Hello you! Yes, you… how has your week been? Good, I hope. Mine has been lovely! It finally feels like October around here. The rain has started, although there are plenty of sunny days in between. Not a problem in my book, as I know how grey it can get around here come winter. We’ve been out and about on trails around town searching for mushrooms as the rain tends to make them pop up. We’ve found several varieties, some of which may be edible, but we were unsure so didn’t bring any home. Still fun to look, though!

These were found in Lithia Park in Ashland. There were many patches similar to this, and even if they were edible I wouldn’t have picked them being that they were in a high traffic area of the park and likely tainted with pesticides and/or fertilizer (not to mention dog poo…)

We saw several that looked like this one, which resembles the edible shaggy mane mushroom. Not exactly sure if that’s what this is, but it’s likely.

Further back, in a not so visited part of the park, we saw this cool looking shroom beside the creek. The mushroom had totally grown around the leaf!

Then we spotted what we think were oyster mushrooms growing on a mossy log in the creek.

These are actually pretty much unmistakable as oysters, but we left them be anyways. We found a few more smaller ones on another mossy log nearby (oysters always grow on rotting logs).

In the midst of mushroom hunting, we found many traces of animals. Bear poop was common, as was hoof prints and digging evidence from deer. They like to eat edible mushrooms, too! We came upon these babies on our search. They didn’t seem too concerned with us.

We also spent a little time meandering around the duck pond, and these two were so cute. They also had no fear of us humans.

Back at home in the rainy fall garden, the green tomatoes are still green, although the smaller cherry tomatoes are still ripening nicely. Will probably have to make another batch of fermented green tomatoes soon.

The eggplant is slowly growing. Will have to pick it before frost sets in, but I’m determined to get at least one eggplant from our garden!

The tomatillos are also starting to grow nicely, but will also need to be picked before the frost. Now we’re just milking every last warm day that we can before the final harvest!

If all else fails I’ll be fermenting a whole bunch of tiny tomatillos! Not a bad problem to have in my book. The cauliflower is growing right before our eyes, and now we have baby broccoli! They survived the major cabbage worm attack and are now doing pretty well.

I can’t wait to eat broccoli and cauliflower from our garden! Hopefully the Brussels sprouts will make it as well.

That’s about it for this week, many mushrooms and a rainy fall garden! I hope your past week has been wonderful, see you again soon!