Food, food culture, food as culture and the cultures that grow our food

Myco-blitz, fruiting bodies

January 19, 2010

Blewit/clitocybe nuda,, bolete/suillus luteus and unkonwn mushrooms growing in Northern California, December 2009 - Jan 2010, Debra Solomon, culiblog.org
Upended and neglected by one animal forager, arranged and shot for identification by another.

In order to secure from landslide the steep incline that cups our house, my father planted it full of trees whose main job in life is to become really large. Something like 30 years ago, he introduced the deodara, pines, redwoods, and then predicting the gaps that come with arboreal maturity he planted the juniper chinensis; limb-rich, majestic, scented and kinetic. An eco-system from top to bottom, a plant wall, a live filtre of foam green sprays catching drifts of pine needles on heaving articulated branches before falling further, to carpet the man-made forest floor.

Bolete/suillus luteus growing in juniper undergrowth, Northern California, December 2009 - Jan 2010, Debra Solomon, culiblog.org
Suillus luteus or brevipes, ‘Sticky Bun’ or ‘Slippery Jack’ Bolete. 5 kilos from our garden!

This swathe of woodland, where animals live and pass through, whose shade and soft ground make it the ideal spot for wood splitting, and where wood in various states of being split gets stacked to dry. There’s an abundant humus layer that comes from moving all that wood around; prunings, rotten bark, saw dust, chips, all landing on the ground and getting covered up by the ceaseless needle fall. This is how the woodland harvest of one household inadvertently developed into an ideal environment for mushrooms.

Pine spike/chroogomphus vinicolor growing under redwoods in clay ground, Northern California, December 2009 - Jan 2010, Debra Solomon, culiblog.org
Chroogomphus vinicolor / Pine Spike, under the redwoods, edible but not choice.
Homegrown suillus luteus/bolete growing in Northern California, December 2009 - Jan 2010, Debra Solomon, culiblog.org
But these two discoveries were choice.
Culiblog author shows off the first day of in situ home bound bolete harvest, Dec 2009, Debra Solomon, culbilog.org
Culiblog author shows off one afternoon’s haul.

During a recent visit to the ancestral home, a two-day myco-blitz revealed more than 20 sorts of fruiting fungus, most remarkably, an easy 5 kilos of Suillus Luteus, or ‘Slippery Jack’ style boletes.

I’d like to give a shout out to the Mycelium Community for giving us a good show right through the cusp of the changing year, for feeding us and the trees that keep up that hill, well into 2010.

Here’s to a long future of collaboration, abundant fruition in 2010, and best wishes for superb soil fertility for all parties involved.

debra at 0:44 | | post to del.icio.us

4 Comments »

  1. A wonderful post. The back ground looks like Oregon USA. Fungi … Yum-O…!

    Comment by jeff Pool — January 19, 2010 @ 17:59

  2. Northern California, Oregon, één pot nat.

    literally: one big pot of wetness/
    figuratively: self same soup

    Comment by Debra — January 20, 2010 @ 15:24

  3. very valuable information, thanks for hare. are the mushrooms can be eat ?

    Comment by yujiinha — January 21, 2010 @ 2:33

  4. Hi Yujiinha,

    Yes, there are lots of wild mushrooms that can be eaten. It would be wise to find experienced mushroom foragers/collectors FROM YOUR IMMEDIATE AREA in order to find the edible ones and the spots where you can find them. It\’s really fun to go mushroom hunting with people that know the delicious species of mushroom, like a TREASURE HUNT!

    Until you become experienced, it is important that you find someone who is willing to share knowledge with you, so that you can later pass on this information to others.

    Please DO NOT use the images on this blog to identify edible mushrooms in Indonesia. There are different species all over the world, and with the help of an experienced mushroom forager and an up to date LOCAL field guide, you will quickly learn to discern some of the edible species growing around you.

    http://theforagerpress.com/fieldguide/basics.htm

    Comment by debra — January 21, 2010 @ 12:33


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