This week: honey mushrooms! After a September rain, tawny clusters come up around stumps and the bases of old trees across the county. The fungus under them may have been killing those trees for years. That story is below.
Patrick
The Litchfield Ledger
The next Ledger Dinner Club is Thursday, October 8, at 6:30 in Litchfield.
Sign-ups start with a short quiz. The answers determine the tables, with six people at each. The restaurant stays a secret until the morning of the dinner. Afterward, there is an optional afterparty for anyone who wants to stay out.
The Mushrooms That Eat the Woods
Honey mushrooms can kill a tree before you ever see a mushroom.
The fungus spreads underground in black cords, reaching roots and growing beneath bark. In early fall, after a soaking rain, tawny clusters appear around stumps and tree bases. By then, it may have been there for years.
In the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, one honey fungus covers more than two thousand acres. The mushrooms are the brief, visible part of an organism that stretches across a forest.
Honey mushrooms grow here in Litchfield County too. They can attack living trees, especially weakened ones, then keep feeding on the wood after the tree dies. A cluster at the base of an oak can signal trouble for that tree.
But the same fungus also helps break down the wood, returning nutrients to the soil. Its work continues long after the trunk falls, helping make those nutrients available for new growth. What kills an individual tree also helps keep a forest going.
After the next September rain, look around the stumps and old trees along White Memorial’s trails. The caps may last only a few days. Underneath, the fungus is still at work.
Wednesday the 23rd
Woodbury Public Library, Woodbury – Tom Curtis on ten reasons to trace your ancestry and ten ways to start, drawn from his own family's line through the Salem and Connecticut witch trials and the Mayflower. Register ahead, 25 seats. 269 Main Street South. 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM FIND YOUR PEOPLE
Thursday the 24th
Litchfield Community Center, Litchfield – Vincent, A Portrait by the Postman Roulin. Ted Zalewski plays Joseph Roulin, van Gogh's friend from Arles, telling the painter's story from a café in Auvers in 1890. $10, register online. 421 Bantam Road. 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM MEET THE POSTMAN
Friday the 25th
Warner Theatre, Torrington – The Billy Joel Legacy, Dean Elliott's tribute show with multimedia projections. Piano Man, Uptown Girl, We Didn't Start the Fire. Oneglia Auditorium, 68 Main Street. 7:30 PM SING PIANO MAN
Saturday the 26th
White Memorial Conservation Center, Litchfield – The 44th annual Family Nature Day. Riverside Reptiles, birds of prey from Horizon Wings, Ferncroft Wildlife Rescue's opossums and Zelda, the resident owl. Wagon rides, a pie sale, an artisan market. $6, free for members and kids under 12. 80 Whitehall Road. 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM MEET ZELDA
Sunday the 27th
Sharon Town Hall, Sharon – Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics, on her book The Problem with Plastic, in conversation with Joshua Ginsberg, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Free, register with the Hotchkiss Library. 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM HEAR THE TALK
That is one pick a day. The full list, including the Highland Games at Lime Rock on Sunday, is on the website.
A few poll respondents mentioned they didn’t know the Ledger was on Instagram! It is. Photographs of the county between issues, plus events that don’t make the newsletter.
Show your business to thousands of Litchfield locals. Email Patrick at patrick@litchfieldledger.com.
