If it's Wednesday, it must be time to visit the woods...

[alexpgp]

I went for a drive this morning, to see if the daily rains over the past week or so have had any effect on the appearance of mushrooms. Based on an incomplete survey (there are simply too many places to visit), I'd say the verdict would have to be "no."

To be sure, I saw more mushrooms today than I've seen previously, but again, these were of the occasional variety. One oyster mushroom. One of some other type. The "find of the day" was a cluster of little brown mushrooms. Given the amount of area I covered, the "density" of mushrooms was up slightly, but I wouldn't want to live on the difference between this and previous weeks.

Work came in today, not much, but enough to keep me busy. More is promised for tomorrow.

We need to empty the adjacent rooms to allow the carpet cleaner to do his thing on Friday. I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow (if it's not translation!).

Cheers...

Comments

[edith-jones.livejournal.com]

You do have a good guide to mushrooms, I gather? I would hate you to eat the wrong ones by mistake. I've always been interested by the rather large ones that populate a metre square area of my front lawn, but if they're that convenient, they must be poisonous! What guide to mushrooms do you use?

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I have a pretty stringent rule, which is that if I can't positively identify a mushroom, I don't eat it. Thus far, I've got about a half dozen species "grokked," which is generally sufficient for my wanderings here in Colorado.

That said, I own several guides to mushrooms. Probably the most detailed one is Mushrooms Demystified, by David Arora, but it's (literally) a pretty heavy book, so I've also been known to refer to Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America, by Fishcer and Bessette, and Mushrooms of Colorado and the Southern Rocky Mountains, by Vera Stuckey Evenson.

The main obstacle associated with lawn mushrooms is not necessarily any inherent distress associated with consuming them (most "bad" mushrooms will just make you sick; only a few will outright kill you), but the propensity mushrooms have to suck up lawn chemicals and pesticides, if any. If you aren't a "Turf Builder" kind of homeowner (and don't live cheek-by-jowl next to someone who is), you might want to check wih a local mushroomer to learn more about what grows in your lawn. It might be edible!

Cheers...