Tag Archives: Saint Andrews food forest

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July 12, 2024 Finally a nice rain at SAFF

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It felt like we had a hundred chores and errands to do on this July Friday afternoon before we could escape to the Farm. It’s been a heavy week in some ways. Getting out of town was like running a maze, the truck was down a quart of oil, we needed to drop some papers off in Charlottesville, and we wanted tacos from our favorite place. We finally arrived at the Farm a little after 3, after setting out around noon.
The ground was still dry, but the air was cooler, around 80 degrees and the breeze was refreshing. The last three weeks the hot wind has hit us like a blast furnace.
We started our walk up near the entrance and walked through the forest to the South end to check on our blueberries. There hasn’t been enough rain for them to ripen, so they continue to hang in unripe blue-green stasis.
The grass hasn’t grown much with the persistent drought, and we didn’t even see a tick. Ticks thrive in damp conditions, and there hasn’t been any precipitation. We came across a big dung beetle not having much luck trying to get home.

Dung beetle

Throughout our visit the clouds were gathering, we could see them moving towards and over us from the South. After our walk and a snack, we prepared to head home, when the skies finally opened up with blessed rain. It started as a sprinkle, then drizzle, and then a steady shower.

Is it really raining?
We sat there in the truck and talked for a little while with the windows open, just letting the rain come in. Our spirits are lighter, with the return of rain to the Farm. We will be back in a day or two to forage with better prospects than we’ve had in weeks.
Cicada chimney spotted near the waterway at the bottom of the slope. These chimneys are seen several weeks before cicadas nymphs emerge in wetlands. In dry areas they are usually seen as a hole in the ground.
Evidence of an oak stem borer, Anaflomorpha sunpubescens. Natural enemies take care of these so no control is usually necessary.
Unidentified honeycomb found at the bottom of North Trail.
Unknown mushroom appears to be covered in Hypomyces.
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July 10, 2024 Heat Wave while battling an invasive at SAFF

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Downy rattlesnake orchid blooming.

It’s been in the nineties, and even though the air feels plenty humid, the ground is baked, cracked and dry. It hasn’t rained enough in far too long with these high temperatures. There have been heat advisories every day this week. It’s crunchy walking underfoot everywhere but the bottom by the waterway. The clearings are mostly brown. The bottom of the slope has a slight bit of water trickling through the stream. We were glad to see that.

Cranefly orchid emerges with reddish brown stems just springing up from the ground. A flower will appear next.

We’ve been battling an invasive tree called Ailanthus or tree of Heaven. We found them last summer in three different spots all up top near the main clearing and by our neighbors to the north. Another name for Ailanthus is Chinese sumac. Differentiation between Ailanthus and our native shining sumac, Rhus copallinum, was a challenge initially with the smaller specimen. However, now we can see the difference between them easily with our practice watching over our forest floor.

Because it is so tenacious by producing an overly abundant amount of seeds, crowding out native species with dense thickets and secreting a chemical into the soil that is toxic to other plants, there are best practices to ridding these trees from your land. It involves a hack and squirt method in the fall when the tree is sending the most nutrients to the root. We did this to all 4 of the larger trees we couldn’t pull out by hand. This year the trees sent up hundreds of root suckers so we are waiting for a good soaking rain to soften the ground and then we can pull them out. We will continue to do this as they grow. Whatever is still alive in the fall, we will hack and squirt again.

Smaller Ailanthus trees root suckering in a circle from the larger tree. These in particular would easily overtake the native trees and blueberries while creating a dense thicket if we don’t stop them. We pulled these out after a brief rain last week.
The roots are shallow spreading and aggressive.

https://extension.umd.edu/resource/invasives-your-woodland-tree-heaven-ailanthus/

Eastern black walnut trees, Juglans nigra, found by the waterway at the bottom of North Trail. We always get excited when we find a new native species.
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June 15,2024 Camping at SAFF

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Our campsite at SAFF

We had our first camping experience at SAFF on Saturday night. It was the coolest overnight weather forecast for weeks so we thought we would take advantage of that. We’d been preparing for months with the compost toilet in the shed, keeping the clearings cut back neatly for tick mitigation and collecting the gear we’d need. We still had a good bit of gear to haul out even though we’d been taking loads over for weeks. All in all, the compost toilet combined with the sawdust was the heaviest load. We’ve been able to snack on our tart wild blueberries every time we’ve been out.

Our compost toilet. We use sawdust which we got from a local lumber yard. They dropped the largest load possible in our Honda Ridgeline. We wish we took a pic. It was a mountain of sawdust.
At dusk, we were pleasantly surprised by fireflies dancing about the clearing up top.
Chris getting our foam mattress situated in the tent.
An old mushroom we found on our early morning hike. A Russula near the North Trsil by the waterway.
Ferns on the southeast side.
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June 7, 2024 Scouting out camping spots, trail maintenance and a mushroom walk at SAFF

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Russula parvovirescens, Blue-green cracking Russula, found along Fern Trail. This is a very good edible mushroom.

We took the afternoon at the farm and we found it drier than we expected. Blueberries are ripening. We found new mushrooms we hadn’t seen before. We are planning to camp next weekend and looked for a fire pit location and tent spots. The weather was beautiful with a cool breeze in the shade and the sun shining.

Amanita flavoconia, Yellow patches, found on the south end near Black Trumpet Way.
This stick on top of the Russula is actually a root! There are 80 species of red Russula in North America and can only be identified to species level with ITS sequence. It’s recommended to do a spit test to see if it tastes spicy. If so, they need a very thorough cooking to be rendered edible. (But may still be too spicy for most.) Fermentation can eliminate spiciness. However, if not spicy, they can be eaten raw even.
Coral fungus found up top.
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June 2,2024 Another Work Day at SAFF

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We culled more black cherry trees from the clearing and broke them down into burnable chunks. These were infected with black knot fungus and burning them is the only way to get rid of them.

Amanita found at Northern side of the waterway. Because this has a cup shaped volva during this stage, it points to section Caesaraea, Vaginatae or Phalloideae.

After finishing our job, we walked down Fern to Ridge Trail and looked for more Black trumpets along the southern set back line. We found a few but left them hoping for rain tonight so they can grow.

We walked through the Pawpaw orchard and were satisfied with how it looked. We are making plans to get more light to these trees. There are hundreds of them as they make root suckers that are clones of the original tree.

We found a baby deer laying by the waterway at the base of a tree waiting for its mother. It was so sweet. Didn’t even lift its head as we walked by. Following directions well and staying safe. We hope mom comes back soon.

A baby deer sleeping in the forest near the waterway and pawpaw grove.
We found these ghost pipes on the northern side of the waterway at the bottom of North Trail. They are pink instead of white and have black flecks. Monotropa uniflora does not contain chlorophyll. It is parasitic to its host fungus, Russulaceae, and it saps food through the web of mycorrhizae.

We are hoping for more rain tonight so the mushrooms will grow.

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May 31,2024 More Eastern Black Trumpets and Ripe Blueberries at St Andrew’s Forest Farm

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Finally we have a few ripe blueberries. They were a tasty snack after we got some work done.

We went out to the farm to clean up a few spaces, look for more black trumpets and cut a trail through the south side. We were able to clear out some tiny tulip poplars and maples, paying close attention to keep any understory oaks as we learned the old oak forests throughout the world have a problem with understory oaks regenerating the forests. We decided we would only thin out diseased or failing oaks. https://youtu.be/NRWHHOAf39U?si=akypzxLUNo_7tOfn

Oaks have strong mycorrhizal https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/mycorrhiza connections as well, so we truly appreciate them for a number of reasons. SAFF has older, medium, saplings and seedling oaks all throughout so we aren’t seeing this problem. https://dcist.com/story/23/12/20/dc-local-forests-failing-tree-regeneration/

We were pleased to eat a few blueberries. We found them abundant and ripening first along the southern set back line, where they get plenty of sun.
Eastern Black trumpets
We ate yesterday’s black trumpets for breakfast this morning. We cooked them for 10 minutes on medium high heat in a dry pan, then lowered heat and added olive oil and garlic with a bit of salt and pepper. They were nutty, fruity and smoky. We enjoyed them as much as the golden chanterelles we found last summer. There are no known toxic lookalikes, so these are a great mushroom to forage . Some of our favorite mushrooms we have tasted. We performed some trail maintenance on ridge trail, made our way along the waterway, back over to the set back line and found more today. We harvested the largest and we can’t wait to eat these too. We made a trail up from the waterway to the Black Trumpet patches and beyond until we exhausted ourselves. We will call this Black Trumpet Way, it leads to the set back line.
For now, this is unknown Amanita that we will watch this weekend. Notice the volva underneath the mushroom that it emerged from.
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May 30, 2024 Porcini and black trumpets at Saint Andrews Forest Farm

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One of our first Bolete edulis mushrooms, common names the Cep, porcini, king bolete or penny bun, a most sought after edible. We’d been searching for a year and finally found it yesterday as well as black trumpets.
Craterellus fallax, Eastern black trumpet, found along the southern set back line along the forest edge. Near oaks and nestled into moss growing directly from the forest litter. These are particularly difficult to spot as they look like leaf litter. We are so lucky.
They looked like round tubes. These are a choice edible and are highly valued.
Shoehorn oyster found along Blackrock trail growing on a stick.
Amanita parcivolvata, False Caesar’s Mushroom, we are seeing these all over up top right now. The cutest mushrooms to spot pushing up through the leaves or pine needles with the bright red to orange cap dotted with white.
Ailanthus, tree of Heaven, root suckers we’ve been pulling out from wherever we find it on the farm. This is a wonderful example of why to pull out the roots underneath and not mow or cut them since the root will keep growing and sending up more of this invasive tree that chokes out native species.
Mowing the south end where we found the first of 5 porcini mushrooms yesterday. 👏🏽

We were out to mow and have a work day. It was lovely cooler weather so we got lucky in multiple ways. We mowed the clearing up top, the front along the road and the southern border. Then we went for a little walk and found the mushrooms we’d almost given up hope finding at SAFF. What a wonderful day. We feel like anything is possible if you stay focused and keep going. 😀

We saw plenty of lone star ticks as well. Since we’ve been mowing regularly we don’t see them in the clearings but along our trails we find them on the tippy top of Galium, bedstraw. They hang out with their legs open waiting for an animal to walk by to attach to. We saw plenty of them yesterday. It’s a bad year for ticks here in Virginia. The mild winter weather didn’t kill them off so they are even more abundant than usual. We are staying mindful.

Top of the Bolete edulis.
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May 27, 2024 Memorial Day at St Andrew’s Forest Farm

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So far we have seen plenty of deer ticks, dog ticks and lone star ticks at the farm this year. The clearing seems free of them right now since we keep it mowed down well. In the forest, the wetter and greener areas where deer and dogs are known to move through have been hotspots. Our tick mitigation measures have kept us from getting any bites but we have found them crawling on our socks, shoes and clothes. It’s definitely tick season unfortunately.

Monotropa uniflora, Indian pipe or ghost pipe, found along southern set back line in the forest. These plants get their energy from their host fungus, Russula or Lactarius, so they can exist in darkest parts of the woods. We were delighted to find it at SAFF.
The water was moving gently in the waterway at the bottom.
Great spangled fritillary, Argynnis cybele, were fluttering all around the Southern set back line. Fritillaries are a smaller group within the butterfly family Nymphalidae. All butterflies in this family have tiny front legs that lack claws (in most other butterfly families, the front legs have claws). My daughter laughs at the Seussian names (fritillary, pawpaw, peduncle) of plants and insects from the farm.
Amanita vaginata, grissette, an edible Amanita that lacks a ring in the stem. A large mushroom with furrows around the edge duplicating the gills underneath.
American Amber jelly fungus, Exidia crenata, is edible but we’ve not tasted it yet. Used in pho or noodle dishes.
Black and gold flat millipede, Apheloria virginiensis, found all along the south side. It is reported to secrete cyanide compounds as a defense. It is recommended that one wash hands after handling this organism as the toxic compounds it secretes are poisonous and can cause extreme irritation if rubbed in the eyes. (Source: Wikipedia)
Chris looking for our boundary marker in pawpaw orchard.
Fairy fingers, Clavaria fragilis,
 It produces tubular, unbranched, white basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that typically grow in clusters. 
Maple leaf viburnum
Pawpaws
Flowering lowbush blueberry

We were going to mow but left our keys to the tractor at the house in Staunton so instead we had a lovely walk around. The ground and forest litter was wet from the storms that have passed through. With the heat, it felt very muggy.

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May 24, 2024 Summer Mushrooms are back at SAFF

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Weeping widow, Lacrymaria lacrymabunda, they are not poisonous but they are bitter. They were a lovely find on the driveway up top.
Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, found along the edges of the clearing up top. They arose from a volva, an egg at the base of the stem. We saw them last year and were waiting for them to come back.
Similar to the Lactarius indigo, this is Calendine milk cap. Found at the top of North trail. It had a blue yellow sheen on the cap with yellow gills. The gills did not lactate when cut. We have so many Russulas. It’s delightful.
Lespedeza procumbens, trailing lespedeza, a native perennial which is a legume, so nitrogen fixing. Found throughout the farm.
Hygrocybe conica along North Trail. These were brilliantly colored on the forest floor.
Hygrocybe flavescens, Golden waxy cap, at the bottom of North Trail as it reaches the waterway, we found this beauty.
Entoloma strictius, were tall, straight and golden, arising directly out of the forest litter along North trail. They appear to have a pink spore print, and the ridge-like gills turn pink as they age.
The Pawpaw Orchard has become a favorite location for us as we clear out small competitors and limb up larger trees. We’ve been learning about how to successfully transplant papaws and we’re working on a long term strategy to produce fruit and trees in abundance.

We have been working on the shed which will house a compost toilet and shower for us to camp luxuriously. We plan to camp in the next month and hope to report back about the wonderful night time adventures at Saint Andrews Forest Farm.

The compost toilet has indoor cladding now.
Freshly cut! We’ve been diligently maintaining our setback line along the Southern boundary of SAFF, grateful for the power of the Husqvarna.
Straight down our south property line. (The electric wire.)
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May 12, 2024 Mother’s Day at Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm

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Eastern American Platterful Mushroom, Megacollybia rodmanii. One of the first mushrooms to appear after morel season. They pop up in May and June. They are decomposers of dead hardwood.

We found 9 or 10 of these Eastern American Platterful Mushrooms on the south side on the slope just above the waterway. They were big and impressive emerging from the forest litter. We’ve been searching for morels for months and hadn’t seen much of any fungi. They were a delightful sight for sore eyes. They are not delicious and some have been sickened by them despite the name “Platterful” so we left them there.

Top of the Megacollybia rodmanii.

Mountain laurel blooming. A nitrogen fixer found throughout the farm.
Early Lowbush blueberry flowering along the southern set back line.