Two very different finds this fortnight: a mushroom you can see from your car, and a flower you should have caught two months ago (note for next year).

What I'm reading

• Chicken of the woods — the shelf-bracket fungus glowing orange and yellow on oak stumps. One of the safest beginner mushrooms: nothing else looks like it. Eat only fresh, tender margins; the old leathery shelves will upset your stomach.
• Elderflower cordial — I'm running late on this one, but flag the elder stands now and you'll be ready in June. Elderberry comes in the fall from the same shrubs.
• A field guide to oak stumps — half-joking, but chicken of the woods has taught me to read dead oaks like a map.

Field note

Spotted a textbook chicken of the woods on an oak snag at Bunker Hill, bright enough that a passing cyclist stopped to ask what it was. Cut the soft outer third, left the rest to keep fruiting. It'll likely flush again in the same spot next year — that's the gift of bracket fungi.

— Jenna