Yes, clam, singular. Dennis’ grandson Duncan, came by with a mammoth hen clam. And we had a basketful of creamy white oyster mushrooms, picked Saturday.
Oyster mushrooms seem to prefer growing on Aspen. We have broadtooth and quaking Aspen, but around here some people, including the Man of Few Words, call them popple, probably from poplar. (Quaking Aspen: Populus tremuloides and Bigtooth Aspen: Populus grandidentata.) We generally find them growing high up on the trunk. Sometimes I have to climb on MOFW’s shoulder and reach up with a stick to get them.
HEN CLAM AND OYSTER MUSHROOMS RECIPE. Steam clam in white wine, reserve wine after clam opens.Remove meat from shell and slice thinly. Sauté bacon, onion and mushrooms in olive oil, add some slivers of sage from the garden, a splash of cream and the clam and clam/wine broth. Cook and drain angel hair pasta, and toss clam and mushrooms through it. Angel hair pasta, oyster mushrooms, and yum, one clam feeds three!
Yum. Unfortunately, I can’t find hen clams or oyster mushrooms here in the Sierra Nevada foothills, so I guess I’ll have to make do with gophers and puffballs.