Mobile, Alabama: I Want to Eat Them

 

I look at them in the wild. I look at my pictures of them. 

I crave them. I want very, very much to bite into them. 

Seductive mushroom. Mobile, Alabama. July 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

I fantasize about their texture, their flavor. Surely the taste would be a limb-melting union of a warmed English muffin, buttery. Soft like the fluffiest of pancakes and yet with a bit of resistance to my teeth. The lightest feathered dusting of cornflour up top, and porous pockets within.

Seductive mushroom. Mobile, Alabama. July 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

Seductive mushroom. Mobile, Alabama. July 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

Seductive mushroom. Mobile, Alabama. July 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

Alas, I have yet to discover their name, and maybe they could kill me. 

 

My cumulative collection of mushrooms here: 

 

Mobile, Alabama: Fungus Foray at Historic Blakeley State Park

Petite white mushroom, Historic Blakeley State Park, Alabama. October 2021.

 

Mushrooms. Umami. Mmmm.

Despite their predilection for growing on dead stuff, mushrooms are often pretty, or at least intriguing, and to bite one is to transport me to a sensual reverie of flavor, aroma, texture, and chewiness. Earthy.

Fungi Farm, a local commercial mushroom farm, hosted a mushroom foraging foray at Historic Blakeley State Park in early October.

Mushroom, Historic Blakeley State Park, Alabama. October 2021.

 

'twas hot and sweaty work, but so satisfying to be in the woods. We were a group of at least 25 people.

One of my favorites was this velvety mushroom that reminded me of the so-soft lamb's ear leaves. And on its underside, you could leave your fingerprint. 

Mushroom, Historic Blakeley State Park, Alabama. October 2021.

Mushroom, Historic Blakeley State Park, Alabama. October 2021.

Major lesson learned from the foray: Bring a pocket notebook! Alan, a Fungi Farm principal, helped identify the mushrooms we found, and although the names of many remain rooted in my head, the matching of same with the samples are fuzzy. Like said mushroom above. But some names include (mixing common names and scientific names of individuals and genus) turkey tail, false turkey tail, boletes, russula, and .......

 Below is a sample of the group's foraging finds.

Mushroom, Historic Blakeley State Park, Alabama. October 2021.

A slide show below on my cumulative mushroom collection over the years and locales.

 

 

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Birmingham, AL: Mushrooms to Mush.rooms

 

 

Honey mushrooms, Birmingham, Alabama. October 2020.

I glanced out my kitchen window, which opens to the back yard.

Wa! What happened there?! 

Clutches of golden mushrooms seemed to have blossomed overnight. I walked out to investigate. 

Soft, golden mushrooms stood close together, like giggling girls on the playground during recess, talking deliciously about those cute boys over there. 

 

Honey mushrooms, Birmingham, Alabama. October 2020.

And "over there," squads of flat butterscotch boys with curled-up edges. 

Honey mushrooms, Birmingham, Alabama. October 2020.

A new friend identified them for me as honey mushrooms. "Them" being all of them, even though, to my untrained eyes, they looked like entirely distinct varieties due to their different colors, shapes, and sizes. 

But apparently the butterscotch boys are mature golden girls.

The above photos are from the first day I saw them. 

Oi. How things changed in just two days. 

Maggots on honey mushrooms, Birmingham, Alabama. October 2020.

From mushrooms to mush. Made so by the little white maggots? Or did someone go by and zap them with a fungicide?

Ewwww. 

Regardless of the cause, maybe this mushifying is karma, as apparently, honey mushrooms prey on tree roots, living or dead. 

 

Honey mushrooms, Birmingham, Alabama. October 2020.

 

Back to Texas: COVID-19 Unfolding, Part 888: A Wee Walk

 

Pineywoods Boardwalk Trail, Lake Livingston State Park, Texas. October 2020.

On my Voting Pilgrimage to Deep East Texas, I camped at Lake Livingston State Park for several nights. 

On Sunday, I took a wee walk on the park's Pineywoods Boardwalk trail. 

A bit drizzly, but I'd brought my umbrella with me in the event of an actual rain.

A lizard on a trash receptacle cheered me, as the sight of lizards always does. 

Lizard, Pineywoods Boardwalk Trail, Lake Livingston State Park, Texas. October 2020.

 

Ooooh, and a mushroom that looks like a golf ball on a tee! 

Mushroom, Pineywoods Boardwalk Trail, Lake Livingston State Park, Texas. October 2020.

My online research does not culminate in an ID consensus, but the closest description seems to belong to amanita subcokeri. 

  

Arkansas: Lake Catherine State Park, Part 4: The Ethereal

Early evening, Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

October 2017
On the way to Missouri

Lake Catherine State Park


On Tuesday afternoon, I took a short walk. Dewy webs and fungi were on the stage.

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Look at those tiny leafen universes in the drops above!

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

For those who collect wild hearts:

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

I'd like to have broken off the bread-like slab below and eaten it, but .... maybe it would kill me?

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Besides, I didn't have any salt with me. ..... Hahahaha! That's a joke. Of course I had salt with me!

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Mmmm, brown sugar with a sprinkling of roly-poly:

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

I am curious about the cutting striations and also the waxy-pimply rounds on the base of this plank:

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

I think of constellations and galaxies below, the whorls and swirls and stretching nebulae:

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

And an ear cocked against the body of a tree:  

Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

At night came the full moon. A video:

And some stills:

Full moon, Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Full moon, Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Full moon, Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Full moon, Lake Catherine State Park, Arkansas. October 2017.

Good night.

Missouri: Lost Weekend Found

Dogwood berries and green beetle, near Dixon, Missouri. October 2010.

I came upon a cache of photos the other day. They were in a dusty dark corner of a virtual closet. I'd uploaded them during my transition from rooted to rootless and didn't have them on a hard drive at all.

Dogwood berry, near Dixon, Missouri. October 2010.

The photos are of an October weekend in Missouri with a group of women friends. We walked in the woods.  I don't recall particular color of the autumn leaves, but reds, yellows, whites, and purple-blue of mushrooms, berries, and flowers popped.

Milkpod burst, near Dixon, Missouri. October 2010.

We passed by a monstrous-big white fungus gripping the side of a tree. A bearded-tooth mushroom, identified by Mary and Nora.

Bearded-tooth mushroom, near Dixon, Missouri. October 2010.

Assured of its edibility, we gobbled it up later in the day after slicing and sauteing it in a pan.

Bearded-tooth mushroom, near Dixon, Missouri. October 2010.

Scrumptious.

Thanks to Mary and Nora for their skills in identifying the plants and fungi we encountered on our walk.

A slideshow below:

Louisiana: An Evening Hike at Chico State Park

From an evening hike a couple of days ago at Chicot State Park:

Mushrooms on a log, Chicot State Park. October 2015.

Golden silk orb-weaver, Chicot State Park, Louisiana. October 2015.

Sighted, but not photographed, were a couple of speedy armadilloes and a dainty pair of deer.

Missouri: Hunting for Morels

Photo credit: Missourimorels.blogspot

Morel mushrooms. In April, a lot of Missourians are mushroom hunting.



Today, Carol and I went out to do the same, thinking to fix up a mess of them for dinner tonight.

Photo credit: Missourimorels.blogspot

Well, we didn't find any. But I did bag these photos in the process:

In addition to the avid hunter at Missouri Morels (watch the spore-spoutin' videos!), a beautiful mushroom site at the blog of another Missourian --> the Mycologista.