Monday, June 30, 2014

competition in the chanterelle field

Yesterday I took a walk at my favorite spot for chanterelles.  I've had my eye on them for a few weeks and was told that they are slow growers.  But I wanted to see how much they grew over a 4 day period when we also had some rain. 

Previously, they were too small to pick and I have been waiting for them to grow before I pick them.  But as I walked, I saw a few that were still small and decided to wait for my return before I decide whether or not to pick them. 

Then I got to a patch that had been loaded with the mushrooms and I found nothing at first.  Then, I saw that someone had cut them at the base.  That means another good mushroomer has discovered my patch.  Or perhaps I discovered his or hers.

In one place, I saw they had marked the spot by tying a ribbon to a branch.  I took the ribbon!  And I covered the tiny mushrooms there with leaves so they couldn't easily be spotted.

They missed a few.  Any other time, if I didn't have a mushroom thief to deal with, I would have let these fairly small mushrooms grow another several days.  But this time, I picked them. 

It was either pick them small or don't get any at all.

I just fried them up and these will go into the freezer for some future day.  It's hard though because they smell so good!

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