Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.
nature

Putting the fun in fungi

Putting the fun in fungi

An example of a giant puffball mushroom found by Dave Paton.

Provided

SALISBURY — Dave Paton, a dedicated hunter of wild mushrooms, went through a list of some of his favorite fungi at the Scoville Memorial Library Saturday, April 20.

Paton’s talk was sponsored by the Salisbury Association Land Trust.

“All wild mushrooms are deadly. Don’t touch them,” he began, tongue firmly in cheek.

“But if you find any, my email is…”

Paton said most wild mushrooms are inedible, but not necessarily poisonous.

He first got interested in mushrooms as a youth, prowling around the grounds at the Sharon Audubon Center.

Someone pointed out a Destroying Angel mushroom, adding an admonition: “One bite could kill you.”

Young David’s reaction to this stern warning?

“Awesome.”

He mentioned Amanita muscaria as a mushroom with hallucinogenic effects.

Some people go to considerable lengths to tap into this.

“They feed it to reindeer, and then drink the reindeer urine” he announced, adding hastily, “I’ve never tried it because I don’t have a reindeer.”

Some of Paton’s more conventional favorites are King Bolete, or “porcini” in Italian. “Delicious.”

Chicken of the Woods, which Paton said is one of the “Foolproof Five.”

He amended that description.

“More like fool-resistant.”

Chicken of the Woods should be cooked, he continued, and specimens growing on hemlock trees should be avoided altogether. But samples growing on other hardwoods can be eaten if cooked.

He listed Fried Chicken of the Woods and Pulled Chicken of the Woods sandwiches as particular favorites.

Paton urged caution at several points during the talk. He said he consults multiple sources and other experts on a regular basis before ingesting any wild mushrooms.

Paton said he is always looking for the yellow morel. “It’s elusive, so hard to find.”

One to avoid is the Jack-O-Lantern. “It’s extremely toxic. Probably won’t kill you but for two or three days you’ll wish you were dead.”

The first wild mushroom he ever ate was a giant puffball. The photo showed a bulbous white object that was bigger than the woven collection basket next to it.

“I’m gonna need a bigger basket.”

He said he makes “puffball parmigiana” with them.

Paton’s remarks were accompanied by excellent color photographs on the library’s big screen television.

“My iPhone is filled up with pictures of grandchildren and mushrooms.”

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.
nature

Latest News

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

Keep ReadingShow less
film

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, conducts the audience at a performance.

Steve Potter

For Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, music from centuries past is anything but a relic. It is a living, breathing art form, full of drama, emotional complexity and, occasionally, surprises. As the regional choral and period-instrument ensemble launches its 23rd season, Gevert is once again bringing forgotten masterpieces into the present.

“Early Music has been my lifelong passion and the focus of my specialization in Europe and South America,” Gevert said. “Bringing this repertoire to our audiences in a nuanced way that does justice to its incredible depth, intensity, and beauty is deeply important to me.”

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music’s 35th season opens with “Saluting the Clarinet” featuring clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.

Provided

For 35 years, cellist Yehuda Hanani has been inviting audiences to experience classical music in unexpected ways. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters with Music, Hanani has built a concert series that goes beyond the music itself, exploring connections to literature, history, politics and the human experience.

This year, Close Encounters celebrates its 35th season with “Celebration & Discovery,” a seven-concert series that opens Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Seeing isn’t always believing. Sometimes it’s the lack of a defined picture that can be the most compelling. And when Alex Harvey of Shinbone Alley sings his supernaturally charged sea shanties and street ballads, the unseen will be downright scary. On Oct. 30, the historically inclined storyteller and performer will create a spooky evening of forbidden tales and yarns through a carefully chosen series of songs at Spencertown Academy of Arts.

The repertoire for the performance is a bit fraught. Over the years, Shinbone Alley has explored the world of folklore through music. Though the group usually features two musicians, Harvey, a multi-instrumentalist and singer, will be performing solo. That is, of course, unless you include the spirits.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield
Vieux Farka Touré
Proivded

Desert winds rarely blow into the Berkshires, but on Nov. 5, they will carry the Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa music to Race Brook Lodge.

That evening, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, often called “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” and Moroccan musician Samir LanGus will play at the lodge’s Event Barn in Sheffield, Massachusetts, at a benefit for the foundation Touré directs.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.