Let’s Go Mushrooming

            Spring has had a few setbacks in arriving, with the latest low pressure event dropping temperatures and bringing in cold precipitation, but it appears that spring is finally here. The trees are budding and flowering, the grass has come from dormancy to sprout new growth and the once clearly visible forest floor is becoming obscured by green foliage of the spring plant revival. With the change of season comes the opportunity to hunt for and experience wild edibles. One of the most treasured wild edible, here in Ohio, is the Morel mushroom.

Every spring a short window opens for mushroom hunters to “catch” their quarry. At the end of April and for most of May, when soil, air and water conditions are right, the fruiting body of the Morel grows. This is the mushroom and it requires soil temperatures of around 56 degrees Fahrenheit at 6 inches deep and moist condition. The air temperature produces the mushroom best at between 70 and 80 degrees. When these conditions are met, it’s time to hit the forestland in search of fungal treasures.

In making the connection, out West in coastal California, I would eagerly anticipate the end of the winter rainy season. As temperatures rose the conditions became favorable for mushroom growth; the targeted fungi, the Orange Chanterelle.

Now every area has legend and lore that can guide or distract the fungi hunter. In California, while hunting the Chanterelle, legend has it to hunt for this specie of mushroom in areas of forest that have been subject to fire. It is claimed that the Chanterelle mushroom will be readily found in areas of forest in the third to fifth year of regrowth after a fire. This claim has been “fruitful” in my experience and resulted in my sauté pan full of buttery tasting mushrooms.

Here in Ohio, local lore holds that the best place to find Morel mushrooms is in the forest floor duff (bark shedding) of the Shaggy Bark Hickory Tree. There are several of these trees in the forest surrounding my home that I am keeping an eye on. Local lore also holds that the time to go Morel mushroom hunting is when the leaves of Oak Trees are the size of a squirrel’s ears. Well the Oak leaves are just about that size now and when this school semester is over, my break will be spent on the “hunt”.  Wish me luck!

 

       Take my tofu....please!

        So here I am on my way into the first class of the day and as I come through the tube, from the parking garage to building 3, I’m met by a young lady with an armful of pamphlets she was handing  out to passersby. On the cover of this pamphlet are cute pictures of a baby chicken and some piglets, with the banner “Compassionate Choices: Making a Difference for Animals.” Inside is a pamphlet full of pathos to argue the point for a vegan based existence. There is much about what the pamphlet purports that can be argued against scientifically, but I am in agreement with the inhumanity in factory farming. What I am not in agreement with is an either or mentality in a proposed solution as is suggested in this pamphlet. According to the pamphlet the only solution is to abstain from meat and dairy products. This really pisses me off.

        

       There is a legitimate need to reevaluate our factory farm process and begin considering animal physical and mental well-being, from beginning to end of the process. Animal husbandry and handling should reflect a respect for the animal’s service to us. The overcrowding and inhumane treatment must end, but we don’t have to stop eating meat to make a change. I don’t support factory farming and I show this by not buying factory farmed product.

        

        I meet my meat. I buy beef and pork from a local producer who welcomes customers to his farm. I have walked among the pigs and cattle he produces and observed meat animals raised in the tradition of the family farm; with respect and consideration. There were no animals I encountered that had a fear reaction to me, and all glowed with health. When asked of the slaughter process, he said it was a one shot, one kill operation done away from the holding area of the other animals. This is how I was raised on the family farm; to respectfully care for and nourish your animals, to handle them causing the least amount of stress, to cause them no fear, indeed to love them. Then at the appropriate time, kindly and reverently kill them. This, I feel is the responsibility of a meat eater.

       

       So this pile of erroneous pathos plagued pamphlet has one slant, don’t eat meat or dairy. It takes away from the legitimate argument over factory farming by reducing solutions to the problem. Besides, I’m an omnivore; meat is part of my diet, take it away and I will revolt.

        By the way, I asked this girl what she was studying and she said she wasn’t a student here. There should be a rule against that. I don’t pay to come to school and to be solicited in the hallways by any other than a fellow student.  

This is a rant.

I was going to carry the horse slaughter issue through the many variables involved to a sensible conclusion. But good sense often reigns second to emotion and at times it’s maddening.

Sensibly speaking:

Horses in America, as a system, have a great deal of input and less output. This is not sustainable.

 Horses in America, while cherished as pets, must be considered as livestock and managed accordingly.

All systems of livestock, and wild grazing animals, need predation to insure herd health and numbers. Slaughter is predation—human to animal. We are and must be the wolf, bear and lion, “hunting” the horses in America.

Now here is the connection and the rant:

In 1998, I was a full-time horse trainer with my barn full of green (untrained) horses. Half of the horses were Arabians, of private ownership, destined for the show ring. The other half were horses I invested in for resale, the “killer horses.”I named them killer horses because I intercepted them in the process to the slaughter plant.

 Jim Doty and Kurt Moorefield were both good horsemen and kill buyers--those in the horse market that bought and sold horses for slaughter. I frequently was called by them to take on a horse they thought was, “too good to get his head cut off”. They were often right, and the horse could be re-educated and sold for a great deal more than slaughter price. It was a profitable venture that helped keep me working and good horses from being killed.

 Less than a year after California’s ban on horse slaughter three things happened to my business; the volume decreased almost half, the price of non-show type utility horses (my clientele) dropped 26 percent, and demand dropped as supply increased. The direction of my life changed at that time.

Forward to now; horse slaughter was effectively banned in 2007 and it is a repeat of what happened in California, lots of horses—no demand. The herd is poor because of people’s emotional cry, “don’t kill the horses”.

I’ll carry the rant on to the next posting.

Horses; Herds and Systems

Before I address the “herd”:

My classmate and fellow blogger, Whitney Vickers, asks why I think anthropomorphism is bad. I want to assure you I don’t. In fact, I think it is at the core of human’s utility with animals. The ability to connect so deeply with an animal, at so many levels, is both beautiful and essential to humans. It is the health in animal therapy for the ill, elderly, and mentally touched. It is fully depicted in the film "Grizzly Man," where anthropomorphism had tragic consequences for the film"s namesake, and his girlfriend. It is also depicted in the movie, “Cast Away,” in the relationship Tom Hanks’ character has with Wilson, the volley ball, an inanimate object.

Whitney, you share in your blog the relationship you have with your cats. I celebrate for you, and for the cats, because they have a human who cares enough to take responsibility for their well being.  In so doing you improve the quality of your life over all. That is a gift divinely inspired. I also marvel at the cat and its selectively inspired adaptability. For at the core, the domestic house cat is most closely modeled by the African Lion.

 Out of our homes and left to their own devices, in whatever landscape urban or rural, cats take on behaviors that assure survival. Queen cats run the pride, the males are marginalized and battle for pride breeding rights. Queens will adopt and suckle a fallen sister’s kittens, a phenomenon rarely seen in mammals, outside of humans, while the victorious "Tom" will systematically kill all the kittens of his fallen foe’s seed.  Their adaptability has them at the top of the predator list without dispute, the range of their diet, over 800 species. This adaptability also has them in our homes, curled up or playing, seemingly ever in pursuit of the perfect cat nap or unsuspecting prey.

Now concerning horses; I feel that life is represented and expressed by systems. If you look at the picture above of the boys, you’ll see a system of two horses, and separate, but interrelated systems of the truck and the feed. The truck represents many unseen systems of production and marketing, the feed, the same in systems of farming. The horses represent a sub-system in a supra-system of horses. Currently we have no definite count of the number of horses in the U.S., but it is estimated between 6 and 11 million animals. That’s a big system, a huge herd, worthy of the attention of us all, horse fancier or not. It is our responsibility. In the next blog I'll talk about system inputs and outputs, and herd health.        

More on Horses

But first, thank you for your comments friends, they bolster and inspire me. My friends are my tutors; all I need is to listen.

   
        When considering the equine slaughter issue, to do so rationally, one must be aware of some natural human tendencies. One tendency, in emotionally charged issues, is to lose objectivity. There are few animal rights issues as highly charged, emotionally, as equine slaughter. Another human tendency, occurring all too frequent with animals, is to anthropomorphize animals, to give human- like characteristics to their behavior, emotion and expression. This is an injustice to the animal. Horses are not humans, but they do warrant fair and humane treatment. Horses are a unique species with behavior, emotion and expression unique to their survival, as dictated through evolution. And finally, our tendency toward aversion of death clouds objectivity. Slaughter is death and must be faced squarely, with guarded passion, in order to consider this issue fairly, rationally and objectively.

   
        In 2006 the 109th Congress passed legislation that removed appropriations for USDA inspections of horse meat. This effectively ended horse slaughter in the United States, and by 2007 the last horse slaughter facility in the states shut its doors. California had passed equine slaughter legislation in 1998, ending the practice in that state. An obscure law is on the books in the state of Texas that passed in 1949, but was generally disregarded and unenforced.

     
       Coincidental to the cessation of equine slaughter was the economic downturn. Two things happened; an increase of horse export to slaughter facilities in Canada and Mexico, 400 and 800 percent respectively, and many horse owners on the economic margin were forced to liquidate their animals. Additionally, cases of horses abandoned, or set free on government land increased, in some states over 50 percent. Horses were reported let loose on grassy highway medians in some states.

     
       An unwanted horse crisis arose and remains in the U.S. today. Three quarters of the budget for managing the wild and free roaming Mustang horses, in care of the Bureau of Land Management, is spent on long term holding of Mustangs awaiting adoption. Equine adoption and rescue associations are overwhelmed. Adding to the problem are over 250 thousand foals registered annually by just the top three breed associations, and there are dozens of horse breed associations in the United States.

    
        So, there are a few things to consider. I ask you approach this issue with a high awareness of your emotional intelligence and schema that may bias your perception. A young girl in my English 112 class became so emotional at my analysis of the issue she became insultingly hateful and wouldn’t engage in discourse on the subject. It troubled me some initially, but she turned out to be a bit of an idiot and dropped the class.

   

Next posting I will present my view on America’s horses as being one huge herd.