In a small bowl, combine the oil, nuts, cranberries, salt & pepper. Top the green beans with the cranberry-nut mixture. Garnish with the lemon zest.
Fill a large pot 2/3 full of water and bring to a boil. Add the green beans, turn off the heat, and let the green beans stand in the water for 3 minutes. Drain the beans and add them to a serving bowl of platter.
Despite the recent tumultuous weather, fall and winter kayaking in the county is an excellent recreational prospect, with the right conditions. There are numerous mild days when Mother Nature calms down and takes a breather before returning to tumultuous storms. In between, think about grabbing a paddle and slipping into a kayak.
Julie Chick’s life has revolved around kayaking: she’s the former owner of Nehalem Bay Outdoor Company. She also previously worked as an Outdoor Education and Outreach Coordinator with Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP) and is still an avid Nehalem paddler. While she encourages kayakers to explore our waterways during the winter months, she stresses that safety is paramount to any trip no matter what date is on the calendar. First order of business is wearing a Personal Flotation Device, or PFD. “Find a good one and wear it,” Chick says. “If you don’t want to wear it, then you don’t have the right PFD, because you should love your PFD.”
Being safe also includes knowing what wind and tide can do on any given day, meaning paddlers should check local tide tables and weather conditions before setting out. “In our area, you need to pay attention to tide and wind,” she says. “You can have a November day with extremely high tides and gale force winds, or a November day with relatively typical tides, sunny, clear and perfectly ‘kayakable.’” She adds that checking wind and conditions and familiarizing yourself with how those affect the waterway you are paddling is key to a safe and fun experience.
When discussing the differences between summer and winter paddling, Chick notes that conditions for each season on the Oregon Coast can often be very similar. This is especially true when it comes to water temperatures. You may have picked a warm, sunny day to paddle, but the water is usually bone-chilling. In that regard, Chick stresses that dressing with water temperature in mind is a top priority. Cotton shirts and denim jeans won’t suffice.
“If you end up in the water and can’t get back in your boat or back to shore, you better be dressed for forty-something degree water,” she says. “Hypothermia happens fast.” Chick adds that a good dry suit not only keeps kayakers warm and cozy, but gives them peace of mind knowing that it will buy them a lot of time if they end up in the water.
The November King Tides and flooding this year also highlight the need to be aware of debris and obstacles in the water after such storms have passed through. With safety in mind, kayakers have a multitude of reasons to enjoy winter paddling.
Aside from the recent rough weather, Chick says that most winter days offer fuller rivers with flat, glassy paddling surfaces. These conditions combine to give kayakers a sense of serenity and solitude that’s hard to duplicate during the busy summer months. “It’s a lot quieter and a lot less people,” Chick says. She adds that with salmon season over, there isn’t the potential for kayaker versus fishing boat conflicts, which can be an issue in late summer and early fall. Photographers find plenty of reasons to point-and-shoot, and winter offers a chance for some excellent picture-taking.
“The light this time of year is at a lower angle, so you get crisper, cleaner pictures, especially if you get out there a little earlier,” Chick says.
There are many places to paddle year-round that offer a bevy of options. Overall, there are five estuaries in Tillamook County: Nehalem, Tillamook Bay, Nestucca, Sand Lake, and Netarts. They boast distinct characteristics and TEP has published “water trail” guides for each. With so many options for paddlers to consider, winter kayaking is the perfect way to get outside, shake off the winter blahs, and see coastal waterways from a different perspective.
Foraging for mushrooms is a great way to stay active once the rainy season returns to the Coast. On the morning of October 27th, Tillamook County residents gathered on Mt. Hebo to learn about foraging wild mushrooms while getting a bit of exercise. The walk was put on by Tillamook County Wellness (TCW) and led by AmeriCorps Vista Brett Buesnel. As a member of the TCW team and experienced forager, Brett led the eager crew on a relatively short walk packed with many mushroom foraging and identification tips. The information shared ranged from impromptu observations like, “sometimes they’re hairy, this one for example reminds me of Chewbacca”, to practical cleaning methods like gently spraying down particularly dirty Lobster Mushrooms with a garden hose. When conditions are right, the fungi on Mt. Hebo, often out of sight, underground and hidden in rotting logs will create fruiting bodies called sporocarps, more commonly known as mushrooms. These uniquely formed and functionally varied structures share one goal – to spread their spores in bid to reproduce.
Lobster Mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum)
A particular mushroom was on the minds of many walkers that day: the Lobster mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum). This mushroom is actually a parasitic fungus that grows on the unassuming Russula brevipes and changes the white host mushroom into a wrinkled bright-orange form, giving it the color of a cooked Lobster, that also happens to taste great on pizza. The conditions on Mt. Hebo were just right to find fresh Lobster Mushrooms earlier in the month. For the walkers on the mountain that day, all the lobsters found proved to be on the soggy side. Changing conditions can cut a season in a particular area short, or possibly extend it later into the year than what is typical. The Lobster mushrooms that were found provided a great opportunity to share the important lesson of what a mushroom looks like when it is no longer fit for consumption.
Here are some signs of when to leave a Lobster mushroom in the woods and off your plate:
It’s color has changed from bright orange to dark red
Soft areas are a sign of decay which relative to a fresh mushroom will appear more translucent than solid white when cut
Small holes in the mushroom’s flesh are an indicator of bugs having lunch
Despite a name that recalls the sea, it’s not a good sign if it smells strongly of fish
Even with the cold temperatures and increasingly strong drizzle, spirits of the group remained high. Back at the trailhead, attendees received a zine produced for the event with information on how to identify a chanterelle, important terms in mushroom identification and a healthy wild mushroom recipe. With empty baskets and full minds, the walk came to an end and folks returned to their vehicles and dispersed like so many spores until the next foray.
If this sounds like your kind of fun and are interested in learning the basics of mushroom identification, Tillamook County Wellness will be hosting a Zoom event on November 17th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Brett Buesnel will again be serving as presenter and share the process of how to identify a mushroom and additional resources you can use to further your skills. Please register using this link or by contacting Brett at bbuesnel@co.tillamook.or.us.
AUTHOR: Brett Buesnel, AmeriCorps VISTA at Tillamook County Community Health Center
For more local health and wellness information, follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
