Chicken of the Woods, pizza, and flying things

 Our first Chicken of the Woods this year. I've seen better, but these were delicious!

September 1st. 

How lucky is this? I noticed these yellow Chicken of the Woods growing on an old oak trunk not far from the porch! 

September 2nd, 24 hours later after a rain.
The dirt on top is really wood dust from the mud daubers that are nesting in the trunk above the Fungi.

September 3rd.
It is getting bigger!

I received a text from Olive. Would we like a homemade pizza with Chicken of the Woods from the other day? She'd deliver it as a 'take and bake'.

I never turn down food that someone else makes especially those that are much better cooks than I am. After all, she went to Culinary School! She then sends me a photo of the dough she is making.

You guessed it, from scratch!

Yes! Yes!

She and Aiden delivered it and I set it in the house to bake while I walked them back to their car. Aiden wanted to pet Little Richard and ran after Sven who was tied in the yard. I told her I'd be getting the Chicken of the Woods off the big trunk the next morning before the mud daubers woke up.

I did not get a photo of the pizza because when I got back to the house, Rich was digging into it. I told him I had to bake it to melt the cheese and he shrugged and handed me what he had left.

It was delicious and something I would never imagined to make. NOT only that, it was healthy! Zucchini, plum tomatoes, homemade sauce, kale, and other veggies from her garden. I didn't tell Rich what all was in it, he would have turned his nose up at it.

September 4th.
They look ready! I cut from underneath to avoid having to deal with all the wood bits that were imbedded in the fungi. Apparently a polypore will just grow right over the wood chips or dirt and be inside the fungi.

While I was cutting them, I heard a loud buzzing noise and it sounded like a flying tractor of some sort.

An ultralight. 
Now the mules generally don't spook at the low C-130's as they fly at this level over our fields, but they were rather irritated by this BIG Mosquito.

I got a text from Olive.
'Did Dan just land in your pasture?'
Me: Nope, but the mules would have mobbed him if he did.
So it was Dan the Real-estate man that had a new toy. Well, his business must be doing well!

Olive lives on the ridge and I am jealous of her open sky view. However, I am not jealous when the winter winds blow up there and we don't have harsh winds.

This morning's end result is laid out on my porch table. 

I'll give Olive half and I will dehydrate my half.

Good neighbors are fun to have.