Fall's falling...

Harvest continues. Here's J shelling Hidatsa Shield Figure beans. Grand total for apple sauce canned is 20 quarts, 37 pints and 19 half pints. Good thing we like apple sauce. We also dehydrated some broccoli for the first time, and it was so delish we'll be saving a lot more that way for sure next year. Last thing left to harvest in the garden are the peppers... and we'll need to do them soon. It was 39 degrees last night and it could freeze at any time.

Return of the prince. This is an Agaricus Augustus Fries mushroom, also called the prince, which grew near where the same variety showed up last year under our old growth trees. This is a more coastal California mushroom, but apparently it likes it here. J harvested, sliced and dehydrated it to share with some friends. The mushroom is a delicacy and quite tasty.
I was clearing garden plants from the side of the house for winter prep and look who was hanging out catching bugs! J actually watched her catch and eat a small spider.
Here's Fergus's Marty Feldman impression.
Stew tried as well, but looks more like he's attending some sort of first aid class. Nice try Stewart.
The cats like to lurk just outside the cat door tormenting one another. As long as one of them is sitting right outside, then it is too dangerous to exit. This can go on for hours.
After such cat door torture Magnus needed some Z's, and what better place than on some warm sheets from the dryer? At least his feet weren't muddy this time.


Here we are approaching a 4-way stop on Gemini. No matter how little or much we drive him, he's always the consumate proffesional.

Mystery Solved!

Thanks to a friend who helped research what this is, we now know this is an Agaricus augustus Fries or common name "the Prince" mushroom. Actually more common to California than the PNW, apparently it can show up here as is evident. They like foggy warmer weather, which we had a spell of recently. The final cap size is evident in the photo just below.

I said "final" because the darn things are considered one of the best edible mushrooms there are, and reportedly somewhat rare. They are reported to have the slight flavor/scent of almonds, which indeed they do! You can see the bottom side below, just after we harvested it.

Given it was at a fairly mature state, we chose to slice it and dehydrate it for future use.

Obviously a note of caution for foragers in that you want to be abslolutely sure the variety you are harvesting is the edible type you think it is. Many varieties of mushroom can be quite deadly, so be absolutely sure before eating!