Wild mushrooms are a popular post topic at Women’s Outdoor News. Below we’ve rounded up various mushroom posts from previous years – which topics range from crafts, to wild foraging and even recipes. Enjoy!
Ever since I moved to the Ozarks, I have been fascinated with mushrooms. Fungi appear everywhere, all year round, and come in a delightful range of colors and shapes. Also, if you’ve been following The WON, you’ll know that we just love morel hunting (and eating). Here’s a clever and quick craft to make a mushroom spore print.
Why even think of doing this unusual thing, of taking the time to capture some spores from a mushroom? Mushrooms release spores from their gills, which are like ridges located underneath their caps. These spores, when captured on a piece of paper, become another clue – a credible means of identifying the mushroom. Also, when hunting for mushrooms, note the location and overall appearance (top and bottom) in order to further aid identification, if you need it.
Making a spore print is a cool craft and so easy.
Learn more about this craft – here.
I’m always on the hunt for crafty cork projects that I can do with my grands. Since the children love to look for mushrooms, read about mushrooms and actually, eat mushrooms, I thought we’d do this little cork mushroom art project.
These grands are 5 and 3, and so we need to have craft projects that entertain, as well as take a short amount of time. So, they donned their art smocks and we got busy painting.
Click here to find out how to make this fun, botanical craft.
I knew my grands would love to make clay mushroom wind chimes. They are 10- and 12-years old (I believe my 5-year-old grandson could do this one easily as well). When I visited them recently, we created this funky boho mushroom craft (and their mom loved them).
I noticed the directions on Pinterest at “Laura Kelly’s Inklings” website. Thanks to Laura’s links, I quickly ordered supplies and had them sent out to my grandkids’ house. That way, I didn’t have to travel with clay and wool balls in my luggage.
Keep reading to learn the instructions to make these mushroom clay wind chimes.
Whenever I visit my grands, we like to do at least one craft project. Since both boys (ages 4 and 6) are fascinated with mushrooms, I decided to focus on a mushroom-centered art project. Last year, two of my other grands, who are a little older, and I made clay mushroom wind chimes. I wanted a project that wouldn’t take as much time as working with modeling clay, and be fun. Thanks to Hobby Lobby, we used cool (and cheap) wooden mushrooms.
Find out how to make these cute mushrooms, here.
During a recent online auction, my mom and I scooped up a box of vintage shoe trees. Shoe trees, for those of you who don’t know, are devices that go inside of shoes to help keep their shapes. Being mainly a Birkenstock, cowboy boot and clog wearer in my old age, I don’t have much need for a shoe tree in its intended capacity. However, my mom noticed this post from Sadies SeasonGoods, and we felt inspired to give this craft a try. After gathering the materials, these DIY mushroom garden markers made from old shoe trees came together quickly.
Click here to learn how to make this colorful craft.
Another winter has departed from the Upper Midwestern landscape. Stream trout season is open; turkeys are gobbling; crappies have moved into shallow bays; and thousands upon thousands are chasing willing walleyes on rivers.
I can remember learning as a kid that blooming lilacs and oak leaves the size of a squirrel’s ear signaled two springtime activities: shallow-water crappie fishing and morel mushroom hunting.
Keep reading this wild foraging post, here.
In the spring, about the time the turkeys start to gobble and the May apples bloom here in the Ozarks, morel mushrooms pop forth from the ground. If there could be an “April Madness,” following “March Madness,” it would have to involve morels — the delectable and delicious offering from Mother Earth to our palettes. Sautéed, fried, battered, dried and used in soups, stews, on steaks and as appetizers, these earthy, beefy, short-lived gifts might be the best mushrooms in the world. I’ve spent more than 40 years in the field, looking for these fungi. Here’s how to hunt for morel mushrooms.
So many people don’t even know where to begin. I recommend that you find someone who knows how to find morels and ask that person to teach you how to do it. Of course, that doesn’t mean you are expecting your friend to take you to secret spots, the honey holes. That’s asking a lot of any friend, although I have introduced a few of my good friends to the right spots on our place.
Learn more about finding morel mushrooms in the wild by following this link.
When it’s morel mushroom season in the Ozarks, we head out to the woods as soon as we figure the ground has warmed to at least 50 degrees, and start searching through leaf debris to find Mother Nature’s gift to our palettes. When we get the morels home, it doesn’t take long before we use Grandma Ginny’s cracker crumb morel mushroom recipe to make delicious, melt-in-your-mouth appetizers.
Click here to read this classic recipe.
Jackie Baird Richardson is an interior designer, editor at The WON and avid junker. Watch for her design tips and occasional crafting ideas, bringing the outdoors indoors. View all posts by Jackie Richardson
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