Back when I owned my house, in 2016, there was a rush of excitement at the discovery of four king boletes alongside the driveway, as if they had been beamed down overnight, because our property had theretofore scant evidence of edible mushrooms.
So the bolete appearance was a surprise and their kind were never seen again on our grounds, probably because I didn’t harvest them sustainably. I yanked them - root and all - out of the ground, and I should have cut them above the stem, given them some water and allowed the roots propagate.
I took photos of the four perfectly ripe boletes and got opinions on their identity from far and wide. Once I had a positive identification, I made a mushroom gravy with them.
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