Given the opportunity to go mushrooming with two good friends from Kecskemét I was ecstatic. I've done a bit of hunting in the surrounding area for different mushrooms including different varieties of morels and other locally distinctive mushrooms, but being fall after a lot of rain and then some really good sun it was prime parasol mushroom season! So we headed due east for about 15 km outside of town and arrived to some nice patches of grassy forests.
A patch of parasol mushrooms
Our catch after 5 minutes!
These guys were everywhere and they were doing good business!
Hunting for these mushrooms was a breeze as they were everywhere and almost all in very good condition. We just tried to avoid all of the spider webs which turned our walk through the trees into a maze. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect as we saw only a few over-the-hill mushrooms; most were in their prime!
Known as the "deer leg mushroom" in Hungarian (őzlábgombá) I had no idea why until I actually saw them. Here's a photo composite of the stages of life of this mushroom:
Just sprouted
Getting taller and the cap is developing
This cap is starting to open up
Here's a fully grown parasol. The stem looks like a deer's leg.
This one has dropped it's spores and is over-the-hill
The stem could no longer support the weight of the giant aging cap
A patch in many different stages
The beautiful habitat of the mushrooms, spiders, and deer we saw that day
A rare wasp spider
Here's Peter and Laura enjoying some freshly baked zucchini muffins
A big thank you to Peter and Laura for the invitation to hunt for mushrooms and the wonderful dinner of mushroom soup that followed. Delicious!
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