{"id":19457,"date":"2024-11-22T02:47:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T07:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=19457"},"modified":"2024-12-06T12:50:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:50:12","slug":"putting-the-fun-in-fungi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2024\/11\/22\/putting-the-fun-in-fungi\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the Fun in Fungi"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 46\u00b011’37.5″N 123\u00b058’28.5″W<\/a><\/h6>\n

\"Richard-Powers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of Oregon\u2019s autumn fixtures is the annual Portland Book Festival<\/a>. Hundreds of readers head downtown and take in the perspectives and wisdom of both local and internationally known writers. Staged interviews are congenial and leave plenty of time for audience Q & A. This year\u2019s top proof-of-erudition word was \u2018palimpsest\u2019. By my count, more than half the authors managed to slip it in at some point during their 30-minute turns in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Headlining the festival was Richard Powers, the best-selling author of The Overstory<\/a> and most recently, Playground<\/a>. That meant he was popular enough to fill the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall for an extra $5 a seat. No small feat. I came away intrigued, amused, and muttering under my breath, \u201cDamn, but he’s a smart guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinball Wizard<\/h6>\n

The Overstory has been waiting patiently on my \u2018to read\u2019 shelf for about six years. Carol loved it and recommended it to me. Moistening my thumb a couple of times, I started the book. Its rich prose indicated it was something more special than my usual diet of Danielle Steele read-alikes. It looked like my kind of book, and I wanted to devote an appropriate amount of attention to it. Something that navigating the seven seas kept getting in the way of. Coming away from this year\u2019s book festival I knuckled down and walked steadily through the 25-hour long audio version. Powers had loaded one of life\u2019s mental pinballs and I finally put it in play.<\/p>\n

Patricia Westerford, a dendrologist<\/a>, is central to the book\u2019s narrative and was, for me, its most intriguing character. A little Googling nudged the pinball and bumped into Dr. Suzanne Simard<\/a>, on whom Westerford was based. Simard is a Canadian forest ecologist and scientist. Her memoir, Finding the Mother Tree<\/a>, combines her discoveries of how forest ecosystems in British Columbia function with her coming of age story.<\/p>\n

Foraging<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While waiting for a copy of Simard\u2019s book from the library, our friend Lauren had serendipitously arranged for a spot of mushroom foraging at the Oregon coast. Despite the apparent risks, fungi foraging has turned into a popular activity here in the Pacific Northwest. The rangers at Fort Stevens State Park<\/a> host a free two-hour instruction and guided walk through the fall months when mushrooms are most abundant. By November, the foraging season is winding down, but we needed to shake off the stress of the election and a field trip seemed like the perfect antidote for political malaise. It was like hitting a drop target in pinball. The game was on.<\/p>\n

Standing behind a picnic table laden with a variety of recently harvested mushrooms, the rangers began by explaining mushrooms are the fruit of fungi. There are three main types, each with distinct roles in the forest\u2019s ecosystem. Colloquially, you have cleaners, networkers and parasites. If that sounds like your co-workers, you\u2019re not far off.<\/p>\n