Little piggies in the woods

The autumn rains have officially started, and with them comes the emergence of mushrooms! This past week we have been very busy searching for those tasty edibles. The best find of the season is the "King Bolete" or "Porcini" as the Italians call it. Porcini is an Italian word that translates to "little piglet" and as the name suggests, these mushrooms are robust and tasty! Although they are a common mushroom in the forest they are difficult to find because of the tough competition by other mushroom hunters. The porcini season is only 3 weeks long and people take it very seriously out here. Just the other day there was an arrest at the state park near our house when a man pulled a knife on another man because he had walked into his mushroom territory. Crazy. My mushroom spot is nearly a 2 mile hike through the forest, with Ada on my back and George at my side for protection.

Here is a porcini popping out of the moss covered ground...

And another. They look like little loaves of bread in the forest.

You can see how big these mushrooms can get by using Ada for scale. And these are actually small compared to what they can become...

This here is a lobster mushroom. Not quite as yummy as a porcini, but worth a taste...

And for those of you worried that I may somehow poison myself....please relax. Zach and I are both taking a mushroom identification class at the local college so we know what we're doing!