August 25, 2022, Cloudy
After yesterday's morning Yoga ceremony (sun salutation) with my friend (who is a Yoga coach in Shaxi), the muscles around my legs, arms, chest, shoulders were all in pain. I decided to treat myself with a relaxing lazy day.
Just got up for about 15 mins and waiting for my coffee to cool down, I heard a "knock, knock" on my door. I opened the door and it was the lady with the little boy who lived downstairs.
"Do you still want to go pick mushrooms?" She asked.
"Yes..." I answered with some sort of uncertainty. "When are you leaving?"
"10:30AM."
"What time is it now?"
"10:00?"
"Ok, I have to get dressed now and prepare myself."
I quickily washed my face, brushed teeth, packed some food and a big bottle of water. All was done within 30 mins. Total 7 people were heading to Xiaoyangchang (小羊场, the small goats' farm), 2 young ladies in their mid-20s, a young boy in similar age who I never talked to, the mum (Qiao, 乔) and her little 2-year-old boy (chui chui), the minivan driver and me.
On our way to the nearby hills, the driver kept selling his picnic package in Dayangchang (大羊场, the big goats' farm). I mostly remained silence and the rest of them were very excitedly chichatting. When the driver started to persuade them to dump our initial mushroom-picking plan but take a picnic trip instead, I interrupted and said, "No, we are going to pick mushrom today. Picnic can be arranged on a later day." Luckily, Qiao were also in favor of me. She was the most senior of us all and the most talkative one. The young ones seemed to be in the mushroom-picking mood today too, and thus the attempted coup by the clever business mind failed.
The zigzag mountain path caused motion sickness to the little one, he seemed unsettled, turning round and round in his mum's arms, and finally calmed down for a bit. I looked at him and asked, "Are you ok?" He looked at me with no emotion, suddenly, he vomitted all the noodles that his mum stuffed him prior to our departure. The driver stopped the van and we all helped to clean. Luckily he was quiet the whole time and did not make any fuzz.
In less than 30mins, we arrived XYC. We got off the van, wore gloves, and set off for the mushroom hunting adventure! Thinking about that I had lived in Norway for 3 years, encountered millions and trillions of mushrooms in and among those beautiful forests, never had I gone for a mushroom hunting adventure. The only one online mushroom-picking activity back in 2020 that I finally took courage to participate was postponed and eventually cancelled due to covid-19. I couldn't believe that I have been back for almost 2 years!
While searching for and picking mushrooms with immense excitement, my good old classmate sent me messages and updated her fustration on her plan to get back to Norway. I sent her several photos of the colorful mushrooms then made fun of her, "You don't need to go all the way to Norway to pick mushrooms ;)"
Fear did not exist, as we were all intrepid newbies. Poisonous or not, that wouldn't matter. Qiao reassured us that the owner of our guest house could help identify edible mushrooms/fungi for us. With such confidence and assurance, we picked whatever came in sight.
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| boletus, 牛肝菌 |
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| amanita jacksonii |
The driver told us that August was almost the end of the season for feasting mushrooms/fungi. He recommended us to come back next year around May-July if we wished for more mushroom adventure. He might be right because after nearly 4 hours' hunt, we (at least I) did not harvest many satisfactory mushrooms. Nonetheless, I enjoyed myself so very much during the course of hiking around the "no-man" hills, searching for various kinds of weird-looking, coulor-rich, mysterious fungi/mushrooms.
At about 15:00, the young ones got bored soon so the driver suggested to take us to a nearby grassland to pick raspberryies. I protested since I had no interest whatsoever in raspberryies. He said that he could drop me to the other side of the hills so that I could continue with my mushroom hunt. He would come back to pick me when they finished with the raspberryies. I gladly accepted the proposal and said goodbye to them.
Of course the driver was right again. The first fungus that I spotted in this area was this small bright yellow umbrella! This was what the locals called Jidanjun (鸡蛋菌, egg fungus) .
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| amanita jacksonii |
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| amanita jacksonii |
After another 50 mins' inch-by-inch search under every pine tree, I was lucky enough to harvest several "giant" mushrooms/fungi.
As I was ready to head deeper into the mountains and look for more precious gifts bestowed upon by our mother nature, my phone rang. Of course it was the driver and they already wanted to go back (sun wouldn't set until 20:00)! With no better choices, I left with reluctance.
On our way back, we encountered several local vendors who were selling their mushrooms by the main road. Our driver bought some expensive tricholoma matsutake and "joked" that we could take them all home. I did not know why until later when we arrived in Shaxi, Qiao told me that they invited the driver for dinner. I was like, ok...
We couldn't wait to ask our owner to identify which mushrooms/fungi exactly we could cook for dinner!
"This you can eat. This and this you can also eat."
"This is edible but doesn't taste well."
"This you cannot eat..."
Our owner was such an expert that in less than 5 mins, she already sorted out all the mushrooms/fungi. Unfortunately, most of the big ones had to go to the trash bin.
One young lady went with us to the market to buy chicken and vegetables, with little doubt, both of them were too tired so they had to take a nap, leaving Qiao and me to prepare for their invited guest. We spent the rest of of day washing and preparing all the ingredients until when almost everything was ready, the same girl came to help.
Pickinng mushroom seemed to be more fun and enjoyable than eating them. Though cleared by our guest house owner, I was still suspicious about whether the mushrooms were really edible. Qiao proved to be the most daring one, she scolded her son who cried for more beer while stuffing her mouth with all the mushrooms! It sure was a delicious meal!
What a great mushroom day we had today!
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