Fungal Frollics

We spent most of our August/September trying to harvest as many different things as possible. We unfortunately were unable to fill our cornucopia with wilderness harvests this year, but did manage to find a few new fungi for the table. I thought I would start our mushroom blog with a very Alaskan mushroom: the Alaskan Gold. There is a fine gold powder all over this mushroom which immediately covers your fingers when you pluck the mushroom. It's the mushroom that gave Alaskans "Gold Fever" ;o) The above pictured mushroom is not quite table-worthy, although people with super human stomachs have been known to eat this variety and feel no nausea.

This grouse, however is QUITE table-worthy! Its dark meat has become one of my favorites.

While Tyler shot birds, I found mushrooms. This is a "hedgehog mushroom".

This is the underside of the hedgehog mushroom. You can see the tooth-like underparts that give the mushroom its name. This mushroom is quite delectable. We made a wonderful shrimp mushroom scampi.

Conch shells abound in these Alaskan woods! In Washington, I always felt super lucky when I found a large conch, but here it's not uncommon to find tree swarmed by them. This tree was covered in them, and apparently a smallish mammal overtook its hill of a root system, as well. Ecosystem: 2 Tree: 0

This is what our kitchen table looked like for the better part of a month. We were constantly on the prowl for mushies. I would often go after work on my favorite just-out-of-town mushy trails to find new species to ID. In order to properly ID mushrooms, you have to place the cap on a sheet of white paper for a few hours. The cap drops its spores, which create a fungal fingerprint. Each species has a unique sporeprint. So, while some species can look very similar, and one will make you severely ill and other won't, you can use spore prints to ensure it won't kill you! I find it exciting.

We hiked out to Troop Lake in September. It's only a couple miles off the road, and there's a great aluminum boat complete with one ore about 2 ft long. We took it on the lake, but the fish didn't bite.

On shore at Troop Lake someone built a tarp/stick shelter. I think it's nicer than our apartment.

Is the squirrel sleeping or dead...I bet you can figure that one out!

We love fungus! As long as it's not growing in our walls....