On our first full day we had talk about wildflowers on the 160 acre grounds of Kettunen Center, then went on a walk looking for them. Incidentally, Kathy found the first morel on this walk. After lunch a prof from MSU gave introduction to mushrooms, including the elusive morel. Then off to a couple sites looking for them. The group of 15 of us found some but certainly not as many as we would have liked. That evening we tasted our morels used in a cooking demonstration.
Tuesday and Wednesday we began the day birdwatching, listening and then trying to locate the birds . After breakfast Tuesday a northern Michigan farmer explained how he cultivates mushrooms to supplement his truck farming income. Kathy won the log that he demonstrated his shitake mushroom spores inoculation--we should have our first harvest next summer. That afternoon Kathy and I took a long walk through the woods while others worked on canoeing and kayaking.
Wild turkeys was Wednesday morning talk with demonstrations of various calls, habitat, and display of stuffed birds.
That afternoon, after the program close, Kathy's friends who were in the group followed us down to Emerald Lake for a visit on their way home.
We had great fun, enjoyed meeting others, and learned much on our first Exploritas program.
