cooked apple branches but...

[rainey]

I just cooked a bunch of apple sticks that I know came from a pesticide-free tree, but after taking them out of the oven, most of the pieces have little splotches of green on the surface of the bark...almost looks like crusty mold. What is this and should I just scrub this off? or boil the pieces and rebake? I don't want to give my chins anything toxic, thanks.

 

[Idgie]

My guess is that it is lichen--a kind of fungus. Seems to me that people on the site have mixed feelings about it re: toxicity. Personally, I wouldn't feed it to Idgie. Can you scrape it off?

Maybe others have thoughts. Or you could go up to the "search" function under lichen and see what it says.

 

[mishellyshel]

did you scrub the branches before you boiled and baked them?

i scrub mine first, then boil them for a few minutes and then bake them at low temp for a long time. and i learned my lesson with mold, i do NOT store them in plastic ziplock, they are stored in open cardboard containers.

 

[rainey]

Okay thank you both of you, it must be lichen so I won't use the wood. I must not have cleaned it thoroughly, next time I'll know I have to spend more time scrubbing!

 

[mishellyshel]

The scrubbing is the hardest park!