The Mushroom Forager wishes you a happy New Year of foraging adventures! While I was out cross-country skiing today I noticed a large lion’s mane mushroom, preserved by the cold but now rotting grotesquely due to the thaw. Perhaps the mold was a good thing, because it made me resist the temptation to take a bite. In fact, I've been so desperate that I recently bought mushrooms at the grocery store! The massive fall maitakes (hen of the woods), which I usually freeze and enjoy throughout the winter, never showed their faces this year. I saw only three hens; one was promptly run over by a lawnmower, and the other two got so dried out that they never matured. Hopefully they are just waiting to surprise me next fall with an extraordinary harvest!