New Job, Getting Hillstomped and Shaggy Ink Caps Galore

Some great successes lately. First and foremost, my amazing friend Lindsey got me a job tutoring for a company that pays pretty good. I will be working with a male junior in high school on mostly math but other subjects if needed. This should be about 10 hours a week and means an extra $200 bucks a week hopefully. Mostly I'm excited because I'll get to work one on one with a student in a non traditional school setting much like how I excelled at teaching this way Alaska. If it goes well their may be more opportunities to tutor other students.

Secondly, Friday night found fun and old friends enjoying an amazing Duo band called HILLSTOMP. These two crazed bad asses play hard driving backwoods awesomeness and the drummer's drumset is composed mostly of carfully selected garbage like barbeque tops and buckets. We danced real hard and had a blast.



And Finally, Last night, giant success in the form of Coprinopsis comatusor the Shaggy Ink Cap. Another great friend and fungal mentor took me to one of her tried and true secret Shaggy Ink Cap spots here in the northwest and the results were overwhelming! We were able to pick almost two grocery bags full of these delicious little friends whilst leaving many babies for future finders.



Now the Shaggy is a fickle little guy to cook. First of all you only have about four hours to cook them up because they are so delicate. Also, they are incredibly difficult to clean for this reason. As they mature the inky part of the bell starts to creep up and isn't very good for you. So making sure to get all the dirt off and remove the inky parts is a crucial step.



Our cooking method was to saute them in butter with garlic, celery, basil, rosemary and sage from my garden and then serve it over rice with a little sriracha sauce on the side. It turned out so good. Their flavor was delicate and the texture was very pleasing. My friend also said that when added to soup this species also can be quite amazing for eating.



This was my first official successful mushroom hunt that actually produced food that I was able to eat. I can't tell you how dorkily excited this made me. Its like going fishing and catching a big fish or coming home with buckets of berries that you picked yourself. Now for the rest of my life I will now the date, time, location, and conditions for finding these amazing mushroom friends to share with my friends and family. HOW COOL!





So this morning as I sit in my favorite coffee shop waiting for my half day sub to start because the full day I had scheduled cancelled, I continue to think about what a great week I had. I'm a little sick still, but my attitude definitely is not bad. I am thouroughly pumped about life all of a sudden. I started thinking about my current lifestyle in a postive way. I get to choose everyday if I want to work or not, who gets to do that? Although subbing isn't a career, its starting to fit my life more and more. I get to continue learning through my own avenues. Learning how to mushroom forage is a lifelong skill and passion that I love learning about. I love being able to pursue my music. I love that I get to blog about life. I love the fact that I can spend time making connections with people whenever I want. Yes I wish I had a steadier teaching job...but do I really? Only time will tell and who knows what will pop up in my lap in the future.





So this week, there is more foraging to be done, hopefully the start of tutoring, some substituting, my first paycheck in two months on Friday, and maybe if I'm lucky, Umphrey's McGee at the showbox on Thursday!

I'll keep you updated and have a great week!