I return a sated man. Belly filled with the bounty of the forest amongst other things. To say that the the drought of last summer repressed the chanterelles last season and the beginning of this one would be an understatement. It's no secret that mushrooms and the mycelial body beneath the soil requires a heavy dose of the H20 and nature wasn't providing, until now. The forests have been ramping up production lately with a solid showing my the common Russulas, beautiful but deadly (mostly) Amanitas, Boletes, et al. The bounty comes in the form of Chanterelles in their many forms (Cantharellus cibarius, C. cinnabarinus, C. lateritius). To boot we've got the indigo mushroom (Lactarius indigo) which is beautiful and tasty.

Chanterelles are an excellent input for any meal. They are high in vitamin C 40 g/100g (only slightly less than an a small orange), high in potassium, and extremely rich in vitamin D. When cooking them, clean them good of dirt, leaves, etc. and split them in half to make sure that holes and tunnels haven't been created by the many insects in the forest. They are full of water and while you could probably pan fry them in their own aquatic goodness, I feel a healthy dose of butter can do no wrong.

The picking is good right now, here in Oxford, MS. Make your way to the national forest and keep your eyes open because these fellas are hard to miss.

Note: Before ingesting any mushroom, make sure you have consulted with a professional or have adequate experience yourself.

Giant Laughing Mushroom

Great day! Kristin and I got tons of work done and found some really good seedling candidates for the transplant experiment. Not to mention, we found some incredible non-edible mushroom specimens. Note the huge Giant Laughing Mushroom pictured above, (Gymnopilus spectabilis), it was about a foot or so tall and was named as such because in Asia the species has a degree of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, yet in the U.S. or at least in the west it is deactivated in the species. We finished up all the abiotic data in plot 1 today besides the canopy photos. It's damn hard to get a good stretch of time on the coast where the sun doesn't wash out the photo so I'm left with an hour or so in the morning and maybe a little more than that in the afternoon. I also learned to keep my stupid head down and out of the photo. Usually I'm trying to get it into the picture. Not so much this time. It's going pretty smoothly though, so I hope to get the first plot done by at least tomorrow evening. Kristin has been a super awesome companion to have on the trip. A best friend with a great work ethic and really good ideas on utilizing time in the best way possible. I'm lucky to have her. That's all for today, need to wake up around 5:45 or so tomorrow. Out to the plot by 7.