After two weeks off to soak up the last summer sunshine, fall fell fast. I couldn’t quite get used to the change in season. It is hard to switch from heat wave to near freezing. There was a week between digging up strawberries on a hot day and looking for mushrooms in my winter jacket.

My neighbors think these aren’t worth the trouble. I disagree. The blackberries in the surrounding abandoned gardens were in full swing. So I harvested what I could. And then I made jam from what we couldn’t eat fresh.

With the year coming to a close, I finally get a real break. I went for a few nice walks with Pepper and my husband. We even found some mushrooms. But first, I need to check on the garden house roof repair.

We live in an apartment surrounded by forest. When we moved here last year, mushroom season was at its very end. Now that the rain has slowed, we went on hikes through the wood in search of edible mushrooms.

There is a lot out there in the forest that is safe to eat and delicious. Join me for the baby steps of foraging for food out there.