My Mum loves mushrooms. She’s obsessed with them - watching videos, reading books, and tromping around in the woods behind our house searching for mushrooms after every rainy day. She buys mushrooms everywhere, at the Asian grocery where she gets exotic mushrooms to try in soups and stews, at the regular grocery where she buys the white button mushrooms and portabellas, to the specialty grocery where she gets oyster mushrooms among others.
Every meal seems to have fungus in it in some shape or form. She only allows us to eat them cooked — seems she read somewhere that raw mushrooms are dangerous. But every sauce seems to have mushrooms in it for the past several months, as well as every soup and casserole. Gran says they “taste like wood,” but I like them well enough, it kind of amuses me how she slips them into nearly every meal.
She found a mushroom farm in Mississippi that hosts walking tours, where you can forage on their property and she was thrilled. We made arrangements for her to go over there, the plan was she was to leave Mother’s Day afternoon and hunt mushrooms on Monday. My job was to watch Gran while she was gone, taking care of her so Mum could finally have her fungus revel. And it was cancelled today due to flooding at the mushroom farm.
Mum deflated like a balloon. She has been trying to go mushroom hunting with someone else for over a year and it fell apart for her at the last minute. Of course, when the waters recede and the farm is ready we will give it another go, but for now — she’s disappointed to say the least. And I’m sad for her.
Part of the problem with when we can arrange for her to go again is my schedule with the SCA. I attend about one to two events a month, which doesn’t seem like a whole lot really — you can find something to do every weekend if you are willing to drive a bit — but some of these events are planned months in advance, and the walking tours at the mushroom farm are not all that common. So my schedule dictates hers to a degree, because no one else can stay with Gran and take care of her, that’s on me. I don’t mind it really, Gran and I are getting along all right, so it’s fine there, I just worry a bit about being the only responsible adult in the house. But then I worry about everything.
I got Mum roses, and cards for both Mum and Gran for Mother’s Day — so it’s not a completely boring weekend, but I know she had her heart set on going after those shrooms. I hope that they will be flood free soon enough, and that the events I have planned won’t interfere with her finally getting her chance to collect her fungi. I have two events this month, next weekend and the weekend after; one in Arkansas and the other in Texas. In June I’m driving to El Paso for another, and in July/August I am going to Pennsic war for two weeks. Surely on of those weekends off she can get her mushroom hunting boots on and have a day to herself. I certainly hope so.