Chanterelles with Company

On Friday, we headed over to Hood Canal to hunt mushrooms.  The expedition was in search of FUNgal Knowledge but we allowed that we would gather chanterelles if they were in evidence. 

They were!

Shannon and Tara disheveled from crawling through huckleberry undergrowth

First, we had trouble leaving the parking lot because there were so many mushrooms to observe and collect.  These were not species I was sure of although there were many russula which I have reason to believe were the edible brevipes.   Wren is obsessed with gathering mushrooms and tells me he is going to be a scientist when he grows up, "the kind of scientist who Dentifies Mushrooms not Volcanoes".

Gathering along the path

For "Dentification" by Wren

He draws wonderful pictures of mushrooms with stems and caps and sometimes gills or dots (for boletes) and as he collects mushrooms he tells us that "These are eat-poisonous not touch-poisonous" and puts them in his basket.

"Look at the BIGGIE!"

 By contrast, Alex was only concerned with edible mushrooms and kept his basket empty "for chanterelles."  When we came to chanterelle country Alexander was keen to have every chanterelle that was found put in his basket and soon had a good pile, collected one by one.  Later, we came to thickets where white chanterelles were fairly abundant, often under logs and underbrush, growing more sparsely than the yellow chanterelles we found before but much larger and in beautiful condition.

We collected many and Tara, Mum and I became very excited and crawled and thudded through the underbrush in chase.  Tara and I are both enthusiastic foragers and ignored the needs of children and family in order to clamber through the forest after our 'trail of mushrooms'.   Aware of the chance of being lost, from time to time we yelled "we're here!" but I doubt anyone lost track of us with all the callooing and hollering:

Tara:  "I have found The Mother!"
Shannon "I have found her Sister!"
Tara:  "The Mother!"
Shannon:  "Crawl, Frost, crawl!"
Frost:  "I am NOT CRAWLING.  IT IS PRICKLY.  Get me OUT OF HERE!"
Shannon:  "No Frost, you can DO IT!"
"Waa waaa waa"  <---- Wren
Tara:  "FRED, bring the basket.  HERE FRED!"
Fred:  "How did you get in there?"
Shannon:  "You crawl, its really clear about 18" from the ground."
Tara:  Oh, FRED, over here.  You must bring it closer!
Shannon:  "We should send the children in.  Alex, here is one for you."
Alex: "How do you get in there?"
Shannon:  "Creep and crawl!"

Frost:  "I am getting OUT of HERE"

Foraging for a Big One

Success!