Tuesday, November 9, 2010

mushaboom

I got my garden all tilled up and spread with compost this weekend, and not a minute too soon:
Looks like it's really going to start being winter around here, and besides needing shoes that'll keep out the wet and cold, I'm ready to face my least favorite season.

While working outside, I found that a group of mushrooms that I'd seen growing on an old elm stump this spring are back again. I'd been told by a couple people from Mushrooms Society of Utah that they were probably Flammulina velutipes, or flaming velvet foot/flaming shank. Now that they've returned, I was able to take a spore print and double check with field guides to be sure.







And they are! So now I've got some really lovely winter mushrooms growing thirty feet from my back door, and I'm ready to experiment with them. Luke is too nervous to eat them (and even doesn't want me to), but I did my research and am confident, so I'll probably cook some up in a stir fry for one.

3 comments:

  1. Those are some beautiful shrooms. Nice work!

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  2. Thanks. I think mushrooms are really pretty in general, when you actually look at them. They always look so other-worldly, like something from a fairy tale.

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  3. I just love taking photographs of mushrooms, they are so fascinating. They are super examples. x

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