 |
In the ancient world, fire was not so easy to come by as striking a match! A bow drill and flint and steel eventually became useful tools to start fires, but what if one didn’t have to go through that very long process every evening, especially if you were traveling? Perhaps by carrying just a smolder of the fire with you. The most ancient mummy of Europe, Ötzi, had strung on leather thongs at his belt three polypore fungi. One of which is believed to have been used as a tinder conch. (1) Fomes fomentarius has long been known as “tinder fungus.” While this fungus grows most commonly on birch trees, it has also been found on aspen, beech, and sycamore. None of these are particularly common in my foraging range in Oregon, but a close relative, Fomitopsis pinicola (2), is quite easily found on dead standing fir.
About a week ago my daughter and I went on a mushroom meander and shopped for the perfect polypore. I looked for one that was no longer alive (turning grey, starting to chip) but also not so old that it was getting mushy or disintegrating. She spotted the perfect one and we brought it home to dry in front of the wood fire.
It's possible I didn't wait long enough, but I had to give this theory a try today: that the red banded polypore could also be useful as a coal tender. I made my first fire with a match and let it build a little. While I was waiting, I cut a notch into the side of the dried mushroom. While relatively soft when fresh, these dry very hard, but I needed to get to the inner membrane. I set a stick in the fire to get embers on the end, then pressed it into the notch I had created until the mushroom started to smolder.
My first surprise came with that smoke. It smelled amazing! Similar to Palo Santo smudge sticks! I tried lighting some tinder right away, but I nearly put out the smoldering portion. I refreshed it with the ember stick and let it slowly grow while I made my lunch on the fire. After about a half hour, I could see the white coal that reddened when I blew on it. Over the next hour and a half I tried different techniques to get the tinder to light. Eventually I learned that a wood chip with a little cattail fluff held loosely against the coal helped to grow it, then much blowing in a cave of tinder eventually lit! FIRE!
I let the hoof fungus smolder to enjoy the smell until I was ready to leave the fire. At that point I packed the coal crater with damp clay, as it was probably only a quarter burned out at that point (and it was a very small polypore!). It will probably put it out, but just in case it doesn't, I popped it in our cold stove box for now. Maybe when I go make a fire in it in the morning, the fungus coal will still be viable?
(2) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1098280-Fomitopsis-pinicola
