The teams are built on a total of the individual’s handicaps, called “goals.” A beginner starts at -1 goal and the best players in the world are 10 goals. Neophytes can play with pros as long as the opposing team goal totals match up. Unique to polo, women and men and young and old can all play together. It’s a family affair.

My entry into polo came after a few beers at a barn party. Suzy and Catlin Dix, the fiery daughter/granddaughter duo of founder Peter Dix, have been the driving force behind the Spokane Polo Club and decided to run a clinic to increase membership. 

“It’s so fun,” Catlin reeled me and my friend Hazen in, “There is no greater feeling than being on a horse in a green field playing polo. The connection when the horse really starts working for you is so incredible.”

“What’s it like for the horses?” I asked. 

“It’s basically a wild animal in a partnership. The right horse enjoys the game and it’s our responsibility as trainers and players to make sure they have fun. They are adrenaline junkies, too.”

By the end of the clinic, I had bought a polo horse, inspired by the remarkable equestrian—human language of subtle body inflection and emotion. This is amplified in polo to a magical level where the horse anticipates your movements and falls into alignment with the ball’s trajectory, setting you up for the perfect strike. The sport either sucks you in or spits you out. I got spit out. Though one of the most exciting experiences of my life, it was too scary and required more attention than I could handle. For Lori Rambo, a science teacher at LC who joined that same season, it became her passion, “drawn by tight community and immersion in a challenging team sport.” She’s still playing.

The right horse enjoys the game and it’s our responsibility as trainers and players to make sure they have fun. They are adrenaline junkies, too.

Anna Anderson, who helps run the club, started in 4H and has competed in the gamut: barrel racing, cutting, team roping, reining, dressage, etc. She calls polo “by far the funnest horse event. It’s the adrenaline, and you play for a while, not seconds or minutes. Like basketball or soccer; even if not good as a ball handler, you can still be super valuable in defense.”

Polo is thought of as a sport for the wealthy, but the truth is it’s for the devoted. Younger players can be found sleeping in tack rooms and tending the horses of the more affluent, another currency that affords play. If you know how to work with horses, polo is also a passport to the world. No need to plan a vacation, just go and play and immediately be absorbed into the local scene in France, Germany, Dubai, Argentina, South Africa, China, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, California, Florida, and so on.

Each Spring the Spokane Polo Club brings in a couple pros to assist with the clinic. Gorgeous chiseled Argentinean men, you can see them casually juggling the ball around, often riding shirtless and sometimes in flip flops. The clinic provides a rare opportunity to play the sport. It’s like trying a priceless bottle of wine at a tasting you’d never buy, or driving a Formula 1 car in Las Vegas, a window to the seemingly inaccessible. If taken by the game, the polo community will help you gather the necessary accoutrements and knowledge, including finding a horse that fits your personality.

Ready to play? The clinic runs May through June 2021 on Wednesday evenings from 6-8 p.m. and includes a horse, tack, and BBQs after each session. Contact Anna Anderson at poloclubspokane@gmail.com or 509.598.1106.

Kelly Chadwick wrote the popular Leaf, Root, Fungi, Fruit column for “Out There Venture” for several years. He’s an arborist, forager, spiritual explorer, nature lover, and consistently interesting individual who also apparently played polo. His last article for Out There, in the April 2020 print issue, reflected on a 10-day silent mediation retreat in British Columbia, which you can read in our archives.

The post Playing Polo in Spokane: Spring Clinics appeared first on Out There Venture.

I called my dad who practices Vipassana at a stupa-filled monastery in Bali.  

“What do you think, Dad? Should I go?”  

“Definitely,” he said.   

“Why?”  

“For the same reason people pray, or take drugs, or climb mountains.” 

A month later my friend and I arrived in the snowy mountains outside Merritt, British Columbia, at Dhamma Surabhi Meditation Center. We put off checking in as long as we could, driving around on logging roads until dusk, savoring the last moments of normal life. And then it was time. We relinquished all communication devices, were shown our cot in a small bare room, and began our 10 days of silent meditation—a self-imposed prison for people seeking change in their lives.  

We got five of hours sleep nightly, rising for the first “sitting” from 4 to 6 a.m. Then breakfast, more sitting, and a vegan lunch at 11:30, which is the last meal until the next morning. For the afternoon and evening, we were back to the cushion, muscles on fire, trying to hold ourselves up. During the breaks, no music, reading, writing or vigorous exercise was allowed—just a roped in area outside for walking, thankfully among trees.  

To keep the focus inward, you were not supposed to look in others’ eyes or even gesture. However, there was a sharing of sorts, the communication of orbiting around each other. Personalities were expressed differently in this context than in verbal exchanges. Moving silently and slowly with mostly young athletic men was reminiscent of stoic cowboys in a saloon, vigilant and poised, a potential shoot out in the air. Though here, they were harmless. 

The experience was quite challenging mentally and physically—not to mention unexpected symptoms that arise. At various points, I was sure I had diabetes, cancer, a heart attack, and a couple strokes. Why subject yourself to this pressure cooker of hardship and austerity with only the sounds of chewing, sneezing, coughing, footsteps, and the restroom? 

My friend and I returned home with an enduring agency over impulsive desires and dislikes. We learned meditation can reduce the need for sleep, periods of not talking are enjoyable, and you can go without dinner. We let go of worrying about other people’s impressions and judgments and ours of them. We learned to feel at ease with the pain of discomfort and with self-discipline. 

For most of us, modern life doesn’t afford the same hardships it used to. Instead of toil and pain, we face anxiety, depression, and addiction—the ills of a distracted, disconnected, overly stimulated population. Sometimes the antidote to these maladies is choosing the right hardship, such as Vipassana. Should you venture out for an enlightenment prison experience, seek advice from veterans on how to survive: the pillows to bring, ear plugs, anti-inflammatories, massage tools, etc. Happy inner travels!

More Enlightenment-Seeking Practices 

Shedding worldly comforts to achieve insight is a perennial practice, and there are many options if Vipassana doesn’t appeal.  

• My dentist attends a non-denominational Christian church that encourages 23 days of fasting, meditation, or prayer. Her current “fast” is from social media.  
• The Wim Hof method, popular among outdoor athletes, which uses breath and cold water to transform the body and mind.  
• Gentler Holotropic Breathing uses similar techniques of controlled hyperventilation.  
• Gentler yet, try flotation tanks.  
• Want extreme? Fly to Germany for a dark retreat where you spend days to weeks alone in a room with no light. Podcaster and “human optimizer” Aubrey Marcus in a recent episode says it’s unparalleled in intensity.  

The post Way Out There: Extreme Enlightenment appeared first on Out There Venture.

There is, in the mushroom genus Psilocybe, and you are not allowed to have them because their active compound psilocybin is a Schedule One drug. Schedule One drugs are “substances, or chemicals….with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Why would our nation, the self-proclaimed greatest democracy and leader of the free world, misclassify a substance with such remarkable potential to its citizens? 

If you want to find out, read “How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan. He takes a characteristically coy approach, clearly laying out the current research and history of psychedelics in an engaging narrative while letting the readers make their own assessment. The book is written to give an objective picture, yet this picture becomes increasingly rosy as Pollen weighs the scientific data and dives into his own experiences. 

“How to Change Your Mind” was published in May of last year, which will likely prove to be a pivotal development in our country. Histrionic? I think not. Within a month of the release, it was a hot topic around town and soon an acquaintance had bought me a copy. Then the American Conservative printed an article “A Christian Approach to Psychedelics” arguing the book and its contents warranted greater discussion as a matter of personal liberty and possible facilitator of one’s connection to god.  

There are three reasons for the fervor. Michael Pollan, a Harvard and Berkeley professor and author of widely read books on food ethics and culture, wrote it. Secondly, the subject, psychedelics, have been a foundational influence in many people’s lives and intrigued or frightened the rest. Third, the timing was perfect. 

If you haven’t noticed, our world is changing fast. And, no, this is not just what we have always said. In the last decade we embraced our LGBTQ community and began legalizing marijuana; the internet brought us how-to instructions on just about anything and also facilitated civil rights revolutions around the world; Burning Man spawned an endless spring of creative and life affirming festivals; finally, you can now pretty much say or wear anything without being ostracized.  We are in a highly accelerated period of increased liberty and expression. There is a subsequent softening outlook on psychedelics. 

Another influence is the long list of famous people who have praised psychedelics or even give them credit for their success. A few examples are Cary Grant, Susan Sarandon, Richard Feynman, Steve Jobs, Francis Crick (who discovered DNA), Phil Jackson (legendary basketball coach), John Coltrane, Oliver Sacks, and a seemingly large swath of Silicon Valley.

Are there risks? Yes, as with most transformative endeavors: fasting, backpacking, surgery, falling in love, or starting a business.  However, for perspective, the results from the 2017 Global Drug Survey, which compiles data from volunteer drug and alcohol users, listed eating mushrooms as having only a one in 500 chance of needing emergency medical care. That is 20 times less than meth, seven times less than alcohol, and three times less than marijuana. Of all substances surveyed, mushrooms were statistically the safest to use. Keep in mind that, like any experience, some people don’t enjoy it. 

The next obvious question is whether it should be legal and to what degree. Many mental health scholars are in favor of guided clinical use but not recreational access. Psychedelic advocates feel exploration of consciousness is a basic right. They point out Psilocybe suppression began not with concerns about health and safety but by Spanish Catholic missionaries. In the 1600s they banned and violently suppressed mushroom use by Aztecs because the sacrament threatened the authority of the church. The debate is growing and now entering the realm of legislation.  

The first crack in the ice was a 2006 unanimous Supreme Court ruling, in spite of the Bush Administration’s objections, to allow churches to continue to use plant based psychotropics in worship rituals. In January 2018 a ballot measure to legalize psilocybin was introduced but failed in California. Then, last month, the barrier was breached when Denver voted to decriminalize their use and possession. Next year a similar measure goes up for election in Oregon. Michael Pollan’s book makes public the struggle to change our relationship with psychedelics and also clearly represents the change that is coming. 

The post Time to Change Your Mind appeared first on Out There Venture.

Initially teachers were weary, or even outright scornful, feeling it was an abomination of the thoughtful inward nature of Yoga. In Spokane Buti was championed by Tera Bailey, a hair stylist, belly dancer, and yogini. Behind her calm unassuming smile, Bailey is an iconoclast who likes to push the edge of conventional thought. She gets fired up when talking about Buti.

“I took a training to try something different and thought it would be fun, though was a little of a yoga purist and figured it might not be real yoga. I realized right away it was one of the deepest yoga practices out there,” she says.

She started teaching at Abide in the Gonzaga University district, where the first certifications took place, and can also now be found at Yoga Shala. “I didn’t care at all that people believed it wasn’t legit—I knew it would prove itself.”  Her efforts, along with subsequent trainings in Spokane and Walla Walla, have blossomed into a growing group of instructors and students.

Seven years ago, Bailey became a certified yoga teacher with Lara and Lee Bear Tobin at Lila Yoga. She loved their free moving, spiritually-driven flow class and wanted to use yoga to help heal people, so she co-founded Coil Studio.  Her belief that yoga can “save the world” led Bailey to work with inmates at Geiger Corrections and recovering addicts, then to sign up for a two-year program in yoga therapy. 

“Yoga is the most radical activism because people don’t see it coming—they just think some little yogi is going to come in and do stretches. It transforms you from the inside out and therefore you don’t reject it,” she says.

Class begins sitting, with spiral motions to activate kundalini, get energized, and warm up the spine. The momentum grows with the music, which always carries a strong steady beat to synchronize the group and bring you into your body. By the time you’re standing, the party’s on. Lots of twisting, fast footwork, shaking, and swinging.

The vigorous organic practice elicits our primal nature and is a reminder we are animals. It teaches you to be in the groove, even those of us afflicted with White Man Dance. An emphasis on spiral movements, opposed to linear ones, targets a larger range of soft tissue development. Sections mimic High Intensity Interval Training to increase metabolism. The manual states, “Buti Yoga is a soulful blend of power yoga, cardio-intensive tribal dance, conditioning, and deep abdominal toning.”  My body has never felt safer in a workout and its minor back, hip, and knee injuries have mostly gone away; other students share similar stories.

People who are hesitant to try Buti Yoga share common refrains. Men tell me they’re apprehensive about it being sexual and therefore uncomfortable. Woman will say it’s “just twerking” or point out the minimalist outfits. But to participants Buti is completely non sexual. Its tribal expressiveness unifies the class and the shaking and vibrations “release stored trauma and stimulate the body to change, amplifying the power of the experience.”

Another concern is difficulty. However, the encouragement of teachers, lack of seriousness, and heartbeat rhythm of music will invigorate and carry you through. And yes, men can do it, too. Buti was started for both genders but was co-opted by women because it was so empowering. Now men are increasingly joining, and the organization is actively using verbiage to include them.

After class one day, “Butisattva” Marnee Setty, piped up. “It’s not rigid, not one way to do it. Each person is encouraged to have their own style. Instead of feeling awkward if you accidentally touch someone or step on their mat, we foster connection: calling out, bumping into each other, communicating.”

Bailey chimed in, “As the teacher, you get to put your own medicine in.” All this underlines the strong tribal emphasis of support, playfulness, and personal expression. It’s soulful. Buti is the most fun fitness class I’ve ever been in. For your first step into Out There’s new Way Out There section, join us, get down, let go.

Classes are available at Yoga Shala on Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m. For private classes, reach Tera on the Spokane Buti Facebook page. //

Editor’s Note: Interested in the eccentric, mysterious, and magical side of life and nature? Look for Out There’s new “Way Out There” dive into topics ranging from counter culture expressions to regional mysteries and lore in every other issue.

Kelly likes scrambling up rocky hillsides, gliding through the trees on powder, and studying life forms in all their evolving niches.

The post Buti Yoga appeared first on Out There Venture.

When one notices a tree, most often the tree isn’t being seen. Your brain recognizes basic features that imply tree, labels it, and move on. It’s a form of efficiency our species uses to navigate the world. Having grown up in a Zen monastery, I was taught a core principle called “Beginners Mind,” which is synonymous with having child-like eyes and no preconceived ideas. It’s why traveling is so appealing; we have to process new data, and this engaged observation reveals the nuances of life. It enhances the perception of beauty, novelty, and magic.

This absorbent approach to exploring nature is what spurred this column, Leaf, Root, Fungi, Fruit, to inspire folks to engage their natural surroundings. I wanted people to taste and smell and feel the life around them—to name it, which helps one see it.

Although LRFF’s lifespan is ending, this has been an invigorating and humbling opportunity to cultivate connection with our flora and fungi. Moving forward, I hope to create new endeavors, some written.

In parting, here are a few suggested tools to pursue your outdoor foraging passions. See you on trail, ciao!

Blog: Forager Chef

This is my favorite foraging blog. Created by Chef Alan Bergo, it’s pithy, fun, adventurous, and approaches food as an art form. However, he lives in Minnesota so not everything applies to the Northwest.

Plant Field Guide: “Plants of the Southern Interior British Columbia and the Inland Northwest”

This is a fantastic resource for learning plants of our region. It’s not comprehensive enough, although nothing is. However, it is clear, filled with photos, discusses potential look a-likes, and gives ethnobotanical information on most entries, i.e. food, medicine, and crafts.

Ethnobotanist Author: Nancy Turner

“Food Plants of Interior First Peoples,” is limited to a digestible 150 species. On the other spectrum of Turners work, Ancient Pathways is an academic-sized reference guide. She is one of our defining curators of native plant knowledge, and her books are treasures.

Websites

• Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest is a synoptic key. This means you put in whatever traits are available and get all possibilities, a much less grueling process than a typical field guide, which uses dichotomous keys. The software is a work in progress but offers a more educational and efficient system of identification.
• MushroomExpert.com is the most thorough site for mushrooms and gives lengthy and thorough explanations. Its one unforgivable failing is the absence of information on edibility and toxins.
• Northern Bushcraft lists a selection of wild foods from Canada that largely overlaps the Inland Northwest. The descriptions are brief but helpful and the site is a good place to get started without being overwhelmed. //

Kelly likes scrambling up rocky hillsides, gliding through the trees on powder, and studying life forms in all their evolving niches. He signs off in December from the wild edible column Leaf Root Fungi Fruit to embark upon new subjects.

The post Farewell to Leaf, Root, Fungi, Fruit appeared first on Out There Venture.

This is how I feel about shaggy parasols, a large, omnipresent, and delicious mushroom growing wild and vigorously in our gardens and lawns. One would think, based on the trendiness of foraging, homesteading, and cooking fresh local ingredients, that our community would be aware of such a resource. But we are not, in spite of them surrounding us from late spring to early fall. Like when you buy a car and suddenly the brand seems everywhere, learn this species and you will begin finding it.

Shaggy parasols are the common name of three similar and safe species in the genus of Chlorophyllum: one east of the Cascades, Chlorophyllum rachodes, and the west side sports the other two. Like many urban mushrooms, they are saprophytes, helping break down organic matter in the soil. In the forest, more fungi are in a mutually beneficial relationship with trees. Shaggy parasols usually grow in scattered groups but can also be found individually or in a ring. They generally return once or twice a year to the same area.

If you come across a portabella-sized white mushroom in your yard with thick scales on the cap, a ring on the stem and bulbous base, it’s probably C. rachodes. To be sure, cut the stem in half and, in addition to being hollow, it will quickly turn carrot orange. There is one poisonous member in the group, but conveniently it lives outside the Pacific Northwest.

Shaggy parasols are similar in flavor to portabellas but are more concentrated, with a nutty mineral character, making them perfect for classic mushroom dishes from pizza to pasta to stroganoff.

Half of the calls I receive to identify fungi during the warmer months are asking about C. rachodes. If your yard is a healthy ecosystem rich with mulch and plants and free of fungicides, this backyard treasure will most likely show up. It’s virtually a weed, and weeds—along with insects and invasive species—should be staples of our diet so we can continue to multiply without obliterating the natural world.

Identifying Attributes: Large white cap with shaggy darker scales on top and gills that don’t attach to the stipe. A smooth, ringed, orange-staining (the key to easy recognition) hollow stem rises from a bulbous base.

Look-alikes: No other big white mushrooms in the city will stain carrot orange when cut.

Culinary Attributes: Delicious, rich mushroom flavor that is comparable to a portabella but more potent. Goes great in stuffings, with grains, and grilled on a sandwich. The stems are fibrous and better diced or minced before cooking.

Wine Pairings: Red Burgundy (produced in France). //

Kelly Chadwick is a snowboarder, hiker, bicyclist, and occasional backpacker. His last article for Out There highlighted spring kings.

[Feature photo: Shaggy Parasols // Kelly Chadwick]

The post Shaggy Parasols appeared first on Out There Venture.

If you were in a fairy tale in the most picturesque woods with mirror pools, fairies, gnomes, and talking animals, and came across a clump of alluring rotund cartoon looking mushrooms, they would be kings. Encountering them is intoxicating, resulting in an annual yearning that may haunt you forever.

Spring kings also have the benefit of coming up in a particularly beautiful time of year and inhabit pristine mid to older-growth mixed stands of montane white fir, pine, and hemlock. If the trees are well-spaced yet still shading out the sun, with huckleberries and bear grass filling the understory, you are in the right place. They frequent our local mountains, and I’ve seen them in the woods around Deer Park, in the Idaho Panhandle from Priest River to the Canadian border, and along the I-5 Corridor from Coeur d’Alene to St. Regis. They are beacons of a healthy ecosystem. This adds to their majesty but also makes them a valuable advocate of forest preservation. Hopefully the more people who want them, the more our forests will be valued beyond just timber.

Boletus rex-verus is eminently identifiable and therefore perfect for beginners. They are one of the few boletes (mushrooms with a spongy spore bearing surface opposed to gills) that have a brick reddish brown cap. Other features are the round robust density, white pores when young, and an overlay of an interwoven raised pattern on the top of the club-shaped stem, called reticulations. They are adored by many mammals and insects, so it’s not uncommon to find them with teeth marks. To avoid unsavory members of this family, cut or break a piece off and make sure it doesn’t stain blue. That will narrow your possibilities down to only edible species.

Hunting mushrooms can be a discouraging hobby highlighted with occasional eureka moments. Spring kings epitomize this. To avoid the resulting frustration and suffering, I suggest hiking casually in season through their habitat but not actually hunting for them. That way, one day they will miraculously appear before you—a celebration of earth and art and magic and feasting—and you will be ready.

Identifying Attributes: Prominently round and fecund. Brick red, lumpy cap over fine pores. They usually grow scattered or in little clumps in ideal montane forests.

Look-alikes:  There are countless other boletes, but nothing similar that is dangerous if you are careful with your identification. To be safe, eliminate all blue staining specimens of this family, and you will only run the risk of a less delicious feast.

Culinary Attributes: The firmness is fleeting so pick when young or use mature specimens dried and ground as a flavoring in soups and sauces. Fresh porcini are perfect grilled or with polenta.

Wine Pairings: One of the few wild foods complimented by chardonnay. //

[Feature photo “a statuesque Boletus rex-verus showing lighter colors of a dryer spring” by Kelly Chadwick.]

The post Spring Kings Porcini Mushrooms appeared first on Out There Venture.

I called my pal Rick, a farmer, for direction on what to do next. I was standing before a dead ruffed grouse. He told me to stand on the wings and pull out the torso. I argued that one should use all parts of the bird, but he overcame my idealism. I put the bird in the fridge to rest a few days, as instructed. That Friday my girlfriend and I sat down to sample this delicate creature. She is a vegetarian but considered the sacrifice dignified enough to make an exception. It was seared in coconut oil and Celtic salt and served with aged white burgundy. We thanked the bird for its life and the earth for the salad, sprouted broccoli, and Central Food bread. Tasting the first bite, our eyes widened. The fowl was remarkable in flavor and texture.

In the 90’s, I was developing a wholesale wild mushroom business. Our primary forager was a man named Doc who lived by Priest Lake and survived off trapping, huckleberries, and mushrooms. When large animals were hit on the highway, the game warden would get word to him. One year, after a moose collided with a truck, Doc gave me a shoulder, the best meat I’d ever had.

Another acquaintance, Jimmy, who grew up hunting, eventually decided road kill was a more respectful way to get his wild game. He lived on a rural highway near a body of water. Every weekday morning, friends headed to work going both directions would alert him to any fresh kills. Over the years he harvested and shared an enormous amount of venison this way.

Often the meat is too damaged to salvage, bruising quickly and soaking up stress hormones if the animal takes time to die. However, Jimmy emphasizes, “If a rib punctures the lung, they bleed out naturally, or a head hit can do less damage than a 30 caliber.” One time he drove by the river in winter as a buck broke through the ice and struggled to get free. “I’m a killer, but don’t like to see animals suffer.” He went into the water and wrestled the panicked deer out, but it died of exhaustion by the time they reached shore. As he dragged the carcass up to the highway knee deep in snow, a state trooper pulled over and said, “You are breaking the law.” “Yes I am.” Jimmy responded in a characteristically humble way. “I would be breaking a bigger law if I let the deer stay out there and die.” The officer smiled and left.

Laws in Washington have recently changed. As of July 2016, one can harvest road kill legally in our state as long as the entire mess is cleaned up and the animal isn’t killed on purpose. Anyone who takes possession of a deer or elk carcass must also obtain a free, printable permit from Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife within 24 hours and keep a hardcopy of the signed and dated permit with the meat. I also checked in with WDFW and was informed it’s not allowed to kill an animal because it’s wounded. Afraid of rotten meet?  Worry not. You’ll know if it’s rotten, say the seasoned collectors. Smell the meat, make sure there are no old wounds, and cut out bruised areas.

Another examples of opportunistic hunting are snails.  Have you ever considered collecting snails from our regions lakes? In spite of their being large, juicy and prolific, few folks eat them. They will be my next foraging experiment. //

Kelly Chadwick grew up wandering the outdoors, which led to a lifelong passion for the natural sciences. He wrote about fairy clubs in October.

The post Opportunistic Hunting appeared first on Out There Venture.

In the family of club fungi, Clavariaceae, the superlative species to hunt is Clavariadelphus truncatus, the coral club. It should be called the giant fairy club, but that name was taken, oddly, by a smaller club. C. truncatus grows in small groups and is easily recognized by its truncated form. Truncated means it’s club-shaped with a flattened top. They have a steep downward taper; a lumpy, wrinkled surface; and resemblance to a baby chanterelle with a more ochre hue. They are roughly the size of a thumb.

There are delicious and distinctive wild edibles that haven’t yet entered our food stream consciousness, many of which are fungi. Coral Clubs are one of them. They have the rare quality of being complete in flavor and in no need of sauces or spices. They taste like sweet teriyaki chicken with a suppler texture. The sweetness is apparent when fresh, which definitively separates it from other bitter tasting clubs, along with almost all fungi.

In some textbooks Clavariadelphus is listed as inedible or no info provided. Even among the most avid foragers, few gather this gem. Fairy clubs are fleeting and labor intensive to collect, unlike large durable genera such as chanterelles and matsutake. They start coming up well into autumn, and then the first frost renders them watery and mushy. As with garden tomatoes, wild berries, sardines, and shaggy manes, clubs are built with short windows of ripeness. Even when the timing is perfect, insects may have hollowed them out. Don’t be discouraged. Foraging is about discovering nature’s nuances. People dream about treasure, buy metal detectors, shop at antique stores and garage sales. The original treasure was food.

Identifying Attributes: Various colored obelisks rising a couple inches above the needles in random patterns of delicate dissemination.

Look-alikes:  Earth tongues have a similar stature but are tougher and with mostly darker hues of green and black in the shape of elongated spades.  They are also edible.

Culinary Attributes: A sweet and firmly spongy delicacy. Cook in coconut oil with a little salt and add as a garnish. Purported to be donut-like when lightly battered and dusted with sugar.

 Wine Pairings: Austrian Riesling is complex and smells sweet yet is dry and won’t mask the personality of clubs. //

Kelly Chadwick grew up wandering the outdoors, which led to a lifelong passion for the natural sciences. He wrote about inky caps in August.

The post Fairy Clubs appeared first on Out There Venture.