But for the last two weeks we have had monsoon- style storms, and Libby thought we should go to the mountains and look. I was skeptical, thinking there was an element of seasonality as well as moisture to their growth, but thought a day in the woods sounded good anyway.
As we entered the most productive canyon, Libby spied a big Boletus edulis. I jumped out and collected it. It was in prime condition, with no "worms" (actually fly larvae, present in most older ones, though no deterrent to our drying and using them).
And that was it-- the only one in miles.We usually get either 50 pounds or nothing; what conditions could produce only a single??!!
Our back seat, with the sole 'shroom in all it's solitary glory. The rifle? That is still ANOTHER Mauser-- story to come.
2 comments:
My sympathies. We had good early-summer mushroom hunting, but the last trip, in early September, produced nothing edible at the Old Reliable Places.
Then I went bird-hunting, and now we're off to the Black Hills, so unless we find some there, the season is about over.
Just a bum year, I think, here in the Southern Rockies.
Wild mushrooms figured into one of the relatively few stories I heard as a child about my father's family. In Italy, during the late 1800's, several relatives and a number of other villagers dined on gathered wild mushrooms, only to find out - the very, very hard way - that the 'shrooms were not the species they thought they were.
Peter
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