Looking Down

I went on a mushroom foray today at Hartley Nature Center. This little white shroom is called wolf fart. I smelled it and said, "This doesn't smell like a wolf fart." Someone asked if I had personal knowledge of how a wolf's fart smells and I had to admit I did not know what a wolf's fart smells like. I really don't want to know what a wolf's fart smells like.

 

This is (I'm pretty sure) a scaly photosis. I think it is adorable.

This is  somebody's leg with a wine cap peeking out. Someone suggested we watch a movie called the Truffle Hunters. The movie is set in northern Italy and focuses on the relationship between the farmers and their dogs.

Wine caps are easy to cultivate. You can find them on wood chips anywhere. Be careful to pick them where you are fairly certain no one nor any animal has peed on them. To be sure they are wine caps, place them on a white piece of paper for an hour after you pick it. The spores that fall on the white paper should be lilac in color. Burgundy cap is another name for them. You could even grow them at home in the winter if your brought some wood chips into your basement and let some spores fall on the wood chips.

This is wolf's milk slime on the log just under the seed, to the left of the green moss, and under the toe of somebody's shoe. I am not sure why wolves are in so many mushroom names. I was told the more common names a mushroom has, the more common the mushroom can be found. We went on hiking through the nature center and it was after noon so I pulled a peanut butter sandwich out of my bag. I tried to eat it discretely but a young woman caught sight of me taking a bite and she said, "OMG! I thought you were eating a mushroom." I said I was eating a peanut butter on cardamom bread mushroom.

There is a guy in Minneapolis known as the Forager Chef. He would probably remember what these are. I forgot and I used my phone to take pictures and a notebook to write things down so I would not forget. We had a very young woman with Down's syndrome on our hike. She found a stick in the woods. When we stopped she used her stick to tap her father on the back of his shoe. I saw her do it and I smiled. She smiled too and did it again. I know better than to encourage her to poke people with a stick but it was funny. Her Dad didn't even notice. I assume he is used to her poking him with sticks or other objects. I am fairly certain I saw her before somewhere. Many people with Down Syndrome have bad hips so I figured if she had hike up this hill so can I.

This is called a Mario mushroom because in Europe these mushrooms are red. You can eat these if you detoxify them first. Once detoxified and fried in butter with some garlic salt they are yummy! I think I will pass on the Mario mushrooms.

This is an inky cap. Please don't use this blog to identify a mushroom and eat it! I am a novice at this. One lady found a group of really lovely mushrooms and she held them up but I didn't get a picture of them. The name of those mushrooms, we were told, was funeral bells or deadly gallerina. Yeah, do not eat those. We also found some plums and custard mushrooms which sound good but will make you sick. Don't eat plums and custard mushrooms. One lady told us her mother had a grocery paper sack full of morels from a friend. Her mother threw the morels away saying they were poison and the only mushrooms you should eat come in a plastic box from the grocery store. Her mother had a good point but I would not throw any morels away. Morels are very expensive mushrooms.

 

I can't remember the names of these on the flat surface of the stump but I saw a lady displaying similar mushrooms on a wooden board at the Chester Creek Bowl craft fair and she sold them for $30 each if I remember right. One person in our group used mushrooms to die fabric. Another person in the group uses mushrooms as models to make mushrooms out of clay and paint them. After this I and three other women on this mushroom foray went on a nature hike in the nature center by the University of Minnesota campus.