It’s been a strange year on the ridge. We started with a wet, warm spring that seemed to bode well, but things dried up again in July. And as the water vanished from our intermittent streams, the deer congregated at smaller and smaller pools, where the midge that causes Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease had easy access to them. It’s devastated the local herd. We have at least two dead deer on the. property that I’ve seen, and based on smell I suspect there are a few more in areas where I don’t hike. The guys from Mississippi who rent the Airbnb for a tw0-week hunting trip each fall have canceled their trip this year.
Despite that, it’s a mast year, so there are acorns, butternuts, black walnuts, and assorted hickory nuts raining down day and night. I’m collecting them this year to experiment with which make sense to create a focused strategy for harvesting.
Butternuts (Juglans cinerea) have a hull, similar to black walnut ((Juglans nigra)). After removing it, you have to let the nut cure for a while before eating.My stone-age strategy for processing butternuts (Juglans cinerea). They have a hull, similar to black walnut (Juglans nigra)). After removing it, you have to let the nut cure for a while before eating.I’ve been fighting the squirrels for nuts that are falling from several shargbark hickories we have on the property. They’re like popcorn for local wildlife.It appears I’m not the only one squirreling away nuts for the winter. I suspect this is a chimpmunk’s stash based on the way they’re gnawed.A yellow buckeye (Aesculus flava) — not the Ohio buckeye, which is easy to ID because it stinks. The yellow apparently is edible but they contain a poison called saponins that pass through humans without affecting them. Wildlife love them. I’ve been leaving them alone.A well-guarded pear. The cage managed to keep the deer at bay.When the single pear on our tree finally dropped, I sampled it. Verdict: Delicious. Can’t wait till next year …Pawpaw (asimina triloba)It was small but delicious. I saved the seeds to plant next year. After finding this, I found another tree with fruit. This is the first time I’ve found fruiting pawpaw in our woods.There are a lot of trees, and many of them flower, but they require genetic diversity to actually fruit. Next year I plan to do some hand pollination between the trees in the woods and the ones I’ve planted in our Party Garden.We planted several peach trees, including this one with peaches on it. They were close to maturity when one of the local deer (demdamndeer, as we call them) couldn’t resist, knocked the cage over and ate all three peaches, leaving us with pits. We’ve reinforced our cages and are getting ready for next year …Our shiitake logs did really well this year, and one of the chesthut mushroom logs fruited. I’m planning to relocate and rethink my log storage. Several logs with other strains never fruited, so I’m going to double down on shiitake and chesthut. I’ve already located a chestnut oak that I’m going to fell after the leaves are down to use for my next set of logs.When I let a local mushroom grower cut down several beech trees for mushroom logs last year, I girdled the stumps and then inoculated them with chestnut mushrooms, lions mane, and shiitake. One of the lions mane stumps had a small fruiting this spring, and this chestnut mushroom stump did really well after a rare late summer rain.The spring rain brought the best chanterelle season I’ve seen. I also found lobster mushrooms amd puffballs during this forage.Our ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) suffered from the drought and deer grazing this year. Last year I found lots of three prongers with seeds. This year, not nearly as many. Not sure if it was the dry weather or something else.During last year’s drought, I didn’t harvest any of the ghost pipe that emerged. This spring was better so I did harvest some to tincture. I use it as a pain reliever.
And we’re just getting started. Laura has big plans and is planting fruit trees everywhere, which means our war against the deer will only get worse. We have several hazelnut trees that should start producing next year or the following, and there are crab apples along the driveway. We’ve also planted native persimmons and plum trees in the woods. Can’t wait for next year’s harvest update …
I’ve always loved this book for the title and the cover photo. I know that demented look well. Rain is definitely the friend of the mushroom forager, and we’ve had a lot of it during the past few weeks …
Last year’s drought was rough on ghost pipe (Monotropa uniflora), but it’s rebounding nicely this year. I’ve already tinctured some of it to use for pain relief.
Found this delicious chicken of the woods shortly after we started a hike recently. An auspicious beginning. We found lots of chanterelles, too.I think this is fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) that someone decapitated before realizing that it might not be a great thing to eat. Not sure how it affects wildlife, but it makes humans either sick or transcendent. From wikipedia: “Its name derives from its traditional use as an insecticide. It can cause poisoning, especially in children and those seeking its hallucinogenic effects, due to psychoactive compounds like muscimol and the ibotenic acid; however, fatal poisonings are extremely rare.”This great spangled fritillary was taking advantage of the pollinator gardens Laura has planted.Male and female mating in upper loop north hollow near ridge. They were a bit off the trail and I noticed them only because Althea sniffed them out, which she generally doesn’t do when we find turtles. She mostly ignores them. Then Winter got interested, too. Something about mating/pheromones that made them more interesting to the dogs? Love the way the stick covered with lichen splits the image.I love how delicate and detailed these orange pinwheel (Marasmius siccus) mushrooms are, and how you notice the ones in the background after the one front and center.Found this luna moth clinging to a plant high above the wetland area. I had it framed for a perfect shot, morning light streaming in, beautiful. Then Trash Hound crashed the scene and I ended up with this photo after the moth settled. Still a nice shot but nothing like the one I’d hoped for.This is the best year I’ve had for lobsters. I found this one when walking in an area I don’t frequent, so now I have an additional spot to check.A downed trees shimmering with polypores in the morning light.Mushrooms in the Xeromphalina genus cover a dead stump.Naked-flowered tick-trefoil.Foraging is hard work, and the hounds need time to recover before we go out again. This looks like a crime scene photo, but rest assured they’re both alive and ready for the next hike.
After a dismal drought last year it looks as if the chanterelles are back. We’ve had warm weather and plenty of rain. I’m seeing them pinning everywhere and suspect I’ll have more than I know what to do with soon.Lobster mushrooms are one of my favorite edibles. It’s been a good year for them so far. They start as a russula or lactarius mushroom that gets parasitized by the Hypomyces lactifluorum fungus.I spotted this bull box turtle munching the stem of a mangled russula about 20 feet off the trail recently. There were parts of the mushroom strewn everywhere.A Trash Hound at rest tends to remain at rest, unless …
