Lois Nestel Archives: Mushroom Delights

I must admit that as of late, I've spent most of my waking hours - and honestly my dreams, too - in a world of fungi fantasies. I empty my basket of dirt and debris every evening, while each morning I prepare my mushroom guide books for travels to my car, my office, and the field. Mushroom season can be so fleeting, so I put the miles on while I have the chance. 

Though much of my attention has been drawn out into the woods, I know I can always look inward, into the museum, for the most wonderful stories and specimens of mushrooms. From the archives of Lois Nestel, here are two treats of mushroom writing: 

To begin - 

"The long awaited rains have ushered in the time of mushrooms and, if these conditions continue, it should be an excellent season.

"Mushroom hunting and gathering is one of my greatest pleasurers. I never use the derogatory term “toadstool” but consider them all as mushrooms of varying degrees of desirability. Actually they are all fungi, but that word also has a way of turning people away from the fascinating form of lie.

"As with flowers, most varieties have specific seasons, the time of fruiting overlapping to produce a continuing supply from mid-summer until frost. Also, like the flowers, the forms, colors and odors are very diverse. Many shades of red, orange, yellow, blue, green and purple mingle with the less spectacular browns, tans and white. Odors may be that of garlic, anise, cucumber, apricot and almond in addition to the more common mushroom aromas.

"Each edible variety has its own distinctive flavor, and what seems delicious to one may be distasteful to another. Concerning edibility, many different mushrooms may be eaten but only a few are truly desirable, just as only a few contain deadly poison. There are no tests, no rule of thumb, in determining what is good and what is deadly. Only by study and/or learning from someone who really knows can one be assured of safe food gathering, and even then an alert guard must be maintained against confusing similar varieties.

"But to enjoy mushrooms it is not necessary to eat them. My greatest pleasure is derived from the discovery of something new or in forms and colors that appear as in a fantasy world.

"At this time the Russulas are appearing in red shades from pink to wine and almost as many shades of yellow, as well as the coarse blackening Russula that appears so commonly. The very desirable Cantharellus is at its best now. Apricot-scented and colored, it is eagerly sought both in America and in European countries. Following closely and intermingling with these are the Lactarius, some good, some bad, all exuding a milky fluid of yellow, orange or white depending on the kind. Later will come the Tricholoma and the popular Armillarias, the stump mushrooms.

"Throughout most of the season the deadly family of Amanitas appear in white, orange, yellow and brown, the Cortinarius in shades of lavender and purple, the many-colored corals and numerous small varieties – too many to mention, as there are several thousand different mushrooms around.

"From the serene beauty of the stately destroying angel to the edible but grotesque brick-red Hypomyces, from the perfect parasols the size of a pinhead to those of platter size, the study of mushrooms is an absorbing hobby and an unqualified delight."

And lastly - 

"My partner is a better picker than I, not being so easily distracted by extraneous materials. Frequent diversion may bring sensual satisfaction, but it also impairs efficiency.

"In this unique woodland there seems to be a happy blending of spring, summer and fall, and it takes a more single minded person then I, not to fall victim to its charms. Who can resist hare bells of the most amazing blue side by side with deep pink pasture roses, the lingering gold of puccoon mingled with early fireweed’s magenta spires or the solitary flames of wood lilies?

"Then there are the darkly gleaming huckleberries set off like jewels among the powdered blue of blueberries and the creeping, polished fronds of bearberry surrounding clumps of sturdy New Jersey tea. Dawdling, I greet, as old friends, plants like bishop’s cap, bluets and varieties of sunflowers whose proper names I can never remember, and renew acquaintances with the strange earth stars, geastrums, that litter areas of sandy soil.

"In guilty haste, I hurry along to fill my basket, but eyes soon stray again. Here are gray-green clumps of spoon and ladder lichens and just over there the brick red monstrosity resulting from a parasitic attach on a common mushroom. And the mushrooms – not just our chosen one, but Russulas in many shades of red, wine and gold and the lovely, deadly Amanitas in purest white, in orange and brown.

"I tread beneath my feet the mosses, soft and green, feathered, plumed and velvet and from these verdant bowers I glean the golden treasure. Surely, if the little people exist, it must be here amid the jewel tones of fungi and flowers. It is a fairyland that we despoil, but well we know that in a few damp days, the golden crop will be renewed and of our passage there will be no sign. So pass we through this life, taking what we will, enjoying what we may and so will nature heal the wounds we leave behind.

"When we come again, the little people will have changed the scenery and set up a whole new set of distractions to lure me from my task. But I will concentrate. I will be strong – sure I will."