“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Novice Mycophagist #4 “Fall Harvest”

I really should have posted this article back in late August when the story takes place, but I am running behind.

During the third week in August I was very interested in finding a Matsutaki mushroom, which I’ve never seen or “smelled”, but I think should grow on our land. And, I am quite sure we have some King Boletes on the property, because I’m positive I collected one several years ago before I started paying attention to mushrooms on our land. So, with some advice on what to look for and where to look for it from Norm (of the Colorado Mycological Society), we scoured our 74 acres.

But, it has been a very dry year. We found some oyster mushrooms earlier, and really enjoyed them. We have not had the quantity and variety of mushrooms this year that we had last year.

Last year we found dozens and dozens of different varieties and they kept us busy throughout the Summer and Fall attempting idenfications and speculating on edibility. However, this year was pretty boring in comparison.

Still, I would not give up.

We decided one day to concentrate our search along Bart’s Creek, which was dry by then, but still the wettest part of the land. As Lynne and I followed the creek and scanned the forest floor we found a few little brown mushrooms (LBMs) and other unidentifiable mushrooms. At one point, we were almost on hands and knees scouring the ground when Lynne noticed something.

“Look, Rick” she said.

I, (very grumpy at this point), asked what was so damned interesting.

“Raspberries”, she said!

Sure enough, along the road where it crosses Bart’s Creek were a bunch of young raspberry bushes. In the more than 15 years we’ve owned the property, I’ve never seen a raspberry bush before! And, they were loaded with ripe, wild raspberries. We picked them all, and they did not make it back to the cabin. We ate them all on-the-spot.

So, mushroom hunting can be very frustrating and disappointing—especially in a very dry year. But, we still benefitted from the hunt with a tasty raspberries harvest.

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Posted under: Mushroom Articles • by Rick on 10/06/2005 at 08:09 PM
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