Mushroom crowd.

It stopped raining last night.  Today the clouds parted, the sun came out and I finished pruning the Pinot grigio vines, yay!  I even tied the canes down on one row, double yay!  It was a rather squishy affair, as I was within inches of Vinoland's overflowing creek, but I kept both of my wellies on my feet by moving as little as was humanly possible.
One consequence of all the rain, (besides all the mud, flooding, a dirty Vinodog and boredom), is that some interesting fungi have popped up around Vinoland.
The poison pie mushroom (Hebeloma crustuliniforme) is, as the name suggests, moderately toxic to humans and usually appears in the autumn. But due to the fact that winters in California are so mild, this winter the poison pie mushrooms are enjoying an extended run in Vinoland.
There is always something to distract me, sigh.

Fungus fun.

We have been having an awful lot of rain lately, so, consequently, there is an abundance of fungi, moulds and lichens growing in and around Vinoland: everywhere is so verdant right now. However, now and again something other than the colour green catches my eye.
This fun-coloured fungus, commonly known as cobalt crust (Terana caerulea), or blue velvet on a stick, is currently flourishing on much of the split oak logs in Vinoland's woodpile.  This photograph doesn't really do the vividness of the hue of this fungus justice, it is even more striking to the naked eye.
Whilst the thriving local flora is keeping me amused (because, after all, it is fun to look at), I am patiently (sort of) waiting for the rainy season to end so that I can start pruning the grapevines.  I don't want to be out in the vineyard, pruning away, and have some opportunistic organism begin to grow on me. Yesterday was gorgeous, sunny and 65°F and would've been perfect to start pruning, but, alas, I was in work.  I know that finer weather is just around the corner.

No 'shroom at the inn.

One good thing, and only one, about all the recent rain that has fallen in the Bay Area (seemingly directly onto me), is the amount of fungi that have popped up around Vinoland, and the places that I roam about with Vinodog 2.  There are mushrooms everywhere and the variety is amazing, each one a little more fantastical than the next.
Whilst the Death Cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides) is not particularly weird to look at, it is grotesque in its reputation: the Death Cap is the mushroom responsible for the most mushroom related deaths worldwide.  But what makes this non-native species so interesting to me is the fact that in California the Death Cap can be found growing under cork oaks (Quercus suber).  This Amanita is considered a beneficial mycorrhizal fungus as it lives on the roots of live cork oaks, providing the tree with nutrients - such as magnesium and phosphorous - in exchange for carbohydrates.  It is believed that Death Cap spores were first brought to North America on cork oak seedlings and it has since adapted to living on native California Quercus species.  This particular 'shroom was growing, all alone I might add, under a very large oak tree (not a Q. suber) right next to the house.
Yikes, I suppose I'd better take a good look at the cork that's bunging up this evenings wine offering.

Shroom for one more fungus?

The diversity of flora  in and around Vinoland never ceases to amaze me.  I don't think I could ever become bored with the aggregation of biota in my small part of the world.  Maybe, if I live to be 200, there will come a day when I could not care less about some new botanical specimen, or creature, that I sometimes, literally, stumble across.  But for now I am quite happy to revel in the wonder of it all; from that which is the tiniest Haircap Moss, to the colossus that is the Giant Sequoia.  Although, I must admit I know very little about trees.  I must rectify that.
My latest find is another fungus, which is growing under some sort of pine tree just outside the gates to a neighbourhood vineyard. When I first spotted these somewhat homely 'shrooms a few weeks ago, I initially thought they were dollops of deer poop.  However, I noticed that the dark, repellent looking mounds were coming up from beneath the pine litter, not deposited upon the surface. It was only when I got closer that I realised that the rather unprepossessing heaps were indeed plant life.  My eureka moment was confirmed by a total lack of interest on the Vinodogs behalf: the Vinodogs know and love their cervine excrement, in fact, my beloved dogs are experts in all kinds of scat.
Back in Vinoland, a quick search on the internet revealed the identity of the mystery mushroom, the Black Elfin Saddle.  Helvella lacunosa is the most common of all Helvella species in North America and is usually found, just where I found it, growing under Pinus trees.  And apparently, unlike the Common Roll-rim, the Black Elfin saddle is edible (when cooked).  Personally, having first identified this particular organism as animal fecal matter, I don't think I'm inclined to want to consume them - I'll stick with store bought, thank you very much.  Besides, even the Vinodogs turned their noses up at them, so they must taste like they look, ugly.

No recipe for living.

The past two days have been really nice weather-wise, especially today, with temperatures in the mid 50s and lots of pleasant, albeit wintry, sunshine.  I have spent as much time as possible outdoors with the Vinodogs, performing miscellaneous garden chores, e.g. pruning Vinoland's rose bushes - all seven of them. Northern California experienced a rather moist autumn which has resulted in abundant weed activity and lots, and lots, of mushrooms.  I think this year's fungi goings-on are the most I have ever seen.  I like to admire all the different types of mushrooms with their different forms, the way they age, the fairy rings they create, but that's it.  I am content with the entertainment garnered merely by observing their fun-guy life cycle.
Each and every mushroom season the Bay Area news outlets report of at least one fatality from somebody eating poisonous mushrooms, making it necessary to tack on a reminder to mushroom foragers about the dangers of consuming unidentified, or, more often than not, misidentified 'shrooms.  When these to-be-avoided woodland fungi often come with names like Poison Pie, Sickener and Deadly Conocybe, the average person could probably assume that there is a need for some caution when perhaps considering whipping these things up into an omelette.  I could be being a tad cynical when I say that maybe it's just Darwinism at work - except that this year, a caregiver at an old people's home, near Sacramento, killed four residents when she served them up Death Angel mushroom soup.  Like some modern day Typhoid Mary, the caregiver has been banned from working with and preparing food for the elderly ever again. Good call.
The past couple of months I have spotted many a mushroom popping up all over Vinoland, including the varieties Meadow Mushroom, Artist's Fungus and Sulphur Shelf.   However, the majority of the mushrooms in Vinoland seem to be of one species, Paxillus involutus, the Common Roll-rim which, yes, can be fatal if ingested - otherwise they merely destroy red blood cells and cause renal failure, that's all.  The Paxillius are rather large, fleshy mushrooms and it isn't too hard to imagine them chopped and tossed into a stir-fry and paired with a nice Nebbiolo.  I, for one, am not looking to make a little mushroom concoction my last supper. I'll just admire them from afar.

There's a fungus among us!

The first two measurable rain events of the season have brought on an abundance of fungi that are furiously sprouting up all over Vinoland. I'm pretty sure this cluster, bursting forth through the landscaping outside my front door, are just plain, ordinary meadow mushrooms (Agaricus campestris). If I have indeed identified these fungus correctly, I believe they are quite edible. Not that I am going to be consuming them, I'm just not that adventurous - too many bad mushrooms look like good mushrooms (the 'shrooms in tonight's Stroganoff are store bought). I had some sautéed golden chanterelles recently at a winery event and they were delicious. I'm hoping one day some of those will grow in Vinoland, but then again, I probably wouldn't eat them either.