magpie

I gave a talk on outdoor mushroom cultivation this spring and gave everyone wine cap spawn to inoculate their gardens. Had an extra bag and was able to do a bed of my own. I was really impressed with how vigorous the mycelium was compared to growing other oyster species outdoors.

I will say these had a really strong flavour that was not my favorite. I left them longer than I wanted to so I could get a spore print to show my mushroom club so could have been better had I picked them younger

I'm having some trouble finding a whole lot of info on this model, finding some stuff but is older so I get it. I've wanted an extra scope for a while now, something used that I can pack around to other people's houses when I take my friends out mushroom hunting and what not. Seller says everything is in working condition, looks like it was refurbished or serviced recently as there's a tag from optics company, not sure. For $150CAD I don't think its a bad deal but wondering what others think. Right now I am working with a swift 380T, I'll miss the phototube but I might actually be able to get a darkfield filter to work on this.

Edit: I haven't purchased this yet, I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. It is a bit out of the way for me, about a 1.5hr drive so I guess that factors into the price

Edit 2: Bought the microscope and its really nice for what it is. The best part is my overpriced little darkfield filter (that didn't work for my swift) works great in this scope. So weird to not have a dark spot in the middle.

Stopped off on an old logging road to get a photo of this lichen and realized I almost walked into a moose, its tracks were so fresh the water was still pooling into them.

So I found a nice big flush of these guys and assumed R. brevipes even if it is a bit early for those in my area. I made a cut on the gills just to check if it was lactarius, this photo was after about 1-2mins of waiting for it to bleed. Uploading to iNat I always check my assumptions against the algorithm and it's top suggestion was Lactarius controversus - blushing milkcap. Now that I am looking at it the gills do have a rosy look to them. I couldn't find much info on how quickly L. controversus starts to bleed but maybe I didn't wait long enough. There was no zonation on the cap. Found under pine/spruce/fir/poplar growing closely scattered but fouund them in also a group of about 4-5. Northern interior of BC, Canada.

I'm pretty sure this is R. brevipes but would love feedback because I'm pretty inexperienced with ID and L. controversus wasn't even on my radar before uploading to iNat.

These are definitely my favourite homegrown mushroom to eat but my least favourite to grow (I just find them a little finicky). Not sure if this qualifies as a rosecomb mutation, but I did have actual rosecomb growth on subsequent fruiting from the same culture.

Cyclocybe aegerita

Makes an excellent dye for wool but its not as common in my immediate area so usually only harvest from the ground. I was happy to see this big doug loaded with it.