Thursday, December 6, 2012

To grow and to find: 2012 Fall Fungi

 In the laboratory I have taken to 'practical mycology' by growing edible fungi on wheat berries and sawdust.  This is large in part due to a lab member, Rob Powers, who has taught the rest of the fungal crew how easy and satisfying it is to 'grow your own' !  In this image, we are inoculating mason jars with Shitake and Oyster mushrooms.  =)

 There is a time for everything, and in September 2012 near the Detroit metropolitan Airport I found my first wild Paw Paw.  An Amazing fruit, hailing from the family Annonaceae, it sorta like a twist between a mango and a banana. The little red berry is from a Spice Bush tree, and it is equally satisfying as it is a member of the Lauraceae Family.


 After coming back to the Midwest from my Desert Journeys, the first fungi I saw were these SLIME BALLS! SLIME MOLDS```WHATEVER. I guess they aren't truly fungi, but they are rad and when you touch them they pop, like the perfect tender pimple.

Some more 'practical mycology', growing oysters inoculated in hay with lime and boiling water! RAAAAWWW!  For those with minimal storage capablities, mason jars can be used for the same purpose, filled with wheat berries available at your local health food store.
At work I take photographs of very ancient lichens.  


 This last photo montage is so full and desirable.  I feel vain and braggy talking about it all.  I am a 'finder' though and I like to find things and I like to find weird fleshy things I can eat that don't have faces.  Anyway, to sum up the fleshy findings of 2012 I will say this.  There were a lot of wood growing fungi, I believe the term is Sapotrophs, and not too many Mycorrhizal fungi (i.e. the kind that form symbiotic relationships with plants and and grow on the dirt). These photos are of Oyster Mushrooms growing in Waterloo Recreational Area, the last time I went there I was traversing through all the windy dirt roads and happened upon a prison! In the woods!  It seemed totally empty but then I remembered prisoners probably don't 'drive to prison'.
Photos from fallen log with an unknown fungi fruiting, at Saginaw Forest in Ann Arbor Michigan.
Fall, 2012.
 Mary Redhouse playing a concert at Edgefest, Ann Arbor, Michigan 2012. Thank you kind spirit.



   I'm going to recommend a book, it is definately the book that got me hooked, I know many others will say the same.  It's by the Northwest Writer / Fungal Cultivator / Doctor; Paul Stamens.  The book is super informative in a general sense. His partner, Dusty Yao (shown above) is in a lot of the photos and she is a total hero of mine.  I want to meet her real bad!  xo leah


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