The smell of a bright summer forest during the height of the mushroom season…

 

Ingredients:  Millers’ mushrooms, Amanita mushrooms, Turkey tail mushrooms, Balsam Fir resin and extract, Pine resin, Larch resin, Indian Frankincense resin, Balsam Fir needles, Larch wood, Spruce needles, Thuja branchlets and extract, Juniper Berries and extract, Wintergreen leaves, Musk Root

 

  All sorts of invisible energies appear in the forest, and then” poof,” they are seemingly gone.  It is one of the reasons I like to visit my favorite forest places during the warm seasons on a regular basis, you just never know who will appear.  This is particularly true of the fungi clan which often grow in quiet, shadowy, liminal spaces—just the kind of places fairies frequent.

 

 

  The aromas of fungi as an important yet subtle part of the complex aroma of the forest.  There are some days when there is so much fresh mycelium running in the ground that with every step I take, a puff of mushrooms fills the air.  I find fragrant fungi nestled among mosses, high up on the trunks of trees and clinging to decaying tree stumps. Mushrooms pop up that appear as wee umbrellas for tiny beings to use during rain showers.  Others cling to the side of tree in rows, forming bleachers for elves to watch shows.   Every once in a while, I come upon Fairy Rings. Fairy Rings are formed when a single spore lands in a suitable location and the fungus mycelium grows outward in all directions, creating a circular mat underground. When the conditions are right, mushrooms grow up from the edge of this mat, forming a visible ring above ground.

 

 

  I have been collecting and drying fungi then testing them to see if their aromas are suitable to make incense.  The famous Amanita muscaria mushrooms, that I use in this blend, are not only the most famous for forming fairy rings, they have a very sweet mushroom fragrance with hints of vanilla and cookies.  The ruffled, fan-shaped Turkey Tail mushrooms grow in shelves on fallen hardwood logs or stumps. They have a robust, typical mushroom scent mingled with rotted wood notes that bring me right to the forest floor.  Last year, I came upon some Miller Mushrooms in arcs of fairy rings under some conifers. Aptly named, when dried the Miller Mushroom crumbles into a granular powder and has a very refined mushroom fragrance with notes of fresh ground flour.

 

"Mushrooms cluster like stars on the floor,

Sprung from old spells and fairy lore.

Each cap a shelter, pale and round,

A secret door to underground."

 

“Mushroom Song” by Margaret Atwood