Wednesday, March 9, 2016

The Crab apple and the incredible fungus Terana coerulea.

Typical wheather for this time would be have 1'5 m. of snow in the mountain or more, but the truth is that except two small snow, we have not to much snow or rain, not in the dimensions to be considered normal in winter.
On this photo you can see here the crab apple (Malus sylvestris) that I have in my garden in Orbaizeta (Navarre) It is an exceptional specimen for the specie because it measures more than 10 meters.


Crab apple or Baxako.(Malus sylvestris)

The last  year had been very good for apple  trees, and they gave an unusual amount of fruit. In this case,3 months later, the most of apples from this specimen remain still on the ground, in perfect conditions.





I wonder how a fruit can be three months above the ground, outdoors, and not rot.
Surely there will be many animals feeding with them.





Pecked apple by a blackbird (Turdus merula)

I could see apples pecked by birds, probably from blackbirds (Turdus merula) but I could also observe eaten and defecated remains of carnivores like foxes.

With these apples, we make a liquor made with anise, very  much appreciated in these Pyrenean valleys, both in Navarra and in our neighboring valley of Garazi / Cize and Xiberoa / Soule across the border; the Baxaka or patxaka.

I picked up two boxes of these apples, which gave to my neighbors, and I did a test with few of them in white wine, to try out how it would catch the flavour of s the baxaka in white wine.
After three months I filtered, and bottled.
The result was a white wine with an astringent touch, and with a flavor reminiscent of quince.
I dont think so it is going to be fashionable to go bar hopping, but is cool.









It really heat up the stomach!!

Terana Coerulea

To finish, I leave you with this photo of a cobalt color mushroom,  eating this stick of boxwood. Although the picture clarifies a little bit, it has an extraordinary blue color. It´s the Terana coerulea,
Here you are two links:


http://www.biodiversidadvirtual.org/hongos/Terana-coerulea-(Lam.)-Kuntze-1891-img80449.html



He was elected fungus of the 2009 by the German Mycological Society, for the great antibiotic action on Streptococcus pyogenes, who causing bacterial pharyngitis, and framed in the type of meat-eating bacterias!
You see, a twig with a nice color, but it is much more than it seems!

The essential things are  invisible to the eyes!