• Memory • The forages for the ages

[Oram Mednix]

20 Vhalar 702

Oram wanted to try the fungi in his hands; they reminded him of lemon drops, both in color and in smell. So did Osric, he could tell. Oleg could tell, too. ”Go ahead,” he told his sons. ”They’re safe to eat. Tell me what you think.”

The two brothers looked at each other, hesitating. Suddenly, now that they had their father’s permission, neither wanted to go first.

”They’re called ‘steppers’,” Oleg’s voice cut in. ”They grow on the shady side of trees here in the Sweetvine. Just like moss.”

The impasse between the boys over who would go first lasted several trills, during which Osric mouthed the words: ‘scaredy baby!’ at his brother. Egged on, Oram stuck his tongue out, then took a cautious bite from one of the yellow caps.

He was mildly disappointed. The cap lacked the tang of real lemons or the strong, sweet flavor of lemon drops; it just tasted like a plain old mushroom that had shared a bag with some lemons for awhile. But he’d have no trouble eating them.

Osric peered curiously. ”Well, Or?” he pressed: ”What do you think?”

Oram shrugged. ”It’s not bad.” He tried another one, just to see if it was different. It wasn’t.

Osric tried his. ”It needs something.”

Their father watched them with a grin. After a moment he leaned towards them. ”Well, I’ll tell you what,” he said confidentially: ”why don’t you go find ‘something’ that’ll spice them steppers up.”

Osric looked up. ”What, like spices?”

Oleg spread his hands. ”Spices, herbs, sweet berries. Whatever you think works.”

Oram looked up next. ”Where do we find those?” he asked.

Their father swept his arm about to indicate the surrounding woods. ”Go find as many different plants, berries, herbs, as you can. Anything that looks or smells promising. But don’t taste them until I’ve told you there okay. Bring ‘em back here, and we’ll try to figure out which ones are good and which ones aren’t.”

—————————————————————————————————

”Show me what you got,” Oleg said, as his boys returned. They each had an armload of leaves, berries, stalks, flowers, and dumped them on the ground in front of their father, beaming with pride. The hunter looked appraisingly over some of them. A couple he tossed aside right away, towards the boys. ”No…no…poisonous…poisonous…won’t kill you, but will give you the runs…” He pointed at them. ”Remember those and where you saw them. You don’t want to eat those.”

Next, he picked up a clump of small, orangle-yellow flowers with simple spiky pedals. He held it out to the boys. ”Take a look at this plant. Something’s missing.” Osric and Oram peered at the flowers, frowning. ”We brought the whole plant,” Osric protested. Their father shook his head. ”No you didn’t. Look.” He set the clump upright on the ground, then released it, letting it flop over to the side. ”Do you see what’s missing?” He did it again. ”It’s something all plants have.” He righted the clump, released it again, once more letting it flop on its side.

Oram thought he saw it. ”The roots?” he guessed. ”Why would we bring the roots? They’re dirty!” Os smacked the back of his younger brother’s head. ”You can clean them off, dummy!” he told him.

”Hey! You clean them off!”

”Boys,” called their father, just a hint of warning in his voice. The budding quarrel died right away. He lifted up the flower clump again. ”That is a sunchoke. The roots are the only part of the plant that’s edible, and it is delicious. You should absolutely have dug up the roots, dirt and all.”

He set aside a couple more plants. ”That’s sorrel. You guys already know that. Good. And burdock. And dandelion."

”You can eat burdock?” Osric asked, surprised.

Oleg nodded. ”Not the burs, but the leaves, also the roots, if they aren’t too old.” He pointed at the red dots on Oram’s hands. ”You get those from the burs?”

”He got in some nettles,” Osric answered for him.

Oleg looked down meaningfully at the plants his sons had brought him, then back up at them. ”Where are they?”

Oram frowned. ”We didn’t bring them. They were stingy. Couldn’t eat ‘em.”

Oleg crossed his arms and regarded his sons. ”Oh, you couldn’t could you? Shows what you know. Nettle leaves are tasty, actually.”

[Oram Mednix]

Ask any dryad you possibly could/ what’s the best mushroom?…

”I told you to save those nettles,” Osric muttered as the boys shuffled back out into the woods at their father’s behest.

Oram glared. ”No, you didn’t! You thought they were just as useless as I did!” he protested.

The older brother gave the younger a bland look. ”Did I?”

Oram wrinkled his nose and didn’t answer. He spotted a patch of nettles and walked over to it. ”Here’s some. Now shut up and help me gather the leaves.”

”I’m your elder; you shouldn’t boss me around like that.”

Oram sighed. ”Pretty please, would you help me gather these leaves, honored elder?” he asked in a mocking lilt. Osric cackled as he followed Or over. The boys bent and began plucking leaves the way Oleg had shown them, grabbing the top side and pinching the leaf down before plucking it from the stem.

”Don’t go so far down the stem, Or, remember what dad said? Just the top few leaves on each stalk.”

”He also said get one full stalk. I figured I’d do that first.”

Os paused and looked thoughtful a trill. ”In that case don’t pick all the leaves one at a time. Just start breaking off branches; it’ll be a lot faster. Here.” He reached over and snatched the bottom of the stem to break it off.

”Hey! I could have done that myself!” Oram protested.

”Maybe, but now I’m doing it. Go pick some more leaves.”

Grumbling about being upstaged, just when he thought he’d scored a point on Os, Oram shifted over to another clump of stalks and started plucking the top leaves. Osric made short work of the stalk he had picked; by the time Oram had perhaps a score of nettle leaves collected, Osric had a completely stripped stem. When the boys had collected a hood full of nettle leaves, they returned to find Oleg starting a fire. Next to his feet was his tea kettle.

”You can eat nettle leaves raw in a pinch, but it’s best to boil them in a tea or cook them in a soup. Rinse ‘em first if you’ve got water for it.” He took some of the nettles, poured it in the tea pot with a little water, swirled it around, then dumped the rinsewater out of the pot and refilled it. ”Go get some thistles now. The whole plant this time. You guys know how to find chicken of the woods?”

The boys both nodded. Oram had no idea why it was called ‘chicken of the woods’ since he didn’t think it looked anything like chicken, but it was probably the easiest mushroom in the world to identify and collect; it grew in big yellowish shelves on the sides of trees all over the Sweetvine. And you could cook it and eat it. And they both new what thistle looked like, too.

”I’ll get the thistle,” announced Osric. ”You’d just stick your hand like you did with the nettle.”

”Would not! protested Or. ”And I could take it if I did!”

”Sure, I don’t care. I’ll get the thistle. You get the chicken.”

Once he’d defended his manhood, Oram actually preferred to collect the mushrooms; it was easier and more fun. The chicken of the woods crumbled when you picked it, so you ended up with an unlikely-looking mess off yellow gunk rather than the pretty ridges you found on the trees, but Oleg had insisted that was fine. After not quite half a break, the boys returned with their bounty. Oleg was ready with the tea.

[Oram Mednix]

Why are mushroom children so good? They don't want to get in truffle

The nettle tea wasn’t either boy’s new favorite food. It was woody and tannic. Even Oleg wasn’t that impressed. ”Too bad it doesn’t taste better,” he said. ”It’s too late in the season for the best flavor; in Ashan or early Ymiden this would taste all lemony and sweet.” Oram was skeptical of that. His dad had said steppers were lemony, too.

Still, the tea was drinkable, just like the steppers were eatable. Once the tea was finished, Oleg took the teapot off the fire and fished out the frying pan. ”Give me the mushrooms you gathered,” he said to Oram.

As he handed his father the chicken of the woods, the boy asked: ”How do you know if a mushroom’s poisonous or eatable?”

Without looking up from spreading the mushrooms over the pan, Oleg answered: ”That’s a very good question, Or. And unfortunately, there are a plenty of people happy to feed you wrong answers to it. You’ll hear a lot of old wives’ tales about how you can tell if a mushroom’s poisonous or safe. Don’t listen to any of ‘em. The only easy way to tell if a mushroom’s safe is to know exactly what kind of mushroom it is.”

He pointed at the pan. ”You know *that’s* chicken-of-the-woods, and *that’s* steppers. You do *not* know that anything with red gills is poisonous and anything with white gills is safe. And sticking a silver spoon into a mushroom to see if it turns black won’t work, either.” Now he did look up at his sons. ”Got it? This is very important, my boys. There are a *lot* of wrong answers to that question Oram just asked waiting out there for you in Idalos!”

The brothers, a bit taken aback by their father’s intensity, looked at each other and then nodded mutely. That seemed to mollify Oleg. He turned to look for the flattened stick he used as a spatula. ”Osric, come here,” he called, beckoning to the older brother. Or looked at him and mouthed: ‘oooh! OsRIC!’ Os ignored him as his father handed the spatula.

”Hold the pan over the flame, close but not too close, OK, Os? Flip the mushrooms carefully. The pan’s full now, so you don’t want to spill any. But they’ll get smaller as they roast, so there will be more room by the time they’re ready. It’ll take a few bits.”

With Osric busied with the mushrooms, Oleg went over to his younger son. ”Okay, now show me the thistles you got.” As he looked at them he scowled. Oram feared he had done something wrong, and was just about to point out that Os had been the one collecting the thistles when their father grumbled: ”Too late in the season for these, too, really. See the flower?” He pointed to the grey, spiny thing topping the thistle. ”In the spring, you could eat that. And you could use the leaves for tea, too, just like the nettles.”

Ruefully, the hunter broke off the head and tossed it out into the woods. Then he broke off the leaves and branches until just the stem was left. He scraped off the thorns with the back of his knife, and handed it back to Oram. ”Take a rock and smash the stem, all up and down along the length.” He went back over to Osric to see how he was faring with the mushrooms. By the time Oram had finished smashing the thistle stem, the steppers and ‘chicken’ were ready.

In addition to the mushrooms, the three ate the stewed nettle leaves that Oleg fished out from the teapot. Both boys made a face when they saw the soggy green mass scooping into their bowls, since it look a lot like spinach. It did taste somewhat better, though. Then again, pretty much anything tasted better than spinach.

[Oram Mednix]

Taking the pith

When they were finished eating, Oleg asked to see the thistle stems Oram had been flattening. The hunter made a wry face as he held the sad thing up. ”You pulverized it!” he protested, causing the young boy to flush at the criticism. But his father soften almost immediately. ”I should have been more clear. You just need to flatten it firmly. Take the stone and hit it lightly but firmly, like you would knock on a door. Here.” He fished an untouched thistle stalk out of the pile and gave it to the boy. ”Try again. Just like you’re knocking on a door; rap firmly, but not too hard.”

Looking uncertainly at his dad, Oram took up a rock and tapped tentatively on the stalk. ”Harder than *that*!” encouraged Oleg. The boy tried a few more experimental hits, striking gradually harder until his father nodded and exclaimed: ”Yes! That’s it. Now go all up down the length of the stalk hitting just like that. You want the stem to flatten a little bit. Not like a pancake, though. Here!” It was easier to show the boys than to explain it, so he took the thistle stem between his fingers and squeezed the cross section of it for his sons to see until it had a thin lozenge shape. ”Like that! Osric, you do it it, too. I’ll finish cleaning up and you can finish breaking up the stalks. When we’re both done I’ll show you what you’re doing that for.”

The flattening went quickly, and smoothly, now that the brothers knew what both the process and the result were supposed to look like; they were done and out of stalks well before Oleg had finished cleaning. If their father was put out by this, he gave no sign. On the contrary, he smiled as if he were pleased with his boys. The hunter put down his washing and went back over to sit with them. He picked up one of the stalks.

Most plant stems,” he explained, as he ran his fingers appraisingly up and down the thistle stalk, ”have an outer layer of relatively tough fiber called ‘bast’, and an inner layer of pith, which is usually softer and greener.” With his large, calloused thumbs, Oleg snapped the stalk in half and showed the boys how the outer layer peeled away from the layers inside. ”See? That’s why I wanted you to smash the stalks. It cracks the outer layer and seperates it from the pith. After that you just break the stalk in half, and then you can simply peel the outer layer apart from the pith. Go ahead and try. Careful and smooth with the peeling.”

Oram and Osric followed their father’s example and started snapping the stems to crack the outer layer and peel the bast fibers from the pith the way their father showed. It was surprisingly easy, once you had done it once or twice. ”Set the bast aside and gather up all the pith,” Oleg called out over the clanking of pots, as he banged the last of the rinse water out of them and hung them up on low branches to dry. Once finally finished with the pots and pans, Oleg gathered up the pith stalks in one big hand and held them up appraisingly.

”Can you eat those?” Oram asked. Oleg nodded. ”In Ashan or Ymiden, they’d be good raw, but by this season they’re tougher and would need to be boiled first to soften ‘em.” He set the pith down. ”We can make those tomorrow, if you like. In this weather they should keep overnight if you cover them. Now!” Oleg picked up the outer layers. ”This stuff. This is what you make cordage out of. The fibers are tough and long and no good to eat. But great to make into twine.” The hunter paused and looked up at the sky. The sun was already near the horizon and the trial was starting to wear on into evening.

”You boys start getting ready for the night” he instructed. ”Making cordage requires seeing what you’re doing, so we’ll do it by daylight tomorrow. And while you’re getting ready to go to bed, think about what you’ve learned. All that burdock and thistle and nettles you were going to ignore or throw away? They contain all sorts of riches, if you know how to unlock them.”

But Oram didn’t think about nettles or burdock that night. Instead, he thought about the smell and taste of fresh lemons and lemon drops, the stuff that steppers and nettle leaves in Ashan didn’t smell or taste very much like (well, alright, steppers smelled a *little* like lemon), regardless of what dad said.

[Doran]

Oram:

Knowledge:
Cooking: Nettle and thistle leaves can be brewed to make a nourishing and palatable tea.
Cooking: Mushrooms can be roasted, but they shrink considerably in the process.
Detection: Tasting subtle flavors can be challenging, especially if you’re expecting lemon drops.
Fieldcraft: Don’t despise the roots! Roots are often edible, and may be the only edible part of a plant.
Fieldcraft: There are no simple general rules for telling which mushrooms are safe to eat.
Fieldcraft: Sticky, spiny plants like burdock, thistle, and nettles are often not only useful, but edible, especially in early seasons when they’re tender.

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

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Comments: A “little Oram” thread! It‘s been a while since I’ve read one. You write a child very well in my opinion!

I have to admit, you made me curious about those “stepper” fungi that look and smell like lemon drops. When you described that they tasted “like a plain old mushroom that had shared a bag with some lemons for a while” I couldn’t help but laugh. That was great!

And a bit unfortunate.

The entire thread was in fact amusing. I didn’t know that a thread about mushrooms and collecting various plants that are poisonous or give you the runs (or not) could be so entertaining. The conversation between Oleg and his boys was very well-written. At the same time, Oleg's boys learned a valuable lesson – which plants are edible and which aren’t (and how to prepare those that are) and that the roots have potential as well!

I like how you combined humor with more serious matters.

And what more, I learned something from this thread as well!

I already look forward to the next “little Oram” thread!

Enjoy your rewards!

P.S.: You only listed which skills you used, but not your skill levels. Please remember to list your skill levels in the future.