Mushroom Spotted

Laura, Sela and Eli began hunting for mushrooms on Thursday, April 5.  No luck finding mushrooms that day plus Laura got lost.  On Friday, April 6, good sports that they were Sela and Eli went out again but with Uncle Bill.  Still no luck and they headed back to California the next day.  Without them our interest in mushroom hunting sort of waned.

But a week after they left, Mike spotted the first Mayapple while on his daily walk through the timber.  Mayapples look like green umbrellas, have white flowers in May and all parts are poisonous if ingested in large quantities.  I just looked that up.  That is actually not the point.  Mayapples are important because Mike says that spotting mayapples means mushroom hunting season is about the begin.  Sure enough, three days later Mike spotted the first morel mushroom of the year.

Mike has several honey holes.  In fact, he has so many that he can differentiate between them by when in the season they produce.  In other words, there are certain spots that he always checks at the beginning of the season.  He found this mushroom near the deer stand that I can see across the pond from my kitchen window.  He says that two years ago he found the first one of the season also in this area.

Mike just had to let Bill and Lois know he found a mushroom because these three are very competitive during mushroom time.  Bill joined the hunt but Lois has not yet been bitten by the hunting fever.  She had had a busy day already as she spent the morning in town so she opted for a nap instead.

Currently, the count is two (Mike) to one (Bill).  Bill did not provide photo evidence of his mushroom because it had fallen over and would not be an impressive picture.  Nevertheless, I will take his word for it.  May the season begin!