Ceptember

The rains have worked their magic and the mycelial communities have reacted with a show of appreciation, mushrooms of all kinds are coming up all over the place, dozens of varieties are represented. There were plenty of Ceps about, and that's always a good thing. I really didn't have to check much of my favourite mushroom roam this morning to collect all I wanted, a couple of breakfasts and a sheets worth for drying.  Over the years foraging I've learnt the way to make sure you've got dried mushrooms to last, is to collect just a few for drying each time you collect to eat. That way you slowly built up a store without risking leaving it too late and being tempted to over pick in some desperate mass harvesting/processing operation, I don't hold with that sort of picking, I always try and leave mushrooms behind. What I noticed today was that even though many of the Ceps I collected were still quite small and young (I was only walking this way Friday), the stems of most had been well maggoted as had a couple of the caps, still cool for drying though.