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PERMACULTUHE
By any other name
t’s mushroom
Iseason, and even
if you don’t find
them, they’ve found
you. Their mycelia
spread through for—
est litter and com—
post, manure and
on a piece of paper
(a
Seeds catalog that
happened to be
green) overnight,
I found the spores
that dropped to be a
creamy white.
woodchips to sur— According to what
round our imperme- By ALEX I’d found, this ex—
able spaces. FETHIERE cluded molybdites,
I was tending which is distin-
the compost by the guished by its green
nursery when I no-
ticed beautiful mushrooms
fruiting beneath a maple
twinned with a fir. In years of
mushroom hunting I’d never
seen them, perhaps because
I’d rarely searched beneath
dense maple canopies.
There were about 20 of ‘
them, large and savory-
looking, some already having
sporulated. Slugs and flies
had gotten to most, but I’m
used to the involuntary shar—
ing inbuilt to foraging. ‘
Almost an hour later,
webpages and books splayed,
I’d identified the mushrooms
within a margin of error in
which I’d be comfortable
nibbling on one. I was cer—
tain enough that they were
Lepiota rachodes, the edible
“Shaggy Parasol,” and not the
poisonous Chlorophyllum m0-
lybdites.
A spore print had been key
in drawing this distinction.
Having left a mushroom cap
spore print and
greenish gills. The specimens
I’d collected also bruised red,
usually meaning a species
other than molybdites, so I
figured I was safe to collect
any that were less than half
eaten.
David Arora’s compendium
“Mushrooms Demystified” ad—
vises dry-frying these mush—
rooms because of their high
water content. I'had seen this
before with Matsutake, which
are ruined by cooking in but-
ter or oil. After cooking them
down in an iron skillet, I sau-
teed them with a little but-
ter and a sprinkle of freshly
ground pepper.
They were intensely earthy
and meaty with a long miner-
al-duff finish. Arora had de—
scribed them as “exceptionally
nutty,” so I supposed there
was some hazelnut flavor.
They were already starting
to wither so I dehydrated the
rest for later mushroom soup.
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CASINOrnESORT
“Shaggy Parasol” is among the the types of mushrooms growing on the
forest floors as
the weather turns rainy and cool. Journal photo by Alex Féthiére
Lying in bed wondering
whether I’d get sick, it oc-
curred to me that the paper
I’d used for the spore print
had been green. What if it
had concealed a green tinge
to the spores? Was I going to
projectile vomit for hours like
the Australian who had eaten
a plateful of similar mush-
rooms warm and partially
raw?
Prior to a night of multiple
incontinences, his stomach
had felt a little funny. It’s a
familiar sensation. .I never eat
more than a couple bites of a
new mushroom to see wheth-
er it agrees with me. All the
same, I haven’t been sickened
by one (knock on myceliated
wood). The quare feeling I
had was well within normal ,
parameters. .
The next morning, glad t
have retained my contents,
I read a bit more about the
Lepiota genus. It had been
renamed “macrolepiota”
at some point. Sometimes
around 2005-2007, it had
been collapsed into the Chlo-
rophyllum genus. This kind of
shuffling is typical in mycol-
ogy. Just a few decades ago,
it was discovered that evolu-
tionarily, fungi and animals
have more in common with
each other than either does
with plants.
It turned out that my
macro/lepiota was morechlo-
rophyllum, and my rachodes
probably olivieri, or maybe
brunneum —— and that the
molybdites I feared is more
VOTEFOR
Ted jackson (R)
for Mason County
Commissioner, District 1
The change we need
after eight years
common outside of the Pacific
Northwest. People have eaten
so many similar mushrooms
across this genus that it’s
hard to tell whether they’ve
been poisoned, have an intol-
erance, ate the wrong species
or didn’t cook them enough.
Molybdites are responsible
for most mushroom poison-
ings annually in the United
States. If only a Shaggy Para~_
sol by any other name were
just as safe,
I Alex Fe’lhiére has lived on
Harstine Island long enough
to forget New York City, where
he built community gardens
and double-dug his suburban
sod into a victory garden. He
can be reached 'at onlandist@
gmail.com.
- A proven leader with over thirty years in law enforcement
Will always work for the best interest of Mason County
- Protected Hood Canal, Puget Sound, and our natural resources
Wrote and managed government budgets
- Gives back to community as nonprofit executive director ‘
- Believes transparency, integrity and accountability are
paramount in public service '
Endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police Mountain Lodge #23,
Mason County Sheriffs Guild, Washington Council of Police and
Sheriffs, and Sheriff Salisbury
TED
Paid for by the Committee to
Elect Ted Jackson (360) 8010503
TEDJACKSON2020£OM