Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-11-06
WHY NOT EAT MUSHROOMS
This is the Very Time to Encourage
Mycophagy.

Mycophagy.
NJ. L. H. in the Boston Transcript
Now that beef and pork are high, and
coal for their cooking is beyond the
reach Of all but fortunes favored few.
while the amount of fuel used in the
preparation of our meals must be care
fully considered, why not gather in a
few of the supplies which nature so
lavishly spreads before us to be had
for the picking? Why not gather the
mushrooms, nearly all Of which stew
or fry quickly over a gas or oil stove,
Or over a wood fire? The common
pasture mushroom (agaricus campes-
tris) is, of course, widely sought for
and highly priced so much so that l
was recently rudely ordered by the
owner from a remote and unfenced
COW pasture where [ had innOcently
rejOiced to find it abundant; so much
so that bicyclists rise at Of the clock
on these autumn mornings and spin
away to fields jealousy watched, the
location of which wild horses would
not drag them to divulge, there to
gather gunny bags of the favOrite fun
gus for the market-at 81 the pound
or more modest quantities for home
consumption. If, as mental scientists
assure us is true, and we can easily
prove for ourselves by observation
within the circle of our own acquaint-
ance or of our own family, perhaps
hO 81,
accompanies our eating be as import
ant in the building up of the body as
the number of ounces Of fOO0 digested,
then who can estimate the enormous
food value to the mycophagist of a
breakfast dish Of clavaria on toast
clavaria of his own picking while yet
the woods are deWy and the beams of
the early morning sun fall through the
pine branches and upon the coral-like
clumps which peep through the pine
needles, clothing the steep incline of a
side hill? Or it may have been in
the slanting rays Of the afternoon sun
that he gathered it, when he could feel
in his whole being the silence, the
calm, the peace Of the woods, natures
place of worship.
Clavaria is one Of the mushrooms
to which the novice takes kindly, for
is he not assured by his jealous neigh
Dor or friend, mushroom-mad for the
nonce, that according to al authori-
ties there is no injurious clavaria
known? And then it is so very easily
recognized. Perhaps, too, he has SEN
timental recollections of how-as a
little child-he played with the great
clumps of coral growing in the dim
and ancient pine forest on the New
Hampshire hills, forest Familiarity
known as "grandpa's woodlot," and
tar from the old farmhouse. How the
memory clings to the delights of ones
tall, tall pines, with here and there
fallen trunk, the great cIumps OF
'coral'-the Indian pipes in troops.
and the blue sky just seen through
the tree-tops by us children as we
played.
Why is it, l wonder, that clavaria is
especially plentiful where the SOUR
rels make their homes? Is it due to
the decay of the cones which they
have broken apart to get at the pine
seeds, of which they are so fond?
Speaking of squirrels, will some one
tell me, if he knows, how the young
chipmunk distinguishes the so-calIed
poison Russula emetica from it's harm
less cousins? Or does he feast with
upon all Russulas? 1t looks
SO to me. Sure | am that one squirrel
friend Of mine, who took daily runs
for his health along nv fence this
summer, ni5bled generously one day
from an Amanita phalIoides, which
had laid out as an especially fine
specimen for the children to study. |
He raced by the next day, however, |
and the next with vigor undated |
Evidently Amanita phaIIoides served |
him as well as his favorites, the Rus
sulas and the Boleti.
Children are so vastly superior to |
their elders in the fearlessness with |
which they attack a new subject, es-
Decially if it be one that requires
the observational powers.
Some little girls who had never before
had their attention called to the sub
ecC went with me the other day into
he woods a-mushroom gathering. l
lad but to show them few kinds as
hey grew; the Clavaria, or coral
the Lactaria Iacatta; the
modest Cantharellus umbOnatus that
hTows its slate-colored cap among the
NOSES near the pines; the red Rus
ula (the different species Of the latter
lot, of course, to be distinguished by
hem). None Of these pointed out I
ould possibly be COMPOUNDED with the
eadly, poisonous kinds. l had only
0 show these, comparing them with
nearby Amanita phalloides, to set
be little folks at work, eager. each If
ne, to help fill the basket with the de- /
lred species. And every time a new t