Thursday, September 3, 2015

Picked first shiitake (and random nature pics)

I watched the shiitake that I first saw Sunday as it expanded each day this week.  Time to pick it!  This is what it looked like just a little while ago.  As you can see, some critter has been gnawing the bark of the log.  Fortunately, whatever critter that was left this mushroom for me.


Now, I just need to decide how I want to cook it.

Here are some more random pics from the last week or so around the house.

A sulphur butterfly in a white morning glory makes butterfly #11; four more to go!

 
 I already have a tiger swallowtail for my count, but this was a pretty sight.
 
Ditto for the pearl crescent butterfly.
 
I thought I had another butterfly for my count, but this little white thing is a moth.

 
The Texas mallow is still blooming prolifically.
 
I made a few cuttings from a rose of Sharon bush.

 
And the brown thrasher is enjoying the water dish.
 



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3 comments:

  1. jack69September 3, 2015 at 7:07 PM

    Sherry and I were talking today about your knowledge of the flora and fauna or flora and insects. What is the butterfly?
    Anyway I love the butterfly. I enjoyed sitting for about a half hour today and just watching a black and blue butterfly 'flit' around. I always wonder do they have any idea where they are headed. ;-).
    I always smile at the name of the Shiitake., cannot help it. Sherry says tomorrow she is going on line to some 'vocabulary speaking' site to see how to say it. I use the Redneck pronunciation.
    I would never trust myself to 'select' a mushroom. :-o

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    1. UnknownSeptember 3, 2015 at 7:25 PM

      The yellow butterfly is a cloudless sulphur butterfly. I'm not sure what the white moth is. There are some old world moths called wave moths that look very similar and some moths in our area called carpet moths that look similar.
      The mushroom is pronounced shuh TAHK ee (or something like that).
      Now the only reason we trust ourselves to select this mushroom is because we inoculated it ourselves with shiitake spawn. The log was newly cut when we did that, so it did not have time to be invaded by other fungi.
      I'm hoping to get one of those butterflies like you saw today in my count. I've seen one around; I just couldn't chase it down. I set a watermelon rind on the deck, hoping to attract it. They are attracted to decaying fruit. Usually I see some around the fig bush in late summer.

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  2. joehSeptember 5, 2015 at 8:24 AM

    We don't see many butterflies in these parts lately (NJ) probably don't have the right plants to bring them in.

    I love mushrooms but would be scared to try wild ones, you have to know what you are doing which I expect you do.

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