The Blue Mushroom

  It sounds like it should be the name of some trendy coffee shop or maybe a cute little dress shop but, in reality, I am referring to a real, live mushroom.  It is one of those funny little things that you notice when out on a hike but never really know what it is.  Of course, I realize it is a mushroom but I have no clue as to its true identity.  I am not a mycologist which is just a long word for someone who looks at mushrooms and other fungi. Still, the mushroom in question is interesting enough to have caught my eye and bring back a memory from years ago.  Blue mushrooms are like that.  They demand attention if for no other reason than they are blue.  I am not accustomed to seeing blue mushrooms so when one pops up, I have to examine it.  After my eyeing the thing for a few moments, I came to the conclusions that, yep, it was a mushroom and, yep, it was blue.  Enough of my endeavor as a mycologist. 

  The story that was brought to mind by the mushroom was from years ago when the kids were small.  When in the third grade, my oldest son wanted to do a science project for school.  He decided that he might enjoy mycology so he started a studying the things and did a bunch of drawings for his project.  A few days before it was due, he started a massive search for mushrooms.  His project was going to be "the best ever".  We built a large, flat box and filled it with a layer of soft peat moss.  He dug up all sorts of mushrooms and planted them in his special garden.  The thing actually was sort of pretty and reminded me of one of my aunt's fairy gardens.  The day before he was to bring his project to school, he found a prize mushroom!  It was blue!!  He had never seen a blue mushroom before and wanted to put this grand piece in his collection.  He raced to the house to get his trowel and a dish to transport the mushroom.  While he gathered his tools, he excitedly told the rest of the family of his cherished mushroom.  It was going to be the one that put his project over the top!  We all traipsed out to the yard to be a part of the gathering.  As he pointed out his find, we congratulated him.  Well, all of us except for his little sister.  Darling Daughter decided that the mushroom was not THAT special so she stepped on it.  EGAD!!!  The thing was flattened by the tiny foot!  Son was devastated but his little sister was oblivious to the damage she had done.  

  The destruction of the prized piece of the project did not daunt my son, though.  He proudly finished the project and brought it to school. His teacher helped him to set up the display among all of the other projects.  It looked amazing!  Surely, he would do well.  Then....along came one teacher who looked aghast!  "Get that thing out of here!!!" she screeched.  Right then and there, she disqualified the project.  "Those are deadly!"   Son was shaken but not broken.  He tried to explain to this frantic lady that he researched the mushrooms carefully and none were poisonous.  She was having no part of it.  His project had to be removed from the premises even though we suggested sealing it in a plexiglass box.  "NOPE...NO WAY...NEVER!  That thing has got to go!" she shrieked. So the project was doomed before the judges even made their way into the building.  I carted the project back to the house with a very dejected little boy in tow.  

  I sat on the ground next to the blue mushroom and thought of how a crushed mushroom so many years ago was so tied to the crushed hopes of a little boy who only wanted to study the things.  Perhaps his little sister had a premonition about the science fair and crushed the blue mushroom in hopes that she would spare her brother a lot of pain.  I doubt it.   It was more likely that she just wanted to flat out step on the thing and had no higher motives at all.  Maybe, however, her stepping on the thing squished out the spores and planted mushrooms over the hillside.  This one is probably a distant relative of that very first one that Son found.   Hmmm, maybe? 

The Great Cereal Caper or a Science Project on Breakfast!

I seem to have been appointed chief photographer of science projects for my grandniece.  For the past few years, Macie will tote her project down the lane from her papa's house to mine.  She will set up the display and show me her actions during the procedures.  I am supposed to capture this on film so she can use those pictures on the science project display board.  Things have definitely changed over the years in this as back in the day, nothing required photographs.

Her project this year was to prove that the iron found in "iron-fortified" breakfast cereals was, indeed, iron as we know it.  In other words, it was attracted to a magnet.  She came to the Little Bayou House with three plastic baggies filled with soggy cereal.  Each baggie held a different type of cereal that had been smooshed up in distilled water.  These she carefully placed on the table and then proceeded to run a strong magnet over the squishy stuff.  Sure enough after a few minutes, you could actually see the tiny shards of metal following the magnet.  In a cereal that had 100% of the daily recommended amount of iron, the shards gathered together in quite a large mass whereas the cereal with less added iron, of course, had a smaller mass.  I was surprised how well this actually worked and at how large those "shards" of iron really were!  She informed me that iron occurs naturally in plants and meats but that the iron-fortified cereals contained tiny dustings of iron that could actually be compared to iron filings made in a machine shop.  Now go figure!  Who would have ever thought that the stuff could be one and the same?  How does the human body deal with little pieces of metal being introduced through food?  Is the stuff really digested and used by the body or is it just passed through the digestive system?  Are these iron filings really healthy for the human body or is this just a good marketing ploy to get us to buy iron-fortified cereal?  So many questions!  Of course, I really could not expect an eleven year old to answer all of these questions that were whirling through my mind.  Her project had nothing to do with the health issues but rather whether the stuff was truly iron in the sense that we know it. (And it is!  She definitely proved that there is some minute iron threads in the cereals!)

I have drawn a hexagon around the iron that was pulled from the cup of "iron-fortified" cereal during the science project.  

Macie's project did cause me to start pondering the safety of such additives to foods.  Sure, iron is great for the body but I wonder if practically eating nails is a good idea.  There is so much hype about vitamins and minerals added to food that it becomes a tad confusing.  I think I will try to stick with naturally occurring iron, minerals and vitamins that I get through things from my garden.  Somehow, I just feel a bit better about it.

Eating your science project...or how to dupe, Papa!

The other day, I had a visit from my sweet grandniece.  She was in the midst of doing a science project for school and needed someone to take pictures of her experiment.  This was not due to my expert photography skills but rather that it has become sort of a tradition.  I have been doing this since she started school and well, she and I now think it is quite the thing to do.  She always brings her project and shows me just what she is doing.  I take pictures.  (My job is difficult, I must admit! Ha!)  Anyway, like I said, she toted her project down and set it up in my kitchen.  She and her Papa (my brother) had been working on this for weeks now!

From what I gather, she was trying to decide if the popular candy M&M's actually do "melt in your mouth and not in your hand" or something on that order.  She had two white bowls that held warmed water (right at body temperature) and a plastic container of the candies.  One candy was placed in each bowl to see how long it would take to melt verses how long it would take to melt in your hand.  To be honest, she and I were more interested to see that the little, white letter "M" would eventually float to the top of the water!  It seems this "M" is made of some sort of edible paper stuff...who knew?  But back to the project..sure enough, the water started turning colors as the hard candy shell dissolved into the water.  After a bit, she showed me that the chocolate center did not dissolve..it just sat there in one mushy lump!  She even poked at it with a wooden skewer and it still did not dissolve!  This made me ponder just what was in this stuff!  Non-dissolving "chocolate" does not sound appetizing to me!

The whole time we were waiting for the candy/water concoction to do its thing, Macie was munching on the candies remaining in the container!  Aha!  It suddenly dawned on me just why this was chosen as a science project!  She loves to eat M&M's!  What a smart girl this is!  Perhaps, though, the project should be changed to "How to dupe Papa into buying me candy!" Papa kept buying her M&M's to use in her project for the past several weeks!  As far as I could see, those M&M's never stood a chance of melting in her hands!  She popped them in her mouth far too fast!  Grandnieces, Science Projects and M&M's...sounds like a winning combination to me!