Each year the weather is different. And that can be experienced in the vegetable garden. Last year the oyster mushroom logs were especially exuberent. This year the garden giant or wine cap mushrooms “stropharia rugoannulata” have been showing their talents in multitude.
Early last year I inoculated some fresh woodchips on a path around my herb spiral and a few months later the first garden giants appeared. The small number of the impressive sized colorful edible mushrooms were more than welcome and were happily consumed (by me, not by snails). This year new woodchips were added but even though the woodchips were not inoculated new mushrooms have been continuously popping up all over, even on places without woodchips.
This walking giant is quite a sight underneath the beans and between the strawberries. The red wine coloured cap, often the the size of a golf ball, can easily be seen just emerging through the soil or woodchips, a day later the swollen golf ball is mounted on a cream coloured sturdy stem and the following day the wine coloured cap resembles an open umbrella with purple lamellen – harvest time! Protein in the veggie garden!
