Oh Me Oh My Oh Mushrooms!

I love the idea of foraging for food and living off the land. I remember being a young girl gathering wild strawberries and eating wild lettuce. I have yet to eat any fiddlehead ferns or find truffles, but hey, I'm still young. My darling kids have gotten caught up in the simple beauty of eating treats from the wilds. They are every bit as excited as I am every spring for our annual morel hunt. Eating aside, mushrooms are just plain cool, and very abundant this time of year! I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I found myself outside this morning walking in the cool rain looking for fungi with my brother. We took several species inside and he showed me how to take a spore print. After he left I rounded up the kids and we went back into the woods.   I snapped pictures, Natalie sketched, and Macy thumbed through our mushroom book. I delighted at hearing my four year old holler, "Mom! I found a polypore! Come look at this fungus!" We were hoping to find some oyster or chanterelle mushrooms, or perhaps another Lions's Mane, but no luck today. We had a wonderful time, and were even blessed with a bit of sunshine. These photos are just a small look at all the amazing fungus' we found.

 Orange Witches' Butter, and Polypores

Bolete

We never touch LBM's. (Little Brown Mushrooms)

Birds Nest Fungus

Puff Mushroom (see the little slit on the top right side for letting out spores)

Polypore

Western Amethyst Laccaria 

Coral