A Year in the Forest

The early morning air was crisp.  The birds were singing.  The sun was low and shining through the forest.  As I walked through the forest, I spotted something uphill at the base of a stump.  Could it be?  Was it?  Yes, what should I see but a Grifola Frondosa.  What the heck is a Grifola Frondosa you ask?  It is one of my favorite fall mushrooms.  It is also know as Hen of the Woods, or Sheeps head or Miatake by the Japanese.  The Japanesecall it the Dancing Mushroom because the mushroom hunter dances when he/she finds it.  The amazing thing is that last fall I found a Hen of the Woods on exactly the same day.  The one this year weighed 3 1/2 pounds – the one last year weighed over 8 pounds.  It is great to simply fry in butter or in cooked dishes.  Last year we fixed a big pot of mushroom soup and ended up having the remainder of the soup with rice and deer meat.  Delicious!

I was so excited to find the mushroom that I almost turned around and went home immediately but I did finish my normal route.  The only thing I really noticed was that something found the rest of the honey mushrooms and cleaned them out.

It has finally cooled off around here making my walks a little more pleasant.  The most distinguishing thing on my walk was the crows.  They cawed the entire time I was in the woods.  I don’t know what got them upset but something did.  I have two cats and when I started out today both began to follow me.  There was a little fight and one of them decided to stay back at the house. The other one followed me the whole time.  I finally decided that some mushrooms I could not decide on the identification of were Honey Mushrooms.  To celebrate I picked a mess and cooked them for supper.

We finally got a little rain here, only about 1/10 of an inch but something.  As could be expected, it made the mushrooms pop up also.  I found one I have been watching out for the Deadly Destroying Angel.  If you pick mushrooms to eat like me then you need to be aware of this mushroom.

I have mentioned several times the Beech aphids.  Something is very efficient in eating them.  Almost everyday I find a limb that was covered the day before that is now completely free of aphids.  I cannot imagine that they would just leave enmass like that.  The leaves are starting to turn and fall from the trees.  There are an abundance of bright red and yellow falling leaves right now.  To look at the forest as a whole it is not showing much color yet.

Back to my evening walk.  It is really dry here now.  Today was the first time in several weeks that there were not enough mushrooms too pick for a meal.  The ones that were there have been eaten by the animals.  About the only animal I saw this evening was a deer who came busting through the woods and stopped abruptly when it saw me.  The squirrels are still busy with the nuts. 

I have been noticing somethning the last couple of weeks.  Something is tearing into the old stumps and logs.  I at first thought it was the woodpeckers, but with the amount of damage done it would take several hundred working round the clock to do it.  I suspect coons or possums or skunks tearing into them to get bugs.  There is one stump that has been almost destroyed the last week.

There was a heavy dew this morning, so heavy that it sounded like it was raining at times in the woods.  The dew also made the nuts heavy, because they were falling with regularity also, both hickory and walnut.  As I said yesterday the forest seems much more alive in the morning, there is more noise and activity.  Fall is making itself much more evident.  The underbrush is dying back and the trails are much easier to keep open.  The animals have found the newest crop of honey mushrooms, some plots are entirely gone.  There is a russula mushroom that has been fruiting for two weeks, but I have not found one untouched specimen yet.  Usually by the time it peaks through the leaves, it is already eaten on.  Its like the animals are storing up for the winter like the squirrels and the nuts.  Yesterday I saw a ink cap mushroom come up for the first time and today it was already a black slimy mess – wow what a short lifespan.

I picked what will probably be my last meal of Stump puffball mushrooms and what was left of the honey mushrooms – I am going to miss my several time a week mushroom meals when winter gets here.