Mushroom Summer
+ A Recipe for Magical Mushroom Dust✨
Hello Friend! 🍄
I hope you are having a restful and restorative summer.
First things first—THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to share thoughts on my last survey! I absolutely loved hearing from you. I was also so pleased to meet so many of you for the first time.
It was really wonderful to get to know you all better and learn about what lights you up. The survey results will help me hone future posts.
SURVEY SAYS—
The survey results suggest that most all of you are plant-passionate and are interested in more plant-info.
One surprising result is that many of you are also interested in the artsy side of things. I found that curious, but also encouraging because my interest in plants has always been tied to my interest in art. So yay! I’ll be excited to share more along those lines as well.
Links to Grow On
And speaking of meeting fun new people…thanks to the survey I got introduced to
. Jennifer is a subscriber and she has a really cool substack of her own called Pixel & Palette. If you are interested in learning about digital art, be sure to check out Jen’s website. She offers some incredible classes and tutorials.Calling all Adventurers! I recently met Alison Ormsby of Adventure Scientists. Check this out—Adventure Scientists is a citizen scientist organization that collects field data by mobilizing and training outdoor enthusiasts. How cool is that!?! So, if you’d like to make a difference on you next hike, be sure to have a look at their latest summer project called Plastic Free Parks. It’s a project designed to track waste trends in national parks and federal lands.
It’s super easy to sign up and get started and a great way to help if you are traveling to National Parks this summer!
Just discovered this new substack, by
called, What She’s Having. I’m loving the tone. Be sure to check it out because Billionaires don’t need your money.Did you see this beautiful mushroom related post by
? The Chanterelle Seeker is a beautiful read.
Summer Plans
Festival Circuit
I’ll be on the festival circuit as a vendor over the next few months. Here is where I’m headed. If you’re close to any of these places and can stop by, I’d love to see you!
Cullowhee Native Plant Conference | July 16-19 | Cullowhee, NC
International Herb Symposium | September 11-14 | Cincinnati, Ohio
Sassyfest | Sept 10 | Irwin, TN
NC Arboretum Fall Market | September 26-27 | Asheville, NC
WNC Gardening Symposium | October 8th | Flat Rock, NC
Field Trips
My daughter will be headed off to college in just a few short weeks. It’s all so hard to believe.
Of course, I’m trying to capture as much time as possible, which isn’t exactly easy, but we’ve got some fun field trips planned over the next month.
We are planning to go to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest to see some spectacular trees and do some freshwater snorkeling in nearby Lake Santeetlah.
Did you know that North Carolina has a fresh water snorkel trail called, the Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail !?
I learned about it from
who shared this little gem at her exhibit opening at the NC Arboretum.By the way, if you are in the Asheville area be sure to get by the Arboretum to see Rosalie’s Tiny Worlds Exhibit. You know I’m a big fan of Rosalie and her incredible book Tiny Worlds of Appalachia, but to see her and her work in person was one of the highlights of my summer so far. Her exhibit will be there through September 7th. So be sure to get by there if you can!
We’ll also be attending a Moth Party and a late night Foxfire Tour. I’ll be sure to share about all these adventures in future posts!
What summer happenings have you got planned? I’d love to hear about your fun adventures…
Mushrooms, Mushrooms, Mushrooms…
We’ve had sooo much rain lately. And that’s a good thing—I love a summer rainstorm. I also love how summer rain gives rise to so many mushrooms. After the ephemeral flush of spring, I really hate to say it, but a forest walk can sometimes feel, well, a little lackluster…
But when the summer rains come and the mushrooms march in, I start scanning the woods for fungal blooms. Their strange and otherworldly beauty never ceases to amaze me.
Just this week I read that the Greeks believed Zeus tossed mushroom seeds to the earth during thunder storms. And how cool that recent studies now confirm that lightning strikes stimulate mycelial growth.
Mushrooms have long been associated with the fairy realm. In many cultures around the world mushrooms were thought portals to lands beyond the veil. And is it any wonder? Their unusual presence is so unlike anything else growing in the forest.
I’m curious how you feel about mushrooms? Several of you have shared that mushrooms make you squeamish. Others seem to love them.
Since the last survey went so well, I thought it’s be fun to take your temp on mushrooms. If the survey seems too limited, just leave me a comment below.
From where I sit it seems to me that mushrooms are having a moment. Frankly, I think they deserve it. I’m currently reading Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake. It has opened my eyes to the breadth and depth of the mycorrhizal network here on planet Earth. I’ve come to realize that there is barely a place or space that isn’t affected by fungi in some way. It’s truly mind-blowing.
And… after all they were here first.
I was floored to learn that during the Devonian period, the land was dominated, not by plants, but by gargantuan fungal pillars, called Prototaxites.
Sheldrake writes…
Nothing got anywhere close to this size: Plants existed but were no more than a meter tall, and no animal with a backbone had yet moved out of the water.
Of course, now they are now extinct, but these odd entities prevailed for nearly forty million years!
My interest in mushrooms goes back to early childhood. I was raised by a mushroom fanatic—my dad. He loved mushrooms. Sad thing is, I’m not exactly sure how his passion for mushrooms developed. I wish I had asked him. I suspect sprang from his love of good food, but there might have been more to it.
“Often I go into the woods thinking, after all these years, I ought finally to be bored with fungi, but coming upon just any mushroom in good condition, I lose my mind all over again.” John Cage
When he and my mom were living in New York City he joined the New York Mycological Society. John Cage was his teacher. John Cage was obsessed with mushrooms too. He even said that his interest in mushrooms helped inform his musical compositions. My mom used to talk the extensive soup-to-nuts meals that the mycological society would host where everything on the menu was made with mushrooms. “Even dessert!” she would marvel.
My childhood summers were filled with mushrooms. Every June we’d pile in the station wagon and drive to the Highlands of North Carolina—the mushrooms lands. It was my dad’s happy place. His family had helped found the town way back when and we complained about how long the trip was taking, he regaled us with stories about how his parents (and theirs) had traveled by horse and buggy up from South Carolina, and how it taken them days to get there.
When we finally arrived and got settled, we’d set out on the hunt. He taught us all about which ones were poisonous and which ones turned blue when you touched them. Mainly though, we learned about which ones tasted best when cooked in lots of butter and wine. Chanterelles were a favorite.
All this to say that mushrooms continue to be a source of cherished memory and curiosity for me.
For Mother’s day my son gave me a morel growing kit. I haven’t started it yet. It can take up to two years to see results, so I want to learn more and be sure to chose a special place—mainly so I won’t forget about where to look. We’ve grown several mushrooms from box kits, but this is a little different. Have you ever tried to grow morels? I’d love any advice.
Right now I’m reading the Entangled Life chapter on truffles. What an incredible thing a truffle is. Most people think about European truffles, but there are North American varieties too.
In fact, we have our own here in Appalachia. The Appalachian Truffle. I haven’t tried one yet, but its on the ‘summer goals’ menu. There is a couple that sells them at a local farmer’s market. They have truffle dogs! that they take out to hunt them.
In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for good old shitakes. They’re really kind of miraculous in their own right.
Their proven benefits include: reducing inflammation, improving circulation, improving digestion, improving overall energy, reducing stress, boosting immunity, and lowering cholesterol and blood pressure.
I’ve created a really scrumptious flavor dust with dried shitakes and will share below. This is a ✨magical dust✨ that you can add to soups, sprinkle on grilled veggies, and best of all, dust your popcorn with it.
Substack just gave me a message saying my post is nearing the “email length limit”…so I’ll wrap up now.
If you’re still with me, be sure to drop me a line and let me know what’s blooming and growing in your neck of the woods! Are you seeing a lot of mushrooms this summer? I’d love to know…🍄