#foraging diary

we were getting scattered thunderstorms, which means cool rain on a warm day, power in the air, and scattered sunshine throughout. thunderstorms are awesome. I walked through the heaviest rain and mostly enjoyed it (under tree cover, not too worried about lightening).

I love how rain makes foliage look so vivid. part of it is the contrast between dimmed, grey, daylight and their vibrant colors, part of it is the scattered sunlight hitting raindrops on the leaves, and I think part of it is that the plants do become inherently brighter when it rains. it's like everything is opening up to breathe, the "blood" is really flowing though them and giving them more color.

mushrooms brighten up A LOT too.

it's a little frustrating that most guides and tips say after rain is the best time to look for mushrooms but nothing else. it's true, but they never go into detail.

I think the average person would intuit that since mushrooms need water, there's going to be more out after rain, which is true. but they're also MUCH easier to see in rain or right after rain.

all that dead stuff they thrive on: fallen trees, bark, dead leaf litter, gets so dark when wet, but mushrooms just get brighter. a lot of them also expand and become much larger, like jelly fungi.

no idea what those orange ones are yet. the right is a nice latte bracket.

this is the same dog vomit slime mold cluster but an hour apart. can't believe how much it expanded in such a short amount of time.

photos from today that I want to live forever in.

I didn't take photos of them but I collected a lot of service berries, dewberries, flea bane, and mimosa flowers.

service berries and flea bane are new to me this year! service berries are like if pomegranates and blueberries were combined in the best way.

their flavors are both present and compliment very well, the berry is blueberry sized but also from a tree, a ripe berry is kind of purple, the seeds are small and chewable but not so small that they get in your teeth. 10/10 this berry

zarza común rubus ulmifolius schott - very abundant here and edible

persian walnut juglans regia - edible

beard lichen genus usnea - edible

fig tree / higurea ficus carica - edible

crab apple malus sylvestris - edible

castañas / chestnuts genus castanea - edible

ciruela / plum prunus domestica - edible

due to heat exhaustion and confusion i accidentally deleted all my photos from this hike except very few .. very sad .....

i saw a lot of new plants but again , i lost all my photos ..

at least i managed to forrage blackberries though