Putting together the Otter Farm Newsletter I was looking at what happend this time last year and I realised I was tucking into the first asparagus already…..so I looked even harder than normal, and there it was this morning. Yes, it is the worst picture of anything ever, but that’s a new unfathomable phone for you. rest asssured it has a zillion pixels, sadly none of which relay any focused information.
Marvellous, but not the only thing sneaking its way skywards toay. Moving a few plants around in the polytunnel I noticed a weird thing poking out of a pile of iron tubes…unless my mushroom ID skills are worse than I thought (v possible) I reckon it’s a morel. How can it grow on mulch mat, through metal tubes?
I once went on a fungus hunt with a national trust warden and he said they can bust through tarmac. They are tough!
on a lighter note, in my old department in Cambridge the head had been a fungi taxonomist before changing to history of science. He came in one day and told this story.
"So i was at home last night, and we noticed some mould growing up in the corner of the sitting-room, with some fruiting bodies. So I took out the general british fungi guide, and i couldn't find it in there. So then I got out the big six volume standard edition, and I went all the way through, and finally found it. It said 'Rare. only grows on urine-soaked plaster.' So that's how I found out that my toilet was leaking."
Brilliant! Worth doing the History of Science for alone!
Great story, Emma.
Those pictures really are shit, aren't they?
Shit as it gets, yes. Like I-did-them-that-shit-on-purpose shit
the thistle growing right next to the "must be carefully weeded" asparagus gives me hope actually
*coughs* i always let them get to that size, easier to pull out *coughs*
I've just spotted my first spear of asparagus *ever* – such a shame I can't eat any until next year! (picture here: http://tinyurl.com/chwpr8)
And I'm massively jealous of your morels, too!
Mel