Mushroom Hunting in a Bear's Lair, Natural History, When I found a Body, etc...
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- čas přidán 13. 11. 2023
- Going Mushroom hunting for boletes, coccoras or anything in a bear's hide out. Talking about small natural history snippets and the time I found a dead body in the woods because I hike where normal people don't.
Delicious secret Umami weapon powder, shitake extract seasoning, msg substitute. This one has no yeast or msg in it, most have one or both. I use a lot of yeast actually, but I buy it separately and don't want it in my mushroom extract. (affiliate link) amzn.to/3SB5T8Q
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Please do more of these walking in the woods videos!
I need to do it when it is not mushroom season lol. It is too distracting to do a lot of other stuff.
Agree! I really enjoyed this video.
Keep looking for the squatch!
Great video. Please do more like it. Here in Alaska I use king boletes as a seasoning. I dehydrate them, then they easily crush to a powder. I put it in a mason jar and shake a bit in soups, stews, on steak, etc.
It really works super well. Extremely easy processing, storage, and use.
those things are so good dried. I wish we had more. We only have queens, which are the same but smaller. There are a lot on the coast, but I have to get the timing right. Here they only come up some years and never in huge quantities. Ive seen king boletes that make your jaw drop they are so big. I'm sure you are familiar.
I almost fell out of bed when i saw you wearing jim greens! You are my hero all over again, i love razorbacks!
I really like them and great price. I have had issues with the plastic toe caps collapsing over time though. In two pairs. Havce you had any issue with that? I'll probably get steel caps next time. One pair became unwearable after sitting in the sun. The other pair I have kept out of the sun, but they have still collapsed over time to where I would like to reblock them. You do it by heating them and stuffing in a form to reshape. It is a thermosetting plastic.
@@SkillCult i haven't had a jim green collapse in the sun but toe puffs have done that to me before sadly, i will experiment with reblocking if i ever run into that again
Hey! Here in Maine bear are hunted via snare but mostly by bait and wait and dogs, our bear are not fond of humans and will usually bugger off and you will not even know they were near, rarely you catch a cub or two up a tree and the sow will be near by for sure. Its fun to find bear trees with large claw scrapes on the trunk for some reason they like red pine tree or they stand out as bear trees. Bear like to step in the same foot print they travel in, seen a foot path with very clear depressions through a leaf base coming and going from a cow moose splayed out on her back with the gut cavity fully gone. nasty poo all over the place, we didn't hang out long. Bear meat is good if prepped right kept cool as the fat goes rancid easily, and that fat renders down into a fantastic oil. It is always exhilarating to have a bear encounter. Mostly I stick to Chanterelles here, found a Black Chanterelle but it has not come back, which I hear is in the truffle family not a true chanterelle. Mostly I find 85% of the Chanterelles in moss covered spruce stands. Tagged a nice white tail a week ago, been catching up on some of your old brain tanning videos, a big guy 218 pounds dressed. Did you report the dead body?
Here you can't use bait and probably can't trap either. I think dogs are allowed though. Most of them run away here too, though some hesitantly. This year a small, lone cub walked right through my yard and just looked at me like he was too miserable to bother being scared. I yelled at him to scare him off and felt bad. I would guess that he probably died, but who knows. I chase them out of my orchard all the time, at least 3 times this year and they run and plow over my fence. Bear meat is okay, but it is one of my less favorite wild meats I've had. Very dark.
We have black trumpets I think they are very similar to black chanterelles. one of my favorites.
At the tiem we lived next door to a sherrifs deputy, so we just went and knocked on his door. The first thing he said was "already?" because of the cannabis scene here, the murder rate can be especially high. He called some detectives in from the local police and we hiked up there with them. It was comical watching these clumsy out of shape detectives hiking up there with a video camera and other gear. they were basically like WTF were you doing up here in the scrub? I don't think they ever figured out who it was, but doubt they tried very hard.
@@SkillCult It would have been a fun video to see, those detectives bumbling in the woods.
Ha, felt bad, I get it. The last bear I saw was a beauty, jet black with a gold nose, crossed a stream I was canoeing down, I was standing with my pole contemplating my next move and he/she walked across the small stream about 60 feet below me, that really got my heart going.
Thanks for the video Steven, I enjoyed the adventure.
Wild story about the dead guy.
I can imagine myself wondering around... 😂 very similar like my country, lots of woods, mushrooms and forest creatures... very nice and relaxing... thank you!!
Thanks for showing! So much wood lying around inviting you to use one of your axes ;-)
In Northern California...that was definitely a sasquatch.
*samsquatch
Time to make slow and low heated sugared, Guinesses (Vit B complex) oyster mushroom tea - and go out and splash all over the countryside and spread out all those spores !
Pretty cool you found Bigfoot lol
Bigfoot meets Big Apple Foot - who gives way - or who invites the other person to the local apple orchard and have an eat down !
I'm not going to back down from big foot unless he's putting it on me. the story is too good. Idiot killed by bear, found footage, not cool. Idiot killed by bigfoot, legendary.
@@SkillCultand then you wonder about all those bear dingleberries - or those were human parts sucked off the bones - and bigfoot dingleberries dropped all across the landscape.
Which leads to the question - if a Bigfoot dumps in the forest - do they make a noise grunting or ahhhhh ..... or not ?!
@@SkillCultnow if Bigfoot was having a full meal-deal in the apple orchard - there could be problems. Then it comes down to having a food fight with an apple throwing conquest with each other, or inviting up to the house for some apple pie - and apple cider wine .... !
That half hour went by quickly. I was going to ask you if you had pathogenic armillaria in your orchards. I recently cleared a hillside to plant more fruit trees and I've got tons of them popping up around the alder stumps. Fruit trees are still alive though after 2 seasons.
I haven't seen any yet. I know it is nearby and apparently it is a large, widespread organism. It is in a lot of the native trees. Good luck. I wonder how long it would take after clearing for it to actually die off, if ever.
@@SkillCult Based on the research I could find, it will probably be there for decades. Once the alders rot, the three big myrtle stumps (and roots) should keep them well fed. I guess each strain of the fungus is different in how it affects fruit trees. Apricots and peaches are supposed to be most susceptible, but I don't grow either. I'll keep you posted.
Bushwhacking in the wild is my element. Loved this trip and the commentary. I also love to cook. When I was younger I hiked and bushwhacked all through the mountains of Hawaii. No bears, but a lot of invasive wild pigs you had to steer clear of.
the amount I go walk on a trail or road is very limited. I'm pretty much always deep into the bush right away. It is a hell of a lot more work, but always lots of fun things to run across.
Eating a mushroom found in the woods feels super transgressive. Were told growing up that you should never do it. The first time I found and ate chicken of the woods I felt like a total badass. It is important to do the homework first though. I love your apple stuff, but videos on other subjects are great gateway content. I came for the lime burning and stayed for the apple grafting/breeding. Ive only got 50 seeds from my intentional crosses I need to grow out next year. I can quit any time I want!
"I can quit anytime I want!" lol.
_Your_ celium? MYcelium!! ;))
(sorry, couldn't find any better inspiration, but I can't leave _no_ comment, can I?)
Okay, I managed to find something more meaningful to respond to this lovely video:
It's funny how you interrupt your story to talk about rocks and their shape, and coincidentally I taught my son this summer the same thing. As we walked up a mountain in the Austrian Alps I asked him if he saw any differences between the rocks there and the ones we found near the river. So I explained how round rocks are formed over time, with erosion from sand, other rocks, snow, ice and running water, and how you can tell the difference. And how none of those are in effect at the top of a high mountain which makes the rocks there very coarse and sharp edged.
And then he remembered how I told him about the ice caps during the ice ages, that were higher than the mountains. So then I had to explain how the polar ice caps didn't reach all the way to the Alps, but rather the Alps had their own layer of ice and snow, much thinner and looser, but that in the north of Scotland and in Scandinavia it would indeed be possible to find rounded rocks higher up the mountain, if they hadn't rolled down yet...
He was also thrilled to find sea shell fossils on the highest mountain of the valley...
So much to learn, such an interesting treasure of knowledge and history is all around us. I love seeing that kind of details and passing them on.
@@lukearts2954 Yes, there is endless stuff to learn in natural environments, even without any information from the outside. we have areas where you can find rounded rocks in the hills from some ancient sea or river. Most of my immediate area is just sandstone, serpentine and shale though. I think pattern recognition is good for our brains. It is essential to intelligence and curiosity. I have a feeling that if we were to train people in pattern recognition it could only lead to good things. It may not seem like it, but I think there is a lot of similarity in things like recognizing patterns in nature and in our own thinking or in something like human behavior, social sturctures and history. I bet you kid is super cool :)
@@SkillCult Thanks! He is :)
He drives his teachers nuts in school hahaha.
He's got a huge sense of imagination. Unfortunately he sometimes forgets the boundaries between imaginary worlds and the real world. The other day, he had drawn a sound volume logo on his pants, because his teacher had told him to turn it down as he was talking too much in class... So he reasoned that he didn't have a volume dial to do that, and the best solution was to give himself one... I love him! (his mom was mad about the ruined pants, but he'll grow out of that size pants before spring, so I really don't care)
Despite his incredibly irrational fantasy world (and the real fear he sometimes experiences from the monsters he imagines), he's incredibly pragmatic even in his fantastic stories. He remembers everything that people tell him about things that interest him. (but when he's not interested, he tunes out in 2 seconds, very hard to keep him focused then) And he's always eager to implement his knowledge or share it with anyone that is able to hear, whether they listen or not... (I'm afraid this will get him in trouble eventually, because that's what it did to me. I'll try to make him aware before that happens and then hope he'll develop better skills than I had. If not, won't make a difference to me, but it would to him.)
I agree on what you say about the pattern recognition. I think it's a natural instinct as well, and animals use it all the time for everything they do, from orientation, to hunting/foraging, to defense and mating. I also believe that people with better pattern recognition skills, have better reflexes (because they recognize and identify much faster, and see more opportunities) and for example are also better drivers. In today's world, that skill is often quickly discarded as an "autistic quirk", but I'm convinced it's actually a talent that can be trained.
After all, communication is also mostly pattern recognition (which is why current a.i. uses pattern prediction to create such realistic speech/text), and it is completely trained.
Problem solving also works better with pattern recognition. When something breaks and you have established patterns that emerged when it was working properly, then the difference with the patterns that emerge with the broken thing helps you identify the problem. (Not sure if I worded that correctly, but I'm sure you'll recognize the pattern that I intended haha)
It'll be amphibian season again soon (8-9 weeks, we start early here), which means nightly walks to catch bullfrogs and salamanders on the road before they are hit by a car. My son's got great skill in seeing these guys from afar in the dark. We collect them on the street, and depending on which direction they were walking in, we know which body of water they were headed to and we drop them off closer by where no more streets need to be crossed. Despite our efforts, year after year their numbers decline because too many die during the year from pesticides and domestic cats. (but I think my thoughts are drifting here hahaha.)
I have a question. It's said often that harvesting plants or mushrooms or other things should be done in moderation, always leaving a good amount to continue propagating and not mess with things too much. This seems to probably be true for anything, but do you know of any situation where the best option is to take everything you can get from what's available? Like, I guess with hunting you don't want anything to go to waste. Maybe it's still good for that ecosystem to leave some for the scavengers or something? I don't know. What's your opinion?
Typically you are right, but those blanket rules always seem to have exceptions. Most of the hardcore mushroom people seem to not worry much about leaving mushrooms. It isn't like that is something that would be easy to study though. In many cases, the mushrooms have already dropped a lot of spores and there are often specimens that get left because they are buggy or a little old or something. I actually wrote a small booklet called sustainable harvest on that topic. I'd have to think more than I want to at 4 in the morning to think if there are other examples, but the bottom line is that there is no substitute for personal knowledge of how things grow and reproduce, distribution patterns, animal interactions, growth cycles etc.
i know its not a leather vid but i figured this would be the best chance at an answer......... have you or someone you know used a chamber vac to tan leather
No, but I would be surprised if it is not something that is done in industry. the only way I know that pressure was used traditionally was actually fro the inside out sort of, they would sew to goat skins together in a tight bag, put tanning solution inside, fill with air, seal and then float these hide ballons turning constantly in a warm tannin bath. As I recall, the skins would be tanned within hours. vacuum would probably be best used in a tumbler so the skins are moving constantly.
Limes disease, is that spread by ticks? Does it cause reactions to eating meat? We have it here in Australia.
Yes, by ticks. No it doesn't cause vegetarianism. My issues are more complicated and probably not caused by infection now, but that is how it started.
Rocky mountain spotted fever is a separate disease carried by ticks, which can cause an allergic to the sugar alpha-galactose which is found in red meat.
I have heard anecdotal evidence of Lyme disease causing weird reactions to certain foods though. After I had it I started getting little red bumps on the sides of my fingers that were both painful and itchy. Had another bout of it 6 years later and tried an elimination diet to help alleviate some of the symptoms. Eventually found that cutting out dairy made the hand rash go away and my joints also felt way less achey.
@@mdl17576 I think Lyme can cause immune dysregulation, including food reactions. Certainly autoimmune stuff. I don't really think the lyme is the main issue though, but more like we are not as resilient as we used to be to stressors like that. Chronic disease and immune problems are skyrocketing. That is probably not due to infections, though they might be part of the picture. we have to look at what is new. cumulative exposure to toxic substances is one of the biggest changes. Diet is often blamed, but I know lots of dyed in the wool, organically fed hippies that have chronic health stuff. Causation though is complicated and I don't think we are going to find a single causative agent. That is why western med sucks at treating it. They are looking for one cause and one drug to affect the symptoms.
@SkillCult Did you take Amy antibiotics during the treatment of your Lyme disease? I suspect they cause some pretty heavy collateral damage to our gut microbiome, and that food intolerances/sensitivities can result from that. Leaky gut is one facet of it, but if our immune system loses close contact with our internal microbes that could also contribute to autoimmune issues. Antibiotics could be the common denominator connecting people of vastly different backgrounds or lifestyles. Suspicions aside, given a potentially fatal infection antibiotics can still be worth the risk.
@@mdl17576 I took them non stop for 2.5 years. Often two at a time. I once took zithromax with flagyl every day for 3 months straight. I don't know what to think of gut flora invovlement. there are a lot of things that are said to modulate that. You'd think with my lifestyle, eating out of the garden, fermentd foods, eating and breathing in microbes all the time that if there wasn't anything else interfering, it would more or less fix itself. My gut doesn't seem very healthy, but I doubt putting the right microflora in there will fix it alone.
Do you still fear msg? Wasnt that debunked in the 90s?
I have looked into the MSG thing and there is still controversy. I don't need it, so I just avoid it. Not that I wouldn't eat something if you handed it to me, but I don't buy stuff that has it to stock in the kitchen. I'm probably careful because I have neurological issues. Debunking as it is usually used is a silly concept that is more about belief than science. Many things that have been "debunked" are in actuality, open questions. Good science is about probability, not proof.
I believe the current consensus on msg is while its not extremely harmful, (like many thought of it when in reality a lot of that was rooted in racism, "Chinese restaurant syndrome") its no better than sugar and sodium, which can be problematic in excess. Regardless, If you were buying a mushroom extract for cooking, why would you want artificial msg in it when shitake is one of the most umami rich foods in its natural state.