White fungi have invaded our property. Not only that, both the front and back yards are supporting daily-increasing yields of the things and I can't even pick them for dinner. Therein lies the culmination of any gardeners frustration-a crop that cannot be harvested. Using Samuel Taylor Coleridge's template, let me put it this way: Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere and not a bite to eat.
It's not that I mind fungi populating my green lawn, it's just that because I am an avid grower of as much food as we can manage in our yard, it's frustrating not to be able to utilize the crop.
Just out of curiosity I did an online search and I found it interesting to discover that, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, there are five thousand known types of mushroom in the world. Of this number, eight varieties are described as "deadly" and approximately one hundred are poisonous enough to cause one awfully big belly-ache. Eliminate those and you've still got four thousand, eight hundred and ninety-two varieties that theoretically are edible.
I then attempted to identify our newest crop. By comparing their appearance with posted pictures, I'm tempted to think they are the variety known as bird's nest fungi. To my great relief they're considered non-toxic but while I'd like to believe they're not dangerous to eat, I won't risk trying them. Furthermore, because I'm not qualified to distinguish good mushrooms from bad mushrooms, I would always pass up the delight of feasting on the best by avoiding dining on the worst.
I mused on the Parable of the Mushrooms and came up with this observation: in carefully avoiding the bad, let's be careful not to miss out on the good.
"Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." (1 Thessalonians 5: 21,22)
