Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Oyster mushrooms


Lest I forget what led to the Litter Mob in the first place...mushrooms.

I began to visit the woods regularly to look for mushrooms in late October last year. Time in the woods led to an inevitable acquaintance with its particular flavour of litter. Innocent that I was, I didn't know about cruising, then. I am now an authority.

And after Litter Mobbing in the woods just west of the East Drive every two weeks since May this year, my oyster mushrooming habits have changed considerably. I know too much. I have stepped in too much, picked up too much and smelled too much.

So let's just say I have become very choosy about which mushrooms to pick, and from where.

The mushrooms above, Frank spotted. Right low on the trail, on a bare log. Lightly nibbled. But it's the 'low' that waves a zillion red flags. Move on! Move on!

The mushrooms below? They pass muster. High, not in a trafficked area, and no litter found nearby, ever. Also hard to get to. A snail has obviously visited, and nibbled, but I don't mind sharing with snails.


So there it is. Pleurotus ostreatus. A good dinner in cold weather. Soggy in the hot months.

These woods are a wonderful place for many kinds of fungi, and would be an excellent classroom, where their habitat and various forms could be studied, right in the middle of Brooklyn. Juvenile foragers, wild edible lecturers, locavores and cooks: to arms! Time to person the barricades...

Sigh. So much language, so little time.

Get the kids and the curious in, get the cruisers out.  After today's 15th Litter Mob (curtailed by rain) my tolerance for sex in public parks is at an all time low.

2 comments:

Frank said...

I was going to take a photo of these mushrooms, going as far as the log, but then I was too lazy to take off the latex gloves in order to snap the shot. I did think how this was the log that started it all.

Marie said...

Hm. The Log That Started It All.

All it takes is a log.