Ruth got us a wild mushroom walk with ForageSF for a holiday present, and it proved to be a good test of my self-gifted macro lens.
On a short walk in the Oakland hills we saw dozens of beautiful mushrooms, mostly deemed inedible by our guide Feral Kevin. Of the edible ones, there were ample candy caps, which smell remarkably of maple syrup when dried, wood blewits which are “very tasty when cooked thoroughly”, and a giant porcini which was gleefully claimed by an older Ukrainian woman who had big plans for it.
Coral Mushroom
Flat Brown Cap
Wood Blewit
Candy Cap
The most visually interesting was the amanita muscaria, which looks like the Mario mushroom and apparently has mild hallucinogenic properties, and makes you feel a hundred feet tall. Kevin said that they watch over in the woods, and that we should not trifle with their powerful energy. Sensible enough for me.
Redwoods and Fog
Amanita Muscaria
Death Cap
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