Mushroom HUNTING in the FOREST at the Off Grid LOG CABIN

Description

#logcabin #food #forest

I visit the original cabin site from winter 2017 and dig out the logs from the undergrowth. We forage for more wild mushrooms and hike around the forest for small game - simple cabin life. Our dog, Cali the golden retriever, steps on one mushroom for every one we actually collect.

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Tags: Self Reliance,off grid,log cabin,no talking,primitive,homestead,diy,alone,wilderness,asmr,inspirational,motivational,survival,cooking,bushcraft,forest,kitchen,cabin,solo,tiny home,woodworking,woods,My Self Reliance,Shawn James,salvage,salvaging,mushrooms,wild mushrooms,logs,log,golden retriever,dog,foraging,foraging wild edibles,foraging mushrooms,wild,mushroom,hunting,mushroom hunting,looking for wild mushrooms

Video Transcription

(classical country music) - So I mentioned in the last video that my wife and I were doing a one-day course with mycologists to learn more about wild mushrooms in Central Ontario. So we did do that, and we learned quite a bit. While we were out with the expert and some other people, we found quite a number of edible mushrooms. So what we were happy to find is that one of the main mushrooms here that we started finding last year, we weren't sure if it was edible or not, and we found out that not only is it edible, but it's a choice edible. We have loads of these things on the property and they're beautiful mushrooms. They look tasty and they are. So they're actually called milk caps as well. I guess when you break it, there's the latex inside oozes out a little bit. But very, very good mushroom, so I'm gonna cook up a batch of these as well as some of the other ones that we can find today. That's not for you, pup. No, no, no don't eat it. (laughing)

So I'm gonna collect a bunch of these and then see what else we can find. So we're in the Highlands here of Ontario near Algonquin park. And what it is a mixed woodland. It's a transition between the Eastern woodlands, mainly deciduous. Transition between that and the conifetous, mainly coniferous boreal forest to the north. Because we have this mixed forests, like these Hemlocks, which this forest consists a lot of, we get quite a diverse number of mushrooms. Do not eat mushrooms based on what you see me doing here on this video or on this channel. Maybe in the future when I become better at identifying them, then maybe you can trust my opinion. But for now, I'm going off what I've been taught just recently. I'm making 100% sure that I've identified the species correctly before we consume them, and then we start off by eating a small amount before we have them as a complete meal. Even those black trumpets the other day, ate a smaller quantity than I would've if we had eaten those before and we knew that our stomachs were fine to handle that. So I'm excited about this, I love that I'm able to now add mushrooms to my wild game dinners here. So let's see what else we can find. I believe these are oyster mushrooms here on this tree. This is an old dead maple, and we're in a grove of predominantly maple trees. But there's a blocked area, see this tree right behind it, it's a black cherry, which you don't have a lot of here. It's a beautiful dead standing one actually. Just go over by the metal, then I gotta cut down this one too when I can sled it back, nice big perfectly dry, but not rotted cherry that I can cut up to make furniture out of it. But this tree is completely rotten, it's gonna fall down sometime. But this oyster mushroom's growing right on the trunk. So I'm gonna take it back and positively identify it using the guides, and I'll probably post a picture on one of the Facebook Groups as well. Mushroom Facebook Pages and ask for everybody's advice before consuming it. I would never, and if I have any doubts at all, we won't cook it. With mushrooms, always better to be safe than sorry, so don't eat it if you don't know 100%. But I think I've got enough resources and people that can help me identify them, and a few guidebooks that we can go through to make sure 100%. I'm sure about these milk caps because we found them yesterday with the mycologist and actually ate them last night and they were good. This little bear's tooth, small little thing. That we ate last night as well, so I know that's safe. These puff balls, there's a number of different puff balls, including the giant one that I think most people are most familiar with that are commonly eaten, there's a few small species as well that are edible, I think this is one of them, but again, I gotta confirm that. One of them that has the pig skin, that texture on the outside and is black on the inside when you break it open, it's definitely poisonous. That's not this for sure, but like I said I'm gonna do a little bit of research, and then see which ones I can cook up for dinner last night, or tonight. This is that burn area that I've shown you a couple of times in the past, once in the winter. Really growing up thick now. Some of the trees, most of the trees are still standing, but some of them are down. So if you've been watching the channel since what, February, March 2017, this is actually where I started. I was out for a walk one day in January or February 2017 on a crown land spot not far actually from where the cabin sits, and I was talking about the cabin that I had built when I was 21, and that I'd like to do that again. So I made some inquiries and I was able to get permission to build a cabin on someone's property, and I did that. I started cutting down logs, I cut down about 75 or 80 trees. And I've used some of those and a lot of them still sit here. Beautiful spot, I actually kind of miss working here, and I miss the people here. Had a really good time spending time here cutting those trees down, preparing them and starting the first couple of rows on the cabin here, I'm building this tripod so I can help lift the logs. And fishing in the stream here and hunting on the bridge behind the stream. Had some fun here, but then life changed and decided to get serious about simplifying and starting a new wilderness homestead where this is a little bit more, well you can hear, there's noise, traffic noise here. Jets are flying over, so it's not quite the remote area that I ended up in. But this is the kind of familiar landscape that I grew up in, this type of forest and this type of sort of farmland and mixed woodland-type stuff. But it was a nice project, and I was happy to get started here, and it refueled my passion for simplifying and living more of a wilderness lifestyle, so that's how I ended up where I am. So here the logs are they're going to be utilized, didn't want them to sit here going to waste so, and I'm going to make sure they get utilized. So, I'm sitting on a cedar, two rows of cedar here. I have, well I cut down, I don't know, 2000 cedar trees, maybe. Just thinning out the forest, 'cause it's a really thick forest here and you wouldn't know that I cut them down actually a year and a half later. And the rest of them were spruce trees that I thinned out a spruce forest for them just up over the hill. Really need to be thinned as well. So nothing here is going to be wasted, and I am getting ready to start my next building. Just looking at my stock pile logs here thinking I don't remember cutting any large trees down. Nice, two nice tree, large tops of logs there. Like I said, I don't remember cutting them down, well I didn't. I guess it came down in a windstorm last year by the looks of it, so they've been dead for a while. See how thick this forest is? Really, really dense. Some of it was planted so, pine plantation. The red pines and the white pines behind me. All these cedars would've been natural here. So it is naturally a cedar forest along that creek, but it's so dense that there's no undergrowth. If you compare that to my property that's been logged in recent years, 15 years ago, all the sunlight was able to reach to that forest floor, so you've got all that thick undergrowth that's hard to walk through. So that's probably the least interesting and shortest video I've made in quite a while in my opinion. This stuff I wanted to share with you, but I was hoping to have it in a much longer video just as a small component. So every fall, as long as I can remember, I've been anxious about not being able to get out and enjoy what is my favorite season of the year. With the line of work that I was in, fall was the busiest time. You had, it coincided with the time that I wanted to spend most time outdoors. So it's been a real conflict throughout my life, and as a result, I've been really anxious late summer and early fall because I knew I just wasn't prepared, didn't have time to get ready for hunting season, for example, and fall fishing. Getting out and enjoying the cooler temperatures with no bugs, and as you know I like to pursue game, so I'm out hunting and fishing a lot of the time in the fall. But like I said, many years, I just didn't have time to do that. So this is the first time since my early 20s when I had the cabin that I built when I was 21 that I had been able to get out and enjoy every minute of fall. So the result of that is that I haven't been indoors to edit videos. So when I woke up this morning, I decided I better get this video edited tomorrow morning, and it was pouring rain, so it was a good time to do that, but now that it's cleared up, I'm back out here in the wilderness with Kelly taking her for a walk and seeing if we can flush some gross or squirrels or rabbits or something. My wife and I decided to go on a road trip. Last minute, spontaneous road trip to Lake Superior. Checked the forecast last weekend at the cabin and it was calling for periods of rain, I just didn't want to work on the projects that I'm working on right now in that rain, especially when I saw that the forecast for the Algoma and Thunder Bay region was calling for a fairly decent weather. So I've always wanted to spend some time up there. This time of year, exploring the lakes, rivers, and the lake itself and the surrounding hillsides when they're in full color, so that's exactly what we did, and had an amazing time, but we just got back last night and I just didn't have time to edit the video. So I did make public the video yesterday about the cooking of the mushroom pasta and the bone marrow. So I hope you enjoyed that one at least. And next week of course, I'll get back to my regularly scheduled program of working on the cabin and doing some other cabin life stuff here. Maybe Monday or Wednesday, but certainly on Friday, so make sure you tune in for that. So I appreciate your patience this week, look forward to seeing you at the cabin next time, take care. (classical country music) (clumping footsteps)

(howling)