Mr. Bluejeans and I were at the property the other day. We were there to try our hand at surveying. See, we can’t seem to get anyone to come out to survey our farthest left corner. This is where we want to start our driveway. My thought is NOT to start our driveway on the someday neighbors property (as the property next to us is on the market). As good deeds go this would be a nice offering to our “to be announced” over the fence residents but I’m not feeling that giving so I’d like to keep our driveway on our side.
Apparently surveyors have no interest in money. If I were to tar myself, jump in vat of cold hard cash and run up and down the street I can almost guarantee you that not one surveyor would show up to pluck a bill off my humiliated body. Not. One. So we wait. Hopefully, one of them is running out of groceries or gas money or maybe they want to take a vacation soon and we will get a call. In the meantime… we wait.
Turkey Tail mushrooms have been brewed for thousands of years by the Chinese as medicinal teas.
What the heck does this have to do with mushrooms?
X did not mark the spot.
Well, one reason is I’m venting. Thank you for listening. The other reason is that after Mr. Bluejeans and I failed miserably at attempting to survey using a longitude and latitude map, metal detector (here’s the one we own) and a survey wheel we walked the property to enjoy our time there. On the upside, I found a small WiFi portal on the property where I sat and dared not move as Google Earth loaded our location. Using that and a survey map (written in ancient Sanskrit with weird drawings and notations that made no sense to us laymen) we felt we had come within about 5 to 10 feet of where we think our property line ends. We think.
Clueless but having fun.
High from our semi-success or dehydration not sure which… we continued our walk. Mostly to work off our surveyors angst. Every time we take a walk around the farm I have to pinch myself. It’s still hard to believe we’ve realized our dream, however, I suppose if you have the same dream, you should be sure to dream for your beautiful homestead AND a surveyor willing to come see you within the century. You’re welcome.
As we ambled about we found beautiful oaks, a downed tree that has a pretty cool burl that I hope is usable. There were ground cherries and wild strawberries. Walnut trees and a statuesque Hickory. Hoping we have more hickories as we only found the one so far.
Burl wood.
We approached the woods and decided to walk through them. There they were. Mushrooms. At first I thought AGH! This reaction is because I took a mushroom class a few years ago. What I got out of it was that if you don’t really really REALLY know your stuff… you’re dead. Yup. This instructor did NOT beat around the bush. We learned that many good mushrooms have an evil and deadly alter ego mushroom. I almost didn’t want to buy button mushrooms at the store any more. Truly scary.
What we found was gorgeous. I tip toed up to them since we all know that just walking up to a mushroom can be deadly… no idea why I tip toed but it seemed the right thing to do. I snapped some photos and decided to see if I could learn about the one particular variety that appealed to my artistic sensibilities.
Our beautiful Turkey Tails.
Come to find out we have Turkey Tail mushrooms on 5 Dog Farm! My first thought? You guessed it: Are they poisonous? Happily I can tell you No. No they are not. As a matter of fact they are quite insipring! I won’t bore you with all the details like these: 1-7 cm across; usually shaped like a funnel that has been sliced down one side, but often fan-shaped, semicircular, or irregularly kidney-shaped; densely velvety or hairy at first, but often smoother by maturity; with concentric zones of red, orange, yellowish, brown, and buff shades (sometimes developing greenish shades in old age as a result of algae).
We have quite a bit of Turkey Tail mushrooms.
Zzzzzzz. Oh, you’re still here. Ok good. Here’s the cool stuff… Apparently they have immune boosting properties. The Chinese have used them as a medicinal tea since the 15th century. A Japanese company received a patent in the late 70’s for an extraction method that lead to a cancer drug being created from Turkey Tail. Due to legalities it was never allowed in the US. Current thought is that turkey tails and other medicinal mushrooms lessen the odds of getting cancer by “reducing causal co-factors such as “oncoviruses” (viruses that induce cancer are called oncoviruses which are any of various ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses that cause tumors in humans and other animals). Linked to treating gum disease, aiding in better digestion and beneficial for anyone suffering from leaky gut syndrome to helping boost immune systems during chemo therapy have this mushroom being researched by the FDA in clinical trials.
All this new found knowledge from a simple walk through the woods. Wow! Never mind that Turkey Tails are also absolutely beautiful. See Mr.or Ms. Surveyor, if you just would come and take a walk with us you’d find beauty and joy. While you stake out the left side our our property. I might even show you the Turkey Tails in person!
Let’s take a walk.
Do you have or grow mushrooms on your homestead? What varieties?
Very cool! The name certainly matches the item. Mushrooms are fascinating since they seem to just pop up anywhere, even on an old tree next to the sidewalk in any neighborhood anywhere. It makes them seem a little mysterious (as does the deadliness factor of their nasty relatives). Hope others write in with photos or stories of wild mushroom encounters of their own. Thanks for the posting!
You’re very welcome! Thanks for following our journey!