# 2020 - OHIO - SUMMER



## sb

With Summer just 2 weeks away, I'm beginning to think about Chanterelles and Reishi and Oysters and perhaps, early Lions Mane!

I found a new 75 acre Chanterelle woods to try this year . . . that would be early July.


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## shroomsearcher

There are a few guys on Ohio Game Fishing finding Oysters. After this rain passes through I'll have to get out there again. 
Pretty hot today. Thinking that might give the Chants a kick in the butt as well.


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## david oakes

shroomsearcher said:


> There are a few guys on Ohio Game Fishing finding Oysters. After this rain passes through I'll have to get out there again.
> Pretty hot today. Thinking that might give the Chants a kick in the butt as well.


Been finding oyster last two weeks. Warren county


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## sb

Central OH, Ha! My wife is encouraging me to get out and find some Chanterelles. 
Well . . . because she loves the Chanterelle, Corn & Yellow Wax Bean chowder I make each year.

I think I'll get out Monday, tomorrow, and see how things look.


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## Old Elm

3


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## Kokomorel

sb said:


> Central OH, Ha! My wife is encouraging me to get out and find some Chanterelles.
> Well . . . because she loves the Chanterelle, Corn & Yellow Wax Bean chowder I make each year.
> 
> I think I'll get out Monday, tomorrow, and see how things look.


Let me know how you do I’m headed out Monday in Indiana


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## sb

Hi Kokomorel - I did get out today (Monday) and into my favorite Chanterelle woods. No Chanterelles. 

I found nice moisture in the forest floor. So if we get some rains over the next several weeks we will have a normal Chant season here. I took a few pics, too, but it was obvious very quickly that this was just a quick scouting event.

I did look at my past 7 years and the dates of my first Chanterelle pics. For me it is usually July 7 for Central OH. (Franklin County). One year my first was June 29. All the rest were in July with a July 6th, 7th and two 8's


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## Kokomorel

sb said:


> Hi Kokomorel - I did get out today (Monday) and into my favorite Chanterelle woods. No Chanterelles.
> 
> I found nice moisture in the forest floor. So if we get some rains over the next several weeks we will have a normal Chant season here. I took a few pics, too, but it was obvious very quickly that this was just a quick scouting event.
> 
> I did look at my past 7 years and the dates of my first Chanterelle pics. For me it is usually July 7 for Central OH. (Franklin County). One year my first was June 29. All the rest were in July with a July 6th, 7th and two 8's


Pretty much the same finds you’re having not bad moisture just gonna take some heat I am thinking first week of July I’t be pretty decent as long as things stay the same in moisture stays in the ground and we have some heat


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## Zabz

I don't start looking for chanterelles until all the orange "trumpet" flowers are out in full force. Typically mid July for my area of Northern ohio


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## sb

Zabz - that sounds like a workable indicator, even for Central OH


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## shroomsearcher

Zabz said:


> I don't start looking for chanterelles until all the orange "trumpet" flowers are out in full force. Typically mid July for my area of Northern ohio


Are you talking about the "ditch lilies"?


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## jpfootball57

I start hitting my chant spots after July fourth in southern ohio. Definitely need some rain though.


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## shroomsearcher

I realized that my next door neighbor has some ditch lilies planted in her flower bed. They are nearly as tall as I am, but the buds are pretty small, and it will be a while until they open.

I figure about mid-July as well! And that's about the time I found my first last year!


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## JBwoodsman

I think I found some dead chanterelles today. Can anyone verify?


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## shroomsearcher

Anything growing from wood are not Chants. Chants grow from the ground. Some of those appear to be growing from wood. And my earlier estimate of mid-July turned out to be wrong. The Tiger Lilies are blooming right now! I'm seeing them everywhere. So, I'm heading out tomorrow to have a look at that oak, beech, maple ridge!


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## Zabz

shroomsearcher said:


> Are you talking about the "ditch lilies"?


They do tend to grow in ditches!


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## sb

*Hocking County - SE Ohio
*
This is going to be a good year for Reishi mushrooms*. *All these Red Reishi are from a morning hunt yesterday morning*.









*
The woods were magnificient!
*







*
If you are looking for these you need to get into steep hills with deep gorges and cliffs with lots of hemlock. Put on you finest billy goat style*.
*
Once home, it was slice them and dry them . . . to be used later for a 2 stage (medicinal) extract.*









*


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## shroomsearcher

Had a chance to get out for a walk in the woods today, but found nothing! We're getting the temps but have been very dry. We need some rain to get things moving. Last year we got drowned in June, this year we're dying of thirst!


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## sb

*Central OH - Franklin County*

*Chants or No Chants -- That is the Question?*

Look at these teeny, tiny Chanterelle babies! I had to go to the middle of the woods and under 2 & 3 canopies of foliage to find enough moisture in the forest floor for these to have started.

Some rain showers will help, for sure! Season just beginning.


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## morelseeeker

Slim Pickens but they are starting but need rain.


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## sb

morelseeker - Nice pickings! *What county in Ohio?*

For me in Central Oh (Franklin County) , what I'm wondering right now is how many different woods I should try without waiting for my favorite chanterelle spots to fruit. 

For example, the spot I profiled and pictured above (post # 19) , may be just 5 miles from a spot that got a dense rain band dropping 1/2 or 3/4" of greater rainfall in the last rain event. That spot just 5 miles away will be sprouting and growing harvestable Chanterelles right now.


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## shroomsearcher

I'd check where the rain fell! We're dry as a bone up here in NE OH, and absolutely nothing seems to be happening.


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## sb

shroomsearcher -- Well, you're absolutely right.

But *Just how do you determine where the localized rain fell and how much.* Last night I got up at 4:00am and looked out the back window and saw a beautiful waning moon in the clear sky. Then I saw a flash coming from the east facing windows and went to look. 

There was a huge thunder head to the east some 15 to 50 miles away and it was being illuminated by lightening. The thunderhead just sat there, dumping rain.

So this morning I started looking for better ways to determine and locate localized downpours. Last week I got 1/2 inch in the back yard and the 3 airports around me at 6, 8. 11 miles all reported nothing.

What I found this morning was* iweathernet.com* which mapped and showed this mornings thunderhead spot received 3.78 inches of rain at the center of the rain pattern.

Here's a 12 hour lookback for NE OH showing a location that got over 2" of rain.

I saw a widgit on there where you can track numerous areas so perhaps it's possible to load in numerous spots and have it tract the rain in each location. That would be great! I'v got to put some more time into this.

. . .And it is raining outside as I write this; another localized pop-up shower.

Shroomsearcher - this is for your area - composed at 5:00pm today and for 12 hrs. You can pinpoint any spot and it will tell the rainfall for that spot.










Another helpful site I have yet to explore may be rainfall.willyweather.com.

*Happy hunting Everyone.
*
AND* if anyone has some good ways or sites for tracking the localized rain we are talking about here, Please Share it.*

Thanks.


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## redfred

sb said:


> shroomsearcher -- Well, you're absolutely right.
> 
> But *Just how do you determine where the localized rain fell and how much.* Last night I got up at 4:00am and looked out the back window and saw a beautiful waning moon in the clear sky. Then I saw a flash coming from the east facing windows and went to look.
> 
> There was a huge thunder head to the east some 15 to 50 miles away and it was being illuminated by lightening. The thunderhead just sat there, dumping rain.
> 
> So this morning I started looking for better ways to determine and locate localized downpours. Last week I got 1/2 inch in the back yard and the 3 airports around me at 6, 8. 11 miles all reported nothing.
> 
> What I found this morning was* iweathernet.com* which mapped and showed this mornings thunderhead spot received 3.78 inches of rain at the center of the rain pattern.
> 
> Here's a 12 hour lookback for NE OH showing a location that got over 2" of rain.
> 
> I saw a widgit on there where you can track numerous areas so perhaps it's possible to load in numerous spots and have it tract the rain in each location. That would be great! I'v got to put some more time into this.
> 
> . . .And it is raining outside as I write this; another localized pop-up shower.
> 
> Shroomsearcher - this is for your area - composed at 5:00pm today and for 12 hrs. You can pinpoint any spot and it will tell the rainfall for that spot.
> View attachment 35878
> 
> 
> 
> Another helpful site I have yet to explore may be rainfall.willyweather.com.
> 
> *Happy hunting Everyone.*
> 
> AND* if anyone has some good ways or sites for tracking the localized rain we are talking about here, Please Share it.*
> 
> Thanks.


This is a hard thing to figure . This time of year storms pop up almost every afternoon. I think we all have had a conversation with someone who lives only miles away where they are getting a down pour and we are getting nothing or we drive right threw a storm to find nothing but dry pavement on the other side... The more samples anyone takes for rainfall will make any map more accurate but it’s all filled in with a best guess.....my suggestion is to place open tin can near your best shroom sights and when you go to look to see how much rain has fallen ......look for shrooms .... it can’t hurt.... Best of luck to all...


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## sb

redfred - One year the local schools were putting out rain guages and posting the rainfall amounts on a website. That made for lots of real measurement points, but the system only lasted one season.

What iweathernet.com does is take the radar data and analyze if with some complex math to determine or estimate how much rain hit the ground in any particular spot.

On the 8th I printed out a map for my own area and found a spot that got 3.39 inches of rain in a 72 hour period. It was just a 4 mile circle or so. Tomorrow I'm going to a park within that rainfall 5 mile footprint and walk the woods to see if the mushrooms I find make sense or validate that the area likely did get 3.4 inches of rain 5 days prior.

. . . more later


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## Zabz

I believe this is a Cauliflower Mushroom, does anyone have experience with these for identifying and if it is one...is it delicious?


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## shroomsearcher

Sure looks like it. Go to mushroom expert.com for more info and how to get a spore print. I have read that they are delicious, a choice edible. If that's what you've found, nice find! 

I once read this mushroom described as a "ruffed collar"! Well. what does that pic look like? Although I know you can't depend upon looks alone!


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## jpfootball57

Found a nice batch of chants in southwest ohio 👍🏼


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## sb

*Rainfall on the ground compared to map showing rainfall.*
Adding on to post # 25 above, I got out this morning to the area that showed 3.4" of rain 5 days ago on the map and found only 2 mushrooms in a 1.9 mile walk through woods even though there was plenty of moisture in the ground. I attributed the ground moisture to rains more recent than the 5 day prior map/print and rain tally.


Hmmm, . . . may have to rethink of how I may use this web site (iweathernet.com) for assessing localized rainfall.


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## shroomsearcher

Well, there are no guarantees. We've had two good rains the past two days, and I'm hoping to see that got the Chants to pop on the ridge where I found them last year. But, who knows?


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## sb

*One Thing Leads to Another . . .
Franklin County - Central OH*

Today, I went back to the spot of post #19 above after 11 days and got a few Chanterelles, below:










*. . . which, of course, led to this:








*

Chanterelle Scrambled Eggs with Shredded Chedder Cheese, Cherry Tomatoes, Cape Gooseberries, Rianier Cherries and Parsley. 

Very satisfying!


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## sb

*Red Reishi Review*

Yesterday I was in Hocking County with friends and walked up the trail in the bottom of Conkles Hollow State Nature preserve. 

As it is a State Nature Preserve, I counted but did not pick any of the nice 35 or so Red Reishi mushrooms hanging off various dead Hemlock.

Probably, most Hemlock Gorges in SE Ohio will have Red Reishi right now. There's lots of public state park and state forest land that is open. I never see any other mushroom hunters myself this time of year, in that area.


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## sb

*Central OH - Franklin County*

Nice fresh Oyster mushrooms on the 13th. My buddy took all of them because he likes to dry and powder them. (I took the Chanterelles)

Happy hunting everyone!


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## shroomsearcher

Chants are finally starting in my area. The rain got them going. Tons of spikes all over the place, and was able to find 8 to 10 usable size ones. I think all that I found today are smooth Chants because there is no sign of a false gill on any of them!


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## shroomsearcher

Was supposed to get more rain yesterday, but we only got a brief, heavy 10 minute shower with about a 20 minute sprinkle after. Still, I went back to the ridge. 

The place where I found a bunch of sprouts, with a few usable ones, still only contained little spikes. So, I went to a certain point and headed down the ridge. I hit a spot that I know of that gave up quite a few nice ones! Lower down the ridge equals more moisture. The odd thing was that my honey hole from last year, the swale or draw that runs off that ridge only gave me one really nice Chant! Kind of surprising. 

But I think I know what it is. I'm a little early this year. Of the 15 or so Chants I gathered today, only 2 had a single bug hole in the stem. Every other one was totally solid! That's kind of nice! Many of the Chants I found last year had stems just riddled with bug holes! Rather be early than late!


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## JBwoodsman

Finally got some


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## shroomsearcher

Got all the yard work done today, so heading out tomorrow morning on that ridge. Already have the alarm set so I can get out there when it's still cool! Last thing I like is slogging around in the heat!


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## Zabz

Its like 15 degrees cooler in the woods. What a place to be. Found about 10 lbs of chants and a couple tender pounds of chickens. The absolute most tender, like if it were a deer it would still have the white spots. It almost feels unethical, but bwhahahah it is a feast!


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## morelseeeker

Not sure if it was worth getting the painful leg cramp OUCH! 27 3/4 pounds in 5 hours. Not many likes on social media cause they think it is fake or since I'm not a woman


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## morelseeeker

Here they are sacked up. Not sure how to load several photos on one post.


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## morelseeeker

Many big ones


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## morelseeeker

You may be wondering what I'm doing with all of these chants. Well I have two dehydrators going. I'm going to make some into a spinach soup recipe I like and also add some asparagus. I happened to find a few on a hillside at the start of a ravine with lots of beach trees so I followed the ravine back.


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## morelseeeker

*Now I see how to load more photos on each post.














*


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## morelseeeker

Didn't have much time in the woods for photos but I did find about 20 big (cantherellus persicinus) peach chanterelles. Only in one small area so I left them but I remember where.


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## sparx

First oysters on my property this year...
View attachment 36337


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## shroomsearcher

Holy cow! And I thought I had a nice day! Found more Chants and a fresh Chicken log. And I know the log is fresh, because it's in a County Metropark, and there's a wide hiking path leading you right past the log, and along the ridge. 

I've been hiking that ridge for years, and have never seen chickens on that log. Didn't see them 4 or 5 days ago, the last time I was there. Today, I spotted them about 70 yards away! 

I was getting some when a park cop drove past on the road that is quite visible from the log. He didn't stop or turn around, but I got away from there anyway and found some Chants. My way back to the truck took me past the log again, so I stopped to get more. As I was slicing away, I hear a voice ask, "What are you doing there?" YAAAAGGGGHHHH! I'm busted! 

Turned out to be a lady just walking the trail. So, I told her what the mushrooms were, why I was harvesting them, how I knew they were not poisonous, and she found it all interesting!


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## morelseeeker

1.78 pounds which is 28.5 oz of dehydrated chanterelles from 25 pounds of fresh. Found out to grind them course then dehydrate to get a more intense flavor. Just finished them today. Back to the woods tomorrow.


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## morelseeeker

No mushrooms today but this afternoon almost picked a gallon of blackberries in the shade.


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## morelseeeker

sb said:


> *Central OH - Franklin County*
> 
> Nice fresh Oyster mushrooms on the 13th. My buddy took all of them because he likes to dry and powder them. (I took the Chanterelles)
> 
> Happy hunting everyone!
> 
> View attachment 36244
> View attachment 36249


I'm starting to dry and make course powder with all my mushrooms now.


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## morelseeeker

Got into the chanterelles today and some oyster mushrooms. A little over 18 pounds of chants and 2 1/3 pounds of oysters.


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## sb

Great pics and great Chant haul!


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## Kokomorel

morelseeeker said:


> View attachment 36374
> View attachment 36375
> View attachment 36376
> View attachment 36377
> View attachment 36378
> View attachment 36379
> View attachment 36380
> View attachment 36381
> Got into the chanterelles today and some oyster mushrooms. A little over 18 pounds of chants and 2 1/3 pounds of oysters.


I thought I did good yesterday but you smoked me


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## morelseeeker

Nice ones. I haven't seen one chicken.


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## pedro

It is that time of the year again for Pink eggs. Saute Lobster mushrooms will cause your eggs to turn pink.


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## Zabz

Tomorrow should be mushroom madness in NE Ohio!


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## morelseeeker

This chant on my hand is the same one on my boot and is the biggest one this year.


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## Zabz

Krikey!


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## sb

*Central OH - Franklin County*

A nice sack of prime Chanterelles this morning . . . finally!!










I tried several new prospective places that had gotten sufficient rain but to no avail. So it was back to my "Best Chanterelle Woods" even though it didn't show great rainfall levels on the cumulative rainfall maps (Rainfall totals for the last 24 hours to 3 days - high resolution map – iWeatherNet). Click on a specific spot after drill-down to your locale and it will give you the rainfall for that specific location over your choice of time frames. I do 72 hrs and recheck every 3 days.

Back, now to my "Best Chanterelle Woods": Bingo . . . there were lots of fresh Chants and enough forest floor moisture to continue development for the next 3 days at least. The ones I picked were young - fresh, & bug free. How to cook them? . . . . .

Back to the first woods, I visited. I found a "trail camera" analogue that is for taking census of bats. It was on an abandoned road through public hunting land and the microphone sensor was pointing down the abandoned road to count the chirping bats that flew along the tunnel formed by the tree canopy along the single lane road.


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## morelseeeker

Didn't find many in the morning just in the afternoon. All together just about what I had found the first time. This time 27 1/2 pounds. Counting 2 pounds I found earlier in another area I'm at 74 pounds. Found 58 pounds last year so I'm done with chants. Wish I had a big dehydrator. 😩🍄


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## sb

*Franklin County - Central OH*

This morning, back to the woods of my Chanterelle picking (above) of 3 days ago for more!
There were lots of pencil stub and nickel to quarter size Chants that will grow if . . . *IF* we get more rain.

In the meantime, I'm going to make a *Chanterelle Shrimp Pie tonight.

Happy Hunting, everyone!*


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## shroomsearcher

Zabz said:


> Tomorrow should be mushroom madness in NE Ohio!


Yeah. We got a storm that dumped better than an inch of rain. Next time I walked that ridge the played had literally exploded with 'shroom! Chants were everywhere I looked. Best thing about it is it's a 5 minute walk from where I park the truck! There's a path as wide as a sidewalk that runs along the ridge, and the Chants grow all along it! Easiest picking ever!


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## Zabz

I wonder if we're looking in the same place .


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## shroomsearcher

Zabz said:


> I wonder if we're looking in the same place .


Let's start narrowing it down. NE Ohio?


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## Zabz

Yes, Medina County?


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## shroomsearcher

Nope, Mahoning.


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## morelseeeker

West central today 25 pounds of chicken mushrooms. Will dehydrate all and process into flour.


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## shroomsearcher

Nice that you're finding more chickens. We got about 2" of rain last Friday, a little bit more on Saturday, I got all the yard work cleared up around here Sunday and Monday, and went hunting today. And found absolutely nothing! Not a thing! Well, that's not entirely true. I did find a bunch of clumps of what appeared to be honey mushrooms around an oak tree. They were already fairly large and seeming to dry out. They must have sprouted when the rain started to fall. 

I guess the next target it hens.


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## JBwoodsman




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## JBwoodsman




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## JBwoodsman

The hens are on the way!!!


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## sb

*Hocking County*










All these colorful 'shrooms were found with 100 ft of the spring, when I was getting Spring Water yesterday.

Well, since you asked: 100 ft is about all I can get before I have to walk back to the spring to put a new bottle into the flow, to fill.


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## sb

*A little mushroom micro-vignette. (Hocking County)*

 These micro-shrooms were growing out of a hickory nut.


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## sb

*Teaberry (Hocking County)

Anyone remember Teaberry Chewing Gum?

Both the leaves and berry have that characteristic aroma & taste








*


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## sb

*Hocking County*
British Soldiers Lichen (Cladonia cristatella)
Next to a Teaberry and in arresting red bloom, this bloom was used to make a pink dye, once upon a time.


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