DLLAWS87 (@DLLAWS87)

So we went to Itasca State Park on Saturday. It had rained the day before which made for some wonderful fungus hunting! We started out like we usually do, on sawmill trail, which is a great “starter” trail, because it’s flat, and fairly easy. It was definitely a day for bug spray as the mosquitos were vicious that day due to all the moisture. We found a lot of what I call “itty bitties” on that trail. Small mushrooms that aren’t really worth gathering, weather they were edible or not. However, there was a fair amount of lobster mushrooms, and tons of what is commonly called “white pine boletes”. We did also find a few very young puffballs. They may have been very, very young giant puffballs, but it’s to difficult to tell at that stage. While walking on the trail, we did keep an eye out for hazelnuts; unfortunately, There were not many, and the ones that were there, seemed to have been taken over by weevil larvae. We’ll have to check out other spots. Along our walk, I also checked ground beans (sometimes known as “hog peanuts”), and they weren’t ready, they were just flowering out! I also didn’t see any beach peas yet either (bummer!). We also came to find the wild raspberries to be much smaller this year, but we have some at home, so none were taken (except a couple along the way as a treat!). The other thing we noted is that the hawthorn haws seemed to be few and far between.