The last two weeks I've been helping out at the farmer's market in Hawthorne because the market manager (a CSA member) was on vacation. I had the opportunity to spend some time with Zach in his booth selling mushrooms. It's been a very interesting and enlightening experience for me. I knew some general facts about fungi:

•they have their own little kingdom because they refuse to use chlorophyll to make their food

•they can be good friends and help them grow (symbiotic) or not so nice and kill them (parasitic)
•some say it's the world's largest organism (the honey mushroom in Oregon covers 2200 acres and is anywhere from 2400 - 7200 years old)

•if it wasn't for fungi there would be a lot more dead people (penicillin) and our compost piles would be as large as Mt. Everest

•we wouldn't have beer or wine or or bread or yogurt or blue cheese.

But I didn't know that for only $10 million dollars or 25 cents per application we could put the petrochemical pesticide industry out of business http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2011/07/for-only-10-million-dollars-we-could.html

And I didn't know the many ways that mushrooms can help our immune system. http://www.naturalnews.com/023633.html

And I didn't know how much fun it is to hunt for them. (Zach will have four different types of wild, edible mushrooms foraged in Stokes State Forest tomorrow to show).

And I didn't know how delicious a Portabello Pie was until Sunday. Zach has been working on and has perfected (at least to my palate) a wonderful Portabello Pie. (Other people thought the same thing and he sold out at the farmer's market). He was able to make some more and will have them available for sale to the CSA members (and he would appreciate your feedback and suggestions). His next endeavor is Shiitake Muffins.

How cool is that?