Two Platterful Mushrooms (scientific name Megacollybia Rodmani) head in to hug it out, just a couple of the natural connections made at our Friday night Nature Walk and Mushroom Hunt. Over thirty folks made it out for our collective emergence after lengthy homestays, as Anthony Bowers lead us in a walk that turned up some good stories and several feastables. Talks also touched in on the not-so-ubiquitous Morel and some of its lookalike accomplices. Afterward, we enjoyed sautéd Coprinopsis Atramentarias or Inky Caps, pickled ramps and ramp butter and other culinary delights. A blazingly sunny Friday night, evening bird song, and flora in bloom, nature unimpeded in its steady stillness, was enjoyed by all.
Regarding our relationship with nature, every child knows about cocoons. They’re one of the first things we learn about the natural world. What the ABCs are to language, cocoons are to biology. They introduce us to the wonderful world of metamorphosis and transformation. A little blobby squirmy thing disappears into a sac and emerges as a flamboyant, colorful, flappy winged thing. Magic! But what happens and has happened during that magical time of darkness, confinement, waiting and change? Did you find your cocoon cozy and peaceful or cramped and dim? Was it inspiring and wondrous or unpleasant and grim? As we now emerge, in some ways changed as well as unchanged, we’re taking stock, and happy to be back, with several upcoming summer offerings we’re currently planning out to maximize peace of mind, health of body, and make the most of that transformational Magic. Anthony will also assuredly be back for another late summer hunt, with an extended Fall foraging weekend in the works. More on those dates and other summer scheduling shortly.
