had decided to take the small one foraging and collected a lot of herbs and ´shrooms for dinner. Jonas had a lot of fun climbing crosscountry on trails seldom trodden...

 ...spot the metalhead... ;-) Jonas forged with me on Highland Games Wuppertal and dropped by on Friday for the first time and joined in wit gusto. And it was a joy to have him around... he is a weird, but very intelligent kid that has fun doing things few kids of his age have.

 We came by some rock carvings where I told a dwarf tale... which he did not believe any... or did he? ;-)

 Did I mention this is a metalhead? ;-)

 Also it was really cool to have Natalie around with her bad humour and sarcastic remarks...

 I blurred this pic on purpose... for I don´t like duck faces any ... ;-)

There were a lot of wonders, big and small, by the trailside..

 Fairy rings...

 Oh so green was the moss...

 And trees by the crags standing guard...

 ...

 Along the murky stream we came to the Krenzer ironforge where the fair took place.

 And there it was I met Manfred and Rolf again... which came as no surprise. Manfred had a lot of really cool knife designs on display again...

 Top: Damascus blade with giraffe bone handle,

 the one below stag and a modified Karesuando blade.

 Manfred...

 This one is made from an old HSS saw blade with Micarta handle...

 ..in a somewhat unusual Kydex sheath with leather.

 Rolf was working doing leather designs witrh kids and adults alike...

 ...and Ruben from Ahlhauser Hammer was getting the knifemaking bug...

 We also met with Julia, Nick and Kathrin and had somewhat of a chat, before we went on our merry way to the ironforge. Unfortunately, the three of them did not care to join us. I suspect more than just a bit of scheming and plotting going on on their part, but as is, I am a paranoid bastard, cannot help it any and I refuse to make this my problem. So, off to Ahlhauser Hammer ironforge for the old foodie we went. It was raining hard then. Thiemo, Natalies boyfriend called what he should bring from the grocer´s and we decided to meet at the ironforge.

 There it was that Jonas unwrapped a piece of steel his brother found near the vicinity of a Solingen Burg smithy, and we probed it. Sorry for the bad pics, but there´s a structure in it and spark analysis showed roundabout 0,6-1,00 % carbon-it might as well be a piece of damascus...

Be this as it may ;-), we made a stew from the treasures we had found and some additions from the grocery store...

 Natalie doing some stunted Yoga... ;-)

 Jonas being off his rocker for joy of the steel we probed.. Idaresay we spoiled this kid a bit... he does not like veggies but ate two bowls of stew with no meat whatsoever in it, and I should say that mummy had a hard time convincing him not to take this iron rod to bed with him... ;-) but as his father came to fetch him, I daresay he was not THAT angry with us... ;-) so to say... ;-).

 Thiemo and Jonas. Folks, you´re good company.

 We sat by the fireside, we adults had a beer, and we talked and dreamed and laughed the night away.

Poifecc! ;-D

That scent of autumn is in the air... valar morghulis!

 Oh yes, it is here. Still the leaves are green and the trees bear their flesh, but all too soon wild storms will bring in death and sleep to all living things. But for now the secret life sprouts from the dark; the mighty roots flourish from deep, deep down. For it is in the darkness they weave root to root and deed to deed. There is no tree  but forest, and there is not a mushroom, but one mycelium. Like to the growth of crystals it flourishes secretly in the dark; and when winter cometh, it sprouts forth its fruit of twilight.

 Cauliflower fungus (sparassis crispa, in German: Krause Glucke) waiting for harvest... haven´t seen one for ages! Was not quite sure, and it was still so tiny, so I left it be.

 Other ´shrooms were not so lucky. And it is funny, for the boletus in the picture seems to be a friend of mine. Each and every year I come round the place where it lives and cut the mushroom off, and it´s always a kind of ritual to make a stew from it, sometimes, when it´s bigger than now, from it alone, and sometimes with other boletus and bay boletus. I try my best to make the best dish I can from it and take my time relishing in it. This time it was a ragout:

I took one handful of bacon, one shallot, one piece of garlic and chopped it finely. I added some tomato paste as big as a hazelnut and roasted it all until golden brown. I deglazed with my homemade mead, added one big bay boletus and my little friend chopped into slices, some allspice, clove, one bay leaf, (in this case) ritual salt (which I mined myself in an ancient Celtic mine in Hallstatt, Austria, pepper and just a hint of cinnamon (pray don´t overdo it!), and coriander leaves. I ate it with fresh handmade grey rye bread and butter.

Anyway, I had a fairly good harvest, and all of the time I wondered of the mystery of the mycelium. Look, every year the same mushroom, always slightly different, but still the same root brings forth another fruit. You cannot see the root most of the year. But if you could look underground you would be terrified how far it reaches. Mist rises up and brings up the scent of the strong, old soil, growing ever richer with every year of decay that is piled, one layer up and over another, years and years and metres of dark, fertile earth. High do they rise, those old trees, and the treetops sing a song in the racing wind; winter cometh, they cry.

 My trail went on. I collected some spruce and fir resin for varnish and medicinal purposes.

 For a cough syrup take one grain resin, one part ribwort, one part thyme, one part sage, one part origanum vulgaris, one teaspoon curcuma, one tablespoon lemon juice, and fill up with three parts honey. Heat it up gently and fill into vacuum jars. Use one tablespoon and take three times a day. You can also fill it up with hot elderberry syrup and hot water as a precaution.

On I went on my merry way. All was silent, and I really took in the fragrant forest air and my heart became stilled. By the trailside lay this bone, presumeably of a roe deer, and remembered me that autumn also is the season of the dying and the hunt.

At a hut beside the trail I rested and simply listened to the wind and the rustling of leaves. A squirrel made a cache just two metres away from me. It looked at me, anxiously, but also curiously. Then it came even nearer, until it sat right at my feet. I held my breath and was still as a stone, until it went on its merry way. I sipped my tea and watched the birds, the mouse and the tiny birds all busy with their preparations for winter.

I was happy, and still, and the green world once again gave me a sense and feeling of purpose that I dearly miss in the world of man. Often I simply would like to shake my fellow humans and yell at them to just SEE, when all they do is LOOK. But if we could see, we would see that it is all that much more simple. I daresay the divine is either laughing or crying constantly at our stupidity; we want to live on eternally, a life with no ups and downs, with no hurt and no surprises. But I ask you: How boring would that be? We fear death, and righteously so, but where is the point to wish idly that we would live on forever? And a life like a parody, as we are doomed to do by this our society? Mammon promised we could have safety and no surprises. We paid him with our dreams, with our passion and love, and in turn he gave us glittering junk. And turned our love into lust, our love into greed, our passion into hate and fear, our sensuality into nymphomania, our loyalty into philistinism. He took our longing and yearning to turn into consumerism. Machines do the thinking and dreaming for us, and every little action is becoming more and more complex to us that we seek consiliation in a dream world created by the almighty machinery that is our society, or even worse, in escapism, so much in fact that our life is a mere waiting for the end while slaving for the master.

All the while the truth is so much simpler. All the while the truth is so obvious.

A silent song. A squirrel preparing for winter. A creek and the wind filling a heart with music.

And a path that leads yonder hill and dale to somewhere we don´t know.

Summertime looting and pillaging ride;-)... sore back!

 So, everything is growing like mad, and, being the poor ne´er do well-dewy eyed dreamer that I am (Might as well be called a bum;-)), I set out by bike to do some serious foraging. Apples, it was, near my home, plus some more wild plums, apples the cartload full... lucky me, I brought a BIG rucksack. Next year I´ll build a foraging bike from a frame I still got in my cellar...;-).

 More apples....

 Blueberries are getting ripe as well;-).

 Drui said this is not peppermint, but marjoram... my apologies... it was not toxic, though;-)... seems I am not perfect, after all;-). My thanks for informing me!

A more serious note: Please double check the info, and if you find something that won´t quite fit together, please note me, I am very grateful for it. I am a student of nature myself,  and still learning!

 Found this fleece blanket lying around in the woods...this actually was one;-).

 Salvia officinalis (salvia, in German: Salbei). I collect this for tea and as a spice. as a tea, it´s good against bronchitis (brew with thyme and honey!Or was that time is money?;-)). In summer, it has a cooling effect, and it tastes great! Add some lemon juice and honey to the tea in summer and drink it cool, it´s delicious and refreshing.

 ´Shrooms are ´shrooming. This is a red cap, and I took it home with me, for it was starting to rain, and I could not stand it getting wet;-).

 Wild apples, too. I dry them for tea. You can also take half a pound dark sugar on half a pound coarsely chopped wild apple plus half a handful of melissa, and fill up with one litre of brandy. let it rest for three days in the sun, and three weeks in the dark, pass through, and you have something to cheer on in winter...cheers!

 Boskop and wild apples, great for mousse and on bannock and other pancakes or for baking cake! It´s a firm cooking apple, but I also like it as it is. It also keeps fresh a long time.

 Something to just relish on and make dried apple rings. For that, remove the pips, and slice in thin rings. Either hang them on twine to dry, or use the oven at 50 degrees Celsius with an open door.

 Made myself some wild stew afterwards, with some of the mushrooms, and some dried nettle and salvia fresh from the woods. You need:
1 onion
1 handful of boletus, red or brown caps (or all of them) or whatever non-toxic;-) ´shrooms are to hand;-)
1 cup of pearl barley
1 piece of smoked bacon
potatoes to your liking
three handfuls of dried nettle
1 knifetip salt
2 carrots
pepper to your liking
1 knifetip nutmeg
1 shot of red wine
1small pine cone
five leaves of fresh salvia

2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon juniper berries

Chop onion, grind spices coarsely, slice bacon to little cubes.

Fry onion until glassy, bacon until dark. Add shot of red wine. Add 1 l of water. Add pearl barley, and cook until it opens. Add peeled and chopped potatoes. Add carrots. Cook until done, add water frequently. Turn down the heat, add dried nettles and spices. Chop mushrooms and add. Let them boil, then turn down the heat immediately and let rest for five minutes.

I added some champignons, too. Left the potatoes out, though;-) for I had none;-).

I was all finished, and had a hell of a sore back,  but it felt good to actually reap the rewards!