Let the Games Begin! The Chanterelles are HERE!

Let the Games Begin!, originally uploaded by Mycologista.

The chanterelles are out!

I was on my way to checking The Field of Chanterelle Joy and found them just all over the woods, right on the little paths. Nobody home yet in The Field, though.

Curious I am to see what will happen in the field, which last September was covered with hundreds of them for a good few months. Also, it's hardly a "field"--it's covered with some plant I haven't ID'd yet, and lots of damn honeysuckle, and trees.

I cleaned and sauteed the whole lot of them, ate a LOT of them in scrambled eggs, and there's plenty left (until TOMORROW, anyway, when I'm going for another hike), and my house smells like chanterelles, which is great.

Old polypore sculpture, Ganoderma applanatum

Ganoderma applanatum, "Artist's conk"

Look, I don't make this stuff, I just find it

Here's another one







Six years after I posted this, I looked at it again, and now I think it's Ganoderma applanatum, an old one. The original post was "Fresh young polypore sculpture" and I had identified it as Ischnoderma resinosum. But now I don't remember where it was growing, and I don't have more details to refer to. I was overly eager, and fairly inexperienced. It's a phase many mushroom people go through. No shame.

Amanita with orange cap and nice volva

June 21: Don't know who this is yet
June 26: Amanita crocea, "Orange Grisette"
July 6: Apparently not A. crocea either, here's a link to the ongoing debate about what this one really is: Mushroom Observer
There were also back-and-forth emails...as I've said before, "How many field guides and keys (and microscopes, and access to experts) does a person NEED?"