Short Film – Hunting Amanita muscaria

I recently decided to take on the challenge of learning my mushrooms; something I’ve always been curious about but also intimidated by the whole process. I’ve been intimated for 2 closely related reasons.

First, I enjoy eating mushrooms, and know if I had confidence in my identification abilities would forage for them to add to the menu.

Secondly, they seem incredibly difficult to identify. However, I’ve decided to one, not add any to the menu for the time being, and two, with the advent of iPhone applications that greatly help with identification I’ve set myself a goal of learning.

Here’s a fun little short of my first attempt at heading out in the woods of our local Manchester State Park to see what I could find. Luckily I came upon the easiest species for my first attempt.

The appeal for us was the solitude and obvious signs that the area wasn’t visited very often. Theresa had brought a book and read while I snapped photographs. The fact that Theresa would ‘slow down’ and enjoy the serenity of the place should tell you something about the energy of the area. Besides the occasional chirp from a bird, the only sound was the gurgle of the small waterfall which fed the river.