Friday, February 27, 2009

Podcast #102 - Truffles! Digging for buried treasure...

From November through May we can find Oregon Truffles out in the woods. The kids don't like to eat them, but they sure like to find them! The best place in the northwest to get information is from the folks at the North American Truffle Society in Corvalis.(http://www.natruffling.org/) Very friendly people - they meet monthly and do field digs... you can visit for free, and they are very helpful in learning. Lots of kids come along and have a good time.




This podcast we'll take you along on a dig. Its been a cold and snowy winter, so we haven't dug for them in a while, but they are all over even in the cold. We find a few small, immature ones, and even a few bigger ones that are almost ready for eating.




Alot of sites on the web will give you more information. We innoculated our Douglas Fir trees several years ago - and have noticed an increase in Truffle "production"! Who needs a trained Pig with kids who love to dig, explore, and find these buried treasures. Even if you don't eat them, it is a great afternoon activity for fun and new things to learn.

Here's how a pig does it...


The podcast is 20Mb in size - about 20 minutes.
http://nwpodcast.comuf.com/nwpodcast103_truffles.mp3

Smell ya later!

Podcast #101 - Smelt Dipping


The first NWpodcast of 2009. We went out smelt dipping on the Cowlitz River in SW Washington several times in January and February, before we finally got into fish. Great fun! This podcast has some interesting stories and side-notes, and some of our time on the river.






We tried lighting an old smelt as a candle, fried and smoked up a few to taste, and had a great time.







The smoked smelt were good, though not as good as sturgeon or salmon. They were delicious fried in flour, salt, and pepper.






Some video of our day on the river, goofing around.


The podcast is 20Mb in size - about 22 minutes.
http://nwpodcast.comuf.com/nwpodcast101_smelt-dipping_final.mp3

Hope you like it.

Starting up again...

Its been a while since we've done a NWpodcast, so we're trying to get it going again. Too many fun things to do this last year! The kids have enjoyed the podcasting, and we have some "unique and interesting" adventures planned, so here we go again. Besides, winter in the northwest is always a good time to regroup, rethink (can we do that???), and re-package things in life.