doesn't that tuft of fungi above look like candy? they were still so small i couldn't be a 100% sure whether they were growing up to be edible or not, so i left them, but soon found some good ones for soup, called hypholoma capnoides or conifer tuft. i was a little confused at first, because for years they have grown abundantly on the same spruce stumps, which are showing no signs as of yet, but the mushrooms now grow seemingly on the ground, likely on the remains of roots, scattered around the woodland. so when i got home i checked and checked, even though i am very familiar with them. that's mushrooms for you. always a bit mysterious.
it had been a while since my last foraging trip, i'm guessing a fortnight or so, but everything was the same despite the mini winter we had. birds had been having a go at the cranberries i was after, there were still many for me to discover, though. for those who think my cranberries look puny: it so happens that this smaller variety, vaccinium microcarpum is more common around where i live, even though the larger one, vaccinium oxycoccos, can be found as well. admittedly, even they pale in comparison to the north american cultivars. everything is bigger over there...
i got the standard raven fly-over, as usual. it is always so good to see them.
blogger/picasa insisted on rotating the photo for your viewing pleasure...
blogger/picasa insisted on rotating the photo for your viewing pleasure...
a sample of the kinds of paths i follow, in a mixed spruce and pine grove. i found some nice herald of winter waxcaps (hygrophorus hypothejus) somewhere near here. it was so quiet and calm i just stood still for a while, trying to become one with my surroundings. it was a bit darker and duskier than the photo conveys...
here is the very best part. the story of my enoki tree is not over yet! lots of small velvet shank babies found both on the stump and the trunk of the tree laying on the ground. what a relief. i should have known they grow on dead wood, since they can be grown on woodchips, (and the tree wasn't exactly alive anymore even when it stood upright) but i just had to worry... i got so happy when i spotted the orange dots from afar, i just skipped over and sighed an enthusiastic "oh oh oh!" (oijoijoi!). if the past is any indication, i'll be checking on them every day to see if they've grown yet...
