One September I was a student attending an intensive
seminar on Japanese
garden art in Kyoto. Dinner was not included in our
tuition, so I ate lots
of udon in broth with perhaps one tempura shrimp and
several tempura green
beans as garnish. I remember going through the
markets in awe at the
beautiful, extremely expensive produce - the first
chestnuts, presented in
their husks, and wonderful matsutake mushrooms, much
too expensive for a
student to buy.

Here on Creek Road we found a "mother load" of black
chanterelles last
Wednesday. Dinner at my neighbors was pasta with an
Alfredo sauce and three
kinds of chanterelles (golden, black, and tiny red
ones) and oyster
mushrooms. Not quite up to five, but all wild
gathered. Let the rains
continue!