Mushroom Extravaganza!

We had some big excitement Wednesday. I went out mushrooming with friends Jules & Steven, and not only did we find another flush of cinnabar chanterelles in the same patch we picked from last month, but we also found a few baby hedgehog mushrooms and a huge patch of black trumpets (super yum!) We also found some boletes which are probably edible, but identifying those accurately is more complicated -- it's a big family with both edible and poisonous members -- so I'm basically just taking measurements and spore prints and poring over descriptions in books.

Then yesterday we went mushroom hunting again, with the Cornell Mushroom Club, and came home with half of a ginormous head of maitake (two generous meals' worth.) I neglected to bring the bolete samples for identification, but Carl Whittaker's opinion from a verbal description was that it was most likely Boletus variipes, a close relative of the King Bolete (Boletus edulis). The textbook description matches pretty closely except for the tube length: the book says 1-3 cm, but my samples are about 1/2 to 3/4 cm. I don't know how critical that difference is. (I found a badly aged specimen of Boletus edulis on the mushroom walk, and it was definitely king-sized: no question on that one, even though it fell apart when I looked at it.)

This is the first year I've tried mushroom hunting without an expert guide, and I'm having a lot of fun (but also a lot of confusion) trying to figure them all out. I've had lots of practice with herbaceous plants, but the defining features of mushrooms are quite different, they're variable in unexpected ways, and the distinctions are not straightforward (is that spore print chocolate brown, purple brown, or cinnamon brown? Or perhaps rusty brown? I'm not sure, and the difference determines the family affiliation....) So I understand why this activity is not for the faint of heart. Thank goodness there are a few things out there that are easy to identify!

9/21 Menus (cont):

• school lunch: scrambled eggs (Sabol's) with bacon (Kingbird), toast (Greenstar GF) with butter (Meadow Creek), cucumber (a friend's garden), sweet red pepper (my garden), red plum (Black Diamond)
• my lunch: apple (Littletree), ants on a log (celery (my garden), peanut butter (exception), raisins (Thornbush Farms))
• snack: red plum and prune plums (Black Diamond)
• dinner: fennel soup (fennel, leeks, & garlic (my garden), potatoes (Greg's garden), chicken stock (Kingbird chicken)); corn bread (corn flour (Cayuga Pure), buckwheat flour (Birkett Mills), eggs (back yard chickens), almond milk (Bremner Farms, CA), butter); black trumpet mushrooms (gathered) with shallots (my garden), butter, and wine (Arrowhead)

9/22 Menus:

• breakfast: waffles (Cayuga Pure and Birkett Mills grains, almond meal, eggs, sunflower oil (Greenstar bulk local)) with raspberries (my garden) and maple syrup
• school lunch: fennel soup (leftover), corn bread (leftover), apple (Littletree), cucumber (a friend's garden), buffalo snack sticks (Glenwood)
• my lunch: same, minus the cucumber
• snack: apple (Littletree)
• dinner: stir-fry with maitake (gathered), cabbage (West Haven), shallots & zucchini (my garden)
• bedtime snack: toast (Greenstar GF) with jelly (Kestrel Perch berries/Greenstar bulk local honey)

9/23 Menus:

• breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal (Cayuga Pure grains) with raisins (Thornbush grapes), maple syrup (Schoolyard Sugarbush), and almond milk (Bremner Farms, CA)
• school lunch: fennel soup (leftover), toast (Greenstar GF) with butter (Meadow Creek), red plum (Black Diamond), and sweet pepper (my garden)
• my lunch: raspberries, corn bread (Cayuga Pure corn, eggs, honey, sunflower oil) with jelly, buffalo snack sticks
• snack: chopped peaches (Black Diamond), melon (my garden)
• snack for Sophia to take to pyjama party: fruit salad with apples, grapes, and melon
• dinner: fennel soup (leftover), barley cakes (Cayuga Pure grain, honey, sunflower oil, raisins)