Thursday, August 20, 2015

Myco hunting

A little while back, A and I got out for a morning to see if the late summer rains had done much for the mushrooms up in the nearest-by mountains. A reliable spot yielded no edibles; however, on the way out A spotted a nice flush of oyster mushrooms up on a poplar stump:



There was one drawback to their location:




wrong side of the creek! (click on the photo above to see the 'shrooms in the left side of the frame)

Fortunately, there was a relatively easy way across that didn't involve wet feet, leaving only head-high stinging nettles to contend with. Stinging nettles: one of the many reasons to wear long sleeves and canvas pants in summer time in the woods. There were thistles, too.



The mushrooms proved to be large,  fresh, and largely bug-free:





They were just a little high up there:




Requiring us to resort to Rescue Tape (tm) from the truck box.




I'm looking to patent the "Mora-on-stick" mushroom collection device:



 Failing to field the falling 'shroom meant hunting it out of the nettles, a real incentive not to miss your catch:



In the end, leaving a bit of the cluster to spread spores around, we had a couple of pounds of oysters, enough to provide a very generous pizza topping to a couple of large 'za.






That bridge would have been a lot better if the bark wasn't slipping. Mycophagy is way more exciting that bird watching.







Sunday, August 09, 2015

February to August

Lotsa work, a little play. Looking forward to the fall and a little more time available. Alaska for silver salmon, a deer hunt later on, and what is currently shaping up to be an epic quail year.

In the meantime, spring and summer moisture has helped some of the fruit along.

A short photo essay:





Elderberries.


Peaches.



Instructions.






Assembled.



Finished.  I highly recommend the preserves.