Marsh, mushrooms and the white stuff

The white stuff I’m talking about here isn’t snow, it’s this nice blanket of lichen I noticed on this trail I’m exploring today. This area is covered with deep green moss and many white lichens beds.

It looks almost like a white road in this photo though it to is lichen and I’m also noticing a few over-mature White Matsutake mushrooms and a few other interesting ones as well.

Here is a bit of a hard mushroom to get to know as you need to become familiar with all the other local grey capped mushrooms in this family. This one has a sticky grey cap, plus a number of other features to work through before we can call this the very good edible Tricholoma portentosum.

Since there is at least one serious poisoner which resembles this grey Tricholoma  mushroom I do not recommend anyone try gathering this late fall season mushroom without having it verified by an expert. This is a popular mushroom in central Europe, but it is rarely gathered for the table in the Maritimes.

These very common looking Lactarius mushroom here in the Maritimes are quite a case, they are one of my favorite smelling things in nature. These mushrooms which can be numerous shades of brown and grey have a scent of sweetened coconut and can greatly vary in size.

There are probably several different Lactarius mushrooms at play here that just haven’t been named yet, but for today since these ones are on a gravelly hillside with only Jack pine within a few hundred feet the most logically name I can find for them is Lactarius mammosus.

 

In pausing a few minutes and miles away, It seems clear how much and also how little is known about this world and this can’t become a problem from a Tantramar marsh perspective, even with the fogginess being experienced on the banks of the LaPlanche. ciao

 

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The Tide says hi

Mostly I seem to arrive here on the salt marsh during low tide when lots of marsh mud is in view, but today it is truly full.

Low tide view.

Again my 2 crow friends flew over to visit as I noticed a nice close shadow and raised up to watch them circle around me while I was gathering some Sow-thistle leaves. No photo of them as they seem to prefer it this way, though I will show the fresh Sow-thistle leaves which were very tender for late July.

Back on the ridge above the marsh a few berries are ripe. Here on hand we have Blue, Amelanchier and Northern fly-honeysuckle berries.

Raspberries to. ciao

Favorite green, Live-forever

Since the late 70s (Sedum telephium) Live-forever leaves have gone into more of my spring and summer salads then any other green. In those days the only place I found Live-forever was where ostrich fern fiddleheads also grew near my local river.

On the land surrounding the Tantramar marsh Live-forever is much more common in damp old fields, thickets, forest and even tall grass as we kind of see today if we look closely. (click on for better view)

Live-forever in some soils produce bitter leaves, though in the Tantramar area I haven’t found any as bitter as the commonly used romaine lettuce, plus Live-forever can be stir-fried as well.

That’s enough green only,  here are some Aronia shrubs in blossom with a little more green and why not some blue too. ciao

Urtication, hands become comfortably numb

The nettles have the knotweed surrounded, luckily the nettles are my primary reason for my foraging visit to this area which was a small farm back in the early 1950s.

Yes running approximately 15 feet out from this large patch of japanese knotweed is a healthy stand of stinging nettles which I’ve been gathering from each spring for around 30 years. The stinging nettle I will gather today should last me for a year, as I will dry them and use the majority in tea.

These 2 baskets took an hour to collect as I prefer to gather using scissors and bare hands accepting a few stings which I find somewhat pleasant and the gathering is more of a dance with them. The plants in my home garden came from seeds from these grounds where there are always a large number of water fowl, hawks, ravens and many other birds and creatures which move in close if you are relaxed and moving with gentleness as this is a very narrow valley which drops into a huge freshwater marsh and then a salt marsh before the waters of the Bay of Fundy.

I was too entraced with the stinging nettles to retrieve to my camera to take any bird photos but this little flying friend touched down long enough for a pic, this is a commonly found red admiral butterfly.

Back on the ridge, last look out into the marsh for today. If you are a stinging nettle tea drinker, you may enjoy trying  Christine’s these light footsteps nettle tea recipe which is very good cold and probably hot as well though I haven’t tried it that way yet. Check it out. ciao