Category: Feral Bends Forest Farm

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Assorted Bob Feral Bends Forest Farm Leaf Litter MycoBob Phenology Journal

Chanterelle season is here

After a dismal drought last year it looks as if the chanterelles are back. We’ve had warm weather and plenty of rain. I’m seeing them pinning everywhere and suspect I’ll have more than I know what to do with soon.
Lobster mushrooms are one of my favorite edibles. It’s been a good year for them so far. They start as a russula or lactarius mushroom that gets parasitized by the Hypomyces lactifluorum fungus.
I spotted this bull box turtle munching the stem of a mangled russula about 20 feet off the trail recently. There were parts of the mushroom strewn everywhere.
A Trash Hound at rest tends to remain at rest, unless …
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Assorted Bob Feral Bends Forest Farm Leaf Litter MycoBob

The return of chanterelles?

First chanterelle of the season. Hoping it will be the first of many …

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).

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Assorted Bob Feral Bends Forest Farm Leaf Litter MycoBob Phenology Journal

Notes from a walk in the woods

Found this mangled russula on a beech stump that I inoculated with chestnut mushroom spores after it was cut down to create totem style logs for growing lions mane. We girdled the stump and inoculated it about a year ago. So far, no mushrooms, but a few of the stumps I inoculated with lions mane did fruit this spring, producing tiny lions manes. Not ready to harvest, but a good sign the mycelium is taking over. And the stumps make great tables for the squirrels.
This arion slug has been enjoying the rain.
In my hunt for black trumpets, I’m finding tons of deceivers. They’re apparently edible, though I’ve never tried them. The name is a reference to the wide range of shapes and forms this mushroom takes.
A frog tadpole from our pond, which has become an amphibian hot tub. Toads and frogs have filled it with eggs and tadpoles, and on rainy events it’s a riot of frog and toad calls.