ALL’S FAIR?

I struck out a LOT this week. I’d been watching the hazelnuts like a hawk when I should’ve been watching them like a squirrel. I’d checked on the cherries like a good little robin but forgot that there are waxwings in the world. I was less than a day late for all of these foods that I’ve been watching for months - but even a minute too late is too late. I was feeling pretty underwhelmed with myself - but then there was a light - the golden flame out of the corner of my eye that can only be one thing - chicken. I’d been watching this stump for two years waiting for fruit, having found the bleached remnants of an old chicken of the woods three years ago while deer hunting. The mushroom was still very young when I found it on Friday. Given the week I’d had I was tempted to take it early but it was so small it was worth the risk of waiting a day or two. I checked it Saturday, not much growth. I went back this morning and something was different as I approached and my heart started to drop thinking it’d been taken. But then I saw someone had built a brush blind around it - to protect it from hungry eyes - to protect it from people like me. They did a good job - they took the time to do the thing that I should’ve done and I did hem and haw for a minute about what the right thing to do was. I’m prone to backing off at just a whiff of territoriality - but this was public land and I felt my two years of visiting this stump counted for something. I took two thirds of the mushroom and left them one nice one. I feel guilty but I can’t decide if I should. If you read this, fellow mushroom hunter of the Maine woods, please forgive me - but all is fair in love and foraging. If you want some green beans come on over I’m your girl.

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