Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Return To Mingo!
Went down to Mingo Creek with the Mushroom Club Saturday morning. As always, hoping to find morels, but the weather's been a bit dry, so I wasn't expecting to find many, if any. But what the hey! Its a good excuse to go hike in the woods and experience a little nature.
I found the first mushrooms! These are Psathyrellas (or so I've been told), not sure what varity.
Dryad's Saddle (polyporus squamosus), and the perfect size to boot! Yum!
The morning's haul of fungi. Found some good diversity, but it was a little too dry to find lots of mushrooms. One withered morel was found, but I think everybody managed to snag some dryad's saddle, so there was at least something to eat!
Goodbye Big Daddy
When I was in High School, I was a member, and a leader, of the backpacking club...but our Captain, Oh Captain, was Jack Thorpe, Big Daddy, and his Big Green Suit. I just got word that Big Daddy died Tuesday. Some of my fondest memories are of following Big Daddy as we traveled the Tuscarora Trot out of Cowans Gap State Park....we also walked the C&O Canal, (still my favorite hike) passing through the Paw Paw Tunnel, and I crossed over the Turnpike with BD on the Laurel Highlands trail. He was a great guy, and while I'll cherish the memories, I will miss him.
Oh, I've stood atop that portal.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Morel Madness!
Some pics from Morel Madness from a couple of weekends ago. We're headed to Deer Lakes Saturday for another hunt. Who knows what we'll find??
Unfortunatly, the area of the park where we hunted for morels had been pretty well cleaned out. The group as a whole found maybe ten mushrooms. I found one morel that was stepped on, pretty good evidence that someone had been there the day before as the mushroom wasn't too badly rotted. We did find lots and lots of dryad saddles (pictured). They're pretty good sliced, breaded, and fried like french fries.
Galerina. I find this stuff all the time. Unfortunately, it is deadly poisonous.
Little, light brown, horn shaped mushrooms growing in moss. These things were tiny!
WHEEEEE!! A morel! We found three in this area.Monday, May 11, 2009
Lonely Table
Sunday, May 10, 2009
I took a lot of pictures while I was computerless, and will be posting them in the coming days. This first set is from the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club's outing at Keystone State Park a few weeks ago. It was a nice day, and as you can see, there was quite a turnout!
Its always good to know your poisonous mushrooms. This is galerina autumnalis, AKA Galerina marginata, the Deadly Galerina. Great, first mushroom I find is a freakin' poisonous one.
Don't know what this is, but it also looks like it could shoot spikes into Spock's chest.
Hey its a morel! Oh wait, no it isn't. Turns out this little bugger is verpa bohemica. Some people eat this. Some have no problems as a result. Some lose muscle coordination. I found about a dozen of these, and was really excited, until I cut one open and saw the cottony insides. Always check your mushrooms!
Labels: morels, mushrooms, verpas, WPMC
Deceptive little buggers! They LOOK like morels, but they're actually verpas.
Labels: morels, mushrooms, verpas, WPMC
