Days 7-8: Diet means eating, not losing weight, per se

Weight: 202

Too bad not everyone can live near a place like Whidbey Island. I hiked on Saturday morning, for a short while in Forest Park, Everett. I found lots of Oregon grapes. I then walked on the ferry to Whidbey Island to visit our friends who live there on several acres. This two-day visit changed everything. As you can read, I slightly gained weight this weekend. This picture includes our friends and my two boys near an apple press. After collecting several bags of apples, including those that recently fell to the ground, we had the kids shred them up in the iron contraption. Then we pressed out all juice out into the metal bowl. To be safe, we boiled the cider, giving some to the kids and saving a glass jug for fermenting into hard cider, to be consumed later.

It was an incredibly sublime weekend. I went primarily to dig for clams, but since we missed the low tide, I had to seek other sources of nourishment. I am too tired and busy to give you all the glorious details, but the bottom line is: I ate some home made bread (my weekly allotment) early. I also partook in some superb beer: Alaskan Ale. by way of food stuff: I found several Chanterelle mushrooms in various places, we found a huckleberry bush near a thrilling rope swing, I got stung by stinging nettles, my youngest got multiple stings from a bee I've never seen before, after he and his friends disturbed a hive in the process of shaking out apples (a frightening experience to be sure), we found the biggest blackberries of the season, two garter snakes (which I did not harm), and several service berries. I ate a few soap berries just to test things out.

The Chanterelle mushrooms I first found, accidentally got placed on the roof of the van. We drove off. I wanted to try them out so badly that I got my friend to drive back to where I thought they might have fallen off. Indeed, we discovered they had fallen onto the paved road, and got run over. This, I must confess, did not keep me from rescuing a section to try and see if indeed it would be safe.

After checking very carefully that it had false gills not real ones (see the book on edible mushrooms), I ate a bit. I figure, before feasting, I might as well take a little and see what happens. Hopefully, even with a mistake, I can survive a small portion. These mushrooms are very good, though they have a slightly disconcerting aftertaste when uncooked. I think the stomach ache I got was in my head (it only lasted a few minutes if it was even real). After feeling much safer about this mushroom, I eventually found another sampling on my friends acreage. I saved some for tomorrow's lunch. This is a great mushroom. Most of us think of mushrooms as blank slates that have no flavor but can only absorb it. Not so with this wild one. It has a character and fruity aroma of its own. I'm a fan. It is interesting to me how the wild things I find often surpass the store bought options. If unique flavor is important to you, you will readily agree.

The mother lode: my friends daughter (8) and my two sons helped fish for perch off a Whidbey pier. To my delight, the water on that side of the sound was exponentially clearer. We could see the perch all the way down the pier posts to the sand below. We saw a huge female d-crab almost playfully fending off a group of large perch. The kids hauled in a bucket full of small perch (the same kind I had eaten the other day), but I was able to haul in two big lunkers of the same perch species. They put up enough of a fight that the child's rod and reel I was using did not have enough resistance. My friend had to pull the first one up by hand. Of course, these were not more than a pound and a half (never weighed them) but they fought hard and had lots of solid, tasty meat. These seem to be like lake sunfish inland: they are easy to catch and can grow to a size big enough to eat like Tilapia. We went home with a bucket full of fish in salt water.

I marinated the lot in olive oil, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice, onions white wine, and capers. My friend made a fire in his back yard, wrapped half the fish in aluminum foil, and threw the package into the fire. Those turned out succulent and went well with dijon mustard. His kids and mine ate to their hearts' content, along with mashed potatoes kindly prepared by their mother.

I cooked the other half, simmering them in a cast iron skillet on the stove. Both methods turned out the same. The sauce was my best yet, I think, but I still like to use a method that results in a crispy fish skin. In any case, this, along with pears, plums, blackberries, and lots of apples, resulted in a very full belly all weekend. I learned a lot about the flora and fish of Whidbey, and gained back a pound or so.

I came home with a big bottle of cider, which will not be touched until the yeast does its work. I also have an extra mushroom and full belly. I think I could go another three days without eating and still be grateful for the fine weekend.