Foraged for Mushrooms Down By the Bayou Last Week

A friend of mine dropped by the house the other day and asked me what I was doing for the next hour.  I didn't have anything going on at the time, so I told him I was free.  He asked me to go foraging in the woods to try to find some Lion's Mane Mushrooms.  My friend is a member of a mushroom club where he goes out with mycologists on mushroom walks and they identify the different mushrooms that grow in our area.  At his last meeting, they found several lion's mane mushrooms.  They are good for eating as well as medicinal purposes.    We always pick oyster mushrooms and chanterelles, but I've never seen a lion's mane mushroom, so I decided to join him.  Here's what a lion's mane mushroom looks like:

Image Credit

My friend owns some property (about 11 acres) that butts up against Bayou Nezpique.  We've gone out there and found bags of chanterelles, but it is not time for chanterelles right now.  We drove out on a perfect afternoon.  The skies were blue.  The air crisp and clear.  We walked down to the water's edge, being careful not to trip on cypress knees that reached up from the ground.  Palmettos grew in clumps in the shade of the tupelos.  We heard whistling and saw a blur of movement as a bunch of wood ducks got up from the murky waters and flew through the trees at blinding speed.

We started walking upland, searching the forest floor and every dead tree we came across.  We saw plenty of deer tracks and areas where wild hogs had worked up the dirt looking for roots or acorns.  We saw so many things in the woods, but we didn't see any edible mushrooms.  I take that back, we did see a cluster of honey mushrooms, but they were past their prime and didn't look fresh anymore.

Disappointed, we walked back to the truck with empty paper bags.  We were hoping to fill them, but it appeared we were going home empty handed.  As we drove down the gravel road, there was an old willow stump on the side of the road and something white caught my eye.  My buddy stopped the truck and got out with his pocketknife and cut a nice stash of oyster mushrooms off the stump.

So we didn't go home empty-handed after all!  Once you find an area with mushrooms, it is a good idea to check it from time to time, especially a few days after a rain, as there will be more mushrooms to pick.  We refrigerated the oysters and the next morning, Tricia pulled them out of the paper bag and cleaned them up as they'll sometimes have dirt, little bugs and leaves or twigs on them.

Tricia cut up the oyster mushrooms and sauteed them in a cast iron skillet in butter with some peppers, onions, and garlic.

Once they were cooked, she cracked some fresh eggs that Benjamin had collected the night before.

Country eggs with sauteed fresh foraged wild mushrooms!

Now that's a breakfast of champions!  Maybe next time we'll find the lion's mane.

Rolling on the River

This past weekend my brother-in-law, Orlando and our nephew, Vincent, came to visit us.  They live in a suburb of Houston and we always enjoy their visits.  Orlando brought his boat, “The Hot Popper,” and we had a big adventure planned.  We planned to embark on a voyage leaving from Houssiere’s Park in Jennings and travel on Bayou Nezpique until it emptied into the Mermentau River.  Then we would continue on the Mermentau River until it emptied into Lake Arthur.  We would then dock at The Regatta Restaurant and enjoy live music, good food, and fellowship.

We had no idea how long the voyage would take.  As the map below shows, we departed from the dock designated by the red star and our destination is marked by the yellow starburst.  It only takes 15 minutes to travel from Jennings to Lake Arthur by car, but traveling by boat on a winding bayou and river is quite another matter.  The waterway is hardly a straight line.  It winds in and out countless times in its slow flow southward.  But we weren’t in a rush at all.  We were out to enjoy a great day!

Our 3 1/2 hour tour was mapped out

It’s probably best (maybe? – maybe not) to commemorate this voyage in a familiar song (Theme song to Gilligan's Island), with the words altered somewhat.  My apologies to Sherwood Schwartz and United Artists Television!

Just sit right back
And you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started out from Houssiere’s Park,
Aboard this tiny ship.

Embarking on "The Hot Popper" - Bon Voyage!!

Captain Orlando was a mighty sailin' man, 

Captain Orlando, Our Skipper

The Skipper brave and sure.

First Mate, Patricia

Five passengers set sail that day, 

For a lazy Saturday tour,
A lazy Saturday tour.

The Deckhands (Kyle, Vinny G, & Benjamin)

The weather started getting hot, 

As the tiny ship moved south.
Tricia packed sandwiches, root beer and hummus,
For the fearless crew to fill their mouths.
For the fearless crew to fill their mouths.

The ship pulled Benjamin on a tube

The tube dude

Down the gator infested bayou,

Dodging tug boats pushing barges

Barges on the way to Mermentau to be loaded with rice or soybeans

Was a skill our captain could do.

With Captain Orlando,
And Vincent too.
Yours truly and his wife,
And Benjamin,
The “Hot Popper”,
Enjoying quality of life.

(Ending verse)

So this is the tale of our adventure,
It really didn’t take a long, long time.
After 3 ½ hours in the boat we arrived at Regatta, 

The Regatta Restaurant - our destination

And enjoyed a sunset over the water that was sublime.

Captain Orlando and the “Hot Popper”,
Did his very best,
To pilot us through thick duck salad aquatic weed,

Duck Salad Water weed

Without getting stressed.

Cell phone service, boat snacks, and an umbrella,
But not a single fish was caught
If we wanted to eat fresh fish
Our meal would have to be bought.

So join us here each year my friends,
There will be no discontent,
We’ve already decided
This will be an annual event!

And the song ends, thank Goodness!  We really had a great time.  We left at 1 pm sharp and took our time for most of the trip, arriving at the dock at The Regatta at about 4:30 where we enjoyed some cold drinks and an appetizer and listened to some live music.  We burned about 5 gallons of fuel (out of 6 gallons we had on hand).  The captain had speakers on his boat and as we cruised down the river, we listened to music.  The captain even took requests!  Once we got on the Mermentau River and Lake Arthur, there were other people out in boats and we waved and chatted with friendly fellow sailors enjoying the day like we were.

Prior to setting sail in Jennings, we had positioned the truck and trailer at a public landing in Lake Arthur and it is a good thing we did that as we couldn’t have made a round trip back to Jennings due to the sun fading and our fuel supply almost out.  Captain Orlando had a fish finder that kept showing lots of fish, but they were either not hungry or not interested in what we were offering.  Although it was hot, there was a breeze blowing on the water and the umbrella kept most of us out of the baking sun.

The skipper also had a depth finder on the boat that showed water depths averaging about 38 feet in the channel all the way from Jennings to Lake Arthur, with a high depth of 47 feet and a low point of about 3 feet.  I’m a land-lubber for sure, but I really enjoyed the day as did all of the crew of the Hot Popper.  We’re already planning our next voyage and may print up t-shirts heralding the cruise and try to enlist others to participate in next year’s Regatta to The Regatta!

Big wheel keep on turnin’

Proud Mary keep on burnin’

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river…

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

The heat of summer reduces the chores in the garden.  Basically the only thing growing right now are peanuts, sweet potatoes, basil, green onions and lima beans and I already weeded them.  So there wasn’t much to do in the sun-baked garden.  Russ came in from college and it was a nice time to visit with him.  Saturday just seemed like a perfect, albeit hot, day to put “The Garfish,” our canoe, in the water.  Tricia did not want to participate in our excursion as she’s not fond of the alligators that lurk in the muddy waters.  She likes clear water where you can see the bottom.  There’s not much of that around here.

We pulled the seaworthy vessel from its resting place in the garage, loaded it in Russ’ pickup and drove a couple of miles to the end of a dirt road.  It dead-ends right in the bayou.  We dodged numerous cypress knees and a water moccasin to put her in the water.  When it rains Bayou Nezpique overflows her banks and fills sloughs with water.  When the water level subsides, it traps water in these sloughs.  We have to put the canoe in the slough paddling for a short bit until we hit dry land and then we carry the Garfish and put her into the Bayou.  Here is a picture of that slough, filled with tupelo gum trees.  It is truly a beautiful place, I think.

You can see the water level is low based on the water marks on the trees.  Russ and I had a hard time getting the Garfish to the other side as we hit numerous logs on the way.  Finally we made it to the bank of the Nezpique.  Wild muscadines littered the forest floor and crows could be heard in the treetops.  It was a very hot and humid day, but under the canopy of huge cypress trees, it was cool and shady.

Bayou Nezpique makes its slow, lazy journey and empties into the Mermentau River, which empties into Lake Arthur.  Rice farmers are letting the water off of their rice fields for harvest now and much of that water makes its way into the bayou, slow-moving and the color of chocolate milk.

We set our noodle fishing lines out and then threw our fishing lines baited with earthworms into the water.  It didn’t look promising for the fishing due to the muddy water, but we patiently threw our lines out there.

No bites.  None.  As we paddled to try different spots, we noticed huge wasp nests filled with angry red wasps hanging in the cypress limbs.  We tried to steer clear.  Russ had been stung recently and is not a fan of wasps.

We gave up on the fishing and decided to just explore, looking at the different types of trees that lined the bank.  We did see some garfish and buffalo carp jumping, but no success getting anything to bite.  We found a muddy area that had wild hog tracks running through it right off the main channel of the bayou and saw that it opened up to a larger tributary and decided to try to paddle through it.  Paddling through the rotten, muddy area caused bubbles to filter up, bringing with it the stench of decaying leaves or other nasty stuff to the surface.  

We paddled on and found ourselves in a lonely, dark area and as we continued paddling we saw that we were circling back.  There was an island in there.  I had never noticed that.  We heard the rumbling of thunder and decided to turn the Garfish back toward the main channel, pick up our noodle lines and head home.  We paddled quickly out and successfully beat the rain.

No fish were caught, but it was a nice afternoon experience not far from home, getting to experience the beauty of nature on a steamy, sultry, Saturday afternoon. 

Saturday Afternoon Swamp Excursion

This past weekend the weather was absolutely phenomenal.  It had been a long time since we had gone canoeing and Russ wanted to take our canoe, The Garfish, out for an excursion.  I have a friend who has some land that is riverfront property and it is closer to our house that the 15 minute drive through town and out to the public launch to go canoeing in Bayou Nezpique.

My buddy's property is only a 5 minute drive from our house.  You just take two right turns, a left turn, drive to the end of a gravel road and you end up here:

The Swamp

What you have to do is launch your canoe (or pirogue) into the swamp and paddle through the cypress trees and cypress knees until you hit land.  It's only about 100 yards.  Then you pick up your canoe and carry it about 20 yards and you're at the riverbank.  I decided to take some pictures as we got started.

The sights and sounds are incredible.  Palmetto grows up from spots on the dry land and the slow moving water contains a lot of critters.  Spanish moss hangs down from the trees, drooping like beards from the trees.

I snapped a photo of a strange looking white lily:

Here is some palmetto growing, surrounded by a blanket of ferns:

After paddling through the swamp and then carrying the canoe on dry land for a bit, we arrived at the shore of Bayou Nezpique.  This is the same bayou that we normally canoe on but it is probably 5 miles north (as the crow flies).  The chocolate milk-looking water was very still, but of course that is what a bayou is - slow moving water.



Bayou Nezpique

Looking upward, you can see some of the Spanish Moss hanging from all the trees.  Next time we'll bring our fishing poles.  Today, we were running out of daylight and just wanted to get our bearings.  My buddy told us that we can use his land any old time we please.  What a deal!

As I'm walking through the woods, I like to look around and take it all in.  While observing the sights, I located a huge muscadine vine that was growing up and into a small tree.  I told my friend about it and he was pretty excited.  Muscadines are a wild edible grape that make great jelly.  I marked the spot and we'll be back in the summer to harvest some grapes from our new-found vineyard. 

As we were foraging, we also found some oyster mushrooms growing on the side of an old willow tree that had fallen.  We picked them to bring home and cook in an omelet, but doggonit if I didn't leave them in the truck.  We came to a large spot that looked like the land had been plowed.  What in the world?!  Looking down, I saw this:
 

Wild hog tracks

Yep, wild hogs.  These boogers are taking over.  They root around looking for acorns to eat along with edible roots and stuff.  We want to bring our tents and have both of our families camp-out one weekend before it gets too warm and the mosquitoes come out, but we'll have to find a spot away from the herd of wild hogs. 

Here is a close-up of some of the ferns that are growing up all over the place with the bright green contrasting against the dull colors surrounding us in the swamp. 

Bright green ferns

It was getting a little dark and we didn't want to get stranded in the swamp at night, so we started to make our way back to where our trucks were parked.  We canoed past a huge old bald cypress tree, whose trunk spread out at the bottom to approximately ten feet.  I know you can't get perspective from the picture below, but trust me when I say it was enormous.


Huge bald cypress tree

We loaded up the canoe and Warren's pirogue into our trucks and just leaned against the tailgate and watched and listened as two owls hooted at one another.  Lightning bugs started their light show and wood ducks would soon come whistling through the cypress branches after spending the day eating live oak acorns.  What a nice spot!  We'll be coming here often as it is close in proximity to our home and the sights are breathtaking.