that time of year. . .

R

robert ames

robert ames
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the porcini bloom is alive and well in the blue mountains. i also found a couple that were the size of large pie pans--well past their desirable stage for eating, as they were getting quite soft.

alas, even the one in the pictures (except for the 'tiny' one) were quite riddled with nematodes and maggots most of the way up the stems.

risotto time.
 

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originally posted by robert ames:
mountains are blue everywhere. the one's i stomp in are in eastern oregon and washington. mountains without peaks.
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My in-laws have a cabin in your Blues. All the time I've spent up there and I never knew to look for porcinis. Where do you find them?
 
i found these at about the 5000 foot level, under some older growth where there was very little ground vegetation and the ground cover was pine needles and plenty of decaying fallen limbs, etc, so that the ground is quite soft and springy. it seems similar to the sort of spot where a guy would look for morels in june.

the rainy weekend is past, and the week should be dry, so i'll go back up later this week to revisit, and this time not leave my camera in the car.
 
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in situ after some brushing off.
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in its surroundings. just to the left of the large rock and the base of the tree.
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trimmed and ready to cook.

as can be seen from the third photo, not much loss to maggots, nematodes, or whatever they are. untrimmed it weighed 18 ounces. a truly perfect example.
 
Is that Spanish moss hanging from the tree branches in the background? I didn't think it was that wet in the Blue Mountains.

For Chanterelles, it is a race to pick them before the slugs eat them over here.

Nice Porcinis.
 
not sure what kind of stuff that is hanging from the trees. there's snow pack here a good portion of the year (5000' elevation) and outside of summer plenty of damp weather so mosses and lichens do fine.
 
originally posted by Marc D:
Is that Spanish moss hanging from the tree branches in the background? I didn't think it was that wet in the Blue Mountains.

For Chanterelles, it is a race to pick them before the slugs eat them over here.

Nice Porcinis.
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Likely Usnea, its all over these mtns and seems to thrive in the crest/east side dryness. Spanish moss is a southeast thing, actually an epiphytic plant. Ours is a lichen, but then again thats just getting nitpicky...
 
originally posted by Marc D:
Is that Spanish moss hanging from the tree branches in the background? I didn't think it was that wet in the Blue Mountains.
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One of the things I like most about the Blue Mountains is that the north-facing slopes look a lot like how I imagine Western Washington, covered in firs (though with less dense ground-level foliage), while the south-facing slopes are generally treeless, covered in brown grasses, looking like Eastern Washington. My understanding is that the Blues get roughly 25-30 inches of rain a year, more than Walla Walla but obviously less than your part of the world. And of course, the higher you go, the more rain you get. Five-thousand feet would be getting pretty close to the peaks.

And man, that's a porcini a Tuscan would be proud of.
 
originally posted by Bruce K:
originally posted by Marc D:
Is that Spanish moss hanging from the tree branches in the background? I didn't think it was that wet in the Blue Mountains.
Click to expand...

One of the things I like most about the Blue Mountains is that the north-facing slopes look a lot like how I imagine Western Washington, covered in firs (though with less dense ground-level foliage), while the south-facing slopes are generally treeless, covered in brown grasses, looking like Eastern Washington. My understanding is that the Blues get roughly 25-30 inches of rain a year, more than Walla Walla but obviously less than your part of the world. And of course, the higher you go, the more rain you get. Five-thousand feet would be getting pretty close to the peaks.

And man, that's a porcini a Tuscan would be proud of.
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Word is they're just starting to pop at 4000-5000 ft on the west side. And yeah, to see one as clean as that around here is rare, a real beauty!
 
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