TEST

In my years of walking the trails and foraging I met all kinds of people. After disclosing that I am actually looking for mushrooms the most common reaction is fear and surprise. I would like to point out that this reaction is typical for North America. In Europe situation is quite different (especially Eastern Europe). Usual questions are: "Don't you know they can kill you?" "There are so many; how can you be sure which one is not poisonous?" Well, the way I see it I need to be sure only about two dozen of species, which does not sound so bad. Why? True, there is a thousands of species around, a great number not yet described and classified. In Ontario there is approximately a dozen dangerously poisonous mushrooms and dozen good edibles. You probably wander what do I mean by "dangerously poisonous". Majority of field guides published in North America lists a great number of species as "poisonous", probably a lot more than "inedible"

Last week weather reverted to more typical values for this time of the year. Overnight low dropped to minus values and daily highs went to single digits. This slowed down spring signs. The dandelion and chicory started to show. Both are excellent edible wild plants. I admit that this greens are somewhat acquired taste, but the young shoots are certainly worth the effort - delicious. They are part of traditional mixture of wild greens consumed around Mediterranean sea. The skunk cabbage and ramps are progressing well, although somewhat slower than I expected. As far as mushrooms are concerned, there are only traces of late fall crops. This would be in the category of LBM (Little Brown Mushroom). I never bother with learning any specifics about that type of shrooms. They are just not worth the effort. A great number of species are always around, but none has any food or medicinal  value justifying close studies. . The above are puffballs after they released spore load; practically just t

Following several days with double digit daily temperatures (in Celsius) I decided to go and do the trail check. It is very early in March, nothing is green on the trees yet, not even buds are showing. Some parts of the trails are in rough shape but all in all, looks better than expected. The usual early birds, skunk cabbage(poisonous!) and ramps(delicious) are showing but it will take around 10 days for ramps to be ready as a pot herb. For pickling I prefer the bulbs at the end of season (second half of May) when leafs are dying off, concentrating nutrients into underground part. No trace of fiddle heads yet. The  only mushrooms around are the ones that stayed on trees over winter. I'll try again in a week.