Original Broadcast Date: 6/28/99

In this program we pick and cook with chanterelle mushrooms, build a classic Adirondack guide boat and visit the oldest fishing camp in Vermont.

Chanterelle Mushrooms

Chefs like David Hale, an instructor at the New England Culinary Institute (NECI), love the light, complex flavors wild mushrooms add to culinary creations. Chanterelles are especially prized for their apricot-like fragrance and rich, yellow color. We joined David and wildcrafter Nova Kim on a foray into the woods to find this delicacy. A wildcrafter is one who collects and prepares wild plants, fish and game. Nova primarily sells to NECI because she believes in the importance of educating student chefs about wild edibles.

"The chanterelle is really quite interesting," says Nova, "and the more I find out about it, the more excited I get. It contains almost all the essential amino acids that your body needs. It's very high in protein, very low in calories, has most all of the essential minerals you need, and it's used to help condition your skin."

Nova and David initially brought different personal harvesting techniques to their afternoon together in the woods. But Nova soon convinced David that her method of hand twisting the mushrooms is preferable to cutting them. By feeling down to the foot of every mushroom with your fingers, you can tell whether it's growing on the earth or on rotten wood that's covered with dirt. That simple distinction can mean the difference between correctly identifying a mushroom that's safe to eat and one that may be poisonous. After twisting the mushroom off, Nova tamps dirt over the spot. That keeps flies and insects from invading the underlying mycelium, which helps keep the bed intact. She is careful to harvest only one out of every seven or eight mushrooms in an area. Taking more than that can damage a bed.

Using brown paper bags, Nova keeps mushrooms separated according to type and patch, a practice she strongly recommends to novices. For some poisonous varieties, merely touching an edible mushroom will spread the poison so it's best to isolate each type until it can be identified with certainty.

Identifying Mushrooms
Learn by harvesting with an expert and a good field guide, and follow them religiously. A few of the features to look for are the shape of the base, the gill type and the surrounding habitat. If even one key item is off, leave the mushroom where you found it. If you're pretty sure you have the right identification, then take the next step and make spore prints. To do that, cut off a thin slice off the bottom of a mushroom cap, then place the cap on a piece of paper. Having both dark and light paper available will make the process easier. Leave it for a couple of hours until the spores have dropped onto the paper and then check the field guide to match spore color with mushroom type.

Adirondack Guide Boats

Back in the days before roads were common in the Adirondack Mountains, the easiest way for people to get around was to travel from lake to lake by boat. The boat had to be small, fast and light enough to portage, while still able to carry large loads. To meet the needs of increasing numbers of European settlers, the Adirondack guide boat was born in the 1840's.

These boats look somewhat like ribbed canoes with wide, bowl-shaped centers. However, oars propel them and the occupants face each other rather than the same direction. The more heavily a guide boat is loaded, the deeper it sits in the water and the more stable it becomes.

Once the railroads started bringing large numbers of city people into the Adirondacks, locals found they could make a living by becoming professional hunting and fishing guides. The guide boats formed the foundation of guide service for wealthy clients wishing to experience the rugged mountains and waterways.

Steve Kaulback discovered the guide boat about 20 years ago, when he fell in love with it as a "high example of form and function." With a background in fine arts, he had been on a search for a product he could make in a small shop. The Adirondack guide boat seemed a perfect fit.

"It was never my intent to make any kind of exact replica," he says. "I just made a start and kept changing to make it better." Customers loved the boats Steve built, and he soon had a thriving business. Evolution has become a key component to his success. As new technology arises, Steve adopts and applies it wherever he can, whether it takes the form of a new tool, or a new material, such as kevlar, which is used to make bullet-proof vests.

Two years ago, Steve was making three or four wooden boats a year. Now, the company has nine employees and the company is creating four a month with enough demand to sell more if they were available. Says Steve, "The stock market's been good, and baby boomers like myself are buying toys to go into retirement. We woke up one morning and found we were two years behind in wood boat production."

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
The Adirondack Guide-Boat
Steve Kaulback
PO Box 144
Charlotte, VT 05445
425-3926

On the Web:
www.adirondack-guide-boat.com

Fishing Camp

Way up in Averill in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, almost to the Canadian border, lies a doorway to the way things used to be. For over 100 years, a fishing camp called Quimby Country has beckoned summer people to its shores to relax and drift the days away. They return again and again to this place where the night is dark, the woods are quiet, and time seems to stand still. There are no televisions and no phones — cell phones don't work here, according to manager Joanie Binns, who's worked at Quimby's since 1977.

Quimby's is a hard place to forget as evident from the number of guests who return. There are guests in their 70s who first came as children. 83-year-old Jeanne Dabney of Baltimore, Maryland began visiting Quimby's with her husband nearly 40 years ago and figures she's a newcomer as far as Quimby's is concerned. Jeanne still loves the fly-fishing, although she admits it's harder for her to catch the brown trout that have replaced the brook trout they caught in the '60s.

When Jeanne first came to Quimby's, Hortense Quimby was still alive and running things. The daughter of Charles Quimby, a West Stewartstown, New Hampshire, druggist who founded the camp in 1894, Hortense inherited it from her father when he died in 1919. She was a fiery redhead who kept her thumb on everything and everyone. And while words like "harsh" and "severe" have been used to describe her, she has also been acknowledged as the person who really made Quimby's what it is. "Hortense built all the cottages," says Joanie. "She billed it as the 'only dude ranch in the East,' also the 'only Maine camps in Vermont.'" Hortense started the first fish hatchery in the state to assure an ample supply of brook trout for Forest Lake, which, by the way, was originally called Leech Lake until she asked the legislature to rename it in order to make the place easier to market to city folks. She never married, and ran the place until 1965, amassing 2,000 acres of property.

Each camp had hot and cold water and a fireplace and a chore boy who stoked fires in the mornings and delivered ice in the afternoons for cocktails. The best known of these was Albert Pratt, who did the job for more than 30 years and was beloved by everyone who ever visited there. "Albert was a very special man. I think when people remember Quimby's, they remember Albert," Joanie says.

With the gas shortage and financial problems of the 1970's and 80's Quimby's nearly went under " but with the love and dedication of avid anglers and sportsmen, Quimby Country was able to get back on it's feet and is doing better now then ever before over the past 20 years.

About 50 percent of the guests are repeat guests, 30 percent of those long-term repeats. People hear about Quimby via word-of-mouth, the chamber of commerce and write-ups in books and guides, although Joanie says, "sometimes people just arrive, so I think they were meant to find Quimby." She adds that she knows if they belong at Quimby's within the first half-hour. "I tell people this is probably the farthest from Disney World that you're going to get. Children are safe here. They have a lot of freedom, but parents also have freedom from their children."

The emphasis, now as always, is on keeping things the same, so guests can walk in and feel like they've come home. "Continuity is very important at Quimby," says Joanie.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Joanie Binns
Quimby Country
Forest Lake Road
Averill, VT 05901
802-822-5533

Behind the Scenes...

The crew found themselves in heaven when they visited Quimby Country in Averill " the loons, the moose and the silence helped add to the wonder. Although it was the height of black fly season, they enjoyed every moment while arming themselves with lots of bug spray and dressed in netting!