Edible?

Morbidly idling over the yard, battling the anxiety of setting free summer, while also breaking in a new pair of shoes, I saw a few mushrooms sprouting through the lawn. It is a badly patched lawn covered in branches.

The mushrooms looked edible. They smelled like mushrooms. I snapped one out of the earth, carried it inside to consult The Lone Pine Field Guide to Mushrooms of Northeast North America (Midwest to New England). These mushrooms are Meadow Mushrooms (Agaricus campestris). Or maybe they are Sidewalk Mushrooms (Agaricus bitorquis). Both types are edible. I’ve misread enough things in books, from the Bible on up, not to trust my cognitive skills. But sparked by the mushrooms, perhaps even edible ones, in my own yard, I came to the decision to change shoes and go down into the ravine over the road. That area is perfect for mushroom hunting, moist and woodsy, rotten woodsy.

Continued below