Fairy Ring

John returned from mowing down at the lower place and told me there was a fairy ring in the meadow. I grabbed my camera and we went down so I could see it.

One should avoid stepping into the ring, English folk lore says, or you may be forced to dance on and on with the fairies. When at last you fall asleep from exhaustion, you may awake to find that years, not hours, have passed.

                                                        

                     The little girls aren't worried about legends.

I stayed clear.

You can learn more about fairy rings and the many stories attached to them HERE.

 

Mushroom Weather

Thunder and lightning and heavy rain all Wednesday night. And the branches (creeks) were roaring so loudly it was hard to sleep. We did miss the hail some nearby areas had. And while our road was somewhat washed, and a lot of gravel swept away, it could have been worse. John and his tractor have made repairs.

Just now it's as if we were living in a rain forest--everything is growing, Growing, GROWING!  Pity the poor guys (John and Justin) who try to keep up with the mowing and weed-eating. But it's better than drought, for sure.

 

Fun Guys

 

Any Mushroom Experts Out There?

These guys showed up in my greenhouse and I'd very much like to now what they are.

My little Golden Nature Guide to Non-Flowering Plants leads me to think they could be Meadow Mushrooms. But I don't know.

And no way would I be tempted to try one even if some expert out there tells me they're edible,

I wish I knew more though. The only fungi I trust myself to identify are the shitakes and oysters we have grown and the occasional rare find of a morel.  I know there are probably many edible mushrooms in our woods but I need to see an expert identify, cook, and eat one before I'm ready to try. 

And even then, I'll wait a day or two to make sure the expert survived.

Jack o' Lantern Mushrooms?

From the road, I caught a glimpse of orange under an apple tree where some of our oyster mushroom logs are and thought that someone had lost an orange tractor hat.

 But when I investigated, I found these brilliant fungi ...

 

I think they are Jack o'Lantern mushrooms -- colonizing the logs  and growing on a piece of hose as well.

So pretty. But not edible. They won't kill you, one website said. But you'll be so sick you'll wish they had.

Okay, then. I'll just enjoy looking.  

 

A Royal Flush of Oysters

These are such beautiful fungi!







Recent damp days and warm temperatures have brought forth flushes of mushrooms on the inoculated logs.

Blue oysters . . . and pink ones too. (No, they don't taste like oysters -- I suspect they got their name because of the way they grow in little colonies.)

It's such a treat to see these delicacies appear!

And there are shitakes too . . .

A big basket of oyster mushrooms . . . what shall we do with them?

I found a recipe for Pasta with Oyster Mushrooms, Sage, and Parmesan.

Saute' garlic, onion, and mushrooms in butter. Add some chicken broth and chopped sage. Finish with light cream and toss with shredded Parmesan and cooked pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.





It's a lovely, simple recipe that lets the delicate taste of the mushrooms come through.

'shrooms!!!

We have mushrooms! Remember those logs John inoculated back in late March? They're beginning to produce!! Here (above) we have six shitake and two oyster mushrooms, ready to go into a stir fry this evening.

Below, a flush of tiny oysters break through the paraffin that coated the plug of spawn and sawdust. We have regular oysters and blue oysters (so that's where the band Blue Oyster Cult got its name!) -- not sure which these are.

They have a strange beauty -- like tiny alien life forms bubbling out of the logs.

Below are the minute yellow crescents ( not much larger than a fingernail clipping -- I'm really asking too much of my poor camera) of Chicken of the Woods. I've never tasted this mushroom and look forward to seeing these reach eating size.

All these mushroom pictures made me think of the books about Mr. Thallo and the Mushroom Planet. The first one, published in 1954, was my introduction to science fiction. Charming, innocent fantasy about children from Earth visiting a planet where all life is fungoid.

No, it wasn't creepy at all -- it was, rather, a good way to introduce a child to the notion that a being very different from oneself isn't necessarily scary.