The Return of Tree Trust True

the 30′ long table returns home, after weathering 5 years at the Sonoma County Museum When we first moved our home and main studio to West Sonoma County five years ago, Ene and I were commissioned to participate in an exhibition called Hybrid Fields at the Sonoma County Museum, curated by our friend Patricia Watts. […]

Joe’s Late Season Mushroom Report

Black chanterelle (Craterellus cornucopioides) The Late Season (text and photo by Josef Szuecs) As I mentioned in an earlier post, mushrooms generally fruit in species dependent windows of time.  The exact timing of these windows vary from year to year, affected by a number of factors.  In the SF Bay area, we can start looking […]

Hoshigaki

nearly ripe Hachiya Persimmon, ready to be peeled and hung to dry Looking up at the persimmon tree’s wild constellation of fruit still languidly dangling, you’d hardly know we already picked over two bushels for drying. Ene recently discovered the Japanese art of Hoshigaki, a technique of drying fruit by a combination of open-air hanging […]

Joe’s midseason Mushroom Report

This week my friend Josej Szuecs has graciously penned the second installment of his Mushroom Report: Midseason Mushrooms (text and photo by Josef Szeucs) The question is often posed to me: “When do the mushrooms start coming up?” In the western US, I start foraging two or three weeks after the first significant rainfall.  This […]

The Week in Bloom

Hachiya persimmon are ripening early this year The raccoons have commenced their furtive nighttime raids on the persimmon tree, whose fruits are prematurely ripe by a few weeks. We’re still trying to figure out how best to use the hundreds of Hachiya persimmon produced by our single tree each winter, and have been picking and […]

Ene’s Winter Garden

Most people know Ene, my wife and wowhaus partner, as one of the sunniest people they’ve met, and rightfully so. Our wowhaus compound has been blessed by her love of planting, harvesting and saving seeds, as she eagerly scouts out patches of sun throughout the year, populating them with seasonal flowers and vegetable gardens, battling […]

Joe’s Mushroom Report

artist/musician/chef Josef Szuecs of The-Way-To-Go-Joes My friend and neighbor Josef Szuecs is one of the most multi-talented people I’ve ever met. Owner of Renga Arts in Occidental, CA, guitarist/founder of the locally popular, self-described ‘porch jazz’ combo, The-Way-To-Go-Joes, Joe is also an accomplished chef, and his food often features seasonal fare he hunts, grows, fishes […]