Mushroom season is upon us in the high country

and flow, considering the non-static relations we are constantly a part of in our everyday interplay with landscapes

I just got out of a few days gathering mushrooms with a friend up at 10,000 feet here in western Colorado, on the Grand Mesa. The Grand Mesa is a hidden gem mostly known to locals in the region. Since it doesn't have huge grandiose peaks compared to the rest of Colorado's 14'ers and 13'ers (very tall mountains people like ‘to bag’ and check off a list), it isn't folks' first pick as a destination, but for western Colorado folks, its a welcome summer respite to valley heat. And, the Grand Mesa, like other parts of the high country in the Southern Rockies and across the entire west above a certain elevation, is in it's full peak this time of year. It’s full of lakes from glacial past mixed with periods of being a low elevation valley with swamps and wetland, with occasional volcanic spurts, an interesting landform indeed. It may be a Mesa, flat with a few mountains; but it literally feels like a sky island paradise. Like is characteristic of the High Country a lot of places, Spring hits fast, then Summer and then Fall and the time to experience above 10k feet during the green season is a very short window. In that time it's a whirlwind if you are an herbalist or a forager, or even interested in studying mycology, seeds or want to simply go fishing. There's so much to enjoy and so little time since the elevation dictates a short season. It is where the plants go when the climate warms, uphill. These high elevation areas are special places, respites for plant diversity, for plants that can’t handle the heat down low, often isolated from similar plant communities by valleys in-between, so stewarding these ‘sky islands’ are really important.

The past few days I have been gathering boatloads of edible Bolete mushrooms, Rocky Mountain Chanterelles with a friend to dry for soups later, and Amanitas for topical use, and gathered medicine like Osha leaf and root, several species of Pedicularis as a skeletal muscle relaxant, Spruce and Fir tips that are still soft and succulent in new growth, Fireweed leaf for making fermented tea, Valerian root for tincture and oil, Arnica flower for pain salve, and more. The medicine often comes in quick bursts, here one minute and then gone so quickly.

What's cool about elevation in this region and lots of regions with dramatic elevation changes is that some medicines grow from the bottom to the top or almost, like Rose. There's still Rose blooming up high when the Rose in the valley has been done for a month now. I gathered Rose petals when the low elevation rose was in bloom and was grateful to see it still blooming up high, so I didn't miss my full opportunity to get Rose medicine. The mountains are forgiving in that way. Also! Some reasons are wetter than others as this region has a Monsoon season, and last year was uneventful for mushrooms. Well THIS year is exceptional. I mean, we were running around constantly finding Boletes wondering how we were going to dry it all. The thing with ‘wildcrafting’ mushrooms vs. plants is that the mushrooms are fruiting bodies and the mycelium underground is still there even when you pick the fruiting bodies. And, when you gather in bags with open netting, you are often allowing the spores to disperse in your gathering, continuing the ongoing life of the mushrooms. We have to get away from the guilt-induced narrative that all wildcrafting is inherently ‘taking’ when actually as humans we are meant to be woven with the ecologies we live in, there is just responsibility that comes with that, and in living in a modern society that commodifies all things, the living ‘with’ becomes more complicated and our circumstances are different. We have a duty to connect somehow, in some way, and gathering is one way to do it. Eating from the wild, as one of my botanical influences said “Eat something wild everyday’ (Frank Cook, watch this video on his talk, “Flow”, here. He is passed away now but has influenced so many around the world) is important. We are not separate from all life as humans. We are intricately a part of all things. The illusion of separation is the problem behind everything. With that in mind, reverse back to here, what is it that the life around us is calling us to do with them? Since we are actually not disconnected at all?

But also distinguishing what wild actually is is important, because if wild is ‘self-willed’ without human interaction, then how does one properly interact with and tend wild plants to propagate them forth in our taking? How do we take care of them if they are willed without us? Or maybe they never were willed without human interaction, maybe they need us to tend to them. So wild things, maybe aren’t fully independent of our historic interactions, and many plants at least show that to us.

Mushrooms have also been a huge part of human food history, and since the high country is so much more a pleasant place to live in the summer than down in the adobes or hot valley below, it wouldn’t surprise me if people lived here on fish, mushrooms, wild greens and deer in the summer, and then the wild fruits later in August like Chokecherries and Saskatoon berries a tiniest bit lower down. As fall hits and folks start to move back down more in elevation, the Gambel Oaks become ready with their edible acorns, easy to gather, low in tannins and not needing leaching to eat, this is a wild food paradise that also needs tending attention like controlled burns, moderate disturbances that are ‘created’ by digging to open soils for seeds to get a foot hold, pruning, coppicing, pollarding, moving tubers and bulbs, crowns, seeds and more.

I have been thinking about home a lot again lately cause i’m back living in my truck sleeping on my stuffed wool bed and drawer pull out kitchen, by choice, perhaps it is a theme in my work and my life for many years. Home has been a person who rejected me, a place I cannot go back, a tree that got cut down, my grandparents farm that has been sold, a polluted river than cannot be cleaned up over night or even in a lifetime. It’s a lot of things. It a big source of pain for me and also a seed of something that keeps me grief informed in my work. But in these moments of ecstatic joy running around these conifer forests finding bolete after bolete with my friend, I am home in my body of joy, in my connection, in what these mushrooms are trying to offer to me and my friend in this moment, on this day, in the height of summer in the high country. It is literal paradise and everything is perfect in the world.

And with this share, some offering, some shameless promotion, some necessary offering in a world that needs our attention — come join me up here in early August for a highly focused 7 day ecology program where we camp together, get fed and also run around in the woods and gather the abundance while also learning how to tend these beings carefully and with attention. We are about to close registration in the next couple days. This place is a microcosm for many, and what we do together you can take other places like the techniques for tending roots and shoots, seeds or particular medicines in certain ways. Since I’m super focused on gathering medicine right now, we will do more of that than usual. I’m not a mushroom expert, but since this place is having an epic mushroom year due to the good rains and monsoon storms, there inevitably will be a gleeful harvest. Mainly what I want to impart and for folks coming to immerse in the high country with me is basic botany skills that are relevant for connection and medicine/wild food gathering/ecological literacy but also social tools for thinking critical about narratives of land without judgement.

In the last course, one person said to me at the end that they didn’t feel judged about where they were in the invasion biology conversation. I am here to facilitate exploration of ideas about land that we don’t always know the full answers to, and may never. We owe it to the land and one another to remain empathetic humans in a world that pushes us not to be, and to think ‘critically’ (why I use that word so much) about what it means to be a ‘human in connection to plants or the land’ (ethnobotany definition). We cannot just study the past and go straight back to an imagined past, there is wisdom in past tending though and the intricate puzzle that the land is literally showing us. The past is cascaded to the present in what ecosystems we see as time is not linear but embodied non-statically in current life, and we can learn tools to see what is being shown to us, and learn what social issues affect these ecosystems, connect these two tools while also having fun gathering food and medicine.

I know its getting late to sign up, but I know one of you out there has the flexibility to jump on last minute into this immersion, one that is sure to change your life, at least others have told me it has, in the way it entirely changes how they think about their relationship with the land for the better. I wish I had the list of testimonials in front of me like any professional should or could, but I don’t at this moment. I still have ongoing relationships with past students (some have come many times to classes) and I am so grateful for the connections I have gained with these kin into friendships beyond the formal course structure. (Sunny and Iraiah, here’s a little shoutout to you!)

Until then, boletes and osha, pedicularis and arnica, sasky’s a coming, biscuit roots a fattening, acorns a greening, rains a soaking, piñon cone green and sap filled.

Sign up last minute here for my ecology course on the Grand Mesa August 2-8 here in western Colorado.

All diet needs accommodated! If you forget camping gear we have it. I am Wilderness First Responder trained, we got you safety wise. Also, we are running a current campaign discounting last minute sign ups so you can sign up below the sliding scale price. If you want to access this for the limited time we’re offering it, email Jeff to get the registration link at jeff@layinggroundwork.org . Obviously if you can sign up at our normal sliding scale, sign up through the link above.

Also, past podcast guest and Substack writer (and guest attendee at ecology courses last summer!) Kollibri terre Sonnenblume started a new podcast! They ran one called Voices for Nature and Peace for years and their new one is a fresh start. Go check it out below.

Public Debut of Podcast Episode #1

Now to tincture my herbs and bask in the evening rains coming down as I finish this post. The rains have been such a welcome respite to the daily dry heat. Monsoons are awesome.