The weather outside is frightful...

Seasonably frightful. All of that humidity and very little rain. I was in Greensburg and it rained hard for about five minutes. When I got home I checked the rain gauge and there wasn't enough moisture in the bottom to even measure.

It's good to hear that some of you folks are finding chanterelles. If it would just rain a little bit.. sigh! I'm looking forward to seeing what will show up on the display table at Tuesday's meeting. The folks north of Pittsburgh have had a considerable amount of rain. I think that there will be a interesting mix of mushrooms there.

As I was preparing for tomorrow's meeting I put myself into the proper fame of mind by plopping a Christmas cd into the cdrom drive on the computer. It did put me into a more festive frame of mind but did nothing to dispel the heat and humidity. Tomorrow's Christmas in July meeting should be a lot of fun.

by Joe  Contact Me

A walk in the woods.

Yesterday I took a walk in the woods in the hope of finding some chicken mushrooms or chanteralles. I found neither. I did however find a small quantity of oyster mushrooms. I found little else but some dried up old polypores. I was surprised to find that somehow the may apples were still around (just barely) and that the ramps were still in bloom. The water table is fairly high where I was looking for mushrooms and those places where the water usually flows nicely were barely a trickle and those places where the ground is usually moist were quite dry My estimate is that we've only gotten about two inches of rain here in the last month.

Just another reminder that our July meeting is just around the corner, July 19th at Beechwood Farms.

by Joe  Contact Me

Dennis! Where's the rain?

Once again we have not received the much needed promised rain. At least not as much as I had hoped for. The rain has once again been mostly to our north and south. Tomorrow I hope to be able to find some time to head out into the woods.

Remember that our "Christmas in July" meeting will be Tuesday July 19th at Beechwood Farms.

by Joe  Contact Me

Mushrooms popping out all over. Nah.

Not here is my guess. We've only had about an inch and a half of rain in the last three weeks. That last 7/10 of an inch greened up the grass some but the top inch of garden soil is bone dry unless it has been shaded by very determined weeds. I've been wanting to head out for chicken mushrooms but the heat, humidity and me don't get along so well anymore so I opted for the pool this afternoon. If the chanterlles begin to show then it will definitely be time to head out into the woods. I did find some russulas under my in-laws chestnut trees but my mushrooms sightings have been few and far between. If we get a good soaking from Dennis then maybe we'll see some more stuff popping up. I'm ready for horse mushrooms too.

by Joe  Contact Me

This weekend I finally got around to browsing through the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club's membership lists. I noticed that we haven't received some membership renewals to the WPMC this year. For some folks that was perhaps just an oversight, maybe life styles changed or perhaps they were just busy with other things. We'd certainly like to have everyone back. We have a lot of interesting and fun activities planned for the rest of the year and we would like everyone to join in the fun. A family membership is only $20, individual membership $15 and student $10.

Remember our GARY LINCOFF MID-ATLANTIC MUSHROOM FORAY THE NATION'S LARGEST FALL FORAY is scheduled for September 10th at North Park. The cost of this daylong mushroom event is a real bargain. The price is only $50 at the door for 12 hours of mushrooming, mushroom tasting and good friendship. But if you join the Western PA Mushroom Club today, your cost for the foray will be just $29. With the club membership, you can attend 9 monthly club meetings, receive the club's informative newsletter and get discounts on club merchandise and special events. You will be able to go on 30 club walks and forays and learn even more mushrooms or just take a nice friendly stroll with your new friends. If you are a new mushroomer, you will have the opportunity to learn more mushrooms in one day than you could probably learn on your own in 5-10 years.

Renewing your membership is easy. Contact our Treasurer George Yakulis. You can mail a completed membership form to him at 4879 Christopher Drive, Allison Park, PA 15101. Membership forms were sent out with our newsletters this year. If you misplaced your copy you can download a membership form from our website at http://wpamushroomclub.org.

I hope that you choose to renew. I'd like to hear from you. Please feel free to drop me a line to tell me about your past experiences with the club. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

by Joe  Contact Me