We went hunting chicken of the woods mushrooms this weekend on the off chance the huge log we found in September would have put out another flush in this warm, wet weather. But it seems chicken of the woods is much more seasonal than the oysters we've been picking in our own woods.

Among the latter species, I've been noticing that one stump just past the edge of our core homestead has a much darker cap than the usual wild type, more like one of the varieties we plugged into logs from purchased spawn several years ago. I wonder if we're introducing new fungal strains to the local woods, and what impact that will have on the ecosystem? The effect on our dinner plates is definitely positive.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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