Last year’s drought was devastating for my mushroom foraging efforts. So far this spring, it’s been rainy and the mushrooms are thriving. Lots of dryad saddles, black trumpets, and an OK number of morels. But my favorite of all the mushrooms I find locally are the canterelles. I found none last year. Not one.
Yesterday, I found my first one of the year, a tiny one along the logging road. I’m hoping this is the first of many. In the past I’ve found so many that I was drying them, freezing them, and eating them every day.
We also came across a patch of fungus erupting through the moss. At first I thought it was more black trumpets, but it definitely isn’t Craterellus cornucopioides. I was stumped when I took the photo below, but now I’m starting to think they’re dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha). I plan to swing by later today to check on their progress.
Here’s a photo of dead man’s fingers that I took in 2019.
And finally, a photo of an old man in the woods (Strobilomyces strobilaceus).
