The Schoolhouse Log: August 2010

In August we attended our first mushroom foray at Stephen's State Park in Hackettstown. We came armed with a knife, wax bags and a basket to collect. We had a fun exploring the woods with about 40 other people looking for mushrooms of all different kinds. We were told not to expect too much due to the drought we were experiencing at that time. Despite these comments we were not to be disappointed. Phil spotted some some great looking Oyster mushrooms just a few minutes into the walk! We were aided with our initial identification by one of the foray team, but she suggested we have that confirmed by some more experienced members of NJ Micrological Society.

After that we collected a few other mushrooms that we were pretty sure were non edibles, which we were just as curious to identify, due to the fact we want to know more about mushrooms. On our way back to the identification tables Phil spotted a wasp nest and as he was taking pictures they decided the flash wasn't something they enjoyed, so he had to make a quick retreat and so did everyone else in their path!

Back at the tables we were astounded by the variety, colors and the number of mushrooms people had collected. The ID session was very serious, and we learned a lot from many of the experienced members. We were shown several examples of Destroying Angel, a very poisonous Amanita, which is very a useful mushroom to be able to identify! Everyone was very friendly and helpful, and we picked up recommendations of mycological books to extend to our collection: Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians by William C. Roody is the second book we have purchased are starting to use. Our mushrooms were identified as Pleurotus Dryinus, and pronounced good eating. Oyster mushrooms are also in the Pleurotus genius - one of the other members had found some and let us take those home too, which was very generous. What a great bunch of folks we have discovered. We traveled home with these and enjoyed our finds with pasta and on pizza over the next few days. Very tasty!



We attended some great workshops and courses during the month of August. We are using these to increase our own knowledge for our workshop business. We attended a hummingbird program at NJ Audubon Weis Ecology Center and were treated to some good views of hummingbirds coming to the feeders and gardens they have there. We had spent three days attending workshops at the NOFA (North-East Organic Farmers Association) Summer Conference in Amherst, MA, where we paid for our registration by presenting a children's  workshop on wildflowers.

The workshops we attended covered mushrooms, permaculture, making your own skin-care products, and pollinator-friendly gardening. Jack had a wonderful time at the Teen Conference and had made a number of friends by the end of the three days. It was great to see him enjoying himself so much.

We were very grateful to Linda and Michael for allowing us to camp out on their driveway whilst attending the conference. I actually met Linda when I attended her workshop a number of years ago about hanging out your laundry. She really made me think a lot about the way we do our laundry and as a result of this we have been washing our clothes using a hand cranked "James Washer" and of course we also dry our laundry on airers and the outside line in season.

Later in the month we attended a native seed collecting workshop at Duke Gardens and we now have more native plant seeds to propagate! We are hoping to return in the Spring to check whether we actually propagated them correctly!!!!

Following this we spent a long weekend in Cape May and enjoyed a wonderful day with Pat Sutton learning how to identify butterflies. Pat Sutton offers these classes through the NJ Audubon Cape May Nature Center and does a truly fantastic job. Her knowledge is exceptional, and her photos are wonderful. She is very hands-on, extremely encouraging, and responds to our many emailed questions and photographs since. (Thank you Pat for helping us discover more.) We are now embarking on overwintering a few of the butterflies we have raised from eggs or caterpillars from our yard or town. We will let you know how that goes in the Spring!

We attended the craft fair at Quiet Valley at the end of the month. Phil and I love chatting with the crafters and viewing their work. Lorna starting working on making our Christmas cards for this year with fellow stampers Joan and Terry. Maybe they will be finished and mailed in November this year rather than have them arrive in January.





Phil's Photo Gallery
It turned out that Pat Sutton was quite an expert in dragonflies, as well as butterflies. This is a Blue Dancer.
 The butterfly workshop taughts us to look at the smaller butterflies - not just the big swallowtails. This is an American Copper on mint in our front yard.