The forest is looking decidedly less green these days. All that remains of the brilliant leaves of fall are wet leaf litter on the forest floor. But every season holds it's delights, and November is when the lowly mushroom takes centre stage.
Our recent forays into the forest have turned up all kinds of mushrooms. Like so many things, once I began to actually look for them they seemed to be everywhere. There they were on trees trunks, rotting stumps and poking out of the mossy forest floor in a seemingly limitless variety of sizes, shapes, colours and textures. These cheerful little fellows have certainly brightened up what for me can be a dreary time of year. So I say, hooray for mushrooms!
Which brings me to our next event. For our next gathering we'll be heading out to the Snowden Forest for a hike and mushroom hunt. Meet at the Lost Lake Parking Lot off of Loveland Bay Road on Sunday, November 21st at 1:30. I am no mycologist, but I'll bring a fieldguide along and we can try our hand at identifying some of the fanciful fungi we find. There are edible mushrooms to be found in our region, but it's best to go with an experienced guide, which I am not, before you actually plan on serving them up. So while we won't be picking any mushrooms to eat, it's still fun to check out the many varieties that one can find along the trail. We hope to see you there!
We grew mushrooms a few years ago, and decided that it was a lot less trouble to buy them. And considering how many mushrooms we got, it was cheaper too. But it was still fun to harvest "our own" mushrooms.
ReplyDeletecubensis spore syringe