Farm Saturday

Despite unseasonably cool and wet weather, it has been a great week on the farm. We had a good number of orders for deliveries, met some new customers, and today was a busy day at the market where we sold almost all that we brought.

I'm now feeling like a mushroom forager extraordinaire. Two weeks ago I discovered what turned out to be an edible mushroom called a cauliflower mushroom. Earlier this week I spied an interesting variety of mushroom and decided to harvest it to take to our friends at the market. I did some research and thought I knew what it was but of course I wanted to make sure. It turned out to be a chicken of the woods (aka sulfur shelf or sulfur mushroom:

I also found yet another variety growing and I was pretty sure they were chanterelles. A couple of years ago I thought I discovered some, but after some research determined that they were the poisonous lookalike called Jack O'Lantern. Now that I've found the real thing, I don't know how I could have mistaken the poisonous ones for the edible ones as they really don't look alike. Here's some more of the lovelies coming in:

Now there are three varieties of wild mushrooms that are easy for me to identify and that I know I can eat - plus the shiitakes we grow! We also did some bartering with our market friends who helped identify the mushrooms and ended up with two oyster mushroom logs and some black tea/hibiscus kombucha in exchange for a piece of the chicken of the woods.  The joys of homesteading!

Have a great weekend!*

*Postscript:  We went mushroom foraging this evening.  We found some blue milk cap mushrooms (edible but not necessarily tasty).  However, the best news is that we discovered several large patches of tiny chanterelles!  We'll keep an eye on those spots - plus I've read that they will come back in the same spot if the ground containing the mycelium is undisturbed.  Every cloud has a silver lining and now we know what to do when it's too wet to farm.