Mushroom Hunt!

[Sorry for the burst of posts...finally got my pics (thanks, Brian!) and some time and something to avoid (election results and rain)]

Wild Matsutake Mushrooms

calicougar invited me to the local mushroom club (they have a fancier name, but I'm lazy) for one of their collecting events. Basically, a bunch of people go out into the woods and collect fungus and stuff that looks like fungus (like old antenna balls, disposeable diapers, menudo). As I *love* treasure hunts of any sort, I leapt at the chance (though at that hour, "oozed enthusiastically" is more the ticket). Since we arrived late, we had no one to advise us on a direction, so we went to her Secret Site. Someone suggested that the styrofoam cups stuck on the branches in the tree are possibly markers by other fungi hunters to indicate something good there (like the chantrelles Tracy found last time).

We found no matsutaki mushrooms...but I didn't exactly know what I was looking for (the ones in the stores are "real" matsutake...and quite clean and dry). When we finally quit and headed for the meet-up at the lodge, the head of the club pointed us to some wild matsutake growing just up the trail...Wahoo! Score!

At the lodge, the finds were spread out on the sorting table and identified. Here's my haul. And, my spectacular puffballs! One of the spectacular finds was a huge clump of rare black chantrelles. Very impressive! Unless you're a dog...

Mushroom Hunt!

[Sorry for the burst of posts...finally got my pics (thanks, Brian!) and some time and something to avoid (election results and rain)]

Wild Matsutake Mushrooms

calicougar invited me to the local mushroom club (they have a fancier name, but I'm lazy) for one of their collecting events. Basically, a bunch of people go out into the woods and collect fungus and stuff that looks like fungus (like old antenna balls, disposeable diapers, menudo). As I *love* treasure hunts of any sort, I leapt at the chance (though at that hour, "oozed enthusiastically" is more the ticket). Since we arrived late, we had no one to advise us on a direction, so we went to her Secret Site. Someone suggested that the styrofoam cups stuck on the branches in the tree are possibly markers by other fungi hunters to indicate something good there (like the chantrelles Tracy found last time).

We found no matsutaki mushrooms...but I didn't exactly know what I was looking for (the ones in the stores are "real" matsutake...and quite clean and dry). When we finally quit and headed for the meet-up at the lodge, the head of the club pointed us to some wild matsutake growing just up the trail...Wahoo! Score!

At the lodge, the finds were spread out on the sorting table and identified. Here's my haul. And, my spectacular puffballs! One of the spectacular finds was a huge clump of rare black chantrelles. Very impressive! Unless you're a dog...

Mushroom Hunt!

[Sorry for the burst of posts...finally got my pics (thanks, Brian!) and some time and something to avoid (election results and rain)]

Wild Matsutake Mushrooms

calicougar invited me to the local mushroom club (they have a fancier name, but I'm lazy) for one of their collecting events. Basically, a bunch of people go out into the woods and collect fungus and stuff that looks like fungus (like old antenna balls, disposeable diapers, menudo). As I *love* treasure hunts of any sort, I leapt at the chance (though at that hour, "oozed enthusiastically" is more the ticket). Since we arrived late, we had no one to advise us on a direction, so we went to her Secret Site. Someone suggested that the styrofoam cups stuck on the branches in the tree are possibly markers by other fungi hunters to indicate something good there (like the chantrelles Tracy found last time).

We found no matsutaki mushrooms...but I didn't exactly know what I was looking for (the ones in the stores are "real" matsutake...and quite clean and dry). When we finally quit and headed for the meet-up at the lodge, the head of the club pointed us to some wild matsutake growing just up the trail...Wahoo! Score!

At the lodge, the finds were spread out on the sorting table and identified. Here's my haul. And, my spectacular puffballs! One of the spectacular finds was a huge clump of rare black chantrelles. Very impressive! Unless you're a dog...